“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?” (2 Peter 3:9-12)
What manner of people are we to be in light of the glorious reality that Jesus is coming back to the earth? Holy. Holiness is no longer an option, set aside for the really zealous. God is separating for Himself a holy people that will be free from the mixture found in this world. Those who answer this call will be the ones used to usher in His Kingdom. It is time for the Bride to separate herself from the cares that so easily distract her.
Peter tells us that since everything humanity holds dear will be burned up, why fret over it? There is one thing that matters – your relationship with Jesus. And you cannot claim to love Him and continue on in sin. Why? Because you are to be a witness of God’s great love and mercy; how could you claim to be a recipiant of God’s mercy at Calvary and continue to live in sin, re-crucifying our Lord?
“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries…It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10:26-27, 31)
You can loose your salvation, PERIOD. It is not the time in human history to cling to a five-point doctrinal position or to stick your head in the sand, wishing the issue never needed resolution. It is time for the men and women of God to cast aside their denominational allegiance and place their allegiance in God. There is only one right answer to this and many other issues that the church has waffled around on for far too many years. If I’m wrong, prove it…but if I’m right, change the way your living and serve the living God.
The call is going out to a bored church in a godless generation, “Come out of Babylon and join the army of the living God.” This army is nameless, faceless, meek and lowley…just like their Leader. This army doesn’t love their lives in this age, but eagerly awaits and hastens their lives in the next through their holiness.
“…looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?” (2 Peter 3:12)
Even our current elected officials can understand this.
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“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master…Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching.” (Luke 12:35,37)
Corrie ten Boom in a letter written in 1974 gave practical insight into how followers of Jesus can “gird their waists” and keep their “lamps burning”. Below is an excerpt from the letter, I would encourage you to read it in its entirety. You can find it here.
How can we get ready for the persecution? First we need to feed on the word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives.
Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive and sitting at the right hand of God.
We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it.
Corrie ten Boom
…you know, the same people who wake up in the early hours of the morning to go shopping on “Black Friday”, then relentlessly scan the internet for even more “great deals” on “Cyber Monday”. They update their Facebook status with how much fun their having decorating their Christmas tree and stringing their Christmas lights. I wonder if any of them have ever asked themselves why they have a “Christmas” tree inside their house when God commands them not to? (Jer. 10:2-4) Or why they think Jesus was born on December 25th when the Bible says otherwise? (Luke 2:8) Or where Santa Claus, the Yule Log, Christmas stockings, etc come from and why none of these traditions glorify Jesus?
My guess is that, like in many other areas of their lives, they choose to remain ignorant. But I for one, will not; nor will I continue to blindly follow the godless, pagan traditions that have been handed down to us by our forefathers. We can no longer remain comfortable as spiritual lightweights; crying about how we need to put Christ back into a pagan holiday that He never was a part of, all-the-while millions of godless sinners are dying apart from saving faith in Jesus and being sentenced to an eternity in the Lake of Fire. I admonish you to watch this video and then decide how you are going to spend December 25th and which battles you are going to fight.
I love the idea of America; free men and women using their God-given rights in order to materialize the greatest dream ever given to man. But this dream that has now become reality and blessed the entire world is in great danger. The light on a hill that brought freedom and prosperity to millions (if not billions) is now under siege by the very ones that have sworn to protect it; our elected officials. The landscape today is eerily similar to that of the classic novel, “Atlas Shrugged”. The “looters” (a.k.a. Liberal Progressives) are in the process of destroying this country and all of the virtue that has made it so great.
But before that happens, I intend to expose their works of darkness and stand for Truth. The overwhelmingly liberal stench that is arising may smell like pork, but it does not taste as good. Below is a list encompassing the liberal agenda so you can make an informed decision in 2010, when we elect our next batch of servants to Washington, D.C.
- CONTROL – they want to control every aspect of your life. They capitalize on any hint of “crisis” or “disaster” in order to implement their socialist agenda
- DISCRIMINATION – they legitimize virtually any program that “promotes” the interests of minorities and females and discriminates against successful, hard-working white males
- RACISM - their “multi-cultural” mentality which preaches that America’s Eurocentric, white, Christian heritage is responsible for all the evils of the world and that their society free from the greedy, imperialistic white man will result in a more just and humane society
- REDISTRIBUTION – they do not trust the free markets and democratic capitalism since only the hard-working and determined can be successful, so they seek to set up a centralized, government-controlled economy that will redistribute the wealth of this country “more fairly”
- SECULAR HUMANISM – they denigrate any religious belief and in its place set up the “worship” of secular humanism, with mindless environmentalism at the center of this new religion
- BLATANT HYPOCRISY - they cry out for “social justice” for the black community, even though it is their own policies that keep the black community in a state of poverty
- LOVERS OF DARKNESS - they call evil “good” and good “evil”; they seek to defend the “civil rights” of homosexuals all-the-while saying that it is morally permissible to murder a living human being while it is still inside of its mother’s womb
Those who love righteousness can no longer be led astray by the deceptive doctrines of the Liberal Progressives. If you find yourself tempted to believe the great swelling words of emptiness that their popular figures are spewing ask yourself, “What do the masses think?” and remember, the masses are always wrong.
David
“…incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; 3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, 4 If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; 5 Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.” (Proverbs 2:2-5)
How many of us are actually doing this? Am I even doing this? My guess is that the believing church falls woefully short of God’s glorious invitation to know Him. I know I do. And this inadequacy of knowledge and understanding does ourselves, the nations and the remnant of national Israel a grave disservice. How are we supposed to fulfill the Great Commission or provoke Israel to jealousy and direct them into saving faith in Messiah if we do not know Him ourselves? I fear we are too comfortable with this One we serve, or the One we think we serve. God is not like us. He has more for us than the nice life that we’ve carved out for ourselves. He wants His Son revealed to the earth, and we are the means by which He has chosen to do so.
This revelation of Jesus will not come on the run. And we cannot testify of that which we have not seen. We must get back to the ancient paths and lay hold of this God that we say we serve so that we can reveal Him to others. The church has an invitation to search out the mysteries of God and obtain the revelation that those of old and the angels of heaven have longed to look into, but most of us are so consumed with the Jon and Kate saga or the Michael Jackson circus that we can hardly muster up enough desire to open the Bible, let alone spend the time and energy it takes to search for the knowledge of God in it. This is going to change. God is not honored by half-hearted sacrifice; even now the call is going forth to summon those who truly want Him, into the Word of God. It will be those vessels that are trusted with the mysteries of heaven and the responsibility of manifesting those mysteries to the broken, dying world.
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63)
This world is passing away and in just a second, we will give account for our lives and it will be clearly seen whether we loved the Truth or lived to satisfy the lusts of the flesh. This is the only shot we have to live holy unto the Lord as a people set apart for His desires. We must repent of our selfishness and cast off the chains that are holding us back from an intentional pursuit of God. There is no one like Him and no one has ever seen Him, other than Jesus (John 1:18). So if we are going to declare what He is like to the nations and especially to Israel, then we need to plant ourselves in the written word and begin meeting with the living Word. There is no substitute for biblical study; it is time for the church to quit sending one man up the mountain to hear from God and take that journey themselves.
David
“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved…28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, 31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. 32 For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.” “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 11:25-32, 12:1-2)
Those who put their trust in Jesus have a reasonable service to perform. Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, lays out what that service is. In Romans 11 he tells us that God has allowed Israel to reap the fruit of disobedience and be broken off from the cultivated olive tree in order to graft in a wild olive tree (the Gentiles). Paul goes on to tell us that this break was not permanent, but that it happened for a reason. (v. 11, 25, 26) Israel was committed to disobedience, in part, so that the Gentiles could be brought into the family of God. Paul says this is a mystery, but one that we should not be ignorant of: God broke off Israel because of her disobedience, but will only allow His people to remain separated from the blessings of their faith until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in. And then what? ”ALL Israel will be saved”. (v. 26) God has not cast away His people (v. 1, 11) and He has not changed His mind as to who His people are. God has purposes for Israel, real Israel (the literal land and the literal people group) that He will not simply forget because they have been disobedient. But rather, He will use this decision of theirs to bring in pagan, idol-worshipping, Gentiles to repentance and through their acceptance and subsequent holiness, provoke Israel to jealousy.
This is the point…this is the mystery…this is our reasonable service that Paul talks about in Romans 12:2. We were brought near to God, through His people’s disobedience, in order to bring them back to Him though our holiness. The break was real and it was painful, but it was not permanent. And because of the severity of that break, we are called to live holy and separated from the ways of this world. ALL Israel will be saved, but only through a holy provocation from her Gentile younger brother. The people of Israel have a hard time with this now because we aren’t doing our reasonable service. Instead of being a holy witness of God’s mercy and grace, Christians are getting divorced, having abortions, working on the Sabbath and continuing to celebrate their pagan, idolatrous festivals (Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc). This type of “witness” will not provoke anyone to anything. Maybe that’s why the world laughs at the church and doesn’t take her seriously, but that’s another conversation.
God’s mercy toward us was for a reason. Yes, He loved us and wanted us near to Him…but God wants His people whom He foreknew as well! (v. 2) And when Israel sees the followers of Jesus of Nazareth that are not conformed to the lusts of this world and love them with an unfailing love, they will believe! But if so called Christians, continue in Gentile tradition, disobeying God’s plan, they will be broken off and others will be brought in. (v. 21) Playing XBOX and going to the latest blockbuster will not provoke the Jews to jealousy. And if you grow haughty in thinking that is ok, read Romans 11:21 again.
We are believers in the promised Messiah. Not some white guy with a beard, robe and sandals who talked about “love” and “tolerance” all the time. Our Messiah was and still is a Jewish Man from Nazareth, and until we accept and love that Man we will continue to be ignorant of the very mystery that Paul said we should not be.
“…blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved…” (Romans 11:25, 26)
Our role is holiness. Don’t waste anymore time in ignorance, God is calling a people to Himself from both Jew and Gentile that will partner with Him in this plan. Question any godless traditions that send a false testimony to others, fight for your marriage, don’t participate in idle conversation, honor your parents, love God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself, turn down opportunities for fleshly satisfaction, look for opportunities to feed your spirit, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. It is time for the Body of Christ to set herself apart as the pure, holy, bride of the Lamb and take up the mantle of righteousness and contend for the salvation of Israel.
David
There is such deception released on this nation that we don’t even listen to reason anymore. If God hadn’t warned us about this 2,000 years ago, I might be nervous.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
Below is another video on this topic:
It’s time to come out of the Harlot Babylon. (Rev. 18:4) More than a revolution to get our country back, although that is important, we need God again. The hour is coming and is already here that the people of this nation will not listen to the Truth (sound doctrine) but instead turn to fables. The body of Christ has the only solution to this problem. We are the only ones with discernment to see what is taking place and the instruction on how to live in light of it. The hour has come for the church to be set apart and contend with the spirit of the age that is sweeping multitudes into deception. Wake up church, come out of this deception yourself so that you can be the voice that saves others.
“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” (Romans 13:11-12)
David
“…the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:11-14)
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:1-3)
I have been thinking recently about our blessed hope and how we are to live in light of such a glorious reality: Jesus, who broke the power of death and lives forever, is coming back to establish His righteous government on the earth. A government that will include His church in positions of authority co-ruling with Him in unbridled intimacy and glorious partnership for all eternity! This is a massive calling and a marvelous destiny for all those who put their hope in Christ Jesus. (Romans 10:9) As I think about this and evaluate the current landscape of the world, I see that we are living in a generation in which the proclamation of Jesus’ return is so desperately needed. The only people on the planet with the understanding and confidence necessary to interpret the events that are taking place right now and to give counsel on how to move forward are the followers of Christ. God is sending out a global witness testifying of His 2nd coming and He is restoring the preparation ministries on the earth that will prepare the church and declare to the nations that Jesus is who He says He is and a day is coming when all unrighteousness will be purged from the earth.
Below is a quote from A.W. Tozer that expounds on why we don’t see the same longing and yearning for the return of Christ that we did in the first century when the church was birthed. Even more amazing is that A.W. Tozer is writing this in the early 20th century, how much more true is what he said now? God is patient, kind and slow to anger. He does not want to send His wrath to the earth until the last possible moment. (Joel 2:13-14, Ezekiel 18:23, 33:11, 2 Peter 3:9) But there will be a Day when sin will be removed from the planet and Love will will take over. This is the blessed hope of all those who put their trust in Jesus Christ and it should produce within us a longing to see that event come to pass. One Day, there will be no more tears, no more pain and no more death; we will be like Jesus and able to love God as He loves us! (John 17:24, 1 Corinthians 2:9, Revelation 21:4)
“If the tender yearning is gone from the [second coming of Christ], there must be a reason for it…One [reason] is that popular fundamentalist theology has empasized the utility of the cross rather than the beauty of the One who died on it. The saved man’s relation to Christ has been made contractual instead of personal. The “work ” of Christ has been stressed until it has eclipsed the person of Christ. Substitution has been allowed to supersede identification. What He did for me seems to be more important than what He is to me. Redemption is seen as an across-the-counter transaction which we “accept”, and the whole thing lacks emotional content. We must love someone very much to stay awake and long for his coming, and that may explain the absence of power in the advent hope even among those who still believe in it.
Another reason for the absence of real yearning foor Christ’s return is that Christians are so comfortable in this world that they have little desire to leave it. For those leaders who set the pace of religion and determine its content and quality, Christianity has become of late remarkably lucrative. The streets of gold do not have too great an appeal for those who find it so easy to pile up gold and silver in the service of the Lord here on earth. We all want to reserve the hope of heaven as a kind of insurance against the day of death, but as long as we are healthy and comfortable, why change a familiar good for something about which we actually know very little? So reasons the carnal mind, and so subtly that we are scarcely aware of it.
Again, in these times religion has become jolly good fun right here in this present world, and what’s the hurry about heaven anyway? Christianity, contrary to what some had thought, is another and higher form of entertainment. Christ has done all the suffering. He has shed all the tears and carried all the crosses; we have but to enjoy the benefits of His hearbreak in the form of religious pleasures modled after the world but cearried on in the name of Jesus. So say the same people who claim to believe in Christ’s second coming.
God will wean us from the earth some way – the easy way if possible, the hard way if necessary. It is up to us.” – A.W. Tozer
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church (His wife) and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph. 5:26-27)
I am setting my heart to love my wife, the same way Jesus loved me. He always took the low road in meekness and in love. I was so unworthy, but still He loved me and gave Himself for me that I could be His glorious possession forever. He was rich, but became poor for my sake that through His poverty I could become rich! (2 Corinthians 8:9) I was made to be holy, blameless and full of glory; a fully compatible companion for God Himself. But I traded in that glorious destiny for filthy rags. No more. No longer will I side with the enemy in his attempts to plant seeds of pride, discontentment and confusion in my marriage. I choose today, to love my wife as Christ loved the church and laid His life down in order to bring her into her destiny.
“Why write about this?” you might ask. Because marriage is more than an earthly reality, it is an institution ordained by God to point to the eternal romance that is in His heart and the very reason for creation and redemption - so that God and Man would be joined together forever. We were made to love God with all of our hearts, all of our souls, all of our minds and all of our strength. (Mark 12:30) God designed creation in such a way that His heart for us would be clearly seen. Marriage is one example of this beautiful reality. Men and women are made with desires to link themselves to one-another because this is how God feels toward us! He longs to join Himself to us forever! That is why marriage is a covenant and not a contract like many in our generation would like to make it. No matter how many times we fail, God will not leave us. He has established covenant with humanity that cannot be broken. That is why divorce is so detestable to the Lord. (Malachi 2:16, Matthew 5:32, 19:8-9) Because He has committed Himself to mankind for all eternity and we, in our selfish, temporal mindsets attempt to justify breaking our covenants, which were supposed to exhibit His heart to the whole world, because our feelings have changed.
Thanks be to God, that He is not like us. He will never change His mind about the covenant He has made with us. He has determined from eternity past, that He will be forever linked to humanity and nothing will ever separate us from that destiny. (Rom. 8:35-39) This is the reason we have to give our lives to Jesus. In trusting in Him, we are made clean from all of our sin and shame and brought into the Aristocracy of Heaven. No longer are we strangers and enemies to God, we are brought near to Him and given access to all of the mysteries and riches of Heaven. But God will not force us to accept this destiny. If we desire temporal, fleeting, momentary pleasures of this life over the eternal pleasures that are in Christ, then God will honor our decision.
“…for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. 9 Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’” (Rev. 19:7-9)
David
