I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
I have often wondered why some Christians can do certain things. Then there are others that can't or won't do those certain things.
Me, I use to cuss like a sailor and a truck driver (as the saying goes) all rolled into one. But once I fully gave my heart to the Lord, he started to work on me. I had a little god in this foul language. So little by little, he worked this out of me. Now if I slip, the first thing I do is apologize to the person who heard it and then confess it to the Lord.
Then there is drinking. I use to go to the bars and drink. Sometimes I drank too much. Then there were the times I drank too much and drove. Then I started to drink less but still wanted to be "cool" and hang with co-workers and friends. Again, I had made social drinking a little god. The Lord would impress on me that being "cool" was not cool at all. My little god tended to get me in trouble or made me drive when I shouldn't. I stopped going to the bars and drinking the my favorite hard liquor. But I noticed that I could not go to sleep in the early 2000's. So I made an excuse and started to have a glass of warm Sake. I just switched one little god for another. It ended up being my choice to give up all drinking. I wanted to be sober minded and I know what alcohol of any kind would do to me.
Am I finished with little gods in my life? I don't think so because that clay is hard. It needs to be softened by the Master Potter. He is the only One that can soften a hard heart. He is the only one that can change my mind.
Do you have any little gods? What excuses do you use? Do you feel the Lord would like to have you remove those little gods? I know He will allow you to do so when you are ready.
My prayer for you and I is that we will be willing to give up those little gods and grow closer to the Lord our God and Savior.
His Pain, Our Gain
Isaiah 53 is a stunning chapter in the Bible—in what is now commonly referred to as the “Old Testament.”
Approximately 700 years before Jesus walked the earth, Isaiah prophesied about a suffering servant who would also, somehow and in some way, be exalted. A coming Savior, a future Redeemer, the long-awaited Messiah—whose death would ultimately bring life.
A portion of Isaiah 53 says this:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5 NIV
So, who was this man who would be pierced, crushed, and wounded because of someone else’s sins? Whose undeserved punishment would be the catalyst for healing? Whose life would be given as an offering—so that others might live?
Jesus Christ not only fits the description of the suffering servant who paid the ultimate price to buy His people back, redeem them, and set them free—He ...
“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge...
