Climbing Jacob's Ladder

 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. (Genesis 28: 12)


And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” (John 1:51)\

Jacob must have thought a great deal about his sin and his life as he traveled to his mother’s family country.  His sin brought him separation from his family. He felt alone and discouraged, for even his relationship  with God was affected by his sin. I wonder how many people in the world today are the same way? Jacob wanted and his heart longed for peace and forgiveness.  He desired and wanted the fellowship of his God, who was in heaven, but he could not find a way to achieve it.  He did not know how to go about it. His sin was ever before him, separating him from the Lord.  As night approached, he laid down to sleep and a dream was given to him from God.  In the dream he saw a ladder that touched the earth on one end and reached to the gates of heaven on the other end. Then the LORD spoke to Jacob and promised to be with him and that the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. ( Genesis 28:11-15.) 

Jesus is the fulfillment of this dream and its promises.  Because Jesus is the only link between heaven and earth.  As we grab hold of the ladder to climb, we must remember that every step up that ladder is a truth on our way in our passage to heaven.  Truth is a belief, an very effective and valuable force. It is a working principle, a standard of belief, that molds and shapes our hearts and lives.  Every step, that we take and every truth, that we say amen to and abide by will have a transforming impact upon our life so that the life of Jesus is reflected in us as we continue to climb that ladder. Each step that we take as a Christian we are letting Jesus mold and make us into a vessel of his choosing. We must keep climbing that ladder.

 What we are talking about here is by no means salvation by works, because we are saved by our faith in Jesus.  He is our reason for wanting to climb that ladder.  As I write this article I recall what Paul said  in Philippians 3: 13-14.  “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”  We are to continue in our spiritual growth every day.  We must picture it just like climbing Jacobs’s ladder.

The representation of the ladder should, by all means, bring hope to all, because, that ladder reaches all the way from Heaven to earth.  It reaches down and touches man when he lives in his fallen state.  Climbing a tall ladder requires painstaking and diligent effort.  Every step on that ladder is important and not one rung of that ladder is to be missed or meant to be skipped.  We must take hold of Jesus and never let go.  The journey may look like it is long and hard at different times but the reward, in the end, will be worth it all.

“The angels of God ascending and descending on it”  makes known all the resources of God which was at the disposal of Jacob and is now at the believers disposal.   It is the same for every modern day believer, if we put our trust in Him and properly understand Jesus Christ and look to Him solely and according to what He did on the cross in the Sacrifice of Himself on the cross.  Some of us may be tired and weary, but we got to keep on keeping on because Heaven is there not far from our view! 

God Is Always There

Hello God, I called tonight To talk a little while
I need a friend who’ll listen To my anxiety and trial.

You see, I can’t quite make it Through a day just on my own…

I need your love to guide me, So I’ll never feel alone.

I want to ask you please to keep, My family safe and sound.
Come and fill their lives with confidence For whatever fate they’re bound.


Give me faith, dear God, to face Each hour throughout the day,
And not to worry over things I can’t change in any way.

I thank you God, for being home And listening to my call,
For giving me such good advice When I stumble and fall.

Your number, God, is the only one That answers every single time.
I never get a busy signal, Never have to pay a dime.

So thank you, God, for listening To my troubles and my sorrow.
Good night, God, I love You, too, And I’ll call again tomorrow!

- Author Unknown

The Best Gift

It will soon be Christmas and once again it is the season for the giving of gifts. There is an atmosphere of secrecy, love, kindness, thoughtfulness, and caring, all combined together  to plan surprises of delight, joy, and happiness to the ones we love. There is a feeling that we have at Christmas that is not like no other time of the year. The home is warm, radiant, and aglow with eager anticipation, waiting for something that is most wanted, something needed, that is carefully selected, wrapped  and hidden away until the day (Christmas) arrives. In all of this there is, with all Christians, a new and fresh reminder to us of God's eternal plan of love to meet the dire need of man's soul and provide the best gift to totally satisfy and bring happiness to our heart. This is the gift of unspeakable worth and it goes beyond words or description. This is God's gift of eternal life.

A gift offered to a person does not become theirs until they receive it. It is the same way with salvation. Faith is the empty hand that reaches out to receive God's gift of life. It is the personal appropriation of his offer. It is believing in our hearts that Christ's sufferings and death were for your sins and mine: that His resurrection among the dead was for our justification. That is making the best gift yours. So when we sit in our house during the Christmas holiday let us remember the “ BEST GIFT OF ALL”.

The Sins Of The Modern Church

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.                   ( 1 Corinthians 2:2) NKJV

A large majority of the mega churches profess to know Jesus Christ, but they still would deny the Cross and the precious blood that was spilled there. I say that because of the so many different doctrines they offer the people to promote their church and to increase church attendance and the church coffers.

Every since I can remember and it is still to the best of my knowledge the same way today if you did not belong to a certain denomination then you would never get to make heaven your home.  This is so untrue, but look at how some church denominations fight each other. The fact is all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ should: “Fight The Good Fight” and not each other.

Today we have churches, with what I call schemes, like The Purpose Driven Life, The Government of Twelve, The Twelve Steps, and many others that point to everything but to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It is not Jesus and the purpose driven life, It is not Jesus and the government of twelve, or any other combination. It is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If a person believes any of them they believe in another Jesus. It is Jesus Christ and Him crucified that is the real answer for this old sinful world. It is by the precious blood of Jesus that the battle has been won and can be won in your life.

Many people, in today’s churches view God’s standards of holiness and truth as legalistic restrictions to their life, their personal freedom, their happiness, and their self fulfillment. The problem here is when people set their self's up that way, to be the authority over their own lives by such things as the purpose driven life, the government of twelve, and others, they are turning from the true teachings of the Bible and they have become slaves to their own corrupt nature and desires.

We now have some churches, today, where the people  sit side by side with Muslims in the church, with the Koran next to the Bible and the people worship Christ and Allah.  Anybody that reads the Word of God Knows this is wrong.  What is happening to the Churches of our Lord Jesus Christ Today?

I was always taught, and hold to a firm belief,  that all religions of this world are insufficient to meet the needs of the people in this world. It may be Islam, Buddhism, Shintoism,  and Confucianism.  These newer doctrines that I mentioned earlier are also the same. FALSE! They are all corrupt and do not measure up to Bible Doctrine.  It is by the precious Blood of our Savior (and no other way) that the battle is won!

Slaying Giants

Our victory over the giants that rule this country and the ones in our life, just like David’s victory over Goliath, must be because of our faith in our Creator. We must have a deep heartfelt passion for our Lord and a desire for the Lord’s presence and His power in our life and His presence in our government. We must recognize same as David did, that it was not the armies of Israel that Goliath was coming up against but it was the fact he was defying the Lord God. Our government and most of its leaders has, for some time, defied the Lord. You just do not do that and get away with it for very long. We reap what we have sown.  When a government and its leaders promote ungodly acts such as abortions (the act of killing unborn babies), Homosexuality (one of the deadly sins of the Bible), and allowing many other things that defy God they will be defeated.  

It was not the kings armour, his shield and sword that won the battle for David. It was his faith in God that gave him victory over the giant. It will not be what any candidate has to say in the upcoming election, how much one party has or what tactics they use. It is not by might or power, or anything else that we will win the victory over the giant that is in our government, but it is by HIS SPIRIT that the victory will come.  So let us all be in one accord like they were on the day in that upper room and we will see the Lord move on our behalf.

In this upcoming election we must not trust in the poles, votes, and what man has to say. It is God where all our trust has to be placed. That is where our faith must lie. Whenever we, as the Lord’s Children, face what appears to be a impossible problem, that seem like ‘Giants’, in our lives (and that also includes our personal lives also) we must remember this we can be over comers if we place our faith in God the same as David did. We must follow David’s godly example.

MAKING BELIEVE: Nicolaitans

“For the nation and kingdom that shall not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.” ( Isaiah 60:12.)

For the people who live in this country you need to know this: there is an Almighty, Everlasting, Omniscient, God.  He has complete and unlimited knowledge, awareness, understanding; He perceives all things.  God is, and always has been active in the affairs of men, of the leaders of this nation, and events of the whole world. The rights of every human being, including our right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness come from Him. He is the one who framed the universe.

The problem is this:  We must first have leaders that will recognize this and base their decisions on what says the Lord God. Today in Washington we do not have that.

It is the responsibility and obligation of our government to make safe, look after, keep, and preserve these God given rights, to recognize and accept our Creator, to glorify Him and make Him known to everybody in this country and around the world; and when this does not take place, when civil government that takes this country in a direction that becomes destructive and are not of God given purposes, it is our duty to alter, change, or put an end to such Godless government. We need to, with much prayer, vote them out of office. That is If we are a Christian nation and claim to be servants of Jesus Christ. 

We (this includes our government leaders)  need to serve Christ in all areas of our  life, in our very thoughts and our actions, and nothing less. This means destroying arguments that are against the knowledge of God and what thus says the Lord. We must be seriously concerned about the fact that far too many of today’s [but not all] Christian leaders, government leaders, and others  are a sinful embarrassment and are to blame for  most of the sins in this country, but they still call their self  Christians and doing nothing but mock the Christian religion and our Savior.  They have dishonored our Lord and sold their Christian birthright for no less than a mess of political pottage.

 They are like Esau, who sold his birthright for a bowel of  stew and gave up his inheritance. People and groups have taken sides for every reason in the book except the ones outlined in ‘THE BOOK’ which is the Word of God.  Christian people will take sides because of skin color, their political party, or what they can get out of voting for a certain person. Those folks and groups are Christian in name only. They Have a form of godliness, but they deny the very guild lines that Christians are to follow.  Sad to say these people have a name: ‘NICOLAITANS’ and in the Book of Revelation we are told God hates the Nicolaitans.

The Nicolaitans had given into compromise with the pagan, ungodly society, around them. The same thing is happening today in our country and it is sad. Let us be over comers for the Lord and live by his word. Only over comers will be with the Lord forever and ever!

Thoughts Of Christmas

I still can remember those days, of years gone past, when I was a youngster and Christmas had such a special meaning. In public school, the most of us would put up pictures of the Baby Jesus in the class room. We would pick up the Bible (Which was on the teachers desk in plain view) and  read the Christmas story from it, during the morning devotions, before class was started. The loudspeaker to the public address system would come on, with a word from the principle, “Merry Christmas Students” he would say. And just before the school closed for Christmas vacation the  whole school, including the teachers, the staff from principal, to the janitor, all assembled in the school gym to sing Christmas carols, such as Silent Night, Away in a Manger and any others. We would listen to one of the local ministers read the Christmas story from the Bible.  It was a very special time for me and most of the other kids. Even at that early age I could feel the Spirit of The Most High in that gym. It was more than just the excitement of Christmas. Christmas had a special meaning to me when I was young and it still does to this day! It was (and still is) time to celebrate Jesus’ Birthday.

In the local stores, on the streets, and everywhere that a person would go we heard the words, “MERRY CHRISTMAS”. I always looked forward for my mom and dad to put my sisters and me in the family car and look at all the naivety scenes in the neighborhood. There was a feeling there that goes beyond all explaining.

But in today’s “political correct world”  we see less and less of these things that I have made mention of. More and more, every Christmas, anti-Christian groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, sue some city for erecting a nativity scene on public property or singing Christmas carols on the public street, and at the same time, fearing they may be perceived as not being politically incorrect, more and more retailers replace the word "Christmas" with "Holiday" in their marketing advertisements and sale signs. Christmas has now become a commercial event We need to put the true spirit of Christmas back where it belongs.

To most people It may seem like a small issue to expound on, but not to me, because I’m a child of the King. The things, that I’m saying here,  are important and noteworthy because they reduce and make smaller the importance of the Christian foundations and roots of this once great nation. The United States of America. The very ideas  of justice, mercy, liberty and love for our fellow man are deeply rooted in the Bible, and particularly in the birth,  life, death and resurrection of Jesus The Christ. That's why America, in years gone past)  has been a shining light among the nations in the world.

Like the angel who appeared to the shepherds saying: “I bring you good news of great joy,” we as Christians have a story to tell about the blessings of honoring the true God, not Buddha, Not Allah, or any other false god.  Telling that story can start with all who read this article say amen to the truth and let your community know that It's Okay to Say Merry Christmas. Make a effort to say Merry Christmas when doing your Christmas shopping. Let people know that you are not and never will be politically correct, because you are a child of the King!

In closing I want to say how I miss my mom, even more during the Christmas Season. She would always sing her favorite Christmas song, which also has become mind, Oh Beautiful Star of Bethlehem. And Friends that is what we must do at this Christmas Season and every day, “SHINE ON FOR CHRIST”