Jesus Christ is Lord: Jesus in my life!

Chapter 16 – Jesus in my life!

As I was considering what I should write about in this week’s blog post the same thought kept coming to my mind. Let’s see if I can put that thought into words. Here goes:

People who know me most likely think of me as an unapologetic Christian, and I have been that way all of my life! That would mean that I see everything through the eyes of a “born again man who has never seen the world through the eyes of a non-Christian.” Well… let me fill in some gaps here, and see where it takes us.

Immediately after getting married, my wife Shirley and I moved to Cedar Rapids, and we did not go to church for the first ten years of our married life. At this point I can only speak for myself and not for Shirley. “I was not a “born again man who has never seen the world through the eyes of a non-Christian.” All of our friends were non-Christian. They were good people who were not serving the Lord. We went to parties, were in bowling leagues with them, drank our beer and our mixed drinks; and we were “Living the Life” or so we thought.

One day at about that ten-year point, we were talking together about our life. Shirley said that she would like to start going to church, and have our daughters grow-up in church/Sunday school. I told her that I had been thinking the same thing. Right there at home, we prayed together for Jesus to forgive us of our sins, and agreed to start looking for a church that coming Sunday. We agreed on the following criteria for the church we were seeking, and would continue church shopping till we found it:

1. A friendly church
2. Where God’s love was experienced
3. Where love was felt among the people
4. If we were going to do this, we had to be all in! No playing around!

Stick with me here, I know the Lord is taking us somewhere.

The first church we visited was “First Assembly of God” a few blocks from our house. We were greeted by a man who later became one of our dearest lifelong friends. (Check 1)

When the pastor got up to begin his sermon, he said, “The title of my sermon today is God’s love for us and our love one for another.” (Check 2) (Check 3)
Our ribs were sore from elbowing each other as the pastor, one after another, said many of the same things we had talked about at home just a few days earlier. That was 46 years ago, and we are still members of that same church now called Radiant Church of Cedar Rapids. (Check 4)

Why did I tell you that story you ask…? I don’t know yet. We will find out together where the Holy Spirit wants to take this post!

It occurs to me that there are three basic categories that individuals fall into regarding Christianity:

• I live my life my way! I don’t believe in a God, so don’t bother me with Bible/religious stuff. Just leave me alone!
• I believe there is a God! I don’t go to church or anything. I try to be a good person, but I don’t go off the deep end!
• I have dedicated my life to God! I’m not a perfect person, but through Jesus Christ my sins are forgiven!

Believe me when I say that I have been all three of those people at different time periods of my life! When viewing or evaluating a situation, I can see it through all three sets of eyes. Which way is the best in my opinion? It’s not even close.

I don’t have the words to explain it to you, it has to be experienced! There is no way to view it from the outside and understand the full impact of a life dedicated to Almighty God! I’ll say it again… It has to be experienced. It’s not about me and what I think, it’s all about God and what He thinks. Then He graciously conveys His opinion to me through His Word, the Bible, and through personal revelation to my spirit. Praise the Lord! That beats the other two ways of living hands down! If you haven’t already dedicated your life to God, I recommend you try it for yourself! You won’t be sorry!

It’s from the perspective of my current relationship with the Lord that I view the upcoming election. It’s not about personalities and my pet issues! It’s about what God wants to do to save this country. Our freedoms and our way of life hang in the balance! Our pet issue won’t mean a thing if we lose our freedom. Look around at the way this country is moving under the current administration. I’m not talking issues here I’m talking about freedoms under our Constitution! The freedoms that seem to be unimportant or in the way of what the left wants to do:   

• First Amendment… (Freedom of religion! The freedom of speech! Freedom of assembly!)
• Second Amendment… (The right of the people to keep and bear arms!)
• Fourth Amendment… (To be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures!)
• Sixth Amendment… (Speedy, unbiased trial!) (If they do it to the January 6^th people, they can do it to you!)

I am baffled that so many people seem to be blind to the fact that our very way of life hangs in the balance here!   Well… you get the idea! Our issues will be lost and forgotten if we lose our freedoms!

One final rant and I’ll wrap-up the post for today:

Do we all realize that President Donald J. Trump and J.D. Vance are the only ones that are standing in the way of us losing the freedoms listed above? As well as losing the country we love. Neither one of these men are perfect. Far from it. However, they have been chosen by God to lead this country at this time in history. Time after time in the Bible, we are told that God used imperfect people to accomplish His will. Please don’t write them off because they are not as perfect as Jesus. He can and will still use them! He used Abraham, Moses, David, Paul and other imperfect people.

If I hear that Donald Trump is a liar, and I don’t like the way he talks or looks one more time, I’m likely going to scream! Try talking about the fact that he wants to save our country from the Socialist/Marxists! People who say those critical things are either listening to the left-biased, main stream media, or the enemy himself. Or both! Believe me, satan would love to see the United States of America come crashing down! He is forcing his influence into every situation and position of influence that he can! A vote for the liberal side, or no vote at all, is playing right into the plans of the enemy of our souls, and the enemy of our beloved country! Our battle is not with flesh and blood, as I talked about last week.

Ephesians 6:12 (NLT)
¹²For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Did you hear what Kamala Harris answered back when someone at her rally on Thursday, October 17, shouted Jesus is King? She responded that they are at the wrong rally.

Matthew 7:16–17 (NLT)
¹⁶You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.

How do I know these things? I am viewing them through the eyes of a Christian man who has dedicated his life to God! He is speaking to me through the Bible and what is going on in our country. Hopefully He is speaking to you as well!

Think about and pray about it before you vote! Please vote to save our freedoms, not your pet issue!

Vote early and vote for Christian values!!!

But please

VOTE