Indiana Jones is a popular movie character. He is an archaeologist/professor/adventurer whose life is in constant peril. Going from crisis to crisis he is always seeking some elusive archeological treasure. Indiana Jones never lost his hat, but Paul never lost his faith. Paul ran a strong race and fought a good fight. He knew that he would be all right. He once said, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Jones faced danger for dead treasure. Paul gave his life for incorruptible glory. Cl
This devotion an audio podcast about the Apostle Paul and the treasure that was laid up in heaven for him. Click the link below to listen.
Jesus is my Savior. When I was a nine-year-old boy, I reached out my hand to Him and trusted Him with my life. I didn’t understand a lot about Him. But that was ok because He understood everything about me. My faith in Him was not misplaced. He has never failed me. I have many good friends and loved ones whom I can trust with things of this world, but for my eternal hope, I will trust in no other name than Jesus.
Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Light. No one can ever make their way to heaven except through Him. He is the only begotten Son of God. He came to do the will of His Father. It is the will of God that no one should be lost but that all should have eternal life. When the religious leaders instructed Peter not to preach in the name of Jesus, Peter said, “I think I will listen to God and not you.” Then Peter preached with the authority of God that there is no other name by which we might be saved than the name of Jesus.
If you trust Jesus, you will find in Him everything you need. When your life seems to be as dark as night, He is the Bright Morning Star. If your world seems to be crumbling around you, He is the Rock on which you can stand. If you feel lonely, you can know that He will always be there. His righteousness will wipe away your sin. If you are prone to wander in darkness, He is the Good Shepherd and the Light of Life.
Have you trusted Jesus and Jesus only for eternal salvation? I have heard His voice and I can tell you without a doubt that He, and He alone, can save your soul. Many things and people want to be a god to you. But Jesus is the only God who died to wipe away your sins. He rose from the dead to reveal that He alone can give you eternal life. In Christ alone, can you find Salvation? There is no other authority under Heaven by which you might be saved. No other name but JESUS.
He was a good man, a likable man. He worked hard to provide for his family because this is what good men do. He had no bad habits. He did not drink, do drugs, or cheat on his wife. He was a good man.
He had a daughter. A precious little girl. Man, he loved that little girl. He would do anything for his princess. They went fishing, they played tea party, anything she wanted. He went where ever she wanted to go. She took ballet lessons, and he watched. She played soccer, he watched, she wanted to go to a movie he was happy to go.
He loved his precious little girl. He took her everywhere, except, well, he didn’t take her to church. He just didn’t think the church was necessary. Just didn’t care for it. He said, “Church is okay for some men, but not for me, I can do without it.” He loved his little girl, but he never took her to church.
One day he died, sooner or later everyone dies. He went to hell, that is where you go if you die without Christ in your life. He did not have Christ in his life, so, he went to hell.
Hell did not seem so bad, not near as bad as he had been told. He had been told it would be unbearably hot, but it didn’t seem to be that bad. He said, “I can handle this.” and he thought he could. But then. He heard it. The screaming. The bloodcurdling, agonizing screaming.
He recognized the voice. It was his little girl, his precious little girl.
He ran toward the sound, and he saw her. Demons were tormenting her. Imagine the worst things that could possibly be done to a little girl. He ran toward her, he was going to rescue his baby.
But! There was an invisible wall. He could not get through. He could not get to his little girl. And the demons—– and she screamed, and screamed—- He pounded on the invisible wall, and she screamed, and screamed.
Then he heard the voice, the evil voice, laughing at his agony. Satan said, you did not need God, you thought hell was not bad. This is your hell. For eternity, forever, you will watch and listen as your little girl is violated, beaten, and tormented by my demons. Forever!!
And then, his little girl saw her daddy. She screamed at him. The little mouth that used to sing for daddy, the little mouth that used to say, “ I love my daddy”. The little mouth screamed at him, “ DAMN YOU, DADDY, you could have taken me to church, you could have let me learn about Jesus, I would have believed in Him. I would be in heaven. But you said the church was not important, you said we did not need Jesus. I WISH I HAD JESUS! DAMN YOUR ETERNAL SOUL, DADDY!
This is not a true story, it is not about any particular people. I don’t know what hell is like, but I know it is an awful place. I know that it is a place of torment. I know that Jesus died on the cross so that no one HAS to go there. I know that no one goes to the Father, except through Jesus. I know that a daddy has a tremendous influence on his children. I know that Jesus said, “ let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them.” He also said, “Whoever causes one of these little ones to sin, it would be better if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
These things I do know. I also know that a lot of daddies don’t think they need church or Jesus. But one day——
When I consider the remarkable world that I live in I am amazed by this one fact, it did not cost God anything to create it. His power and might are such that the efforts of creation were nothing to him. The words that He spoke to bring the light from darkness did not leave Him with any fewer words. The breath that He breathed to give life to man did not leave Him with any less breath. He is limitless. And in His omnipotence, there will never be less of God than there has ever been.
No, there was no expense at all for God when He flooded the whole world or gave Sarah a baby. It did not affect His budget in the least when He parted the Red Sea or knocked down the walls of Jericho. His bank account did not shrink at all when He made deposits of courage in the heart of a giant fighting shepherd boy or an evil queen-fighting prophet. It does not matter what God does, He has never been broke or tired or diminished by His expenditures.
When I consider the tremendous future I have in God’s Kingdom, I am struck by this one fact. It cost God everything to purchase my salvation. The Ten Commandments He gave to guide me were not enough to save me. The prophets He sent to teach me could not impart eternal life. And the words that He spoke to shine light into my darkness could not brighten my way. To save me God had to give all.
So He did. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Your value, my value to Him is so much that He gave His all, His very Son, His very self to purchase your pardon, to redeem you from certain death. His love for you cost Him everything. Please don’t waste His tremendous extravagance. Give your all to Him, because He gave His Son for you.
Blessed are the poor in spirit because you realize that God has chosen you to be rich in faith. Your poverty will be rewarded with the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn over their sinfulness because Godly sorrow brings repentance. Repentance leads to Salvation that leaves no regrets.
Blessed are the meek. Your gentle power comes from the knowledge that you can do anything through Christ who gives you strength.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. You know that the righteousness of God is the only thing that will bring justice to this world. You have this promise, one day God will satisfy your hunger.
Blessed are the merciful. Your life is full of compassion, kindness and humility. You forgive as quickly and completely as Jesus forgave you. Because you show mercy, you will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart. Your desire is to live a life free from sin. In order to serve God, You store His Word in your heart. Because of the purity of your heart, you will draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Blessed are the peacemakers. You have let the peace of God rule in your heart so you will be known as a child of God.
You are blessed when you are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. This world is not your home. The people who are at home in this world will always hate God’s servants. In this world you will be abused and harassed. People will always report evil lies about you. However through it all you can find joy and great happiness because yours is the Kingdom of Heaven. You are truly blessed because great is your reward in Heaven.
I feel like we may have been misled. Most of us were told that all we had to do was repeat the sinner’s prayer and we would be saved. After saying the sinner’s prayer most of us were led to believe that living for Jesus was going to be easy. But it ain’t.
As a nine year old boy, I repeated the sinner’s prayer and was saved. Yet it was not the words I prayed that saved me, it was my faith in Jesus. At the time I did not understand much about Jesus, but I trusted Him. The amazing thing is He understood everything about me, yet He still trusted me with the gift of salvation.
Yes it is easy to receive salvation. You don’t have to do anything or say anything. All you have to do is trust Jesus and surrender your life to Him. However, regardless of what you may have been led to believe, it ain’t easy to live for Jesus after you’re saved. I know. I am sixty five years old. I have been saved since I was nine. Yet I still struggle with the same sins I struggled with as a teenager. I thought it would get easier, but it didn’t.
Jesus never promised that walking with Him would be easy. He told us that in this world we would have trials and tribulations. But He he did promise that His grace would be sufficient. The perfection of His power is revealed when we are weak. So when I struggle with sin, I know the Lord God helps me and I will never be disgraced. For this reason I am determined to be hardheaded as I face the world and I know I will never be put to shame. It is Jesus Christ who has vindicated me and He will never be far from me. Together with Him I will stand. because life in this world ain’t easy.
“But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.“
(2 Thessalonians 2:13-14)
Do you remember the old schoolyard ritual of choosing teams? Remember how the two oldest or biggest would appoint themselves captains then pick their teams. They would always start by choosing the biggest or strongest or the ones with the most talent. One by one they would choose while the ones who were not so big or strong or talented would stand looking at their toes hoping and praying that this time, they would not be the last one picked.
And there was always the one, “maybe it was you” that was not really chosen at all. The captain who was cursed with the LAST pick would look at you and say, I guess I will have to take you. Then you would play right field and bat last.
I have some good news for you. The biggest Captain of all time has chosen His team and guess what, He chose you, and He picked you first. The Bible tells you in Ephesians 1:4 that; He chose you — before the foundation of the world, that you should be holy and without blame before Him in love,” (Ephesians 1:4)
Now for the life of me I cannot understand how God does it! He has chosen all of us and we are all His first pick. But I don’t have to understand it. I just trust Him and know that it is true. He looked at me and named me as His V.I.P. I don’t stand around looking at my toes anymore because God chose me.
I refuse to insult my intelligence by watching any of the alphabet soup propaganda networks on TV. However, recently I read that one of their vacuous talking heads insinuated that no intelligent person believes the Bible. That same morning in my daily Bible reading I was encouraged by Second Samuel Chapter 22. So this is what I have to say to all of Beelzebub’s cranium deficient mouth pieces on TV.
God is a rock, a fortress and He is my protection. A shield and a refuge, He is my place of safety. If the waves of destruction and death sweep over me, I will cry out to Him. I know He will hear me because my prayers are prioritized in heaven’s throne room.
I am an extremely sinful person. But because of the blood of Jesus Christ, God sees me to be blameless. If I seem to be bragging, it is because I have a great and powerful God to brag on.
He has reached down from Heaven to rescue me and He will continue to shield me from a strong and powerful enemy who hates me.
You may say, “I see no God, therefore there is no God.” Understand this. To the pure, God reveals Himself to be pure. To those with integrity, He shows His integrity and to the faithful, HE IS the manifestation of faithfulness. If you have eyes to see, He is the light of life. However, if you choose to remain in your blindness, for you He has reserved eternal darkness.
Satan is the prince of the power of the air waves and he comes to kill, steal and destroy. From many screens he spews excrement into our homes. He uses poor deluded fools to attack the Word of God and the faith of His people. His goal is to deceive people into worshipping the puny and putrid gods of this world.
But the Bible is perfect and true. In its pages I feel the breath of God and hear the voice of my Savior. Because of the infallible Word of God, I know the Lord lives. I shout praises to the Rock of my salvation. Everyone must choose who they will worship. But as for me and my house we will serve the one true God who is our Savior, Jesus Christ. If that makes me a fool, then I am a fool for God.
Pavement Ends Ministry 