You wake up in the early morning hours, let’s say about 0430 hrs, mostly because you have a meeting at 0730 hrs and you need to be ready, you need to be focused and prepared. And you do this without so much as a whimper because it is so important to your career, and your family is depending on you. Of course let’s not forget to mention how many evenings you have stayed late in preparation, how many weekends you have given up to gather evidence to support your presentation. And it’s all so very important, so needed, that to fail would spell disaster!

Now you have a $278,000.00 home and a Mercedes 500SL and your wife drives a Lincoln MKS, the two youngest kids are in school for the privileged and your oldest son is about to transition to military prep college. Your wife has been worrying about the “last Christmas for all to be together” and it is hitting home with you now. The nest is getting smaller, one child at a time. (Yes I know, this is extravagant…right?)

Okay, the kids go to a public school and the eldest is about to graduate high school. The wife has her own job and over time that means more money and so she works long and hard. You are the foreman at the plant. Thanksgiving is on its way quickly followed by Christmas and this may be the last Christmas the entire family will be together. It’s tough though, keeping your wife’s Ford Fusion working long and running many miles. Your Ford pickup always needs a helping hand, so there go your weekends.

You spend long hours and nights at the plant, as all of this pressure builds for the near future. Your wife is working and then has to shuttle the kids to all their different functions, especially the eldest son who will hopefully get a scholarship. Life is tough and there never seems to be any time to get everything done; so in the evenings the house needs a few things fixed. And in the end, it seems the bills are always breaking the bank.

Now the current news: Always spewing another holocaust; the Ebola, the Avian Flu, the Swine Flu and it seems there is never a moment to stop in finding a new virus to worry about. Volcanoes are lighting up the skies all over the world, new wars are always there to comfort all, and earthquakes in unusual places help to diminish the best grin one can afford. There have been rumors of “layoffs” at the plant, the savings account is small at best, what is there not to worry about?

As of late, only the kids birthdays are remembered. The anniversaries are again on hold and it’s been months since that wonderful wife of yours has seen a new dress, much less a day off from work. Each day ends with the both of you falling into bed however dressed, falling into a blissful rest. Most days seems to be all too short. It becomes a struggle every morning to have a chipper attitude and show a smile even for the kids while making their lunches and keeping their clothes washed and clean. It would seem the day is never short or the duties and needs fully met, but life goes on, as it did for you and your parents.

Every Sunday you and your wife and the kids  are at church and the sermon is be about faith, of all things. What faith? Faith that we will work our butts off every day and many times into the night and the bills are the only thing that seems to grow exponentially. Faith…the kids will grow up and live a life like this? Little to no extra money for anything, no time to be happy and frolic about, the love that began everything, that brought kids into the picture as well as a mortgage and utility bills. And now there are the old cars that must be tweaked all the time to just work and help get the job done?

You are working your fingers to the bone to scratch out a living, with some semblance of normality to it. Faith in WHAT? Faith…sometimes is about death. Where there is no working overtime, no scratching about to save a little money, no more sore muscles and sore hands where you can simply lay there and do absolutely nothing. No more expectations, no worries, no more running about like a chicken with no head. It’s almost a desire rather than an end, right? Oh the web we weave!

What if I told you, there is a better way. What would you say? What would you think? You must admit, the people of this world are missing some crucial information and so they live lives just like the ones written about above, not knowing they don’t have to. Say….WHAT?

Jeremiah 29:11-12: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.”

1 Corinthians 10:31-33: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.”

Mark 8:34-37: “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Three verses that tell you that you are NOT here to live as you think you must, but to live to glorify the Lord your God and Him ONLY. Now you’re wondering if this is true right? The Word of God is absolute TRUTH and here is your answer:

Philippians 4:19-20: “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

1 Corinthians 10:31-33: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.”

Mark 8:34-37: “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Three verses that tell you, you are NOT here to live as you think you must, but to Live to Glorify the Lord your God and Him ONLY! Now you’re wondering if this is true right? The Word of God is absolute TRUTH and here is your answer.

Philippians 4:19-20: “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Take a moment here and read it again. Does this verse say that God will provide all your wants…or does it say, “God will provide all your needs?”

Luke 10:25-28: “And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.”

So now, as we go through all that is taking place all around us, with all the things happening that create fear in us…What are we supposed to be doing? As I said before…Read the Scripture above and do as it says just as Jesus Christ said to. The majority of the time we have a problem with the Word of God, as in the above verses.

We fear we will be left with nothing, but is that what we read above? NO! The Word of God tells us that the “Lord will never leave us or desert us.” So then the problem is somewhere else, right? We need to have “faith” which is to trust the Lord God will do what HE says HE will do and that means we can never have any doubt. In other words, we must step forward in Faith, we must do as HE asks of us and not fret about anything. We must be the first to TRUST HIM!

Matthew 7:7-11: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”

Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

My brothers and sisters. Please understand, WE are the problem in the equation…NOT the Lord God. We are the ones that must learn to trust, to have real faith that HE will do for us what HE says HE will do. If that is truly the case and we know it is, then our lives would be much different than what they are today. The problem is you and me! We THINK we must do this or that or that we must do these things without complaining, the problem is, we are trying to do everything according to our own ability!

Has it never occurred to you that we are not able to take the next breath of air, without God allowing it? Somewhere along the way, we have gotten it in our heads that we have some sort of control on things. We have control of nothing, not even our next breath of air, which you and I take for granted. You must come to the realization that we are to follow Jesus Christ, who IS God. God controls everything, the next breath of air and the allowing of the next thought in your head or not.

We are here to either follow Jesus Christ or not…and that’s the problem. We are not willing to see it that way, but if you are willing to take a few moments, look all around you and see what is happening everywhere, you will see that we as humans are not equipped to handle anything. We have literally made this world a mess of biblical proportions…with our own SIN! So go ahead and take a bow! The works of man is here for all to see!

For a moment let’s take into account, the Bible has been here for better than 4500 years. Now take an account of all the prophecy that has come true, according to God’s Word. You will find that the Bible is 100% fulfilled thus far! We have some Prophecy to look forward to and it is prophecy that will scare the bee-jebbers out of you and do you really think it will not come true as well?

If the past prophecies have all come true, the future prophecies will come true as well…that my friends is a FACT! That is to say, the prophecy of the Rapture and the Tribulation will take place. You are either headed for heaven or you are headed for hell and finally the lake of fire. (That is from the Bible as well.) There is one thing to consider then, where do YOU want to go, there are only two choices. Be assured each one is for eternity, which ever choice you make will last for ever and ever! The ball is in your park!

In the last three articles we spent time looking at Satan— the father of lies and sin. I wonder if you understand why Satan is this way. We know that he WAS the highest of angels at one point in time, which leaves him with a great deal of power, as well as those angels that followed him. As with you or me, if we want a certain thing and it is suddenly taken away and we are then renounced for it, what would be our reaction?

We would hate the ones that took the item away and then ridiculed us for that action. That would be a very natural way to handle it, no love lost there, right? Satan and his ilk responded to God in like fashion, therefore, everything Satan and his ilk do is against God. Suffice it to say, Satan and his ilk hate God to their very core.

Now here is another thing to note. We humans were created by God, we were created in His image; our spirits, not our bodies. Just those two aspects alone, create a very potent hatred of us, by Satan and his ilk. You can then see that there is a great deal of racism in this hatred. Who do you think brought Racism to the minds of people in the first place? So the question is this: Were Adam and Eve really responsible for our sin nature?

That story is found in Genesis 3, when Satan deceived Eve to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Yet…was this the very first Sin? It was in terms of Humanity, yes. Again the very first Sin of all time, was when Satan wanted to place his throne above that of God.

Isaiah 14:12-15 : “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”

There you have it! We see the very first sin was by none other than Satan and one-third of the angels of heaven followed him. We see that “revenge” was a noteworthy of only Satan and he uses it in us today, read the news for yourself and see. Understanding the power and placement of Lucifer in the order of angels, gives you and me a clearer understanding of how much power he has.

Having read that in the Scriptures, gives us cause to pause and remember that Lucifer was a created being by God. Realizing this, we can then understand that ONLY Jesus Christ is able to defeat Satan and his ilk. If we take a moment here and look into the temptations of Jesus by Satan, we can see one worthy note;

Matthew 4:1-10: “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, ‘If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.’

Jesus said unto him, ‘It is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’ Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, ‘All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. ‘Then saith Jesus unto him, ‘Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.’”

Please pay very close attention to the highlighted text, Jesus Stated three times, “It is written” and Satan actually made note of this to Jesus with one “It is written”. This is evidence that Satan and his ilk know the Bible as well and they know that the Bible was inspired to men, by the Lips of God. Therefore, the Word of God is definitely and most profoundly the written words given to you and I, from God himself. It is because Jesus Christ IS God that we can rely fully on His Word, the Bible, it IS the absolute TRUTH!

So now that we understand, where and by whom all of this began with, we can better understand what is taking place in all the Humans that have ever lived on this little planet. It IS because we are Sin filled, that we are a broken Species and the ONLY way to be healed is through the blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Hence, there is the division of all the people of earth, past, present and future, according to whether or not they gave their lives to Jesus Christ or not. This single decision is the entire reason we are here!

What most people never understand, is that the money line (first money and then all that it can provide), consumes the majority of people today. They have a “hole” in them that they want filled and they believe the acquisition of “things” will be the filler. And they end-up sorrowfully in error!

Their desire for fulfillment, combined with the perverse deception by Satan and his ilk, makes them look in the wrong direction. What they miss is that this life is only the first step in our walk into eternity. All the “things”…stay right here and they have them for what…about 70-80 years? With clear understanding, they should realize that 70-80 years is far too short a period of time.

Each of us knows that we have a spirit inside of us if we are willing to take the time to find it. It is then at that exact point, we realize that eternity is for the spirit NOT the physical. Understanding this makes for a life much more splendid than we could ever speak of, because that is when we find Jesus Christ and His plan of salvation for us. Thus we find the inefficiencies of the fool.

Psalm 14:1-3: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

Thus we can understand that if we KNOW God, then we can certainly understand what this life is all about, that it has nothing to do with “things.” If we KNOW God, then we will understand that His love for us will bring HIM to sustain us and provide for us. The Lord will meet all of our needs, HIS Holy word has said so.

When we come and accept the invitation of Jesus Christ and our sin is covered by His blood from the Cross, we find all that we need is provided by Him. We read more of His Holy Word and find out more about Him and His Love for us. We then see how we are changed, how we become a “new creature” and most of all, our sin is washed away. It is Jesus Christ, covering our sin with His precious blood, that makes us acceptable before a just and righteous God.

Now that we know these things, we must ask ourselves, whom do we wish to follow, Jesus Christ or Satan and his ilk? We now see there is a difference, we have the choice to live happily and in His harmony or we can live a life of death, disease, war and chaos. A life filled with Satan and his ilk will provide nothing, because everything Satan tells us is a lie! Our years for life will only be 70-80 years and it’s all over with, until hell and the lake of fire come.

Everything we could ever want to know, is in God’s Holy Word to you and me. Then we can make a more informed decision and we will also know what our end will be. It is truly sad to think and then know, according to the Bible, that FEW will find their way to heaven. So then the question is, whom do YOU follow and what is going to be your end? This decision is the actual reason you are here to begin with, therefore, make your decision wisely.