What Matters To You!?

Speaking in terms of God, the Bible, and relationships....what matters most to you? Reading your Bible?, Prayer?, time with God?, being a "good" person? This list could have hundreds of answers to pick from. For me, it is the time I spend with God and everything else will flow out of that relationship. It is not just spending 5 minutes reading His word and 5 minutes of prayer but it is a continual seeking of Him and talking and praying to him throughout the day. I am a slow learner, and it only took some 57 years to learn this, but I am learning. In order for me to be an effective person for God, I need to turn my thoughts and actions toward him constantly. For the last several months I have wanted to have an effective prayer life. I really do not like to pray in groups, so for now I want to focus on just praying alone to God, (the rest will come later). God has been showing me that through prayer, and reading His word, and time with Him and listening to sermon podcasts the things that I should be praying about and for. Think of your family or friends or co-workers, etc. Those who do not know Him and are going to hell. Should that not motivate us to pray for them and tell them about God, especially those who are older because more than likely they will die first.
I think of my in-laws who while they say they believe in Jesus, their life shows otherwise. Scripture says we will know them by the fruit they bear. It is very difficult to tell someone who says they know Jesus but are not living like they, and
that the Christian life is not just about accepting Jesus as Saviour but as Lord as well. When I pray, I pray for all my family and friends etc who do not know Jesus. I myself need to be more bold when I speak to them, in love, about eternity. There is nothing sadder than attending the funeral of a non Christian. There is no hope. People talk about the things the person liked to do, which are so hollow and meaningless. I pray that when I die and people speak about me that they speak about my relationship with God and not say yeah, he liked to golf and travel and other meaningless things that I may enjoy.
I Thessalonians 1:4 says ..."we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God..."

The Church is changing?

How things have changed since the church of the apostles 2000 years ago. I tend to believe that things usually improve as time goes on (technology, health care, etc). However as I look at how the early church started out, we have come a long way, but in the wrong direction. I believe the early church was so Christ and God centered, and nowadays, it is more focused on being politically correct, or I have a new strategy that will work. We are moving away from what the Bible teaches, and more worried about getting people in the pews rather than their personal relationship with God. If we have that close personal relationship with Him, everything will flow out of that. I am NOT saying that because of our relationship with God that everything will be well, and that we will be rich, and have the best job...on the contrary, Christ never promised us that stuff. I am getting to the point where I despise the prosperity Gospel. Read Mark 10:17-27. The story of the rich young ruler.
For me, even in the past year, I am closer to God than I have ever been. It is amazing how God speaks when I listen. The last few months I wondered, where are you God....and then as I look back at even where I was in September to where He has brought me now...He has shown me things where change in my life has happened. I want to spend more time with God. I Peter 1:3ff says, "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." Then in verse 5 he says "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness..... I challenge you to read the rest of I Peter. Above, I have made in bold print for us to make every effort. Keep praying even when the answer is no, keep rejoicing when you are suffering or persecuted, keep spending time with God praying and reading His word rather than....I heard a sermon where the preacher said...."..watch Oprah or Phil or even Ellen tomorrow and you will be listening to the wisdom of fools". Stop getting your "good feelings" from watching these people and spend time with God. He alone will give you what you need and what matters. Time with God is never wasted...  it is a lifetime commitment, not a here today gone tomorrow relationship.

Quantum Leap

I often wonder about the different ways God has worked in my life. I feel at times like the TV show Quantum Leap, where after I have been somewhere for so long and accomplished what God brought me there for, God moves me to another place. He does that (I think) by giving me a new desire to be somewhere else and at times in a place where I know that several years ago I would have NEVER had a desire to move to. God changes my mind or renews it. He changes my thinking, that what I used to think was foolish or selfish and shows me a much better plan. He also does it by taking away the desire I had when I first came to the place I am now at. There are many reasons I guess..... Circumstances change, people change, you don't enjoy what you are doing anymore at the place you are at, you get into a rut (I think every new place I have been too, this is always the case after a short while). I also believe God is in charge...ALWAYS...and I believe that is how he speaks to me at times. I believe that God gives us the desires of our heart (and I am speaking about those things that are in line with His will). A sermon I heard last summer talked about hearing God's will and to make it short and sweet the 3 point sermon was Desire, Opportunity and Balaams donkey. God will give me/us such a great desire for His will that we can't miss it. "God will not let you miss His will without knowing it. Secondly,  He will also give opportunity for that to happen. Balaams donkey is that final key to make sure that we are listening to and obeying God's will. In other words He has given us the desire, then the opportunity, and then to be on the lookout for Balaams donkey. Sometimes we try and "force" God's will, saying to ourselves we have the desire and the opportunity but God sends Balaams donkey to let us know that what we are doing is not His will but our own. I believe that God has given me a new desire at this time, but rather than jump at it like I would have 5 years ago, I will wait for opportunity, and be on the lookout for Balaams donkey. As I think about all that would need to take placefor it to happen
, if it does, I know God will have called me/us to that desire He had planted in my heart.

Thoughts this month and some scripture thoughts.

As one who has dealt with regrets over the past few years, and has observed others in their relationships I feel led to say, "Don't get so used to someone that you no longer appreciate them. It is so easy, after knowing someone for so long, to just take them for granted. You are not guaranteed tomorrow, let alone tonight.





I Timothy 5:24 says "The sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them." I have come to believe that when we die, we do not go directly to our reward, because neither our sin nor our goodness ends when we die, it extends through to the end of eternity. (feel free to ask what I mean in saying this).

My spiritual journey

I have never been good at keeping a journal, but I have decided to start one today and will use this blog as my notebook to write entries, not likely on a daily basis as I am not that disciplined yet, but as often as I can. As we drove to Winnipeg this past weekend we were talking about God, and how he leads us, and directs our paths, and sometimes we don't see the whole picture until we look back and see what happened. Maybe this way I can look back at my journal and see how God moved to guide and direct me over the next few years.

Supreme courts decision to legalize gay marriage

It is not only amazing how time flies as you get older but also how times change and how quickly they change. It was interesting watching the online news on CNN last week when the early top stories in the morning were three separate terrorist attacks which soon became secondary stories after the supreme courts decision to legalize gay marriage in all 50 states. I was also amazed on Facebook the posts of rainbows or support, etc for the decision. You would think everyone was waiting for the announcement as it seems from all the posts on FB that more than half of the nation came out of the closet as gay. I thought about posting something to the contrary but decided against as all it would do is create arguments. You can't argue with a non Christian about what the Bible says. The Bible is for Christians, not for non Christians, so any argument you have against the decision will not even be seen as relevant to them.

As I thought more about the supreme courts decision to legalize gay marriage, I thought of Sodom and Gomorrah and how judgment for them will be easier than for us. I also thought, "Why are people so pro-gay". The only answer I could come up with is that now we have permission to sin. The Supreme Court says it is okay, we can do what we want to do, and it is legal.
At some point (and I am sure it will not be too far off) churches and pastors will be going to court because they will refuse to marry these people. There will always be that one person/couple who wants to pursue it right up to the supreme court that "it is their right to be married in a church", if only to make a statement, not that they care anything about God or the church. We are a society run by social media and whatever the majority sees as what should be allowed. The government, wanting the peoples votes, and the church, wanting the people in the pews, will unfortunately bend the rules or water down the Gospel in order for this to happen. What's next?
News flash to the future. July 30th, 2025, CNN reports Polygamy legalized in all 50 states. You can marry multiple partners, male, female or whatever. Next news flash ten years later, 2035, the Supreme Court says it is okay for pet lovers to marry their pets. I know you are thinking, "Now you are getting carried away". Well I guess we will wait and see, after all, look back even 30 years ago and see how far we have fallen to this day.

Time for a change

I started a new blog recently, an anonymous one, one where I can vent about things I believe in and have been thinking about, but know that if I published on here, I might lose friends because they don't agree with what I think. So for those, if there are any on here who follow this blog, I likely will not be posting here very much, if at all, as I just feel the need to be more open and honest about stuff, (kind of like I was when I first started blogging years ago.
I think what started all this was Facebook and social media in general. Honestly, society today seems to be run more by social media than what is actually deemed as wrong or right. We live in a more popularity society, and if you don't agree with that than we tend to be in the minority and are certainly told about it when we post in disagreement to others. It is a popularity contest.
So thanks for taking the time to read this blog.

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