For those who are looking for the Rapture as promised by God.
There are those who would say "Rapture" ready believers are "escapists."
Sadly those who would negate the fact of the rapture as being pre-trib would have us believe we should not be looking for it, but they fail to realize that Christ told us TO look for it. And yet, these same people are looking for the anit-christ. The anti-christ is not our hope why would we look for him?
Titus 2:12-13 "Titus 2:12-13
"12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;"
1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 "…17 After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words."
When we hear that the Jews had a saying before they were given their own nation of Israel; that saying was this; "next year in Jerusalem." They believed that one day they would be given back the city that was taken from them, it was their hope that they hung onto up until the very day that Israel became a nation in 1948, when they saw the miracle of God in returning their land to them. I don't know if anyone called them "escapists" but it would have been silly to assign this to them.
Followers in Jesus Christ are not "escapists" they are merely expressing their hope as promised to them by Christ in the Dispensation of Grace, that being that He would come back for them in the clouds as He promised He would.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 "…16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. 17 After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR. And so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.…"
Have you ever heard the phrase, "heap hot coals of kindness" as a demonstration of love and acceptance for an evil person?
We have been deeply indoctrinated that blessings are almost always "material." When God speaks of blessing, most often in this age of grace it is associated with spiritual matters and holiness.
Job 5:17 "17 “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves;
therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty."
Ephesians 1:3 "3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,"
Yes, God does bless with material possessions and safety, but blessing is not always associated with these things, often it is a correction, redirection, even a severe spanking that changes our course from sin to obedience.
I learned just recently that "heaping hot coals" is a Jewish idiom that explains the phrase much more fully, even exposing the fact that our modern culture of psychology has changed that meaning to be almost opposite of what we were taught, almost!
We were taught that "heaping hot coals of kindness" as mentioned in Proverbs 25:21-22 "…21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; 22 For you will heap burning coals on his head, And the LORD will reward you."" means to act friendly, happy around them while providing something material to them.
What we as westerners didn't know is that when the priest found someone sleeping and neglecting their duties, he would take hot coals and pour it over their head to shake them awake while showing the foolishness of their folly.
Psalm 140:9-11
9 As for the head of those who surround me,
May the mischief of their lips cover them.
10 “May burning coals fall upon them;
May they be cast into the fire,
Into deep pits from which they cannot rise.
11 “May a slanderer not be established in the earth;
May evil hunt the violent man speedily.
Psalm 140:9-11
9 [As for] the head of them that compass me,
the mischief of their lips shall cover them.
10 Coals of fire shall fall upon them on the earth;
and thou shalt cast them down in afflictions:
they shall not bear up [under them].
11 A talkative man shall not prosper on the earth:
evils shall hunt the unrighteous man to destruction.
Romans 12:19-20
19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Our modern church psychology teaches that we heap hot coals of kindness so the sinning person involved will feel bad about their behavior and begin to like the person who blessed them and possibly God. This is not Biblical, but antithetical to good understanding of that phrase, "heap hot coals of kindness." God is the One Who brings down the coals, we do not do that with our actions. We must remain faithful to God and He in turn will do what is needed with the wicked man.
We know this by this verse: Isaiah 26:10 "10 Though the wicked is shown favor, He does not learn righteousness; He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness, And does not perceive the majesty of the LORD. "
Giving material possessions to a wicked man only solidifies the rebellion in his heart. When we bless someone with food who is hungry, we are responsible for our own heart, not for the responses of the one we bless. We should never give a gift to heap hot coals. We are to obey God, and the hot coal heaping is God's work.
When a wicked man will not repent we are responsible to tell them the truth and leave the results of for the hearing to Christ. Continually attempting to convince a wicked man through giving them good things, is in modern terms, "becoming an enabler."
When we bless with our friendship and possessions we are validating the lifestyle of the one we bless. We do not take food as an expression of "heaping coals" to one who is not hungry.
It is a curse rather than a blessing to help a wicked person feel good about themselves when their lifestyle is rebellion against God. It is not alright with God that we become a willing partner in sin with others by validating their rebellion by not speaking truth about it.
If a wicked man is comfortable with us and enjoys our company, then we can be sure we are not demonstrating our Christianity in the presence of the evil man. Evil men cannot stand to hear truth, if we speak and demonstrate truth when in the presence of the wicked man, he will hate it and remove himself or become so vile that we will have to remove ourselves.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 "3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these."
Proverbs 13:5-6 "5 A righteous man hates falsehood, But a wicked man acts disgustingly and shamefully. 6 Righteousness guards the one whose way is blameless, But wickedness subverts the sinner."
Psalm 11:5-6 "5 The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates. 6 Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup.…"
When we do our "coal heaping", remember that it is not us doing the heaping of hot coals, but God. We obey the Holy Spirit in blessing with truth and possibly with "needed" food. I am convinced that food can not only be the kind we eat but it can also be of the Spiritual nature.
If your church gathering is encouraging Pokemon by being a place for the monsters to dwell for those who play;
If your church is showing the C.S. Lewis movie, "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" as an evangelical outreach;
If your church is defending the use of books like "The Shack";
Then get out of those places, they are not walking in the Holy Spirit, they are promoting evil within their own congregations to bring in the unsaved using the worlds evil to do it, and chances are good they will not listen to correction on these matters.
These things are very big clues that leadership does not understand what it is to seek the Holy Spirit and obey Him.
Deuteronomy 12:3-5
"…3 "You shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. 4 "You shall not act like this toward the LORD your God. 5 "But you shall seek the LORD at the place which the LORD your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come.…"
Preachers would be more interested in hiding behind Christ than they are in receiving accolades from others, if they walked deeply with Christ. There are far too many preachers looking for popularity and results than there are seeking Christ to glorify Him.
As for the churches that are using themselves and their buildings to accommodate the "Pokemon" craze, this is what God has to say about it.
Deuteronomy 12:4 "…3 "You shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. 4 "You shall not act like this toward the LORD your God. 5 "But you shall seek the LORD at the place which the LORD your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come.…"
Those who have difficulty building Christian relationships in a Biblical manner, very likely do not have a relationship with Christ.
Many people today are relying on an appearance of cultural Christianity as a religion when they should be focusing on Christ!
These people are satisfied with merely following a pattern of rules, but angered when called to trust Christ in a very real life experience of obedience to the Holy Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:19-22
"19 Do not quench the Spirit; 20 do not despise prophetic utterances. 21 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; 22 abstain from every form of evil."
"Rejoice in the Lord Always!"
God has been dealing with me in the area of idols in my life. Idols that walk, talk and move among us.
Agonizing over the loss of someone who refuses to obey God, is the same as placing that person above God.
Yes, pray for them, grieve occasionally, but we must refrain from keeping them continually on our mind. We have those with us that need our attention, to waste time on continual thoughts of those who have rejected God's ways, is nothing less than idolatry.
When we focus on those who walk with Him, those who need our encouragement and companionship, they will have our attention, we will praise God together while seeking Him for His work in our lives.
Never count it a waste to share when someone would not listen. Our obedience to Christ is not in the "results" but rather in the obedience itself.
Romans 6:16
"Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?"
All results are God's business, obedience to Him is our business.
Joshua 1:8
"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."
No where in the Word of God do we find instructions in getting results!
Romans 5:1-21
"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. ..."
1 Corinthians 3:6-8
"6 I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one in purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor."
All the stress and worry is removed when we are not responsible for the results, only for the obedience to the promptings and principles of the Holy Spirit. God knows far better than we what each person needs and where He wants us to be.
