Tag: Love

This weekend kicks off Thanksgiving break here in America!  My wife and kids get the entire week off, which is a huge blessing.  We are really looking forward to spending time together.  That is what Thanksgiving is all about!  Loving each other and being thankful to God for everything!

Aren’t those wild turkeys great?!  They live here in our neighborhood and they roam wherever they please.  They are usually down near the Cottonwood trees at the bottom of the little valley we live in, but sometimes they wander through everyone’s yards.  We even had them in our backyard once.  My Mom took that photo when she was out visiting one year.  The mama was leading the babies across the street we live on.  So cute!  God’s creation is amazing!

Thanksgiving goes all the way back to the pilgrims, as so many of us American kids depicted in our elementary school plays.  What they didn’t tell us was that those pilgrims most likely would have died if the Natives had not helped them.  I am sure they were very thankful indeed to sit down at that first feast with the Natives who saved their lives.

As many of you know, I love history.  In keeping with Thanksgiving and American history, here is a fun fact: I have Native American blood in my family line from my Mom’s side.  My Mom’s ancestry is from Germany and my Dad’s side is from County Cork, Ireland (hence the name Callahan).  My Mom researched our genealogy and found out that my Great (times 6) Grandfather (Johann) Jacob Steinkoenig (later changed to Stoneking), immigrated from Mutterstad, Germany to America in 1747 (29 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence).  In 1748 he married a famous Native American Princess from the Seneca tribe named Summer Eve Aliquippa.  Summer Eve’s mother was the famous Queen Aliquippa, a Chieftess of the Seneca people.  Her father was the famous Oppaymolleh Straight Tail, a Seneca Spiritual Chief.  Jacob and Summer Eve had two children and from that blood line I was born about 230 years later.  Summer Eve was my Great (times 6) Grandmother, and that is just really cool to me!

Check this out!  I even found a photo of Summer Eve Aliquippa online!  The daughter of Queen Aliquippa!  Truly incredible!

I encourage you to look up her mother Queen Aliquippa.  She is quite famous in American history.  George Washington even met with her and she was instrumental in the Colonial wars in America.  She also founded the Seneca community known as “Aliquippa’s Town.”

It is a great honor to be a descendant of Queen Aliquippa, Oppaymolleh, and Summer Eve!  If it were not for the Seneca people in America, I would not be here writing this today.  May the Lord pour out blessing and reveal Himself to the Seneca people and all the Native tribes in America!  I most likely have cousins among the Seneca that I have never met and I pray blessing and peace over you all in the Name of Jesus, our only God and Savior.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16

 

Here is a quote from the Seneca Nation of Indians website sni.org:

I love learning about my family’s history and I am very thankful to be a part of the rich history of the Seneca people.  What an amazing life my Great (x6) Grandpa Jacob had!  He ended up living through the American Revolutionary War time period and he died in 1785 in Washington County, Pennsylvania.  I don’t know if he fought in the War, but he and Summer Eve lived in the East, so they would have been right in the thick of it.  Summer Eve was born in Bedford, Pennsylvania in 1726 and she died on December 23rd, 1774 in the town of her birth.  I don’t have any further information about Summer Eve and Jacob, but their children sparked a big family tree that is still going today through my children, my sister’s children, and all my cousins.  Praise God!

I am so thankful for family and I love you all!  Loving God and loving each other is what life is all about!  May we always take care of each other and love like Jesus loves us!

What are you thankful for this year?  As we approach Thanksgiving day, may we think about all God has done in our lives and praise Him with hearts full of thankfulness!  God is so very good and faithful to us and He is worthy of our praise!

Grace and peace to you all and Happy Thanksgiving!

“Praise the Lord.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

his love endures forever.”

Psalm 106:1

 

 

 

 

Most of you know that I am from Colorado.  I enjoy taking photos and I enjoy sharing them, so tonight I would like to show you some recent Rocky Mountain sunset shots from earlier this month.  I am posting this late because I had a dentist appointment today, so I figured I would just share a few photos and a couple verses from God’s Word.  God bless you all, enjoy!

“Praise the LORD, O my soul.

O LORD my God, you are very great;

you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

He wraps himself in light as with a

garment;

he stretches out the heavens like a tent

and lays the beams of his upper

chambers on their waters.

He makes the clouds his chariot

and rides on the wings of the wind.”

Psalm 104:1-3

Praise the Lord!  God reveals his splendor and majesty in His creation and it is beautiful!  Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins!

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 6:23

Grace and peace to you all!

 

 

I received a message from WordPress the other day with a little pin letting me know there are now 1,000 people subscribed to my blog.  All I can say is praise God!  Somewhere in-between all my suffering and breaks from writing over the last year and three months of blogging, the Lord has continued to use this blog according to His will and purpose.  I am very grateful and it is so cool to see how God is using it to spread the Gospel around the world!  Thank you all for coming to my blog and giving Jesus and His Word a chance!  Thank You Jesus!

I don’t write this post as some kind of trophy of numbers.  That is not at all what this blog is about and it’s not what I’m about.  There are currently 1,016 people (including email subscribers) from 136 countries around the world reading my blog.  Those are not just numbers on a page as if we are keeping score in some insane social media popularity game.  That is not why I started blogging and that is not why I wrote my testimony and published it.  Those numbers represent actual people and Jesus is all about loving people!

The Lord has done many miracles in my life and He told me to share what He has done for me and preach His truth to the world!  This blog is about loving people and souls getting saved!  This is a calling and a mission to preach the Gospel in fulfillment of the Lord’s command in Matthew 28:18-20!

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior in October of 1996, and I have been preaching the Gospel here in America for 23 years now.  Back in early 2018, the Lord told me He was going to use me to preach the message of the Gospel to the world, and that is exactly what He has done with this blog and continues to do to this day.  May His will be done!

“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Romans 3:22-24

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 6:23

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

That is why God called me to write this blog!  Each and every one of those numbers in the 1,016 represent a human soul that God created and loves!  They represent all of you!  Beautiful souls that Jesus died for to set free from sin and death!  That is what this blog is about!  Just like my mission statement says at the top of my blog, this site is about helping people come to Jesus, helping people understand the Bible, and ministering to a lost and hurting world.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16

And the world is lost and hurting, is it not?  Very much so!  We all need a Savior and His Name is Jesus.  He is the only One who ever died for our sins to reconcile us back to God.  There is no other Name by which we can be saved.  That is why this blog is all about the hope, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love of Jesus Christ!  Only Jesus can wash away our sins and save us!  Jesus Christ is Lord!

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Acts 4:12

Thank you to all of you who have stuck with me since I started the blog on August 10th, 2018!  It has been an amazing journey of God’s grace and I am just thankful to be a part of it.  All of you encourage and inspire me every day to stand up strong and keep going and I pray this blog is a source of blessing and encouragement for all of you as well!  I truly pray people will come to know Jesus because of something they read here.  My entire purpose and heart for this blog is to preach the Gospel to the world unashamed.

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…”

Romans 1:16

“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Romans 10:9

“for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 10:13

That is the truth and power of the Gospel!  Jesus can save anyone at anytime and you are never too far gone for Jesus to save you!  That forgiveness and salvation is offered to every single human soul on earth no matter where you are in the world, amen!  Call on Jesus to save you and He will save your soul!

I also want to say welcome to all the new folks that subscribed to my blog while I was taking a long break in October and the first part of November!  Thank you all for reading my blog!  I look forward to getting to know you all!  I pray this is a place of rest where people can get to know Jesus and learn from God’s Word in peace.

As writers, we always have to consider our audience.  When I write now, I think of all of you and all the countries you are from.  I read your blogs and enjoy learning about your interests, cultures, and beliefs.  I pray for you as I read about your troubles and challenges as well.  Part of my ministry is also sharing things about my life, my suffering, and my walk with Jesus, and I hope that helps people get an inside look at how God works in the lives of those who love and follow Him.

The Lord has done mighty miracles in my life and He can do the same for you!  God still sends angels (and yes, they most definitely exist), He still casts out demons (yes, they exist too), and He still does Lazarus miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit!  I am living proof of all those things and I am here to tell you that nothing is impossible for God!

It is so exciting to see God’s Word go out into all the world!  If any of you ever have any questions or need prayer, please let me know!  Also, if you have accepted Jesus by faith as a result of reading my blog, please let me know!  I would love to rejoice with you and pray for you!  I am here to help as an Ambassador of Christ and I freely give what He has freely given to me.  I am just a servant of the Most High God, the One and Only, King of kings and Lord of lords and I am here to bring glory to His Holy Name…the Holy Name of Jesus!

“Give thanks to the LORD, call on his

name;

make known among the nations what

he has done.”

Psalm 105:1

Grace and peace to you all!

 

 

 

 

 

Hello everyone and God bless you all!  I have been having trouble writing the last few days because I am in pain again.  I have been fighting it all morning and I am exhausted.  I honestly don’t know what to write today and I have been praying about what the Lord would like to say, but all I can think of is “be honest about the pain.”  So, here I am doing just that.

Yes, I am in pain, but I will press on.  I am leaning into Jesus and resting in Him.  More like, I am totally exhausted and He is carrying me.  And you know what?  That’s okay.  Sometimes, all we can do is fall into the arms of Jesus and let Him hold us and comfort us.

I have been asking the Lord for mercy today.  I have prayed that He would pour out His Holy Spirit on me and heal me.  I know He can do miracles.  He has done them in my life before.  I am also asking for strength to endure.  I know the Lord will work all of this out for my good because I am His and He loves me.  I love Him and I have been called according to His purpose.  May His will be done!

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Romans 8:28

The Lord brought this verse to my mind yesterday and I prayed that He would empower me to do what it says:

“So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”

1 Peter 4:19

Amen!  I know the Lord is faithful and I know He still has good plans for me and my family!  The Christian life is not a life void of suffering.  On the contrary, many of us bear a cross of suffering and we must press on for Jesus.  There is a reason.  He has not left us and He never will!  God has a will and a purpose and it will all be revealed in time.  May we overflow with hope as we trust in Him!

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 15:13

Jesus Christ is Lord!  May His will be done in all things!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16

Grace and peace to you all!

The sun is going down here in Colorado and it will be traveling to the other side of the world now giving heat and light to my friends overseas.  Enjoy it!  It was almost 60 here today and I enjoyed it very much.  This post is a bit late, so I will keep it short and sweet.  I have been trying to write a post all day, but errands must be done at times.  As I watch the setting sun tonight, I just want to say that I am so thankful to God for everything He has done in my life!  He is the God who performs miracles and wonders and He is worthy of our praise!

Despite Celiac and all I have suffered, the joy in my heart from knowing Jesus and being filled with the Holy Spirit is all consuming!  I just want to stop and give the Lord some praise!  Thank You for another day Lord!  Thank You for the breath in my lungs!  Thank You for saving me when I stopped breathing!  Thank You for never leaving me!  Thank You for being merciful to me even in Your discipline!  Thank You for treating me as a son You love!  Thank You for Your forgiveness and grace!  I am forever grateful to You Lord, may Your will be done, amen!

I love worshiping the Lord!  I did a post about Kanye yesterday.  I have been listening to his album all day and giving Jesus big praise.  Here is an awesome video of Kanye and his Dad on Kanye’s 4,000 acres in Cody, Wyoming.  That’s not too far from us actually.  This is a really cool music video and I love his outdoor toys and watching them play in the snow.  I love ATVs, trucks, and all that, so this is fun to watch.  The vehicle with the giant tires is awesome!  Kanye is like us mountain men!  His Dad is a strong believer and has been for a long time.  So cool to see their family’s joy.  It’s amazing how Jesus changes people’s hearts!  The song is called “Follow God.”  I love the honesty in the song and the beat is sweet, enjoy!

“Praise the LORD, O my soul;

all my inmost being, praise his holy

name.”

Psalm 103:1

Thank You Jesus for everything!  Thank You for saving my soul!  Thank You for dying for the whole world!

Have a beautiful blessed evening, and for those of you catching the sun now, have a beautiful blessed day!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16

Grace and peace to you all!

 

Hello friends and family!  I am still here and this disease is not going to beat me!  I feel like I have been in a back alley brawl for the last month.  I haven’t even written a blog post since September 30th!  I celebrated my one year blogging anniversary on August 10th and everything was going great, then I got hit again and I kept getting hit, but God is faithful to fight for me every time.  Thank you so much for praying for me!  Your prayers and your messages of encouragement lifted me up!  Jesus has been giving me the strength I need to carry on and He is helping me get back up after getting knocked down hard.  I never took my hand from the plow.  I’ve just been resting on the plow and I never left the field.

Thank you to all of you on Twitter who have been praying for our family as well!  During my break from blogging due to suffering, our daughter got sick again.  She ended up having strep twice in October and she has it again right now.  She is actually home with me again today.  I sent out a prayer request yesterday for her on Twitter and I thought maybe a couple people would see it.  God had other plans and He blessed it huge and it went viral!  So far almost 500 believers have liked it, 83 have retweeted it, and the prayers just keep coming in!  It is so amazing how much God loves us!  I had been feeling so dismayed and discouraged and the Lord showed me His love and faithfulness yet again.  I am so humbled and encouraged by all of your prayers!  She is actually feeling great today with no fever and no sore throat, praise God!

A big part of my prayer request tweet going viral was because my friend Lizzie retweeted it on her Twitter and she has almost 17,000 people on her account.  She is the brave woman who spoke out about the problems in California and she ended up on Fox News.  I wrote about that back in August.  Thank you so much Lizzie for retweeting the prayer request for our daughter!  I have never had an outpouring of support like that on Twitter before!

I want to let you all know that Lizzie just started a blog here on WordPress too!  Please check out her blog and welcome her to the fellowship!  Lizzie loves Jesus with all her heart and she preaches the truth unashamed with boldness and grace.  You can find her at: The Concrete Rosebud (concreterosebud.com).

So, you can imagine, October was a tough month for us.  I tried to get back to blogging several times, but I was going through so much pain and nausea that I just had to rest.  Winter came early here in Colorado too and we had quite a bit of snow.  On top of that, I was taking care of our daughter through two bouts of strep (and now a third time).  I felt so hopeless when she got it a third time a couple days ago right at the start of the very next month.  Thankfully we caught it early and she has a different antibiotic this time that is working great.  Please continue to pray for her.  Celiac disease lowers her immune system and it is nuts that she has had strep three times in less than two months.  Thank you all for your prayers of healing for our family!

I was really beat down and discouraged by all the suffering in October.  I also dealt with some anger and I had some more strong conversations with God.  I wasn’t even sure if I was coming back to blogging at one point.  I didn’t want to discourage anyone and I was feeling very angry and broken about my pain and the pain our daughter was going through.  When I am hurting I tend to go totally reclusive like an old bear in a cave, but God always climbs in there and pulls me out in His loving grace.  I praise Him and thank Him that He is so gracious and merciful to us.

Through the pain, God put it on my heart to read Psalms.  That is pretty much all I read during this last month away from blogging.  The Lord led me to Psalm 57 and Psalm 77 shortly after I wrote the post “Giving Him My Brokenness.”  It was very encouraging and the Lord let me know that He was right there with me in the pain.  We must always stay in God’s Word no matter what we are going through.  There is so much light and power and joy in God’s Word!  Praise God for the wisdom and understanding He gives us in the Holy Spirit!  The Lord is so comforting and loving to us!  Don’t ever give up seeking the Lord no matter how bad the pain!

“I cried out to God for help;

I cried out to God to hear me.

When I was in distress, I sought the

Lord;

at night I stretched out untiring

hands

and my soul refused to be comforted.

I remembered you, O God, and I

groaned;

I mused, and my spirit grew faint.

Selah

You kept my eyes from closing;

I was too troubled to speak.

I thought about the former days,

the years of long ago;

I remembered my songs in the night.

My heart mused and my spirit

inquired:

“Will the Lord reject forever?

Will he never show his favor again?

Has his unfailing love vanished forever?

Has his promise failed for all time?

Has God forgotten to be merciful?

Has he in anger withheld his

compassion?”

Selah

Then I thought, “To this I will appeal:

the years of the right hand of the

Most High.”

I will remember the deeds of the LORD;

yes, I will remember your miracles of

long ago.

I will meditate on all your works

and consider all your mighty deeds.

Your ways, O God, are holy.

What god is so great as our God?

You are the God who performs miracles;

you display your power among the

peoples.”

Psalm 77:1-14

“Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy

on me,

for in you my soul takes refuge.

I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings

until the disaster has passed.

I cry out to God Most High,

to God, who fulfills his purpose for

me.

He sends from heaven and saves me,

rebuking those who hotly pursue me;

Selah

God sends his love and his

faithfulness.”

Psalm 57:1-3

Those verses spoke to my heart in a deeply profound way.  There have been times during my suffering that I have felt rejected.  There have been times where the pain put me in a state of mind where I wondered if God was with me at all.  Many times I have been too troubled to speak.  Many times I have been so discouraged I refused to be comforted.  Many times I have cried out to God.  Through it all the Lord has never left me!  He has always shown me that He still loves me and He is with me!  His love, promises, mercy, and compassion never fail!

I remember the miracles He has done in my life and the amazing ways He has revealed His power to me and I rejoice!  I take refuge in Jesus and He is merciful to me.  I know He will fulfill His purpose for me, amen!  I celebrated 23 years walking with Jesus in October and I look forward to being with Him many more years and into eternity!  He has never abandoned me and He never will!

The pain I was in has subsided for now and I pray it doesn’t come back.  As many of you know, I have been fighting Celiac for almost eight years now and sometimes it really knocks me down hard.  Just remember, this disease might knock me down, but it is not going to keep me down!  In the power of the Holy Spirit I can take a hit and just keep going!  God most definitely always sends His love and faithfulness!

I really missed having fellowship with you all while I was gone.  I missed reading everyone’s blogs too and I look forward to talking with you all again!  Thank you for all the encouraging comments, tweets, and emails you sent while I was in my bear cave of suffering!  I appreciate all of you who reached out to me and prayed for our family!

I give it all to Jesus and I will continue in the purpose He has for me to preach the Gospel (John 3:16, Romans 10:9, Ephesians 2:8-9) and share His Word with the world!  May His perfect will be done!  Here I am Lord, send me!

Grace and peace to you all in the Beautiful and Powerful Name of Jesus!

“My heart is steadfast, O God,

my heart is steadfast;

I will sing and make music.

Awake, my soul!

Awake, harp and lyre!

I will awaken the dawn.

I will praise you, O Lord, among the

nations;

I will sing of you among the peoples.

For great is your love, reaching to the

heavens;

your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;

let your glory be over all the earth.”

Psalm 57:7-11

 

 

 

 

 

Hello friends and family.  I hope this post finds you well.  I am writing this today because I am in pain and it is wearing me down.  I have been fighting Celiac and Cachexia for almost eight years now.  The new pain I have been suffering due to intestinal damage has been bad the past few months and it started about a year ago.  It was very painful over the weekend and it has been very painful today and I have had enough.  It is just more suffering on top of suffering and I am crying out to God for healing.  I have asked you all to pray for me many times because it says in the Word to pray for each other that we may be healed.  The doctors have told me they can’t do anything for me.  My trust and hope is in God alone.  He is the only One who can help me.  There is no cure for what I suffer.  The only cure is a miracle.

I am only 41 and most days I feel so broken that I don’t know how I am going to make it the rest of my life.  I am trusting in the Lord because I know He can do anything and nothing is impossible for Him!  He has done miracles in my life before and I know He can do it again!

I am going to be taking a break for awhile.  I don’t know for how long.  I will be taking a break from reading blogs and writing posts.  If you don’t see me on your blog, I’m not ignoring you, I just need to deal with this pain and be in prayer.  I just need rest.

I need to spend quiet time with the Lord.  I am trying to understand what has happened to my life and I am asking God to heal me.  I want to hear His voice clearly and I need to know where to go from here.  I will continue to draw near to Him and seek Him first and I am giving Him my pain and brokenness.  I have done what He asked me to do with publishing my testimony and writing this blog for Him.  May His will be done with it all.

My life is in His hands.  Whether I live or die is in His hands.  Whether I am healed or the thorn remains is in His hands.  All I know is a man can only take so much pain and humiliation and everyone has their breaking point.  I have cried out to God and I have plenty of faith that He can heal me.  I have seen Him move in power and do wonders!  He can do anything at anytime!  May His will be done with my pain and my life!  May His will be done in everything!

Thank you for your prayers!  I hope to be back soon!

Always remember that Jesus is love and He loves you!  I know He still loves me and He is with me even now as I write this through the pain.  I give it all to Jesus, may His will be done!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16

Grace and peace to you all!

P.S.

October is my salvation month!  I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior in October of 1996 at the age of 18 my freshman year in college.  It has been 23 years now that I have walked with the Lord.  I look forward to writing more about that in October.  See you then!

 

I was reading in the Book of Acts this morning, and I was encouraged by the historical account of Paul and Silas in prison.  It is found in chapter 16 and I am excited to share this section of Scripture with you!  It is incredible what they went through that day and this is just one of the many incredible events in the Bible!  I invite you to read these verses with me and be encouraged by how the Lord works in our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit!

This story takes place when Paul and Silas traveled to Philippi to preach the Gospel.  Philippi was a thriving city in the Roman empire and it was the lead city of that district.  It was also filled with idolatry and violence and it was very dangerous for them to be there preaching about Jesus.

“From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia.  And we stayed there several days.”

Acts 16:12

What is so cool about the New Testament books is that they are very personal letters.  They are personal testimonies and eye witness accounts of what happened during the time of Jesus and what happened after He ascended into Heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to his disciples and all who would believe.  The Book of Acts is a historical record of Jesus ascending to the right hand of the Father in Heaven, the Holy Spirit coming down to earth like fire, how the apostles formed the early church, and how they went out into all the world to share the Gospel in fulfillment of the Great Commission by the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit.  It is filled with amazing miracles and after reading it, you will have a great understanding of what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit and truly follow Jesus!  The same miracles of Acts are still happening today and I have testified to that truth in my own life!  The Lord still sends angels, He still casts out demons, He still does miracles where He brings people back to life, and the Holy Spirit can still sound like a rushing wind, amen!

The author of Acts is commonly believed to be Luke, who also wrote the Book of Luke.  It does not specifically state who wrote Acts in the introduction, but Luke 1:1-4 and Acts 1:1-3 show it was Luke.  It was written sometime between A.D. 61 and 64 only 28 to 31 years after Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead.  Luke was also a doctor (see Colossians 4:14).

“Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.  Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”

Luke 1:1-4

“In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.  After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.  He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.”

Acts 1:1-3

Did you know Jesus stayed with his followers for forty days after He rose from the dead?!  How cool is that?!  That is really cool, and how incredibly comforting that must have been to them!  That is just one of the many awesome things you will learn reading the Book of Acts!

Now that we have the stage set, let’s take a look as Luke shares the true historical account of Paul and Silas in prison:

“Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future.  She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.  This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”  She kept this up for many days.  Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!”  At that moment the spirit left her.

When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.  They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten.  After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.  Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.  Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.  At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose.  The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.  But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself!  We are all here!”

The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.  He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved–you and your household.”  Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.  At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.  The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God–he and his whole family.

When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.”  The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released.  Now you can leave.  Go in peace.”

Acts 16:16-36

What an amazing day Paul and Silas had!  First they cast a demon out of a girl, then they are arrested, stripped naked, beaten, flogged, and imprisoned, then God does a great miracle and shakes the earth for them, then Paul stops the suicide of a Roman guard, and then the guard and his whole family get saved and the man takes care of their wounds and feeds them!  Praise God!

You might wonder why the guard was going to kill himself.  The life of a Roman soldier was hard, brutal, and violent.  He thought the prisoners had escaped, which meant he failed at doing his job.  The penalty for such a mistake would have been death.  If the prisoners had escaped, he was already a dead man, so he was going to end his own life.  Paul had great compassion and love to stay inside the prison, so the man could live!

When the man washed their wounds that they had received from the severe flogging, what kind of wounds did you imagine?  The Roman flogging whip had sharp jagged bones and metal spikes and balls embedded in the whipping strands.  It was not just a whip.  It would literally cut into the person’s back and tear it with every horrible stroke.  They would have had large open gashes all over their backs and they were in excruciating pain.  And that is what happened to them after they were stripped and beaten first!  It was a great blessing that the newly saved Roman guard took care of them with such love and compassion.  The man just about ran his own sword through himself!  What an amazing miracle that he was saved in such a mighty way!

It is so beautiful that Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God while they were in such terrible pain sitting inside a Roman prison cell.  What a powerful testimony as the other prisoners listened to them sing and pray in the power of the Holy Spirit!  What amazing hope and trust in God!

Do you see how powerful the Holy Spirit truly is inside of us?!  Demons still have to flee when they are commanded to get out in the Name of Jesus!  Whether it is the Apostle Paul, or me, or you, those filled with the Holy Spirit have the power of God inside of them!  That is exactly what I said in December of 1996 (just two months after I was saved at the age of 18) when I ran from room to room in my parent’s house casting that demon out!  I said, “I cast you out in the Name of Jesus Christ!”  I had never felt such power inside me before!  The Holy Spirit is so amazing and beautiful and powerful, and trust me when I say that you need to know Jesus Christ to overcome evil!  I love how Paul just turned around and rebuked that evil spirit out of the girl!  So awesome!

What a simple, humble, and powerful question the guard asked Paul and Silas!  What must I do to be saved?  There is only one answer that Paul and Silas gave him: believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved!

That is the only answer that can save us still today!  If you want to go to Heaven, you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and He will save your soul!  The stories in Acts are all true and similar miraculous events are still happening in our time by the power of the Holy Spirit!  The Lord is still moving in power among us and nothing is impossible for God!

Believe in Jesus today and you will be saved!  That promise is for you, your whole family, and everyone in the whole world!  Jesus loves you!  Just like with the Roman guard, Jesus does not want you to perish!  Jesus cares for you and He died for you, so you could be free from sin and death and have eternal life!  That is why Paul and Silas stayed in the prison!  That is why they could still sing and pray after being beaten so badly!  They had the love, compassion, and strength of Jesus inside of them by the power of the Holy Spirit!  What must you do to be saved?  Believe in Jesus!

“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

The Apostle Paul in Romans 10:9

It’s just that simple, beautiful, and powerful folks!  The same amazing grace that saved the Roman soldier can save you too!  God can save anyone and no one is ever too far gone to be saved!

Grace and peace to you all!

 

 

 

 

There is a promise in the Bible that is so big it is for entire nations.  You will find it in the Book of Psalms and there is great blessing in obeying what it says.  Most nations do not do what it says, but if any nation does do what it says, it will bring great blessing to that nation.

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the

LORD,

the people he chose for his

inheritance.”

Psalm 33:12

Now we know the Old Testament is talking about Israel and they are “the people” David is writing about.  However, this promise is for any nation whose God is the LORD.  God loved the world so much that He died for us, all of us!  If the nations would just submit to the God of all creation, they would be blessed!  Blessed is the nation who believes in the LORD!

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

2 Chronicles 7:13-14

I am crying out to God for my nation and all the nations of the world and asking Him to spread holy revival!  Just as that promise holds great blessing, it also holds a great warning.  When a nation does not glorify the God of all creation and they reject Him, they also reject that great blessing!  “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD!”  It does not say blessed is the nation who believes in a god or gods or atheism or secularism.  It says “whose God is the LORD.”

How can the nations receive that great blessing for their entire nation to be blessed by God?  We must receive Jesus Christ!  Jesus is Lord, He was with God in the beginning, and all things were created through Him!  God came to earth as a man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He died for us on a cross, so we could be free from sin and death and have eternal life!  When a nation submits to God and accepts His plan of salvation through Jesus, they are grafted into that promise of national blessing!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16

Here in America, we have been in a serious political fight for a long time.  We are approaching the big 2020 presidential election and we are living in a time where those who don’t believe in God are continually pushing to remove all restraint from depravity and wickedness.  They arrogantly and violently march in the streets calling for sin to rule the day, and they demand that everyone submit to their sinful ideology.  We must stand firm in Christ!  There is no blessing for a nation that rejects God!

We must stand with the Lord against abortion, the homosexual agenda (which even includes pedophilia now!), and the tide of liberal wickedness as they push socialism and communism as the answer for our nation’s salvation!  Look at Cuba and Venezuela and every other country that has gone down that dark road!  That is not what we ever want here in America!  Only Jesus can save us!  Yes, the end is coming.  That does not mean we just give up and stop fighting back!  We fight the good fight until our very last breath!

“Fight the good fight of the faith.  Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

1 Timothy 6:12

If we allow those who hate God to rule this country, there will be great suffering in our land!  I strongly disagree with anyone who thinks a believer in Christ should not speak truth to power regarding politics.  Jesus Himself spoke the truth to the rulers of His time, both Jewish and Roman!  Remember why John the Baptist was beheaded?  That’s right, because he told the king he couldn’t have his brother’s wife.  Don’t ever be afraid to speak the truth!

“When the righteous thrive, the people

rejoice;

when the wicked rule, the people

groan.”

Proverbs 29:2

I am sick and tired of the sinful liberal agenda in my country!  I am sick of them telling us we can’t talk about Jesus in the schools or have the Bible in our schools, but it is okay for them to demand that every part of their immoral and sickening gay agenda be taught to our kids!  Hypocrites!  Thank God for charter schools!  Our kids don’t have to listen to those sick lies full of sin and death!  Our family stands strong against the lies of those in our nation who hate God.

If you truly want America to be blessed, then pray for revival and ask Him to strike down the liberal agenda!  Ask the Lord to rise up righteous leaders who honor and glorify His Name!  Stand in the gap and ask for forgiveness for all the evils our nation has committed!  May we humble ourselves and seek the Lord’s face and pray!  May our whole nation turn from its wicked ways and may the Lord be glorified in our country!

People like to say that America is a Christian nation.  Yes, it was founded on Christian principles, but our country has wandered far from God’s Word and if our country continues to reject God, we will reap what we sow.  There are not an endless array of genders in God’s creation!  There are only two genders, male and female, just as God created us!  Abortion is murder!  Homosexuality is an abomination and a sin!  Pedophilia is a sick crime of abuse, not a sexual orientation!  Atheism is death and socialism is death!  Don’t let the God haters call good evil and evil good!  Call out sin and evil for what it truly is and fight back with the truth!

“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

The liberals push socialism and communism because socialism and communism are rooted in atheism!  There is no freedom in those evil forms of government!  There is nothing but tyranny and suffering!  Socialism has and always will be a bridge to communism or some other form of tyranny.  Study history!  It’s not about sharing the wealth.  It is about those at the top consolidating wealth and power, so they will have absolute power over the people, remember that!

To any liberal reading this, go try and live in Venezuela and you will see just how bad the suffering truly is.  I have a neighbor two houses down that is from Venezuela and he has been trying to get his family out of there since before the country collapsed!  Try telling him America should be socialist!  Try telling the Cubans who have escaped to America that they should go back home and enjoy their communist oppression!  They came here to be free!  Give me a break!

I pray in the Name of Jesus that America never becomes socialist or communist and I pray the Lord smites the wicked liberal agenda!  We need our borders and our sovereignty!  Do not support the push for the coming one world government of the evil one!  They are using socialism to reach that goal!

Now they even want to impeach Trump?!  Impeach him for what?!  You can’t impeach a president just because you don’t like him!  You can’t impeach a president just because you have been throwing a violent fit since you lost the election and didn’t get your way!  That is not how our Constitutional Republic works!  Trump hasn’t done anything that is impeachable!  The only reason they are doing this now is because they know their love for abortion and the gay agenda and their hate for America is not going to win them the election.  They needed a distraction, so now they are pushing impeachment.  Ridiculous!

The more they keep screaming about taking our guns and destroying our borders, the more they will lose too.  The more they talk, the more it sounds like we might actually have another Civil War in this country.  They are not ever going to get what they want without a fight!  I am not ever going to submit to their demands for immorality and depravity to be accepted as good and normal in our society and nobody is taking my guns or my freedom either!  Amen, molon labe!

I will stand on God’s Word and I pray that our nation repents and we would truly be a nation whose God is the LORD!  Only then will our nation be blessed!  There is no blessing going down the dark paths of atheism, secularism, liberalism, and socialism!  None at all!  Those paths only lead to sin and death!

Remember, the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God.  We must choose life and reject sin and death!  We must choose the Lord and live in the truth of His Word to be blessed!  “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD!”

Grace and peace to you all!

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 6:23

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is a photo I took last year while driving by the Denver Rescue Mission in downtown Denver.  Take a look at the neon sign in the shape of a cross.  Just two short words are on that cross and they share a powerful truth that leads to the salvation of your soul.  Jesus Saves!  That sign is a beacon of hope to people who are suffering on the street.  That sign beckons the weary and burdened to come to Jesus as it lights up the darkness!  That is our main mission from the Lord, to invite people to come to Jesus!  What a beautiful truth!  We need a Savior and Jesus Saves!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

Jesus speaking in John 5:24

“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Jesus speaking in John 6:40

Those are the words of Jesus Christ folks!  Nobody else in all of history has ever made such a promise!  Only Jesus could say such life changing and soul saving truth!  If you want your sins to be forgiven and you want to go to Heaven, then remember that Jesus Saves and believe in Jesus!  He will give you eternal life as He promised!  Your sins will be forgiven and you will be made new by the power of the Holy Spirit!

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

2 Corinthians 5:17

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Romans 10:9

Amen!  I could go on and write 3,000 words, but I would like you to focus on that simple powerful truth.  Jesus Saves…and He is the only One who can!  Keep your eyes focused on Jesus and pierce the darkness with the light of Christ that is in you by the power of the Holy Spirit!  If you don’t know Jesus, please come to Him today!  If you know Jesus, invite somebody else to know Jesus today!  Sharing the truth that Jesus Saves is the most loving thing you could do for someone!  Thank You Jesus for saving our souls!

Grace and peace to you all!

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Acts 4:12