FollowingJesusUS.com

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” -Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus died for our sins (our inability to keep God’s Commandments), because God loves us! God knew that we would never be able to keep His commandments perfectly and so He made a way for us to come Home anyway.

Because God loves us!

 “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,  and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false” – 1 Thessalonians 2:9-11

With July 4th just around the corner, many are already planning to celebrate. But what exactly are we celebrating? Our betrayal of Israel? Our surrender to Iran?

Let’s set aside President Trump for a second. For his strong support for Israel and his complete betrayal of Israel have not yet been fully explained.

But what of the rest of the nation?

Did many refuse to “love the truth” and therefore God sent them a “strong delusion”?

Because that my friends is what it seems like. That many just can not see.

” 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 🙂