Did You Really Hear God's Voice?

Many of today's churches teach and preach about hearing God's voice. They cherry pick scriptures that at first glance seem to support this notion. But upon further contextual reading, it's certainly not the case. They love to teach that prayer is a two way street - talking to God and then listening for His answer. But Jesus didn't teach his disciples anything like that when they asked him to teach them how to pray. Here's a sermon by Justin Peters that really digs in and takes this false notion to task.

https://www.gty.org/sermons/TM19-3/hearing-from-heaven-how-to-know-the-voice-of-god-justin-peters

The Bolt from the Blue

By Elizabeth Prata

SYNOPSIS

A young man on his honeymoon in Florida was tragically struck by lightning, highlighting the unpredictability of death. The piece reflects on the inevitability of mortality and emphasizes the importance of preparing spiritually for death through repentance and faith in Jesus. Life’s fleeting nature calls for persistent devotion to God.

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every matter under heaven— A time to give birth and a time to die; (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2).

From Fox news: “Very sad update: A 29-year-old Colorado man, visiting Florida on his honeymoon with his new wife, was tragically killed by lightning on New Smyrna Beach. The storm was located 6–8 miles inland, and conditions at the beach were partly sunny when he was struck while standing in ankle-deep water. It was what’s known as a “bolt from the blue.”

Death didn’t concern me when I was younger. ‘All that’ (not daring even to say it’s name) seemed so far away. It won’t happen to me yet was my never-voiced thought. But wasn’t it Elbert Hubbard in 1900 who said “Do not take life too seriously—you will never get out of it alive.” Death is a fact and people die suddenly, instantaneously, and in strange ways, said Adrian Rogers, in a sermon I heard 20 years ago and never forgot. “The Day Death Died“.

The grass withers, the flower fades,
When the breath of the LORD blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass. (Isaiah 40:7).

Death can come at any time. It’s not only the elderly, the stage 4 cancer patient, an Alzheimer’s grandfather who pass on. Sometimes death takes its sweet time arriving. Other times it comes as a bolt from the blue.

This young couple had their lives in front of them. Not even 30 yet. Just married mere days before. Their happiness was as sunny as the skies overhead. Yet death came. It arrived and left quickly, striking down the happy man and causing untold pain for those he loved still staring in shock.

The man was no doubt happy at the moment he met eternity. Yet happiness is no insulator from death. For those with a dread diagnosis, sadness, melancholy, and resignation to the inevitable are part of their life from that moment on. The tunnel if life is narrowing with each passing day. They see it coming. But the happy man, looking to the boundless ocean, seeing it as it is- a great bowl of infinite possibilities, endless waves of joy, never saw his end coming. Perhaps he was thinking about he children he and his new wife would have. Or perhaps thinking of their future together as a united couple, growing old together, not even knowing that their growing old would only be minutes long.

“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die…(John 11:25-26a)

There are two points. One is that Jesus left his proper place in glory to pour Himself into human flesh, live a perfect life, and die agonizingly and unjustly so he could absorb and exhaust all of Gods wrath for sin. This act of holy and inexpressible sacrifice opened the door to heaven for sinners, if they repent and go through Jesus.

Secondly, HAVE you repented and trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior? He prepared for His duty in the Incarnation every day. He taught, prayed, obeyed God, waited for His time, and died. What are you doing to prepare for the inevitable death that will come? As we have seen, it may not be far off. Or it may be far off and you must be patient to see the Savior. Either way, preparing by first repenting unto salvation is critical. Then, our chief duty in this life “is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever” says the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Prepare for our eventual reuniting with Him by diligently seeking His face so as to grow in His likeness.

Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be firm, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Always working for the Lord. Always, constantly. Don’t sleep, drift, waver, or stumble.

Finally, brothers, rejoice! Aim for perfect harmony, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. (2 Corinthians 13:11)

What does it mean that God draws us to salvation?

 

Answer from Got Questions . . . . . 

The clearest verse on God’s drawing to salvation is John 6:44 where Jesus declares that “no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” The Greek word translated “draw” is helkuo, which means “to drag” (literally or figuratively). Clearly, this drawing is a one-sided affair. God does the drawing to salvation; we who are drawn have a passive role in the process. There is no doubt that we respond to His drawing us, but the drawing itself is all on His part.

Helkuo is used in John 21:6 to refer to a heavy net full of fish being dragged to the shore. In John 18:10 we see Peter drawing his sword, and in Acts 16:19 helkuo is used to describe Paul and Silas being dragged into the marketplace before the rulers. Clearly, the net had no part in its being drawn to the shore, Peter’s sword had no part in being drawn, and Paul and Silas did not drag themselves to the marketplace. The same can be said of God’s drawing of some to salvation. Some come willingly, and some are dragged unwillingly, but all eventually come, although we have no part in the drawing.

Why does God need to draw us to salvation? Simply put, if He didn’t, we would never come. Jesus explains that no man can come unless the Father draws him (John 6:65). The natural man has no ability to come to God, nor does he even have the desire to come. Because his heart is hard and his mind is darkened, the unregenerate person doesn’t desire God and is actually an enemy of God (Romans 5:10). When Jesus says that no man can come without God’s drawing him, He is making a statement about the total depravity of the sinner and the universality of that condition. So darkened is the unsaved person’s heart that he doesn’t even realize it: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, it is only by the merciful and gracious drawing of God that we are saved. In the conversion of the sinner, God enlightens the mind (Ephesians 1:18), inclines the will toward Himself, and influences the soul, without which influence the soul remains darkened and rebellious against God. All of this is involved in the drawing process.

There is a sense in which God draws all men. This is known as the “general call” and is distinguished from the “effectual call” of God’s elect. Passages such as Psalm 19:1-4 and Romans 1:20 attest to the fact that God’s eternal power and divine nature are “clearly seen” and “understood” from what has been made, “so that people are without excuse.” But men still do deny God, and those who acknowledge His existence still do not come to a saving knowledge of Him outside of His drawing them. Only those who have been drawn through special revelation—by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God—will come to Christ.

There are tangible ways in which those who are being drawn to salvation experience that drawing. First, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sinful state and our need for a Savior (John 16:8). Second, He awakens in us a previously unknown interest in spiritual things and creates a desire for them that was never there before. Suddenly our ears are open, our hearts are inclined toward Him, and His Word begins to hold a new and exciting fascination for us. Our spirits begin to discern spiritual truth that never made sense to us before: “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Finally, we begin to have new desires. He places within us a new heart that inclines toward Him, a heart that desires to know Him, obey Him, and walk in the “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) that He has promised.

Do You Pray This?

"Come, Lord Jesus!"

SCRIPTURE READING — REVELATION 22:20-21

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

— Revelation 22:20

by Kurt Selles


Prayer is so essential to the Christian life that the Bible closes with a short prayer: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

The words “Come, Lord” probably draw from an Aramaic expression used by early Christians: “Maranatha!” For example, the apostle Paul used this Aramaic phrase as he closed his first letter to the church in Corinth (see 1 Corinthians 16:22).

Why would Paul use an Aramaic phrase while writing to a Greek-speaking church? Well, Aramaic was the common, local language spoken in the region where Jesus and his disciples lived. Some have suggested that maran was a word the people used to voice their longing for the Messiah to come. And by adding atha, they say, Paul echoed a confession of the early Christians in his day. Pointing to Christ, those words mean, “Our Lord has come.”

In Paul’s day, Christians apparently also used maranatha as a mutual greeting, identifying themselves in a world that was hostile to them. They also used similar words as a short prayer repeated throughout the day, Maranatha, “Come, O Lord.”

Significantly, at the close of the Bible, this prayer for Jesus’ second coming is preceded by a promise from Jesus himself: “Yes, I am coming soon.” Can there be any greater assurance?

As we work and long for the coming of God’s kingdom, may our prayers often include these words from the closing lines of Scripture: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”


Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.

Revelation

 

From Elizabeth Prata's blog on June 7, 2023

The word apocalypse comes from the Greek for “revelation,” or “unveiling.” It’s about future things dealing with the return of Christ and the events of the end time. Do you know that a third of the Bible is prophecy? Did you know that every book in the NT except Philemon speaks about the end times? It’s not just a Revelation thing. It’s a Jesus thing, and Jesus is throughout the entire Bible.

So what IS going to happen? Jesus is going to punish sin, plain and simple. Punishment is never pleasant, and Jesus said that the Apocalypse will be the worst time on earth there will ever be. (Matthew 24:21; Daniel 12:1b). Daniel 9:24 explains the 6 things God will do during the Apocalypse punishments. God, who is loving, wants us to be righteous so we can be with Him in heaven, so He sent Jesus. God, who is holy, is going to punish the unholy, who reject Jesus.

There will be earthquakes so bad that entire mountains crumble and islands flee away. One hundred pound hailstones will squash men. Plagues (and wars and beasts) will kill 1/3 of people. Demons will be let out of the abyss to inflict a painful bite so bad that people want to die: but can’t. They’ll chew their tongues in agony. Starving people will die in the streets, but no one will care. Things will come upon the earth so frightening that people have heart attacks on the spot. The sun and moon go dark, stars fall from the sky. Jesus said it will be so bad that if He let it go longer nobody would survive. As it is, 4 billion die within the 7 years. (Revelation 6-19).

Sin is real. God’s judgment of sin is real. Satan is real. Hell is real. The coming Antichrist is real. Everything in the Bible is real. Not any other book. Apocalypse will happen. The rapture will be the signal that it’s beginning.

How can I be so sure? Because for 43 years I had everything I ever wanted. Money, fame, comforts, ease, professional recognition, world travel, and yet I felt empty. I felt in my soul that there had to be something more. What was this longing? This hole I felt within me? (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Is this all there is? Live a life and then die? It seemed like a lot of trouble to go through just to die. Is there a heaven? Will I go there? I wondered all these things.

It was the lack of knowing Jesus that was the problem. He created us. (Rev 4:11) and because we are born with a sin-nature, I was separate from him. THAT’S what I was feeling. I had been trying to fill that hole with temporary and unfulfilling things. I finally found the answer, at middle age without ever having gone to a church (so I’m not brainwashed into Christianity, lol). When you confess your sins and repent to Jesus, He forgives you and He brings you to fellowship with Him. He sends the Holy Spirit to make the things of God understandable, like the Bible. (2 Corinthians 3:14). Before I was saved, the Bible made no sense. I thought it was stupid. I thought Bible thumpers and Jesus followers were stupid. After I repented, the Bible made total sense and I loved Jesus.

I now see death differently from all the rest of the world that has no hope. It is simply a transition, from something tiring and full of struggle, to something wondrous and glorious beyond compare. I have no fears of the Apocalypse, because I won’t be here to experience it. Those in Christ will be taken out of the way, because He is not angry with us. We’re forgiven sinners. He is angry with unrepentant sinners. O, it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of an angry God!

I am very sure this age will come to a terrible end. I am sure that time is not long away. I am very sure that I will be lifted bodily away from earth to meet Jesus in the air at the rapture to live with Him forever. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:50-54.) If you want that certainty too, then repent of your sins and turn to Jesus. Believe He is Lord, who sacrificially died to satisfy God’s wrath about sin and who was raised on the third day. I will be in heaven. I hope you will be too.

Avoid the Victim Mentality

 By Elizabeth Prata

Do you have a victim mentality? Photo by Alice Alinari on Unsplash

I was saved as a 40-something adult, never having attended church or had been involved in religion or ‘churchy’ things. I spent 18 months following Joel Osteen then rejected him when I actually got a Bible and began comparing his teachings to it. I moved to Georgia and began listening to Woodrow Kroll in “Back to the Bible”, Adrian Rogers, then John MacArthur. Solid men. I was grateful for this time of firming up my faith before I started attending church, because when I got there…

The first ‘Bible study’ I was exposed to in church was “Experiencing God” by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. I was told “It will completely change me…” “Powerful…” and all the hype. Nope. Here is a good review of that ‘study’ from Critical Issues Commentary. Blackaby was the one who in modern times of the Southern Baptist Convention church (SBC) set the course toward mysticism and contemplative prayer. I praised the Lord he had given me time & space to develop discernment before I was thrust into the soup of rotten Bible studies.

The second one was a Kay Arthur inductive study which at the time (2007-2008) was good. But the next one I was exposed to, heavily and pressingly, almost forced, was Beth Moore. I was attending a SBC church and at the time (2010-onward) Moore was reaching Everest heights of popularity. There was no escaping her studies, books, simulcasts, retreats, and conversations about the latest thing she said or did or taught. She was everywhere. Like Blackaby, Moore’s studies focused on self.

I was surprised and dismayed by the constant emphasis on self by Moore and Blackaby, and other studies I saw people doing or did myself. I’d spent 42 years before salvation studying myself and I was thoroughly sick of myself. I wanted to know about Jesus.

Along with the emphasis on self, as time went on, these studies inevitably drew a focus on our injured self. Sin was described as ‘messiness’, not sin. We know messes can be cleaned up by ourselves. Maybe that was why the term caught on. Sin needs repenting to God for, but if I’m a mess, or my life is a mess, or I’m in a mess, just clean it up, no Jesus needed.

And further away from the Godly terms of sin and repentance, we went not only in studies but also in conversation, from messiness to victim. My life is a mess because I’m a victim, not a sinner. It’s all someone else’s problem, not my fault! You see how the drift away from Biblical standards of behavior, from commonly understood terms, and from His commands to stay close to the word have gone from ‘mortifying sin’, to ‘my life’s a mess because I’m a victim.’

Here is one example of the victimhood mentality from recent days. Lysa TerKeurst wrote-

@LysaTerKeurst: “Your heart is much too beautiful of a place for bitterness. They made choices that hurt you. And chances are, those choices are an indication of their brokenness, not yours. Remember, it should be God’s words, not their words, that reveal the truth of who we are.”

The heart is not beautiful. Mark 7:21-23 says

or from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

Meg Basham commented on TerKeurst’s tweet, saying: “The heart is deceitful above all things, & desperately sick; who can understand it? ‘I the Lord search the heart'” Jer. 17:9-10 Bitterness is bad, but so is soft-focus spiritualism that teaches women to see themselves only as victims, only as sinned-against rather than sinners.

I don’t know TerKeurst’s work well at all, but quick perusal of recent posts showed many in same vein—women’s great struggle is dealing with pain others are inflicting ON them. Hence my comment. Only one post in 2022 about dealing with your own sin. Only one the year before…

thinking further, if you’re gonna weight these things for general audience, how much should focus be on teaching how to deal with sins in our own lives vs how to react to other people’s sins hurting us? Because for Christian women’s books, breakdown seems 75% their sin, 25% mine. –end @MegBasham

So these days, a commonly understood state of woman, even after conversion, is not having to constantly deal with our own sin, but rather its watered down definition-change to messiness. This diminishes sin’s potency. Then the word changed to victimhood, meaning other people are the problem, not us. Then enter the latest iteration- misogyny, defined as dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women. The mentality now is we are the way we are due to everyone else’s hatred of us.

If you listen to these modern women who craft Bible studies, you soon get the idea that all men hate all women and all institutions are prejudiced against the female sex. That, it’s everywhere. And every time you encounter something distasteful against you, just call it “misogyny” and it’s the reason you’ve been hard put by- rather than probably your OWN sin nature as the root cause of your current issue.

It never occurs to these women Bible teachers who teach soft victimhood, that everyone is hard put by at some point in our lives. Everyone has something happen to them that is distasteful or worse, a crime. Everyone has something they can claim victim status about. Sadly these days, many women do claim it, whether it’s real, exaggerated, or sadly, just made-up.

That is because everyone is a sinner. Sometimes what happens to us is our own sin being reaped against ourselves. If you’re disobedient at work, or fail to produce, or a rule-breaker, you’ll be fired. That’s not misogyny, that’s the natural consequence of your own sin. Other times it’s pure injustice for no reason. A drunk driver rammed your car and someone died. It’s an injustice but nothing to do with anything you did or chose or said. That’s the world- it’s evil. It’s under the temporary dominion of the evil one. (2 Corinthians 4:4).

But if you have a victim mentality, you will see your entire life through a perspective that things constantly happen ‘to’ you. Victimisation is thus a combination of seeing most things in life as negative, beyond your control, and as something you should be given sympathy for experiencing as you ‘deserve’ better. At its heart, a victim mentality is actually a way to avoid taking any responsibility for yourself or your life. By believing you have no power then you don’t have to take action. 

Source

If you believe you’re a victim, then you think you don’t have to take action. If don’t have to take action, you don’t have take Godly actions like resisting temptation, repenting, pursuing holiness, and the like.

No, resist the victim mentality and avoid ministries that focus on the ‘something bad’ that happened to you. You’re not a victim. You are a trophy of grace, a person made in the image of God who has been given the gift of mercy because you’re saved from His wrath against your sin.

We are all sinners. We all have a past, we all do wrong things, and we’re all totally depraved. Once we are born again, all those sins are forgiven AND they are forgotten by Jesus.

A Bible study is not an extended therapy session about yourself, your wounds, the ‘toxic relationships’ holding you back. It is an opportunity to learn more about the triumph of Jesus on the cross and His ongoing gracious ministry to His people.

On The Chosen: Jesus Is Not the Law of Moses. He is Far Better.

 by Grayson Gilbert  

Recently, The Chosen posted an image of the actor who plays Christ with a line from season 3 that is supposedly a “mic drop” moment for the show’s producers. It shows the character responding to one of the Pharisees by saying, “I am the Law of Moses.” While many flocked to the post in support of the “mic drop,” many others expressed how flatly unbiblical this is. They rightly said that Jesus is not the Law, but that the Law instead reveals the righteous standard of our thrice holy Lord. Likewise, they were right to say that Jesus came to fulfill the Law in His perfect, active obedience to it all His earthly life.

Contrary to the expression of infamous pastors like Steven Furtick, the active obedience of Christ means that He in no way “violated the Law” out of love. More importantly, the active obedience of Christ is a vicarious obedience. We think of the vicarious substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, meaning that He died in our place as our Substitute, and paid the wrath that we deserved. In the vicarious obedience of Christ, Jesus lived in perfect obedience, likewise, on our behalf. He fulfilled what we could not do: Jesus obeyed the Law, and due to His active obedience, and His passive obedience on the cross, we actually gain the benefit of being counted righteous before God. This is the doctrine of imputed righteousness, which is an alien righteousness—a righteousness not of our own, but Christ’s. This is important, so hang with me.

As we come back to the “mic drop” moment of season 3 in The Chosen, this becomes all the more nefarious. In fact, nowhere in Scripture does Jesus say to anyone, “I am the Law of Moses.” In the book of Mormon, however, you will find such a statement in 3 Nephi 15:9, “Behold, I am the Law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life.” That alone should give people enough pause on the show, owing to the fact that Mormonism is a false religion that teaches a contrary gospel to the gospel of our Lord. In short, Mormon doctrine holds that it is your active obedience that will please God in the end, and earn your salvation.

2 Nephi 25:23 states, “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (emphasis mine). Often this verse from 2 Nephi is used in conjunction with Moroni 10:32 to give clearer meaning, which says, “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God” (emphasis mine). It is quite important to notice the all-important temporal modifiers to these Mormon scriptures, because they explicitly teach that grace is a commodity earned only after one has exhausted their own spiritual muster.

The LDS Bible Dictionary puts it like this:

“This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts. Divine grace is needed by every soul in consequence of the fall of Adam and also because of man’s weaknesses and shortcomings. However, grace cannot suffice without total effort on the part of the recipient. Hence the explanation, ‘It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do’ (2 Ne. 25:23)” (p. 697).

But what does the Bible say of all of this? It is bupkis. Rubbish. Ultimately, it is damnable doctrine. Romans 3:10-20 lays out the plight of mankind so incredibly clearly that it leaves anyone without a source of comfort in their own ability to earn grace. Likewise, Ephesians 2:1-10 displays not only the hopelessness of those born under the dominating power of sin—but it lifts up the reality that we are saved “by grace through faith…and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). The good works which we walk in were prepared beforehand for us by the Father (Eph. 2:10), meaning that even our good works are a production of this grace in us. In other words: even our active obedience to Christ is a display of the riches of God’s grace. They are not what produces salvation, but a production of salvation.

The lynchpin of my argument today though is not the tie The Chosen has to Mormonism, which is without dispute at this point. That should be enough—but for many, it is not. What I want to do then is simply take this “mic drop” moment from The Chosen and show just how flatly unbiblical, and truly sad it actually is. The reason for this is quite simple: Not only does Scripture simply never say in any one of the great “I AM” passages that Jesus Christ is the Law of Moses, Jesus is far better than the Law. Here’s why.

The apostle Paul begins in Romans 7 by describing the plight of mankind before the Law of God because of the dominating power of sin. The problem is not the Law. The Law, as Paul says, is “holy, righteous, and good” (Rom. 7:12). The problem is us. The Law is spiritual, but we are not; we are sold as slaves to sin, bound under obedience to the Law, but unable to keep the Law in perfection as it demands—and the result is that the Law produces death in us. Ultimately, we are caught up between the power of sin and death—we are bound by the flesh, and it is so bad that Paul tells us four results of being bound by the flesh, according to Romans 8:5-8:

The mind set on the flesh is death.


The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.


The mind set on the flesh does not subject itself to the Law of God because it is not even able to do so.


Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

This is the fundamental problem of the Law. As holy, righteous, and good as it is, it cannot free man from this body of death we bear under the weight and power of sin. The Law was never designed to do this. Even if one takes into account the threefold use of the Law—all should recognize that the Law was never designed to be a means by which sinners are freed from the power of sin and death—but Jesus is powerful enough to deliver us from sin and death. This is why is it so heinous that The Chosen depicts Jesus Christ saying, “I am the Law of Moses.” It equates Christ with the Law, rather than with Him being the second person of the Trinity, who is far greater than the Law.

The Law could not set you and I free from sin and death—but Jesus did. The Law was powerless to free one from the condemnation they deserve—but Jesus is not. This is why so many find comfort in Paul’s argument in Romans 8:1-4:

“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

What rendered death in us before and bound us all under the power of sin—is no longer binding us. We’ve been freed, not only from the power of sin and death, but from the judgment to come, and this is particularly why the gospel is such good news. The hopelessness of being bound by the flesh in death, hostility toward God, our inability to subject ourselves to God’s Law, and our utter inability to please God, has been replaced by a renewed hope under the law of the Spirit. The Spirit dwells within us (Rom. 8:9), gives us life (Rom. 8:10-11), enables us to put to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom. 8:12-13), allows us to be called “Sons of God” (Rom. 8:14-15), and testifies that we are His children (Rom. 8:16) and heirs to the promises of God (Rom. 8:17). The Law does none of these things.

Perhaps greatest of all though is that the Law was powerless to cleanse us from the stain of sin, but Christ’s sacrifice was not. Hebrews 10 speaks of this wonderful reality, showing that the Law was merely a shadow of the glorious things to come through Christ. It could never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to God in worship (Heb. 10:2). But Jesus can. Instead of a continual reminder of the power of sin and death, we have a perfect sacrifice found in Jesus Christ, who satisfied the wrath of God and rendered us pure and blameless before the Father. In other words, we are truly counted righteous.

And this is where the vicarious obedience of Christ comes full circle—because it is only through the active obedience of Jesus Christ that we have come to be counted righteous (Rom. 5:19). It is only because the Son lived in perfect obedience to the Law that He could offer up His life in our place, and truly satisfy the wrath of God. To tie that all together: Christ proved that He was not only greater than the Law by this, but showed He was greater than the power of sin and death. Sin might take advantage of the commandment and produce death in us (Rom. 7:8), but it could not in Christ.

Did the producers of The Chosen intend to knock against all of this? Perhaps not. It is difficult to say, simply owing to how steeped in Mormon doctrine the show is—but I am inclined to not give them the benefit of the doubt as so many wish to do. This is their “gotcha” moment. This is their proverbial “mic drop.” But this isn’t quite the mic drop they believe it to be. Rather than showing people a genuinely biblical portrayal of Christ and His power over sin and death, they display an impotent Jesus, who is powerless to actually save people from their sins. Instead, they show a Jesus who is mastered by the dominating power of sin. That’s what truly gets communicated in one little line, because that’s what the Scriptures say about the Law. When you equate Jesus with the Law of Moses, that’s what you get.

Unfortunately, many don’t see this, but have fawned over the mic drop and been reduced to tears. They have, in other words, been profoundly impacted by the show—but in all the wrong ways and for all the wrong reasons. The sad reality is that until professing Christians start to pick up their Bibles and critically examine shows like these, those of us who do so will continue to be labeled curmudgeons, and “fun-ripper-outers.” In part, I’ll take that because I am sardonically asking along with Maximus Decimus Meridus to the blood-thirsty crowd who watched him dispatch of another in the gladiatorial arena, “Are you not entertained?” Things should not be this way, but they are.

What the show relies on is an ignorance of what the Scriptures actually teach, which is to say precisely why it is so popular. It offers much of the same style of Christianity pervading the Evangelical world currently, where the inch-deep, mile-wide preaching of the Word, the “At the Movies” canned sermon series, and the vapid emotionalism brought on by manipulative “worship” music laden with sentimental musical prompts, are commonplace. Indeed, it brings people to see Jesus—just not the biblical Jesus; but it is highly entertaining, is it not? The problem is that we keep asking the wrong question. The question isn’t if it is entertaining, but why so many are entertained at the expense of biblical truth.

Our Role and God’s Role in Evangelism

posted on FEBRUARY 4, 2021  (from Theologyforyou.com)

What do you think your job is in evangelism? Are you supposed to present all the logical arguments for the existence of God? Are you supposed to convince someone that they should become a believer? Is it your responsibility to bring someone to faith in Christ?

In this article, we’re going to look at our role in evangelism versus God’s role in evangelism and how, many times, we get the two confused.

This article is part of a series on evangelism using Will Metzger’s book Tell the Truth as our guide. If you don’t have this book we’d highly encourage you to pick up a copy of your own.

We Don't Have to be Confused


A lot of times we get confused in our witness and, in our desire to share our faith with others, we feel like we have the responsibility to bring them to Christ. Believer, be comforted, that’s not your responsibility, it’s God’s.

Our responsibility is to proclaim the gospel with our lips and our lives knowing that it is God who is going to work in people’s hearts to bring them to faith.

We are to see ourselves simply as planters and waterers who trust God to give the growth.

Again, this goes back to our article on the importance of the content of the gospel where we talked about “the herald.” If you haven’t seen that yet, I’d encourage you to check it out by clicking here or the description below. The idea of the herald is that we are to carry and deliver the message that has been given to us.


I’d like to share a quote with you from the little book from 9Marks called What if I’m Discouraged in My Evangelism? It says this, “Our job is to proclaim salvation not produce it. We’re called to deliver a message to people; God’s the one who delivers people from sin.”



“Our job is to proclaim salvation not produce it. We’re called to deliver a message to people; God’s the one who delivers people from sin.”ISAAC ADAMS


Consider also this analogy from Tell the Truth:


Imagine how odd it would be if a mailman was discouraged because he thought “Every time I deliver a letter and someone opens it, they don’t like what they read!” it’s not the mailman’s job to make people like the mail but to deliver it. Likewise, it’s our job to deliver the gospel to people, and God’s job to cause them to believe the gospel. We share the faith, and God grants the faith. As Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:65).

So in our evangelism, we should focus on being faithful to share the gospel message that has been delivered to us and not focusing on whether or not the person we’re sharing the gospel with comes to faith. Obviously, we want those with whom we share the gospel to come to a knowledge of the truth and to enter into a right relationship with God, but we should not judge whether or not we have been successful in our evangelism by the number of converts that we have.

Without the Right Focus, we will be confused


If your focus in evangelism is to see how many people you can get to “pray a prayer”, or raise their hand or come forward in a service you’re focussing on the wrong things. I want to challenge you by asking a very simple question: can we find any of these things in the Bible? The answer is: we can’t. They’re not in the Bible. And we’re going to cover this in more detail in our next article when we talk about genuine conversion.

In the Bible, what do we see instead? Jesus and the apostles taught the scriptures and called people to repent and believe in the gospel. They communicated the message given to them and called people to respond to that message, not by praying a prayer, or by going forward in a church service or raising their hand but calling them to repent and believe.

Jesus in Mark 1:15 “repent and believe in the gospel.” Peter in Acts 3:19, “Repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,” Acts 17:30 “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” The apostles followed the model of Jesus and communicated the message that was given to them as servants of that message.

Paul often considered himself a servant and a witness to God. So should we. We are to witness to others by proclaiming the truths of the Scriptures. We should proclaim God as the maker and creator of all things, including them, and He is a lawmaker and a love-giver and we have failed to follow his commands.

Now separated from God and unable to make ourselves right with Him, we need Him to bring us to himself, and He has provided a way through Christ. By faith, we are to turn from our wicked ways and believe in Christ’s payment for our sins that we may be right with God and live a life pleasing to him. Out of love, we should even plead with people to receive Christ yet, we must not evaluate the success of our evangelism in terms of whether or not someone comes to faith.

As we’ve established in this series on evangelism the primary way we should evaluate our evangelism is, as John Piper says, to “look at the book.” We look at the Bible and see the examples of evangelism in scripture. After doing that we can study the history of the Christian church and see where God has blessed the proclamation of the gospel and drawn people to himself. From one such study, Martyn Lloyd Jones shares five foundational principles to evangelism that honestly completely changed the way that I view evangelism.The supreme object of the work of evangelism is to glorify God, not to save souls.
The only power that can do this work is the Holy Spirit, not our own strength.
The one and only medium which the Spirit works through is the Scriptures. Therefore, we reason out of the Scriptures as Paul did.
These proceeding principles give us the true motivation for evangelism–a zeal for God, and a love for others.
There’s a constant danger of heresy through a false zeal in the employment of unscriptural methods.

The Primary Purpose of Evangelism


We must not evaluate the success of our evangelism in terms of whether or not someone comes to faith.


The primary purpose of evangelism is to glorify God, not to save souls. We trust God’s work in people’s lives that He, through the Holy Spirit, is the one that is going to move people. The means by which God moves people is through the Scriptures. It’s not through apologetics or reasoning in a purely logical sense, but primarily we reason out of the Scriptures; we point people to what the Bible says. It is God and not us who is the evangelizer. We get to journey along with Him as he does the work of evangelism while we are just presenting the truths.


Our responsibility in evangelism is to proclaim the gospel with our lips and our lives knowing that it is God who is going to work in people’s hearts to bring them to faith.

In our next article, we’re going to look a little deeper into understanding God’s role in evangelism by looking at what genuine conversion is. What does it mean for someone to truly become a Christian?



The primary purpose of evangelism is to glorify God, not to save souls.

We Share Jesus As We Anticipate His Return

from Love Worth Finding Ministries

We hear the news. Stories of war, natural disasters, and disease fill our ears. We remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:6-7 as He spoke of what the world will look like just before He comes again: “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars…nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.” We hear of food shortages, see rising prices and read Revelation 6:6, which talks about two pounds of wheat costing a day’s wages.

And so, we ask: When will Jesus return and rapture His bride, the Church? We’ve been waiting for 2,000 years! The answer, as it was in the Apostle Peter’s day, is soon and very soon. Peter warned us that “scoffers” would ask, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). Echoing Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 24:6 to “see that you are not troubled,” Peter further encouraged us: “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8-9). That “longsuffering” should point Jesus’ followers toward evangelism as we await the Rapture.

We will not know the date and time when Jesus will come for us, but Pastor Adrian Rogers likened our wait to a walk at the edge of the ocean. If the ocean’s edge is the Rapture—the doorway to forever living bodily with Jesus—our feet are in the sand, just touching the water. It is not that we have been journeying to the ocean from 2,000 miles away; we are at the surf’s edge.

“Now some people have the idea that…we’re way over here, the Second Coming of Jesus is off over there somewhere, and we’re just maybe trying to get to it,” Pastor Rogers said. “No, no, no, no, no. Friend, we’re right on the edge; we’re just walking along the seashore. We are living on the edge of eternity.”

In other words, eternity isn’t in front of us; it’s right beside us. Everything that needs to be fulfilled prior to the Rapture of the Church has been fulfilled. From the First Century through the 21st Century and now into the 22nd, we have been living in the “end times.” We look around us and observe that the days are becoming, as Pastor Rogers said, “gloriously dark.” We have the eyes of faith to understand the times and sense the soon coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He may come at any moment.

What do we do in the end times?

How then, should we live? We live in hope because we know the promises God gave us in His Word are true. We live with our eyes focused on Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. We live longing for and prepared for the return of Christ. We are watching for Him. While our hearts stretch toward the unimaginable above, our arms are stretched out in love to reach others beside us… before it is too late.

This is an active form of waiting as we work to bring a harvest to Jesus; we do not waste our precious time and our precious lives on lesser pursuits. We concentrate on the heart of the Gospel: Jesus died for our sins, He was raised, He is coming again. We do not fear the darkness, knowing that Jesus will always lead us in the light of His Word. Finally, we are aware that the enemy too knows the time is short, so we stand firm, with our feet planted in the truth of God’s Word. We withstand the enemy’s most clever schemes to tie us to this world so that we will point others toward the far better inheritance we will receive… in the twinkling of an eye.

Revelation fulfills the Gospel; Jesus is coming again.

What is the Gospel? In 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul tells us the Gospel is, “That Christ died for our sins, He was buried, He was raised again the third day.” The unfolding of this Gospel began in Genesis and continued throughout the Old Testament with prophecy about the first coming of Jesus. The heart of the Gospel was lived out in Jesus’ lifetime with His sinless life, His vicarious death, and His triumphant resurrection. In our days, the “Last Days,” Jesus continues to live out His Gospel in believers who share His love and bring others into the family of God.

The Book of Revelation gives us a glorious window into how God’s promises will be fulfilled; it explodes with a cosmic celebration of the triumph of the Gospel; it brings full circle the story of redemption that began in the Garden of Eden.

While the Book of Revelation contains many themes, ideas, symbols, and prophecies that may be debated by theologians, the critical message of the book is something all Christians may easily understand. The Book of Revelation is about one central person, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1), for one clear purpose, “to show His servants—things which must shortly take place” (Revelation 1:1), with one comforting promise, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep the things which are written in it; for the time is near” (Revelation 1:3).

To obtain this blessing as a certain prophecy for each believer, we must see Jesus high and lifted up; He is the hero of all redemptive history. We must be His bondslaves because those who are not committed to Him cannot understand what He “shows His servants” as He pulls back the curtain and grants us a heavenly perspective. And we must “keep the things which are written,” being faithful to share Jesus in the face of opposition to the Gospel and refusing to compromise with the culture.

For an introduction to The Book of Revelation from Pastor Rogers, read the article: An Introduction to the Book of Revelation.

We will be with Jesus and like Jesus.

We don’t know when the Rapture will take place, but we know it will be beautiful for those who belong to Jesus. A preschool girl was playing in a Sunday school class, busy with her doll and a tea party set, when she heard the voice of her father who had come to pick her up. She abandoned the toys and ran to the door. Caught up into her daddy’s arms, she wrapped herself around his neck and exclaimed excitedly, “I knew you’d come back”!

She was too young to tell time. Her father’s appearance at that precise moment was a complete surprise. But she trusted Him. She knew he would come for her. That is how we are to live—going about our business, enjoying all God has given us, sharing the Gospel, and trusting Jesus—as we prepare for the Rapture. The Lord’s appearance will be at a surprising time, but it will be both highly relational (we will be “caught up” to Him) and transformational (we will become “like Him” in our glorified bodies).

The Apostle Paul explained to the Church at Thessalonica that this relational and transformational reality will be both for those believers who have died previously and for those who are living at the moment Jesus returns for His own.

Paul wrote the following to comfort us when we grieve the death of a Christian loved one: “But I do not want you to be ignorant brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. …We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-16).

Jesus is going to shout with a voice that literally wakes the dead who belong to Him. In an instant, “we who are alive and remain,” Paul said, indicating that he expected to be among the living at the time of the Rapture, “shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (I Thessalonians 4:17).

All of this will happen, Paul told the Church at Corinth, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52).

This is why believers rightly ask, “Where will you be when the trumpet sounds?”

For more about the Rapture and what it means to be “caught up,” read the article, What is the Rapture?

Christians should not fear the Great Tribulation.

The Rapture we await is not only a joyous reunion but also a rescue.

The Book of Revelation speaks of God’s wrath poured out on the entire world, and those who do not know Christ are right to be anxious. In fact, they should be downright terrified.

Following the Rapture, the Bible says the next seven years will be the worst time in our planet’s history. The Book of Daniel describes this period called the Great Tribulation: “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time” (Daniel 12:1).

During this seven-year period, a false Christ, the Antichrist, a man who, as Pastor Rogers says, “will make Hitler look like a Boy Scout,” will gain worldwide power. The Bible prophecies a ferocious end to the Antichrist and to all those living on Earth who do not belong to Jesus. This end comes on “The Day of the Lord.”

Jeremiah 30:7 says of this horrific day, “Alas, for that day is great, so none is like it.” “None is like it.”

“There’ve been unmitigated horrors of war, of torture, of ethnic cleansing...of earthquakes,” Pastor Rogers said. “But there’s never, never, never been a day like this.”

The Apostle John, speaking prophetically in the past tense as if having seen it already occur, says of the Day of the Lord, “And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave, and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’” (Revelation 6:15-17).

It will be the most cataclysmic and terrifying day in history; yet, Pastor Rogers said, those who are now believers should not fear this Day. Instead, we should be concerned, as Jesus is, about sharing the Gospel so that others are spared from that time.

“The church will be taken out at the rapture,” Pastor Rogers said, “God chastises His children, but He never pours His wrath on His children. But there's coming a time known as the Day of the Lord when God is going to pour out His wrath upon this world, and I'm going to tell you this, that even now, right now, the raging waters of God's wrath are furiously pounding against the dam of His mercy.”

For more about the believer’s rescue from the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord, including Scriptural support, read the article, The Second Coming of Jesus.

The beast of Revelation is Satan’s offspring.

Believers living today will not face the Antichrist spoken of in Revelation. The Antichrist—also known as the beast, the son of perdition, the little horn, and the man of sin—will come to power following the Rapture and during the Great Tribulation. According to Revelation 12 and 13, the Beast is a malevolent dictator.
The beast rises to power during social agitation.

Revelation 13:1 references the beast “rising up out of the sea,” a symbol for society in great turmoil. Because the Church will have been taken out of the world through the Rapture by the time the Great Tribulation begins, society will be in chaos and wickedness will be greatly increased.
The beast has recognizable satanic attributes.

Revelation 13:1-2 symbolizes the beast with “seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name,” and says that “the dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.” Revelation 12:3 symbolizes Satan in this way: “Behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.” While Bible scholars may debate the exact meaning of each symbol, Pastor Rogers says it is clear the beast is Satan’s spawn. “If there was ever a man whose father was the devil, it is the beast. Jesus, who was God in flesh, could say: ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen My Father’ (John 14:9, KJV). The beast, who will be Satan in the flesh, will be able to say: ‘He that hath seen me hath seen my father.’ The beast will be the visible expression of the invisible devil.”
The beast will be seductive and charming.

When the Bible speaks of the beastly characteristics of the Antichrist, it’s talking about his nature, not his appearance. Revelation 13:4 says that the world during the time of the Great Tribulation will worship not only Satan but also the beast, saying, “Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” The beast will not appear hideous, Pastor Rogers said. “No doubt he’ll be handsome, charming, clever, greatly intelligent. He’ll be a global charmer.”
The beast will be driven by sinister ambitions.

While Jesus came “to seek and to save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10), the beast will have a five-point game plan:To deify Satan: “And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast” (Revelation 13:4).
To defy the Savior: “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies… against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven” (Revelation 13:5-6). Pastor Rogers said, “remember Antichrist means anti-Christ.”
To destroy the saints. “It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them” (Revelation 13:5-7a). The beast will want every true believer in Jesus Christ destroyed. Tribulation saints, who come to faith after the Rapture, will face torture and murder. “It will be the devil’s last fling against the people of God,” Pastor Rogers said, “and this ravenous beast will drink his fill of the blood of the martyrs.”
To dominate society. “And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation” (Revelation 13:7b). The beast will have global control.
To delude sinners. “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Pastor Rogers said of the beast: “He wants to keep them damned and doomed.”
The beast will have a highly effective press agent.

A minister of propaganda will present the Antichrist to the world. Revelation 13:11-12 says, “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast.” Pastor Rogers said, “Remember that there is an unholy trinity. The devil always mimics God. The Holy Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. What is the unholy Trinity? The dragon (Satan), the beast (the Antichrist), and the false prophet (the propagandist).”

For more about the beast and the false prophet, including the mark of the beast, read the article, Beware of the Mark of The Beast.

Look up, not around.

While we are blessed by reading the Book of Revelation and understanding Christ’s instruction to us, it may be distracting to continuously relate the symbolism in Scripture to current events and world personalities. And it is fruitless to try and set a date for the Rapture. Our job is to share the Gospel and make disciples.

“God doesn’t punch a time-clock when He goes to work. He doesn’t wear a wristwatch. God is not concerned with time,” Pastor Rogers said. “I'll tell you one thing: It's two thousand years nearer than it's ever been before. Jesus Christ is coming. I’ve stopped looking for the signs and started listening for the trumpet.”

There Will Be a Day

 

There Will Be a Day :: By Dennis Huebshman
Published on: July 12, 2022 by Admin10 Category:General Articles


From Matthew 24:6a-8; “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars…. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.”

Luke 21:11 expands on this; “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from Heaven.”

Going on to Luke 21:26-28, “people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (ESV – all emphasis mine)

Even though we see what we believe are the “beginnings” of the above signs, they represent a part of the Tribulation/Wrath 7-year period of time spoken of in Daniel and Revelation. Some may try to say we are already in that time, but as 2 Thessalonians 2 tells us, the antichrist or “lawless one” cannot appear until the force that restrains this “mystery of lawlessness” is out of the way. He represents the actual time of the Tribulation that starts right after he gets a 7-year peace treaty signed with Israel and the rest of the world.

For those who are true believers in Jesus as their Savior, what we are seeing are signs that tell us we will be leaving here soon. The prelude that is taking place could be classified as insignificant compared to what will happen after we’re gone and when Satan’s forces are fully released on this earth. That movement is presently gaining ground, and the changes taking place are troubling. It’s difficult to imagine just how much worse it can get.

It has been said that the United States, which has been a considerably strong force in the world up to now, is not mentioned in end-times prophecies. Looking at the worldwide view of this country today, events that have taken place very recently have taken our reputation down. As our strength and status get less and less in the world’s eyes, this country is being prepared to be absorbed into a “new world order” led by a “one-world government” of which there will be no real lead nation. The really sad part is, our population that will be here will be ready for this to happen and will willingly accept the change.

It is no accident that the current administration of the U.S. is in office. God put them there and is not surprised by anything that is taking place. In fact, He is allowing it to happen according to His ultimate plan. In Philippians 4:6-7, we’re told, “do not be anxious about anything, but in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Seems simple, but the Father knows all of our concerns. We need to realize Satan’s forces are constantly at work, and anyone who is a follower of Jesus is being called a “hater.” Because we do not accept the abominations that some lifestyles are indulging in, it does not mean we hate the people. Jesus told us to love all our brothers and sisters because each one has an immortal soul, but that does not mean we have to accept their lifestyles. He will accept anyone who will repent and call on Him to save them from eternal condemnation.

For all who have received and accepted Jesus as our Savior, our eternity is set. God does not make promises that He will not keep (Titus 1:2). An event described by the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, commonly called the Rapture, will take place. It is to keep all the Shepherd’s flock from going through the coming wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10, and Revelation 3:10). We were told this would take place before the Tribulation, and I, for one, am eagerly looking forward to it.

In the meantime, we do not need to be just waiting and doing nothing. We need to be in prayer daily, asking the Holy Spirit to touch the hearts of any loved ones who are not truly saved. It wouldn’t be too much to pray this more than once a day. Being a “prayer warrior” is special, and the effects can be amazing.

There will be those who will choose this world over all else. Jesus knew that more would accept their current lifestyle and not be prepared for eternity. He spoke of the two pathways in Matthew 7:13-14. He stated the path to eternal life is narrow, and there would be few on it. Our hope is that through our prayers, we may get some of those lost souls off the broad path that leads to eternal destruction.

The day is coming soon, and our Jesus will be calling us up to meet Him in the air. This will not be the occasion that takes place at the end of the Tribulation where they will “see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Actually, the Rapture will be over in considerably less than one second.

Jeremy Camp wrote and released a song in 2008 called “There Will Be a Day.” It is a testimony to the promise of the Lord to take us Home. It’s a day that all Jesus’ followers are waiting for, and the Father knows we are longing for it. Please consider the message.

1.) I try to hold on to this world with everything I have. But I feel the weight of what it brings and the hurt that tries to grab, The many trials that seem to never end. His word declares the truth that we will enter in this rest with wonders anew.

(ref) But I hold on to this hope and the promise that He brings, That there will be a place with no more suffering. There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more fears. There will be a day when the burdens of this place will be no more. We’ll see Jesus face-to-face, but until that day, we’ll hold on to You always.

2.) I know the journey seems so long; you feel like you’re walking on your own. But there has never been a step where you walked out all alone. Troubled soul, don’t lose your heart, ’cause joy and peace He brings, and the beauty that’s in store outweighs the hurt of life’s sting. (ref)

3.) I can’t wait until that day, where the very One I’ve lived for always will wipe away the sorrow that I’ve faced (wipe away the tears), to touch the scars that rescued me from a life of shame and misery; Oh, this is why, this is why I sing.

There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more fears. There will be a day when the burdens of this place will be no more. We’ll see Jesus face-to-face (x2). There will be a day He will wipe away the tears; He will wipe away the tears; He will wipe away the tears; and there will be a day.

For all who have received and accepted Jesus, we know that we will not be here much longer. As another song line stated, “All my trials, Lord, soon be over.” Once we’re Home, all this will be lost in the past.

For all who have not chosen Jesus as their Savior, please read Romans 10:9-13 for the simple steps to do so. Consider that the Son of the Living God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, has provided you with the opportunity to have eternal life with Him for the asking. He paid our passage in full with His precious blood shed on crucifixion day. He conquered sin and death on resurrection day.

The alternative is to be forever separated from Him in a place of darkness, and there will be no relief ever. He is available 24-7 to receive your call, and please know you have not sinned so greatly that He won’t forgive and accept you if you truly ask Him to be your Savior.

It’s absolutely each individual’s choice of where they will spend eternity. Please choose wisely; please choose soon. We are not guaranteed tomorrow, and that could be the day and time the Father has chosen.

Come, Lord Jesus!

Today is the Day!

NOW IS THE TIME!!! 

(click on above)

The Holy Spirit

 Without the Spirit we are without . . . . . . . 

* joy

* the awareness of God's love for us

* the conviction of who Christ is

* the ability to communicate the gospel in a life changing way

* the conviction of sin

* guidance

* healing

* an intercessor with the Father

* the gifts of the Spirit

* the fruits of the Spirit

* the pledge (or inner proof) of eternal life

Catherine Marshall (Beyond Ourselves)

Who Is The Antichrist?

David Jeremiah Answers End Times Questions 

The Only Way is Jesus

 

Santa Claus Isn't Coming - Jesus Christ Is Coming!

Christmas

what's the real reason for the season?

Today in America, nearly everyone celebrates Christmas. But the real reason for the season seems to have been forgotten by many. So what's Christmas really all about? 

Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus over 2,000 years ago:

"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he 

shall save his people from their sins."  Matt. 1:21

Everyone has sinned and is in need of a Savior.

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" 

Rom. 3:23

That includes sins like lying (Ex.20:15), lusting (Mat 5:28),

using God's name in vain (Ex 20:7), and many other sins.

The punishment for our sin is death.

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life

through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom 6:23

Jesus died in our place to save us from the 

punishment we deserve.

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might

die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have

been healed." 1Peter 2:24

What must I do to be saved?

"If thou shalt confess with they mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart 

that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom 10:9