Jesus is Lord!

Matthew 12:33-37
33 “A tree is identified by its fruit. Make a tree good, and its fruit will be good. Make a tree bad, and its fruit will be bad. 34 You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. 35 A good person produces good words from a good heart, and an evil person produces evil words from an evil heart. 36 And I tell you this, that you must give an account on judgment day of every idle word you speak. 37 The words you say now reflect your fate then; either you will be justified by them or you will be condemned.”
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1996.

The old saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” is not true. Words will hurt you. The words that you say will effect the person they are said to for good or bad. And the words that are said to you will effect you. We need to be careful of what we say and how we say it. Christ tells us that what is really in a person’s heart will come out in what they say. A good heart will produce good words and an evil heart will produce evil. If you have the Spirit of God living in you by accepting Christ as Lord and Savior, then you have a good heart. That means giving control of your life to God, and as you do this, His words will come through you. You cannot hide what is really in your heart, it will come out in what you say. If you are growing more in the Lord, it will reflect in what you say.  As you spend time with Him and read His Word, you will reflect more of Him in what you say. This is our mission as followers of Christ, to become more like Him. It will show in what you say. Do not get discouraged if you do not show Him all the time. Just recognize your error, ask for forgiveness and continue on according to His Word. Your words have more power than you know, so use them to declare who God is making you into and not who you are at the moment of failure. Continue to speak the truth and it will be reflected in your behavior.

Have a God Day!

John 3:5-18
5 Jesus replied, “The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. 7 So don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again. 8 Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” 9 “What do you mean?” Nicodemus asked. 10 Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? 11 I assure you, I am telling you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe us. 12 But if you don’t even believe me when I tell you about things that happen here on earth, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is going on in heaven? 13 For only I, the Son of Man, have come to earth and will return to heaven again. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so I, the Son of Man, must be lifted up on a pole, 15 so that everyone who believes in me will have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. 18 “There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. 19 Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants.”
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1996.

“For God so loved the world…” Probably the most known scripture verse, and yet people who do not know God will ask, “If God loves me so much then why did so and so die, or why is there sickness, or why do bad things happen to good people?” Have you ever been asked this question and not known how to answer? Well, you are not alone. But to explain to the unsaved why these things happen is a very important concept in understanding the grace of God. What Adam and Eve did not understand when God told them, “If you eat of the fruit of this tree, you will surely die,” was that all every person born after them would also die. Every living thing around us is dying. From the moment of conception, we all start to die. And because of sin in this world, nothing is perfect. So things go wrong in our bodies, people get sick or are born defective. The greatest lie Satan tells people, is that, “If God loves you so much then why did you your child die, or mother, or whoever?” And we believe him. But God never promised He would remove us from the curse, only that He would bring us through it and we would be with Him after we leave this world. So the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Everyone is subject to death. Living with faith in a world of death cannot be done without the power of the Holy Spirit. Once we believe in Christ and are saved from our sin, there is no judgment for sin for us ever. Believe Him and trust Him to bring you through what ever it is you will face in this world!

Have a God Day!