Be patient with each other

with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Ephesians 4:2 KJV https://bible.com/verse-of-the-day/eph.4.2/56519

Entertainment?

Have you taken notice of what is offered to us as entertainment? We have so many outlets to view it on today until it is overwhelming. All of the channels that are on satellite television, then there are all of the “streaming” channels from the Internet including all of the channels on YouTube. Then there are the channels from Apple and Disney, with a subscription of course. All of these can keep you focused on your “smartphone” or on a “smart TV” for hours.

But what about living life itself? What happened to all of the things that we should do to keep our family fed and healthy? How about the teaching that is supposed to go on in the home outside of school hours?

God’s Word says that we are supposed to teach our children about Him at home, especially now when His Word isn’t allowed in schools as a textbook anymore. Even reading one chapter or even a few verses to them each night would be helpful in their life later on. I have to admit that I didn’t do this when my child was growing up but I did take him to church and we discussed the sermon later, especially when he had questions about it. I was a pastor during his teenage years so that helped a little.

What is the point of this post today? Something that I have seen too much of since the first iPhone came out years ago…allowing the phone and its content to be the teacher and babysitter. Children today know more about these hand-held computers and how to use them than they do about their parents or about almost anything else in the world. Because their world seems to revolve around their phones whether they are from Apple or Samsung really doesn’t matter.

Our world is very close to a time that is prophesied in the Bible as the Tribulation. Seven years of persecution and totalitarian rule by a person called the anti-Christ. Who is he and where does he come from? Prophecy doesn’t give that much information but the world will see him as their savior and it will happen after the church is taken away. I pray that every person who doesn’t want to go through this terrible time will seek Jesus as soon as possible.

Crucify your old way of life

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. Luke 9:23‭-‬24 KJV https://bible.com/verse-of-the-day/luk.9.23-24/42343

We are blessed

Regardless of the situation that we may be living in today, compared to much of the world we are blessed. America has not fallen…yet. Why did I place that qualifier in there? Because it is likely that America will fall soon. Maybe not in my lifetime but it will happen. If it does happen in my lifetime then God had already prepared that for us and we did not see it or we weren’t supposed to see it. Everything that happens in our lives and in the world around us is orchestrated by God. Nothing significant happens in this world without His hands guiding it to be that way.

No leader of a nation, regardless of how incompetent they may be, attains their office without being placed there by God. I pray that all who read this will seek out your answer in this life in God’s Word because your answer is there. Pray that He would show you where your place is in His Kingdom because you have a place and a purpose there as well.

I never knew or even realized that I had a place in His Kingdom until He called me to be a preacher eleven years ago. Now, I only preach here due to COVID and its effect on worship services. If you have given your heart to Jesus and are a follower of His, please tell others about Him while there is time. When that day comes and the church is taken up to heaven, many will still come to know Him but it will be harder then than it is now. Why?

Because by that time the next “leader” of the world will be the Anti-Christ and whether people know that or not it will happen. God’s Word says so in the book of Revelation. He may be the “savior” for a time but he will be a dictator and a very hard one at that. At some point during the seven year treaty that he will have signed with Israel and the country’s around it, he will break the treaty and begin a persecution like the world has never seen. It will be against the Jewish people and those who have come to know Jesus during this time as well. Anyone who doesn’t worship him will be killed.

We live in an uncertain time

But…it is not an unknown time. Many of the things which have happened in the past few years have been foretold in God’s Word. The re-gathering of the Jewish people in their land in 1948 was the first and there have been many more since then. In 1967, Jerusalem was restored to Israel as the capital. All of these things were prophesied by God through the prophets and His ministers, the apostles, who wrote of Jesus and His gospel.

Why do so many people disagree with the Word of God? It is backed up by many more original copies from the first century than any other “ancient” document. Yes, there have been many translations but if they are compared to the originals their content is true and correct. Some may argue that the Bible has many errors in it but it doesn’t. Some words translate easily from Hebrew to English but many do not simply because of the Hebrew alphabet.

I am not a Hebrew scholar but I do own a Hebrew Bible with the Old and the New Testaments in it and it backs up every scripture, even the King James Bible. Yes, some words are different but the context and the meaning of the Scripture are the same. When you read the prophecies from the Old Testament and then compare them to what happened in the life of Jesus and His apostles, even if you have to use more than one or two commentaries to make sense of them, they are accurate as if the writer was there. David described His crucifixion exactly in Psalm 22 right down to the casting of lots for His robe and this was written over a thousand years before Jesus was crucified.

We are living in a time where the “time of the Gentiles” is coming to an end. I pray that everyone who is seeking to know Jesus and the explanation of what is going on around the world will look it up in God’s prophecies, specifically Matthew 24 and in Isaiah 53 and the entire book of Daniel. Seek the truth in God’s Word while there is time.

Worship together

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20 KJV https://bible.com/verse-of-the-day/mat.18.20/10823

One day soon…

Whether you believe in God or in anything that has been written in the Bible, this will come about when He says it is time. None of God’s promises have fallen away empty and unfulfilled, they are just waiting to be done in the time that God has allotted for them to be.

Do people look at God’s Word and think that it has been too long since Jesus was here. He’s not coming back. Many people do think this but until the time of the Gentiles is completed, we will wait. It may be a week or a month or possibly a year or more but all of the prophecies and promises will come to pass in His time, not in ours.

The wages of sin…

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23 KJV https://bible.com/verse-of-the-day/rom.6.23/9137

Rise and shine

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1 KJV https://bible.com/verse-of-the-day/isa.60.1/78238

What will you do?

There will be a day sometime soon when the church will leave in the twinkle of an eye. That is faster than a blink. You may be talking with someone and in between words and the blink of your eyes…they’re gone and all that is left is their clothes and their watch or phone. Will you know what happened? Will you wonder about it or have you heard this story before? There will be many millions of people missing and there will be many car wrecks and planes crashing on that day. The news will be so busy reporting all of these disappearances that they may not realize that some of their crew is missing.

What will that day look like around the world? It will likely be chaotic with many people missing and so many wondering why wasn’t I among the number that was taken? Others will be asking why were they taken in the first place? There will also be many mothers who will lose their young children and babies right in the delivery room because they are still innocent in the eyes of God.

There will be many people in the world who will be asking many questions and some who do have the answers but the time to make the decision about your eternity is not after the Rapture has happened but before…like today! Have you put it off because you enjoy living without “rules” to ruin your nightlife? Have you just decided that being a Christian is too much to ask right now? The day of salvation is today, not tomorrow. No one is guaranteed to live a certain number of years, so even tomorrow is not promised to any of us.

Make sure of your eternal home today because on that day when all of the world is wondering what happened you want to be included in the group that was taken. What comes next for the rest of the world will be like hell on Earth for seven years.