Know The Lord

Jeremiah 31: 34

No longer will each person teach his neighbors or his relatives by saying, "Know the Lord." All of them, from the least important to the most important, will know Me, declares the Lord.

There will come a time when evangelism will be obsolete, because everyone alive will know that their King is Jesus, the Lord over the whole Earth. They will all know not only Who He is, but will all individually be acquainted personally with Him. He will not be aloof from the people, He will walk among them, getting to know each of them, to meet every ligitimate need they have. 

This will be after Jesus returns, after He does away with all the wicked people who have fought against Him at the Battle of Armegeddon (Revelation 16:16; 9:19-21), has Satan bound for that thousand years (Revelation 20:1-3), and has set up His government (throne) in Jerusalem to rule the World (Revelation 20:4-4, 6). 

And we who are His Bride and have been Resurrected by being Raptured are helping Him run the Family Business, as His kings and queens governing the Nations under His authority (Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 21:2, 9).

And His government will be in righteousness and perfect justice and fairness. And everyone will be prosperous, in having everything they need all the time (Psalm 67:4-5). 

This will be Mankind's Golden Age. Every infraction will be immediately dealt with, so everyone will live in safety and security. We won't need locks on our doors, or protection services like ADT. We won't need to buy insurance, because this Earth will work the way it was designed, with no "acts of God" disasters. 

All the people who have entered into this Kingdom in their mortal bodies will be repopulating the world, and living long, healthy, productive lives. 

O may that wonderful Day come.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

God's Original Intention

Jeremiah 33: 6, 9

Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and Truth.

And it shall be to Me a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the Nations of the Earth, which shall hear of all the good that I do for them, and they shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.

This will all happen when He returns again, as the King of the World. Israel will be the Head of the Nations, and all the promises God made to them will come true. And all the other Nations will see.

This has always been God's plan from the beginning, why He chose this one Nation to give His Law to so their obedience would bring the great prosperity all the other Nations would want to emulate. 

To draw them all to Himself, to know that He is God, not any of their idols; and as Creator and Designer, following His rules brings all kinds of good: in our relationships, in our physical health, in our thinking processes and mental health, in our finances, in our politics, and our foreign policies, in every realm of living. His ways are the Manufacturer's Instructions. 

Because He loves us, He has given us freely all the rules and precepts and commandments to obey and follow so we will be able to access the great abundance He has put into this Earth for us. 

God wants us to enjoy Him in this life, as well as in the next. He wants us to understand how much He loves us, and has already provided everything we will ever need. 

First, to take care of the sin problem that separates us from Him through sending His Son to fulfill the Law and wash away all that stands between us. 

Then to help us to mature as His children, understanding how everything fits together, to prepare us to spend Eternity with Him, helping Him rule over it. 

While we're here now, we are to live our lives in such a transparent way that others who see us will ask why we can live in such a way, triumphing over all the trials and sorrows and evil of this world. And we are to be prepared to give them the answer, based on God's Word, that has given us this life. 

We will gain every victory through the Blood of the Lamb (Salvation) and the word of our testamony (our witness) (Revelation 12:11). 

I have learned to know what I believe, why I believe it, and to support it with Scripture. And I try to live it in such a transparent way that people would see the character of Christ in me, instead of me. To draw them toward the right, the moral, the God Who is the standard for how we measure right, and beauty, and justice, and Love. 

In the Old Testament times, Israel was supposed to be that magnet. Now the church has been given that role. But the enemy has infiltrated the churches, so they will be unsuccessful, having lost the Truth. 

So the job falls to God's individual children who are still faithful, and firm in our confidence in God. I want to be one of those. 

I want to do whatever I can do, however small, to do my part as His child, to show others Who my Father is. Then when Jesus returns, I will not need to be ashamed before my Judge: I want to hear Him say, "Well done, My good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:23). 

He is coming soon.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Call - And I Will

Jeremiah 33:3

Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.

After my husband died and I felt overwhelmed with all the responsibilities I was left with, when I came to the end of my rope, this was the knot I tied into it to hang on. God showed me this verse, and I believed Him to do just that. I trusted Him.

Since that day, so many years ago, God has taught me so many wonderful things in His Word, truely great and mighty things. 

And He is still teaching me. I expect that He will continue to grow me in grace and knowledge, as long as I live, and as long as I still seek Him and His ways. 

God always keeps His promises, always. 

Whenever you come to a promise He has made, you can trust Him to keep that promise. Many of His promises are conditional: if you will--then I will. But some are totally unconditional. Some are for individuals in Scripture, like to Abraham to give him a son by Sarah. Most are for all of us, as the promise at the top of this page. 

This is conditional: I must call to Him, I must be open to accept what He says, and seek His will. Then He will show me, teach me, tell me stuff that is meaningful to me in my life right now. Interesting things, obscure connections that I would have never dreamed had anything to do with anything else, but it all makes sense.

I've been able to connect a lot of dots to see a much bigger picture. I understand now that our Bible gives us the whole history of our Earth, the Age of Man, from before its beginning to beyond its end. 

And I believe (with Paul) that Jesus will return in my lifetime. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Total Destruction

Jeremiah 52

Vs. 3ff  The Lord became angry with Jerusalem and Judah and threw the people out of His sight. King Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. On the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of King Zedekiah's reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem with his entire army.

Then we read about how he and his Captain of the Guard destroyed everything, and deported a total of 4,600 people to Babylon, leaving only a few poor people "to work in the vineyards and on the farms," burning every important building, tearing down the Temple and the wall, and carrying everything of value to Babylon. 

II Kings 24-25

Basically tells the same story, mentioning that King Nebuchadnezzar captured all Jerusalem, all the generals, all the soldiers (10,00 prisoners), and all the craftsmen and smiths (24:14). And he brought all 7,000 of the prominent landowners, 1,000 craftsmen and smiths, and all the men who could fight in war as captives to Babylon (24:16). 

And he set up a puppet government in Jerusalem to maintain order (25:22).  

These two passages both describe in detail the same account of the fulfillment of prophesy for the total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the walls of the city that were all broken down.

God is always true to His Word. When Israel had obeyed God's rules, they experienced prosperity and peaceful relations with other Nations. But that didn't last very long. 

When they turned away from the Lord, He sent prophets to bring them back, but they were enticed and deceived by all the other gods among them, the ideas and attitudes of the World around them.

So they persisted in their rebellion, and were destroyed, just as God said would happen. But that destruction was not permanent. Everything that happens on this Earth always "comes to pass," never to stay. 

So God will bring His people Israel back to return to the Land, as they did under Persian King Xerxes and King Artaxerxes; and as we see has happened again today (after 2,000 years!). And He will build them up again if they obey His commandments. The cycle continues 'round and 'round. 

God is still God, and His rules are still in effect on this Earth. Now we see the fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:33-34, that says that I will put My Law within them, and on their heart I will write it, instead of on tablets or parchment. Jesus fulfilled all those laws, and today we have the Principle of Love in our hearts, that underlies all the Law, as Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40. 

But He hasn't forgotten His people Israel. He will always do as He said He would. Not always the way we expect, or even desire, but just exactly as He said He would. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Never Reject Israel

Jeremiah 33: 25-26

Thus says the Lord: "If My covenant for day and night do not stand, and the fixed patterns of Heaven and Earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

"But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them." 

God had Jeremiah write specifically that He would never forget about the Hebrew peoples that have come down generationally from Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham; and that David would be the direct ancestor of the rulers over this nation. 

When the Day-and-Night cycle stops cycling; when the heavenly bodies, the stars & planets & the other objects in the sky, in space, stop doing what they do; only if they can disobey God's directions and rules for them; only then will God be able to disregard the Children of Israel. 

Some people are teaching that God has substituted the Church for Israel and has given up on them; but these verses refute that notion. 

Jesus said, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd" (John 10:16), referring to the Gentiles who would hear the Gospel and be saved, forming the church, in addition to those of Hebrew/Jewish heritage. 

(Abram [Abraham] was first called a "Hebrew" [ancient Habiru; Eberite, from Eber] in Genesis 14:13; and "Jewish" refers to the nation Judea, named from the tribe of Judah, who, with Benjamin, formed the Southern Kingdom of the divided Israel after King Solomon [I Kings 12:16, 20], and returned to the territory of Israel under the Persian kings Xerxes and his son Artaxerxes [see Daniel and Esther and Ezra and Nehemiah].) 

So the "one fold" under "one Shepherd" is both Jews and Christians together as one family; recognizing Jesus as Messiah, Savior, and King. 

Until Jesus returns, those Jewish people who become Christians (Messianic Jews) are part of the Church, and will be raptured with the rest of the church. 

All this will come together on that Day when Jesus returns to this Earth, calls out all those who are His church (the Rapture, I Corinthians 15:51-52; I Thessalonians 4:15-17), bursts through the clouds and "every eye will see Him" (Revelation 1:7), and "all Israel will be saved" (Romans 11:26) along with all those who have not taken the Mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:16-18); and they will enter His Kingdom in their flesh bodies to re-populate the Earth. 

So Jesus, descendant of King David in the flesh, will rule from Jerusalem (Revelation 20:6), and all the promises to Israel will be fulfilled. God never forgets a promise: He knows what He's going to do, promises to do it, and He does it. Not always the way we think He will, but exactly as He said He would. Every time. 

Jesus is coming soon.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Today's Science In Ancient Times

Job 26: 7-8

He stretches out the Heavens over empty space, and hangs the Earth on nothing whatsoever. He holds the waters in His thick clouds, and the clouds don't split under its weight.

Some science here: 

People used to believe that great pillars held up the Earth, or that Atlas held it on his shoulders, or some other support. But we know now that it really is suspended in "empty space." 

And all the moisture in the clouds that hasn't rained down yet is very heavy, yet the clouds don't split or fall down with the weight, because, "A way to illustrate the relative lightness of clouds is to compare the total mass of a cloud to the mass of the air in which it resides. Consider a hypothetical but typical small cloud at an altitude of 10,000 feet, comprising one cubic kilometer and having a liquid water content of 1.0 gram per cubic meter. The total mass of the cloud particles is about 1 million kilograms, which is roughly equivalent to the weight of 500 automobiles. But the total mass of the air in that same cubic kilometer is about 1 billion kilograms--1,000 times heavier than the liquid!" [Scientific American].   

Job most likely lived in the second millennium B.C. or earlier, before Moses or the Law. Even if the book was written later, Job still had knowledge of the Natural World that was accurate according to modern Science. 

How can that be?

It's because the God Who made it so was still known in Job's day, and He caused His Truth to be recorded in this ancient manuscript. 

Job lived not many years after Adam and Noah lived, so the people who wanted to know God did. It was later that all the other theories were recorded. 

So God's Truth does not change, even though man's theories constantly change. True Science always is the search for God's Truth in the Natural World. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Prosperous But Not Secure

Job 24: 22-24

... These people may prosper, but they will never feel secure about life. God may let them feel confident and self-reliant, but His eyes are on their ways. 
Such people may be prosperous for a while, but then they're gone. ...

This life is only a moment in the great Scheme of things. In view of eternity past and eternity future, the whole history of this Earth is only a passing moment of time. 

Each human life is only a breath, a disappearing vapor (James 4:14). We're born, and we die, and that little dash on our gravestone is our whole life. 

Some people who are super-rich deny that God has anything to do with their lives. They think that they've earned and deserve all the material wealth they have gathered. But they can enjoy it only as long as they live, only this brief moment in time, then they're gone.

And even when they're here, with all their prosperity, they "never feel secure about life." The richest man in the World was asked, "How much is enough money?" His answer was, "Just a little bit more." Even with all his riches, he still didn't have enough. 

Jesus said, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37).

The soul is the spiritual part of each of us that gives life to our bodies. Life is spirit, and when that spiritual part leaves, the body is dead. 

So even if someone can amass great riches, he can only enjoy them while he lives, he can't take it with him when he dies. And even if he lives a long life, what is that in the whole time-line of this Earth? And he will have lost out on the most important part, his eternity. 

Even Job knew that, way back in time probably before Abraham (Job is the oldest book of the Bible). 

God had given Job great riches, then tested him by allowing Satan to take them all away, including his good health and his grown children. After Job passed the test, God allowed him to amass twice as much wealth,  regain his good health, and even double the number of his children. 

People to whom God gives the ability to gain wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18) can lose it all and regain it, sometimes repeatedly. Money is fluid, it flows in and out of a life. God gives the ability to gain wealth to those who live according to His ways, the ways He put into this Earth for the World upon it to operate, by design. And even when a person follows these ways, even if he doesn't know or acknowledge God, he will still experience the consequences of his choices, to either gain or lose wealth. 

When the Israelites followed God's ways, they gained prosperity. But when they were comfortable, they got into the deception that they'd gotten it all by themselves, and began to make poor decisions, which resulted in the loss of their material possessions, and even under the tyranny of outside peoples. Then they turned back to the Lord, crying out to Him, and He sent a military leader to win back their freedom, and they went through the cycle again, over and over (see the Book of Judges). 

This World is still running as it was designed, but Mankind has broken the cycle of blessing, so that most of those living in the World are poor materially. Many don't even have the necessities of life. This is because people have rejected God and His ways, and the people are suffering because of it. 

Leaders of Nations lead unrighteously, having no concern for the people they rule, but sometimes telling them they do; putting scarcity in the place of plenty, and selfishly amassing wealth for themselves. 

But it will do them no good if they have not recognized God for Who He is, having sent His Son Jesus to be our Savior and Messiah to rescue us from the deceit and unrighteousness of the World, and cleansing us of all that besmirches God's creation of us. 

How much better for all of us to seek God and His righteousness in our lives, to share with those in our lives who may not know God yet, and to enjoy Him, along with His blessings. He is our prize; He is our reward; He is our dwelling place; wherever He is, is our home (Philippians 3:14; Psalm 91:9; Lamentations 3:24). 

So whether the Lord gives you the power to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18), or He sustains you in your everyday life, He will never allow you to be destitute while you're following Him in His ways (Psalm 37:25). 

The whole chapter 8 of Deuteronomy explains how vulnerable the people will be when they enter this good land and enjoy the prosperity it provides. 

We are all vulnerable, as human beings, to the seductions to deception from the World, our own flesh, and our enemy the Devil. Especially if we come into wealth after being poor. 

The most important, that should have First Priority with each of us, should be to get to know God, seek Him with our full focus, determined to follow His ways.

Jesus is coming soon, and whether I have great wealth with many possessions, or I'm living hand-to-mouth, I want to be ready to meet my Lord either in death or by Rapture, unhindered by things of this World. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!