Isaiah 17 seems as though it's about to be fulfilled soon.
Prophecy about Damascus
17: 1-3 The oracle concerning Damascus.
“Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city
And will become a fallen ruin.
2 “The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
They will be for flocks to lie down in,
And there will be no one to frighten them.
3 “The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And sovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,”
Declares the Lord of hosts."
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
6 More Days
6 more days until the 70th anniversary of the nation of Israel!!!!
Isaiah 66:7-9
"7"Before she travailed, she brought forth; Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy.
8"Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. 9"Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?" says the LORD. "Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?" says your God."
Isaiah 66:7-9
"7"Before she travailed, she brought forth; Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy.
8"Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. 9"Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?" says the LORD. "Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?" says your God."
A Prosperous Nation is not Necessarily Blessed by God
In the time of Sodom and Gomorrah the people were prosperous, they didn't fall because of poverty, they fell because they had placed their trust in wealth and pleasure, leaving no room for God.
Does this sound very familiar? It does to me! So many people have counted themselves as superior because of their wealth or their intellect, they have depended on their outer appearances of accomplishment while their soul dries up on the inside.
Great knowledge does not make a man more spiritual or wiser, often the knowledge is based on personal bias rather than truth, therefore rendering it useless and even foolish.
Those who love to pretend they are intellectual through twisted Scripture and high minded ideas will be led astray into arrogance and self righteousness. The more they flaunt their false intellectualism and twisted wisdom, the more foolish they appear to those who are led by the Holy Spirit. We see a lot of this today, rather than trusting the Bible they twist it to add their own ideas to it, appearing wise they become fools.
These people resist the truth willfully in favor of their elevated status.
Job 21:14
"They say to God, 'Depart from us! We do not even desire the knowledge of Your ways."
Those who are willfully ignorant, arrogantly refusing to listen to God's wisdom, do not want to know truth, they know it but have chosen to deny it.
Those who are willfully ignorant think they are wise. When they are rebuked by the Word of God they rage against those who shared it, while continuing to speak their ignorance. The raging is evidence that they know the truth and hate that someone exposed their lack of wisdom.
One man said to me that a man was not a liar just because he told one lie. The truth is just the opposite, a man cannot tell a lie unless they were already a liar in their heart.
"Light refused increases ignorance." Adrian Rogers
Matthew 13:15
FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.'"
Romans 1:28
"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,"
Psalm 106:35 "35 But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works."
The nation of Israel mingled with the ungodly nations, that affected everything they do and say. Just as the believers today mingle with ungodly people simply because they are family or because they love to mix with their friends from the neighborhood or work place. It is one thing to spend some time with these people, becoming a witness to them, it is quite another to remain best friends with those who have rejected Christ or who claim to be Christians and reject the Bible as their standard.
Romans 1 clearly shows that when we reject God long enough, at some point He turns us over to our own passions, pleasures and destruction.
Something to think about!
Does this sound very familiar? It does to me! So many people have counted themselves as superior because of their wealth or their intellect, they have depended on their outer appearances of accomplishment while their soul dries up on the inside.
Great knowledge does not make a man more spiritual or wiser, often the knowledge is based on personal bias rather than truth, therefore rendering it useless and even foolish.
Those who love to pretend they are intellectual through twisted Scripture and high minded ideas will be led astray into arrogance and self righteousness. The more they flaunt their false intellectualism and twisted wisdom, the more foolish they appear to those who are led by the Holy Spirit. We see a lot of this today, rather than trusting the Bible they twist it to add their own ideas to it, appearing wise they become fools.
These people resist the truth willfully in favor of their elevated status.
Job 21:14
"They say to God, 'Depart from us! We do not even desire the knowledge of Your ways."
Those who are willfully ignorant, arrogantly refusing to listen to God's wisdom, do not want to know truth, they know it but have chosen to deny it.
Those who are willfully ignorant think they are wise. When they are rebuked by the Word of God they rage against those who shared it, while continuing to speak their ignorance. The raging is evidence that they know the truth and hate that someone exposed their lack of wisdom.
One man said to me that a man was not a liar just because he told one lie. The truth is just the opposite, a man cannot tell a lie unless they were already a liar in their heart.
"Light refused increases ignorance." Adrian Rogers
Matthew 13:15
FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.'"
Romans 1:28
"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,"
Psalm 106:35 "35 But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works."
The nation of Israel mingled with the ungodly nations, that affected everything they do and say. Just as the believers today mingle with ungodly people simply because they are family or because they love to mix with their friends from the neighborhood or work place. It is one thing to spend some time with these people, becoming a witness to them, it is quite another to remain best friends with those who have rejected Christ or who claim to be Christians and reject the Bible as their standard.
Romans 1 clearly shows that when we reject God long enough, at some point He turns us over to our own passions, pleasures and destruction.
Something to think about!
Confess or Remain Spiritual Infants
Failures in life should not devastate us, they can be and should be growing experiences. We learn from our failures, unless we refuse to admit them.
There are those who look down their noses at others for failures as though they themselves had none. Everyone has failures, the difference between a wise man and a fool is that the wise man admits the failure, moving on toward corrections and personal growth. The fool pretends they have no failures while remaining emotional and spiritual infants merely to maintain a superficial appearance of personal perfection.
Those who cannot confess sin or admit failure cannot grow in maturity or spiritually.
What does the Bible say about
Failure
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
Romans 5:3-5
"3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 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."
The question is; "do we want to grow in holiness, becoming spiritually mature believers? Or are we content to be arrogant, superficially minded?
When we do not grow we regress, there is no such thing as stagnation, there is only going forward to backward.
There are those who look down their noses at others for failures as though they themselves had none. Everyone has failures, the difference between a wise man and a fool is that the wise man admits the failure, moving on toward corrections and personal growth. The fool pretends they have no failures while remaining emotional and spiritual infants merely to maintain a superficial appearance of personal perfection.
Those who cannot confess sin or admit failure cannot grow in maturity or spiritually.
What does the Bible say about
Failure
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
Romans 5:3-5
"3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 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."
The question is; "do we want to grow in holiness, becoming spiritually mature believers? Or are we content to be arrogant, superficially minded?
When we do not grow we regress, there is no such thing as stagnation, there is only going forward to backward.
Monday, May 7, 2018
Salvation, The Truth!
The truth about our Salvation, when we become born again.
Ephesians 1:13-14
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge (guarantee/promise) of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."
Ephesians 4:30
"30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
Ephesians 2:8-9
"8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."
Ephesians 1:13-14
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge (guarantee/promise) of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."
Ephesians 4:30
"30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
Ephesians 2:8-9
"8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."
Yes, There is A Rapture Coming!
YES!!! There is a rapture and it is for the church who have been born again before the tribulation period. God does not beat up on His bride before taking them home to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Those of us who are born again will be taken to the marriage supper before the tribulation.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
"Those Who Died in Christ
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then 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 shall always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58
"50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord."
The account of Enoch being taken up was a picture of the rapture, also Noah rescued from the wrath of God as well as Lot.
Hebrews 11:5-6
"5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death. He could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."
Genesis chapters 6-9 speak of the account of Noah. Genesis 19 speaks about Lot being taken out of Sodom.
It is not a hard subject to understand, one merely has to read the Bible and believe it. God gave us examples of these events to help us understand the purpose and nature of the rapture.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
"Those Who Died in Christ
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then 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 shall always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58
"50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord."
The account of Enoch being taken up was a picture of the rapture, also Noah rescued from the wrath of God as well as Lot.
Hebrews 11:5-6
"5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death. He could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."
Genesis chapters 6-9 speak of the account of Noah. Genesis 19 speaks about Lot being taken out of Sodom.
It is not a hard subject to understand, one merely has to read the Bible and believe it. God gave us examples of these events to help us understand the purpose and nature of the rapture.
Its About Direction from the Holy Spirit
Why do you do things? Do you do them because others think you should, or are you hearing from the Holy Spirit to determine actions.
When you don't know what you want to do with your life, do not ask others, do not base your decisions on how others might interpret what you might do. Yes, you can counsel with those who have already been experienced in a particular area, but ultimately you must take the information from counselors to Christ. Just because something worked for others does not mean God wants you to do that thing their way.
God may even direct you to those who are more experienced in something, but that direction is from Him, not from others.
Base your actions on the direction of the Holy Spirit, always seeking Him. He knows exactly what you should do, people only have their own opinions, they do not know God's will for you.
Does it make sense to ask others when they do not know you or the future for you?
Christ Who lives in believers knows what tomorrow will bring and His purposes in it, we only know today and everyone else only knows what today has brought, they only have guesses about what will happen today.
Base your decisions on the Bible and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He knows His own will for us and He knows the dangers and blessings ahead of us.
John 16:13-14 "13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.…"
When you don't know what you want to do with your life, do not ask others, do not base your decisions on how others might interpret what you might do. Yes, you can counsel with those who have already been experienced in a particular area, but ultimately you must take the information from counselors to Christ. Just because something worked for others does not mean God wants you to do that thing their way.
God may even direct you to those who are more experienced in something, but that direction is from Him, not from others.
Base your actions on the direction of the Holy Spirit, always seeking Him. He knows exactly what you should do, people only have their own opinions, they do not know God's will for you.
Does it make sense to ask others when they do not know you or the future for you?
Christ Who lives in believers knows what tomorrow will bring and His purposes in it, we only know today and everyone else only knows what today has brought, they only have guesses about what will happen today.
Base your decisions on the Bible and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. He knows His own will for us and He knows the dangers and blessings ahead of us.
John 16:13-14 "13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.…"
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