Do not be afraid

Joshua had to take over the leadership role of Moses after his death. Wow! Talk about some big shoes to fill. That is why God was telling him to be strong and courageous and that He would never leave Him. So, why can’t we, as Christians, learn from Joshua’s experience and be courageous in our faith and our life? Sometimes we are but until we learn to be bold as well as courageous, most of us just hide in the background and let someone else be bold.

What would’ve happened if Peter had not been bold on the day of Pentecost? The day of Pentecost wouldn’t have had much to show anyone if he and the rest of the disciples had not been bold. While it is true that the Holy Spirit is what made them bold, if they had not followed the lead of the Holy Spirit there would’ve been no New Covenant church. All of the Christians over the past two thousand years would have never come to know Jesus as their Savior.

The Holy Spirit gives us strength and knowledge today so that we can be bold in our faith. I pray that anyone who is looking for their Savior will seek Him in Jesus Christ because there is no other Name that can bring eternal salvation to you along with eternal peace and assurance.

Walk with Christ through the Bible

How do I do this? I gave my heart to Jesus over thirty years ago (I think). Why do I not know the exact date? Because I have known about God and Jesus for many years, but that’s not enough. I had to have the transforming power of the Holy Spirit to come into my heart, not to give me the gift of tongues as some believe is necessary. The Holy Spirit did change my heart so that I could be used as a pastor for almost ten years. So…what happened? When did this change take place? My only answer is that it happened when I fasted for a month on juice and water in January of 2011. I have never felt as healthy since then but during that time…I can’t explain it.

Fasting by itself does heal some areas of your body because your body isn’t having to process food anymore but my only explanation is the Holy Spirit was working inside me and through me. I prayed for a friend of mine who had just had an operation of some sort and he came home and couldn’t keep his food down. While I prayed for him I felt something go through my arm that was touching him and I found out later that he didn’t have any more trouble eating and keeping it down. God did that!

Ever since then I have read through the Bible at least once every year from Genesis to Revelation. As soon as I finish I may take a day or so but then I start over because I have grown so used to reading His Word until a day without it feels useless and empty. You might ask me “Don’t you get tired of reading the same thing over and over again?”; I would have to say, “No, I don’t”. Because God’s word really is the living Word, Jesus Christ, so the message is about Him from the beginning to the end. It is hard to see in some books like Numbers or Leviticus since they are dealing with the duties of the priests but He is still present in every book in either a type or a representation in the book. When you re-read Scripture like I do, whether you intend to memorize it or not it will take root in your mind and your heart. God wants you to write His Words in your heart and keep them so you will have them to defend yourself when they are needed. He will bring them to your mind so that you will not be confounded by someone trying to trick you.

Adam was a type of Christ, Abel was too. Enoch was a selected type because God took him to be in heaven. Noah was a type of Christ, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were types of Christ. Joseph was a type of Christ, Moses was a type of Christ. Wherever you see the word angel written with a capital A, that was the pre-incarnate Christ visiting His people. So as you can see, Christ or a type of Him is present from the very beginning and He never really leaves His people without His Presence in some form.

The Word of God

Hebrews 4:12 says it all: For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The reason that I am beginning with this verse tonight is that it is true! God’s Word is alive and His Word, the Bible, does have the power to read your heart and bring you to the point of knowing that you need Jesus as your Savior…but only if you will read it and ask God to show you why you should believe in Jesus. Having a Bible in your possession doesn’t help you, having one on the table in the living room won’t help you until you pick it up and allow God’s Holy Spirit to show you exactly who you are and why you need Christ!

Our lives are short and we are never promised that we even have the rest of today let alone the promise of waking up tomorrow. No one has that promise. That is why my messages have been briefer these past few months. We don’t have the time to waste. There is nothing left to do, no more prophecies to be fulfilled except for the number of people who will give their hearts to Jesus. It is possible that you are the holdout or maybe a family member. Whoever it may be, when that person has been reached with the message that brings them to the conviction that they need Jesus and they have accepted Him…then the entire world will know that the Bible is the Truth. It may happen at the very instant that they accept Jesus and when the rapture of the church happens, the world will know beyond any possible doubt that “thy Word is true!”

If you’ve never given your heart to Christ and allowed His Spirit to change your heart and your life, then you need to know for sure that He is the Way to Salvation. He is the only way to salvation and there is no other name by which we can be saved. God loves all of mankind but He knows who will and who will not accept His invitation to become an adopted son in His Kingdom. Many people say that it is too simple. Belief in the name of Jesus…that is all that is required of each of us. But some want to help God save their souls.

God doesn’t need our help to do anything! How arrogant of us to think that we would need to help God when it was He Who formed each of us in our mother’s womb and gave each of us a measure of faith that would allow us to believe in Him for salvation. Most of us spend many hours and possibly years trying to find that part of us that feels empty. We try to fill it with money or drugs or sex but the only Person that fills that space is Jesus and until we feel that and know that we need Him, it will always be empty.

Isaiah 53

The Suffering Servant
(Acts 8:26–40; 1 Peter 2:21–25)

1Who has believed our message?

And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?a

2He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no stately form or majesty to attract us,

no beauty that we should desire Him.

3He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

Like one from whom men hide their faces,

He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

4Surely He took on our infirmities

and carried our sorrows;b

yet we considered Him stricken by God,

struck down and afflicted.

5But He was pierced for our transgressions,

He was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,

and by His stripes, we are healed.c

6We all like sheep have gone astray,d

each one has turned to his own way;

and the LORD has laid upon Him

the iniquity of us all.

7He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet He did not open His mouth.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,

so He did not open His mouth.

8By oppression and judgment He was taken away,

and who can recount His descendants?

For He was cut off from the land of the living;e

He was stricken for the transgression of My people.

A Grave Assigned
(Matthew 27:57–61; Mark 15:42–47; Luke 23:50–56; John 19:38–42)

9He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with a rich man in His death,

although He had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in His mouth.f

10Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him

and to cause Him to suffer;

and when His soul is made a guilt offering,g

He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days,

and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.

11After the anguish of His soul,

He will see the light of lifeh and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many,

and He will bear their iniquities.

12Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great,i

and He will divide the spoils with the strong,j

because He has poured out His life unto death,

and He was numbered with the transgressors.k

Yet He bore the sin of many

and made intercession for the transgressors.

Make sure that you know the Savior that is described in this chapter.

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