HOPE in JESUS

Needs,  we all have them you know!  We also have a need to have Jesus in our lives.

Food and clothes- these are what the Bible says are our needs.  ‘And with these we shall be content’.  Shelter is nice but everything is better when you have Jesus in your life.  Some say we have emotional needs.  We can feel and experience a wide range of things and still be ourselves and be quote, unquote ‘normal’.  Do we have needs to feel happy?  That would take a steady diet of the positive to accomplish that.  We all have tough experiences to cope with and can’t feel good all the time.

But what is our standard of feeling and is it realistic?  God’s standard, how He wants us to feel as Christians is joy in trials and pleasure in afflictions.  Whatever the situation, we can feel like we do.  But then we can come back to joy.  Whether or not we feel like it is appropriate and getting ministered to by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word- joy is our normal.  We have the joy of being saved and what Jesus did and heading toward heaven.  Jesus is there for us.  He cares and self control keeps us from burning bridges in family or friends unless they are bad companions or doing us harm.

Jesus wants us to be ourselves and He puts virtues here and there to keep us from going too far, from being destructive- He wants us to be constructive, ya know.  Am I making it sound too robotic? But it is maturity actually.  You can be yourself without Jesus and bang on the walls once in a while and go too far here or not far enough there and you can ruin relationships that way- any kind of relationship.  You can lose jobs and we all think we are going to learn that way.  But Jesus is faster learning, better learning, with a loving teacher.  But in the hard world we also have to worry about quitting and giving up before you get your goal because it is just too hard.  So I encourage you to try Jesus way.  Do it Jesus way.

You will have more understanding, clear limits and warnings about what not to try, on a job, or in a relationship, or having GOD in you life.  Some people make very pretty art out of the Lord and are writing things that are for personal, entertainment and for wisdom.  I have started translating the New Testament from the Greek.  Jesus can grow your mind, you can grow and mature more in the Lord.  Not to become more sad or hard or hurtful, but in newness of life in love and peace.

You can travel or meet people and talk about positive subjects like God.  If you are doing drugs or alcohol and are running yourself down, God can pick you up if you ever turn away from that stuff.

The Muslims are seeing Jesus in dreams and they might be the fastest growing churches on earth right now.  The Third World is getting Jesus but America is not.  They are not needy, or are they??  They are afraid to need Him.  They want better stuff like utopia or riches or a job or a free ride.  Utopia or riches probably won’t happen.  But isn’t our world troubled?  Don’t we need a Savior Jesus who can make it all right in troubled times!?

Look at the oppressed Chinese or the plagued Africans, now the hate-filled Muslims getting saved.  All because they know they need Jesus.  But most of us couldn’t care less!  We need Him because all our dreams are wrapped up in Him and whether or not He will allow us to have them.  But heaven will be the dreamiest, grooviest place and more.  But few find it.

The gospel is that Jesus made a way for us to go to the Father.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.  Then repent of your sins and lead a holy life and you will make it to heaven.