This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around

Have you ever heard someone say when they're asked where they're going when they die, "I'm going to Hell. All my friends will be there and it'll be a great party!"? Dude (or dudette), your friends may all be there, but it ain't gonna be no party. Let's take a look at what Hell is really like.

Hell is described as a place with everlasting fire (Matthew 25:41)and unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12); a place of torment (Luke 16:23, 2 Thes. 1:9); and a place where there is a lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). Hell is a place of fire and brimstone (Revelation 14:10). People in Hell are tormented with fire (Revelation 14:10) forever and ever (Revelation 14:11). They are punished eternally (Matthew 25:45). Doesn't sound like a very fun place to spend eternity, does it?

There is only one way to avoid going to Hell when you die, and that is to repent of your sins and receive Jesus Christ into your heart as your Savior. When you repent of your sins and ask Jesus to live in your heart, His Holy Spirit will come and live inside you and change you. You won't change externally, but internally you will be a new creation in Christ Jesus. You will have a personal relationship with Jesus. Friend, I urge you today to turn your heart and your life over to Jesus. You won't regret it. The only time it's too late to avoid going to Hell is after you take your last breath. I look forward to meeting you in Heaven!

That's all for now! Thanks for reading! See you again soon!

Diane

When the music fades . . .

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I'm coming back to the heart of worship,
And it's all about you, it's all about you, Jesus.
I'm sorry, Lord, for the thing I've made it,
And it's all about you, it's all about you, Jesus.

The refrain above is from a worship song called "The Heart of Worship" by Matt Redman. You can read the rest of the lyrics here. The Lord brought this song to mind when I woke up one day last week. I thought about the song for few minutes and realized why the Lord called my attention to it. The Lord was trying to tell me that worship should be simple.

Worship music shouldn't be performed like a Broadway production, on a big stage with fancy lights, stage decorations, fog machines, Power Point lyric slide shows with fancy backgrounds, a big choir, and lots of musical instruments. All those things are distracting to what really matters, which is praising the Lord with my whole heart, thanking Him for who He is and what He's done for me, and thanking Him for what he's going to do.

My family has been attending a non-denominational charismatic church for the past 5 years and their way of doing worship is just like the first line of the paragraph above. I was a member of that big choir for over 4 years until the summer of 2009 when the Lord told me I was burned out and I needed to take the summer off, so I did. At the end of the summer, I asked the Lord if I should go back to choir and He again told me no. I really haven't missed it at all. Choir took a lot of my time and my family was really getting annoyed at the time I was spending away from them.

I have been attending Sunday evening services at a local Calvary Chapel for the last few weeks (I've been trying to get my husband to switch to Calvary Chapel, but he's not ready yet. Prayers would be appreciated.) Worship is led by the pastor's wife, who sings and plays keyboard. Last Sunday, there were bongo drums accompanying the keyboard. There is no Power Point slide show, just a couple of printed lyric sheets. Since I already know most of the songs, I can just close my eyes and commune with the Lord while I'm singing. It has been so refreshing just to sit and simply sing while the keyboard plays, with no other distractions.

Not only should we make sure the surroundings of worship are not distracting, we should also look at the lyrics of the songs we are singing in worship. There are songs by Christian artists that may be perfectly good songs, but they are not worship songs. There are so-called worship songs that are what I call "cheerleader" songs – there is a fast beat that the singers jump up and down to and the songs have "feel-good" lyrics. These songs do not praise Jesus.

Worship is not just songs or surroundings, but an attitude of the heart. Matt Redman nails this in the bridge of "The Heart of Worship":

I'll bring you more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart

Paul writes in Ephesians 5:18b-20: ". . . but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now there's a recipe for true worship.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading! See you again soon!

Diane

Knock 3 times

On the CBS TV show The Big Bang Theory, Jim Parsons' character Sheldon Cooper has an annoying way of getting his neighbor Penny to answer the door.  He stands at her door and says, "Penny."  (knock knock knock) "Penny."  (knock knock knock) "Penny."  (knock knock knock).  Penny finally gets tired of Sheldon knocking and opens the door. His persistence gets Sheldon into Penny's apartment.

In Luke 11:5-8, Jesus tells the parable of the persistent friend who by continually knocking at his neighbor's door in the middle of the night, persuade him to get up and give him the loaves of bread that he needs to give to his visitor.  In Luke 18:1-5, Jesus tells the parable of the widow who hounds a judge to get her justice from her adversary and he finally does, because he is weary of her persistence.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:7, ""Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."

This has an application for us in our prayer life. We are to be persistent in prayer.  We need to keep praying until we get an answer to our prayers, whether the answer is "yes," "no," or "not  now." Hebrews 4:16 states "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."  So we should be bold and persistent in prayer.  That shows God that we really want what we're praying for.  I looked at my prayer journal this morning and I saw the date that I started it,which was 10/25/09.  There are still lots of needs that I'm still praying for, and I will keep praying until my prayers are answered or I leave in the Rapture, whichever comes first. 

That's all for now. See you again soon!

Diane

Prime choice

Did you ever stop to consider that your life is filled with choices?  Everything that happens in your life is a result of a choice you have made, with the exception of being born (someone else's choice), paying taxes (the government's choice) or dying (God's choice, unless it's suicide - then it's your choice).

Every day starts with a choice - should I get out of bed when the alarm rings or call in sick to work?  Or should I hit the buzzer and sleep five more minutes?  You then decide what to have for breakfast, what to wear to work, etc.  Even if you're doing nothing, you have made a choice - you could be doing something.

Some choices are easy. "Should I have eggs or cereal for breakfast?" "Should I buy this car or that one?" Some choices are hard.  "Who should I marry?"  "Should I have children?" "Should I take my loved one off of life support?"

There is one choice that is the most important of all - where you will spend eternity.  Where will you go when you die?  There are two choices here - you can go to Heaven when you die, or you can go to Hell.  There is no purgatory or in-between.

So if you have decided that you want to go to Heaven when you die, there's only one way to get there - through belief in Jesus Christ as your Savior.  You have to repent of your sins and ask Jesus into your heart and let Him rule over your life. Jesus Himself said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me."

If you don't make a decision about where you want to spend your eternity, you have made a choice - you will go to Hell. If you have not yet made the choice to repent of your sins and ask Jesus to live in your heart, You can go here for details on how to do that.  I pray that you do so soon and not put it off.  As reflected in some of my other posts on this blog, you never know when your time on Earth will be up.  You will then wish for all eternity that you had made the right choice.

That's all for now!  Thanks for reading!

Diane

8 days a week

There are those Christians who only think about Jesus one hour a week, during worship.  They do whatever they want the other 167 hours of the week.  They seldom read their Bibles, they don't pray, and they don't live the way that Jesus would have us live. Even worse are those who only attend church on Christmas or Easter, and ignore Jesus the rest of the year.

But that's not how Jesus wants us to live.  He wants us to have a relationship with Him.  To have a relationship with someone means that we spend time with them.  We talk to the other person.  We try to learn all we can about the other person so we know them more and love them even more.  We want the other person to be pleased with us.

I'm sure Jesus is grieved when Christians spend only an hour a week in His presence, when they don't read and study His Word, or when they don't spend time in prayer.  He loves them and wants to be their Friend.  He misses them when they don't spend time with Him.

Take a close look at your relationship with Jesus.  Are you as close to Him as you could be?  Do you spend time in His presence - praying to Him, reading His Word?  Do you live your life so that He would approve of it?  He wants us to live by the rules He has written in his Word.  And when we fail, (as we sometimes do), He forgives us and our relationship with Him is restored.

The Beatles once sang:  "Eight days a week is not enough to show I care."  There isn't enough earthly time to tell Jesus how much we love Him, how grateful we are that He died on the Cross for our sins and that we're saved.  However, we will have all eternity in Heaven to praise Him and show our love to Him.  I can't wait - can you?

Diane

Dark clouds

I was reading in 1 Kings 8 a couple weeks ago and discovered verse 12:  "Then Solomon spoke: The LORD said He would dwell in the dark cloud.'"  Then I thought about where else in Scripture the Lord is referred to as living in the dark cloud.  Exodus 20:21 (NLT) reads:  "As the people stood in the distance, Moses approached the dark cloud where God was." 

Are there dark clouds in your life, dear friend?  Are you depressed or anxious?  Do you have health problems? Do you have financial problems?  Are you unemployed?  Have you lost loved ones through death, divorce, or estrangement?

God is with you in these dark clouds as well.  In Isaiah 41:10 (NKJV), it says:  "Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."  I also love Isaiah 43:2 (NKJV), which reads:  "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;  And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you."

This song by Mandisa says it all - "He is With You."



God loves you, so don't be afraid to reach out to Him in prayer for whatever situation you find yourself in. He will help you through it.  I know from personal experience.

That's all for now!  My son is at Boy Scout camp next week, so I hope to be able to post more.  See you soon!

Diane

Paging the Ambassador

I was reading the other day in 2 Corinthians, and verse 20 in chapter 5 really caught my eye and got me thinking.  It reads:  "Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God." (NKJV).  The New Living Translation reads even better:  "So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, 'Come back to God!'”

So what exactly is an ambassador?  I looked it up at the Merriam-Webster Dictionary website and definition 2 A fits the above verse perfectly.  The definition is:  "an authorized representative or messenger."  Only a Christian can be an ambassador for Christ.  A non-believer in Christ does not qualify.

Definition number 1 listed for ambassador on the Merriam-Webster listing gives the definition of an ambassador in civil or governmental terms:  "an official envoy; especially : a diplomatic agent of the highest rank accredited to a foreign government or sovereign as the resident representative of his or her own government or sovereign or appointed for a special and often temporary diplomatic assignment."  The difference in our ambassadorship for Christ is that our diplomatic assignment is permanent, unless we backslide and move away from Christ.

Philippians 3:20 states that our citizenship is in Heaven.  "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. ." We are ambassadors of heaven, and the King we represent is Jesus.  So both Merriam-Webster definitions of "ambassador" fit. 

So how do we become good ambassadors?  Let's look at some Scriptures.  Colossians 3:12-17 (NLT) says:  "Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." (emphasis added)

By putting on Christ in our daily actions and words, we are His ambassadors - or representatives - in the world.  Colossians 4:5-6 further states:  "Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone."  We are called to be ambassadors of Christ to not only our fellow Christians, but unbelievers as well.  It is said that we are often the only Jesus that some folks see.  So take a look at your attitude and demeanor and purpose to show to the world and to fellow Christians that you are an ambassador of Christ.