Month: July 2011

The End of Days?


According to the prophecy that is in the book of Revelation, I would say so. Mainly because of the number of prophecies that have already been fulfilled. In general, all of the prophecies that were to be fulfilled before the time of tribulation have been fulfilled. The only ones left are those which precede the seven-year peace accord that the Antichrist will broker between Israel and her enemies.

There are many people in the church today who think that we, the church, will be gone before this happens. I am not so sure. There is another view that shows the church being subjected to the first half of the Tribulation and then taken away to Heaven before the wrath of God is poured out on the world. It is a very compelling argument and it has many scriptures to back it up. I am very interested to see just what will happen in the next few years because I believe we are that close to the time of Tribulation which will come on the whole world.

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only”. Matt. 24:36; our Lord told His disciples this in the Olivet discourse after they asked Him about the signs concerning the end of the age. We are living at that time or immediately before it right now. I know there have been many people who have said that the end of the world is on this day or this day, but no one knows! Your last day on earth is your personal “end of the age” and we have no clue as to when our last days are, thankfully! The times that we live in are and have been told about many times in God’s Word, from Daniel and Ezekiel to Joel and Isaiah then to the New Testament and the book of Revelation in particular. This time in our world should not surprise anyone if you have ever read God’s Word.

There are many who say that they will wait until their last day to accept Jesus as their Savior, but you and I don’t know when our last day is! It is arrogance beyond measure to plan your life that way because as soon as you leave home, your life is in danger! Even when you are at home, you may die of a heart attack, stroke, or any other ways. We are not given X number of years and days to live, and we don’t know when our last day is, only God knows that. Thankfully, He keeps that a secret from us.

The end of the church age is near and we are living in the “last days” right now and have been for a long time. Since the state of Israel became a nation again, there are few prophecies left to be fulfilled before the times foretold in the book of Revelation. In the past sixty years technology has advanced at a rapid pace, the world has grown smaller due to the rise of the amount of technology that is available to us on a daily basis. We do have the ability to talk to someone on the other side of the world and see them talk to us by way of the Internet. The Bible says: “But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.” Daniel 12:4

Our world is beginning to see some of the signs of the “end of the age”, but not the ones foretold that would be immediately prior to it. God loves us all and wants us to have a relationship with Him. If we choose not to accept the gift of the grace offered to us through Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we are the ones who will condemn ourselves to everlasting punishment! The day or the hour may not be known by us because our personal “day and hour” could be at any time since we are not guaranteed tomorrow.

Get into God’s word, the Bible and ask Him to reveal what His will is for you because it is important to Him and to you and your family. He loves you and all of us and doesn’t want any to perish, but if we wait too long our chance to accept His gift of Grace may pass us by and then all you can say when you stand before Him is “I am sorry, Lord, I waited too long and I didn’t realize my condition in time”. The most dreaded words that anyone could hear at that point are “Depart from Me into everlasting punishment because I never knew you”. There will be a tear in His eyes when you are told this, but it will be too late. Don’t let this happen, come to Him and give your life to Jesus before it is too late!

We live in unsettling days


There are so many things that are happening right now all over the world, especially in the Middle East, until some days it is hard to watch the news. We are not left alone in these times though because the Creator, our God, knows about everything that is going on and who it is affecting. Everything that is happening today and in the future is happening according to His plans. Satan is trying to derail those plans and fool the world into believing his lies, but in the end God will win and so will all of those who belong to Him!

Our lives are not in vain as long as we keep our faith and our life’s focus on Jesus and on the purpose that He has for us. The time that we have with our loved ones is short compared to the time that we will have with them in eternity. That is why we must be bold in our witnessing to our family and to all of those that we love! If you care about them, you have to witness to them! You must! This is not an option that we can ignore and we must not quit because the seed that we plant must be watered and yet the Holy Spirit will give the increase and call that person to Jesus.

God loves us all and does not want anyone to perish and yet, He knows who will come and who won’t. It is our responsibility to make sure that everyone hears the gospel of Jesus and His offer of salvation, given freely through grace if we will believe. Once we have told our friends and loved ones about Him, if they have not decided to follow Him, then we must pray without ceasing until our Lord calls us home. Shower them with prayer, love them regardless of their actions because once we have done our part it is up to God and His Spirit to bring them to Him.

In 1 Chronicles 16:8-9 says: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the people. Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him. Talk ye of all His wondrous works.”

We are to praise Him and tell others about Him so that they may be saved from the coming wrath during the Tribulation. Our time is not done until Jesus calls us homeward so we must do everything that we can to get the word out about Him and His grace and mercy. During these days and in the near future, our faith will be tested in ways that we have never experienced before. We must pray that our faith will keep us true to Him and that we will have the strength to tell others about Him, because that is what we are here for.

Jesus will come back for us when the Father says that it is time and no one knows exactly when that will be. Although the signs are showing up, a little at a time right now and will increase as we get closer to the Day. We have to watch and be ready for in that day one will be taken and one will be left and the sign will be seen by all people over the world. There will be no secret snatching away, everyone will see and then the truly Great Tribulation will come.

There will also be a falling away of those who are of the faith. There will be some who have been in the church and will lose their faith and begin to trust in lies. Those of us who stand firm in our faith and stay true to Jesus will come through and be rewarded.

1 Chronicles 16:10 says: “Glory ye in His Holy name; let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord”. We must put our trust and our faith in Him and pray that our loved ones truly seek Him too. God loves us all and will take care of us through trials and hardship, grief and in joyful times, in sickness and in abundant health. These He promised to those who love Him because He loved us first. How much more could be expected of our Creator and our God? What could we ask of Jesus who gave His life for all of us? He endured the torture and flogging and the crucifixion as a man, and yet was raised to eternal life three days later! In doing this, He conquered death and the grave and made a way for all of us to come to the Father through His sacrifice and by faith in Him. What more could we possibly ask of Him than this?

Many would say that they want a healthy life or more money, these things are temporary because they are from this world. Your life and its comforts last only a short time, like a puff of smoke compared to eternity with Him. While we are here, if we are believers, we must do the things that Jesus told us to do:

Mark 16:15-16 “and he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned”.

This is our commission and our duty for our Lord. It is the highest and best calling for any Christian and one that we should be honored to do. Go and tell because our days are not given us as promised, we have today but not tomorrow until it is here. While we have the time and the breath we must be about our Lord’s business and our Father’s. Tell others, pray for those to whom you cannot go to in person, give someone a hand toward the Hands that were pierced for our transgressions. He loves you all, can’t we do likewise for those that we love?

Are you good enough?


In our world today there are many people who think they are in pretty good shape to get to heaven. They don’t steal, they aren’t committing adultery, they don’t cuss, and they haven’t killed anybody (yet). So, they consider themselves to be pretty good but those that I listed are just four of the Ten Commandments. What about the other six? They mostly deal with pride and selfishness. How are you doing on those? What about having anything take God’s place, which is the first commandment? Is there anything or anyone which you value more than God?

Most everyone has trouble with those at one point or another. Everything that we have is a gift from God whether we purchased it or He brought it into our lives. Your children, your wife or husband are all gifts from God, you may not be happy with them all the time but neither is He happy about us and our choices, which is why we have the ability to choose. God wants us to have the choice and the ability to choose Him as an act of love not because we had no choice.

When we were still sinners and blind to the truth of God’s love…did His love for us still exist? Of course it did! Even the smallest detail regarding sin is a sin. The thought you had about someone having more than you do…is a sin. The envy that you feel toward someone you may not even know is a sin. Any word or thought that we say or think that is hurtful or to spite someone is also a sin. Speeding on the highway, taking a pen home from work, using something that is not yours without asking, these are all sins and we will be held accountable for them unless we repent and ask forgiveness.

The world and every created thing in it exist regardless of our position in it or our comprehension of it. The sun and the moon rise and set, the tides come in and flow back to the sea and the seasons change just as God said that they would from the beginning. Animals, birds, fish, and insects all live according to God’s plan because they don’t have a choice regarding what they are or what they do. They glorify God by living and reproducing. We should glorify Him in our walk with Him daily and by our character that everyone sees daily because to some people that may be the only reflection of Christ they ever see.

The same is true in our lives. We wake up and go to sleep at night. We dream, we wake in the morning, eat breakfast and get ready for another day. This is a ritual which will continue until we retire or we die whichever comes first. The true novelty of life is that it shouldn’t be a novelty; we should live it as real as it is and thank God every day that we have that privilege. The life that we are given to live is for God’s glory and His purposes. Whether we choose to work for Him and with Him is our choice but our life will be much greater for it if we choose to walk in His ways and follow His purposes.

While we are here, regardless of our vocation, we should use our time and energy to witness to people by our lives and what they see of Christ through our actions. Remember, the pay for God’s work may be small compared to what others get in this world but our retirement plan is out of this world! No one on earth could possibly measure what the streets of gold or your mansion in glory would be worth. The wonderful presence of God Himself and the fact that you will be with Him for eternity is also beyond anyone’s comprehension.

Our life will be more than we can imagine when we are in His presence and we will be for eternity if we are His. I can’t comprehend one thousand years or one million and eternity is far longer than either of those which is why Christ said that we live like flowers, here today and gone tomorrow. We have to allow Him to work through us while we are here because we only have a short time on this earth, and yet if we belong to Him we will have eternity to learn from Him and to be with Him daily. Heaven will be a place where we will experience freshness and joy all of the time because we will never be tired or run out of things to do, ever!

Even the apostle John couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing when he saw the vision of heaven and the angels and even God Himself. We truly haven’t a clue in regard to what is in store for us and our loved ones in Heaven or even when the earth is remade in the image of the paradise that it was in the Garden of Eden. I have left out reference to scripture in this morning’s sermon because the whole Bible from beginning to end declares God’s majesty and the magnificence of His creation. The sky, the trees, the birds and all the creatures that have ever been on the earth as well as the universe declares His creative power and wondrous love for us. He created all of these things for us to marvel at and consider because He is God, period!

I am bringing this message of praise and adoration before you because it is necessary to realize God’s presence and who He is. We are coming to the end of the church age and our time on earth will soon be done so the time to make your choice regarding who you will serve and where is now, not tomorrow or next week.

What would you say to a person who thinks they are good enough to stand in front of God and declare that they are eligible for heaven? Are you sure about your salvation? If you or a friend of yours thinks “I hope I can get into heaven when I die”, unless your “hope” is in Christ you won’t! If you are counting on your deeds to get there, you will be sorely disappointed. Our righteousness is as filthy rags without the blood of Christ because nothing that we can do on our own will ever be good enough.

John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Give our life to Christ and ask Jesus to save you from your sins today. We aren’t guaranteed tomorrow or even tonight so the time is now. Once you do that and are sincere in your repentance there will be no doubt about where you will go after you die. You will be with Him and then your life will really begin!

Our country, do you care for it anymore?


Our country is 235 years old on Monday. Does anyone realize why the United States was formed or why? It was settled because of freedom of religion and for freedom itself. There are many today who don’t know our history or who actually don’t care. If we keep teaching our children that the founders weren’t Christians and that our country is not a Christian nation, what will happen to it by the time they grow up?

God ordained our country’s creation because He knew that Israel would need more help than England by herself could provide. Now, we seem to be turning our back on Israel and that is not good. It is not good for them and it won’t be for us either. As God said in the Bible (paraphrased) “Those who bless Israel, I will bless and those who curse Israel I will curse”.

Our country may not call itself cursing Israel, but by turning our back on them and telling them to give more of their land to the Palestinians we are doing just that.

If or when we as a country have a revival of our true Christian values, we will be a nation once again. But, until a revival  happens in this country I believe that our economy and our society will only keep getting worse. Turn back to God before it is too late! If you have never given your life to God, now is the time to do so.

Jesus is coming to claim His church and if you are not part of it when He does, the condition of the world is going to get much worse than it is today. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believes in Him will have everlasting life”.

God loves us all but until you give your life to Him, you won’t know how much! Give Him a chance in your life. Your life will never be the same, it will be better!