This morning while listening to the news on the radio I heard a report about Islam and its' latest carnage in the middle east. ISIS is busy chopping children in half, beheading them and burying them alive while their parents are forced to stand by and watch. What the media fails to tell us is that these are Christians who are being persecuted because they are not Muslim.
After hearing this terrible report I became enraged at "prosperity preachers" in this country that deceive people into believing if they give enough money or have an outward show of emotion, they are spiritual and will be materially blessed by God. I felt sick at my stomach, at the foolish things I have heard coming from the mouths of these liars.
All of the people who remain faithful to the prosperity liars, are with them because they have never been born again. Thankfully, those who are born again learn early on, through the voice of the Holy Spirit that something is terribly wrong in these groups and they leave.
The prosperity liars write books with titles such as "Your Best Life Now", that appeal to those who want God for no other reason except for what they think they can get our of Him. I am quite sure the prosperity preachers have deceived themselves into believing these things, but in the beginning they knew they were lying, God turned them over to their own lies because of the hardness of their hearts.
I don't know about any of you but I become weary at the health wealth and prosperity gospel that some are spreading. There is no scriptural basis for it. Many have become discouraged thinking they have done something wrong because they don't live in wealth, they are sick often and all their relatives hate them.
There are those who say they don't believe the false gospel of prosperity, but live as though they must prove God is blessing them through feverish efforts to acquire wealth. They even deny their illnesses to pretend they are healthy when they need a doctor.
When we live for the Lord we can expect to be hated by nearly everyone around us. They will hate the truth we bring, the life we have chosen and the confidence we have in the Lord.
Now, having said all that, I want to share with you what God's Word says about our destiny on earth as believers in Christ.
Next time someone attempts to convince you that God does not want you to be poor, sick, or persecuted, repeat these words to them.
Hebrews 11:35 "Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Hbr 11:36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
Hbr 11:37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented--
Hbr 11:38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, [in] dens and caves of the earth.
Hbr 11:39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,
Hbr 11:40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from "
Many people are being persecuted, beheaded and hung on crosses today in Egypt, what would you have to say to those people. The health, wealth and prosperity gospel is not the gospel at all, but a false one.
Matthew 6:19 ""Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;"
Mat 6:20 "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal."
Mat 6:21 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
2 Corinthians 11:23 "Are they ministers of Christ?--I speak as a fool--I [am] more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.
2Cr 11:24 From the Jews five times I received forty [stripes] minus one.
2Cr 11:25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep;
2Cr 11:26 [in] journeys often, [in] perils of waters, [in] perils of robbers, [in] perils of [my own] countrymen, [in] perils of the Gentiles, [in] perils in the city, [in] perils in the wilderness, [in] perils in the sea, [in] perils among false brethren;
2Cr 11:27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness--
2Cr 11:28 besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.
2Cr 11:29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn [with indignation]?
2Cr 11:30 If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.
2Cr 11:31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.
2Cr 11:32 In Damascus the governor, under Aretas the king, was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me;
2Cr 11:33 but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands"
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Luke 21:14 ""Therefore settle [it] in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer;
Luk 21:15 "for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.
Luk 21:16 "You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put [some] of you to death.
Luk 21:17 "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake"
Hmmm!!! Christ was our example and He did not escape poverty and persecution, what would make us think we would. Joel Osteen spits in the face of God when he writes a book entitled, "Your Best Life Now." This may be the best life now for those who are refusing Christ and ultimately will end up in a firy hell. But for the believer, nothing on this earth should take us captive, not wealth, not health nor the love of all the people that surround us. Our best life is to come when we go before the Savior and hear His Words, "Well done good and faithful servant."
We as believers yearn for our heavenly home and our husband that dwells in us now and will one day take us home.
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