It is so easy to forget just how AWESOME God is. In our day-to-day lives we tend to take for granted all that He has done and what He continues to do for His creation. Partly because of our technology, we have become desensitized about sin and God. On this last day of March 2016, I want to praise God, The Great I AM, The Lord of Lords Jesus Christ for He is GREAT, HE is OMNIPOTENT, HE is ALL POWERFUL, ALL GLORIOUS, EVERLASTING !

I praise You God for Who You Are:  You are eternal, beyond our human understanding, You existed before all things were made and all things were made through You.  Just with a thought, a word from You, the worlds, the universes, everything was made. There really are no human words to describe how powerful You are.  We humans lack the mental capacity to understand what real power is. It's ludicrous to compare anything of human hands to the workmanship of You All Mighty God. Your signature is on all of creation.

I praise You God for creating this World: You spoke and the worlds and the sun and the moon and the uncountable stars and gravity and the universe came into being.  I thank you for the statistically impossible fact that all of this could not have happened by chance. I thank you for creating a perfect earth that is the only planet that can sustain human life. I thank you for creating a perfect position of the world that if we were too far from the sun we would freeze; if we too close we would burn up. I thank you for creating the perfect atmosphere that if the elements for air were off by just a little margin, human beings/animals would all die. I thank You for the change in seasons.  For the light that never goes out or needs to be replaced.

I praise You God for creating human beings:  I praise you God for creating a perfect human race. You formed skin, bones, complex internal systems, the brain, heart-everything from the dust of the ground! There are not enough pages to thank You for the wonderful human body. The DNA strand that is so amazingly 'organized',  The brain that processes over a million messages in a second!  I thank you for the brain in which we can reason and think and feel.  The eye that can process millions of images in seconds. 

I praise You God for Your Love for Your creation: You God are the Alpha and The Omega, The Beginning and The End,  You ,already knowing how mankind would reject You, went ahead and created everything anyways.  You give good blessings to your creation despite the fact that we Dishonor You, Blaspheme You, Ignore You, Disobey You, Curse You, Reject You and Your free gift of eternal life through Your Son Jesus Christ.  Thank you for doing what we could not do for ourselves, by sending Your Son Jesus Christ to die in our place for our wickedness and sinful state, we now can be reconciled to You.

Resources: http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html

​ I was shopping in my local grocery store when I came across this in the magazine stand near the check out line. Newsweek's Special Edition 'Spiritual Living'.  The Holy Spirit was stirred within me as I picked up the magazine.  From the cover I already knew this was not going to be any 'new' revelations.  In fact from the start, the listing of what was inside gave a clue as to what was inside of this 'special edition'.  The old saying, "There is nothing new under the sun" is very apropos here.  "Psychic awakenings", "Healing Stones", "Tarot Cards". "Find your inner self, you are gods",  The Devil has not changed his tactics, not one bit.  From the very beginning he has been tempting mankind with the promise that we can "be like God", that we can find happiness without God.    

Many people are looking for spiritual enlightenment.  just look at the thousands if not millions of different religions, sects, doctrines, theories.  The common, satanic mantra is, "all roads lead to god".  Why do I label this as satanic? Because it is a false belief that is leading many down a road to eternal damnation.  It is undeniably clear, there are not many ways/roads to God, there is only ONE way, and that is Jesus Christ!  Jesus said clearly and repeatedly, He is the Truth, not a truth, but THE Truth; He said I am THE Door, not a door,  Jesus said, I am THE Way, not a way.  There is no other name, doctrine, belief, god/entity, religion that reconciles sinful man back to the Holy and Righteous God. NONE.  No other person or deity died, undeservably, shed their blood or gave of their life for mankind other than Jesus Christ.  Mohammed didn't do it, Confucius didn't do it, Ghandi, Buddha,nor any other. They are ALL dead in their graves, and yet their false doctrines and false beliefs live on through those who don't know the truth or the true God. 

The 'new spiritual awakening' is not new, it is an ancient set of false promises and false hope. "Free yourself", "Become one with the universe",  This magazine reports to have"The secret to Peace and Happiness",  Is it really a secret?  Well I guess some could say, yes it is by looking at all the unhappy people in the world, including some of those who call themselves Christians. It's really sad, many spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars on the pursuit of happiness, and yet people are more depressed and suicidal than ever in history. That is one the reasons many people enter into therapy, "I want to be happy".  And Satan loves when people are unhappy, because he can temp those who want to be happy with what ever their heart desires with the thing they think will make them happy.   There is no question about what true happiness is in the Bible.

I will end with this. Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, summed it up perfectly when he said, after experiencing EVERY pleasure known to man, that it was all just vanity-USELESS, so what is the true secret to peace and happiness:
"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
"FEAR GOD AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS!"

Every human being is born with the same sin nature we inherited from Adam, the first man created by God. As we grow up, our growth as individual persons is nourished, developed and molded either for the kingdom of God or a kingdom without God, and the kingdom without God belongs to Satan.  Every human being is born with a heart, I am not talking about the physical heart that pumps blood, for this post, I will be discussing the spiritual heart. Craig von Buseck from CBN provides a simple description of the heart:"Man was created with spirit, soul and body...Genesis 2:7 states that Man was created as a loving soul.  The soul consists of the mind, the conscience, will, and emotions. The spirit and the soul mysteriously combine together and make up what the Scriptures call 'the heart'. "
The Bible has a lot to say about the heart of man whom do not know God, and none of its good as shown by just a couple of verses:
"The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; Who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9
"From within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." Mark 7:21-22
It's really mind blowing that so many try to ignore God, His Word. They proclaim that we don't need God.  They foolishly believe that man will 'evolve' into some Utopian Star Trek society. You don't have to be a rocket scientist or fortune teller to see what the world would look like if God did not exist.  Just look now at the world, the cities, the countries now and since the beginning of time.  After thousands and thousands and thousands of years, centuries, MAN IS DOING THE EXACT SAME THING IT HAS BEEN DOING! Why? should we not be 'evolved' into a better society by now? Oh, wait, there are some who blame it on religion. If the religions would go away, then society would be perfect.  This is another stupid belief.  Most religions, (not the ones who tell their followers to kill/destroy other people) promote harmony, giving, civility, peace, humility, obeying the law, being a good person. So what then is the real reason we can't get away from wars, poverty, crime, abuse, and all other problems that plague the human race?  Why are we not at peace with all the technology we have? It's a HEART issue!
​One truth that is irrefutable, from all the histories of mankind, the stories in the Bible, one fact that is true about mankind, we are IRREVOCABLY incapable of saving ourselves! We are so deeply in need of  a savior, it is ludicrous to think we can get better without God.  The hearts of man are evil.  Why are we surprised at the murders, the rapes, the abuses, the hatefulness, the selfishness.  The Bible says that these type of behaviors are because of the heart. A heart that is closed off from God. But the killer part is that we are all born with a desire to know God too. It is this war within, commonly pictured as the devil on one shoulder and God on the other. Our sin nature battles against God's nature. Paul talks about this internal battle in Romans chapter 7, how he battles within himself to do the good thing but ends up doing the bad/evil thing even though he knows the law. He notes that is the sinful flesh that dwells within him and the only thing that can deliver us from wicked selves is through Jesus Christ our Lord! Because God gave us freewill, we choose which nature to nurture. Now the truth that many don't want to accept is that the battle is not on equal grounds and we have to have help from God to change our hearts.  The devil is not as strong or stronger than God. The devil is just another created being, but he is powerful. The heart is powerful as well. It can't be changed by human will alone.
Why do you think it's so hard to change? Every New Year, millions declare their New Year's Resolution. A majority will go back to the same old within a few months. Most statistics about change rate that only 10% of people actually change when they have set out to change some behavior. The United States has the highest prison population,and those on parole in the entire world.  The US, where food, entertainment, all kinds of pleasures are available, and yet millions of men and women are in prison for various crimes.  The US is the largest consumption of illegal substances and alcohol. Any product sold is about supply and demand.  The only reason the drug cartels make and sell their drugs is because there is a demand for them, especially in the US. If a life without God is so wonderful, why are the young people still trying cocaine, heroin, and the other drugs? If life is so good with all the food, entertainment, and pleasures, why are millions depressed, anxious and many take their lives?
The reason is simple. Man was made in the image of God, and even though man sinned, God still offers man a life with God, but God is a gentlemen, He does not coerce or force Himself on anyone, He wants a willing and humble heart. He offers fellowship and blessings and a new heart and new mind. This heart and mind is able to live righteously as is best for human beings. This is a free offer, you don't have to work for it, you accept and receive.  But most reject this offer.  And although they do have a part of them that does want God, their conscience leads them either away or towards Him. But when they walk away from Him, the guilt and shame that arrives from living a life without God, chains up the heart.  The behaviors that one knows is wrong, leads to more guilt and shame.  And instead of turning to God, they try to ignore the guilt, they try to distract themselves from the guilt, many drown the guilt away with alcohol or disconnect from their feeling with pills and other drugs. It's not just with drugs, mental issues develop as well: rage, criminal pursuits, bitterness, hatred, pride, this drives a person to work more, get rich, climb the social ladder, have the most sex partners, but the more they get the unhappier they become. It does not matter how much someone smokes, drinks, injects, how big their bank account, how many partners they have, IT WILL NEVER FILL THAT PART OF THEMSELVES THAT WAS MEANT FOR GOD!
Only God can help a person to truly change. It is the supernatural, mystical help of Jesus Christ that is available to anyone who will believe.
The Good News is there is going to be a Day of Judgment, and God will judge everyone who has ever lived, His wrath is going to poured out on all the wicked and ungodly. Believing in Jesus saves us from the righteous wrath of God. But that is not all, He gives us a new heart and mind NOW, and we receive some of His blessing from heaven NOW and are equipped to be able to live a life that is holy and acceptable to Him NOW.
1. Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is real, He lived and died and rose from the grave.
2. Believe that you are a sinner, repent-turn from your sins and realize and accept you need Jesus.
3. Confess that Jesus is your Lord and God
4. Find a local Bible preaching church that does obey the commandment for water baptism for the remission of your sins and to identify yourself with Christ.
This is just the first step to a lifelong journey of growing in truth and love with the God who created this earth and everything in it, including every human being that has ever lived.
Bible verses related to this post: Genesis 2:7, Romans 5:12, Romans chapter 7
resources: http://www1.cbn.com/questions/what-are-the-three-parts-of-man