Preaching with a purpose

What do you do about the news?  Do you watch and fall deeper into fear?  Or do you avoid it in a cozy world of denial?  Neither of these reactions is helpful.  It is obvious that our world is in a terrible mess and particularly in the Middle East and of course this also effects the rest of the world.  If we are trusting in Jesus He has told us at these times to "look up, for your redemption draws near."  We should be concerned about our world but we must remember that our goal is heaven which we will share with our Lord.  God is almighty and totally in charge of all that happens in this world and eventually we will be shown His perfect plan, that leads to heaven for His children.

Throughout the world there are troublesome times.  The Middle East is in turmoil.  Many peoples are displaced and swarming into other countries.  In the West in a rural area I feel fairly secure, but life is never secure unless we have Jesus in charge.  When He is with us we have nothing to fear even though life can become very difficult in a very short time.  When our trust is in God He will be with us even if He plans to take us through trouble in our life.  What He purposes for us is always the best even when it looks like the worst to us.Fear God and then you will have nothing else to fear.

If you are facing troubles in your life don't assume that God is angry with you.  If you have put your trust in Jesus and the atonement He accomplished, then you are the apple of God's eye and very dear to Him.  Troubles are a normal part of the christian life.  They are there to strengthen us in our faith.  God declared Job to be a righteous man and yet he suffered terribly.  But don't forget God brought him through all his struggles and ill health and his troubles brought glory to God.  Isn't that amazing that we can bring glory to God by our reaction to our troubles.  That is something that even the angels don't understand. One day and sooner than we think our troubles will be over and we won't even remember them. Look at the book of James chapter one, to see what trials can do for us.  We are like butterflies struggling out of the cocoon.  If you try to help they will die.  Left alone the struggle results in a beautiful butterfly fly...

I was reading a post on another site where a very nice Hindu person was saying that all religions lead to God, you just have to be good and kind and gentle.  However the Christian God requires us to love Him perfectly with all our strength, soul, heart and mind. He requires perfection, but knows that we cannot attain to that and so He sent Jesus to live perfectly for us and die in our place as a perfect substitution for us. He even gives us the faith to believe in Jesus and all who believe receive His forgiveness, There is nothing else that we can do, it is a gift of God. This message is for all who will believe from every corner of our world.  It is available to all who will believe.