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” O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.” – Psalm 139

God knows our every thought, our every action…but He loves us anyway! That is why He sent His Son Jesus to rescue us and bring us Home 🙂

Answering the Call. We’ve all heard that phrase. Is our answer Yes? Really Yes? Because “Answering the Call” can have a cost. Sometimes a high cost.

Because Following Jesus; really, truly following Jesus can mean leaving some of those you love behind. Because Following Jesus means putting Him first. Really first. That means first, before your family and friends! It means putting Jesus first, even when it is not easy.

But the rewards of really, truly Following Jesus are immeasurable.

The above church was built in Kiev during the 11th century. Built in 1073 AD, it’s impossible to count the number of people who have worshiped Christ in this church or sought Jesus’s assistance there.

Today, Russia struck it “with ballistic missles”, which set it on fire. People died and the church was horrifically damaged.

The situation with Israel is heartbreaking. But the first sign of the Great Tribulation will not come from Israel, it will come from the Fall of Ukraine, whether it is from war or a deal that essentially is a surrender.

When Ukraine falls, look up, for our redemption draws near.

The phrase “Under God” was “used during Revolutionary times”.

And being “One Nation Under God” has kept us safe and strong for sooooo many years. Even President Abraham Lincoln used the phrase “under God” in an address to the nation, he said “this nation, under God, may have a rebirth of freedom…”

There have been a number of atheists who have tried to removed it from our Pledge of Allegiance claiming it wasn’t in the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954.

But the truth is that the phrase “under God” has been used back to Revolutionary times. And our nation’s faith in and dependence on God has always been a part of the very fabric of our country and woven in the very hearts of our people.

If we want to continue to be, what we have always been, the “Home of the Brave and Land of the Free”, we must continue to put God first!

“ And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” – Matthew 10:38-39

On June 17, 1963 the Supreme Court ruled that the Bible could no longer be read in schools. We need to think about that. For the majority of our nation’s existance, for all of the World Wars, the Bible was read in our public schools.

Then our nation changed it’s priorities on a dime. No longer was our Lord Jesus at the very center of our nations existance. No longer did our public schools honor God. We, as a nation, spit in God’s Face, and yet, somehow, we always expected God to help us and to hear our prayers!

If we want our children, whom we love with all of our hearts, to truly be Christian, then we must put teaching them their faith first! We must pull them out of the public schools and put them in private schools or teach them at home.

Because without faith, education is meaningless.

Which part of the country we live in has a big effect on how Free we feel to pray and how comfortable we are.

For example, when we go out to lunch with someone, how comfortable are we in thanking Jesus for our meal and for those we are with – outloud?

In America, we are supposed to have Freedom of Religion, but do we really still have Freedom of Religion in this country, or does that Freedom depend on what state you happen to live in.

For example, in the Smokey Mountains (Tenessee), Jesus’s Name is Freely mentioned out loud. And there is absolutely no discomfort in praying out loud in a public place.

But sadly, the same can not be said about New York City.

If we are not careful, we may indeed lose our Freedom to worship Jesus Freely, but we don’t have too.

Keep Following Jesus & Keep Praying; Prayer Changes Things!

Sometimes, we can get a little lost. Perhaps our life has been too hard or too filled with pain. And despite our cries to God, we have felt that we were not answered, and so we stop praying.

Perhaps our life has been too easy and we have felt no need of God’s Help. And because life is easy, we find ourselves too busy. Sometimes too busy for God.

But that is exactly how we get in trouble. God always hears our cries and He always answers, although not always in the way we want. But always in the way we need.

We can also get in trouble when life is too easy. Sometimes MORE trouble. Because no one’s life is easy forever! Praying on the easy days, really praying, prepares us for the hard days.

So no matter what…Keep Praying 🙂

Keep Following Jesus & Keep Praying; Prayer Changes Things!

People can become Holy as well. How? By staying as close to Jesus as possible in this world, and by truly following Jesus. By making our top focus to serve our Lord.

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”-Matthew 22: 37-40

And this is exactly what God wants us to do 🙂

In both Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, God is sitting on His throne. In Genesis, we are reminded once again that He created the universe and in Revelation we are reminded that God will end this earth and bring us to Heaven, a Heaven that He created 🙂

We can’t really, truly comprehend the true power of God. Just as we can’t really comprehend how much He loves us.

Many writers say that “Holiness is to be set apart”. And truly, God is set apart. He is our King and our Creator. He is the one who Loves us beyond what we can understand. And all we can do is Pray that God will enable us to love, as much as possible, as He does.

C.S. Lewis once said, “One of the most important attributes for understanding God and ourselves is God’s holiness. When we catch a vision of God’s holiness, we can regard many things in our lives as holy. When we lose a sense of God’s holiness (as many have), then we lose the realization that anything is holy or unholy. In this latter case, we also lose a sense of our own sinfulness, our need for God’s grace, and the desperate plight of our culture.”-CS LewisA

Have we lost our awareness of God’s Holiness?

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” – Philippians 4:8

Someone asked me the other day, if you can’t believe the news, or the politicians or the pundits, who and what do you believe in? How do we know the difference between truth and fiction?

We believe in, Jesus; We believe in the Holiness of God and in God’s Mercy and Justice. We believe in the goodness of men and women. And yes, there is still great goodness in our fellow man. And we have faith in ourselves…

That is the truth!

We believe that persevering in our faith in Jesus will always gets us where we need to go and bring us Home to Heaven. That obedience to God is always wise and worthwhile! We believe in the promise of tomorrow and that hard word does indeed pay off. We believe that loving others is always the right thing to do. And we believe that we should always forgive others as God has forgiven us. We believe that being kind and encouraging helps both the giver and the receiver. And that lending someone a helping hand is its own reward.

And remember, we still have smiles and hugs, children and puppies… We can still dance and sing and take a walk in the park. We can still gather with those we love and sit by the water. Is the world changing? Yes. But God is not. God is still the same and He loves us. And remember what Jesus said:

“In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.””-John 16:33

Realizing that people can let you down and may not always be completely honest, is part of life. A painful part. Broken trust is always painful.

But Trusting God is always safe, because God never changes. And God will never leave us, ever. And He will always help us!

“fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”-Isaiah 41:10

So no matter how the world changes, we are, in many ways, safe. Keep Praying. Encourage Others. Show Love and Kindness to all. Forgive everyone. Keep Working. And Pray some more.

And after that, we will meet in Heaven for all eternity 🙂