But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Luke 6:35 NKJV

Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t just fix it all? Scripture tells believers to be in the world but not of the world and as such, often it seems the world in which we live is a continuous collage of moving pictures and we are standing before a giant screen watching them pass by.  Unfortunately they are not the pictures you would hang in your home or present to loved ones as gifts. As humanity plays out their existence, they do so in the mire of hate, anger, bigotry, and moral depravity. In short, the slide show can be depressing, leading us to wonder why the Lord doesn’t just handle it.  Rest assured, Jesus will come back for us. He promised us that in scripture, ” And behold I am coming quickly, and my reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work.” Revelation 22:12. What an amazing reassurance! Jesus is coming back for his church and when He comes we will be with Him forever! The book of Revelation itself is at once an impassioned warning to the unbeliever, a final plea from God to repent and choose Him, while for the believer, the vision of Revelation is meant to inform and bring hope by showing us that the Lord’s return is iminent.

The promise of Christ’s return brings us peace but it should also speaks to us with urgency. The Lord is saying, ” I am coming quickly Revelation 22:7.  That means that we, the followers of Christ, have work to do, God’s  work. We have been chosen by God to spread the good news of salvation to this broken, lost, and morally bankrupt world. Can we really have a part in unleashing the power of the gospel on the world? The answer is yes. How do we do it? Do we start a church, go on mission, or maybe volunteer at a homeless shelter? Again, yes if the Lord leads us to serve in that way. We must be careful not to put the cart before the horse. We must first start by examining out Jerusalem. We must spend time introspectively. What are the difficulties we face as a believer? What difficulties  in our own lives  do we need to ask God to deal with?

It has been said that Christians spend their lives in a fish bowl, meaning that everyone is watching us. Those in our circle of influence who may not be believers or may be struggling with their faith look to us and determine what is right based on how we react to situations and outside stimuli. The way we conduct ourselves influences others. As a new believer, will they continue to attend church? As an unbeliever, will their heart become hard to the things of God or will they make the ultimate decision to follow Christ?

One of the greatest ways to show the love of Christ, the love that makes the eternal difference for the world, is to forgive those that do us wrong. After all, without the forgiveness of God through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, we would be nothing but eternal train wrecks with no hope at all. We are required to love others as God loves us. Yes, that means we are required to forgive even the ones that hate us. They may not deserve it but neither did we and Jesus died for us. The gospel is that He died for them, too! They just don’t know it yet; not until we show it to them. Forgiving the ones we love is like preaching to the choir: necessary and edifying but not overly difficult. When we forgive our enemies, it takes the agape love of Christ. By submitting to Christ, the love of Christ is shown. When we show those who wrong us the love of Jesus, He changes their hearts.

Grace & Peace,

LD

*If you would like to know more about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, email me at savedIIserve@gmail.com and let me know! I will be happy to lead you through what the bible says about salvation and accepting Jesus Christ as your savior.*

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV)

When I was a boy, our family would go to my father’s Air Force reunion every couple of years. This was the highlight of my summer! We would go to all the old hangouts, spend time with my dad’s old buddies, and, inevitably, they would start telling stories. The stories were the best part for a young boy. I loved hearing them. Stories all start the same way, ” Hey, do you remember…” Followed by, “Yeah, this, this, and this happened, right?” Then, almost immediately comes the clarification, “No,no, no, that’s not how it happened.” At this point, the last person launches into a lengthy, elaborate, and somewhat embellished diatribe detailing the actual, undisputed facts of the event.  The truth is, that is what best friends are for. They have known you longer, in most cases, than anyone and will unabashedly hold you accountable to the truth, or at the very least, their version of it.

Did you know that we as believers have the best friend anyone could ever wish for? God has known us since the beginning. Not our beginning, the beginning.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”Jeremiah 1:5 

The Lord knew us before we were created.  Not only did He know us but he sanctified us; setting us apart as special. Incidentally, nowhere in that scripture does it say that sanctification is for Christians only. We were all set apart before birth. ALL people are special in the eyes of God. In short, God loves us all. We are the apple of His eye. However, just because someone loves us doesn’t mean that we love them back. We are the only creatures on God’s planet with the gift of freewill. We must accept His love.

God is waiting for us to say yes to Him. His word is a love letter to humanity. So much so that 630 BC, God told His people if they would seek Him with their whole heart, He would be found. Psalm 7:9  tells us that God tests the hearts and minds. God knows the heart of man and Jesus tells us “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Luke 11:9.

Jesus makes the offer of salvation to a broken world that God made to the Israelites. This promise of eternal life was bought and paid for by the death of Jesus Christ on a cross and His resurrection  from the dead. The question is are you all in? Perhaps you need to recommit to Christ. If so, do it; return to your first love.  Or maybe you stumbled on this article and it hits you funny. That is not a coincidence. What you are feeling is the tug of God on your heart. He set you apart, He loves you and he wants you to say yes.

Grace and Peace,

LD

I feel as though a weight has been lifted, like I have had an immense wet blanket removed from my shoulders, and for the first time in sometime, I can stand up and walk.  savedtoserve.net represents a new beginning, a rebirth of focus anchored in truth with purpose.  The purpose of this blog will be three-fold: we will spend some time on world events, always looking at them from a biblical world view; we will share scripture in each publication, applying it to everyday life because the word of God never comes back void; and finally, we will share the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is my prayer that the Lord uses this blog to bring people to Himself. If the ramblings of one man can be used to bring just one soul into a loving relationship with God, then the world will be that much better for it. Jesus tells us in Mathew 18:12:

If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?(NLT)

Believers are all called to preach the gospel. This web page represents my small contribution to the great commission. As someone who has watched the world solve problems with disastrous results, I can say with confidence born of relationship not religion, there is but one solution to what ails the world – Jesus Christ.  This is going to be an amazing ride. I hope you enjoy it.

Mark 16:15: And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. (NKJV)

Technology has changed everything. The high-tech world of the 21st century has touched and altered every facet of our lives. Everything from what we eat to how we prepare it; the way we secure our homes and possessions; even the way we get our news and information has all changed drastically in the last 20 years. In today’s world, if we think it, we can have it in the blink of an eye. It is all centered around communication and information. With a few simple clicks (even those are being replaced with swipes) what we know, everyone in our circle knows….and everyone in their circle and so on.  Communication is easy and yet it seems that Christians still have trouble getting the message out.

According to Google, there are 2.18 billion Christians in the world. Taking into account the reported world population in 2012 was 7.046 billion – 30.9% of the world professes faith in Jesus Christ with the remaining 69% divided up among the other major religions. The numbers are on our side, honoring Jesus’ command in Mark 16 should be easy. And yet, the prevailing opinion of the world is that there is somehow a shortage of believers. I was told just the other day that the reason why there were so few believers in Christ was because we (Christians) scare them away. There are two parts to that statement: the belief that there are only a few believers in Christ and the belief that Christians scare non-believers. We will deal with fear next week.

I Corinthians 1:18 says: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. In our politically correct world, we are constantly reminded that we must not discuss politics and religion. After all, if we do, we run the risk of offending people. Further, we could be made to look like fools. We can’t have that, but we will. Paul tells us that the salvation of Christ is foolishness to those that do not believe so of course we will run into  difficulty. Following the Lord isn’t easy.  Jesus said so himself. “…..You will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.” Mathew 24:9 (NKJV). Yikes!!!!! I didn’t see that in the brochure when I was saved! The perception held by the world that there are but a few believers is driven by our inability or unwillingness to speak up. We are told faith is a private thing between us and the Lord. Not according to Jesus. According to Jesus we are to go into all the world preaching the gospel. In short, faith is a verb. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ  for the salvation of all that believe demands action.

Grace and Peace,

LD

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