The Author of the Universe

I enjoy reading the book of Isaiah. Mine you, I am not a Biblical scholar and depend on the notes of those who are when reading through the book. It is a book of extremes in that it describes the greatness of God but also describes the judgments of God.

Chapter 40 of Isaiah is one of those chapters which describe the greatness of our God. If you look at verses 12-18, you find a description of the enormity of our God in relation to Creation. Then through a series of questions in verses 13, 14, and 18, you have a description of the magnificent sovereignty of our God.

However, I want to focus on Isaiah 40:26 which reads,

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.

Our great God, the author of the Universe, knows each star by name! When I read this I was immediately drawn to the internet to do a search on, “How many starts are there?” Of course, the first thing I found was what you might expect—no one knows for sure. However, universetoday.com gave the following estimate:

Almost all stars in the universe are collected into galaxies. For instance, our own Milky Way galaxy seems to contain about 200 billion stars. On average, galaxies contain between 100 billion and 1 trillion numbers of stars. Now, how many galaxies are there? Astronomers estimate that there are approximately 100 billion to 1 trillion galaxies in the Universe. So if you multiply those two numbers together, between 10 sextillion and 1 septillion stars in the Universe. (http://www.universetoday.com/24328/how-many-stars/)

I hope you are as filled with wonder about this as I am. I am completely in awe of the fact that our great God, the Author of the Universe, the One who knows each star by name, loves me—knows me—even me—by name!

Do you know the One who knows you by name? Get to know Him today. He’s waiting for you, right now.

God Bless!

He's Got the Whole World in His Hands

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:15-17, NIV

Not only does the Lord have the whole world in His hands, but as the late Adrian Rogers has written, “He has the whole universe in His hands. He’s the one who spoke it into existence. He regulates it, He rules it, and He runs it.”

Make time today and everyday to offer praise to our Almighty God for His unspeakable love, mercy and grace, thanking Him for the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ who suffered and died on the cross, then rose again, conquering death that we might have life eternal. Amen!

I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.

For great is your love, higher than the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
and let your glory be over all the earth. Psalm 108:3-5

God Bless!

My Help Comes From the Lord

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
who rely on horses,
who trust in the multitude of their chariots
and in the great strength of their horsemen,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
or seek help from the LORD. Isaiah 31:1, NIV

Judah had formed an alliance with Egypt to protect them from their enemies instead on relying on the Lord. They placed their trust and confidence in the strength of a worldly empire instead of placing their trust in the strength of the Lord.

Consider for a moment: reliance upon God—reliance upon worldly things; the two are mutually exclusive—they are contradictory in every way. To declare allegiance both to God and to the world is hypocritical.

This was true in the day of Isaiah and it is still true today. With whom does your allegiance rest?

The Lord fights for His people; there is no doubt about that. Verse 4 of Isaiah 31 portrays the LORD Almighty as a great lion coming to do battle on behalf of His people. Verse 5 says that like a bird hovering over and protecting it’s young the Lord will shield and defend His own.

I don’t know about you, but like the Psalmist:

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2

God Bless!

Where Will You Be?

Last night I caught a glimpse of a teaser on the msn.com website. It was a list of searches on “end-of-the-world-theories”. There was also another list of searches on “end-of-the-world-myths”. I didn’t run either of the searches. I couldn’t be less interested in either search. Why? Because God’s word tells me all I need to know about the subject and most important of all; I know (that I know that I know) that my future is secure in Christ Jesus.

Do I know how the world will end or when it will end? No. Only God knows the answer to either of these questions. Why? Because He is the Creator and He is in control; always has been; always will be.

I did find the MSN teasers interesting however, because recently I have been reading through the book of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah tells of the invasion of Jerusalem and what the city would suffer at the hands of her enemies but it also records some very descriptive verses concerning the end of time.

Terror and pit and snare await you,
O people of the earth.

Whoever flees at the sound of terror
will fall into a pit;
whoever climbs out of the pit
will be caught in a snare.

The floodgates of the heavens are opened,
the foundations of the earth shake.
The earth is broken up,
the earth is split asunder,
the earth is thoroughly shaken.

The earth reels like a drunkard,
it sways like a hut in the wind;
so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion
that it falls—never to rise again.

In that day the LORD will punish
the powers in the heavens above
and the kings on the earth below.
Isaiah 24:17-21

Pretty frightening description isn’t it? Not to worry, however; for Christians, the end is victorious and verse 23 of the same chapter records,

The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed;
for the LORD Almighty will reign
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and before its elders, gloriously.

1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 assures Christians of where they will be at the coming of the Lord:

According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Where you will be when the end comes? Do you have the assurance of being with the Lord forever? If not, settle it today. Accept Christ as Lord and Savoir of your life today. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Stop what you are doing right now and pray—repent of your sins; confess Him as Lord of your life. He is waiting for you to open your heart to Him today. I pray that you do.

God Bless!

The Spirit’s Work in You

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful”. John 15:1-2 NIV

The Holy Spirit works within us to live the life of Christ Jesus through us. Are you surrendering yourself fully to the working of the Holy Spirit? Is this evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23

Our Heavenly Father is the creator and keeper of the vineyard. Jesus said He was the true vine and His Father, the gardener. We, as Christians, are the branches.

What is the work of branches? The work of the branches is to bare fruit. How? The branches bare fruit through the work of the vine through the branches. The vine is planted/rooted in the garden by the gardener/vine-keeper/husbandman…our great and awesome God.

Dr. Charles Stanley explains it this way: A grape branch doesn't bear fruit because of its determined efforts to get sunshine; rather, it simply abides in the vine, and fruit appears. The vine does all the work.

As branches, our job is to fully surrender ourselves to the working of the vine. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Amen! God Bless!

Be Ye Doers of the Word; Not Hearers Only

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. James 1:22, 25 NIV

James says that faith calls us to action; as Christians we are to be participates, not sideliners or benchwarmers.

Jesus says in John 13, verses 34 and 35:

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Please note—this is a command; not a suggestion. The result of love is action; love is not and cannot be passive.

The following is a thought I’ve borrowed from my pastor and I’m using it with some poetic license:

Sow a good thought; reap a good act. Sow a good act; reap a good habit. Sow a good habit, reap good character. Faith in action, my friends—that is what we should all be about and as James says, “…but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.”

Be a blessing to someone today!

God Bless!

A thought from Max Lucado:

The sign of the saved is their love for the least . . .

No fanfare. No hoopla. No media coverage. Just good people doing good things. For when we do good things to others we do good things to God.

You Ask Me How I Know He Lives

Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest." Luke 9:48

He Lives Within My Heart. I love to feel the quickening of the Holy Spirit in my heart! When I stop to think about this, I find it unbelievably difficult to write about because I am so flooded with thoughts and emotions about the significance of knowing, without a doubt, that I am a child of God! That the indescribable, all-powerful Creator, Author of salvation would look down upon an unworthy, undesirable, creature like me…to consider me…to save me…through His unmerited mercy and amazing grace; accepted in the Beloved!

You too, can know and experience those same feelings. Have you, are you, searching for a love that satisfies; do you seek peace in a world of chaos? Look to Jesus. Accept Him today. Confess today your need of a Savior. Gather together all your wrongs and misdeeds and place them at the foot of the cross and leave them there; He is waiting for you to open the door of your heart to Him. Just go to God in heart-felt, sincere prayer. He will not disappoint. Don’t delay; do it now.

Dear God, Your word says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”, (Romans 10:13); I need and desire Your saving grace in my life; I don’t deserve it but I need it and I want it. I need Your forgiveness—I ask for the forgiveness only You can give. Please come and live within my heart today as Lord and Savior of my life. Thank you. Amen.