There is so much bustle in the world, it is hard to take a moment to pause and reflect on what you are doing that day let alone what you will be doing in the future. Each day rushes by and it feels like I accomplish nothing at all of importance.

That’s not to say that I don’t do things; however, some days it feels like there is nothing there that I can look at with a sense of satisfaction. The only exception, for me at least, is when I am doing something that has been directed by God. When that happens, the whole world lights up for me in a different way.

Those times and days are rare when compared to the vast amount of time that I spend just doing what feels like needs to be done or, worse yet, things that I feel like I want to do. At the end of the days I spend doing things on my own, I feel pretty useless. I sometimes wonder why I am here if this is all that I do with my time.

I will admit that it has gotten worse since my illness as I really can’t do what I did before (not yet, that is.) I look back, though, and realize that what I did before are not things that I want to do today. While I was much busier and could show tangible results, those results felt, then and now, to be empty and meaningless.

It seems like I am not alone in how I feel. So many people are searching for a new purpose. They wander here and there trying to find something new with which to fill their minds, hearts and hours. They feel empty and want to feel fulfilled.

While I search for meaningful things to do, I do it with a whole heart. My heart is filled with God. The broken and empty spot that was there for so long is not longer empty or broken. My own issue is trying to find the things that God wants me to do.

I know, from the experience of writing this blog, when I am doing something that God is directing, I am happy. When I do something that he doesn’t direct, in the end, there is little happiness for me in those results. This is probably true for all Christ-followers. We have the answer but need to apply it to our lives and to the work of our hands.

To the lost and dying world, the emptiness in their hearts burns to be filled. That is what their search is for. They are looking for a way to make their lives feel complete, for something real and true to believe in. They look here and there and sometimes, rarely, they look to God and find the true answer and have their broken hearts made whole.

Most of the time, sadly, they don’t look to God. At least, not to the God of the Bible. Let’s face it, Christianity is not trendy. It is the one and real truth in this entire messed up world but it is not hip to say you are a Christian. Look at what happens to public figures who announce that serving Jesus is the most important thing in their lives. They are ridiculed by the press and marginalized by most other people.

The people in this world wants to hear what they want to hear. They don’t want to hear that they are sinners and evil and have no way to save themselves. If you tell them how they can feel good doing this or that, then they reward you with heaps of gratitude… until the this or that proves to be a false trail to happiness. Which will be what happens if God and Jesus are not at the center of the teaching.

I think that is why self-help books and shows do so well. Right now, there is a show that focuses on how to pare down your possessions, which is truly not a bad thing at all. However, to say that this will bring joy and happiness to your life is not true for the long run. It just minimizes your possessions – that’s all. For some, they will stay in a minimal style life while others will simply start acquiring more and more items that spark joy in their lives. Until those items don’t bring the hoped for joy once again.

Possessions or lack of them are will never bring a true sense of joy. Neither will a relationship, a job or anything else you can think of. There is only one true way to find joy.

The world will try to suppress any mention of God. They have taken him out of the classroom, out of the government, out of just about everywhere you can think of. In all cases, without the mention of God, these areas of society are falling into more and more chaos. But if you mention the absence of God as an issue, you will be hounded, scorned and ridiculed.

Why? The answer is simple. The ruler of this world is Satan. He has dominion at this time. He has already been defeated but he is still in charge of the worldly things. He has lost the overall spiritual battle but he is still trying to drag down as much of humanity as he can. If he has to spend eternity in hell, he wants as much company as he can get to suffer along with him.

So he tells lies and people listen. He tells them what they want to hear and not what they need to hear. Their ears strain against what is true and right but tune into the lies that make them seem like they are in control. That sense of control is what makes them feel like they are gods themselves. It is the same sin that Adam and Eve were guilty of. They wanted to be god and so they broke God’s one commandment.

They brought sin in the world but I can’t blame them. Each of us would, and still do, break the same rule. We try to set ourselves above God.

When I became a Christ-follower many years ago, I found the true answer to happiness. Jesus is that answer. He looked at my sin and said he would pay the price that I owed. That by doing so, it would allow me to appear sinless before God. It is his innocent shed blood that covers my sins and makes them disappear as if they never happened.

Like all Christians, I still have problems with the old sin nature. It rears its head all too often. Sometimes I catch it and repent before it goes too far and other times, I see what I am doing but still keep doing it. It always ends poorly and I bring it to God for him to forgive me (once again) and to give me a new spirit to do what he wants me to do.

It is a constant battle. A spiritual battle. There is a spiritual war being raged in the heavens and on earth. No matter who you are, no matter what your relationship is with the Lord, you are involved in that battle. You are on one side of the other. While the battle is massive, it has only one outcome. Jesus has already won. He did so over two thousand years ago when he hung on a cross and died like a common criminal.

He could have called all the angels in heaven to protect him and they would have heeded his call. However, he did not do so. Why? It is because he loved each of us so much. He was mocked and beaten until he barely looked human. He then died in untold physical agony and with spiritual separation from God, his father. But as he hung there on the cross, he looked over the sins of the entire world for all time and was willing to suffer so that even just one of us could be saved. The good news is that his free gift of pardon is not for one. It is there for each and every one of us to accept… or not.

It is there waiting for you if you are not yet a Christ-follower. Ask Jesus to reveal himself to you as your savior. If you are truly seeking him, you will find him. Don’t be like the rest of the world, looking only to hear what they want to hear. Look for that which you need to and should be listening to. Jesus truly is the answer that will fill your heart with Everlasting Joy.

Timothy 4:3-4

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

There are have times in my life when I go full tilt at what I think is the right direction for me to head. Most of those times, almost all of those times, I haven’t stopped and prayed to find out if what I want to do is what God wants me to do. Almost without exception, the times when I lack guidance from God is when I run full tilt into a wall.

That hurts! There’s nothing like pouring your heart and soul into something that fails or which is taken away in a manner you cannot control. The problem, for me at least, is that while I have poured my soul into it, it isn’t something from God. It turns out I was heading the wrong way, the world’s way, once again.

While failing may hurt in the short term, I’ve found that, in the long term, I am best to have lost it. Whatever it was that I wanted was something that would keep me from what I was really supposed to be doing.

It’s that competitive spirit, that need to be best, that sometimes drives me. It isn’t the spirit of love and truth that shows God’s mercy and goodness to the world. So, it was not really of the spirit but rather of my own prideful flesh. God has told us that in and of ourselves, the heart of man is wicked. It is only through Jesus that we learn to love and to think of others as we do ourselves.

When you make that leap, the competitive nature is checked. It doesn’t go away and competition in and of itself is not wicked. When a person in sports works hard and wins, that is a great thing. When a company provides a great service and becomes the most popular at what they do, that is also not necessarily a bad thing.

It’s when the reason behind the drive is flawed that the nature of winning becomes evil. At least that is how it has been for me.

I’m learning to slow down and look for what I am supposed to be doing rather than what I want to do. What it is that God wants me to do. I’ve found that many of the tasks that I do are not that important. Also, the tasks that I have allowed to drop off are the ones where I should be spending my time and effort.

It’s funny, really. We can go to God and ask that he do this thing or that to help us. We can ask over and over again without looking at it from his eyes. So, when we don’t get what we want, we say God isn’t listening and he isn’t helping. Oh, but he is. He is listening and he is helping.

He hears our selfish prayers and does exactly what he should – which is nothing. By doing nothing, he is providing the most help he can do. Then, sometimes gently, and sometimes (like with me) with the feeling of a smack across the noggin, he gets us to look at something else. The something else is always better even if it is not as successful by the way the world measures it.

Learning to hear God and then to heed him is an unending struggle for me. The struggle is against my own thoughts and desires and not anything to do with God. His way is true and right and just. What he wants for us is the right thing and the thing that we should be working toward.

Short of the Damascus experience which Saul of Taurus experienced (a literal blinding light and the voice of Jesus from heaven), we have to go in search of God’s word. The search isn’t far or difficult. It can be found in the Bible. You can also ask for guidance from God in prayer. Another way is to watch a sermon or read a book by a godly man or woman who encourages you to look to God.

These are all ways that I have approached God. When I search diligently, he is good to show me my way. Not the entire way, as that would be too much for me to take on and I would, more than likely, misunderstand it. He gives me enough guidance to get me walking where he wants me to go and talking about the things he wants me to say.

I don’t know if you have experienced anything similar to the failures that I have had. If you have, try looking to God to have him show you where he wants you to go. This is true of those who know and follow Christ as well as those who don’t.

For those who don’t yet follow Christ, the first step is to find him. He isn’t lost, you are. He is there waiting for you with all the love you could possibly imagine. There he was, two thousand years ago, looking directly at you as he hung on the cross. Jesus willing went there to pay for the sins you have and will commit over your entire life.

He died for you and rose again so that you could be forgiven, have relationship with God, and have eternal life. All you have to do is accept him as your Savior, repent of your sins, acknowledge him as the resurrected God in flesh and start to live your live for him.

You don’t have to be sinless (only he was sinless), you don’t have to be good (who is apart from Jesus?), you don’t have to do good works (anything we do on our own are filthy rags to God) and you don’t have to do anything special to merit his love. He already loves you.

Start there and then, as with other Christ-followers, ask God to show you your path and to help you stay on it. Ask him for help in the areas you struggle with. You’ll fail from time to time but he still loves you. Just tell him you are sorry that you have strayed and ask him to forgive you (he already has) and to keep you focused on what he wants you to do.

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.

I wonder how many people have already broken their New Year’s resolutions?

I stopped making resolutions when I was just a teenager. I figured out fairly quickly that setting goals of this sort was an invitation to failure. Once I had failed, I would feel bad about myself and whatever it was that I had wanted to do. Rather than double down and work harder, I would head the opposite direction.

Setting goals is something that I also avoid. I either do or I don’t. I might have short term plans – things that I need to do and/or want to do. I don’t consider them goals but things on a to do list. They are things which I can accomplish, sometimes with a little more work and time than a regular task but not a goal. If for some reason, life intervenes and changes my plan, so be it. It is not as if I have failed, just changed.

Maybe it is just a matter of wording and something that I need to do to be in the right mindset. Goals seem to be something not quite in reach. I refuse to be depressed or sad because I haven’t accomplished something that I myself set as a plan.

In a workplace, goals can and should be set as a measure of productivity. Based on the results, you are rewarded or not. That is understandable. But in life outside of work, I don’t understand it.

Some people take their “goals” too seriously. It can be a matter of do it or literally, die. I know someone who had this type of thinking but was able to get his head on straight before he did something drastic. He did this before he became a Christian and he thought it was of his own work to accomplish. Having failed, he thought death was the only solution.

Once he became a Christian, he realized that God was working with him and that God’s love was the key to his happiness in life. He was given a reprieve from his earthly path which would have ended in death by his own hand. He saw that God wanted him to live and to live abundantly, no matter the circumstances, no matter which goals were attained or not attained. That the only goal that really mattered was living for God.

We’ve been asked by our church to set an attainable goal for the New Year. I won’t do that. I will schedule a plan for something to do. Something that I currently don’t make the time for but which is important for me to do. That way, I am sticking to my plan but if I fail, okay. I’ll just start again the next day and continue on.

Maybe for some, the idea of a goal works well. Maybe it does for you, too. If not, perhaps doing as I do will work. Part of my schedule is spending time reading the Bible and spending time in prayer. This is something that I try to do every day. I had some problems recently reading the Bible as the book was too heavy for me to lift (as is any book right now.) I was sad about this and prayed about it asking for help.

My husband was able to download a copy of the Amplified Study Bible to my iPhone that works great for me now. The thing is, don’t give up. Look to God and ask him for guidance and help with what you should do. Perhaps the goal was good to begin which or, perhaps, it was wrong. In failing, you may have done the best thing you could for yourself.

There are some things in life that we really have to do. They are the purpose of our lives and those are the things that God has for us to do. Not really goals at all but, instead, the reason we are alive to begin with.

Jesus came to this earth for a reason. He was God, the son, who created the entire universe. We are his creation and he loved us so much, rather than let us wallow in sin in eternity without him, he put on the flesh of his own creation to become one of us.

He was God and man in one flesh. He did this so he could live without sin. He had the same temptations, the same pains and suffering that we do. As God, he was able to go through these without sinning as we do. He did so by obeying the words of the Bible. By being sinless, he was able to communicate with God, the father.

It wasn’t that he could not sin but that he would not. Satan tempted him regularly but he was able to withstand it by sticking to the words of God. He did it for us. His purpose, his reason for being, was to come to earth and live a sinless life. And then, he was to willingly die for us and provide us with a covering for our sin.

The blood that he shed is the covering for those who accept him as their resurrected Savior. When God the father looks at man, he sees sin and as a perfect God, he cannot have sin in his presence. When God looks at a Christ follower, he sees only the blood of Jesus. He does not see sin. We are able to pray to him and have a relationship with him as our Father in heaven because of the atoning power of Christ’s blood.

Jesus had a purpose for his life and he fulfilled it. Just like him, we have a purpose that God has set for us. Part of our lives are spent trying to find that purpose and then, once found, living to accomplish it.

We aren’t sinless like Jesus, so we will fail and fall away from our purpose time and time again. Just don’t give up. Ask God to pick you back up and give you a renewed spirit. Then start again. You may find that your understanding of your purpose is altered. Not because it has altered but rather your understanding is improved by your continuing relationship with God.

One purpose that we all share is that we are to spread the good news of Jesus sacrifice and his free gift of pardon for everyone in this fallen world. It does not matter who they are and it does not matter what we think of them (or what they think of themselves), they are still a creation of God and he loves them. He loves them so much that he died for them. That’s true of a child who lies or a mass murderer or a child molester. He still loves them and they can find his salvation.

That is not an earthly pardon but one in eternity. Those who break the rules of this world will have to pay the price that society dictates. So, in earthly terms, each person’s sins or rule breaking are measurable. To God, the sins are all the same and will keep you from his presence.

If you are not a Christian, no matter what you have done, God loves you. Look to Jesus for your redemption. He will by no means turn away from an earnest and sincere prayer for forgiveness. Once you have accepted Christ, ask for his help in living each day. He has sent the Holy Spirit to live in us and guide us and to keep us on track for the purpose of God that we are here on this planet to accomplish. Just like with my friend, learn to let God’s love be the key to your happiness in life.

Mark 8:34-38

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

Some days, I find that the things I do seem very, very hard. Other days, the tasks slip by almost unnoticed in their ease.

Today is one of the more difficult days. I’ve been asked to include a new physical task that is so small, it doesn’t bear mentioning. For me, however, it has turned into a very painful task, indeed. One that I will have to postpone for a while during which time I will work at an even more humble task in order to prepare for it in the future.

However, I know that in order to move forward, I have to go through the smaller tasks that are so hard to do. In getting ready for it and then used to it, I will be then be ready for greater tasks in the future. It’s kind of like a baby learning to crawl before they walk. The baby needs that learning phase that may never be of great use to them in the future. They do this in order to progress to the walking that will, for most, make up the rest of their lives.

So, I am busy learning to do really small tasks in order to do a bigger one later. The latter task is one that I look forward to and hope for and wish I could do now.

That’s kind of how our walk with Christ can begin. We want to do great things for him. However, when we are asked to do the small things, we often decide that we won’t do the small things at all. They are too simple and not the grandiose things that we had in our mind.

By our neglecting the small things, we will never be asked to do the larger things for God. He needs to see that we are mature and ready before being led in those directions.

That isn’t always the case. There are some few who God calls on for huge tasks right from the beginning. There are some who are even asked to give their lives. You can’t be given a greater tasks than that, can you?

Most of us don’t think in terms of dying for Christ. We may say that and think that and sing that loudly at church. But really? How many have given great thought to dying for God? Dying in ways possibly too painful to think of. The day may be coming when that is exactly what followers of Christ will be expected to do on an on-going basis.

Here in the United States, we Christians suffer some forms of persecution but in some parts of the world, there are Christians who are, quite literally, dying because of their faith. They are asked to give it up, to renounce it, to express no faith in God or to accept another religion. There are some who will fall and do what society expects rather than pay the ultimate price for believing in Jesus Christ.

There are those, however, who stay strong and true. God is working with them and through them. He strengthens them and allows them to see beyond the circumstance they are in to see the eternity they will have with God.

I hope that if and when we are confronted with a choice to letting God go or being strong and standing up for Jesus Christ, that we will all make the right and eternal decision. Denying God has consequences and I truly hope that we don’t have to suffer those. Of course, standing up for God also has consequences in the here and now. Today is fleeting and it will pass in the blink of an eye. Eternity is forever and ever. I want to spend eternity with God. I hope you do, too.

So, in the meantime, when God puts it on your heart to do something small, be glad. He is getting you ready for something larger. It’s like learning to walk again one step at a time. You need to learn to walk so that you can climb mountains later.

It may be your mountain to climb is during this life or it may be that your mountain is during our eternity with God. Remember God wants you to do as he asks no matter how large or small it is. He doesn’t measure the task but rather the willingness with which you are willing to do work for him. He is looking for your heart and not for the greatness of your deeds.

Colossians 3:23-25

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.

A new year has started. It began with bangs and clangs and even fireworks. A lot of those bangs were gunshots and I really, really wish that people who do that would stop. Stop right now! Those bullets end up somewhere, even when they are shot into the air. I’m sure that those who shoot their guns don’t mean harm but harm is what they can do. It’s a thoughtless action and that is something that is becoming more common as every day passes.

We do things without thinking. We buy without thinking. We speak without thinking. What are we not thinking about? Consequences. Everything we think, do or say has consequences.

It’s like we have decided that, both as a people and as individuals, we no longer care about who might be hurt by what we do. As long as we get what we want, do what we want and/or say what we want to say, who cares for anyone else? The most important person in the universe, the one we love more than any other, has been served and everyone else, essentially, can eat dirt.

This isn’t how we were made. We were made to love one another. We are all brothers and sisters, created by the same loving God. He wants for us all to be together, but after we sinned, we stopped loving one another as we should. Instead, everyone else is our enemy. Someone to one up, to beat out, or to show up in some way or another.

I know that I have felt that way over the years. It’s shown up in many ways and places. It may be a niggling thought or it may be something I obsess about. If I feel I need to “beat someone” to get something, I can work really hard to do it. The work I have done in this fashion is much more than I have ever devoted to God’s kingdom.

What does that say about me?

Well, I guess it shows that I am the same as everyone else. I’m a sinner. The difference may be that I am a sinner who has been redeemed by the Living God.

When I allow my behavior to go off the rails, I hear from God in short order. Sometimes, I obey immediately and repent and change my ways, apologizing to anyone I have hurt. Most times, I put blinders on and stick my fingers in my ears, saying “Na, na, na” trying to block out God’s reproving and loving voice.

During those times, I continue on my way, doing what I want without regard to others, let alone God. My efforts don’t end well. I may accomplish what I set out to do but it is like ashes in my mouth. It is not only unsatisfying but makes me feel as if somehow, somewhere, I didn’t do, say or think enough about how to get whatever it was done. If I had, it would have made me feel great, wonderful like I had won the best prize in the world.

Sometimes, these efforts have come at great cost. It could be emotional or physical. It is always at a spiritual cost. During these times of my open rebellion, I lose my connection to God. If I pray without repenting, he doesn’t respond. I can’t be sure he is even listening but if he is, he is waiting to hear me say I’m truly sorry and ask for his help in changing my ways. And then, for me to actually work at changing my ways.

This always happens at some point and God is always good and just to listen and forgive, to reprove and to set me back on my path walking with him again. More humble and, at the same time, more committed to him.

That is the difference between a person who has been saved by grace through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and those people who are not saved. The saved have a venue to God and those who are not, do not. The unsaved can, if they look to Jesus and ask for his forgiveness, repent of their sins and acknowledge that he is God in flesh who lived a perfect and sinless life, died for them and then who rose from the dead to save them and provide them with eternal life. Along with that, they must truly repent of all of their sins and ask for his help in leaving their sinful ways behind.

I wish I could say that, at some point, we are without sin. Actually, that will happen one day but not during a day of our regular lives. It will be when Christ returns for his followers. He will return to place judgement on the earth and to all those who have ever dwelled on it.

The Bible says that the heavens will be shaken and that those who did not accept him will look to the skies, see him returning and will mourn that they did not see him as Messiah before that day. You see, once that happens, your eternity has been sealed. It takes faith to be redeemed. You must meet and accept God by faith before that great and terrible day.

Those of us who have accepted the gift of pardon will be transformed. We will be remade to be like Jesus, without sin and with a body that will last for eternity. We will live with God forever and ever.

Those who did not accept him will also have a place in eternity. It will be a torturous and horrible place with more awful things than we can image.

The way to avoid it is to look to Jesus. Accept him and learn to live a different way. While it will not change the outcome of the world, it could make a positive impact on those we live with and who are influenced by our thoughts, words and deeds. At the very least, it will certainly change you. It will help you see that you are not the most important person in the universe.

That person is Jesus. The humble servant who came to die for us and to show us how to live. That same person who will return and show us that he is the conquering King who will rule in justice and goodness forever and ever.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

Christmas has just passed and the New Year is coming up. It is a week of festive holidays and of hope and good cheer. That is, if you are in a good and happy place. If you are not, it can be a time of reflection on what went wrong in your life this past year.

For me, while it has been quiet, I am still very happy. There have been many years when the same could not be said.

I noted to myself this morning that my days are very regimented. I have to get up and do this and that each and every day. It is for my health, both physical and spiritual, that these tasks are to be done. I was a tad wistful for the days prior to fall 2017, when I didn’t have such a strict day planned out.

Then, I gave some thought to what I used to do. The things that I filled my days with. While I didn’t have to do the same thing each day, the things that I did had no real meaning. No one was helped by my work, not even me. There was certainly no glory to God being given. They were tasks that the world might admire but nothing, apart from watching my grandchildren, that could give me any measure of satisfaction of a job well done or for a good reason.

Having realized that, I also realized that I would never want to go back to that life. Even if I could walk around freely, without oxygen supplements or the pain that I am currently experiencing (though I must admit I could do without the pain, Lord.)

There were so many other years when so little was done. I did raise my children and that was a good thing. But other than that, in an eternal view, nothing was done.

There are many other Christians who live their lives as I did. We so easily forget that we are supposed to be in the world but not of the world. We are supposed to be the light that shows Christ to the fallen rather than to join in their endless quest for happiness, celebrity, or whatever it takes to fill their emptiness.

How can we show Christ when we are busy reflecting the world back to those who might otherwise be seeking him? I’ve seen this on social media recently. I was shocked to see someone refer to Christmas Eve service at our church as a “magical evening”. Say what, thought I? Magical? As in magicians and sorcerers? I’m sure that was not when the person meant but it is certainly what they said.

That is being of the world – using their language and their thoughts and actions. We need to stop this type of behavior and seek God to find out how he wishes us to speak and behave in these public forums.

Without question, quoting from the Word of God, the Bible, is one way of showing Christ to the world. He is the Word. When he was tempted by the devil, he responded by quoting scripture. Thus, he set a precedent for us to follow. When we don’t know what to say, use his words. They will always be correct and good and true.

They may not be popular, though, and that is something that will be difficult for many to willingly accept. So much of social media is based on friends and followers, likes and the such. Taking a stance for God will certainly cost you in terms of these metrics. However, you need to weigh that loss with the gain you will receive in heaven.

God is watching and he knows what is in our hearts and our minds. Be ever vigilant and know that he can return at any moment – either for his church or for any individual. With that mindset, always be thinking of how to show the gift of salvation to others. Also, show them how Christ-followers live.

While we are sinners still, we are trying to live like Jesus. We fall and get back up with his help. He is willing to forgive whenever we sin and come to him with true repentance.

Also, accepting Jesus is not some sort of get of jail free card. It is not something to check off on a list and then go off on your merry way. The thing about salvation is that you must truly repent of your sins. If you think that some of your behavior isn’t sinful and that you can continue in it, well, chances are that you didn’t sincerely accept the gift of salvation. I can’t say for sure. I don’t know what is in your heart and mind but God does.

You show your true repentance by changing your life. You put aside your sinful behavior. Sure, you will fail from time to time. But each time, you go back to the source of forgiveness and ask for his help. He will provide it. Slowly but surely, you will begin to live more like Jesus.

Jesus is your one true friend. The one who was willing to die for you even at your worst moment. So, if you are put in a position, being in the world, where you have to make a choice or take a position, think about it. Whose opinion really matters? The “friends” and “followers” on social media or the one that is your true friend; the one you should follow?

Make the right choice and show the world what it truly means to be a Christ-follower. Let them stand in wonder about how you are different from others. They just may come and ask how you can take the stands that you do and what you have that makes you stand out as different from the others. That is our purpose – to be a light, a type of beacon, like a lighthouse. The light of Jesus should shine out from us drawing others to his safe haven.

John 18-22

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

For many, this is a wonderful time of the year. For others, it simply has no meaning. For a few, it is a time of sadness, loss, depression or other forms of hardship.

While we are celebrating the birth of our Savior and King, there are those who continue to question his very existence. They say, if he really lived, then why did he leave you to fight for yourself instead of becoming the conquering king that you speak of.

First of all, by historical records, he did exist. He was recorded about in diaries of those who were historians of the time.

The next question becomes that which the Christian faith is built upon. You see, the Israelites of his time were waiting for the conquering king. They wanted a human Messiah who would come and break the bondage they were under with the Romans. Throughout their history, they would say the Messiah is the one who would save them from their current dilemma. They didn’t look to see that what they needed was someone to save them from sin.

Sin is what really holds us in bondage. In accepting Satan’s way by sinning, we became enemies of God. We, like Satan, wanted to challenge God for his place. We, like Satan, were doomed in this confrontation because God is God and there is none like him. He created us and in doing so, we were his creation not his equal.

Think about it. If you made something and it came to life and then told you that it would take your place, what would you do? You would have to cut off communication, power, fuel and assistance and let it fend for itself. It would quickly run amok because it would have lost that which provided its life in the first place.

That is where we are today. We are fending for ourselves. We can live day in and day out but over time, we fall apart and die. At the end of it all, when our measure is taken, what will our lives have meant?

Before I met Jesus, my life was meaningless. I spent my time doing what I wanted when I wanted. Sometimes, I did good but only if it was something in my own interest. Even when I did something that could be viewed as altruistic, at the end of the day, it was in my interest even if it was just to make me feel happy and superior to those who didn’t spend their time like I did.

After I met Jesus, I learned about self-sacrifice. I learned that there was someone who had lived his entire life to serve others. He came to show us how to be a servant both to God and to other people. He showed us the meaning of true love which is in putting others above yourself. That kind of love can only come from God. We are so self-centered, our type of love comes from love of and for ourselves.

God, on the other hand, loved us so much he was willing to send his son to become one of us. He was born like we are and in the most humble of places. Born to a young couple who didn’t even have a real roof over their head at the time he was born.

When, in the fullness of time, that boy grew up and came to preach the good news of God’s salvation, he taught us to serve God and one another. His words were new and his concepts were ones that no one had ever heard before. It was a difficult concept to grasp even for his followers who witnessed his miracles firsthand. They, as other Israelites, were still looking for the conquering Messiah to save them from the situation of their life.

Jesus came to do that but at a much more fundamental level. Before saving the world from the catastrophe which we were creating, he had to provide a way for us to reconnect with our creator. Sin was in the way and he was the sacrifice that would allow our spiritual beings to be reborn and reconnect with God. Little did we understand that by his sacrifice and resurrection, he was the conquering King. Instead of an earthly ruler, he conquered sin and death for everyone.

Before doing so, he also taught us how to live like him. He knew that no human on their own could do so, otherwise why would God have to become a man and die for us? Still, he wanted us to see the real way so that when trials come upin our lives, we can look to his life and to his words and see our answers and the path we need to follow.

He is still the conquering Messiah and one day he will be returning for us to lay claim to the kingdom he has already won. At that time, he will certainly vanish the evil that exists here and a new heaven and a new earth will take the place of this fallen and sinful place. In his mercy, God is waiting and allowing as many as can be saved to be saved before the last day.

If you are a follower of his, you will be saved. If you are not, you will not be saved. There is no gray area, no fudging or hedging on this one. Jesus even states that in that day, there will be those who say, Lord, I did this and that in your name. He will say, depart, I never knew you. He can see into our hearts and know if we have really accepted his sacrifice.

So, at this time of year, when we celebrate his first coming as a baby in a manger, look forward in time and understand that his second coming could be at any time. Also, no one is promised their next breath, so your time on this earth is moment by moment. Our time of judgement is coming upon us, one way or the other.

Are you prepared to meet God? Have you been reborn in your spirit to know him? If not, you will be among those who never knew him. That is a fate that I don’t wish for anyone. Not even the worst of the worst. There can always been redemption as long as you are alive. You will still have to bow to man’s law if you have broken a law. God can forgive anything except for one thing. He can’t forgive you for not having accepted Jesus as your sacrifice and pardon. When you meet God, please do so with Jesus as your King having accepted his servant’s life and his sacrifice.

Isaiah 9:6-7

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders.
And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.

We all seem to be striving to be perfect. Perhaps, not each of us in the same way. But there is a need within us to be shown to be the best that there can be at something. I wonder where this need springs from? Certainly, not from God. God is perfect and we are not. That is a given and the reason we all need a savior.

So, if not God, then from whom? There can only be one real answer. The author of this strive for perfection can only be Satan. If something is not good and of God, then it is necessarily evil and of Satan.

It goes back to the original sin. Eve and Adam wanted to be like God. They wanted to be perfect. What is bizarre is, that at that time, they were perfect. They were part of the perfect creation of the universe by Jesus.

Still, they wanted something more. They didn’t just want to be perfect. They wanted to be equal to their own creator. They didn’t want to bow down to the Lord as their master.

So, they broke the one rule in their effort to reach that higher level. In doing so, they lost their ability to communicate and bow down before the creator. Instead, they found a new master. Satan became their ruler. Frankly, instead of stepping further up, they stepped much further down. Satan, himself, was a creation of God. So, instead of bowing to the perfection of their creator, they were bowing down to a fallen, broken and evil created being.

So, to this day, each of us and mankind in general, still strive to be perfect. We try to fix all the ills of this world. We look to find cures. We try to figure out how to get ourselves out of the mess we are in. Nothing ever truly works. What disease have we cured? Is the earth covered in peace? Has hunger, abuse, or any other evil thing been eradicated by man by himself?

This need to be perfect and fix ourselves is true of mankind in general but also of each of us. Day in and day out, we look at the mess of our lives. We try to think what we can do to make it all better.

Perhaps a new job? A new set of clothes? A fancy pair of shoes? A new diet? A new spouse? A new sexual identity? No matter what we try, we are doomed to failure. Man is not a perfect being. Something that is imperfect can never create perfection. It simply isn’t possible. Our flaws will work into everything we touch, everything we create, even the things that we say.

In this search for perfection, we will do all sorts of things. I have been guilty of this, as we all have been. I used to think that if I worked harder, I would be best at the job. So, I worked longer hours.

The result was, my bosses then expected that kind of work on an on-going thing. My work week went from 40 to 60 to even more hours. My reviews didn’t improve. I didn’t attain perfection. If anything, I made it more difficult to have a good and well-balanced life.

My husband got used to the extra salary I made and, as his job was based on how much he did, he started working less hard and spending more time talking. He admitted as much to me. Once, I realized the futility of it all, between work expectations and the need for my salary at home, my life became an unending spiral of overwork.

So the majority of my time was spent away from my family – my husband and my children. Because of this attitude of lack of time and attention, my marriage fell apart. There were other things, too, that factored in. But if you look at the heart of the issue, my spending too much time working on things that didn’t matter cost me in terms of things that mattered so much more.

When the company I worked for was purchased by a Fortune 500 company, I was able to successfully step back from the precipice I was on and to spend much more time with my children. Unfortunately, it was about a year to late to salvage my marriage.

But God is good and about a year later, he brought my second husband and me together.

Funny thing is, we had worked together for seven years by this time. We started at the company the same week, if not the same day. What I recall most about him is that during first week, at a company function, he took the last chicken salad sandwich and left me with tuna. I like tuna, but didn’t want to deal with fishy, onion breath. So, let’s just say he made a big, fat, not great impression on me.

It got even better (and I do mean this sarcastically.) He would come to my office and ask for employee pricing on the software we developed. He would ask for permission to do things. I worked in the Legal department and we were there to answer those questions. The thing is, no one else ever asked. They just took stuff and expected us to look the other way.

I jokingly called him a boy scout and later found out that, indeed, he had been a boy scout. While I was frustrated with his questions, I took on the tasks to find or create answers. Let’s say, it involved a lot of extra work at a time when I was working those 60+ hour weeks.

I never could remember engineers names though I dealt with them frequently. His name I remembered because of the work. I thought about hiding whenever he wandered into our office space but I could not bring myself to do it.

Years later, when I was single, I remembered his honesty. Even though I had determined to stay single until my children were grown, God had a different idea. And it involved that obnoxious, cute, and honest engineer.

Still, our relationship is not perfect. We neither expect it to be. We’ve gone from a balanced work pair to one where he does much more work than I do. I am kind of decorative these days. I sit and then I stand then I sit some more. I guess I could strive to be a perfect sitter and stander but, honestly, my back hurts way to much to even try.

Still that sinful spirit tries to surface from time to time. If you can’t attain perfection, that evil creature starts telling you how worthless you are. How life for others would be better without you. That you, and you alone, are the reason their lives are not perfect.

Boy, that is a hard spirit to fight. It keeps surfacing over and over again. With each new pain, each new loss of independence, there it comes again.

I’ve learned there is only one way to fight it. First, I tell my husband how I am feeling. I know that the thoughts and feelings are not right. But they are there and need to be acknowledged. Essentially, I am confessing my sinful thoughts to my best friend.

Next, I take the sin to God in prayer. I repent of it and ask him for his help to take it away. I ask him to forgive me for thinking that anything he created was not here for a purpose. His purpose, not mine.

I then look to the work that he has given me. Not much, it’s true, but it is the work he needs me to accomplish. In the body of Christ, I am the one person who is set aside to accomplish these tasks. When I think of it from that perspective, I understand that I am not useless because my life has changed. Instead, because my life has changed, I have found my true focus. I’ve slowed way down and could see the work to do that I previously ignored as the days flew by.

I am not striving for perfection, just trying to bring my work to God in a way that pleases him. He is perfection but he knows we are not. Our work will never be perfect on its own.

In fact, the only reason I can talk with God is that he knew we were broken without anyway to fix ourselves.

He sent his son as our savior. Jesus was the perfect being who sacrificed himself so that the rest of us could once again have a relationship with God.

If you are a follower of Christ (and not just someone who fancies themselves Christian because their family always attended this church or that), your relationship is established and you should talk with God daily.

If you have not yet Jesus Christ as your savior, your Messiah, this is the time to do so. You never know when your last day will be. Once you have accepted Jesus as your savior, as God in flesh resurrected, and have truly repented of all of your sins (yes, even those which society says are okay and perfect – they are not perfect or okay to God)), your relationship and communication with God has been repaired.

Pray daily, rely on Jesus as your resurrected King always, ask Father God to help you and the Holy Spirit to be your daily guide. Stop striving for perfection in things of this world and instead look to the perfect being for an example. Learn to follow his way of holiness. He is the one above all others. He is holy and true and he loves you.

Isaiah 48:17-18

This is what the Lord says — your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.

If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea.”

At what other time in history could we all come together in such a small place as in our own homes? We connect through the internet in various forms of social media.

We can take peeks into other people’s lives and admire how much they have or what they have accomplished. What we forget is that those individuals are generally presenting a life that doesn’t really exist. They are choosing to show us what they would like their life to be seen as rather than showing it in its entirety.

They pose their shots and their locations. They don the clothes that work to their advantage. They are really actors giving us a show. They may be using their own houses, etc. But my guess is that it is a cleaned up corner and not what their house would look like in their day-to-day living.

It reminds me of the two times in my life when I staged the houses which we were selling. It wasn’t that I bought things and brought them in. Rather, I culled out most of our belongings and showed prospective buyers a pared down version.

Each time, my husband, kids and I said this is the way we should live all the time. Of course, there was nothing in the house to do! All of our hobbies and books and other fun such stuff was hidden in storage. So, it would be a simple and elegant way to live but one that would not allow any one of us to be creative.

There has to be a happy medium and I am now trying to find it. I’ve found that giving away the collections of a lifetime is difficult and time-consuming in a physical sense. In a spiritual sense, it is wonderful and fulfilling.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m still keeping the things and hobby tools that mean the most to me and which I will be working with. To give those away would be foolish as I would be out buying them again in the near future.

Just as our houses are filled, so are our lives. We fill up our days to the bursting point. We try to find time to do the things we should do but, frankly, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Then there are those who may not have their priorities on quite straight. My husband told me recently about an on-line campaign to get the bagel emoji (from Apple) changed. It apparently didn’t look quite right. It wasn’t handmade, it wasn’t toasted and it didn’t include cream cheese.

While I agree those are things that are great on a bagel (though as someone lactose intolerant, I used to opt for a toasted bagel with a slice of tomato, green onion and avocado – but that was just me), the amount of time and effort which went into getting this emoji changed is a little questionable.

Just image what people could do that would really improve their life instead of spending time getting a picture they use on their phones changed to their liking. I would think that most of us could get something real accomplished but this is where our lives are heading these days.

We are looking at the unrealistic and the things that really don’t matter and somehow trying to mold our lives to those things. There isn’t anything spiritual there and, at heart, we are a spiritual people. Some may say that we are animals, which is something that I don’t agree with. Regardless of how we physically view ourselves, we still have our hopes and our dreams.

Those are of the spirit and not of the flesh and bone. Instead of looking outward at the trappings of our lives, we should look inward first. Once our hearts and thoughts are in the right place, then we can look to the outer trappings of our lives to change them.

Looking inward is hard and difficult. Most people won’t like what they see. They know their true thoughts and feelings and they know that they are lacking. Who wants to admit, even to themselves, that they don’t quite measure up?

The truth is that none of us measure up. We are all sinners and we sin every day. If you say otherwise, hey, you’re lying and that is a sin all by itself.

Being sinners, we have no way to undo and remake ourselves. We need someone to take us in hand. Someone to remove the taint of our sin from our lives and to teach us a better way, the real way and the only way to live.

God, in his mercy, sent his son to become one of us. He did it knowing the price he would pay. He became a man, a human just like the rest of us. He lived like we do but was able to live without sin. Imagine what it would be like to give up heaven to come to earth in a body made up of essentially dust and water.

It wasn’t easy for the man Jesus to give up his life and suffer the outrageous pain of crucifixion. He even prayed to not have to do it and for God to find another way to fix humankind. At the same time, he also told God that he was willing to do the hard thing if that was what God willed. And it was.

So the man Jesus went through horrible suffering and mocking and scorn of the people he was doing this to save. Even his best friends abandoned him and denied him. Not one person stood up for him or asked to take his place. No, not one. He was the only one who could and would make the ultimate and perfect sacrifice.

When Jesus hung on the cross, in pain, he looked out over the entire creation which he, as the Word of God had created. He saw each of us in turn and what we were and how we sinned. One by one, he was willing to die for us.

I sometimes think of the wounds that he suffered. It wasn’t the pretty sugar coated version of little nails in the palms. It would have been big, ugly, hand wrought spikes that would have been placed in his wrists and his ankles. I can’t begin to imagine the pain as the hours went on and on.

As much as it pains me to think of that day, I can only be incredibly happy that Jesus was willing to go through that for me. He gave up his life to give me new life and for that, I will forever be grateful.

I look forward to the day when I get to heaven and am able to see his wounds in person. You see, Jesus is still in his human form though he has been resurrected in an eternal form that we Christ followers will one day share. We will forever see his wounds. He is forever the sacrifice that saved us.

I hope you stop looking at social media for the way to a good life. Look instead to your father in heaven and to Jesus for loving you. Find this truth and ask the Holy Spirit to help guide you.

Once this is done, you can start paring back your life to one that is realistic and workable. You will be able to better set priorities because you will know the true center of your life. In doing so, you will begin to build your world to revolve around God.

Matthew 19:17-26

Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

“Which ones?” he inquired.

Jesus replied,“ ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

There’s so much we should be doing, so much to think of, and so much that needs to be said. It’s easy to just want to stop and put it all off for another day.

We most of us are way too willing to postpone tasks and to think that there will come a day when we have more time to dedicate to such things. It usually involves items and tasks that require closer attention and which truly matter. We live in a society of quick decisions. Look at the issue, make the decision, take the action and then move on.

However, we all have those tasks that can’t be decided in a minute. We need to think and ponder, and for we Christians, to pray. Those are the hard things because they task our brains or our emotions or maybe even both.

My elder sister is still dealing with going through our mother’s belongings and she passed more than a decade ago. I understand the problems and could only wish I could help her. When I was able to travel, I didn’t know that she was still working her way through. It is a highly emotional task and one which might have been better shared. Still, perhaps she needs to piece together our mother’s life by herself as she makes her decisions about what stays or goes.

I had to confront this issue myself this past year. After nearly dying, I realized that I didn’t want to leave such a mammoth task to my husband or our children. Not only that, I wanted the joy of giving things to individuals who would appreciate them. Sometimes, it is strangers and sometimes it is a loved one. Whoever and whenever, the giving is better than the owning ever was.

When confronted with life and death, no possession ever crossed my mind. All I thought of was those people I loved and the security and knowledge that I would see so many of them again in heaven. There was sadness, too, when I thought of the ones that I could not be sure of.

I know from experience, when my son passed away, that having that knowledge helps with grief. I will not sugarcoat it, it is hurts like a fresh wound even twenty years later. But mixed in with the grief is the joy of knowing he’s waiting for me. No only him, but my mother and sister and even those children I lost in pregnancy. Especially the one that I didn’t lose naturally but in my stupidest, self-centered and most evil moment on this planet, I threw away when I was eighteen years old.

Before I was twenty years old, I had broken every one of the ten commandments both in thought and in deed. That makes me pretty much as bad as anyone else and much worse than most. God took that evil action and used it to bring me to my knees and, in the moment when I knew I could no longer live with myself from the guilt, to accept Jesus as my savior. I needed forgiveness that I could not provide to myself. Jesus loved me and accepted me when I felt myself to be the worst human being alive.

I look forward to meeting that child one day and thanking him or her for being the person who would lead me to Jesus Christ. I have two other children, besides my son and this child. I lost these two during the year before I became pregnant with my son. Turns out that I am severely lactose intolerant and when I would become pregnant, I would start drinking milk and would lose the baby about a week later. We figured it out in time and I was able to have three children, my son and two daughters.

As a mother, I would deal their day-to-day issues but didn’t give much thought to the eternal destiny of my children. I did make sure that they went to Christian schools when they were younger and that they had Bible groups they met with. What I never did was sit and talk to them about sin and salvation. I never explained to them about our savior and how much Jesus loved them.

When my son became ill at 17 years old, it struck me like a lightning bolt that I had neglected the most important thing I could have ever taught my children. I went to each in turn and asked them about the state of their soul. I was eternally grateful to those individuals who had cared for my children and that they had taken the time to lead them to salvation. That doesn’t excuse me.

It shows that even though I wasn’t engaged, God took seriously my first husband and I dedicating each of our children to him. He made sure that someone took on the job that we both failed to do.

I thought about it from time to time during the prior years, but I always thought I could find the time later. Later came too soon. If it had been left to me on my own, it might never had been done.

I have other things in my life that I postponed. I knew after my son passed away that I was supposed to write for God. I wrote one thing (a dedication to God about my son.) It was so taxing and emotionally exhausting that I stopped writing and instead asked a friend to write Christian messages for me to provide to others. He did so which was a true blessing but it also allowed me to avoid doing the task God was calling me to do.

Fast forward almost twenty years and here I am, finally doing what God has asked me to do. It has taken me way too long but I am here now. I am now finding the time to do the hard task. This is the task that left to myself, I would still try to postpone it until tomorrow. But I am not left to myself these days. God is directing and leading me daily.

When I sit to write, I am always sure that I won’t be able to or what I write will be gibberish. Somehow, God takes my confusion and turns it into the message he wants others to read. It’s not me, it’s him. If ever anything I have written means something to you, know that I was only the vehicle by which it was written. God is using my past, my life, my sins, and my salvation to write a message to you. My hope is that it brings God glory and that Jesus Christ is lifted up and you see that he is your savior. If anything else makes it through, I’m sorry for my human failing.

God is our father. He has a plan for the future. Jesus is our God in flesh and he was willing to sacrifice himself to give us a way to salvation. The Holy Spirit is God who indwells Christians. He is the one that gives us our daily guidance – that nudge, that thought, that small voice in our heads that tells us when we are thinking of going wrong or when we need help.

People talk about making bucket lists. These are lists of things that they want to do before they die. I don’t think many people would have a to do line to the effect of “Secure my eternal salvation.” Interesting, we can come up with a lot of things in this life that we want or even need to do, but the one that really matters is the one of your eternal destiny. Please, don’t postpone that investigation and decision.

Look to God and ask him to show you the way to know him. Ask him to show you that he is real and that Christ is your savior. He will always answer that prayer if it is prayed in earnest.

Today is the day because you are here. Tomorrow is not promised and it may never come.

James 4: 13-14

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.