Mark 13: 5, 9, 23, 33
Jesus began to say to them, See to it that no one misleads you ...
But be on your guard ...
But take heed (pay attention); behold (look here!), I have told you everything in advance ...
Take heed (pay attention!), keep on the alert; for you do not know when the appointed time is.
God has told us everything He's doing before any of it happened.
May we recognize His doings, and understand what it all means. May we take to heart all the stuff we're hearing on the news; about all the weather happenings, and the geological upheavals, and the lawlessness among the peoples.
How God is lining up all the Governments (Kings) of the World for that One-World autocratic rule, that will usher in the Man of Sin (Antichrist) and we'll see the Revelation of Jesus Christ as given to John unfold before our eyes.
May we have the eyes to see and minds to understand and take to heart what God told us will be happening at these, the end of the Last Days.
May we respond by cleansing our own hearts; exposing and confessing and forsaking those sins we are still cherishing in hiding, that we will live our lives in purity and righteousness. And may we promote God's righteousness in the societies in which we live, all around the World.
And may our witness resound and reverberate throughout all the Nations of the World, to every creature; that no one will have any excuse for their poor choices, and every lost lamb will be found and brought in to the safety of the One Fold with One Shepherd.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Monday, November 5, 2018
Sunday, November 4, 2018
The Calm Before The Storm
II Kings 23: 25
Before [Josiah] there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.
This king over Judah was highly praised of God because when the priest found the book of the Law that had been "lost" in the Temple and it was brought to King Josiah, he tore his clothes in sorrow and instituted reforms that removed all the idols and pagan altars and "high places."
And he had the Passover celebration observed in the Land, such as had never been celebrated since the days of the Judges in Israel, before there was a king over them.
Because he had turned to the Lord with his whole heart, soul, and might.
We need a Josiah to come into power in our Nation. We need a man who knows the Lord, knows His Word, and is strong in His Spirit to do in these days what Josiah did for Israel in those days.
Our God is still the same God Who led Josiah in all his reforms, and He can also raise up His man here in these days to tear down all the altars to Molech and Chemosh and put down all the ungodly institutions that have enslaved our people.
This is what we need. It looks like He has, and I am looking to see how it all turns out. This may be a temporary pause before the predicted judgment, as King Josiah was a righteous king between the evil kings, and Judah went into captivity after his days.
O my Father, I pray that Your righteousness would be promoted in this Nation in these days, just as Josiah drew the Nation back to You in those days.
And I pray that Your strength and protection be upon those who are doing Your work in our government and in Your churches here, to prepare us all for the judgment You said would come, as it comes.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Before [Josiah] there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.
This king over Judah was highly praised of God because when the priest found the book of the Law that had been "lost" in the Temple and it was brought to King Josiah, he tore his clothes in sorrow and instituted reforms that removed all the idols and pagan altars and "high places."
And he had the Passover celebration observed in the Land, such as had never been celebrated since the days of the Judges in Israel, before there was a king over them.
Because he had turned to the Lord with his whole heart, soul, and might.
We need a Josiah to come into power in our Nation. We need a man who knows the Lord, knows His Word, and is strong in His Spirit to do in these days what Josiah did for Israel in those days.
Our God is still the same God Who led Josiah in all his reforms, and He can also raise up His man here in these days to tear down all the altars to Molech and Chemosh and put down all the ungodly institutions that have enslaved our people.
This is what we need. It looks like He has, and I am looking to see how it all turns out. This may be a temporary pause before the predicted judgment, as King Josiah was a righteous king between the evil kings, and Judah went into captivity after his days.
O my Father, I pray that Your righteousness would be promoted in this Nation in these days, just as Josiah drew the Nation back to You in those days.
And I pray that Your strength and protection be upon those who are doing Your work in our government and in Your churches here, to prepare us all for the judgment You said would come, as it comes.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, November 3, 2018
Why Is It The Greatest?
Matthew 22: 35-40
A lawyer asked Him a question, testing Him: Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?
And He said to Him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.
It really is all about Love! We are to love God and love our neighbor. God loves what He made, and He wants us to love Him back and to love what He loves--mainly our neighbor.
This is God's primary purpose for us while we live here. When we love Him, we won't pray to anyone but Him as God, we will reverence His Being as God, and we will respect His authority over us as Lord (Boss).
And when we love one another we won't want to kill our neighbor or sleep with his partner, or lie to him. We won't want to even think a negative thought about him, and want the very best for him regardless of the cost to us.
This is how God loves us: He gave His very best, His most precious--His own Son--so that His Blood could wash us whiter than snow, fit to live with Him in His perfect Heaven. He loves us that much.
All the Laws and all the Prophets' prophesies are all based on that Love God has for us: to accept responsibility for our failure to love Him and each other, and accept His love in sending His Son to take our death upon Himself so that His Blood would wash away every stain. That's the central purpose for it all.
Secondary to that is to show us how to cooperate with how He designed this Earth to work. When we cooperate with the way He made it to operate, then we will realize the benefits He put here for us, and we will be able to enjoy them.
When we love one another to show acceptance and compassion for our neighbor, even if we haven't met them yet; and strive to meet their needs in a way that is profitable for them and worth an affordable price--then our businesses to support us financially will benefit all of us. This is God's way.
And we will attribute to our gracious Lord God all the credit, all the glory, all the honor for designing it such and teaching us how to operate it His way.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
A lawyer asked Him a question, testing Him: Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?
And He said to Him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.
It really is all about Love! We are to love God and love our neighbor. God loves what He made, and He wants us to love Him back and to love what He loves--mainly our neighbor.
This is God's primary purpose for us while we live here. When we love Him, we won't pray to anyone but Him as God, we will reverence His Being as God, and we will respect His authority over us as Lord (Boss).
And when we love one another we won't want to kill our neighbor or sleep with his partner, or lie to him. We won't want to even think a negative thought about him, and want the very best for him regardless of the cost to us.
This is how God loves us: He gave His very best, His most precious--His own Son--so that His Blood could wash us whiter than snow, fit to live with Him in His perfect Heaven. He loves us that much.
All the Laws and all the Prophets' prophesies are all based on that Love God has for us: to accept responsibility for our failure to love Him and each other, and accept His love in sending His Son to take our death upon Himself so that His Blood would wash away every stain. That's the central purpose for it all.
Secondary to that is to show us how to cooperate with how He designed this Earth to work. When we cooperate with the way He made it to operate, then we will realize the benefits He put here for us, and we will be able to enjoy them.
When we love one another to show acceptance and compassion for our neighbor, even if we haven't met them yet; and strive to meet their needs in a way that is profitable for them and worth an affordable price--then our businesses to support us financially will benefit all of us. This is God's way.
And we will attribute to our gracious Lord God all the credit, all the glory, all the honor for designing it such and teaching us how to operate it His way.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Friday, November 2, 2018
Satisfaction
Ecclesiastes 2: 24-25
There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen, that it is from the hand of God. For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?
King Solomon was given wisdom beyond any other human person. His rule over Israel was an "golden" time, his having "made gold and silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones" (II Chronicles 1:15), so that everyone could have all they needed.
He said he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes when "I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under Heaven. ..." (Ecclesiastes 1: 13). "Under Heaven," or "under the Sun," refers to life in this Earthly realm only, not considering an after-life, and is the theme of this whole book.
And he concludes that "there is nothing better" than to enjoy the Earthly benefits God gives us while we live here.
Ecclesiastes 5: 19 - 6: 7
As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God. ...
There is an evil which I have seen under the Sun and it is prevalent among men--a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all he desires; yet God has not empowered him to eat from them. ...
All a man's labor is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not satisfied.
Solomon says that it is God's gift for a rich man to be able to enjoy his riches. For what good is it to have everything you want but not be able to enjoy life? What good is it if it's not fun?
No matter how often we eat, we will always need another meal later. We are never completely satisfied, we'll always need to eat again, every day.
Every good gift comes from our Creator Who designed this Earth for us to build our World upon it and have everything we need. But when we focus on the things of this World, even if we amass great wealth, we won't be able to enjoy it without acknowledging God in it all.
So many wealthy people are miserable, because when we put our faith in things of this World, we will never be satisfied. We are made for more enduring "things".
Our stomachs will never stay full, our ears will never be full of hearing, our eyes will never finish seeing. Everything in this World is temporal, temporary. It never was designed to satisfy.
Only our Lord can satisfy our yearnings and longings. He made us that way. We need Him. He does not need us, but He loves us and wants us to love Him back, and to have us live with Him forever. That's when we will be totally satisfied, when that "hole" in us will be filled. And we will rejoice forever, it will never grow old. We will be satisfied and joyous throughout all Eternity.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen, that it is from the hand of God. For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?
King Solomon was given wisdom beyond any other human person. His rule over Israel was an "golden" time, his having "made gold and silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones" (II Chronicles 1:15), so that everyone could have all they needed.
He said he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes when "I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under Heaven. ..." (Ecclesiastes 1: 13). "Under Heaven," or "under the Sun," refers to life in this Earthly realm only, not considering an after-life, and is the theme of this whole book.
And he concludes that "there is nothing better" than to enjoy the Earthly benefits God gives us while we live here.
Ecclesiastes 5: 19 - 6: 7
As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God. ...
There is an evil which I have seen under the Sun and it is prevalent among men--a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all he desires; yet God has not empowered him to eat from them. ...
All a man's labor is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not satisfied.
Solomon says that it is God's gift for a rich man to be able to enjoy his riches. For what good is it to have everything you want but not be able to enjoy life? What good is it if it's not fun?
No matter how often we eat, we will always need another meal later. We are never completely satisfied, we'll always need to eat again, every day.
Every good gift comes from our Creator Who designed this Earth for us to build our World upon it and have everything we need. But when we focus on the things of this World, even if we amass great wealth, we won't be able to enjoy it without acknowledging God in it all.
So many wealthy people are miserable, because when we put our faith in things of this World, we will never be satisfied. We are made for more enduring "things".
Our stomachs will never stay full, our ears will never be full of hearing, our eyes will never finish seeing. Everything in this World is temporal, temporary. It never was designed to satisfy.
Only our Lord can satisfy our yearnings and longings. He made us that way. We need Him. He does not need us, but He loves us and wants us to love Him back, and to have us live with Him forever. That's when we will be totally satisfied, when that "hole" in us will be filled. And we will rejoice forever, it will never grow old. We will be satisfied and joyous throughout all Eternity.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, November 1, 2018
Believing You Will Receive
Matthew 7: 7-8
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Matthew 21: 22
And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.
God has designed this Earth for us to live here and thrive. He put into it everything we will ever need in this World to live and prosper and enjoy His provisions.
It's all based on faith. We believe the chair we are about to sit in is adequate to bear our weight, so we trust it to do so when we sit. Just believing is a "head faith," but taking the action to sit down shows our trust.
This is how God wants us to trust Him. Not just say we believe He can, but taking the actions based on that belief to trust that He will hear and work out the answer.
We are to ask: To know what we want and ask out loud with our voice to Him. Or just to silently ask, specifically and confident that He will answer.
We are to seek: Don't just sit there and wait for it to come, go after it.
We are to knock: We need to do the work involved to make it happen. In His power.
And all through this process, we must trust Him to love us that much as our Daddy to give us all the good gifts He wants us to have from Him. Then He gets the thanks and the honor and glory and credit for doing what He has done.
The World has gotten hold of this faith principle. They say to just ask the "Universe" with confidence. But this robs God of the credit He deserves to have set up the World to work this way.
O my Father, thank You so much for all Your goodness and compassion to us. Thank You for loving us more than we can imagine. Father, You know us; You know all our faults and insufficiencies and failings. And You love us anyway.
O Father, You love us so much that You gave Your very best, Your own Son, to be our Sacrifice, to wash us so clean to be pristine in Your sight, white as snow, as though we'd never sinned. That is how we have Your invitation to live with You in Your perfect Heaven.
And giving Your most valuable, how could You not give us the lesser gifts, the things of this World that we need (Matthew 7:8-11)? And Your Holy Spirit to guide us in our attitudes and actions? Thank You so much, my dear Daddy, for granting me the gift of saving faith, and for growing my trust in You through studying Your Word, Your love-letter to me! You are so good to me!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Matthew 21: 22
And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.
God has designed this Earth for us to live here and thrive. He put into it everything we will ever need in this World to live and prosper and enjoy His provisions.
It's all based on faith. We believe the chair we are about to sit in is adequate to bear our weight, so we trust it to do so when we sit. Just believing is a "head faith," but taking the action to sit down shows our trust.
This is how God wants us to trust Him. Not just say we believe He can, but taking the actions based on that belief to trust that He will hear and work out the answer.
We are to ask: To know what we want and ask out loud with our voice to Him. Or just to silently ask, specifically and confident that He will answer.
We are to seek: Don't just sit there and wait for it to come, go after it.
We are to knock: We need to do the work involved to make it happen. In His power.
And all through this process, we must trust Him to love us that much as our Daddy to give us all the good gifts He wants us to have from Him. Then He gets the thanks and the honor and glory and credit for doing what He has done.
The World has gotten hold of this faith principle. They say to just ask the "Universe" with confidence. But this robs God of the credit He deserves to have set up the World to work this way.
O my Father, thank You so much for all Your goodness and compassion to us. Thank You for loving us more than we can imagine. Father, You know us; You know all our faults and insufficiencies and failings. And You love us anyway.
O Father, You love us so much that You gave Your very best, Your own Son, to be our Sacrifice, to wash us so clean to be pristine in Your sight, white as snow, as though we'd never sinned. That is how we have Your invitation to live with You in Your perfect Heaven.
And giving Your most valuable, how could You not give us the lesser gifts, the things of this World that we need (Matthew 7:8-11)? And Your Holy Spirit to guide us in our attitudes and actions? Thank You so much, my dear Daddy, for granting me the gift of saving faith, and for growing my trust in You through studying Your Word, Your love-letter to me! You are so good to me!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
The Fields Of The Poor
Proverbs 13: 23
Abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor, but it is swept away by injustice.
What a pithy summary of all the poor Nations of the World. God's goodness has provided abundant food for every Nation, but the corrupt governments of some countries prevent the people from benefiting from their own resources.
Even when other, richer Nations send food to them, their corruption keeps it from reaching its intended recipients, so the poor remain poor and hungry.
Yet, if the governments would only govern in Truth, righteousness, and justice, there would be plenty of food and prosperity for all.
O my Father, wake up Your church, Lord; open our eyes and enlighten our understanding to recognize the signs of the times in which we live. That we will respond by searching our own hearts, living our lives according to righteousness, and promoting righteousness in the societies in which we live, all over the World.
Send workers into Your fields, O Lord, that are already "white to harvest"!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor, but it is swept away by injustice.
What a pithy summary of all the poor Nations of the World. God's goodness has provided abundant food for every Nation, but the corrupt governments of some countries prevent the people from benefiting from their own resources.
Even when other, richer Nations send food to them, their corruption keeps it from reaching its intended recipients, so the poor remain poor and hungry.
Yet, if the governments would only govern in Truth, righteousness, and justice, there would be plenty of food and prosperity for all.
O my Father, wake up Your church, Lord; open our eyes and enlighten our understanding to recognize the signs of the times in which we live. That we will respond by searching our own hearts, living our lives according to righteousness, and promoting righteousness in the societies in which we live, all over the World.
Send workers into Your fields, O Lord, that are already "white to harvest"!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Have You Spoken Rashly?
Proverbs 12: 18
There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
We need to really be careful to think before we speak. We need to love the sinner even while we hate the sin.
I know I have spewed out venom when I've not considered how the hearer will understand my words, and hurled out hurtful words.
When our buttons are pushed, we need to pause to frame our words in the love of God toward those who are upset with us.
Words have great power: to wound and destroy, or to heal and give life. What are your words doing?
O my Father, please teach Your children how to project Your Love in our words to those who don't know You yet. Help us all to pause and consider how the words we say will be received by the hearers.
Help me, Father, in my relationships with my adult children. Please draw them toward Yourself, open their minds and hearts to receive Your Life-giving Truth!
Please send others of Your children into their lives to share Your Truth, also. Especially my grandchildren.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
We need to really be careful to think before we speak. We need to love the sinner even while we hate the sin.
I know I have spewed out venom when I've not considered how the hearer will understand my words, and hurled out hurtful words.
When our buttons are pushed, we need to pause to frame our words in the love of God toward those who are upset with us.
Words have great power: to wound and destroy, or to heal and give life. What are your words doing?
O my Father, please teach Your children how to project Your Love in our words to those who don't know You yet. Help us all to pause and consider how the words we say will be received by the hearers.
Help me, Father, in my relationships with my adult children. Please draw them toward Yourself, open their minds and hearts to receive Your Life-giving Truth!
Please send others of Your children into their lives to share Your Truth, also. Especially my grandchildren.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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