Omar Henry, Boxer, Christian - Now Training In Heaven's Gym

Omar Henry died early this morning after a valiant fight with stage 4 gall bladder cancer. He will be remembered by most of the world as a fabulous amateur light middleweight boxer who had aspirations of reaching stardom in the professional ranks.
Henry's amateur career was indeed special as he amassed a spectacular 60 win, 5 loss record. He was a four time Texas Golden Glove champ and a National Golden Glove quarter finalist. His professional career was short lived because of his illness but was showing glimpses of greatness. He signed a contract with Don King and he won 10 of his first 12 fights with first round knockouts. One of his last boxing accomplishments was to serve as a sparring partner for Floyd Merriweather Jr. in March of 2012. The late fall diagnosis of cancer was battled courageously by Henry. He spent three months in the University of Chicago Hospital. Omar Henry was 25 and he Tweeted a month ago that he hoped to make it to his 26th birthday but he was unable to make it a reality. Omar would of turned 26 a week from today.
Omar will be remembered by boxing enthusiasts as one of the most promising prospects to come along in several years. But death is always an unwelcome visitor. The Bible tells us that Omar Henry and everyone of us have an appointment with death.

Hebrews 9
 ²⁷ And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Job 14 

1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.

² He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
³ And doth thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?
⁴ Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
⁵ Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

While boxing enthusiasts will remember the boxer I want to honor Omar the Christian. Just a few weeks ago in the midst of a brave fight against cancer and aware of his fate he made a revealing Tweet to his fans. You can read it here  Omar was praising his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in his last days here on earth. I always feel joy and relief when I hear of the saving faith of a departed celeb or athlete. Sometimes I get to thinking that the world is void of believers but I know that the Lord has multitudes of His children who are faithfully following Him and awaiting His arrival. Omar is truly training in God's gym now, I look forward to meeting him soon.
If you were diagnosed with stage 4 cancer today are you ready for the possible outcome of death? Believe on Christ today, trust Him as Savior now.. 

The Drought Continues In 2013 - My Observations In Kansas

This weekend I traveled between Buhler, Kansas and Hesston, Kansas, on a blacktop road that I have been traveling for nearly 43 years (since I acquired my license). There are several cattle ponds on this road that have been in existence all of this time...until now. The drought is widening into 2013 and the outlook is not good.
I spent the weekend in Hutchinson, Kansas, and visited with my daughter and her family. They had traveled to Cheney Reservoir a couple of days earlier and told me some amazing things about the drought's effect on Wichita's chief source of water. Wichita is Kansas largest city, over 300,000, and they believe a water crisis could be as close as a month away.  Keep in mind that Cheney Reservoir is right in the middle of the best wheat land in America. Hunger and famine are on the horizon.

As I continued to drive home through the Flint Hills of Kansas I witnessed more dried up ponds. It is truly an eye opening experience to see first hand the damage of this epic drought. I have been warning you of the dire global financial situation, bizarre animal deaths, extreme weather conditions, signs in the heavens and the coming New World Order. I believe that all of these things are portending the coming tribulation and return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 3:1

King James Version (KJV)

3 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

Dear Reader, it's not going to get better. Times will get more and more dire as the Earth undergoes birth pangs the closer we get to the glorious appearing of King Jesus. The real question, as I have posed many times, is....are you ready?  Have you trusted in the saving work of Christ on the cross to be sufficient payment for your sins? Watch the little video in the right sidebar and peruse the articles in this site. If you have a question feel free to email me too. The most important thing you can do as far as prepping for the coming disasters is to receive Jesus as your Savior. I'm praying for you that you will make that important decision. 

Eye Opening Bible Verses That Reveal What The Scriptures Say On The Subject Of Forgiveness

I recently did a search on my favorite Bible study site, www.blueletterbible.com and found some interesting things concerning the subject of forgiveness. For starters, the word "forgiveness" occurs only 7 times in the entire Bible. The word "forgiven" is found just 42 times. You would think that there would be more occurrences of both these words but the Bible is a very efficient book and when these words are used there is a great deal of theology packed into each appearance in the Scriptures.
There are three of these verses that I want to draw special attention to as to their profound meaning and implications. The first is Ephesians 1:7...
 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
This verse is part of a running introduction that tells us what a wonderful position we are in as believers. It is because of God's grace (unmerited favor) that we have been redeemed (bought back) and experienced forgiveness of sins, all because of His shed blood. Real forgiveness is not something anyone deserves or earns and comes at a very dear cost to our Savior, His life blood. The next verse is very similar and is found in Colossians 1:14...
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
This verse tells us nothing new but does emphasize what we learned in Ephesians 1:7. However, the previous verse is connected and gives us another benefit of God's forgiveness notice what verse 13 says...
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Not only have we been forgiven, redeemed and graced but we have also been delivered from darkness and translated (present tense) into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Our forgiveness and place in God's kingdom is as certain as if we were already present with Him in heaven. 
The final verse that I want to call your attention to is found in Colossians 2:13...
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
When discussing Bible verses on forgiveness this may be my favorite verse. This verse tells us just how many sins God has forgiven and the answer is "all". There are a lot of folks today that want to tell us that Jesus death on the cross paid for all of our past sins and now it is up to us to clean up our act and atone for all our future sins. In other words, Jesus death on the cross is not sufficient for sins that we commit after we believe. What rubbish! When Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago all of my sins were yet future. What arrogance to assume that we could have any part in our redemption. The only part I played in the whole drama was the "sinning" and God does all the "forgiving" through the blood of His dear Son. If God has not forgiven all of my sins (past, present, future) then I am a doomed man. We are all doomed.
The only response that we can render to God to acquire this great forgiveness and all of it's benefits is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I urge you to trust Christ as your Savior today.