The message is true!

Nobody's mad but you This message about Satan being angry or rather furious with Christians is true, but we are protected by the blood of Jesus. He cannot harm us at all! He can cause us pain and heartache by the death of loved ones, he can also cause our death, if God allows it, but he can do nothing without God saying that he can.

Long before Jesus came, Satan attacked Job and took everything from him to try to force Job to curse God or lose his faith in God. It didn’t work. Learn from Job and from the rest of the Bible because the Truth is absolute whether you like it or believe it at all!

Life is hard enough living day by day without understanding that Satan HATES you immensely! Yes, he would love to take your life, your children, your job, and everything else that you have away from you and then gloat in watching you suffer through it all! In Christ we have an advocate and a Protector that will stand with us through it all. That doesn’t mean that we won’t ever have trouble as Christians, but we will have His Strength and His Presence in our lives to help us get through any trouble that we have.

Some people call Christianity a “crutch” or a weak-minded way of dealing with life. Some even try to tell others that what we believe in is a lie and that the disciples just made it all up. Let me ask you this: if someone was going to put you to death by fire or any other means if you didn’t recant your belief in Jesus, would you recant? If you knew it was a lie you would.

That is why the testimony of the book, Foxes Book of Martyrs, is so powerful! Stephen wouldn’t have been stoned for a lie. There were many Roman soldiers who died because they became Christians. Many of the early church were killed in the arena by lions and other horrible ways for their faith! This has been happening for nearly 2000 years, and it is still happening today. Because, the testimony of the Bible and all of the Christians who have died for their faith shows that our faith is not in some made-up story or fantasy.

Jesus is REAL and He is coming soon, so you need to decide which so-called “lie” will you believe. The one where Satan tells you that all of it is hogwash and that you can rule with him in hell one day or will you believe the Truth of Jesus the Christ Who came and paid the price for your eternal soul?

A church reborn!

The church today is nothing like what Jesus intended for it to be. Why is that? Have we not heard from the Bible or have we been sitting in church but not listening?

Let me give you a quote from A.W. Tozer who wrote The Crucified LIfe:

The late Dr. A. W. Tozer, author and pastor, said, “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.”

In our churches today, whether they are Baptist, Methodist or Presbyterian, would anyone notice is the Holy Spirit was not present? In some churches, I don’t believe that anyone would notice at all. Is it possible to follow Christ so closely until there is little difference in your actions and deeds? I am not sure that any church would want to be revived enough to live that close to Jesus.

The things of God, which we hear about from our reading the Bible and from the sermon on Sunday, are what make up our faith and our trust in Him. We also delight in the Lord because of His goodness and the value of the treasures that are in our Heavenly home and not the one that we occupy here! When we value those things that God values then we stand with Him, spiritually, in heaven even when we are still here. We walk with Him here and seek His revealing on Earth and we will live for eternity.

Paul wrote about this in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1:

1 Thessalonians 1

King James Version

1 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
4 Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.
5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
6 And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost.
7 So that ye were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.
8 For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.
9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

VineandBranches If our church, regardless of the denomination, is to be reborn then we must do it soon. Repent and ask for God’s forgiveness of our arrogance and our prideful ways. We have been prideful for many years in the church, thinking that our doctrines and our bylaws govern us and get us within reach of Jesus. That kind of thinking will send many straight to hell.

Why? Because no amount of works or money or “wisdom” from a preacher or a committee can equal the wisdom of God’s Word! Changing words around or even taking them from Scripture and calling the “new bible” an improved “translation” is also a good way to lead many into hell. That is an eternity which I don’t want to be responsible for, nor do I want to go into eternity without Jesus.

If you are a preacher and you are teaching your congregation that your doctrine or your “new translation” is the way to reach Heaven, please realize that you are taking a whole church into an eternity with Satan. You will be held responsible for leading them down the wrong path and you will suffer for it regardless of your belief in the eternal nature of Hell itself!

Have faith in God alone!

“Isaiah 43:1-2, this is what the Lord says,” do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned and the flames will not set you ablaze.”

onebreathaway Our Lord and Savior is on His throne and all of these promises are given to those who believe in Him. Seek to do good for those who cannot do for themselves because that is what Jesus would do in this world.

Life, especially life on Earth, is precious to God and He doesn’t look kindly on those who take it lightly. We, the whole of humanity, are His creation and in spite of what some religions teach, God loves each person as His own. Why else would He send Jesus to die and pay the penalty for our transgressions, even before most of us today were born?

Yes, God will protect those who believe in Him and His Son and He will give them life even after this body has died. Will all of us see this come to pass in our lifetime? I don’t know nor could I tell you because only God knows when that time will be. He knows the day and the hour and when the time comes, it will happen and not before. It will also happen when God has determined it will and not because of what we are doing or not doing on Earth.

There are some who think that if they cause more death and destruction on Earth it will force the Tribulation/End Times/Whatever you want to call it to begin, but that is not how God works. Yes, He did bring about the flood because of the evil intent of mankind and Jesus said that the condition of the world would be “like the days of Noah”, but our wickedness is not going to trigger the Tribulation.

God’s timing of events will proceed at the pace which He decides on, not on anything that we are doing or not doing at the time.

Make sure that you are ready and looking for His coming when it does happen, because the world which will be here after the church is taken up will be much worse than the one we have now.

What is the difference?

IamtheWay It seems that there are so many different divisions of believers! Why? Aren’t we supposed to be worshipping the same Jesus and from the Bible which is God’s Word? Why do we have all of these denominations?

Mostly because of the work of Satan in the church. You didn’t think he could do that did you? If Satan can attend a meeting in Heaven and accuse Job, speaking to God about him, he can surely come into each of our churches! He may come in as a new convert to Christ or he may show up as a deacon or maybe someone who isn’t satisfied with the preacher.

I don’t mean that he has possessed them, but he plants thoughts into their minds which will take root in the congregation and even begin to fracture the family in the church. If you think about how problems arise in the church, regardless of the denomination, this will make sense. Many times after the church is either split or in some way diminished, the “new” person will leave or the person who planted the seed won’t have any recollection of the problem.

I am not writing this to accuse anyone but I am writing it to bring attention to this problem which does come up in churches all over the world, not just here in America. Paul wrote that we are at war with powers and principalities and these are just some of the forces that Satan has under his command. Thoughts of things which Christians shouldn’t think of, consideration of sinful things which we know we shouldn’t do, these are the “arrows” that our Spiritual armor should protect us from.

But, if you haven’t studied God’s Word and placed it in your mind to give you strength and power to resist these thoughts, then you may entertain them and it will become a stumbling block for you. The war for your spirit and your soul is in your mind and it is there that Satan attacks because he can see what each of us is attracted to the most and he uses it against us.

It is the same when we are having trouble in our churches, Satan and his demons and powers are attacking us, each one of us. Pulling up little things which irk us about a certain speaker or topic and making them seem far worse than they are. This is how he caused Adam and Eve to envy God in the garden and he has been doing it ever since all over the world.

Seek out the truth in God’s Word and study it. Learn from the Old and the New Testaments because they complement and interpret each other. With God’s Wisdom in your heart and in your head, Satan can’t twist it and make it say something when you know it well enough to thwart his plans. He knows scripture better than you do so you have to study it in order to know it at least as well. If you don’t, then he will make it sound like it came from the Bible even when he has changed a word or two to make it seem better or more appealing.

This is why we can’t stop learning scripture. Just because you may have read the entire Bible through last year doesn’t mean that you know it well enough to take him on. If you are like me in your reading, when you have finished reading the Bible, the next day feels empty without reading more of it. Every year I read it through but usually when I have finished it, I go back to Genesis and begin again. Each time over the last seven years I will find something or the Spirit will reveal something to me that I didn’t see or understand before!

I am about halfway through another reading of it and I feel that I should begin again. Why? I don’t know, maybe it is the Spirit prompting me to read again a part of it that I have read so that I can understand it a little better. I usually do find some insight in a passage every time that I read it which didn’t jump out at me before and it makes more sense this time.

I am not claiming to be perfect in my studies because I miss a day or two at times, when life gets in the way or maybe I’m not feeling well for a few days, but the more scripture that you put into your mind and heart the less you will be deceived by cults or by Satan.

Do you believe?

There are many reasons today for belief in Jesus and yet there are many who do not believe in Him. How is this possible? Because, so many wish to choose their own truth, their own version of “Jesus”, their own version of “God” even. Do people do this? Absolutely!

You hear it in the news and on other websites where people express their beliefs like, “Truth is relative”, “My truth is different from yours”, etc.

Truth is NOT relative! The Truth of God’s Word is absolute which is what frightens people, because they don’t know what to do with it or how to live by it! In the book by A.W. Tozer The Crucified Life, Mr. Tozer tells us that “The Christian should not have a secular mind at all. If you are a Christian, you should “seek the things which are above”–there should be WomanbytheWell no worldly mind in you at all.”

Some people might ask, “Then how am I to pursue a career or do my housework or run my business?” Do all of these earthly things as sacrificial offerings to God, just as you give your life to Him and you give in tithes. Like the widow who gave two mites into the Temple offering, our daily work and our lives should be given to God as a sacrifice to Him daily.

A.W. Tozer died in 1963 yet much of the writings by him and others who knew him still apply to our churches today. Many of his books which were written nearly a decade before his death sound as if they are speaking directly to our generation. Just as the Bible speaks to us through prophecy in Daniel and the book of Revelation, his book speaks of the church leaving its first love.

Is belief so hard to accomplish in our time? I mean, it is or seems to be politically incorrect to be a Christian these days since all of our views are based upon the Bible. If you haven’t noticed this then you haven’t been watching much news today, although I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t. There isn’t much good news on TV or the Internet these days.

That is why we must hold onto our beliefs as Christians. Study God’s Word and pray that you will not be deceived in the coming trials or hopefully you will be taken up when Jesus comes for the church one day. Remember, there are very few prophecies which need to happen before His call to the church to “come up here”. Make sure that you know where your heart is and whether you have given it to Jesus. If there is any doubt, be in prayer and ask Him to come into your life and change you from the inside out!

He came so that the debt for all would be paid, all that we have to do to receive eternal life is to believe in Jesus and ask for forgiveness, repenting of our old ways and turning toward Him, to follow His lead in our lives! A time of testing and tribulation is coming upon the world and if you haven’t given your life to Jesus, you will be tested through it. You can be saved during this time, but it will be harder to make that decision and stick to it through the persecution and hunger. Seek Him out while there is time to do so, please.