An open letter from God…

People of earth… my children.

As God and as your Father my heart is breaking!

I have loved every one of you from the beginning, and will continue to love you until the very end. I have known each of you by name since the dawn of time, everyone which has drawn breath; even those you have murdered before their first breath was drawn… yet most of you have not known me. Since your first day of life I have called you. From your darkest hour to your greatest moment, in times of quiet solitude to the throng of voices that clamor for your attention, I call you. I have lovingly withheld my hand of righteous judgment against you, giving you every opportunity to hear my still small voice and come to me. But still you ignore me. You deny or ignore my existence, while my creation screams it from the very rocks. And still I love you; all of you!

You are surrounded by so many voices telling you; “this is the way, follow me.” And because they tell you what you want to hear, you listen. But, it is not my words they speak. I have already given you all that I intend to say! What I have spoken is truth, verified through time and history. Truth you can confirm with what has been given you. I have placed at your fingertips ways to confirm My words, which no generation before you have had access to… if you would but only look. You know in your heart, that there is more to life than what you see; it is confirmed by the emptiness in your own heart and the shattered dreams that lay around you because of the times you are living in. Yet you fill the void with everything you can find except the truth I offer.

There are two sides to the world in which you live, the one you see and the one you have yet to see. We are separated, you and I, by a chasm of sin. From the moment of your very first sin you could no longer enter the other world that I offer to you. Each and every one of you has sinned… in ways great and small you have violated my Holy and perfect law and it has separated you from Me, and because you can not save yourselves I sent my son ‘Jesus” to die in your place, to pay the price for your sin. He is the gatekeeper of the doorway to the world I have given you. He is the only one who holds the key… He is the only way in. He stands at an open door to all who will bow before Him and choose to serve Me above their own need or desires. His story, His purpose and the pathway to the world I offer can be found in the words contained in the Holy book I have given you. Read it… then use that which I have given you to verify the truth that it proclaims. In the age you live you are without excuse. Every one either serves Me or serves something else… that is the choice every one must make. Choosing not to choose is still a choice, you will either serve Me or you won’t, there is nothing in between! I am your true Father… and those who choose to serve Me are my adopted children, to them I offer eternal love, peace and life. To everyone else, by default you have chosen to serve the father of lies and to spend eternity in the prison I have created for him and those who follow him.

I have stood at the door of your hearts and knocked since the first generation of your ancestors has walked my planet. But, the time of waiting is drawing to a close, My patience has worn thin. You tolerate and even embrace that which I hate. You are a perverse and wicked people. Your hearts chase after Sodom and Gomorrah, you have lain down with whore of Babylon. The blood of those she has martyred cries out and soon it will soon be time to balance the scales.

Now is the time, today is the day. Answer me while it is still called today. There is not one of you I will not forgive, none who is so far away that I can not reach; I will receive each and every one of you who come to me, with arms held open wide.

But for those who choose 'self' over me, soon you will find that there is no where you can hide from my wrath, none who can escape.

Answer my call while you still have time!

2 Corinthians 6:2 For God says; “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.

Who Do You Think I Am?

This is from an email my father sent me... very interesting!

Who Do You Think I Am?

I was born in one country, raised in another. My father was born in another country. I was not his only child. He fathered several children with numerous women. I became very close to my mother, as my father showed no interest in me. My mother died at an early age from cancer.

Later in life, questions arose over my real name. My birth records were sketchy and no one was able to produce a legitimate, reliable birth certificate. I grew up practicing one faith but converted to Christianity, as it was widely accepted in my country, but I practiced non-traditional beliefs & didn't follow Christianity, except in the public eye under scrutiny. I worked and lived among lower-class people as a young adult, disguising myself as someone who really cared about them. That was before I decided it was time to get serious about my life and I embarked on a new career.

I wrote a book about my struggles growing up. It was clear to those who read my memoirs that I had difficulties accepting that my father abandoned me as a child. I became active in local politics in my 30s then with help behind the scenes. I literally burst onto the scene as a candidate for national office in my 40s. They said I had a golden tongue and could talk anyone into anything. That reinforced my conceit.

I had a virtually non-existent resume, little work history, and no experience in leading a single organization. Yet I was a powerful speaker and citizens were drawn to me as though I was a magnet and they were small roofing tacks. I drew incredibly large crowds during my public appearances. This bolstered my ego. At first, my political campaign focused on my country's foreign policy. I was very critical of my country in the last war and seized every opportunity to bash my country. But what launched my rise to national prominence were my views on the country's economy. I pretended to have a really good plan on how we could do better and every poor person would be fed & housed for free. I knew which group was responsible for getting us into this mess. It was the free market, banks & corporations.

I decided to start making citizens hate them and if they were envious of others who did well, the plan was clinched tight. I called mine "A People's Campaign" and that sounded good to all people. I was the surprise candidate because I emerged from outside the traditional path of politics & was able to gain widespread popular support. I knew that, if I merely offered the people 'hope', together we could change our country and the world.

So, I started to make my speeches sound like they were on behalf of the downtrodden, poor, ignorant to include "persecuted minorities" like the Jews. My true views were not widely known & I needed to keep them unknown, until after I became my nation's leader. I had to carefully guard reality, as anybody could have easily found out what I really believed, if they had simply read my writings and examined those people I associated with. I'm glad they didn't. Then I became the most powerful man in the world. And the world learned the truth.
Who am I?

ADOLF HITLER.

WHO DID YOU THINK I MEANT?

Nemesis

Nem●e●sis (noun): a bitter enemy, especially one who seems unbeatable.

There are two sides to the definition of ‘nemesis’.

As a Christian the first example that comes to mind and fits this definition is our archenemy Satan. The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 5:8 that, your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. That ‘someone’ is anyone who stands on the side of righteousness, anyone who stands with God. And Jesus tells us in Luke 11:23 "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.” So that would make anyone who has not chosen a side or anyone that has chosen the other side, an enemy of God and us.

But there is another example that fits this definition… one that probably escapes the grasp of most. Not because they can’t, but because they have been conditioned to see it from a singular point of view.

We too are the Nemesis!

Look at it again… “a bitter enemy”! That is what we are to Satan and those who stand with him… The remaining part says, “especially one who seems unbeatable”! Not only do we seem unbeatable to him, WE ARE! We are held protected in the very hand of God. In 2 Thessalonians 3:3 Paul tells us, “But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one”. So even if Satan wanted to destroy us (and he does) he is held in restraint. And God has given us more than just protection. He has given us the power to overcome.

Luke 10:19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

God never intended for us to cower in a corner and wait for Him to return. In fact he expects quite the opposite. He has given us his spiritual armor and weapons to destroy the strongholds of the enemy and to take this world for Jesus. But Satan has lulled so many of us into a state of complacency, we are perfectly happy just living with status quo. God forbid that we should step out of our comfort zone and actually begin the work of gathering with Jesus. And because we don’t gather with Him, we run the risk of becoming one who scatters… one who does not stand with, but against Him. Like the song says if you choose not to choose, still you have made a choice.

So today what do you choose? Will you choose to be the Nemesis, or cower before the Nemesis we face?

Joshua 24:15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

The Cost of Service!

I remember reading the Bible to my then 6 year old. A bedtime ritual we had. That night’s story happened to fall on Abraham and Isaac found in Genesis 22. After we read it and said our prayers I could tell that my son was troubled, but he said nothing. I kissed him and started for the door and he said: “Daddy?” I turned around and he asked; “Why did the dad want to kill his son?

What do you say?

How do you explain the concept of obedience to God that supersedes the love for your family, to a six year old?

I did the best I could… (All the while fervently praying for the right words) and it seemed to satisfy him because when I was done he said; Ok Daddy, kissed me and rolled over to go to sleep.

He got it… all of it. He understood the horror of what Abraham was going to do… and why he was going to do it, but how many of us get it?

Have you ever really thought about what Abraham had to do… what he did? I doubt camping with dad was ever going to be the same again. There wasn’t a whole lot of detail in those moments before the intended sacrifice, but it doesn’t take much imagination to figure it out. The Bible says Isaac was questioning him along the way as to where the sacrificial animal was. And it also says; “Abraham bound him.” So I don’t think Isaac was a willing sacrifice, he was a young teenager and fully aware of his circumstances… He was probably freaking out that his dad was intending to kill him. Put yourself in Abrahams shoes, imagine his breaking heart as he bound his son, whom I am sure he loved more than his own life (I know I love my children that way) as Isaac was screaming, struggling and crying with a look of fear and bewilderment in his eyes while his father methodically began to take his life. I would have been weeping uncontrollably every step of the way! And the price God demanded of him did not stop there. I doubt Abraham was truthful with Sarah about his intentions for this very special camping trip… What God asked him to do not only broke his heart because of what he had to do to his son, but upon returning to the inevitable confrontation with Sarah, he lost both his wife (Sarah) and his son (Isaac). At the end of Chapter 22 we see that Abraham stayed in Bersheeba, Genesis 22:19. And at the beginning of Chapter 23 we see that Sarah was living in and died in Kiriath Arba Genesis 23:2 , which is about 20 miles south of Bersheeba. And that Isaac was living in the Negev in Beer Lahai Roi, which is about another 30 miles south of where his mother lived in Kiriath Arba… but after dad went and got Isaac a wife he didn’t go back to dad, but instead went to live where his mother had been, in her tents (she had her own residence) instead of with dad in Bersheeba, Genesis 24:62-67. And when dad (Abraham) died it says that he and Ishmael buried him with Sarah and that he was living in Beer Lahai Roi, Genesis 25:7-12. If you follow the bouncing ball between all of these verses you will see that the price Abraham paid for his obedience to God was everything that he loved on this earth.

Abraham was blessed by God again after Sarah… In Chapter 25 it says he took another wife and that he went on to have another dozen or so kids, but…

… Was it worth it?

He is the father of the Islamic and both the Jewish and Christian faiths. He is the beginning of all that we know of God…

It makes me wonder; and sheds new light on Luke 14:26. How serious was Jesus when he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple..

Does God demand all of us… even if he never requires it? I would tell you unequivocally that the answer is yes.

So where does that leave you?

If God asked the same of you, how would you respond? Where do your loyalties lie?

I fear that in these last days… be it years, months, weeks or days, that each of us that calls our selves “Christian” will be faced with this looming question. We are once again going to face what the Christians in Nero’s gardens faced, persecution… are you ready? Do you really believe what you say you believe? Are you willing to put yours or your families life on the line to prove it?

I will close with the true story of a tight rope walker.

This gentleman had many times walked a tight rope over the Niagara Falls, and on this occasion after walking the span he asked the audience if they thought he could do it pushing a wheel barrel with a sack of potatoes in it. The crowd responded with cheers of encouragement, because they knew he could. When he reached the other side he asked the crowd if they thought he could do it again while pushing a man… they responded with even louder cheers of encouragement… until he started looking for volunteer’s…

So I ask again. How about you?

Will you climb into Gods wheel barrel, or are you just one of the crowd that is caught up in the moment?

5, 4, 3, 2…

Isn’t that what it feels like right now? That we’re in the last stages of a countdown some where between 2 and 1… zero is right around the corner, and the bottom is about to fall out. I hear stories of brokers collapsing in fear at the end of the day in the NYSE when the bell rings. People all across the world have watched family fortunes that have been around for centuries simply evaporate overnight. Some say we have seen this before, but I beg to differ. Never before have we seen such global fear and trepidation as banks all across the world teeter on the edge and then collapse like dominos. We are feverously trying to pull money out of one pocket and stuff it in another before the next domino falls… hoping and praying that there will be another dollar to pull out… that the well doesn’t run dry before we can fool the masses into believing everything will be alright, if we would all just wantonly spend again. That we should all just keep robbing from our children so we can keep the facade alive one more year… One more month… One more day!

Long ago we took rationalism and reason out to the wood shed and executed them… The party must go on! Lets all party like its 1999! Lascivious greed and a hunger for more and more power has consumed our world leaders… and we the sheep turn a blind eye because they promise to give us a slice of what they take!

Years ago I was running a Lexus dealership and the owner hired a man who was a known thief to run the Toyota store next to mine. I tried to warn him, tried to make him aware of the peril he was in… but he pushed me off. He looked me in the eye and told me; “He may be a thief, but I have made more money with him than I have ever made before… so he can keep what he is stealing.” Many months later he made him a partner in another franchise and gave him even freer reign. Years later, when the bubble finally burst the owner lost the franchise he had partnered in with this person and the cost to clean up the mess was in the millions…

I see it happening again! But this time it is on a far larger scale and the stakes are much higher. We face losing all that we have… all that we are… all that there is. The train that we are riding is teetering on the edge of derailment and the momentum it carries has made it unstoppable…

And still, we keep the party going…

There is no one who will be spared the pain from the impending crash we face. Hope will be lost and none will escape! But there will be a lull in the storm, the eye of the hurricane will briefly pass over us. As it is predicted; “A savior for the world will rise up!” The world will blindly follow where he leads because we think he has the answers we seek.

The party will begin again…

But this party will be the final hurrah! The last ball will drop from Times Square for the party to end all parties… will you be there?

Where will God find you when He calls the marker on this world?

… Who will you be following?

Matthew 24:37-39 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

The train tracks are shaking can you here Him roll… the whistles blowing, its time to pay the toll! Jesus is coming with ten thousands on high… the time has come for our resurrection ride!

Do you have your ticket in hand?

HOPE

1 Peter 3:15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

Hope!

It is a word that has been used a lot lately.

During this last election a certain individual rode the coat tails of hope all the way to the top! It still remains to be seen what he will do with the hype… I mean hope that the people who supported him believed he offered. Though, I believe the ‘o’ he hung over the ‘y’ is beginning to wear thin.

Where does your hope lie, or with whom?

Hope is the fuel we use to believe that there will be a better tomorrow, and without it there’s no reason for a tomorrow, only the depressing thought of another day just like the other ones. If you ask a hundred people what they hope for you will get a hundred different answers and I am certain that the vast majority of those limping through life on psychiatric drugs to offset depression really suffer from a lack of hope… depression is only a symptom.

Hope and faith are closely related. Here is the definition found on Wikipedia.

Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life.

Faith is the confident belief in the truth of or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.

What it boils down to is who or what have you placed your hope in. What happens to your dream for tomorrow is directly related to the hope that is within you. If your hope is firmly rooted in the here and now… in some one or something that is part of what will one day pass, then one day your hope for tomorrow will pass too, it will become another day just like the one before it.

But, there is one who offers true Hope with a capital ‘H’. Not hope in what happens tomorrow, but for what happens when tomorrow is no more. For some of us there will come a day when the hope, success, fears and pain we experience in this world will be a distant memory on the horizon. When the sun has risen on an eternal sky a million years from now the memory of this earth will be as distant as kindergarten is to an aged man. But, what about the rest of us… What about you? Is your hope born by the back of one who offers hype? Or is it on the eternal promise that Jesus offers?

Where, or in who hope, or faith lies, is the only thing that will matter when all hope for this world is lost… when there is no tomorrow. For all of us, that day may be coming a lot sooner than later.

Ask God today for the hope he offers you in Jesus, while there is still time! He is listening and waiting even as you read this... what are you waiting for?

Jesus says:

Revelation 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Psalm 23:6 And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Put another log on the fire.

Can you remember the excitement of your first kiss? Do you remember how excited you were in anticipation of your wedding night? How about the first time you drove a car alone, or driving your first brand new car off the showroom floor?

I remember buying a Toyota Supra with the white package (White car, white trim, white alloy wheels and blue leather with a Targa top). I felt so cool in that car! I distinctly remember driving it home the night I bought it thinking; “I will never get tired driving this car”.

I will be married 13 years this Wednesday, and I remember thinking after our wedding that nothing could come between my wife and me…

But in my marriage, just like the Supra, I had to wash it and change the oil… and my first set of tires OMGosh were they expensive! It became work to own it, just like it has sometimes been work to stay married. I love my wife with all my heart… but there are times when I have not been in love with her. And yes, I eventually came to see my beautiful Supra as just another car and my wife as the woman I married.

How about our relationship with Jesus? I remember when I first realized just what being a Christian was. The Love God had for me and the Love I had for Him… I sometimes felt, I mean really physically felt the Love of God coursing through my body. When I would see Him move or work in front of me it blew me away…

But just like my marriage and just like the Supra… without work, with out effort without consciously deciding everyday to reaffirm and live my life for Him… it can so easily become something I do instead of something I am…

I can’t wait for the day when I can see Him face to face, to spend time alone with Him in some meadow in Heaven, and get all the answers to “Why”. Sometimes my belief in that happening is all that keeps me putting one foot in front of the other. I pray that I can finish like Paul did and say that I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I will hear Him say… “Well done, come in and rest a while”.

But we still have to get through today, and tomorrow and every tomorrow beyond that, that He gives us.

Does He still burn or did He ever burn that bright in your life?

Ask God to light or relight your fire!

He wants to be all that you desire… and He wants to posses all that you are, and until we can get to the point where HE alone is the source for the flame and not our wives, our cars, our houses our careers or what ever it is that floats your boat, then serving Him will get old and worn out just like the things that we own.

And we will finish the race in last place… or maybe we won’t even finish at all!