It is amazing how many TV programs there are about the end of the world. Some are informed and some are Hollywood. Everyone has an opinion about it. No one is sure when it is going to happen. But everybody knows that it will happen. Some people say it will be asteroids or meteorites that will destroy the earth. Some say it will be global warming that will destroy the earth. Most of the theories are close but no cigar. It isn’t the external forces that will cause the destruction. You have to look at different events that have happen since the beginning of time. Why have all those civilization been destroyed? What cataclysmic event happen to destroy civilizations? You can point to volcanos, storms, wars, droughts, earthquakes, fires, and pestilence. And you would be half right. It has never been about the effects of the causes. It has always been about the cause itself. You want to take a wild guess at what the cause really is. I’ll give you ten guesses and they will all be wrong. The answer always comes back to who is in charge of this mess. The answer isn’t God. The answer is man himself.
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Everyone knows what a farmer is or does. If you weren’t raised on a farm, you worked on farm or visited a farm. Many people grow gardens in the city. Some grow gardens on their rooftop. It has always been fascinating to watch seeds grow and produce fruits or vegetables. We take time and care to have fresh produce to eat. I love fresh tomatoes. So it is no stretch of the imagination that you would know who a sower is. I am a sower of the word of God. I take the seeds and cast them out for people to receive. I am always amazed at the response I get from the blog. I have received comments in Russian, Japanese, Bulgarian, Romanian, French, Spanish and of course English. There isn’t one corner of the world that I haven’t heard from. I am very pleased about this. Jesus told the same story 2000 years ago. The sower cast his seeds, some fell on stony ground and withered in the sun. Some seeds fell among the thorns and were choked out. Some seeds fell on good ground and produced 30 fold, 60 fold and 100 fold. What kind of ground are you?
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When we are born we literally know nothing. We are a clean slate to be written on. We learn the language of our parents depending on where we grow up. I speak one language fluently and two others somewhat. It is what I have learned over the years. My accent is strictly general American with a little southern drawl. I was raised in a southern middle class family. My father worked for the US Post Office and my mother was a school teacher. Yet all of my life I knew I was a teacher. I knew in my heart that God wanted me to do something in the Kingdom of God. At first I didn’t know what it was all about. I studied as the bible said to show myself approved of God. I would only receive a little bit of information at a time. I would then prove the information before I believed it. Each piece of the puzzle had to be proven before I would risk my life on it. This information became steadfast in my life. I could depend on the knowledge God had given me. I was taught by God like Paul was on the backside of the desert. God didn’t want to overwhelm me with the vastness of His information. God wanted me to rely on Him. It became easy to believe and have faith in God. I still can quote scriptures without looking in the bible. This is what I have learned and rely on for my life.
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Everybody remembers the story of Jonah and the whale. Most people don’t talk about why God sent Jonah to Nineveh. This was the capital of the Assyrians. They had raided into Israel and had killed whoever they saw, men, women and children. God wanted to give the Ninevites the opportunity to repent of the sins. Otherwise God was going to destroy Nineveh. Jonah said let them all die. Then Jonah ran from God. Boarded a ship bound for wherever. There arose a storm until they all believe they would die. They asked everybody what they could do to stop this. Jonah said God was angry with him. They needed to throw him overboard. Finally they did. The Whale swallowed Jonah. He was in the belly of the whale for three days and nights. Until Jonah repented. He went to Nineveh. He preached repentance and 100,000 people repented of their sins. Jonah became angry with God. He wanted revenge, but God wanted life. What do you see in this story? Do you understand what it is all about? It is the story of our life. It is what God will do to bring us to repentance. God doesn’t want revenge. He is willing to send someone to you to help you. Hear what God is saying to you. Just as it was in the days of Jonah, God sent Jesus into hell for three days and nights for us.
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I have never liked to go to funerals. I have been to quite a few. It always reminded me of my mortality. Even though I am immortal, my physical body will die. Death is a part of life on this earth. God has showed me how to communicate with people who are dying. My grandmother was dying and I stood outside of the hospital room looking in. I said to myself, I hate seeing you, my grandmother, like this. She was in the last stages of death and was not coherent. I walked into the room and sat next to her. She turn me and said, don’t say that, don’t say that. She had heard everything I said. The immortal person that we are doesn’t die. We will go on to the next world. Our spirit, our mind, will and intellect, is immortal. You don’t lose your 5 senses when you move into the next world. Everything is intact. So what is it about death that is so frightening? It is the fear of the unknown. What will happen to me when I move into the next world? When I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I settled that very question. I know where I am going. There is no more discussion about my future. If I die I go home to be with my Father.
1 Cor. 15:54(KJV) “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
Hebrews 2:14-15(KJV) “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
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There isn’t one person on this earth that hasn’t been betrayed. It is a hard subject to talk about because I have had experience with it. What do you say about the other person? My life has been altered because of it. I would like to have never experienced it at all. The pain sometimes may see unbearable. As if your life will end because of it. I assure you your life will not end unless you take it. Learning how to cope with heartache is part of life. It seems that it is almost a rite of passage. It is not something that has to happen to you on a regular basis. You have to choose what you are going to do and where you are going? Choosing a boyfriend or girlfriend, or a career or backing into an opportunity that winds you up in jail. Life isn’t that complicated. It is simple if you allow it to be. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, man has believed that he is the creator of hisown destiny. The only problem is that man has no power to do anything. We are gods yes, because we have the right of free will. I did says god with a little g. We can choose the right way and have all of heaven working for us. But if we choose God and walk away from God, He will do the same. God feels the same way we do about betrayal. Because we are the image and likeness of God.
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After a forest fire in the 1950’s, forest fire fighters found a bear cub up in a tree. The cub survived the fire barely. He had climbed in the tree to escape the fire. It was badly burned but survived. The little bear recovered from his wounds and eventually ended up in the National Zoo in Washington D.C. They named the bear Smokey. The US Forest Service took the bear as mascot. They began advertisement to prevent forest fires. And in the commercials Smokey would say, only you can prevent forest fires. Because of the large amount of fires in the western US, they have revived the Smokey the bear commercials. This time he says, only you can prevent wildfires. Yet I know people that start fires daily just by what they say. The unfortunate thing about that is that they can’t take it back. A person asked how they could take back what they said. The answer was take a small box of feathers to a mountain top and release them in the wind. Then go and get all the feathers back in the box. It is impossible.
Jas 1:26 (KJV) If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
Jas 3:5-6 (KJV) Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
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Matt.5:43-45 “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
How to do you know who is a Christian? Can you tell by the way they look? Or can you see inside the person like an X-ray machine. God is very specific about us showing the world that we are Christians. The world says an eye for an eye. Which actually is an Old Testament scripture. But hate is the world’s defense against abuse. You would think people would have enough of hate and get rid of it. It not so. They stockpiled it. God has a different way of handling abuse. As long as man will not listen to God there will be abuse in this world. God’s answer is to love you neighbor. He wants you to do good to people. By this way you might reach some of them. This is the only way to prove who God really is.
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Years ago I worked in Real Estate. I sold property but mostly did Appraisals. There was a friend of my younger brother who wanted to buy a piece of property to build a house. I found a nice piece in the country on a lake. It was a very nice piece of land. He had been in the US Army and was going to use the VA to build his home. The VA turned him down because I made a mistake. The property was a gated community. It had a locked gate at the entrance. He was had spent his life saving on the property. He wouldn’t speak to me. One Sunday morning I was on my way to church and the Lord spoke to me. He said go to this man and asked for forgiveness. He wouldn’t hear of forgiveness and cursed me. I had done what the Lord had said. I prayer that the situation would be corrected. God helped him sell the property for more money. The bible says if you are bringing a gift to God and remember that your brother has ought against you. Leave the gift and go to your brother and be reconciled. We are responsible for our actions. If they caused our brother to stumble it is our job to fix it as best we can. God will do the rest.
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So why does God want to give us the opportunity to know Him and have the power to live the life he has for us? This all goes back to the beginning, asking why God formed the earth and put people on it? This is a question you will have to answer for yourself.
As I began looking for the answer to the question, I went to the one place I knew had the answer, the Bible. I have studied the Bible for 32 years. Each day, God reveals himself to me. I have seen and heard Him in so many different ways. I look for God everywhere, and guess what, I find Him. God gave us His word to reveal Himself to us. In John 20:31, It says, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.” The Study that I am presenting is the result of my quest, which isn’t over yet, to know God and walk in His way.

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