Prepare for 2025

Ezra 7:10 – For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.

The end of December is often a time of preparation for the coming year. Resolutions are made. Closets are organized. Calendars are synced. The beginning of a new year is a natural time for putting life back in order after the busyness of the Christmas season.

During this day New Years Eve, It becomes a time when many decide to make changes in the New Year, for many it means to start over perhaps, change their ways and even for some they decide to get their spiritual life back on track as well.

Just as we need to prepare our homes, our lives and schedule for what’s ahead, we need to prepare our heart too. In this day before 2025 begins, take time not only to prepare your calendar but also to prepare your heart for what the New Year holds.

Our Lesson We Learn from This? Spend time reflecting on what God has done for you in 2024 and asking for wisdom as you begin 2025. Determine to spend more time in God’s Word each day, to obey Him, and to share the Good News with others. Follow the example of Ezra and prepare your heart to seek the Lord first!

There is nothing that will enrich our lives more than a deeper and clearer perception of God’s presence in the routine of daily living this day the last day of 2024 and the days ahead in 2025.

Amen

Repentance

Prayer: Father, today I praise You that the substance of my faith is measurable in tangible ways. While I know that works will never save me, I thank You that my salvation will by necessity change the way I live. Help me, on this day, to demonstrate the reality of true repentance, both in my attitudes and actions.

Protect me from bitterness over the consequences of my sins and give me the strength to honor You as a new creation in Christ. Thank You for giving me grace that is always sufficient. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Key word reading: “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.” Matthew 3:8

When I was reading the word of God and thinking over many things today. One thought came to mind of a day in church. I was giving thought to a lesson that I taught in church. Most of the wording was Jesus did this or Jesus did that and yet we see so many people saying such things as Jesus saved me or how I love God and what he did for me, or how he’s helped me.

What was sad, many of these folks who said Jesus saved me has truly never shown any changes outside of Church or have shown no changes in their lifestyles of how they live nor giving up the things in their live that should not be there. The reason for no real change is this, no true repentance of what they do, live or of things they say.

True Repentance is never easy. Flimsy excuses, self-righteous blame, and blind justification often minimize our behavior as anything but sin, leaving us negotiating with God to justify our actions, rather than pleading for His forgiveness.

Apparently, the Pharisees and Sadducees caught the eye of John the Baptist as he preached in the wilderness, evoking a sharp rebuke for the hypocrisy of their self-righteousness.

His words cut us as well, for they serve as a reminder that the evidence of repentance is not mere confession, grief, or adherence to religious standards that are often void of heart transformation.

To the contrary, life change, both inside and out, is the ultimate mark of a genuine abandonment of sin and turning toward God. The broken person knows he does not deserve forgiveness and will forsake his pride and sin in order to receive it.

Good deeds born out of humility are the fruit of repentance. Religious activity, extensive sacrifice, and even diligent prayer may or may not meet this criterion.

What Do We Learn from This? Ultimately, the key is not what people think about you, but what God knows about you. Is repentance something you do, or is it a reflection of who you are? True repentance comes from a sorrowful heart and the real change is on the inside, and not just on the outside.

Amen

With Little or NO Warning!

If you think about events that has taken place in our history more so in the last 20 years, we all have witnessed events of human tragedy and devastation that have come with little or no warning

Here was one event that came, Sept 11, 2001… People went about their daily lives just like any other day, but then suddenly “without warning” The First Jet Crashed into one of the Twin Towers, shockwaves were sent across the globe as we watched in horror as thousands died and our nation grieved….

Then came another event that many had never even heard of “a Tsunami?” “what’s that …a type of Pizza?” But in 2004 ….With Little or No Warning an earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean With a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, it is the second largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismo … triggered a Tsunami that ended up killing over 230,000 people in 14 countries

Then not near as large in its scope came the Hurricanes of the Gulf, most notable…Hurricane Katrina. Though there were warnings blared preceding this event..there were thousands who decided to “take on the storm” and found themselves at loss

Here was another, The People of Haiti ..dealing with the daily human struggle …found themselves in one of the worst earthquakes in modern history…With Little or NO WARNING!! (The January 12th earthquake in Haiti is the most lethal natural disaster of the past 20 years. On February 12th, the Associated Press reported that official Haitian government estimates of the dead had been revised upwards, now reaching 230,000 dead.)

Then came Chile, Seismologists estimate that the Chilean earthquake was so powerful that it may have shortened the length of the day by 1.26 microseconds and moved the Earth’s figure axis by 8 cm or 2.7 milliarcseconds.

Again, all of this happened With Little or No Warning! Then there was Japan,…..an Earthquake + Tsunami + Nuclear Disaster, …thousands died, again with “with little or No Warning”

How about Alabama Tornado’s, hundreds of people died “with little or no warning” ….”Joplin Missouri” “One of the deadliest tornado’s in US HISTORY ….With Little or No Warning!!

How about August 2023 the wildfire in Maui. The wildfire on the Hawaiian Island killed 102 people and destroyed more than 2,200 structures, causing more than $5 billion in damages. Came with no warning….. These were just a few that I have listed all came with Little or No Warning.

So now you’re thinking, where am I going with all this, The Word of God says “it’s appointed unto man once to die and THEN Judgement”

In just a few examples that I have listed above… hundreds of thousands of people were going through their daily routines…when suddenly “their appointed TIME” came …again… most with little or NO warning and every single one of those people who died without Christ.

Many of you will be taken to an eternal courtroom and stand before Almighty God as Judge of the life that they lived that had rejected every opportunity given to accept a Free Gift (eternal life), but instead now face eternal punishment with no hope for escape.

Will you please stop and take time to read this and think for real? I mean IF that was YOU, IF tonight a tornado goes up and heads toward your house, if an earthquake rumbles, if a car crosses a median….IF!!!!! ….IF!!!!! ….IF!!!!!

Now you might be here reading this and have this mindset THAT YOU are immune…that you are invincible…But YOU ARE NOT!!! NONE OF US ARE!!! You might say, I’m a fear mongerer …trying to manipulate you by using fear by saying all this…

Truth of the matter, I am not, as I read this morning in his words Our Lord told us to REPENT OR Perish, Repentance begins with a change of mind that leads to a change in direction in one’s life, in other words…to “Stop and Think” and then react to what You hear by believing the message and it’s NOT just the thought that counts…

What Lesson Do We Learn from This or better yet. What is the Heart of this message? It’s simple to make sure that when your “appointed time” comes…It hasn’t been “without warning” and that you would “stop and think” When is my time coming?

Don’t ask me why that God, has put on my heart to warn you to “Flee the Wrath” to come, yes, his words do say, He’s not willing that any should perish, He’s offering You a way of escape… Before you were even born, while You have Yet been living as if there is No God and there is No Judgement Day…

He has already sent His Son Jesus Christ to Die on the cross in Your Place ….2,000 years ago Jesus Died because of You and the laws that You have personally broken, all the sins you are now in, He was taking your place, he has paid the price and why?

Because He created You in Love and for a purpose of which was and is ..for you to Know Him by entering into an eternal covenant relationship …graced to You by The Heart of Almighty God.

Please Hear, Please Stop and think and Please Believe there is an EMPTY TOMB that Shouts to the Whole World That Jesus Christ Is the Way, The Truth and the Life and He’s Your Only REAL Hope for today, and for all eternity

Call Upon Jesus while You still have TIME!! Before IT’s Really Too Late, because when your time comes and you stand before God, don’t Yell these words at him and say “Well No One Has Warned Me”, if you made it to this point of my posting, then you have been warned just now by reading this. Think about it before it’s really too late will you.

Amen

Our Main Focus – Staying Focus on Jesus Christ

John 21:22 – Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.” John 21:23 – Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?”

Take Note here in these 2 verses back-to-back Jesus told Peter this key part > What is that to you? In other words, it’s none of our business what others do; our main focus should be on Jesus Christ and no one else.

Read the rest…….

When you see Our Lord’s words, “Follow me!” it must have brought new joy and love to Peter’s heart. Literally, Jesus said, “Keep on following me.” Immediately, Peter began to follow Jesus, just as he had done before his great denial. However, for a moment Peter took his eyes off the Lord Jesus, a mistake he had made at least two other times.

After that first great catch of fish, Peter took his eyes off his Lord and looked at himself. “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). When he was walking on the stormy sea with Jesus, Peter looked away from the Lord and began to look at the wind and waves, and immediately he began to sink (Matt. 14:30). It is dangerous to look at the circumstances instead of looking to the Lord.

Why did Peter look away from his Lord and start to look back? He heard somebody walking behind him. It was the apostle John, who was also following Jesus Christ. Peter did a foolish thing and asked Jesus, “What shall this man do?” In other words, “Lord, you just told me what will happen to me; now, what will happen to John?”

The Lord rebuked Peter and reminded him that his job was to follow, not to meddle into the lives of other believers. Beware when you get your eyes off the Lord and start to look at other Christians! “Looking unto Jesus” should be the aim and practice of every believer (Heb. 12:1–2).

To be distracted by ourselves, our circumstances, or by other Christians is to disobey the Lord and possibly get detoured out of the will of God. Keep your eyes of faith on Him and on Him alone.

This does not mean that we ignore others, don’t get me wrong, because we do have the responsibility of caring for one another, we should pray for one another (Phil. 2:1–4).

Rather, it means that we must not permit our curiosity about others to distract us from following the Lord. God has His plan for us; He also has plans for our Christian friends and associates. How He works in their lives is His business. Our business is to follow Him as He leads us (see Rom. 14:1–13).

I was just reminded of this fact in one point of my walk with the Lord when I went to examine myself in prayer and going through this period of worrying about other people’s business, when in fact my main focus should have been placed on Jesus Christ and him alone. We are to be shameful to worry about other people’s business or what they are doing or to even listen to such silly gossip about them or others.

Another fact is we should not bicker nor fight of such things or to hold grudges against one another, woe to us, woe to me. This really is a sad state if we believers fall into this trap and that pit, shame on us.

The main focus and our eyes should be place squarely on Jesus Christ and forget about the other things that pull our eyes away from Jesus. But the Lord tenderly rebuked me with, “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” And what is that to you?

It was just the message I needed, and the rest of us should heed to this rebuke from our Lord Jesus Christ. Shame on us for such petty things and looking at others, yes, I am preaching to myself on this and other should do the same to themselves.

More problems are caused by confused saints than by lost sinners! Misinterpreting the Word of God only creates misunderstanding about God’s people and God’s plans for His people.

(Remember, witness is a key theme in the gospel of John. The word is used forty-seven times.) So, we should be doing the same instead of focusing on such petty things of what others do or what they should be doing, or what we say about each other. We should be putting our eyes on Jesus Christ himself and not what they are doing.

Our Lesson We Learn from This? Jesus Christ is transforming lives today. Wherever He finds a believer who is willing to yield to His will, listen to His Word, and follow His way, He begins to transform that believer and accomplish remarkable things in that life. He also begins to do wonderful things through that life.

Amen