Tag Archives: love God

How Do You Smell To God?

I have never understood why a person would purposely run over any creature – especially a skunk. If I see a skunk, or a possum, or a raccoon, or even another human on the highway, I always feel it’s best to avoid running them (or it) over. If I see a turtle crossing the road I pull over, and help it across. I know if I don’t, a mean spirited person will run it over just for the heck of it. You have an added incentive to not run over a skunk. If you smash that little stinker, its evil odor comes out, and lingers for days. I’ve passed over a dead skunk and found out that the spirit may have departed, but the smell lingers on.

We are made in the image of God. Do you know that GOD SMELLS US? You can smell good to God – or you can STINK! How do YOU smell to God?

Obedient Love Pleases God: When Noah got off the Ark with his family – oh how empty the earth was – the Bible says the very first thing… Continue reading

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God Calls Us To Righteousness

God Does Not Want You RELIGIOUS,
But RIGHTEOUS, In Line With His Word

When I read this scripture, my mind immediately went to the current state of the news – particularly in the political world. Can you remember the last time that you heard any good news? If it’s on the news, they have a saying: “If it bleeds, it leads”. The devil loves to emphasize the divisive, to tear apart. Who was it in the Garden of Eden who introduced strife? It was the serpent, Satan (Revelation 12:9; 20:2).

It is Satan’s intent to separate us from the good things of God, by separating us from God Himself.

This is what Satan did in the Garden of Eden. He questioned the clear Word of God. “Has God really said you shall not eat of every tree in the Garden”? (Genesis 3:1). The implication was that God was establishing a parameter that would rob us of our joy, that God was limiting our happiness. Satan’s ploy was to draw our attention from God, to ourselves. “You will only be happy when you please yourself, when you do that which satisfies you above your neighbor”.

This is what brings destruction. Back to our proverbs:… Continue reading

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God Is Not Done

I like to call today “Resurrection Sunday”, the most important Christian holiday there is. Though we make much of “Christmas”, very few people saw the Baby Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God in that manger in Bethlehem. I heard one man say,

When man reaches for God, this is called “religion”. But when God reached for man, we call this “Christmas”.

God reached down to save us. The Bible says that those who claim to follow Christ are to follow His example:

Philippians 2:3-7 (ESV) Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Joy is not found in selfishness or narcissism, but in “humbling yourself, and count others more significant than yourselves”. Though He was God, and “in the beginning with God, and was God” as the Apostle John tells us (John 1:1-3), Jesus allowed Himself to be born through a relatively unknown virgin and her lowly carpenter fiancee’. The story of His birth into His Creation (for Jesus co-created this earth, and all that is in it): Continue reading

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Obeying The Gospel

There is nothing greater than the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ! The word “Gospel” is first mentioned in the Bible in:

Matthew 4:23 (KJV) … Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom ..

The word “Gospel” is the Greek euangelion, which means “good tidings or good message”. Some say it means “good news”. Jesus called the Gospel the “Gospel of the Kingdom”. The God Who created all that you see is the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Revelation 19:16). To enter His Kingdom (not a democracy, but a Kingdom) you must heed His Gospel. Jesus preached:

Mark 1:15 (KJV) … The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

What does the Gospel teach us, the glorious Good News from God. The Gospel teaches us that The King of Glory left His Throne in Heaven, and came to this earth to become like us. Without sin, the King, the Great Shepherd laid His life down for the sheep, His Kingdom (John 10:15, 17). Our sins, our willfulness, our unrighteousness, our wickedness separated us… Continue reading

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God Keeps His Promises

Last week we spoke of the Sovereignty of God. Our God is omniscient, that is, He knows all things – even those things which have not yet happened. God is omnipresent, that is, He is everywhere and fully cognizant of every event, whether in the Heavens or on the earth. God is omnipotent, which means He has all power. When the young maiden Mary questioned Gabriel when he declared that she, though a virgin, was with child, that good Angel replied:

Luke 1:37 (NKJV) … with God nothing will be impossible.

Our Lord Jesus said the same thing in Matthew 19:26, “with GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”. And again in Luke 18:27, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God”. The God Who made us and all that you see is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.

God Always Keeps His Promises

We are saved because God promised to offer us salvation. God made several promises to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3. God promised Abram (Hebrew aḇrām, meaning “exalted father”. This was what his father Terah named him) that a nation of children would be born through him and his wife Sarai (Hebrew śāray, meaning “princess”). God promised Abram that the nation that would come from him would bless all the Gentile nations. Now pay attention to this, dear one. When God made this promise, Continue reading

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Honor Your House By Honoring God’s House

Proverbs 15:20-21 A wise son maketh a GLAD (śāmaḥ, pro. saw-makh’) father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.

21 Folly is JOY (śimḥâ, pro. sim-khaw’) to him that is destitute of wisdom: but a man of understanding walketh uprightly.

Good Leadership Is Important To
The Future Of The House

In the Bible, the word “house” is often used not for a brick and stick building, but for a family, a community, a Church, or a country. God told Noah, “Come THOU AND ALL THY HOUSE into the Ark” (Genesis 7:1). God told Abraham, “Get thee out of thy country, and FROM THY FATHER’S HOUSE” (Genesis 12:1). When Pharaoh took Sarai to be his wife, the Bible says “the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house”.

For one generation to the next to have a healthy “house”, the father must teach his children the ways of Christ. The child must heed the instruction of the father if he would be a blessing to his mother. The John Schultz Commentary notes:… Continue reading

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Defeating The Enemy

When I was a little boy I was taught to pray before a meal. Mama taught us to say:
God is great, God is good;
Let us thank Him for our food.
By His hands we are fed,
Bless the Lord for daily bread.
Amen.

I grew up in a “religious” household. Not overly religious. Daddy didn’t go to Church. Mama made us go a Church on Sunday, a local Presbyterian Church. If you notice the prayer I said at meals (saying “Grace”) was not addressed to God.

“Religious” people talk about God. Those “saved by Grace” talk to God. Religious people want God to belong to them. Saved people belong to God. There is a difference between “religious” and “saved, born again”!

As a “religious” person I learned the “Shorter Catechism” of the Presbyterian Church, was baptized by sprinkling, and was given a Bible. I thought I was fine with God. The “Shorter Catechism” is 107 questions about God along with the answers. It taught us as young people about God. The first three questions (and answers) were:

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Q. 2. What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
A. The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

Q. 3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?
A. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

Religion teaches a lot about God. I knew a lot about God – but I didn’t know God. I had no personal relationship with God. Many in Christianity are the same way. They know about God. They talk about God. But there is no relationship with God.

The Enemy loves you to be “religious”.

Our enemy is the Devil, also called Satan, Lucifer, that Old Serpent or the Red Dragon.

It was the Devil who tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). It was the Devil who tempted Jesus Christ when He was in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-4). The Devil was created perfect by God, called “Lucifer” which means “Light Bearer”, but he revolted from Heaven and led 1/3 of the angels in Heaven to rebel against God (Revelation 12:4)…. Continue reading

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Speak As Children Of God

We are not told never to speak harshly or with force – but we should consider de-escalation without compromising the truth of God’s Word before we bring out the Magnum. It takes two people to have an argument. As a wise King, Solomon knew that he could win more people to righteousness side with a calm and reasoned response than he could with harshness.

Now there are times for harshness. Our Lord Jesus used harsh words with the Pharisees. One place in Scripture is in Matthew 23:13-36. In those verses our Lord heavily chastises the scribes and Pharisees, saying… Continue reading

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Proof Of Life

As humans, we like to put things in categories. People are red, yellow, black, or white. That’s human tradition, and human error. God tells us that …

Acts 17:26 (AP) God has made all nations of people FROM ONE COMMON SOURCE, OF ONE BLOOD. God determines our appointed times on the earth as well as our boundaries.

It is God Who put people in different places and times – but we are all physically from ONE SOURCE and, if you look “under the hood”, we all have ONE BLOOD. We all bleed RED. As God looks at humanity, He cherishes all that He has created. He sent Jesus Christ to this earth to save whosoever believes on Him. His Disciples are commanded to:… Continue reading

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Follow The Father

Proverbs 13:1 (KJV) A wise son HEARETH his father’s instruction: but a SCORNER HEARETH not rebuke.

In the original language the word HEARETH is not found in the reference to the son, but to the SCORNER. The text actually reads:

“A wise son his father’s instruction, but a SCORNER (lûṣ) HEARETH (šāmaʿ) NOT (lō’) REBUKE (gᵊʿārâ)”

Various translations ADD the word HEARETH between the words SON and HIS FATHER’S, reasoning that this is what should be there. In believe the word was left out intentionally by God. The word “HEARETH” (šāmaʿ) means “to hear with intelligence or with the intent of obedience, to perceive, to hear with interest or give heed”. The SCORNER (lûṣ) – “one who scoffs or makes fun of, one who derides or belittles” will never hear the counsel of the mentor, because that person is their own god or goddess. They minimize all others but themselves. They are the ones who choose… Continue reading

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