The will of God for every believer is clearly stated by Jesus in Matthew 28: 18- 2 0.

“GO AND MAKE DISCIBLES OF ALL THE NATIONS”

" And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and low I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28: 18-20)

Notice first, what Jesus declared in verse 18: He has been given power both in heaven and in earth, and this authority given him by the Father qualifies him to instruct his disciples with the following mandate:

They were to go teach, baptize all the nations {v.19} and they were then to teach them to do what he had taught the disciples. And then notice the promise Jesus gives his presence with them when they obey and do what he has asked.

Mark, In his gospel also records this instruction by Jesus to tell others in Mark 16:15-20: “….. Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation…..”

The author of the book of Acts also records this essential truth in the Christian life: the responsibility every believer has to tell others the good news. {Acts 1:6-11}

A final demonstration of this truth is found in Mark 5:19. In this passage, Jesus has healed a man who was possessed by demons, and the man has requested that he might go with Jesus, but Jesus said, no, you go home and tell others what God had done for you. This is what God wants you and me to do: simply tell others what he has done for us. If you’re doing this, keep up the good work and God will bless you for your obedience.

Every believer in Jesus should be either a sower or a reaper. Which are you? My hope is that you will be both a sower and a reaper.

You may be a Christian without a job, with past due bills you can’t pay, and family problems that seem insurmountable.

These are real problems that we all face, and they must be resolved at some point in time. In the midst of these problems, which are real, let me remind you that you have a foundation that will stand the test of time and problems. Recognizing the problems, and these are not peculiar to you, let me encourage you and that you have every reason to rejoice today.

” The Bible says, ” Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: rejoice. {Philippians4:4}

Why should we rejoice in the Lord when we are suffering? This is a fair question that deserves an answer. Let me give you three reasons why you should rejoice in the midst of difficulties.

First, we rejoice in the Lord because we know that whatever we suffer as believers in this world there is no comparison to the reward that our Heavenly Father has for us when we meet him one day. The Bible teaches about momentary light afflictions followed by an eternal weight of glory (Second Corinthians 4:16 and 17).

The Bible also says, ” In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (Thessalonians 5: 18) Notice also that this verse does not say FOR everything give thanks, but rather IN everything give thanks. There is a world of difference in these two words in this verse.

A second reason to rejoice in the Lord is that He gives us a peace of heart that is totally different from any other peace available. Jesus said:

“Peace, I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid” {John 14:27}.

Peace that the world gives is based on various things such as financial security, physical health, professional success, and community status, just to name a few. All of these things are temporal and could disappear tomorrow. True lasting peace is not offered by the world, but this is what the Lord gives to us.

Finally, we should rejoice in the Lord because of his promise to care for us as a father care for his children.

” As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him {Psalm 103:13}.

Before Jesus left this earth to return to heaven, he told his disciples: ” I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” {John 14:18}.

And again, the promise is: ” Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you”. {Hebrews 13:5}.

Whatever your needs are let me encourage you to seek the Lord, and if you know Him as your personal friend and Savior to rejoice in Him today.

First let me give you a definition of “SHUCK”

Shuck Is that part of a vegetable or fruit which is useless and is to be thrown away a peeling of some kind. When you peel a potato, you are peeling off the shuck.

If you go into a grocery store and go to the vegetable section, you will find two types of corn on the cob: shucked and half shucked. In one section the corn is still in the shuck and is piled together in a meaningless heap, and you choose what you want and how many.

While in a separate section you’ll find ears of corn in attractive plastic packages with the shuck half removed so you can see the corn you want. And of course, when you purchase the product, you take it home and take the shuck off and throw it away and it becomes no shock.

As I thought about this word and its meaning, I realized that this is how God sees you and me. He sees either shuck, half shuck or no shuck.

By this I mean He sees either, an unbeliever, a disobedient believer or an obedient believer. Shuck refers to the person who has never trusted Jesus as his savior. Half shuck refers to the person who knows Jesus but has unconfessed sin in the life. The shucked believer is the person who is aware of the sin in his life and chooses to deal with it. His go to verse is First John 1:9 ” If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

If God sees only shuck you are not qualified to live in God’s presence.

If God sees half shuck , there is sin or disobedience that you need to deal with. Confess and you will be forgiven.

If God sees no shuck at all, but only the righteousness of his Son, received by faith, you will receive rewards and will be welcomed into His presence. Romans chapter 7 indicates that we all are to some degree victims of our own shuck, but that one day it will all be removed:

” There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.” {Romans 8:1}

Now my question to the reader is very simple.

As God looks at you does He see shuck, half shuck or no shuck?

As you look at your life today do you see only shuck? If you do, then you trust in Jesus today as your personal Savior and enter into the world of the half shuck.

If you see some shuck confess it, go on and determine to live as God would have you live.

It Is your call to make, so make it and you will never regret it.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please respond.

On a recent visit to my retina specialist, I met a very interesting man.

He was wearing a baseball cap with various decorations that told me he was a navy veteran. I spoke to him and asked him what ship he had served on and in what war.

He told me that over 20 years in the navy he had served on two aircraft carriers. We had a great conversation about his experiences while in the navy. He showed me many pictures taken while he was serving in the navy. In one picture I noticed his uniform’s left arm had several red chevrons.

Now each chevron or stripe indicates four years of service. If you have had disciplinary problems of some sort, you were required to wear a red chevron. As he showed me different pictures of him in his uniform, I noticed that in some of the pictures the chevrons were red while in other pictures the chevron was gold, and I asked him the difference.

He then explained to me that he did not want to wear the gold chevron because this indicates a perfect record. Over the years he had many bad experiences with the shore patrol which required him to wear the red stripe. (The shore patrol is the police force for the navy)

However, after 10 years of error free service the past is forgiven, and you are required to change on your uniform the red stripe to a gold stripe.

Since He was promoted to wear the gold chevron, by navy regulation to wear a uniform with red stripes he would be out of uniform and subject to court martial. Therefore, in the simplest terms possible, in the navy a red chevron means you have been bad, and a gold chevron means you have been good. He felt that he did not deserve to wear the gold chevron on his sleeve

As I thought about this, I said to myself, that is exactly how God looks at us. The Bible says that we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We all wear a spiritual red stripe in the sight of God because we have been bad, God calls it sin.

However, the good news is that by faith in Jesus; that red stripe is turned to gold in the eyes of God. In 2nd Corinthians 5:17 the Bible says ” If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new”

As we walked out of the doctor’s office together, I asked him a simple question: in God’s sight are you wearing a gold stripe or a red stripe? He did not answer and slowly walked away.

My prayer for you is that if today you sense that you deserve a red stripe, turn to Jesus, ask him to be your Savior and symbolically you will have a gold stripe and a permeant place In God’s kingdom.

You are now a son or daughter of the Highest, and you can be assured that he will never turn his back on his own! But when you do sin simply go to your Heavenly Father, confess your sin and thank Him for forgiveness.

If you are at this time a child of the King go and share this story with another who may need a stripe changed from red to gold.

Why is God silent?

This is a question that every believer will ask at one time or another. and when it comes what is the answer?

There may be many ways to answer this question, but for the Christian there is only one solution: turn to your heavenly Father and ask good questions about the darkness that you are facing, and he will respond to you as He is your Heavenly Father.

You may rest assured that nothing will be allowed to come into your life without His knowledge, and it will be for your good.

” And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8: 28)

When we face difficulties usually the first response we have is to ask: why me and how long will this last? In Psalm 13:1,2 King David asks the same question: ” How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Notice in verse one that the author directs his request to the one capable of helping him, God. Only our Heavenly Father can give us the right direction. When you have a problem to whom do you go for council?

You will notice in verses one and two that he revealed his impatience with God when he used the expression ” how long” 4 different times.

The first question: “how long will you forget me” requires an answer:

" But Zion said' The Lord hath forsaken me, and my lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea they may forget yet I will not forget thee. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." {Isaiah 49: 14- 16}

The answer to that question is very simple: your Heavenly Father has not and will never forget you!

 As believers who face many of these questions in our lives we must do as the psalmist did when he said...." I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me." {Psalm 13:5,6}

Regardless of circumstance we must trust, rejoice and sing!

Two questions asked by people of every nationality and culture for centuries are:

Does God exist?

Can I know him?

The Bible teaches that “ No one has ever seen God……..” (John 1:18) and ” God is spirit” (John 4-24). If no one has ever seen God and he is a spirit, then how can we know that he exists and how can we know him?

The Bible says: ” The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world” [Psalm 19:1-4].

The world around us speaks to us every day and tells us that God does exist.

No intelligent person would look at an expensive Swiss watch and then deny that that watch had a maker. Rather, one would acknowledge that someone somewhere had designed and put that watch together.

Furthermore, the Bible says that: ” He {Jesus} is the image of the invisible God, the first-born over-all creation. For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…..”[Colossians 1 :15,16]

How do we know that God exists and that we can know him?

1. The creation declares him

2. In the person of Jesus, God became a man

However, we know that God exists, and we can know him only by faith.

” And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” [Hebrews 11:6 ]

When by an act of faith, we put our trust in God and his son Jesus Christ, we then have that faith affirmed in our hearts, and we know without doubt that God is, that he loves us and that we can know him.

May God bless you as you seek him today by faith!

This question has been asked by children and adults alike for centuries. The Bible speaks of the hand of God “…. I will stretch out my hand….”{Exodus 3: 20}

The face of God ” The face of the Lord is against them that do evil” {Psalm 34: 16}

The arm of God ” Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save…….{Isaiah 59: 1}

The ear of God “…… nor his ear to dull to hear” {Isaiah 59: 1}

However, the Bible also declares that: “… no man has ever seen God. …” {John 1: 18}

So how do we know what God looks like? “…… God himself entered mankind in the person of Jesus Christ and as we see Jesus, we see God. ” For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form” [Colossians 2: 9}

The first four books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, tells us about Jesus and Jesus has revealed God the father to us.

Jesus told Philip: ” Anyone who has seen me has seen the father” {John 14: 9}

The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us this “ …. the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being……{Hebrews 1: 3}

The question is, what does God look like? If you want to know what God looks like, you must study the life of Jesus as given to us in the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

How do we know God? We know God through Jesus, for he is the revelation of God the Father who loves you and has a plan, a good plan, for your life. He will help you when you seek him. The wonderful truth is that at this moment God is seeking you.

However, he will never force his truth on you but will respond to a very simple prayer of faith when you ask him to come into and to change your life. When this happens, a whole new world will open up to you

My prayer Is that you will do this today!

w

Perhaps the most common goal of people today is peace.

The dictionary defines peace as the normal, non-warring condition of a person, a nation, a group of nations or the world. The Bible also has a definition for peace.

Most of the suffering in the world today would end if people would choose to live in peace. The world found peace in 1919 when World War 1 ended, and the world established an organization called the League of Nations. This failed to produce a lasting peace. Again, in 1945 after the Second World War, another organization was formed called the United Nations. It also failed to produce world peace. And today there is still no peace in the world.

The Bible teaches two kinds of peace.

First, there is a peace that exists between groups of people.

Second, there is a peace that exists in the heart of a person, and this peace is not affected by the external peace the world gives.

The Bible speaks very clearly on the topic of peace and how one may attain it. Jesus taught two kinds of peace:

(1) ” Peace, I leave with you my peace I give to you, and (2) not as the world gives do I give to you….” (John 14:27).

Jesus gives peace and the world gives peace, but the peace the world gives is transitory, not permanent and can be easily lost.

The peace Jesus gives is a permanent relationship with God through faith:

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1) This peace with God can never be lost!

Following our peace with God, we also may have the peace of God:

” Don’t worry about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God: and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4: 6,7)

Every person who has repented of unbelief and turned to God in faith has peace with God. and this peace with God can never be reversed.

Peace with God is established forever when we trust Jesus as our Savior and the peace of God occurs when we as believers acknowledge and repent of sin in our lives.

Let me encourage you to be a good citizen and to work for peace in this world, but also to examine your life and make certain that you have peace with God. Trust Him today and in every difficult situation you face seek the peace of God through repentance, obedience and thankful prayer.

Blessings on you as you seek to live for Him today and in the future.

An essential to all life whether to plant, animal or human is food… food is any substance that is eaten or otherwise taken into the body to sustain life, to provide energy, and to promote growth. Any living organism deprived of food will soon shrivel up and die.

The physical body needs food and. we work long hours each day to earn money in order to buy food to have strength to go to work, to earn more money, to buy mote food, to have strength and it goes on and on. We make every effort to see that our children and others we love have food to eat and the place to stay.

However, a person is much more than just a physical body; he is also a spiritual being and that spiritual being craves and needs spiritual food.

Jesus said in Matthew 4:4 ” Man shall not live by read alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God ”

This food feeds the soul, and just as physical bread satisfies the pangs of hunger in a person the Bible is spiritual food that satisfies the hunger of the soul. Only God can satisfy the hunger of the heart.

The Bible teaches that God wants to provide us this spiritual food and that it is free.

” Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come by wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy.? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me; hear; that your soul may live……” (Isaiah 55:1-3)

Jesus said, ” I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35}

God has put within every person a spiritual vacuum, a spiritual hunger, that only He, can fill and satisfy. You can fill this void in the heart by loving and serving the God who made the world and all things in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth.

Let me encourage you to continue eating food that is nutritious and that will give you and your family strong healthy bodies. Also, take time to feed your soul by reading the Bible each day. If you need direction in getting started, begin with chapter one of the Gospel of John and read one chapter a day and in 21 days you’ll have read the entire book. this is spiritual food for your soul, And I highly recommend it.