What must I do to be Saved?

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved… from Acts 16:31

I don’t want to add much more to this post outside of knowing that I want and love to share Jesus & my faith with everyone! This scripture from Acts alone is enough without me adding 1 iota of my personal points to it. So with that, you ask How do I get Saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus.

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John are where you can read all about Jesus’ life and ministry here on earth. Get started reading those books.

1 Corinthians 15 also is a great chapter to help you understand what the Gospel/Good News of Jesus is. Read that also!

Blessings!

Ash Wednesday

This day, always a Wednesday, begins the Pentecost period for the Church. 50 days until Resurrection Sunday. Ironically, this Lenten season begins & ends on another holiday, Valentine’s Day in the USA. It also, funny enough, ends on Sunday, April 1st, April Fool’s Day.

This period of the Christian year is also considered the birth of the Church. The Holy Spirit era of the Church, where in Acts 2(Acts of the Apostles), the Holy Spirit descends upon them in the Upper Room. This is also predicted by Jesus himself, in John 16:7,13.

It’s imperative that we as believers, not only know the Bible, but understand Church history. What does the bible say and why it says it.  Where to go in the bible to get the correct information. We are to be prepared to give an account for the Hope that is in us as 1 Peter 3:15 states. If we are ignorant to what these beautiful Christian holidays are, so will we be left without a true witness for Christ when non-believers ask us why these holidays are in place.

I think this is a very non-intrusive way to share the Gospel with a world in desperate need of a savior. Annual holidays that are Christian based. Share the history, know your history, give others the gospel!

1 Corinthians 15, is the best way to share the Gospel(good news of Jesus) to this dying world. Read it, know it, share it, & burn it upon your heart and mind. This is your GO TO chapter!

Blessings!

Dr. Steven Lawson

Well, I went to a great Christian conference this past Saturday. I was able to meet 2 Heavyweights of today’s Great Theologians.  Dr. Steve Lawson and D.A. Carson.

I’m going to include my notes from the conference below:

January 27-2018

Speaking the truth in love conference

Dr Steven Lawson speaking

Isaiah 55:10-11. Sufficiency of scripture

The word of God is prolific & perfect

Matthew 13:3-30 parable of sower

-parable-earthly story w a heavenly meaning

Depravity of the human heart;not the word of God’s inefficiency

Seed is the word of God Luke 11

V20-superficial reception of God’s word – no depth or sorrow or conviction of sin. Shallow heart

1 Peter 1:23-life of God in soul of man(also a book)

Negative denial through positive assertion

This world is perishing w perishable ideologies

God’s Word never expires

–Romans 13:13-14: Augustine saving verses

D.A. Carson spoke on Psalm 1, entire chapter(short chapter). Great speaker and laughed a bit during his talk, which is a great sign of a great speaker. Really appreciated it as well.

Got a great pic with Lawson as well and I will say that I think very highly of him and is probably the Best speaker I have ever heard. I have been following him a couple years now, but know that he’s been preaching for decades. I was truly blessed to be able to hear this man speak in person. I’ve been able to hear his messages through his twitter feed and on Sermons Audio app. Highly recommend downloading this app with over 1 million sermons available.

Blessings!

 

My dad

When I got the call it was mid-August, 2015.  My dad had a massive Stroke. It was the middle of the night phone call, you know the one’s you dread to get, knowing all calls at 3:30 am are never good.  I cried initially and then was thankful that he was still alive. I jumped on a plane that flew out about 7 am that morning and got to LA as quick as I could. The next several days were pretty traumatic. Trying to figure out why he had a stroke, what happened and what caused it. My dad spent several weeks in the intensive care unit. They drilled a hole in his head to release the pressure that had built up in his brain from excess blood. They put a feeding tube into a hole they cut in the middle of his esophagus/throat area. He didn’t like being under sedation for such a long period of time, but we had to because of all the recovery that needed to get done.

The brain surgeon who operated on him said his stroke, on a severity scale of 1-10, was around a 7.5, which was pretty bad.  Fortunately, after it was all said and done, he made it out of the hospital. Unfortunately, he was left with no mobility in his right hand and his right leg. So he is confined to a wheel chair now.  He is able to use his left hand to eat and grab, which is good, and his left leg moves fine as well. Sadly, the Dr. said that after about 12 months of initial stroke, if you haven’t recovered fully in that time, chances are you are stuck with whatever motor skills and movement you have at that point.  He also can’t speak clearly nor get out a full conversation of words. Very hard to communicate with him. It’s hard.

I pray for my dad and for his salvation as well. He was never saved and was always a non-practicing Muslim.  He lived for this life and not the next. I love my dad and always will.

I just got back from seeing him this past weekend and enjoyed some quality one on one time with him. I try to see him at least once a year if not more, it’s just hard with him living 2000 miles away.  I speak to him on the phone a couple times a week and just tell him I love him and miss him and he’s able to get those words out to me as well.

If you ever experienced this in your own life, please share in the comments section below. I pray you won’t have to, but these type of things are a part of life I guess and we have to deal with them as they come.

Blessings!

Oswald Chambers

I have been following this man’s writings since I became a Christian. “My Utmost for His highest” book has been a personal blessing to me for years! I highly recommend you pick this book up and read it as a great daily devotional.

More recently I have been receiving a daily devotional from his email distribution company that shares his insights into being a christian today and what that means. These devotionals have been inspiring and very challenging. I recommend them also.

I read his bio on wikipedia many years ago and have been inspired personally from his writings on the Christian walk. I think it behooves  you to research him yourself there as well. For me, he’s another great ‘Hero of the Faith‘ that has gone before me and fought the good fight! He has left a great legacy and something to attain to.

Link to his Bio and Daily Devotional page to sign up.

May his writings be a blessing to you as well.

Blessings!

I dreamt of Jesus

For the first time ever, I had a dream last night and in it was Jesus. He visited me in my dreams. I knew it was him because I bowed before him and kissed his feet. He never said anything to me the whole time. Just sat with me and comforted me. He was in the physical form of a man, as he was 2000 years ago. I felt his love through my body and spirit. His presence was awing and comforting.

I’m not sure the gift of him visiting me in my dreams was, but am sure grateful to have had that experience. It was completely real, albeit a dream. I told my wife about it first thing when I awoke. We both smiled and thought of how cool it was to have experienced that.

Have you ever had Jesus visit you in a dream? Share your experience below.

Blessings!

2018 – let’s get it started!

Thinking about a word for 2018 to focus and give self motivation. I try to do this annually and will make it another year. Gratefulness and JesusFocused made my final list. Both give me inspiration. Both give me meaning and desire to do good for family and for neighbor as Jesus taught us(Matthew 22:37-40)

So for now, I’m happy to be back blogging and working to do more this year here and try to bless those around me, as well as you who read this.

I pray for prosperity spiritually for you and your family and remember that God loves us more than we can ever imagine. Remind yourself of this daily. Keep on fighting the good fight and know God has your back. You just stay Jesusfocused and don’t veer to the right or left but down that narrow road despite what the devil tries to throw at you, because you know he will.

2017

First off, I would like to apologize for not writing more on here in the past year. 2017 has been a very busy year for me and my family. I do however want to reiterate that I post daily on my Twitter handle @sammm1777  Please follow me there.

I also want to rededicate my writings on this blog since they have been a great spiritual and creative way for me to reflect on my life(past, present & future).

With that, I always want to give God the Glory for all he has done for me this year, as always and every year. That ultimately is the point of our lives…to give him the glory for everything and in everything, regardless.

Living in Houston, Texas has been a challenge in itself as we have experienced devastation in Hurricane Harvey this year. Thank you Lord that we were mostly spared. We had some roof leaking and still need to get that fixed, but no flooding in our home. I know that now still, many are rebuilding their lives and homes from that Hurricane on August 28th. I still pray for them.

December-It snowed here, keeping on that weather track. I couldn’t believe it! Like a lot of snow, like the whole ground and trees and roofs and everything were totally covered in snow! It was beautiful. We took the kids out early around 7am and had snow ball fights and made snowmen. It was glorious!

My wife and I also took a wonderful trip to Italy and Ireland. Both beautiful countries in their own right and we admired every minute of it.

We also enjoyed the Grand Canyon in a quick, fast and fun impromptu trip.

We hosted SB LI in Houston as well and I got to enjoy the NFL experience here back in February

Great Bible Study and Church time as well, thank you Grace Bible Church!

Can’t forget my Astros winning it all in the World Series against the Dodgers. This was my perfect WS match-up as both my favorite teams met in the fall classic!

My brother-in-law got married (Grant & Amber) in July and we went out to Albuquerque, NM for their wedding. I got my marriage license certificate to marry them. What a blessing it was and how glorious of a wedding it was. Praise God.

Finally got to see Metallica in concert as well and that was very cool! 30 yrs in the making for that!!

My kids both turned 5 and 2 respectively and I love them so much.

My wife and I celebrated 6 years of marriage and what a true blessing she has been to me and my life. Thank God for her everyday & for choosing the right woman to marry.

Thank you 2017, it has been a real great one. Now let’s celebrate this Christmas season basking in God’s beauty and thankful to him for saving us all through his son Jesus Christ!

Blessings!!

Millennials

This morning’s newspaper quoted a staggering statistic on millennials. 22% of Millennials make up America’s population, but only 10% believe in Jesus.  What does that say about our future and our current state of society?

What it boldly points out to me is that we are failing to share the Gospel in the world and we are not practicing what we preach to our youth.  Sharing the gospel takes boldness and a desire to get a message of Love out to society that is dying. Dying to know Jesus, but unknowingly. Dying physically. Dying for something different and profound. That is who Jesus is. The anti-mundane. The Way, The Truth and the Life.  The anti-establishment. The ‘against the grain‘ guy who turned the 1st Century upside down!  The man who said “If someone slaps you on the cheek, turn the other,” and “The first shall be last and the last, first” and “Love your enemies and pray for them.”  Who says that in society today? Who makes these statements? No one! Society says just the opposite! Get what’s yours, fight back and hate them who hate you.  Not Jesus.

In order for Christ to be real to others, you must shine that light of His to other people. That includes your family and friends. They are your first point of contact and should be the people you reach out to with the Gospel and practicing what you preach. Hypocrites are everywhere and the Church and body aren’t any different. I always say, that’s why I need Jesus. This is true, however, you must show love in a way that you have been shown that love from your creator.  Love transcends everything.  In order to reach – we must Love first & foremost as Jesus did.

Our approach must be different. The way we have approached society for too long must change. Hell-fire and brimstone have their place, but there isn’t a place for that in evangelism.  There is plenty of time for folks to learn about that in their discipleship walk with the Lord. That won’t get them in the door and get them to realize there is a God so big that He gave his only Son to die for all our sins.

Share your personal testimony, that’s what I do. No one can dispute what your story is and how Christ came into your life and change YOU.  This makes Jesus real to those around you and to whom you are sharing Christ with.  Be genuine and don’t act like you are better than anyone.

We are all broken vessels(realized or not) that need a Savior and that is Jesus. Don’t try to be the savior. Just pray and ask God to make your testimony real to those whom you share it with and keep praying afterwards for those whom he has laid on your heart to pray for.

Let’s get the Gospel out to those millennials and everyone else whom we come in contact.

Blessings.

 

 

 

Good News

I wanted to encourage you in your walk today. Regardless if things are going great or you are struggling, know that God is there with you.  For me, I was totally encouraged by this paragraph below that I read from a devo today that just gave me such a smile and Joy in my spirit that I had to share it.

What I want to do First is read this book A Cloud of Witnesses. Second thing I want to do is sing praises to God knowing that He is always right by my side in the good and the bad…ALL the time!

For us as Christians, I think it gets hard some times when you can’t see God physically or as the paragraph above notes “in life’s darkest hours” we don’t think he’s there.  But as scripture and our forefathers that have gone before us know, we need to trust on God’s promises for our lives and not solely on our experiences.

I won’t give pass to our experiences and how important those are in our daily walk with Christ. However, if you are relying solely on them or even feelings, well that’s a whole other problem that we must overcome as believers and furthermore trust God’s revealed Word in the Bible over them.

With that I want to encourage you to keep reading God’s word and what he says to us as believers. Know that we do have such a great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us that have paved the way for us to be here in such a time as this.

Glory be to God.

Amen.