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Change The Heart

At an animal sanctuary in Locust Grove, Georgia, a full grown bear, lion, and tiger, all live in the same enclosure, where they play together, eat together, and sleep together. Now, in the wild, a lion, tiger, and bear would not do anything together, in fact they would most likely kill each other and would certainly fight if they came in contact with each other. So, what’s the difference? The difference is that this unlikely trio of friends have known each other since they were just baby animals. They grew up together, and were never taught to fight or kill or dislike each other. They were never taught the natural fear of each other that animals in the wild learn as they grow up. You might say their hearts were changed, and they learned to love each other rather than fear and hate each other. We can learn a lot from those animals. We live in a world where the many young people are taught to look out only for themselves, get what they want, and to even hate those who are different than ...
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Know That I Am GOD

Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.” We live in a world of “instant” everything. We have microwaves that very quickly heat up food in an instant. We have the internet where we can instantly find out what is going on half way around the world, or on the other side of our country. And we all too often want “instant” gratification at things we attempt to do. It seems like when we decide to give God our lives, we want to instantly experience everything the Bible promises, and when things don’t happen as fast as we expect them to, we are tempted to just give up and say, “Nope…It doesn’t work…I’ve tried it!” William Carey lived in England in the early 1800’s. As a young man, he gave his heart and life to Jesus Christ. He began to be burdened for the unsaved people who had never heard the gospel in other countries, and especially India. When he asked his minister about who was bringing the Word of God to India, his minister ...
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Draw Near

  “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8) What an awesome promise this is. God doesn’t force us to draw close to Him, but He does promise that if we take the first step and start seeking Him, He will draw near to us. In the second part of that verse, the Bible tells us what we need to do in order to take that first step, “Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” In other words, stop trying to please both God and the flesh, and – get rid of the darkness that is in your life. God doesn’t abide where there is darkness, if we want to know Him personally and have daily fellowship with Him, we’ve GOT to get rid of what is not pleasing to Him in our lives. Now, many of us, rather than just saying, “Yes, I want to know God, so I’m going to do whatever it takes…”, we make arguments about why it’s not necessary to have that close relationship with God, OR we make excuses as to why it’s impossible for us to do it. We...
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Love Others

Despite his busy schedule during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln often visited the hospitals to cheer the wounded. On one occasion he saw a young fellow who was near death. "Is there anything I can do for you?" asked the compassionate President. "Please write a letter to my mother," came the reply. Unrecognized by the soldier, President Lincoln sat down and wrote as the youth told him what to say. The letter read, "my Dearest Mother, I was badly hurt while doing my duty, and I won't recover. Don't sorrow too much for me. May God bless you and Father. Kiss Mary and John for me." The young man was too weak to go on, so Lincoln signed the letter for him and then added this postscript: "Written for your son by Abraham Lincoln".  Asking to see the note, the soldier was astonished to discover who had shown him such kindness. "Are you really our President?" he asked. "Yes," was the quiet answer. "Now, is ther...
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A Thief or a Savior?

  In Matthew 27, we find the story of Jesus before Pilate. In verses 15-17, we read: “Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the people any one prisoner whom they wanted. At that time they were holding a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. So when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” So, here we have Pontius Pilate, who was the fifth Prefect (or governor) of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. And as it came time during the Passover feast for him to release a prisoner in his custody, he asks the crowd if they would rather have him release Jesus Christ, who had done NOTHING wrong, or release Barabbas who was a common criminal, and had obviously done much wrong. Seems like an EASY choice to make. Here is Jesus Christ who has come as the Messiah to save people from there sins. He has traveled for the past three years all around the Judean area h...
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GOD?

 If you drive through almost any small town or large city in America today, you're going to find numerous churches.  Churches of varying denominations, but whom all claim to worship God.  If you go to the movies or watch television, you'll see movies like Bruce Almighty and others which in some form or another portray God.  If you walk down the street and talk to 100 strangers most of them will claim they believe in God.  Our currency even states, "In God We Trust" on it. However, our nation is falling apart.  Open wickedness and sin are everywhere.  People claim to trust God on Sunday, but live the rest of their week doing what God PLAINLY has said NOT to do.  There's something SERIOUSLY wrong with this picture.   And I think the problem is, we've forgotten just WHO God REALLY is.  We've heard so many people talk about God all their lives.  We have people who use God's name as a curse word.  We have movies and tel...
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The Path To Destruction

I recently watched a video entitled “God In America”. The video was the first in a series produced by PBS in 2010. One of the people in the video was a professor of religion at Boston University. During the video, he said, “Even contemporary Christians now, even many evangelicals, they just don’t believe in sin anymore.” And I thought how true is that statement!! Many people who claim to be Christians today don’t want to talk about “sin” and they don’t. However, the Bible says in Psalm 5:4, “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You.” It is sin that destroys our lives and ruins our relationship with God. In Isaiah 59:1,2 – the Bible says, “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” In the book of Jeremiah we read how God sent the prophet ...
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