Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The Sea Roaring

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Luke 21:25-26

I have had several questions about what is going on around us.  One friend wrote that it looks like with a possible war in the Middle East, an approaching hurricane, unusual earthquakes, and other strange events that God may be trying to get our attention.  Others were saying things like, "I don't want Him to come now!  I haven't lived my life as I wish."  Fear seems to be an increasing emotion around the world.   The point is that the sea is roaring as the scripture above warned, but these are minor events compared to what is in store.



So why are people so stressed out?  Last month I shared that the scientific community is very concerned about some unusual solar activity.  Some seem to think that large solar waves could knock out the electric grid across the US or in other countries.  There is a lot of online chatter about the nearing comet, Elenin.  The talk speculates that this comet could trigger many quakes and other disasters as it aligns with the Sun, Venus, and the Earth on the 21-22 of September.  Several are scared about earthquakes.   The quake today in Mineral, Virginia was much stronger that the small temblors that this region normally experiences.  Also, the quake that struck Colorado was another unusual quake.  It was much more powerful than the normal small quakes for this area.  Many others are concerned with the approach of Hurricane Irene.  There are many worries for those looking for them. 



All of this shows a general unrest in people.  Notice again the verses above.  Just before it mentions the sea roaring, it says that the nations of the Earth are in distress.  That is easy to see today.  Many seem to sense a war between Israel and Islam soon.  After addressing the roaring sea, Luke went on to say that men's hearts were failing them for fear.  The idea of a distressed sea is in between nations and individual men.  This is not the seas of water specifically and only.  The sea is also a biblical symbol for humanity.  Luke is alluding to the unsettled feeling that will come on men as the end draws near.  The sea of worries will become stormier to the place that men's hearts will begin to fail. 

There are so many other worries that could be added.  Droughts, floods, crop loss, political unrest; the list gets longer and longer.  There is much to worry about, unless you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Then the emotion may be one of anticipation.  

For a believer, this is not a time to become overwhelmed, but a time to witness, share, and wait in expectancy for the return of Jesus.  This is the time the prophets longed to see.  The day the saints of all ages prayed for.  The day when Jesus Christ returns and straightens out this mess of a world.  What a glorious day!    

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
Luke 21:28
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Thursday, August 18, 2011

A Little Leaven--Terrible, Terrible Abominations!

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Genesis 6:5-6
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
2 Peter 3:7

It is truly a sin sick and twisted world.  The greater the rebellion against God and His Christ, the more evil men get.  In Romans 1, the chapter that outlines growing apostasy,  Paul warned that sin would grow and mutate into deeper wickedness and that men would become inventors of evil things without the guidance of the Word and without social checks and balances.  When that society becomes so sin sick and corrupt that it will no longer listen to the Holy Spirit and God's Word, then its "cup" of wretchedness would be full and the wrath of God would be poured out.   

What could be more evil than the open sexual exploitation of children?  (The posts that I am about to share make me literally to sob and weep.) What can fill the cup of wretchedness more than inventing the fantasy that innocent children are objects of sexual desire.  Yesterday, the news reported that professional mental health workers were meeting to revamp the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders and they were discussing normalizing  pedophilia.  Any child who had been horribly victimized by a molester knows just how sick these abhorrent people are.  They are terribly traumatized for life.   Are Mental Health Professionals Working to Normalize Pedophilia?



Today, it has been revealed that a fashion company in France has produced a line of lingerie for children as young as four.  Yes, four! Adult-inspired lingerie marketed for young girls - CNN.com


These are more indicators that the apostasy is intensifying daily.  God will not stand for this much longer!  He will vindicate these children!  His grace does demand a chance for men to repent and turn to Christ for salvation.  His justice demands that the guilty pay eternally for their rejection of the gospel and their continuance in sin.  It is only His mercy and grace that keeps judgment from falling immediately.  Now is the time to call on Christ.  Even if you are involved in pedophilia, Christ died for you.  He loves you and wishes to deliver you.  Choose today to serve him because time is short.  Pray that God forgives your sin and covers you now.  There is only one name that Heaven recognizes for those seeking salvation--Jesus Christ!  Even a sin as gross and as sick as this can be forgiven because Jesus took that penalty on Himself at the cross.  However, there is a huge and everlasting penalty to pay if you do not accept God's gift of salvation--turn today!  Time is so short!


For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
2 Corinthians 5:21


Other News
Scientists Create Computers With Human Qualities - Netscape Gadgets & Tech
Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles Celebrates Her Gay Fans - The Boot
Indiana State fair stage collapse victim Christina Santiago was due to marry Alisha Brennon | Mail Online
IBM RFID commercial- Shopping in the Future as a Chipped Human - YouTube  Check out this commercial!
'Bulletproof Human Skin' Made From Spider Silk | FoxNews.com
Secretary of State Clinton says State Department will coordinate with OIC on legal ways to implement UN's resolution criminalizing "defamation of religion" - Jihad Watch
Is Israel An Apartheid State? - YouTube   Another good video!
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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

A Little Leaven

Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

1 Corinthians 5:6

This verse is a portion of Paul's answer to a report that there was a man in the church of Corinth sleeping with his step mother (1 Corinthians 5:1).  Rather than dealing with the sin of this believer the members were bragging about their liberty in Christ to do such things.  It was as if they believed that forgiveness and grace were a license to sin.  Paul's response was much different.  He called for the man to be put out of the church until there was genuine repentance.  However, this was not an action of legalistic hate.  His purpose was clearly redemptive.  The church needed to sorrow over sin and not parade it around in such a way that the name of Christ was blasphemed by the world (see Romans 2).  This man needed to repent of his sin and be healed of it.  Only a tough stance would bring this about.  It is believed by many, including me, that Paul addresses this same situation again in 2 Corinthians 2.  There it seems that the man took this sin to the cross but was not restored to fellowship with the now embarrassed church.  Again, when God is harsh it is always with a view of redemptive love in mind. This is why those who are spiritual are supposed to help one caught in sin with a spirit of meekness lest hate sets in under the guise of religious zeal (Galatians 6:1).




In Galatians Paul uses this very statement again.  "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump (Galatians 5:9)."   Here he is addressing legalism.  Wow!  The same concept for extreme ideas--rampant sin and excessive religiosity.  Both are deadly!  Truly, sin unchecked and unaddressed mars a church or a society no matter what form it takes!  That is why God gives us the fruit of His Holy Spirit.  Just Sunday, I shared the significance of the number nine in relation to these fruit.  Nine is a biblical number symbolic of giftedness and fruitfulness, but it is also symbolic of judgment.  God has judged your fleshy attempts to love and such as worthless; therefore, you need to learn to rely on the fruit of Christ's Spirit.  What a thought!  However, I don't have time to elaborate.

We can clearly see this concept in some of the things that are happening today.  Here is a paragraph from a recent post "What Ever Happened to Men Like William Wilberforce?"  My point then was that the law to teach children about homosexuality and the law to allow sodomite marriage would eventually lead to other wicked acts as being normal.  It is clearly happening.  Here is the paragraph.  "In the last few weeks we have seen the passage of laws that tear down society and enslave men, women, and children to wretched sinful practices.  We have seen another state enact laws against traditional marriage under the banner of "freedom" with mantras like "who is it going to hurt"?  It hurts everyone!  How many sins did it take in the Garden of Eden to cause us all of this trouble still today?  Since the passage of this abomination there are those who will now seek to adopt children and twist their minds with sinful practice--and we think this does not hurt society?  Gay marriage raises prospect of NY adoption boom - US news - Life - msnbc.com"

This is proving to be true to a greater degree even now.  Currently, there is a conference in Baltimore where a group of mental health professionals are considering the thought that pedophilia is not an abhorrent practice but normal behavior.  It seems that the words of Paul are proving true today!  A little leaven does leaven the whole lump!


A Little Leaven
Normalizing Pedophilia | Conference | Mental Illness | The Daily Caller
ACLU Lawsuit Moves to Keep Sex Offenders in House Near New Day Care Center - FoxNews.com
'Sister Wives' stars challenge Utah bigamy law - FoxNews.com
Lesbian Baptist Pastor Nancy Petty Wants Gay Marriage Legalized | TheBlaze.com

List of 'Gay-Friendly' Churches Endorsed by Public University Staff, Christian News
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Monday, August 15, 2011

Get Out of the Barn!

And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
Luke 12:17-19

Jesus' warning in the letter to the church of Laodicea is a reminder for us to stay ever vigilant.     (* See Revelation 3)  That church was so unperceptive about their true spiritual condition because they seemed to be preoccupied with worldly lusts and affairs over a relationship with Jesus and a ministry to a lost world.  It had grown so lukewarm that they assumed that godliness was indicated by the vast amounts of things they owned.  I wonder if they did not feel that the beauty and splendor of their stately buildings were what drew people to God?  Rather than getting out in the fields and getting their hands dirty, they had decided to stay in the barn and ogle over all they had amassed.  Jesus did not call his redeemed ones to work in the barn, but he has called us to gather the wheat in the field--to carry on the ministry of reconciliation.  The barn (church) is where we get the necessary tools to go out into the field of humanity and reap the end time harvest.



Are we any different today than the church of Laodicea?  We gather in the barn a few times a week, sing a few songs, say a few prayers, entertain ourselves with a Sunday School lesson (for those few churches who actually have a Sunday School program left) and a sermon or two, and then we go on through the week assuming we have done God a "service".  We surmise that "service" is applied to our time in the barn, so we call it that--service. The true service Christ is looking for is in the field where the hurting, lost, and dying masses are headed down the wide and broad road of destruction.  He is longing for a people to get out of the barn and into the fields before the precious fruit of the earth drys out and the fires of judgment sweep across the land.  Maybe we have forgotten the cost for our inactivity--it is only the eternal souls of men, women who will spend eternity in a lake of fire.  Have we become a "Come To" church and not a "Go Ye" church?  Are we saying come to the barn for a good time, or go into all the world and preach the Gospel that saves the lost sinner?

The man in Jesus' parable above longed to build bigger barns to store all that he assumed he would later enjoy.  There was one big problem; however, he ran out of time.  It is sure that this whole world is running out of time as well.  Therefore, it is important that we redeem the time we do have for the days are evil.  It is high time to get in the fields once again before the darkness of the impending Tribulation overwhelms us.  Truly, the night is coming when no man can work.  What are you going to do; hide in the barn or work the fields? 


I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
John 9:4-5

Today's News    
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Friday, August 12, 2011

Satan the Creator?

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
Isaiah 14:14-16

Did I get your attention?  Of course, we know that Satan cannot create.  He can only manipulate the creation of God.  If he does not have the "omni-" attributes but tries to copy them, then surely he is also trying to create life.  Is this what we see happening before our very eyes?  If it is (and it is) then it is another sure sign that a loud trumpet blast is about to sound. When men begin messing with DNA, God's programming of the information for life, it is a clear signal that the days are short.  Altering genetic code is so dangerous, and its effects cannot be undone.  If God doesn't shorten the days, then men, following Satan's plans with godless, unscrupulous science, will ultimately genetically destroy themselves.  Be sure to catch this video!  Genetic Armageddon: Humanity's Greatest Threat - YouTube


It appears the fallen cherub has many immoral assistants aiding in his search to copy the power of God to create life, and surely his Antichrist's unified world government will make this an important issue.  Yet, one must ask why?  The only reason may be the very core reason he fell in the first place--pride.  

At the center of pride is self!  Self first is the very heart of sin.  As men retreat farther away from God and draw closer to the devil it is natural to be like him and become preoccupied with self.  Isn't this what the apostles tried to warn us about?  Take a moment to consider the following verses and check out how many times the listed sins involve love of self.  Also notice that this list comes under that heading and ends with men trying to learn but never coming to the knowledge of the truth.  "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."  2 Timothy 3:1-7
   
Interestingly enough, the next verse mentions the magicians of Egypt who tried to manipulate and copy the miracles of God.  "Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith." (2 Timothy 2:8)  Surely you need the mind of a reprobate to make cows that give human breast milk or implant human babies into the uterus of a cow!

My friends, time is short.  There is only one escape from the hellish nightmare ahead and the ensuing judgment.  His name is Jesus, and He is the truth.  Interestingly enough, the Hebrew word for truth is spelled with the first, middle, and last letter of the Hebrew alphabet: Aleph  Mem Tav.  The Aleph and Tav is Jesus! In  Greek we would say he is the Alpha and Omega.  Jewish Rabbi's note that "truth' is the beginning and the end of the alphabet and everything in between. Isn't that what Jesus is?  Accept Him by faith today before it is too late!  Your eternity depends on it. 

Science and the End of Days
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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

A Losing Venture


I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
Isaiah 14:14

Satan is not like the Lord.  He can neither create nor can he think creatively.  His greatest attempts to be something special are simply copies of what he sees in the God who can create ex nihilo, from nothing. He has no way to think beyond the power and the glory and the majesty of God the LORD.  His wish is simply to be like GOD.  Yet, even in this endeavor he is severely lacking the needed prerequisites since  he lacks the needed attributes of YHWH Elohim.  He is not omniscient, not omnipotent, nor is he omnipresent.  However, the Tribulation will allow him to get as close as he is going to get.  His intermediary or second person of his version of the Trinity will be the Antichrist, and Satan will give him all of Hell's resources in this short lived pathetic experiment in deity.  Again, he cannot think of anything beyond God so he has to make a  sorry attempt to ape the Trinity.  He puts himself as the father in this losing venture, the Antichrist mocks the son, and the False Prophet tries to draw men to the Antichrist as the Holy Spirit draws men to salvation in the atoning blood of Jesus.
Computers have brought about what Daniel prophesied; the prophet of the Lord GOD who knows all about the past, present, and future.  God showed this faithful servant that in the last days knowledge would increase exponentially (Daniel 12:4).  Some statistics show that knowledge is growing at a rate of 66% annually.  At this rate knowledge doubles every few weeks.  Wow!  With this vast knowledge, the Antichrist will be able to control every field of human knowledge.  No wonder the losers who follow him will fall before Satan and the Antichrist saying, "Who is like unto the beast?  (Revelation 13:4)  Even with the dragon (Satan) giving him all of the knowledge he can muster, he will never attain unto the Alpha and the Omega--Jesus Christ the sum off all available knowledge.  Jesus knows all: past, present, and future.  Who is like the Lord?  No one!

Satan will try to exercise dominion like no other through the Beast as well.  The Antichrist will be the most powerful fallen man that ever has lived.  He will control every aspect of power from the military, police, courts, and kingdoms.  He will even have power to overcome the Tribulation saints. (The gates of Hell cannot prevail against the church so the church has been gone by this time--they are away with the true source of all power!)  However, he lacks the ability to overcome God, Israel, the raptured Church in heaven, and the two-third angels who remained faithful to God during Satan's foolhardy rebellion.  The Antichrist may control most of the world, but two great prophets and 144,000 Jewish super evangelists give him fits.  When he thinks he has pinned the two prophets by death, they arise in front of everyone and ascend into heaven alive after three days of lying dead in the streets of Jerusalem. He also can't hold on to his  power, as it appears that a series of rebellions from the Kings of the East and others show his ultimate weakness.  He doesn't even have the power to keep himself from bowing before Jesus Christ and proclaiming him as the Lord to the glory of God the Father before being thrown into the Lake of Fire.  Who is like the Lord?  No one!

Finally, he will give his best try to be omniscient.  Have you noticed the great advances in surveillance?  When men receive the mark that contains tracking technology to their demise, they will not be able to get away with child abductions, drug deals, and other "sins".  Society will think that they have arrived with the power of the Beast.  Yet what will seem like order is only chaos as the Antichrist will bring the earth under the despotic rule of Satan.  The Bible lets us know that if the Tribulation were not shortened, there would not be anyone left alive.  Notice that it is the 2nd Beast, the False Prophet, that tags man with the mark of the beast (Revelation 13).  It is another pathetic attempt to be like God.  The Holy Spirit has great power to restrain evil.  Satan, too, will try this as well--unsuccessfully.  As we see in the witness of the 144,000, the untold number of Tribulation Saints, and the two Prophets, he certainly cannot limit the Holy Ghost!  Who is like the Lord?  No one!
     
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Revelation 20:10


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Sunday, August 7, 2011

Cover Up! The Party Is Over

For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. For the LORD shall rise up as [in] mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth. 
Isaiah 28:20-22

"We have done it! We will be safe and secure!," at least that is what the leaders of Judah thought as they prepared for a great party.  They drank and ate and generally a great time was had by all. Their alliance with Egypt around the time of the assassination of Sargon II in 705-704 BC and the reign of a new king, Sennacherib, would mean that their rebellion against Assyria would succeed and keep them from paying the heavy taxes put on all the vassal states of Assyria (or at least they thought so).  Around 735 BC the wicked King Ahaz had been frightened by the alliance of Syria and Ephraim.  Rather than seek God, he sought the king of Assyria to protect him from this Syria/Ephraim alliance and surrendered his sovereignty to a foreign power. Nearly thirty years later the Jews were sick of paying the tribute.  It was Isaiah that told Ahaz he was wrong then and it was Isaiah again who was sent to tell King Hezekiah and his advisers that their covenant with Egypt was a covenant with hell and death.  According to Isaiah 28:18, God, Himself, would annul the covenant.  God wanted Judah to rely upon his strength for rest and peace.  He did not wish for them to ally with the world and compromise for safety.  Does this seem familiar?




Isaiah walks into the party celebrating this covenant signing one morning after it had been going on for sometime.  Imagine the prophet as he beholds the leaders of Judah, the priests, and the prophets all red eyed and hungover.  What a terrible sight!  "For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness (human excrement), so that there is no place clean" (Isaiah 28:8).  It is at this point that the mockers begin to rail on God's prophet.  "Are you here to teach us?  Do you think we are little babies, prophet?  We know what you will say!  Serve God, "precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little."   When serving the Lord becomes a monotonous burden of rules and ritual, you are already living in a compromised relationship.  You are walking not in the Spirit, but in the flesh.  Compromise leads to fleshly living, a mocking of holiness, and empty religion.

Isaiah then unloads under the anointing of the Holy Ghost.  He says that since they will not learn their lesson in Hebrew they will have to learn it in Assyrian.  Assyria would eventually put Jerusalem under siege and nearly destroy them.  Egypt, the nation they looked to for strength, was like a reed that they leaned upon that pierced their hand--their help was like an open wound.  Only God brings victory, rest, and refreshment to the believer.  Isaiah tells them that the party is over and that there would be no rest.  They had made their bed in a bed too short and have covered themselves with a cover too narrow.  There would be no comfort! There would be judgment!

What else will it take for God to wake His church?  The world is on the fast track to Tribulation.  Yet, most in the church thinks that it is party time.  Let's run and shout and dance and play, surely God is pleased.  Let's hide the name of Jesus Christ and tell the world that we can have as much fun as they are.  Worse yet, let's look to the world and bring them in to join the party while allowing the filthiness of the flesh to cover the pews like the vileness Isaiah witnessed.  With a nation that is killing infants by the millions, allowing homosexuality to invade the government, the community, the military, and even the church, while we hide in the four walls of our compromised sanctuaries (places of rest and refreshment) and try to sing the problems away with our economy on the verge of collapse and our nation espousing false religions and demonic doctrines, when are we going to wake up to the reality that judgment is falling? 


It is time to share the saving grace in Christ and not to treat God's grace as a license for sin. Can we not see the disasters, the droughts, and the rampant rebellion to authority across the land.  I am afraid that the axe has already been laid to the base of the tree.  We need more than a few feel good prayers and a shout--we need to turn to God wearing sackcloth and ashes and repent for the sin of the land.  Hopefully, it is not to late for America!  Yet, I feel it may already be.  We are seeing the days of Lot and Noah all around us.  Turn to Jesus.  The next sound you may hear could be a trumpet calling the ambassadors home.  God, in Christ, is about to show all who the only power is.

Signs of Impending Judgement! 
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