Month: July 2026

When I was 28, I ran across a paperback book titled “How to be a Christian without being religious”. It was a very simple illustrated version of John’s Gospel. By that time I had already been building a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ for 17 years. I must have read that book at least a dozen times. About 15 years later, I was a service manager and one of my workers turned in his resignation. He told me he and his wife were entering full time Christian ministry. I reached in my desk and gave him that well worn paperback as a present. He looked at the cover and asked, “You think I need this?” I smiled and said, “My brother, we all need it.”  Jesus reveals the difference between relationship and religion in the familiar sermon on the mount recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. He describes two groups standing before Him at judgment. The first group had a personal relationship with Him and did kind, loving things without thought simply because of Jesus’ love and mercy to them. Jesus welcomed them to heaven. The second group had put their faith in religious practices. They were not pagans or evil. They knew of Jesus and even claimed to be Christians doing wonderful works in His name, Jesus will say to them the scariest words in the Bible, “Depart from me. I never knew you.”  The Greek word translated as knew is not describing factual knowledge. It is used to describe a much more intimate knowledge.  So, what is the bottom line of all of this? Nothing I do, even in God’s name, could save me. But what He has done in me when I invited Him into my life has changed me into a new creature as an obedient child of God.

This website is finally back up and running! It was hacked again, but Josh, my brother in Christ, cleaned it up and got it inspected and approved as safe to visit again. God’s Spirit in us will rile the demon in some people, but they cannot stop our testimony.

John 14:6  is the source for my most recent three posts.  Jesus is  who He claims to be. He is the Son of God who became a man so that we can be a son or daughter of God through, and only through, faith in Him. We cannot buy or earn our way into God’s family. The scariest words in the Bible are those Jesus says he will speak to those who thought their works earned them heaven. “Depart from me. I never knew you.” Do you know Jesus as your Savior? Has Jesus introduced you to His heavenly Father as a brother or sister in His family?

For the past nine and a half years, I have written more than 800 posts about my Christian life. I will cover just a few important points here. Our new life as a son or daughter of God begins when we believe in , follow Jesus Christ and repent by turning away from sin and toward God. Two of the most important things I have learned . 1. Never take attacks and criticism personally.  The Spirit in you will rile the demon in some people and the only taste of Jesus they may ever have is when they take a bite out of you. 2.  No matter how rough your life gets, God will bring you through it and His retirement plan is beyond our wildest imagination.