Honor your Father and Mother

This is the fourth commandment.  You can find it in Deuteronomy 5:16.  This is one of those commandments that is straight forward.  Obviously if your parents tell you to jump off a cliff that isn't something you should do, but within reason, honor your father and mother.  When parents tell you to make your bed for example they are teaching you discipline.  When God designed male and female He instructed us to replenish the earth.  Due to this, God gave parents the ability to take care  of their children and to raise them with the fear of the Lord and to be ambassadors or Christ.

Saved from what?

Romans 10:9 reads in the NIV version, "that if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart God rose Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Unfortunately in today's world many are confused by 'saved.'  A Greek Orthodox Priest I know in a sermon he gave years ago said something along this line, "when I was younger a boy rode his bike up to mine and asked me, 'are you saved?'  I answered him, 'saved from what?'"  The rest of the sermon as I remember it went down hill.

That remark flabbergasted me.  My thinking is, 'saved from what?  The fires of hell.'  I used to think that was common knowledge, but I found I was very wrong.

Let me tell you right now, straight forward we need to believe and confess Jesus is Lord, He died on the cross and God rose Him from the dead so our sins are forgiven so we are saved from hell and the lake of fire for all eternity.  Those of us who are saved are going to heaven with Jesus.  Let's remove any doubt from your mind.  Please pray the below prayer from your heart and out loud so you will have eternal life in heaven with Jesus.

Dear Father I pray in the Name of Jesus, please come into my life. Forgive me of all my sins. I believe that You are the Son of God and You died on the cross and rose from the dead to make a way for me. Thank you for loving me enough to die for me on the cross so my sins can be forgiven. I accept you as my Lord and Savior. Please come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior. Please make me a new creature in Christ. Please write my name in the Lamb's Book of Life. I love you. Thank you Jesus! In Jesus’ Name I pray, AMEN.

Please check out On the Fence before you leave.

On the Fence

John the baptist gives his testimony of Jesus in the Gospel of John 3:25-36ish, but John 3:36 reads, "he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."

We need to believe and confess Jesus is Lord.  I don't know about you, but I definately want eternal life.  I believe when John said "life" in this verse, he meant eternal life in heaven after we pass away on this earth.

The second part of the verse is now the other end of the coin.  You can either believe in Jesus or not.  If you chose not, you will not see eternal life with Jesus in heaven.  If you don't go to heaven, then you are going to hell.  Why risk it?  Believe Jesus is Lord.

Now the choice is yours.  Do you believe Jesus is Lord or not?  If you want eternal life with Jesus in heaven and to be part of His family please pray the below prayer sincerely and from your heart.

Dear Father I pray in the Name of Jesus, please come into my life. Forgive me of all my sins. I believe that You are the Son of God and You died on the cross and rose from the dead to make a way for me. Thank you for loving me enough to die for me on the cross so my sins can be forgiven. I accept you as my Lord and Savior. Please come into my heart. I make you my Lord and Savior. Please make me a new creature in Christ. Please write my name in the Lamb's Book of Life. I love you. Thank you Jesus! In Jesus’ Name I pray, AMEN.

Romans 10:9 reads, "that if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."  Saved here means to me saved from eternal hell, but that is a whole other topic that will be discussed tomorrow.  Before you leave please leave a comment and check out Creation.

Bless Them

Romans 12:14 in the King James Version reads, "Bless them which persecute you: bless and curse not."

I know that is going against society, but think about it.  If you do something nice for someone who was just very mean to you, you are showing kindness and forgiveness (which is God's will for us) and this, most likely will irk them that you have the capacity to be nice after they are mean.  Romans 12:20 reads, "therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head."  Luke 11:13 reads, "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"  We need to be fishers of men and lead a Christian life.  Living Romans 12:14 is another way to do that.

The First Commandment

Deuteronomy 5:7 is where the first of the 10 commandments is found.  Many of you say, "I do not worship any other gods...I'm a Christian (or Jewish)."  Stop a minute and take a look at your life.  If money is your top poriority you have put money before God.  This could hold true for many different things:  food, clothing, money, gambleing, your car, your church (the church building itself), your religion (you can place a misguided teaching of a religion above what is in the bible), etc.

Make sure God is first.  The rest of, well, everything, needs to come after Him.  He is our Father in heaven.  He is our Creator.  He is the one who gives each of us our lives and every breath we breathe.  He is the one who sent His only begotten son so whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).  Thank You Lord...Thank You Jesus!  Glory to You or Lord!

Speak the Truth

In the Orthodox Study Bible, Proverbs 21:3 reads, "to do righteous things and to speak the truth are more pleasing before God than the blood of sacrifices.

Back at this time period when proverbs was written, Jesus had not been born yet.  God's people offered animal sacrifices to Him at the time.

From what I get from this verse is God would rather you do the righteous thing first than not to do it and have to ask forgiveness later.

Speak the truth.  This is another place in the bible where we are told to speak the truth.  If we are leading a Christian life and being the witnesses we are supposed to be for Jesus, we should speak the truth.  Telling the truth is the ninth commandment also.  Deuteronomy 5:20 reads, "you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Speak the truth today.  Glory to God our heavenly Father.

Before you leave please check out The Rapture.

The Son of God

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). God's Son is Jesus Christ. Jesus was born from the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:30-35 & Luke 2:7). He was born in Bethlehem (Luke 2:4). Once baptized by John the Baptist, it was Jesus Whom the voice from heaven came and spoke, "this is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). It was Jesus, who overcame the temptation of the devil in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-15). Check out the below bullets to see but a taste of the miracles Jesus preformed:

• Jesus cleansed the leper (Matthew 8:1-4)
• Jesus healed the centurion's servant (Matthew 8:5-13)
• Jesus calmed the storm (Matthew 8:23-27)
• Jesus walked on the water (Matthew 14:25)
• Jesus cast out the unclean spirit (Mark 1:23-25)
• Jesus rose Jairus' daughter from the dead (Mark 5:35-43)
• Jesus fed the 4000 (Mark 8:1-10)
• Jesus rose the widow's son from the dead (Luke 7:12-15)
• Jesus healed the demonic boy (Luke 9:38-45)
• Jesus healed one of His capture's ears (Luke 22:50-51)
• Jesus fed the 5000 (John 6:1-14)
• Jesus turned water into wine (John 2:1-11)
• Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:38-43)

Although these are not even close to all the miracles Jesus performed, you can see they are truly miracles. Jesus is King of kings, Lord of lords, Name above all names. Just think about it; He fed 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. It actually was more than 5000. The 5000 was not including all the women and children there. He is Lord of all. He calmed storms, healed the sick, cast out demons, walked on water, raised the dead, fed multitudes, and turned water into wine.

Not only did Jesus perform miracles, but He always had the best answer no matter whether He was tempted by the devil or tested by the Pharisees. When the devil tried to get Jesus to turn stones to bread, Jesus answered, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). In Matthew 7:29 it is written that Jesus taught as One with authority unlike the scribes.

In John 6:35 Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life. He that comes to me shall never be hungry, and he who believes...on Me will never thirst anymore." In John 8:12 Jesus is the Light of the world. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). In John 14:6 Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father except by me."

The absolute most important thing that Jesus did was to die on the cross and raise from the dead. He was crucified on the cross. Before He was crucified, the soldiers mocked Him, spit on Him, beat Him, put a crown of thorns on Him. They crucified Him by hanging Him on the cross (John 19:17-18). Just before He died He said, "It is finished" (John 19:30). What was finished? Isaiah 53:5 reads, "but He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for out iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." His stripes were from being whipped. So what was finished? Sin was finished. Sickness was finished. Death was finished. The Good News is that JESUS RESSURECTED! Because of this our sins are forgiven. He conquered death, sin, sickness, etc. John 11:25 reads, "I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live."

Another way we see that Jesus is God the Son is because who else being in so much pain hanging on the cross would say, "Father forgive them: for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). There Jesus asked God to forgive those who had done all that to Him. Jesus truly is the Son of God. He is ALIVE! Jesus is my/our Lord God and Savior who died on the cross so that my sins and your sins can be forgiven. Our God is an awesome God. He is a mighty, powerful, and majestic God. Give Him praise and worship and glory everyday.

Thank you Jesus! Glory to Your Name!

Compassion

In Jonah 4 we find that Jonah is disappointed that God had mercy on Nineveh. To me, the way God speaks in Jonah 4:11 when He said, "and I myself not take pity upon Nineveh, the great city, in which more than one hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand or their left..." tells me the people pf Nineveh didn't know anything about Him.

Once Jonah preached in the city there was a great revival. The people changed their ways.

We need to have compassion for others.

If you have a prayer request please leave me a comment and let me know so that I and all our readers can join you in prayer also.

Cling to Good

In the Orthodox Study Bible and the New King James version, Romans 12:9 reads, "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good." We should abhor, detest any evil. Do your best never to give into it.

Hold on to what is good. Keep doing good things, the right thing and God's will no matter what.

Remember, God loves you:)

Grace

Romans 6:1-2 reads, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly now! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?"

As true Christians, those of us who have truly accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, repented of their sins, and asked Him to be the Lord of their lives, we should not want to sin. Does that mean that we will never sin? No, we are human and therefore we make mistakes. Paul himself, wrote this in the book of Romans 7:15, "for what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." As Christians we should try our best not to sin, but be the best witnesses for Christ as possible.

Dead to Sin

In the Orthodox Study Bible and the New King James Version, Romans 6:11 reads, "likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." The Amplified version reads the same verse as, "even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus."

I say this sometimes when I start to be tempted or start to think things I shouldn't, "I'm dead to sin and my relation to it is broken, but I'm alive to God in Jesus Christ." I also sometimes say, same conditions apply, "I'm dead to sin and relation to it is broken, completely, never to be mended again. But I am alive to to God in Jesus Christ." The original concept of these sayings I got from a Joyce Meyer teaching, but I changed them somewhat.

Once you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, repented of your sins, and asked Him to be the Lord of your life, consider yourself dead to sin.

Romans 6:20-23 reads, "In the past you were slaves to sin, and goodness did not control you. You did evil things, and now you are ashamed of them. Those things only bring death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord," (combination of the New Century Version and New King James Version).

Anyone who sins will pay the price of death, but we who are born again, have the gift of God because of Jesus Christ. Why? Jesus came and died so our sins can be forgiven. He died so we don't have to. The Good News is that Jesus is risen. We were "bought at a price," (1 Corinthians 7:23 & 1 Corinthians 6:20). The price is Jesus dieing on the cross. We all need to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. If we do we are dead to sin and have eternal life with Him in heaven forever.

I asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life, I made Him my Lord and Savior, I repented of my sins, and I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and your sins to be forgiven and that He rose on the third day. Thank You Jesus! Glory to Your Name! If you want to become saved and have eternal life in Heaven with Jesus please pray the below prayer.

Dear Father I pray in the Name of Jesus, please come into my life. Forgive me of all my sins. I believe that You are the Son of God and You died on the cross and rose from the dead to make a way for me.  Thank you for loving me enough to die for me on the cross so my sins can be forgiven. I accept you as my Lord and Savior.  Please come into my heart.  I make you my Lord and Savior.  I love you.  Thank you Jesus!  In Jesus’ Name I pray, amen.

Proof Jesus is Lord

1) If Jesus was not Lord, why would the devil himself spend so much time trying to tempt Jesus in Luke 4?

The devil tried to tempt Jesus once in the wilderness for 40 days. If Jesus isn't the Son of God, why would he spend so much time trying to temp Jesus. The second time is when He was in Gethsemane. Jesus must have been resisting temptation very strongly to the point He was sweating blood (Luke 22:44).  read more

Prayer

Philippians 4:6 reads, "...let your requests be made known unto God." Yes, the bible says, 'let your requests be made known to God,' but how do you do that?

Prayer. Prayer is mentioned many times throughout the bible. One is Timothy 2:8 which reads, "I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy