Proverbs 8:17 – 17 I love those who love me,
and those who seek me find me.
It speaks alot.
I don’t know about you, but everday I see less and less people seeking the Lord.
Seek the Lord and you will find Him. With that comes wisdom of life, because the Lord is Wisdom.
Romans 11:33-36 – 33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Man is pretty arrogant in our fallen state. The God that can number the hairs of 7 Billion people in the world right now is a little bigger than we are. He’s a lot more important than we are. So how come people get selfish and only care about themselves? Part of the fall.
How great that such a magnificent God would not only love us, but love us enough to die for us even when were rebellious.
He’s Big, were little. He’s Good, we’re not without Him.
As humans we need to know our place. He’s God, were not. Sorry New Agers or Hindus. If you’re seeking yourself, your missing the God who made it all.
Romans 6:16 – 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
You’re a slave to someone or something.
People who are unsaved are slaves to sin. There are a lot of people who seek God that are still choosing to be a slave to sin. We choose. It can be very hard to the point of addiction, but we still choose. The reason we choose is because Christ has given us victory so we can say no.
Romans 6:17 – 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
A slave of righteousness! Now that’s a good title. We need to work as hard as we can for our Lord and righteousness. Taking a stand against what we know is wrong, because we love our Lord.
I have only one for everybody.
Matthew 22:37-37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
I’m not sticking my neck out on this one am I?
I pretty much can go on record that we ALL need to do it. This isn’t a Patrick opinion.
How do I know that? The next verse –
Matthew 22:38 – 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
One hundred percent guaranteed you will not ever feel like you have wasted your time, by making the Lord number one and putting your first and most important energy into it. You’ll have no regrets.
However, if you waste your time like I have in the past doing pettily little things that have no significance, we’ll regret those. How do we know what they are? Bang, you’re dead. You’re leaving everything behind when it comes to this earth. Your love and what you did in the name of the Lord and for the Lord is what is waiting for you in the future.
Today is a new day. Your resolution even if you’re already doing it? Jesus first!
Happy New Year!
We are told to seek the Truth.
John 14:6 – 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 8:32 – 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The wonderful thing about the Truth, is if your honest then things that are not truth will soon be exposed and make no sense.
Here is a simple analogy. You put on a blind fold and someone asks you to reach out your hand. They pour a liquid on it.
So what can you now conclude?
You can conclude that the substance is not sand, rock, wood, toothpaste, anything that is hard, etc.
That’s how it is when finding truth in God. Some of the religions out there are so silly that the very first couple of questions and answers will tell you it’s false. Some on the other hand take more in looking at them.
You then bring you hand to your nose and smell. It’s not perfume, gas, oil, nothing with a powerful smell. Okay you now have eliminated more possible things in your research. The next level of belief’s are now debunked because they are not truth. You wouldn’t have gotten this far had you not taken a little time to look into it.
Next you taste it. Ah, it’s not pop, it’s not water, …..it’s milk.
This may sound silly, but people don’t even take two seconds to look into what they do believe or that long to debunk what is totally different and cannot be true since it’s the exact opposite of what their supposed to believe.
E-F-F-O-R-T-!
When I speak to people about simple truths, many of them look at me with a blank stare on their face. Many will say I don’t know anything about that. These things I’m talking about usually are simple Christian truths. The reason they don’t know anything is because they put zero effort into it. Very few people in life put zero effort into their whole lives, so where is their effort going? Wherever it’s at that’s where their heart is!
Truth strengthens your faith, which strengthens your relationship with the Lord.
It starts with wanting Truth. It doesn’t start with effort. You can be ambitious in learning and if you’re not seeking the Truth, you’re going to get lost in a different direction. The devil masquerades around as an angel of light.
2 Corinthians 11:13-14 – 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
1 Peter 5:8 – 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Seeking Truth will help you find It and at the same time expose all other things for what they are, which is untruths.
God is good! Nobody else is outside of Him.
Luke 18:19 – 19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
When God made everything in the beginning, it was good.
Genesis 1:31 – 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
After Satan in the form of the serpent deceived Adam and Eve, the earth, human race, animals, all became cursed. It’s not good in the sense that it was when God had control of it in the beginning.
God entrusted man to rule the earth and the animals, etc, after He made them. They fell and handed it over to Satan. Satan is NOT good. He was before he decided to be proud and took the fall.
To be saved, you have to be good.
Romans 3:12 – 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
So since man isn’t good, who can be saved?
Matthew 19:25-26- 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” 26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Romans 5:12-21- 12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
It takes someone who is good, dying and paying the penalty for those who are not good.
Second it takes those who are not good to receive willingly, while turning from their old sinful nature. Perfection isn’t part of the transformation on this earth in how we still will act. When it comes to turning from your old sinful nature it is in the effort, seeking, fighting the best you can.
Once you receive Christ and make Him Lord, He now sees you as perfect. That’s some pretty powerful blood. God’s blood to be exact.
You can’t ever be good enough. The One who is good enough has you covered if you are willing to come back and follow Him.
No, those are not my words to you. I only tell my wife and kids that. 🙂
These words come from Jesus.
John 14:23-24 –23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
I could go on and on about this and it would be six pages long. However, short and sweet still reminds us of the point.
Luke 6:46 – 46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
The sinful side of us says “OUCH!”
However, it makes all the sense in the universe.
Yesterday I talked about how immanency seems to be a factor in the last days. The Lord says He will come like a thief in the night. However, if He didn’t come until Armageddon, that doesn’t suggest like a thief in the night at all.
If He could come at any time, then He could definitely come like a thief in the night.
There is a section in Luke chapter twelve that refers to “Watchfulness.”
Luke 12:35-48 – 35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of
Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”
42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant
will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
47 “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
This isn’t talking about the believing and unbelieving. That’s why I underlined what I did above. This is talking about the servants of the Lord. About the ones not living the way they should for Him and living a life that is no different than all the unbelievers around them.
Looking for the Lord everyday helps keep us from sinking into the world. We have to take the warnings deathly seriously. This is not the only one either. The New Testament is full of the exact same types of warnings. The warnings are for us right now. If we put them off and live worldly, sinfully, evil, and ungodly, and we know we are, what message are we sending to our Lord?
Take a stand in love for Him. Take a stand against evil, which once again shows your love for Him.
He is going to come soon, because all the signs are happening. For many, and I mean many, it’s going to be
like a thief in the night.
I am going to write two days on “Like a thief in the night.”
As a Pre-Tribulation Rapture guy, this is one of the things I’ve always struggled with on Jesus coming at the end of the Tribulation.
Luke 12:40- 40 You also must be ready, because
the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
1 Thessalonians 5:1-2 – 1 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
Have you read the book of Revelation? Anyone and Everyone should know the Lord will be coming back soon by the time they are in about 5 years into the Tribulation. It’s a supernatural hell on earth. No business as usual during the Tribulation. At least half of the population on the earth dies during that period. People will almost be able to figure it out to the day when the Lord is about to return. There is a 7 year peace treaty, the 3 and half years after the Abomination that causes Desolation spoken in the book of Daniel in the middle of the 7 years and then the Lord returns.
Thief in the night?
However, it makes perfect sense if He does come for the Church right before the Tribulation. Will He catch people off guard? Look around you….it’s getting worse every day on two fronts.
First as the older generation are dying off, we are losing people who sought Christ faster than those looking for Him today. Second the Church itself as a whole isn’t looking for Jesus to come back.
A thief in the night? Yes it will be like a thief in the night for those (many) who have not been looking for Him.
Tomorrow we will stay on the subject and give a scary example of what Jesus was telling His disciples.
John 18:11 – 11 Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”
Jesus became a man to die for the sins of the world. It’s why He was snuck in as a baby that we just celebrated.
Peter’s actions to protect Jesus were humanly natural and brave. However, where he failed is because he wasn’t looking towards the Lord on what was supposed to be.
We are created to worship and serve our God and Lord, not to run off and do what appears best humanly possible.
The destiny of our Lord was to come and die for those who would accept Him and crush the curse and the enemy. He is going to be King of this earth for one thousand years and rule the universe for eternity.
We have a destiny that awaits us and because of free will it is ours to choose. However, right and wrong is not determined by what we choose. We just choose rather we will do one or the other. The right or wrong choices in the end determines our future.
As simple as that sounds I believe in America today we’ve been brainwashed that we can call the all shots and make our own destiny. Yet we have no final control on rather we even live through the end of the day.
Make your destiny serving the Lord. It’s the one He wants for each and every one of us.