Following Jesus Christ Daily

  “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...

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...

  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...

 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...