Merry Christmas to you all and God Bless You!
Thank you so much to those who continue to give me encouragement. It is appreciated a lot.
Unto us a Child was given. That Child was and is our Lord! Reflect on Him gratefully today and praise Him as Lord of your life and all.
Almost all kids grow up hearing about Santa Claus and believing he’s real. I was one of those.
So why does someone on a serious note stop believing?
They look at the facts, right?
Things just don’t add up. You start asking questions like “Hey wait a minute, I don’t have a chimney?”
However someone while you’re young and naïve is always there to try and explain it away for you. Oh he just goes through the door if you don’t or something like that. Thank goodness that person was there to continue the lie.
Then you think to yourself, “How does he get around the whole world in one night? I mean that’s a lot of houses.” Once again someone tries to rescue you from trying to foil the caper.
Flying reindeer? How do all the presents get in the slay? How come I just saw Santa and is looked different down at that other store?
Finally too many stinking questions. Fine! He’s not real, but doesn’t believing in him make the world a better place? In all honesty my wife and I chose not to persuade our children that the untruths were truths all in the name of what was best for them.
Back to the point.
This is how it is in America anymore except people don’t ask questions about anything. They don’t ask questions about why other people believe the way they do. They don’t even ask questions on why they believe the way they do.
This is where Truth comes into play.
Evolution? You can look at it closely and it won’t take you long to figure out who has blind faith. Not to mention it’s not hard to do the math that nothing from nothing times nothing doesn’t equal everything. It doesn’t take very long to see how complex a simple a watch is and know that without a creator it isn’t made. We as humans are much more complex than that by a million times and without the Creator we don’t exist.
Questions! We don’t ask questions anymore.
Same goes for believers. Why do you believe in what you believe? To say that I just believe and go by faith or that burning in your bosom is acceptable for a few months. However, you best start knowing why you believe what you believe soon, or someone is going to come along and give you a different type of Santa Claus.
Seek the Lord! Ask questions! We are very fortunate enough in this day and age that most sincere questions can be answered by men of God who also sought the Truth.
You stopped believing in Santa because the truth was evident and it wasn’t that hard to figure out.
Other things take more investigation and all you need have to do is seek the Truth and He will guide you to it.
On the other hand, if you choose to believe in whatever you want to, God won’t intervene. That is until it’s the day of truth, which is the day of judgment.
Titus 2:1-8- 1 You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
6 Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7 In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8 and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.
Life isn’t about running off and doing your own thing. It’s about obedience to God, self control, doing what’s right.
Satan wants you out of control and to do whatever you want. Because if you’re doing that, you’re not obeying God.
In a movie do you look up the guy who sacrifices his life to save others, or do you admire the one who murders everyone for their own gain?
It’s not just a movie script, this describes the difference between Christ and Satan.
By living for God and Christ instead of yourself, your actions speak louder than words. Choose to be self controlled examples.
We are rapidly approaching Christmas day. Many gifts will exchange hands.
I want to stop and reflect on your spouse and children.
They’re Gifts from our Lord.
How are you treating your gifts? Are you grateful for them? Do you take care of them the way the Lord
wants you to take care of them?
You’ve been given a great gift and a great responsibility. You have been entrusted with lives. Entrusted from our Lord with them. How are you handling it?
Are you helping them seek their loving Creator? Are you helping them serve their God?
I can tell you that just in looking at my wife and children I know how much God loves me.
They’re gifts, loving gifts, and the number one thing you can do for our Lord is put Him at the head of the household. Don’t take anything for granted. We will be held accountable as the head and hearts of our families and what we did for Him.
Ephesians 5: 22-28-22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
There is 50% divorce rate in this country and no wife or husband living both by these scriptures are
getting divorced. There is no ME in these scriptures. Why can a wife submit to her husband with confidence? Because he is giving himself up just as Jesus gave Himself for the Church. That means selfish me goes out the door.
Ephesians 6:1-4- 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” 4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the
training and instruction of the Lord.
What’s a family that’s hitting on all cylinders (at least for fallen humans)? The one that bases the Word of God as its guide.
Thank the Lord this season for your gifts and never take your duties lightly or loved ones for granted.
Romans 2:5-11- 5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.
Why these verses?
God is constantly trying to warn us to turn away from our sin. As believers we have to keep praying for one another.
What is an unrepentant heart? A heart that doesn’t turn away from evil.
I grew up believing in Jesus but never read the Bible. What warnings was I getting? Well at least they were better than today, but still since I wasn’t in the Word and I could just turn off a few people.
Today the church is full of not offending. Don’t preach against sin, it’s unpopular and they might not come back. Just believe and it doesn’t matter what you do or have you live. (I must say my pastor is not like that and it is one of many reasons why we attend.)
Yet you read and study the Bible and that’s not what it says at all. It constantly tells us to repent. We’re inherently evil and fallen, making bad decisions.
Lip service is a problem.
You can tell someone you’re a great bowler. However when they watch you, you throw a few in the gutter and your score is 103 game after game, people soon discover you’re not a great bowler.
It works like that in life. If you have no love for others, it shows. When you’re foul mouthed, drinking like a
sieve, and beating the family, it shows. When you’re not following the Word of God it shows.
I have learned not to judge. What is judging? Judging is stating that someone is going to hell.
Judging is not pointing out a problem to someone who is a believer in love because you care. Nor is it judging if all you’re letting someone know is if the Word of God speaks against it. People getting defensive and saying don’t judge me is a defense mechanism used by Satan so others feel guilty and don’t say anything. However, if we are living in sin and need a Word, does God want silence? No, He wants us to lovingly, caringly, pray and try to help His wondering child and our brothers and sisters.
Grace is not a get out of jail free card. Sinning against God knowingly is not a game.
If as a friend you slap me in the face and I say, please don’t do it again and you do anyway, over and over and over again, what are you indicating?
That’s what we do to God especially when we know it’s wrong. Show Him you care and die to yourself and habitual sin. Those habitual (almost every day) one’s are hard. You will only succeed when you decide He’s more important than you are.
3 John 1:11 – 11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.
Anyone who does good is from God.
Why is this?
Because no one is good accept God.
Luke 18:19 – 19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
The only reason we can do good in this fallen state we’re in is to tap into the good of God.
When we imitate evil, we are helping the camp of the enemy. Do we really want to do that? I don’t think any of us really want to help out the enemy. But if we turn our backs on God, we are doomed to do so, because without Him we are not good. The question is how not good?
Matthew 6:23 – 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Scripture after scripture after scripture, warn us to obey God and die to the world and our old sinful nature.
Don’t ignore the warnings and quit listening to the voices that suggest whatever it is your doing isn’t really all that bad. Get into the Word and you’ll discover that our Lord isn’t keen on evil at all.
Satan believes in God. Is he saved?
Satan believes that Jesus lived. Is he saved?
I hear so many times that if you just believe, you will be saved. However, that’s extremely vague. What is it that you believe?
Romans 10:8-10 – 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Lord?
That’s Lord, the one who rules over your life. You’re not just believing He lived but you confess Him as Lord. God in the flesh. Authority given over to Him from the Father to save those which are lost.
If you believe that there is a higher power, that’s not saved. If you believe Jesus was a good teacher and walked the earth, that’s not saved. Satan believes in those things too.
You must believe in your heart AND confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead.
The first couple of days we talked about the Arab Spring and how it pertains to the Gog and Magog War.
Yesterday we started talking on another movement which is Occupy Wall Street. Both of these movements are a combination of using the masses and the news media to further the cause of a New World Order.
When you try to divert a river, you go downstream and dig huge diversions and slowly get the river to flow in that direction. The river is too powerful to just stop and make it go where you want. You need its
own power to help. That’s what we see now. Enough people over time have changed their thinking to embrace socialism. The rich have gotten richer and the poorer have gotten poorer. Now the middle class is slowly losing ground due to the bad economy, brought on by the housing bubble and the banks tightening down. As a result the extended unemployment has gotten many in the middle class dependent on the
government.
We left with the question yesterday of where does the spirit of a one world order come from?
Well we know Jesus is going to rule and reign on His throne and rule the nations after He comes back.
Revelation 20:4- 4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Daniel 2:44-45 – 44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. ……..
However there is another that has wanted to take the place of God. He wants to establish his throne and be like the most high.
Isaiah 14:12-15 –12 How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my
throne above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the
sacred mountain.
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself
like the Most High.”
15 But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.
Satan has wanted to be like the Most High. He wants to be worshipped. He wants to sit on the throne and make the world worship him. That’s why he wants the world to be under one power. It’s the spirit that is pushing for the One World Government or the New World Order. It’s another attempt at the Tower of Babel, which is man coming together to reach Heaven without God.
Those who are doing so are following Bible Prophecy exactly. Only God could have prophecy written about 2000-3500 years ago and have the very people who don’t even believe in Him follow it.
The devil and the antichrist are trying to get the world together in socialism so they may rule it. They want to control the commerce. Satan will make it to when he defiles the temple of God and calls himself God, people will either worship him or they won’t buy or sell. They also will be sentenced to death.
Occupy Wall Street is the first open attempt to get the masses in this country chanting for socialism. Wall Street stands for capitalism.
It’s amazing to see all the prophecies strengthening as we grow nearer. The one thing you need to do is put all your faith in Jesus and not into this world. You will only have peace with what’s going on when you do that.
The last couple of days I have be talking on how the Arab Spring is strengthening the prophecy of the Gog and Magog War in Ezekiel chapters 38 & 39.
Today I will be talking on how a world dictatorship and one world order functions much better under socialism than democracy.
The news media realized just how influential and ripe the listening public is right now by seeing the reaction to the Arab Spring.
Enter “Occupy Wall Street.”
Who comes up with these names?
It’s another term for Hate Capitalism, but that doesn’t sound as catchy or as good when trying to influence the masses.
Have you wondered why the news media would take the tea party and try to smear them as being unruly hate mongers? They are the picture of true protesters. Hold their signs nicely and clean up the place after they leave. The problem is they are trying to get their old democracy back and the government and news media have been working very hard to get us where we are at.
Where is that? They have been working hard to bring us down as softly as they can into socialism. They don’t want anarchy in the world’s strongest nation, just for it to equal out with the others. Anarchy is the exact opposite of what they want. They want to bring the whole world together under one rule.
Getting us to national healthcare is not about healthcare as much as it is being the most important issue when getting a nation to be socialized.
The reason for world Socialism is so we don’t blow each other up, overpopulate, treat each other poorly, etc. The powers at the top in government feel that they should lead this measure for the world’s own good.
Where does this spirit of a one world order come from?
Tomorrow we will continue on with this.
Yesterday we started on the significance of the Arab Spring and how it fits with Bible Prophecy.
In the last days we have the Gog and Magog war which names many members of nations that will attempt to annihilate Israel. This war is in chapters of Ezekiel 38 and 39.
I didn’t always believe the War was in conjunction within the tribulation period or Armageddon, but upon further study I don’t see how it cannot be. The most important reason, but certainly not the only reason is the passages at the end of Ezekiel 39.
Ezekiel 39:21-29 – 21 “I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay on them. 22 From that day forward the people of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God. 23 And the nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their sin, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offenses, and I hid my
face from them.
25 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will now restore the fortunes of Jacob and will have compassion on all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name. 26 They will forget their shame and all the unfaithfulness they showed toward me when they lived in safety in their land with no one to make them afraid. 27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the
countries of their enemies, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of many nations. 28 Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. 29 I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD.”
The end of the Gog and Magog verses matches that of when Jesus comes back in last few chapters of Zechariah. Those verses relate to Revelation 19. When do the Jews realize recognize their Lord and Messiah? At the end when Jesus comes back.
Back to the significance of the Arab Spring. All the nations mentioned in the beginning of Ezekiel 38 are nations mentioned that will join Russia (Magog) in this invasion.
Ezekiel 38:1-6 – 1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal; prophesy against him 3 and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshek and Tubal. 4 I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. 5 Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, 6 also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you.
One thing that is significant about the players is they all seem to be Muslim countries. Put is always stated to be Libya and its surrounding close neighbors including Tunisia. Certainly fits with the times in the fact that Russia is always looking to lead the world; and Israel’s Muslim neighbors have a hatred that the Jews are in Israel or the fact that they are even alive. The two will work together to achieve and further their goals. Does it work out for them? Not according to the end of Ezekiel 38 or the chapter of 39.
The Arab Spring just keeps pushing this future prophecy closer and closer.
Tomorrow we will talk about the other prophecy strengthening before our very eyes.