Richard Craig, Author at GraceAndWorks - Page 8 of 59

Those of us that have raised families know what I’m talking about. There was the hustle and bustle of little ones running around the house having fun and causing commotion. Then it was off to school and the house was quiet during the day UNTIL they got home. Then back to the joyful(?) noise. Then one by one they got married and moved on to their own lives until they were all gone. Then there were two. Empty Nesters, if you will. At this point what do we do? It always comes down to choices. Do we do this or that? Do we go there or there? Do we drive or fly? Do we go out to dinner or stay home? Do we retire or continue to work? Choices–there almost always are only two.

Throughout the Bible there are choices that were made. Does Lot’s wife turn and look back or not?–her choice. Do you get on the Ark or not?–it was their choice. Jesus asks, “Do you have faith or not?”–it’s your choice. Does Peter walk on water or sink?–it became his choice. It seems like it always comes down to “Just Two” choices.

Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus says, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate that leads to destruction, and there are MANY who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are FEW who find it.” It once again comes down to two–wide gate or narrow gate? With the wide gate there is no worries!! Everything goes. Party on, do the drugs, drink the alcohol, engage in homosexuality, use the foul language, commit adultery, stomp on everybody that gets in your way for success, cause destruction in others lives, cause division with family and friends, etc. Because that gate to destruction is wide you can bring with you whatever you want, Satan WILL LOVE YOU!! The verses say that the narrow gate is difficult. That’s because we have to do what God wants instead of what we want. We have to have faith and obey the commands that God sets forth. Listen to God’s word, Believe in what God has to say, Repent of our sinful ways, Confess that we believe Jesus is the Son of God, be Baptized, and live a Righteous life thereafter. Not easy, but can be done. Once again it comes down to two–narrow gate or wide gate? It’s your choice!! Make the right one.

SMILE God loves YOU!! Have a good day all.

When I was farming with my Dad, getting rid of weeds was a PRIORITY!! We used machinery behind the tractor two, three, and sometimes four times a summer. Summer tilling was the way to get the ground prepared for planting the crops in the fall. Getting rid of the weeds not only made things look better, but also preserved the moisture. If there was a crop in the making, sometimes, we would have to use a weed spray. Back in the 50’s and 60’s we didn’t know about how harmful these sprays were. We sat on open tractors with the spray drifting all around us. This, ultimately was one of the things that caused Dad to have an early death. It scarred his lungs and the last few years of his life, he was on oxygen.

Those of us with yards and gardens know full well the problem with weeds. If we don’t take care of them, they will overtake the plants and the grass. We pull them. We spray them. And still can’t seem to get rid of them. It’s an ongoing and constant problem.

THEN, there are those of us that have “Weeds” cropping up in our lives. They are as troublesome as the weeds on the farm and the weeds in the gardens and yards. We have to cultivate our lives so the “Weeds” don’t take over. It takes concentrating on us, being aware of what is going on, and being strong enough to get rid of them. These “Weeds” can be many different things. Such as: a bad relationship, friends that take advantage of us, bickering among family members, jobs that we don’t like, health problems, homes that are not “Home”, financial difficulties, stress, and the list goes on and on and on and on!! So, how do we get rid of the “Weeds?” God says that He will never leave us and will never forsake us. We sing a song, “What A Friend We Have In Jesus,” in Worship services. Do we really believe this? I would hope so, because God can and will help you get rid of the “Weeds.” Through prayer, you can lay all your problems on Him and He will help you through them. That’s where we get the strength to cultivate our lives and get rid of the “Weeds.”

SMILE God loves YOU!! Have a good day all.

Those of us that are on Social Media know that to get rid of someone, all you have to do is hit the unfriend button. Easy as that to put someone out of your social life.

I started to wonder what would happen if you Friended God. What would He say/think about your posts? Would He put likes on all the Political ads and propaganda? Would He put likes on the posts with bad language? Would He put likes on sexual explicit comments? Would He put likes on our pictures out drinking and partying? I think you get the point and the answer to my questions–probably not. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, that you can depend on!! He has told us He will never forsake or forget us. He has also told us He will forgive us as long as we are truly repentant. He would never unfriend any of us.

Then I wondered if we would be in position or attitude to unfriend God. Most of will say that God is our friend, but what if He started telling us that are posts were against His teachings and were complete garbage? What would we do then? When people make us angry we just hit the unfriend button. Would we unfriend God because He made us angry? I have an idea many have already unfriended God by their words, actions, and attitudes. “You can’t tell me what to say and do, God!! I am so done with you, you’re gone from my friend list,” many will think and say. You see, we are not like God, we aren’t the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We cop attitudes against one another. “I just want you out of my life,” some will say, and push the unfriend button. Scriptures tell us to love one another. They tell us to be forgiving. They tell us to think of others more than ourselves. God doesn’t like it when we treat people wrong, but He won’t unfriend you.

SMILE God loves YOU!! Have a good day all.

Let’s take a look at what Paul said was going happen in “The Last Days” those days after the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus and before the Second coming of Jesus. We’ll use 2nd Timothy Chapter 3 verses 1-5.

Verse 1: Know this, that in the last days perilous times WILL come!!

Verse 2:
We will be lovers of ourselves. It’s all about us and what we want to say and do with no consideration of others.
We will be lovers of money. Greed and doing whatever it takes to get what we want and desire, shoving others aside to accomplish the pleasures of life.
We will be boasters. Bragging about what we did or have done. Putting focus on ourselves with no care of others.
We will be proud. Chests will be puffed out and attention will be drawn to ourselves in order to show others what we have done.
We will be blasphemers. Talking about how much we love and respect God, yet not being obedient. We’ll do what we want with no regard to what God wants.
We will be disobedient to parents. Kids running amuck, doing what they want, with no respect for their parents. After all “It’s my life, I’ll do what I want to do” is what kids will think and do.
We will be unthankful. Things will be taken for granted with no regard to the blessings that God bestows on us.
We will be unholy. We will find other things to do on the Lord’s Day (Sunday) instead of going to Worship Services. We will say that we love Jesus, but will fail to do what He wants us to do.

Verse 3:
We will be unloving. The love for God isn’t there. The love for others isn’t there. We will think only of ourselves!!
We will be unforgiving. We will carry grudges never being able to say, “I’m sorry.”
We will be despisers of good. Doing the deeds of Satan instead of what God wants.

Verse 4:
We will be headstrong. We will do things our way and will not listen to suggestions of others or the commands of God.
We will be lovers of pleasures rather that lovers of God. This says it all!!

Verse 5:
We will have a form of Godliness, but deny His power. Paul says, “From such people turn away!!”

Take a look around the world you will see Paul was spot on with what he wrote to Timothy and us. The happenings of today have been going on for over 2000 years and they are not going to change. The things we can change are our mindsets, attitudes, and our wants. The book of James tells us to look in the mirror and take stock of who you are. If we need to make changes, then do it.

SMILE God loves YOU!! Have a good day all.

When I was a “little” guy living on the farm in Western Nebraska, we had railroad tracks about a 1/4 mile from our house. I remember going up next to the tracks and watching the train go by. Clickety-clack, clickety-clack, you could hear the wheels rolling on the track. I would count the cars and sometimes these trains were upwards of 150 cars. Two, three, or four engines pulling the cars and bringing up the rear was a caboose. There were flatbed cars, grain cars, coal cars, box cars, cars carrying semi trailers that carried automobiles, lumber cars, etc. Most of the cars you could see what was on them, but with the box cars the cargo was out of sight. There were times when I would pick up rocks and through them at the box cars and watch them glance off. If Mom or Dad caught me doing that, I was in TROUBLE!! They told me the rock could hit me as it glanced off, but I didn’t listen to them because it had never happened and I figured it probably never would, so I kept throwing them. HA!! It was also fun to put a penny on the track and then try to find it after the train ran over it. Out of all the pennies I wasted doing this, I can only remember finding one of them and was it ever flattened out (Wasn’t supposed to do that either).

In the winter time, there would be a big snow plow mounted to the front engine. I always thought to myself, why do they need the snow plow? Wasn’t the train heavy enough to stay on the tracks no matter how deep the snow was? What I didn’t know was that the snow could actually cause the train to derail and the derailed cars would end up in a heap at the side of the tracks. I can remember a couple times where cars would jump the tracks and derail (summertime). What a mess!!

Today, I find myself watching people. Most of them you can pretty much tell what is going on, but some are like the box cars. What kind of cargo are they carrying? Anger? Happiness? Grudges? Plots for trouble? Drug/alcohol problems? Family issues? Problems at work? No job? Money issues? Health issues? I wonder, is the cargo heavy enough to cause them to “Derail?” Will they end up in a heap somewhere? Is there a snow plow to clear the way for them? Do they have God in their life? So many questions!! That is why we need to be kind, patient, steadfast in our own beliefs, a living example to those around us, and have God first in our lives. Let Him be the snow plow so we can stay on our tracks.

SMILE God loves YOU!! Have a good day all.

It was nighttime in Southeast Nebraska. The stars were shining and all was good, except, off in the distance there was a thunderstorm brewing. I was headed to a sales call out in the country. Being young and foolish, I wasn’t too concerned about the storm and proceeded to the call. About an hour and a half later as I was getting ready to head home, it started to rain. The lightning was sharp and the thunder was making loud ka-booms. I got in my little Ford Courrier pickup and headed through the country to get back to the pavement and I thought I knew a shortcut. Yeah-HaHa!! The Rain is now coming down in buckets, the road is solid with lots of gravel on it. No, it wasn’t paved!! Then all of a sudden the gravel stopped and it is pure mud!!! I go probably about a hundred yards into this mud and finally get stopped. Boy, that was a wild ride trying to keep my truck out of the ditch. Now I’m stopped and it appears I’m stuck in the mud, 10:00 o’clock at night and no farm lights to be seen. Now what?? I can’t go forward–who knows how far this road is mud? Soooo I put it in reverse and eased out the clutch to see if it will even move. Wow, it’s actually moving. WHEW!! Now to keep it on the road in this awful slick mud. It is black dark outside and I can’t see where I’m going, so I hold the door open with one hand while I’m driving with the other hand, one foot on the clutch and the other foot on the foot pedal. The truck is spinning mud everywhere, it’s slipping and sliding as I inch my way back to solid road. It took about 30 seconds to get as far as I did in the mud and about an hour, inch by inch, to get out. Finally I’m back on solid ground and headed home, my door, inside the cab, and my leg all covered with mud. I get home about midnight and had never been so happy to see the house.

I tell you this story, because in life we can be doing fine, except we see a storm off yonder brewing up. It hits us and the road we were on turns to muck. We have to gather ourselves and figure out how to get back on solid road. We try to do it ourselves and nothing is working–we are stuck. Oh, hey, God might help, we think to ourselves. So we go to God in prayer and ask for help. Then we go to the scriptures and find passages of instruction. Inch by inch we back ourselves out of the muck to reach that solid ground that we so desire. It took a while, but with Gods help we made it. WHEW!!

SMILE God loves YOU!! Have a good day all.

Some will say, “I’m doing what God wants.” Some will say, “I think I’m doing what God wants.” Some will say, “I’m trying to do what God wants.” Some will say, “It doesn’t matter because God will save me anyway.” Some will say, “I don’t want to!” We use excuses and not reasons, when we do things our way and not God’s way. Maybe you don’t know what God wants. Reading and studying the Bible will fix that. Maybe you’re just lazy and think I’ll start tomorrow.

I believe it comes down to two factors” 1) Disobedience. Many don’t want to be obedient to anything or anyone. They want it their own way and nobody, even God, can change them. 2) Faith. A lack of Faith will come from a lack of knowledge and with that we have a lack of Wisdom and understanding. Studying and prayer are the answers to this.

Hebrews 11:1-3 says, “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the Elders obtained a good testimony. By Faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”

Matthew chapter 17:13-19 tells a story of a man coming to Jesus and asks for help because his son is epileptic. He had taken him to Jesus’s disciples and they couldn’t cure his son. Jesus rebuked the demon and the child was cured. The disciples asked Jesus why they could not cast the demon out and Jesus answered them saying, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have Faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” A mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds there are and Jesus tells us if we just have that much Faith, we can move the mountains out of our lives. A mustard seed, just like our Faith, has to be watered, fertilized, and tended to, in order to grow to an adult plant. We need to study and learn to do what God wants so we can become mature Christians (Our watering, fertilizing, and tended to). There are a lot of good people doing many good things that are not obedient to what God wants done. God says, “Obey my commands and I will prepare for you a place (Heaven).”  Disobedient, and you will have no place with God.

Lastly in Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in Heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I NEVER KNEW YOU, DEPART FROM ME , you who practice lawlessness.” That, my friends, is one of the scariest passages in the entire Bible.

The Bible is VERY clear that there are two places: The one God has promised to us for being obedient and the one Satan dwells in for those who don’t want to do what God wants you to do. The choice is yours to make. Make the right one!!

SMILE God loves YOU!! Have a good day all.