My wife and IA lot of folks are wondering about all the things they see happening, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Wars, and of course the Coronavirus. I have to admit that it is a scary time in which we live. I know a few Christian people who are wondering about all these things, and thinking that it is prophecy coming true.
We see this in the Gospel of Matthew, “Mat 24:3-7 ESV As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (4) And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. (5) For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. (6) And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. (7) For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.”
I know that there may very well be a terrible famine in North Africa after the Locusts millions of them, ate everything in site, stripped trees as well as crops. There are earthquakes daily, most are harmless, but there have been some 7.5 quakes this past year that did a lot of damage, and deaths as well. Wars, we definitely have our share of wars, we have been in Afghanistan almost 20 years. Of course these wars, we do see Turkey fighting against the Kurdish people, we hear Iran boasting they will destroy Israel.
Yet it is not any reason to believe that these are signs of the End of it all. They are indications that our world is getting closer to a time when China or Russia or both will begin wars against their neighbors and other nations will join in against them. Of course also, Russia is putting together a coalition in the middle east which may presage a bigger conflict there.
I do believe that things are going to get a whole lot worse, and one thing I know for certain, there is a coming conflagration, that will destroy the earth and millions of people will die before it is all over. I also do KNOW that there is a way to salvation, and it comes through Jesus Christ, he who died and was risen, in that death we can be saved from hell and live eternally in the presence of the God of creation. How do I know this you may ask. Here is the answer: “Joh 3:16-18 ESV “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (17) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (18) Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
So what do you think? Is it time for a reassessment of how you are living your life. The apostle Paul wrote these words in his letter to the church in Rome. “Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. ” The death he is talking about is an eternity in the Lake of Fire along with Satan and his followers. The choice is yours, eternal life in heaven, or eternal death in hellfire. God will not sentence you there, you will sentence yourself. “Whoever believes in Him, Christ is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already.” If you refuse the offer freely given by God as Paul said, it is a free gift, but you must confess your sins, repent of those sins and accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life.
In life we make many choices, I ask you to make the choice that will guarantee you eternal life, saving you from the torment of eternal death in the Lake of Fire.
It seems that the Democrat Party really hates Christians because they take every opportunity to rid our society of all references to Christ, the Cross, and of course our belief in the sanctity of life. In the book of Matthew, there is a conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee.
Mat 22:36-40 ESV “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” (37) 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. (38) This is the great and first commandment. (39) And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (40) On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Now Jesus has just said something that I think a lot of the people in the Democrat Party have forgotten, I say this because I do not see a whole lot of love between them and those of us who are citizens of this nation. What has transpired this past couple of weeks has been nothing short of horrifying. Insane people taking innocent lives with unspeakable violence. that goes without saying a terrible act. What followed, however, was even worse simply because the Democrat Party especially those running for President blamed the President of the United States for the violence. Some even went so far as to say he was directly responsible, as if, he had ordered the death of all those people.
This President has worked to be the President of all the people, not just some of them. He has also acted in ways that work to preserve the reality of the Republic. Sanctity of life, love of country, reverence for the Constitution. He has worked to change laws where he could and to mitigate wrongs, such as a life sentence for a minor drug conviction. Yet we hear from the Democrat Party, that he hates blacks, Hispanics, women, and Muslims. Yet he has not acted in any way against any of these groups. Yes, he has limited immigration from certain countries, yet those countries don’t have any way to tell you who is or is not one of their citizens. He has tried to block terrorists from using the chaos in the middle east to gain entry into our nation.
As for as being against blacks, women or any other group, where is the evidence of that? Each of the groups in our nation now have full employment and are enjoying the fruits of their labors. As for Muslims, I have not seen any animosity by this President against this group, I have seen him calling out Muslims who have been attacking our nation, and himself, but then he does that to others as well.
So, to get back to the main topic, hatred against Christians in our nation. I find it very difficult to see why the Democrat Party hates God, the people in the House of Representatives, have done away with “so help me God” in the swearing in ceremonies, which of course is another indication of wanting to get God out of the way of what they are looking to accomplish. They seem to want dead babies, even after birth in some states now. This nation was founded by men who believed that God was an integral part of their lives. We find Jefferson inviting clergy to come to the Capitol to bring the word on Sunday mornings. The Congress even funded the publication of bibles to bring to the Indians to show them about God and to perhaps bring some to Jesus.
Now here we are today, the Democrats are working to remove God from everywhere they can, from the walls of State and City buildings, school buildings, even many courthouses. I cannot understand why that is, Jesus said that we are to love our neighbor as ourself and yet here we find hatred for over 50% of our nation. President Obama talked about people who cling to their guns and their Bibles. Hillary Clinton called us deplorables, as well as homophobes, and other names. There are many who are against homosexual persons, but we don’t hate them, we see them as in need of Jesus just as we ourselves have needed Jesus Christ to show us how to live.
There is evil in this land, and as a Christian man, I will fight evil with all my strength. I believe that the hatred I see in our land is evil, and is spawned by Satan to destroy our nation. Just as I look on socialism as an evil and vile type of violence against the people of this great nation. We fought the cold war to end the scourge of socialism in our world. We fought WW II to end the socialist nations of the Axis in Europe. Germany and Italy were both socialist nations, just as Russia was.
Today this evil is raising its ugly head in Russia, China and other places in our world. China is working to eradicate Christianity from their land, but making Churches take down crosses and rid themselves of Bibles, and worship the State. They are also imprisoning Muslims as well, in re-education camps.
So this is to be the future for those nations, and the Democrat Party is trying to make it the future for us in America. I see that if they win power in the House, Senate and the White House they will run roughshod over all of us.
In the summer of 386, a young man wept in the backyard of a friend. He knew that his life of sin and rebellion against God was killing him, leaving him empty; but he just couldn’t find the strength to make a final, real decision for Jesus Christ. As he sat, he heard some children playing a game and they called out to each other these words: “Take up and read! Take up and read!” Thinking God had a message to him through the words of the children, he picked up a scroll laying nearby opened it and began to read: not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires (Rom_13:13-14). He didn’t read any further; he didn’t have to. Through the power of God’s word, Augustine had the faith to entrust his whole life to Jesus Christ at that moment.
Rom 1:1 NKJV Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.
In this letter of Paul to the Church at Rome, there is a tremendous concentration on God, unlike other letters that Paul wrote, this one is all about God and what God wants for the Church. The word God appears 153 times in this letter, Christ appears only 65 times, this letter has much to do with what God wants from you and I today, as much as it did for the Church of Paul’s day.
Paul was concerned about being able to get to Rome when he wrote this letter. He was in Corinth and getting ready to go to Jerusalem and had been warned of the trials he would suffer there.
Paul now introduces his gospel message to the Church at Rome.
Rom 1:2-6 NKJV which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, (3) concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, (4) and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. (5) Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, (6) among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;
Paul was not bringing something new, this gospel was from the very beginning God’s message to the world, they just got tied up with the law, and forgot the rest of the word that God had given them through the prophets. Sounds like today, people always looking for the next new thing. Right now people are looking to the new I Pad, and I Phone and I Watch, or the newest version of Android or Windows, on and on. Here is just one prophets word that spoke of how God wanted his people to be in the world. Hab 2:4 NKJV “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.” These are things that had been forgotten in the world that Paul lived in.
He was a Pharisee which translated means one set apart. He had been set apart to the law, now he was set apart for the gospel, the good news of God’s salvation for all people everywhere.
Paul points out that His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is God in that he uses a term in the Greek which is translated Yahweh, which is the name of God. Next in verse 5 we see that Paul in speaking of his own ministry says: “we have received grace and apostleship”. First and foremost, this gave Paul and those who followed him obedience to the faith, and therefore ability to deliver to all the world the word of the Lord God which brings eternal life.
In verse 6 we come to the crux of the matter, you and I are the called of Christ, we are the Church today, just as those in Rome were the Church of Paul’s day. Now what does that mean for you and I today? First and foremost it means salvation, it means we are now children of God through the grace of God in the death and resurrection of Christ.
Now, what do we do with our salvation? Rom 1:16-17 NKJV “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. (17) For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH’.” This verse Romans 1:17 struck a Monk right in his heart: “In August of 1513, a monk lectured on the book of Psalms in a seminary, but his inner life was nothing but turmoil. In his studies, he came across Psa_31:1 : In Thy righteousness deliver me. The passage confused him; how could God’s righteousness do anything but condemn him to Hell as a righteous punishment for his sins? Luther kept thinking about Rom_1:17, which says that in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live” (Hab_2:4). The monk went on to say: “Night and day I pondered until . . . I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, he justifies us by faith. Therefore I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise . . . This passage of Paul became to me a gateway into heaven.” Martin Luther was born again, and the reformation began in his heart.”
Luther believed in the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ and the salvation that comes through believing in him, and his righteousness is in us through the person of the Holy Spirit which is given when we confess our sin and ask Jesus to cleanse us and make us new. That message is still true today, it is the good news that we have received in our lives today. Yet our friends and neighbors around us, may not believe and they cannot be saved if they do not believe in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we who have been called, we who have answered the call and become sons and daughters of almighty God through his Mercy and grace, are called to deliver the gospel to those who need to hear it. Not that we can save anybody, but that the gospel will bring folks into the presence of God and he will open their hearts and minds to be saved. The person who has come into that place where they can do 1 of 2 things. Accept Jesus Christ as Lord, or say no and continue on to hell.
In May of 1738, a failed minister and missionary went unwillingly to a small Bible study where someone read aloud from Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans. As the failed missionary said later: “while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken my sins away, even mine.” John Wesley was saved that night in London. Wesley went on to become an evangelist who preached the gospel outside and inside, sometimes from a rock in a quarry, and sometimes from the pulpit in a church.
No matter where he went he preached, he was pelted with rotten tomatoes, and rocks, but he would not shut up. Many souls were saved by John Wesley and his preaching, because his soul belonged to God and no longer to a church or a belief system other than the belief that Jesus was God and Lord, and his grace was sufficient for salvation. If your heart has been warmed, if you have received the grace and mercy of God then you too have a calling, just as Wesley, Augustine, and Luther.
All who have become followers of the way of Christ, have also the call upon them to reach out to others. Jesus told his followers that they were to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Samaria and in all the world. We live in that part of the world that he was talking about and we have the calling upon our lives to deliver the gospel to others that they too might be saved.
Spurgeon had this to say:
“I do not suppose that Paul guessed that he would be sent there at the government expense, but he was. The Roman Empire had to find a ship for him, and a fit escort for him, too; and he entered the city as an ambassador in bonds. When our hearts are set on a thing, and we pray for it, God may grant us the blessing; but, it may be, in a way that we never looked for. You shall go to Rome, Paul; but you shall go in chains.”
Our way may be easy, or it may be difficult, but as long as it is what God has called us to, we will have what we need to endure. Paul was called to the task of delivering the word no matter his circumstance. Today we find many who are doing likewise. Many of them have died, many have been imprisoned and tortured, yet, lived to tell the tale.
We in the United States are still able to worship and pray and read our Bibles, yet, there are signs that this is coming upon tough times, that our churches and our freedoms, may be lost as the battles continue in our nation. More and more people have decided that God is not real, that God is just a figment of our imagination and is no longer needed in our nation. One of our political parties even voted to take God out of their party platform. They did put him back, but I wonder for how long.
Satan is alive and well in this nation as well as in the world, right now he is working to destroy Christianity and Judaism. There is a work afoot that wishes to make a one world religion, under the auspices of the U.N. Or some other world government. There are plenty of people who relish this oncoming change in our nation and world. We see our institutions crumbling under the onslaught of Socialism, it has permeated our institutions of higher learning, and now our governmental institutions. Hatred for all things in disagreement with this idea is running rampant in many quarters.
Paul in his letter, tells the people of Rome that God has given the sinners who refuse to repent, over to their sin. It has taken a long time to become obvious but it is now running rampant in our nation. Pornography, same sex marriage, human trafficking, and other things that were unthinkable just 50 years ago. Now we have this caravan of people from central America, stopped for now at the southern Border of Mexico, but there are 4 or 5 thousand of these people, and the country they just passed through, Guatemala reports that they arrested 150 Isis terrorists in the crowds apparently heading for the U. S. A.
This does not bode well for Mexico or ourselves if they break through and get here on our Southern Border will there be other caravans to follow? Satan is working to destroy not to build up. But we serve a risen Lord, God who is creator and sustainer.
We are called to make him known to our time and our place. Let us not be ashamed of the Gospel, let us speak of our love of God and of his love for us, of his grace and mercy. Of his healing power to heal our souls and our lives if we will but allow him to come in to our lives and help us to be all we can be in his grace.
Filed under: Culture, Politics | Tags: Christianity, Neighbors, Science, truth
I find it exceedingly interesting to see the hatred in our society, even many so-called Christian leaders are becoming hateful persons. Some even going so far as to curse other leaders in other denominations for confessing that the Bible is the one book that all people should read because it tells the truth about relationships. There are two wonderful passages in the Bible that more people do need to read, especially in light of the horrific things that are happening in our world today.
Here is the first: Acts 2:42-46 ESV And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (43) And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. (44) And all who believed were together and had all things in common. (45) And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. (46) And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
The next is Jesus speaking to a lawyer/teacher of the Scriptures:
Luke 10:25-27 ESV And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (26) He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” (27) And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus then says: Luke 10:28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
I grew up in an integrated neighborhood in New York City, we never worried about ethnicity, we were more concerned about how well you could play stickball, baseball, football, etc. It made no difference what your color or national origin was we were all friends. We played games, we went to school together, and we really enjoyed being with each other. Today, it seems that we have become almost tribal in the way we live and work. The hatred that is now rampant in our streets is a disgrace, this nation was built on certain principles. We all wanted to succeed in life but we also wanted our friends to succeed as well. Now it seems we want those others to fail at life, we even work hard to make sure they will fail.
I remember when my brother came home from the Army, he was told that he was only 10% disabled so he would not be eligible for any benefits other than for that bad hand. He went to our congressperson, a Democrat and that guy went to bat for him and he was upped to 25% disabled, due to the military screwing up his surgery. Later we found out he was also exposed to Agent Orange, but that is a whole different topic. The point is that in those days our politicians worked for us, and it made no difference whether you voted for them or not. We all lived in the same country and we needed that country to be united. We were one people, not many different people living in the same country.
Today it seems we are tribes living in the same country but with different ideas about who we are and whether we want to associate with one another. I see it in many ways as I go through my daily routines. I hear the terrible things said by Democrats about our President, I hear the terrible things said about Christian beliefs by TV personalities and of course I hear that we cannot take money away from Planned Parenthood because they use it for family planning. I’m sorry if I don’t believe that, I note that the only thing they do these days is abortions. I have heard that only one groups lives matter, yet abortions are decimating the Black Community and I have heard none of them saying that those lives matter.
I hear people blaming the NRA for school shootings, yet the NRA wants to insure that our children are protected, not killed. I hear people saying that our children must learn about sex at school, and that some of what they are learning is perversion of the action rather than telling the truth about how disease is spread in the very activity that is talked about. I have read about a school board who wants to teach our kids that there is no such thing as biological sex. In other words we are all born neutral and get to choose our own sex as we get older. I seem to remember reading that all human life has sprung from one female person. That there must be a male and female to produce human children. Oh and of course there is that DNA thing that tells your body what goes where, and what sex you are at birth.
I notice these people running around looking very tribal, tattoos and nose rings, diamond studs through their lips, and other strange things. I note that the “children” are now running the schools, they must be since they decided to go out and protest about guns all across the country, and no one says anything against this because you can’t say anything against a legitimate grievance that the “children” have. I have placed the word children in quotes simply because they are being used by the socialists in our society, they think that they know what they are talking about, but the truth is they have been indoctrinated by the socialists who are running our education system from Kindergarten through University.
The President talks about making America Great Again, but the truth is it is a long and hard climb for the country to escape from the slime that the socialists have made of our nation. The Democrats have become the Socialist Party, the Republicans are still trying to figure out who they are, conservative, liberal, or somewhere else on the spectrum. Neither of them care one whit about the Constitution upon which this nation was formed, they have forgotten we are not a Democracy we are a Constitutional Republic, that our laws are built from the knowledge of the founders who believed in the Christian faith and the ideals that were a part of that faith. Both groups want one thing and that is power.
Well this is a bit longer than I thought it would be, but I am tired of the hatred and the foolishness of our country. We are men and women, we need to learn once more to respect each other and to love one another, so that we may live in peace and harmony and so we will then be able to Make our Nation Great again, and keep it that way.
WAKE UP AMERICA, time is short, and there is very little time left to find the right path to take.
I have written on this before, but now a Muslim leader in Norway has shown that it is true. Muslims who believe that Stoning and beheading for certain crimes are in the mainstream, they are not radicals. These are regular Muslim believers and they want Sharia to be the law of the land where they live. Check out this article: No Such Thing as Radical or Moderate Muslims
The sooner people begin to realize that this is the way that Muslims are taught and believe, the better off we will be. Whether you are Christian, or not makes no difference. These folks want to change the world into a Caliphate, ruled by Muslims and practicing Sharia. That means that if you are not a Muslim, you can be killed for believing in something other than Islam. If you are not killed you will live as a slave, any Muslim can beat you for a slight, you will pay a tax just to be able to live amongst these folks, and if you are accused of a crime punishable by death, you can bet your bottom dollar you will die under their law. It will be by beheading, stoning or crucifixion depending on which group you are living under.
I say, NO, I will not deny Jesus Christ as Lord of my life. How about you? What do you believe?
Filed under: God, Happening Now | Tags: Christianity, Congress, Persecution
In Idaho, two pastors have been threatened with jail time and fines for refusing to marry a same-sex couple, in Houston the City Council has subpoenaed communications of pastors in regard to homosexuality. It seems that we are living in a new era, the era of Government disregarding the Constitution to further their own agenda. At Christmas time in this nation, we now find that we cannot celebrate the birth of Christ unless we also celebrate the belief of Atheists, Pagans and others who are enemies of God. Of course this began many years ago, with schools forbidding teacher and students from prayer, and then from having Bibles with them. Then the attacks against Christians for opposing abortion and homosexuality. All the while in the name of “Separation of Church and State” a single sentence in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to a Baptist group in New England.
Now we also find that the military has instituted “Holy Places” for Pagan rituals to be performed on military bases, at the same time that they refuse Chaplains to mention Jesus Christ at funerals. The Air Force academy now removes so help me God from the oath that cadets make when they swear to defend the constitution and the country. Of course the Federal Government has also told them to accept homosexual soldiers and recognize those who claim to be married so that they will not feel persecuted. It amazes me that it is acceptable for Muslims to be violently and openly against this particular sin of homosexuality, note that in Muslim nations it is punishable by death, yet when we as Christians stand upon the Word of God it is a criminal offense.
We Christians have for way too long been silent, trying to get along in a society that is increasingly hostile toward us. As people who believe that God is alive and well, that Jesus Christ is the Savior and that holiness is a good thing, we must stand up for our beliefs. Like the woman sentenced to death in Pakistan because she is a Christian and a mother of 5 children. She made the mistake of drinking from the same bowl as a Muslim, and they claim that she insulted Mohammad and must therefore die. She will be killed for her faith. Yet if we continue to just get along and not ruffle feathers we too will find ourselves in that same place. Persecution does not go away, it will continue to get worse, and Christians will be thrown in jail and killed in this country for our beliefs, yet we must stand in the gap, we must stand for Christ. There are too many souls in the United States that are going to hell if we do not confess Jesus Christ as Lord. We are the witnesses, just as the first believers over 2000 years ago, changed their world even though they were killed for their faith. We must call sin what it is, we also must act as Christ acted, love the sinner, hate the sin, for it is the sin that sends them to hell for eternity.
The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Church in Rome said this: “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” He did not qualify that statement by naming the sin because all sin is punishable by eternal damnation, stealing a box of paper clips, or sexual sin, murder or telling lies about another.
Yet in the world of today, Adultery is celebrated, theft from your boss is OK, lying is acceptable especially in political campaigns and murder is also acceptable, as long as it is a baby that is not wanted. It is time to stand up and be counted or walk away from God and join those who hate God. There is no middle ground, the only thing in the middle of the road is road kill. If you claim to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, stand up, speak up and do not be afraid. Join me and thousands of others in fighting back against the hatred of God that has become a part of our society. Don’t sing “God Bless America” He cannot bless that which is full of sin and degradation. First confess your sin, and ask forgiveness, then work to change this nation back to one that follows God. Let us all pray for and work for a third Great Awakening.
We talk about moderate muslims, and wonder why they do not speak out about ISIL or other radical terror groups. Here is one view of why that is happening. I is a good read.from radical to moderate.
It is one reason why I don’t believe that you can find a moderate muslim, all are under the Koran and other writings. I do hope you will take a look at this article. Please let me know what you think as well.
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