Merry Christmas

Today, I'm going to share a poem that was shared at my church. I know it's not Christmas Day or even Christmas Eve yet, but I wanted to put these up this morning.

T'was The Night Before (Jesus came)
Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house
Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care
In hopes that Jesus would not soon come there.

The children were dressing to crawl into bed,
Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.
And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.

When out of the East there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!

When what to my wondering eyes should appear?
But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
I knew in a moment this must be The Day!

The light of His face made me cover my head
It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth
I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.

In the Book of Life which He held in His hand
Was written the name of every saved man.
He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;
When He said, "It's not here" my head hung in shame.

The people whose names had been written with love
He gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a sound
While all the rest were left standing around.

I fell to my knees, but it was too late;
I had waited too long and this sealed my fate.
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.

In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;
The coming of Jesus is soon drawing near.
There's only one life and when comes the last call
We'll find that the Bible was true after all!

-Author Unknown


Merry Christmas everyone and God bless you all!

Taking it to God

I've been having some rough times in my life. Sometimes I feel like ranting. And that's what I was doing on a forum that I was in. But then I realized, why rant to other human beings when I can take it to God and let Him help me?
God does more than help me. He encourages me. He draws me closer to Him.
Like one of the hymns says:
Come unto me. I will give you rest. Take my load upon you. Hear me and be blessed. I am meek and lowly, come and trust my might. Come, my yoke is easy and my burden's light.
That hymn describes it perfectly. God doesn't want us to be overwhelmed by life's problems. He wants us to trust in Him.
I Peter 5:7 - Casting all your care upon him; for He careth for you.

Listening to God

Most Christians that I know sing hymns. When you sing a hymn, do you just sing it or think about the words and the hymn's message while you're sining it? It's easy to sing a hymn and not pay attention to the words. But I prefer to think about the words while I'm sining a hymn. After all, sometimes God is trying to encourage me or tell me something through a hymn.
We've all have heard the hymn "Oh, How I Love Jesus", but do you really love him like you should? We were singing that in church today and God put that thought into my mind. Do I really love Jesus like I should? Admittedly, not always. I get caught up in the things of this world sometimes. Funny, that's what the pastor's sermon this morning ended up being about too. God was definitely speaking to me about that.
God has several ways of telling us something. Sometimes it's from a sermon on TV, sometimes it's from a song on the radio, sometimes in a book that we are reading, sometimes through a hymn or other song, or sometimes in your pastor's sermon. You just have to listen. I don't know if it's like this for everyone, but when God is talking to me it's like a thought but I know that it's not my thought.

Encouragement

In today's world, being a Christian can be very discouraging. The devil knows that not much time is left, so he's tightening his grip and having "them" twist the truth about Christianity and Christians. Just the other day, my dad told me that he was flipping through the channels and he came across what looked like a spoof of Bibleman on the comedy channel. They had the characters do and say things that a Christian in God's will would never have done, for example shocking someone with a Bible when that person said something that "Bibledude" didn't agree with.
They are really trying to make Christians look like hypocrits. Some Christians are hypocrits and that makes worse for us and from a lost person's point of view it confirms when the world is trying to tell people about Christians.
How do we fight back? As the Bibles says, be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. In other words, try to keep a decent attitude no matter what. It isn't easy, but God can and will help you do that if you are a willing vessel.

This was in last week's church bulliten

9/11 Survivors
As you may know, the head of a company survived 9/11 because his son started kindergarten that morning.
Another fellow was alive because it was his turn to bring donuts.
One woman was late because her alarm clock didn't go off.
One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident.
One of them missed the bus.
One spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change.
One's car wouldn't start.
One went back to answer the phone.
One had a child that dawdled all day and they didn't get ready as soon as they should have.
One couldn't get a taxi.
The one that sturck me the most was that the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning, took the various means to get to work but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid. This is why he is alive today.
Now when I am stuck in traffic, miss an evelvator, turn back to answer a ringing phone, - all the little things that annoy me; I think to myself, this is exactly where God wants me to be at this very moment.

Attitude

Many Christians aren't acting like they should this day and age. I'm not pointing any fingers; I don't always act the way I should either. Christians are not to be rude, hateful, or push their believes on others. The Bible tells us to be kind, even when others aren't. It isn't easy, but Jesus said that if someone slaps your cheek, to turn the other one.
He also said that we should love out enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
It's important to tell others about the Gospel, but if they tell you that they don't want to hear it, then don't tell them about it unless they are interested. Trying to push it on them would probably just turn them off to Christianity even more. Giving out Gospel tracks is a great way to witness. My mom tries to give one out to everyone. Some people take it, others take it and say thank you, others say no thank you, and others are just like "I don't want that!". My mom just says OK, and leaves them alone. She tries again later on, but if they still say no she says OK.

Ten Little Christians

"10 little Christians came to church all the time; one fell out with the preacher, then there were 9.

9 little Christians stayed up late; one overslept on Sunday, then there were 8.

8 little Christians on the way to Heaven; one took the low road, then there were 7.

7 little Christians chirping likes chicks; one didn't like the music, then there were 6.

6 little Christians very much alive; one got travel-it is, then there were 5.

5 little Christians pulling for Heaven's shore; one stopped to rest a while, then there were 4.

4 little Christians each as busy as a bee; one got his feelings hurt, then there were 3.

3 little Christians couldn't decide what to do; one couldn't have his way, then there were 2.

2 little Christians each won one more; so you add them up: 2 + 2 = 4!

4 little Christians worked early and late, each bought one, then there were 8!

8 little Christians, if they doubled as before, in just seven days, we'd have 1, 024."

This was in our church bulletin.

You know, sometimes an old hymn pops into my mind. I found some encouragement in those hymns. Take "Nothing But the Blood", for instance. I was thinking about that one last night.
"What can Wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! Oh, how precious is the flow that makes me white as snow! No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus!"
Another stanza reads:
"This is all my hope and peace! Nothing but the blood of Jesus! This is all my righteousness! Nothing but the blood of Jesus!"
Oh, how that statement applies to my own life! I have never been able to find hope or peace until I started trusting God completely. I unconsciously tried to find hope and peace in other things when I was out of God's will. I never got it until I began trusting in Jesus again.

My favorite hymn is "There is Power in the Blood". At different times in my life, God brings a hymn into my mind to help encourage me. I also find encouragement by reading the Bible. No, I am not pretending. This is for real. Sometimes God will talk to me. Not with words, but He'll put a thought into my mind. And I can just tell that's it's not my thoughts.
This is what keeps me believing in God. This is what helps give me peace. Are you looking for peace, friend? You'll find it in Jesus. All you have to do is believe in God and His Son Jesus and that Jesus died on the cross for everyone's sins. Then, acknowledge that you have sinned. We all have at some point in life. The Bible says "There is non righteous, no not one." and "For we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Then, you simply have to receive the gift of Salvation. It's so simple. That's all there is to it. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that them who believe on Him should not perish but have eternal life." Trust God. He''ll never let you down.

Rantish, but with a moral point.

I was debating in the dogrealm.net forums for a while, but after ranting about it to fellow Christians decided it wasn't worth it to keep on the debates. I had made my point and I couldn't force the others on the dogrealm forum to agree with me, which they did time after time after time.
Good grief at the ignorance though. Those people actually thought that American didn't have a Godly past and that the founding fathers were deists. So not true. George Washington was often prayed to God, Abraham Lincoln - when asked if he loved Jesus - replied that when he was a Christian and that yes he did love Jesus. I could go on and on. Benjamin Franklin was the least "religious" of all the founding fathers.
Also, I recently received the comment that Christians tortured people too. Uh, no, that was the Catholics that did that. (See "The Trail of Blood" and "Foxe's Book of Martyers".) Sorry if I offend any Catholics here, no offense. I know a lot of nice Catholic people. The true definition of a Christian is someone who has received Jesus as their Savior, but the world's definition seems to be just someone who goes to church. Many people who claim to be Christians aren't. They are people who go to church, put their Christian face on, and after church you can't tell that they're Christians at all. People like that are either not truly saved and hope that by doing good works they will go to Heaven or they are out of God's will.
I felt like I needed to clear that up. And I would really appreciate it if you left a comment. Thank you for reading and God bless you.

God gave us all a free will

God does not force us to accept Him. He created man with a free will. Think of it this way, if you were God and wanted to be worshipped, what would you rather be worshipped by? Some robots that have no choice but to obey you, or someone who worships you because s/he wants to?
For God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (Forgot the reference.)
In this life, God will honor your choice if you reject Him.

What Happened to me the other day

I am Cookie and Treader's human. I am 14 years old, my name is Tiffany, and I've been a born-again Christian since I was 5. God laid it on my heart to share with you an experience that I went through the other day. Well, first let's start with what happened before that. I guess that I was out of God's will. I was having doubts about the Bible, about my faith, worrying that I was on the wrong path. I had a lot of "what if" questions. What if God really isn't real, what if I'm wrong... what if, what if, what if. I don't know what caused those doubts, though I'm sure that every Christian gets them at some point. I think that they first started several years ago, and just built up as I got older. By early 2008, I was doubting more than ever. But then, someone told me about a website called dogrelam.net. Sounds strange I know. I mean, who would think that a website about dogs would have a part on relieving my doubts? Just shows you how God works. Anyway, I joined this website. There was a forum on there where you can talk about anything off-topic and debate it. I found two threads on that forum about Evolution. I got into a debate about Evolution vs Creation with several of the members. I also found one on another subject. I got into a debate on that as well. I guess that there is just something about a debate that really makes you stick closer to your believes. Anyway, that night when I went to read my Bible, while I was reading I got this feeling from the Holy Spirit. It wasn't exactly overwhelming, but it was enough to make me cry partly out of joy and partly out of my burden for the people who I was talking to in the debate. The feeling didn't use words, but it spoke to me. It "said" something like, "Yes, there are many doubts in this life. But have no fear, you are on the right path." Instantly my doubts vanished. I was full of joy again. I could sing a hymn and really mean what I was singing. I sang several hymns. Ever since that, I have actually felt like a real Christian for the first time in a long time. I got my want to spread the gospel back, I got a lot of things back that I had been missing for a long time. I didn't get "saved again". I had simply been out of God's will for quite a while and had asked His forgiveness for that and gotten back into His will. The next day, I continued the debate, but it was starting to drain me emotionally. I had such a burden for those people that I was debating with. I wanted them to know Jesus, to know the joy that I had recently gotten back. I posted in a Christian group that I am in, asking for prayers. For both me and the people in the debate. A friend of mine sent me some advice. She said that I had done all that I could in the debate. That now I should back out, pray for those people, and let God handle the rest. I took that advice. I backed out of the debate politely, mention that I would pray for those that I was talking to, and that if they ever wanted to talk to me they could send me a message.
And, friend, I want you to know the joy that I know too. Whether you are a born-again Christian out of God's will like I was, or whether you have never been saved, but want to know that joy, I'll tell you how to get it. If you are out of God's will, then just do what I did. Ask for forgiveness and God will grant it. If you aren't saved, then all you have to do is believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins, ask for forgiveness for all of the sins that you have ever committed, and ask Him to come into your heart. It will only cost a moment of your time. Understand, just because you are saved doesn't mean that you won't do wrong things anymore. I still do wrong things. But when you accept Jesus as your Savior, all of your sins are forgiven. Past, present, and future. But, even when you are saved and you commit a sin, you should still ask God's forgiveness. No, you won't go to Hell for that sin if you are saved, but you will have all your works as a Christian tried when you go to Heaven and Jesus will see how much you did for Him.
I hope that my message benefits somebody. Even if it is just one person, this whole post will more more than worth it. Please, don't reject God or His forgiveness.