There is Still Time

God is merciful as well as righteous. He never sends judgment on a person or nation until He first sends a multitude of warnings through prophets, nature, inner promptings in our soul or spirit and the natural consequences of our behavior.

He does not want anyone to perish, but for everyone to share in His blessings of eternal life. He is like a mother hen who wants to gather her chicks under her wings and protect them all (2 Peter 3:8-10; Matthew 23:37).

In these later days, God ramped up natural disasters, wars around the world, a famine of His Word; and He allowed the rapid growth of debauchery in our world in order to call us to repentance.

Yet, the pride and rebellion of many cause them to ignore His warnings and His attempt to draw all men to Himself (John 12:32). People think they know better than God and disdain Him for what they perceive as His failings.

Comedians turn the hearts of many away from God with their human logic and satanic lies. So many people run from God rather than into His outstretched arms.

In our modern society, men's hearts daily fail them for fear (Luke 21:26). They use suicide, alcohol, drugs and amassing worldly riches to assuage their discontent - to no avail.

Archeological discoveries persist in proving the veracity of the Bible, but this news is hidden in the back pages of annals and ignored or belittled.

Science continues to uncover never before seen species of God's creation; but they refuse to give God credit for the creature's magnificence and the fact that they thrive in almost impossible living conditions.

People also ignore the fact that these creatures did not evolve, but are exclusive in their designs and functions. They stubbornly uphold a theory with missing links as their truth.

God will continue to send warnings, tribulation and amazing discoveries to prove His existence and to turn hearts to Himself, until the day He raptures His Saints from the earth and sends His Great Tribulation on our godless civilization.

Prayer:

Father God, You attempt to draw everyone into Your loving embrace and You use every means available to bring people to their knees in repentance and belief in You for salvation. You never give up on anyone, even when they condemn themselves by their unbelief (John 3:18). 

However, there will come a day when Your cup of wrath is full and You will pour out judgment on the nations of the world in a period of the greatest tribulation the world has ever known. You will send strong delusion on the Gentiles, once this age is finished; and then it will be too late for them to repent. However, You will give Your chosen race of Israel one final chance to choose You as their God and Savior.

We praise You for Your patience with mankind and Your plan to redeem us all back into Your embrace. Teach us to humble our self under Your mighty hand and to heed Your warning signs designed to draw us back to You.

Thought for the Day:

God sent His Word full of prophecies that prove His existence, and He continues to warn people of His coming judgment and the culmination of life as we know it; He is patient and long-suffering, and He chooses to store up His wrath and to pour out His mercy on the world every single day. There is still time. Won't you believe?

Dreaming Dreams

God used dreams throughout the Biblical accounts of His interaction with mankind (Job 33:15-16; Acts 2:17). He spoke through dreams to kings, prophets and saints of old (Genesis 15:12, 17-18; 28:12, 37:5, 46:2; Daniel 7:1-9; 1 Kings 3:5).

He also used dreams with New Testament characters such as to calm Joseph's fears about marrying Mary and to save Jesus from sure death (Matthew 1:20-21; 2:12-13, 19; Acts 2:17, 16:9-10, 18:9-10). Pilate's wife dreamed that he should not condemn Jesus in spite of the insistence of the Jews (Matthew 27:19).

The Word of God makes it clear that God uses dreams in our life (Joel 2:28-31). He gives us wisdom, insight and guidance to bring a resolution of issues in our life.

In our sleeping state, our soul and spirit are still very active. They are less influenced by our issues, fears and insecurities, which plague us during our waking moments. 

Through dreams, God often reveals to us His character, intentions and lessons that He wants us to learn. 

He will use dreams to give us wisdom on puzzling experiences in our life, peace which transcends human reasoning and direction for some activity He calls us to perform.

Satan and our own soul can inspire dreams as well as God (1 John 4:1). They are often brief and unrealistic (Psalm 126:1; Isaiah 29:8). The interpretation of our dreams will never contradict the Word of God (James 1:5).

Sleep and dreaming restores our soul to equilibrium. If dreams badger us during our sleep, we can ask God to give our soul peace and allow us to enjoy uninterrupted sleep (Psalm 127:2).

As we dream about issues that need resolution, and which we ignore during our waking moments (Ecclesiastes 5:3), God heals our soul. Our spirit sings praises to God as we sleep and we often awaken to our soul singing and making melody in our heart to the Lord.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for giving us such a fail proof and complex brain that works like a computer as we sleep. It categorizes, files and works through issues which need resolution. Once we are Born Again, Your Spirit who abides in our spirit, will influence this series of chemical impulses and the outcome of this activity in our brain.

We would probably explode or self-destruct with the intensity of our anxiety and other negative emotions if You did not give us the ability to work out these issues in our dreams. You are our great and mighty God; and we can never thank You enough for Your vigilant care over each and every one of us in every facet of our waking and sleeping life.

Thought for the Day:

Dreams are tangible and helpful; they are made of memories, concerns, direction, hopes, vision and reality all rolled into one plot with several sub-plots and they influence the story of the rest of our life.

Caring for One Another

God's Spirit provides us with spiritual gifts, which build up the church (Ephesians 4:11-12). Apostles start new churches; prophets proclaim God's Word; evangelists are anointed to reach the lost; pastors and teachers dissect the Word and feed it to us in tiny morsels, which are easy to digest; and they all equip the Body of Believers to go out to do the work of the ministry.

We are to respect and submit to our spiritual leaders, because they watch out for our soul, and they must give account to God for their watch care over us. Sometimes we cause them grief by our inconsiderate behavior and our refusal to heed their spiritual guidance (Hebrews 13:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13, 1 Peter 5:5). Some leadership is carnal, however, and we should always compare their advice with God's Word.

Since we are motivated by God's Spirit we love one another (Ephesians 5:18-19). Our leaders should model God's love and teach us to share the love we have from God with one another (1 John 2:10, 4:7,11; John 13:34-35; 1 Peter 1:22). We are to meet our own needs, as well as the needs of others, without allowing selfishness and arrogance to dictate our behavior (Philippians 2:3-4; Romans 12:10, James 2:1).

When we purify our self by obeying God's truth, His sincere love helps us to love one another deeply, from the heart (1 Peter 1:22). We are compatible, compassionate, empathetic and meek when we love one another (1 Peter 3:8). The Lord teaches us to care for everyone, even unbelievers, with a growing love, which resembles our love for Him (1 Thessalonians 3:12).

Prayer:

Father God, Jesus commanded us to love one another as He loves us (John 13:34). You teach us to love one another by Your Spirit, especially those we consider to be unlovable (1 Thessalonians 4:9). When we see them with Your eyes, we are moved with Your compassion. Love comes from You, You live in us and Your love is made complete in us (1 John 4:7,12). As we love one another everyone will know that we are Your disciples (John 13:35).

Thought for the Day:

We are to owe no one anything except to love each other.

- Romans 13:8

Drawing Near to God

 

The natural world in which we live, and everyone in it, is held captive by sin. However, through faith in Jesus Christ we are given God's promised salvation (Galatians 3:22-23). Now, with a sincere heart, we can draw near to God. Our mind, sprinkled by the blood of Christ, is cleansed from a guilty conscience and the pure water of God's Word washes us clean (Hebrews 10:22).

We can only abide in God after we first seek Him and His Kingdom, and live in the truth that He lives in and through us. He will never, ever, for any reason leave us (Hebrews 13:5). As we wait on Him day by day, He grants us the grace to abide in Him. We rejoice in His fellowship and we work in His power. We completely give up our self to Him and live by faith in His faithfulness.

God allows trials to test our faith, which increases our perseverance through them (James 1:3). Thankfully, Jesus is both the developer and the perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Even the prophets of old knew that the righteous live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4: Romans 1:17). Since Jesus' faith and Spirit abide within us, we multiply the works of Christ on this earth (John 14:12).

The core truths of God's Word energize the authentic Christian and thrill our soul. First and foremost, we wait on the Lord, we live in His presence continually and we enter into His eternal rest on a daily basis. Once we completely surrender to Christ, God takes us up spiritually into His Holy Temple (2 Corinthians 5:1). We abide in His rest, and all of our work on earth is done only through Him.

Prayer:

Father God, even if other people refuse to believe in You, their unbelief does not make our faith in You worthless (Romans 3:3). Through the blood of Jesus, we become Your righteousness, and You wipe away our sins through Your love and forbearance (Romans 3:25). Help us not to grow weary or to lose faith in Your promises, but to remain strong in Christ's faith in us, as we give You all of the glory (Romans 4:20).

Thought for the Day:

We are justified and reconciled to God by faith, not by our own good deeds. - Romans 3:28, 4:14; Ephesians 2:8-9

God's Truth or Satan's Consequences

There is no mystery in life for the Born Again Believer. The Spirit will prompt us each moment as we ask for His direction, wisdom, insight and inspiration in every task we face. The Bible teaches us about nine fruit, which the Holy Spirit gives to us as He chooses (Galatians 5:22-23). He also gives us gifts for the benefit of God’s Body (1 Corinthians 12:7, 31; 14:1,39).

The Spirit also protects us from the devil, who roams the earth seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).  Satan comes as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14) to deceive us and to sidetrack us from experiencing God’s Truth. His counterfeit tactics will give us the impression that what we are experiencing is from God, when it is actually drawing us away from God.

One way to detect whether an experience is from God is if it brings peace or confusion. Satan is the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). If you hunger after more of God, then you are safe. If you want more of a person or a certain experience, then it is Satanic. If your experience does not align with God’s Word or if you feel a red flag in your spirit, don’t walk away...run!

God inspires us to go deeper into His Word while Satan encourages us to spend more time on our self and to neglect God’s Word, our family and our church family. As we sit in God’s presence and walk in His Will, then His Spirit empowers us to do the works, which God chose for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). As we pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), we commune with God throughout the day.

Prayer:

Father God, give us discernment by Your Spirit to know when something is of You or Satan’s counterfeit. In these last days, he wants to draw away as many people from You as he can. He is sending false prophets into the world to preach a false doctrine and to cause people to focus on their self instead of on You. Help us to relinquish everything in our life, which hinders us from growing in our relationship with You. Remind us to walk in Your truth each moment of the day, so that we do not reap the consequences of an evil life.

Thought for the Day:

Doing things God’s way is much more productive than doing them to the best of our human ability.

A Matter of the Heart

Many people in today’s society harden their heart so they will no longer be affected by the sadness of the seamier side of life. They also hardened their heart toward God, the Bible, church, Jesus and anything else relating to Christianity. They pollute the Word of God to include justification for their liberal lifestyle and thinking. They no longer hear God’s call on their life and the god of this world blinded their eyes (2 Corinthians 4:4). Many of them became so godless in their behavior and thinking, that God gave them over to the sinful desires of their heart (Romans 1:24).

Satan makes sure to provide us with temptations, which lead us away from the straight and narrow path God chose for us (Matthew 7:13-14). God’s path does not add legalistic works to the Word, but only includes believing the pure, unadulterated Truth of God’s Word. This is not a modern phenomenon. Prophets, judges and apostles throughout the centuries were called by God to call His people back to walking in His ways. However, mankind is determined to go from one sin to another, and they refuse to acknowledge God in their life (Jeremiah 9:3).

God used judgment in the Old Testament to call people to come back to His path (Jeremiah 15:6). In the New Testament He uses grace and mercy to influence people to walk in His Truth (James 3:17; Titus 3:5; 2 John 1:3). In both instances, there are many who know the Truth; yet, choose to walk away from Him. In fact, Jesus, God made flesh (John 1:1,14; 14:6; Philippians 2:7; 1 John 4:2), lived on the earth for 33 years; and they not only did not recognize who He was, but they crucified Him to assuage their corrupt consciences. We crucify Him again with every sin we commit.

God wants us to follow hard after Him (Psalm 63:8), to love Him with our whole heart, soul, strength and mind (Luke 10:27), and to live a life committed to Him according to our calling and election (2 Peter 1:10). He yearns for us not to harden our heart, but to respond to His voice (Hebrews 3:15). Salvation is a free gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:14-15). Christ paid the penalty of the consequences of our sins on Calvary’s cross and He made the way open for all of us to come to Him by faith in His faithfulness (John 14:6-7).

He is waiting for you; and He is only a prayer away (John 3:16). Recognize your sin (Romans 3:23, 25), turn away from your sinful lifestyle and receive His free gift of salvation (Romans 6:23). Once we come to Christ, He frees us from our sin (Acts 10:43). His peace and joy, which surpass anything the world has to offer, flood our soul (Romans 5:5). He fills us with His love and His Holy Spirit, and He never leaves us or forsakes us (Romans 15:13; Hebrews 13:5). From the first moment of our conversion, God transforms our heart by grace through our faith in Him (Ephesians 2:8).

Prayer:
Father God, thank You for giving us Your Son, for giving us the desire and the power to call upon You and for walking with us every step of the way for the rest of our life (Philippians 2:12-13). We look forward to the glories of Heaven (Revelation 21). Heal the hardened hearts of our friends, relatives, associates and neighbors as we continually invite them to join us in this marvelous journey with You.

Thought for the Day:

Some harden their hearts and depart from the faith by devoting themselves to: deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared. – 1 Timothy 4:1-2