What Bold Faith Looks Like!

WAY TO GO, Christ Pratt!!!  

The best thing I've heard 

coming out of Hollywood in a long time.

I applaud your boldness and your faithfulness!

Thank you and God bless you!  

Click on them. They're worth listening to at least once.

Sweetly Broken by Jeremy Riddle -
A life-changing, heart-changing song for me.

Oh, What Love by The City Harmonic -
This song says it all! 

Confession (Agnus Dei) by the City Harmonic  -

I woke up once singing the line "Lamb of God who takes away ..." over and over again in my mind. I have loved it ever since.

I AM by Crowder -
He's always there holding onto us, calling us to hold onto Him.




And three for those who are hurting.  But don't listen to them unless you are hurting because you won't be in the right frame of mind to really hear it....

Love, Heal Me by the City Harmonic 
The song that inspired the name of one of my blogs -
my heart's cry for the past couple years.

Fell Apart by the City Harmonic 
One of the best opening lines ever! 
These City Harmonic songs became my prayers
at a time I was too broken to pray for myself.

Healing Begins by Tenth Avenue North
So much truth in this wonderful song.
(I don't know why the stupid computer made this one a different color.)

You can find more songs on the right side-bar and in previous posts.  Honestly, can you find this kind of hope in any of the mainstream songs out there today!?! 

If you are interested, take this challenge:  listen to these songs at least 3 times over the next month or two, and see what happens. 

But before you do, say a prayer out loud that God would open your eyes to the truth about His existence and about who Jesus is and what He came to do.  (Even something simple like, "God, show me if You are really real and if Jesus really is who He said He is - if He really is Lord and Savior, and the only way to get to You, to heaven.") 

And really mean it! 

And if you want more, if you've never read the Bible, commit to reading through it once (maybe starting with the New Testament) while again praying that God would open your eyes to the truth in it. 

What do you have to lose!?! 

Nothing! 

But you might just gain everything!

Don't Say You Were Never Warned!

Someday!  Someday soon!

(click on it)

It's the Gospel Truth!

(Don't say you were never warned.)

Soon, Lord. Please!

We're waiting for You, Lord.  Please let it be soon!

[Click on it ... and pray for it with me.  This isn't just a myth, people.  It's truth.  And it's coming.  Repent and grab onto God's forgiveness and grace and healing ... while there is still time.  

And don't get me wrong; I am not saying that we can set dates, or that "soon" means this week or month or year, or that we should sell all our belongings and sit on some hilltop somewhere waiting for Jesus (that would be foolish, unbiblical, and a waste of your precious life and time).  

But I am saying that this life isn't all there is.  This life will end someday.  And we need to decide where we want to spend eternity.  Your eternal home isn't assigned to you randomly.  You get to pick it: heaven or hell.  Life with Jesus or without.  And if you refuse to decide, if you refuse Jesus, then you essentially refuse eternal life with Jesus.  Hell is our default destination, not heaven.  Take this seriously.  Before it's too late for you to decide.]

And One More "Rapture" Song ...

... because I like this one

and I'm praying that it's soon.

(If you really understood who Jesus is

and the hope and healing He offers, 

you'd be praying for it too!)

Lord, please, break open the sky!

Do You Believe?

            I saw the movie Do You Believe? yesterday.  (This is a repost from years ago.)  Excellent movie.  Very well done!  (Bring tissues!  Be ready to be inspired and touched deeply!) 

            But one part stood out to me (although it all stood out . . . excellent movie!).  A lost, hurting, confused man was in a hotel room when he found a Bible.  And I thought about how sad it is that, nowadays in America, people are trying to get Bibles out of hotel rooms and to erase all references to God in public areas. 

            What about the hurting person who needs help?  The lost person who needs to be found?  The hopeless person who needs the Truth, Love, and Healing that only God can give?  How will they find the answers they are looking for (even if they don’t know they are looking for them) if we eradicate God from our society? 

            More than ever, the responsibility to spread the Gospel lies with us believers.  A grassroots movement.  (Which is what it’s always been!)  Society is trying to erase God; we need to be the ones that share Him.  And so I put together this compilation of verses that neatly sum up the message of the Bible, the greatest message we will ever share!  Of course, you can boil it down even more.  But I like the fullness of these verses. 

            [And in my sadness and frustration with our society's efforts to erase God, to turn their backs on Him, I also decided to start wearing a simple cross necklace.  I don't like jewelry, but I want to wear this necklace to put a little more God back into the world.  To take a stand for Him.  I want to wear one because we can.  We still have the right to, in our country.  And I want to exercise that right before we lose it, before God is erased completely from America.  Take a stand for Jesus in some way.  Wear the cross.  Share the truth.  Love your neighbor.  Copy these verses and pass them out.  Scripture can touch hearts deeper than anything else.  And you never know who desperately needs to hear it!  Without it, we would all be completely, hopelessly lost!]   

 

Do You Believe? 

“Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17, NIV Bible, in all these verses, the emphasis is added)

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) 

“He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord . . .” (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9) 

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” (Ephesians 1:7)

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

“For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already . . .” (John 3:16-18)

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6)  

“if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. . . . ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”  (Romans 10:9-10, 13)  

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”  (1 John 1:9-10)

“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.”  (1 Corinthians 1:18)  

“since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19-20)

“The heavens declare the glory of God . . .”  (Psalm 19:1)

“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)

“He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:15)


Do you believe?
(click on it)


(FYI, you don't have to believe in Jesus if you don't want to.  You can reject Him if you prefer.  But if He is who He said He is then you will have to pay the price for your unbelief - because He doesn't cease being God or being real just because you don't believe in Him.  Seriously ... what if?)

(reposted from https://myimpressionisticlife.blogspot.com)  

Choose!

Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness.... 

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you ... then choose for yourselves whom you will serve, whether the gods of your own imagination who let you live whatever way you want or the socially-acceptable gods who tell everyone what they want to hear.


But as for me and my household ...

WE WILL SERVE THE LORD!

(Joshua 24:14-15, paraphrased for today) 




Click here when you have time to listen.  To really listen.  You owe it to yourself, to your eternal soul, to listen to this song at least once and to really think about what it says.  (And click here for one more, one that deeply touched my heart.)  What do you have to lose? 

Starting Your Own Relationship with Jesus

             John 3: 16: “For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

            God so loved the world.  He didn’t just love the world; He so loved the world.  He so loved the world that He (Jesus) would die in our place before He would miss out on an eternal relationship with us.  He knew that we would disappoint Him and hurt Him and fail Him, but He still so wanted a relationship with us that He made a way.  He knew that there would be many, many people that would reject His gift of love and salvation, but an eternity spent with those who would choose Him was worth the price of dying on the cross.  That is some amazing love!     

            Let me ask you something:  If you were to die today or if Jesus came back today, would you be ready?  Seriously!   This life, as we know it, isn't going to go on forever.  And we are not invincible.  People die every day, in every kind of way.  Are you ready to face eternity, what comes the moment after you take your last breath?  Have you figured out who Jesus is and why He matters so much? 

            Because this will be what matters most the moment after you die.  And, quite honestly, it's what matters most in this lifetime, too.

Help for Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Thoughts

(June 12, 2018)  It's so sad to hear about all the celebrities who have recently committed suicide (or about anyone who has committed suicide, for that matter).  My heart breaks for them, for the pain they went through, and for the ones who love them, for the pain they are now going through.  It is truly a tragedy.  (And it could have been me.)

To anyone who is hurting really badly, who is struggling with overwhelming anxiety or depression, who is considering taking their own lives ... I dedicate this post.  Please, take some time to look through some of the links here.  This is a round-up of some on-line resources or posts about dealing with anxiety or depression, particularly as a Christian.  

Is God Drawing Lines in the Sand? (updated)

It’s amazing and disturbing how brazen our society is in attacking everything about God and everything He created:  marriage, monogamy, sex, family, sexuality, the scientific reality of gender, morality, modesty, the value of a person, the right to life, the existence of "right and wrong," the Bible, Jesus, and Absolute Truth.  Not to mention God Himself, His very existence. 

We are destroying everything associated with Him (except nature – we worship that), and then we call ourselves progressive.

But you know what I think about it all?

I think that God is letting it happen because He’s drawing lines in the sand.  Through all these divisive issues, God is saying “Pick a side!  I am forcing you to decide which side you want to be on ... because I am coming back soon to take My people out of here.  So I need you all to decide:  Me or the world?  Which do you choose?"

At least I hope that's why He's allowing all this breakdown to happen, all this conflict and divisiveness.  Because if He's not - if He's not coming back soon - then God help those of us who choose to be faithful to Him.  We're gonna need it!