You could hear this sound this very night….

Tap-tap-tap! Pffff testing! Check?……. Is this thing on?

Cricket, cricket cricket.

Hmmm.  It’s awfully quiet out there.  Listen, I know it seems bad.  “Where is the promise of His appearing?”  Do you find yourself wondering?  It seems that everyone I hear from, everyone I talk to, has difficulties they are dealing with.  Isn’t it crazy how the world keeps turning on its axis when at the same time, nothing is okay?  I am not speaking to “just anybody” here, but to the Body of Christ.  Do you lay your weary head on the pillow each night and ask; “God, how much longer?”.  I’ll be honest with you, it’s getting harder and harder for me as I continue as a watchman, and see stories that grow more despicable each week.  So much so that I have refused to carry some of the accounts that other, similar blogs are continuing to carry, because it’s just reprobate.  The Bible says it is a sin even to bring some things to mind.  Little Muslim girls married off to old Muslim men to pay off parent’s debts.  Most of what came out in the Gosnell Trial, the exponentially worsening bullying on the part of the sodomite agenda.  And Obama’s unbelievable arrogance.  Today I read about a baby that was taken from the parents by CPS because they dared to request a second opinion about a heart procedure.  Eric Holder is saying that American parents do not have a right to home school their kids, while schools are acting more and more like they own your kids, and already they are forcing kids into very uncomfortable exposure to gay propaganda such as assigning girls to “lesbian kiss” or elementary school kids forced to watch graphic video “cartoons” about things that frankly even adults have no business viewing.  It is getting dark.  Real, real dark in this world.

That is to be expected just before the Son rises and bursts through the clouds!

He is coming for those who are watching and waiting.  He is never early or late.  He’ll be here.  Could be, this very night.

_______________________________________________

 

Don’t let anyone or anything steal your blessed hope.   If you haven’t viewed Terry James’ interview with Gary Stearman, or read his book HeavenVision, I think you’ll be blessed if you go watch that interview now.  I believe that Terry James was given this vision because of his dedication as a watchman, that he and all of us who are watching, would be encouraged to finish the race.  Don’t give up.  We’re in the home stretch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winnowed and Sifted

On the wings of the morning He quietly comes
Lighting nearby, patiently waiting

Dis-ordered thoughts begin to wander
Soon upon waking, toward tasks ahead

Spirit is tethered, grounded by gravity.
For life itself is very grave

Every struggle becomes a link
In the chain, growing heavy

And still He waits.   I know He is near
And then He speaks: “Why do you carry these?”

So as not to leave them littered along the way

How long have you carried them?

My, I couldn’t say.  Some of them are so old I feel they’ve always been there.

What good are they?

Good? What do you mean?

Why did you not lay them down?

I thought I was meant to keep them.

But why would you think that?

Well, they bear my name

Are you certain?

Last I checked!

Checked lately?

Well, no, but I count them pretty often

What on Earth for?

A habit by now, I suppose. Keeps me humble.

Humble?

You know!  Grounded!

Oh, I get it, restrained, repressed?

Yeah, something like that, I guess.  I mean, it feels like that sometimes.

Why would you want that?

I don’t want to be.  I just have been for just about as far back  as I can remember.

As far back as you can remember, or as far back as you dare to remember?

What’s the difference?

The difference is, I created you for more than this. You knew that once upon a time!

Yes, I know.  “Someday” I’ll be free from this sin nature and…

No, even now! Cast thy burden upon Me, and I shall sustain you.

Yeah.  I read that.

And?

I don”t deserve for You to carry my load

That’s true!

<shrugs, eyes downcast>

Look at Me! Do you see anyone here who condemns you?

I condemn me!

Ah!
I see.
Do you know what the word “deem” means?

To reckon something as being so?

That is pretty close, but more succinctly, it means “to judge”.
Do you know what redeemed means?

I guess that would mean “to judge again”?

You were deemed guilty but once you repented and asked for salvation, you were re-deemed to be “not guilty”.  Do you know that being “not guilty” is not the equivalent of being innocent?  “Not guilty” merely means that no punishment will be accounted to you for the crime.  As I said to Job, “I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.  Wilt thou also dis-annul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?” I have declared you “not guilty”, yet you persist in self-condemnation. Who is right, Me or you?
You are, Lord

Where is your Bible?

Right here.

Open it to John 8:36 and read to Me what it says.

If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, then ye shall be free indeed. I know, Lord, but…

I don’t see a but in that verse.

Ok.  What about everything else?

What else?

Our life seems like an endless series of “unfortunate events”, trials, setbacks, obstacles, whatever you want to call them!  It feels so relentless.  What are we doing wrong?

These “other things” you speak of, the trials, who has told you that they come due to something you are doing wrong? These things are so, that My works might be displayed in you. (John 9:3)  In my winnowing I separate wheat from chaff, using the wind of adversity to blow off the chaff, which is just an impurity, and retaining in you that which is good. On the other hand, Satan desires to sift you! (Luke 22:31)  Sifting is agitating in a way that shakes out all that is good, so that the only thing that remains is the bad.  He doesn’t touch your life without my permission.  What he means for evil, I use for your good.

I have prayed for you.  Right now, chaff fills the air, the shaking and the tossing feel turbulent, but trust Me.  I will complete the good work which I have begun in you.

Jesus prays for His own

*

Sermon: Pastor John Reynolds, Temple Baptist Church (30 min)

Hold Fast The Confidence Firm to the End

Hebrews Chapter 3

⁶ But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

This verse states that those who hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end are of the household of Christ.  It does not say that we accomplish this of our own accord.  Only that those who are the true Bride will remain steadfast to the end.

⁷ Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

⁸ Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

There is a clear warning not to harden our hearts. Could this be a clue that if we find our hearts being hardened in the midst of trials and testing times, that perhaps we should be concerned about the authenticity of our saving faith?  Might this be an indication that some examination is in order, before the Lord, in honesty and humility?

⁹ When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

¹⁰ Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in (their) heart; and they have not known my ways.

Keep in mind the Bible tells us “my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”, and conversely it also says “the people which do know their God shall be strong and do exploits”. 

Do you find it to be a pattern in your walk with the Lord, that when things start to pile on, you revert to doubt and anxiety? 

Has anyone close to you, ever presumed or jumped to some conclusion about the way you might receive a particular action on their part, causing you to feel hurt and offended that they think so little of you, or don’t know you better than they apparently do? 

It seems to me this is what is happening in this passage.  In the “wilderness wanderings” God showed Himself strong on behalf of the children of Israel time and time again.  When God has done that in our lives, and we persist year after year, in reverting back to insecurities and doubts at the first sign of trouble, that is an affront to God’s grace toward us. 

¹¹ So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

¹² Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

A heart of unbelief may well be an indication that you do not have that kind of faith/belief which is “counted unto you as righteousness”. 

I don’t think that there is “big faith” and “little faith” or “strong faith” and “weak faith”.  There is just faith.  We either believe what God says about Himself or we do not.  Presence of doubt does not equate to absence of faith.  The two are not mutually exclusive.  But it is what you do with the doubt.  The doubt should be cast down, because if it does not line up with God’s truth as put forth in scripture, then it is merely “vain imaginations”.  Which the scripture tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 how to handle those: Casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

¹³ But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

¹⁴ For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

¹⁵ While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

¹⁶ For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. (Did you catch that? Not all of the children of Israel left Egypt that day.  Some stayed because they had no faith to believe the promises). In order to strive toward something, we have to know what God’s calling and purpose is for His called-out bride.  Being made free from the law, having no righteousness of our own, we have a choice in whether or not to remain subject to the flesh, or to “reach” toward that which He will some day make perfect and finished within us. We make that choice repeatedly every day, and in every circumstance that arises.

Philippians 3
 ¹² Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

¹³ Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

¹⁴ I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

¹⁷ But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

¹⁸ And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?

¹⁹ So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

I Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

That is an amazing thought! 

In the same respect that “science” tells us we only use a miniscule portion of what the human brain is theoretically capable of, I think we Christians too often operate in this Earthly sphere without tapping into resources available to us through the Holy Spirit.

I grew up in a Presbyterian church.  I have attended, at various times lots of different denominations, whether once, or for a period of time, and I think that at this point in the history of “the church” we have drifted far from God’s intent.  Many Protestant and Baptist denominations have thrown out the Holy Spirit “baby” with the conservative “bathwater”.  In other words, in fear of veering too far into things supernatural, they avoid the whole kit and caboodle.   On the other hand, many Pentecostal and Assemblies of God churches have lost all discernment and are entertaining “another spirit” with “another gospel” in their midst.   How can the church be fixed?

Only one Christian at a time! 

You are the church and I am the church.  Am I studying the Word, with the Holy Spirit as my teacher?  Do you and I test every spirit?  Do we even have enough discernment to recognize when any spirit, (Holy or otherwise) is operating in our midst?  Do we squelch the very spirit which the Bible tells us we are dependent upon in order to be used of God?  Professing Christians often get up in arms when someone among them seeks “more” in their relationship with the Lord.  But isn’t that what we are meant to do?  What draws us to Christ to begin with, if not the Spirit-enabled realization that we are made for “more than this”.  This life on Earth is not our destiny.  As joint-heirs with Jesus, we are just passing through here on the way to our real destination.  Being content to settle for this one leg of the journey is a little like driving to the airport to start your vaction, but never getting on the plane.  Salvation is just the beginning.  It is merely “conception” while our time on Earth is “gestation” and our future in the Millennium, and the ensuing ages of ages to come, will be all about discovering what God truly made us for.  

Wow.  Selah!  Think of that.

Are You Saved? Have You Been Born Again?

I have been saved, born again by the grace of God, by faith. You can read the story of my life, and know that I am not some goodie-two-shoes who thinks I’m better than someone else, nor am I someone apt to get in your face and try to convert you.  I just care.  The opportunity for you to escape the horrors that are coming upon this earth soon, are running out.  Yes I do believe the Bible is God’s written Word to man, so that we may know Him, and know the things that are coming.  The world as a whole, for the most part, and much to their detriment, have rejected God.  They have bought into the lie that “in the beginning, there was nothing, and that exploded, and from nothing, came all that there is”.  They have believed that a baby is not a baby until it is born, and before that it is merely a blob of tissue not viable on it’s own.  That is the same logic that leads people to believe it is acceptable to kill someone because of their heritage or skin color, or because they have gotten old and can’t do much if anything to “contribute to society”.  There is right, and there is wrong, there is good, and there is evil, and the further mankind moves away from God, the less they even recognize the difference.  God has said those who will not retain God in their memory, will be given over to believe lies.  If the Lord has been tugging at your spirit, if some friend or loved one has told you about your need to be born again, and you have wrestled with it, I’m asking you now, now is the time, please do not put it off.  Someone is praying for you.

Truly there is coming a moment when those who have been saved, will be taken out of this world, and those who have not, will be left here.  Revelation is full of the horrors that will take place on this Earth at that time.  Yes, I know plenty of people laugh at this.  But they will not be laughing on that day when it actually does take place.  And they won’t be laughing for the ensuing years of Tribulation.  Animals will die on a massive scale, famine will envelop the world, millions of people will perish. The “insanity” of weather and nature we have seen in recent months and years will be nothing compared to what will take place then.
A man will appear on the scene with supposed solutions to all the worlds problems and the world will be so desperate they will bow down to him.  He will be believed to be the Messiah which the Jews have long awaited, but they will learn that he is not, when he turns on them.  Are we in that period even now?  Some Christians believe that we are.  However, I believe what we are seeing now are mere foreshadows.  These things are not going to “settle down” and “return to normal”.

I am just a 48 year old mom with an upbringing in which I was blessed to be exposed to the teachings of the Bible from a young age.  I walked away from that for a time, I tried the world’s way of living, and my patient Lord and Savior welcomed me back like the prodigal that I had become, but with open arms and undiminished love for me.  You can read my blogged book in the sidebar and my testimony above.  This blog is mostly about news as it relates to these “last days” we are living in, but it is also my own personal expression of gratitude to God, who I know to be a God of love and compassion.  Life is not always easy.  The way is not always smooth.  Matthew 7:1³ Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: ¹⁴ Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.  Jesus Himself is that Gate.  You don’t have to understand that fully in order to accept it.  I hope you will do so today.

You!

An old favorite!

The King Is Coming! Maranatha!

What Resurrection Sunday Means to Me

Every pain that you or I ever suffered, multiplied by all of mankind through out all of time.

Every sin, every crime, every wrong.  All of that was poured onto Him on that cross.  We ask “why do evil men get away with evil things?”  They do not.  God will deal with their sins.  All sin.  How about yours?

It is no wonder God had to look away.  And Jesus who had never been separated from His Father, cried out “Why hast thou forsaken me?”  God cannot look upon sin.  And in that instant, Jesus was covered in it.  He took it into His body and by submitting to it, He conquered it.

They mocked Him, they beat Him, they whipped Him, they spat upon Him, but they did not kill Him.  No one could take His life from Him.  Though He was fully human in that moment, He was still fully God, having chosen to refrain from exercising His Godly ability to come down off that cross, just like the mockers challenged Him to do, He remained there, held not by the nails, but by His love for you and me, He was the willing sacrifice, the lamb that was slain for the sine of the world.

When all of it had been paid for.  Every last sin.  Every last injustice, HE said “It is finished”.  He commended His Spirit unto the Father.  There are a good 44 prophecies in the old Testament that I know of (probably more) about the birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  And every one was fulfilled to the letter.

They laid his body in a borrowed tomb, and rolled a stone in front of it, and set guards around it so that His followers could not steal the body and “stage” a resurrection.   But death could not keep Him.  He rose up from that grave on the third day, and appeared to hundreds of people over several days before He ascended up to Heaven from the Mount of Olives, with a promise to his followers that He would some day return to that very spot, just in the way they were watching Him go.  Oh yes, I do believe it.

His resurrection is called the “firstfruits”.   It is a promise that we all will be resurrected some day from death.  There will be a “first resurrection” unto life, for those who have Him as their Savior and have already been judged in Christ Jesus, and a second resurrection unto judgment for those who have rejected Him.  (Revelation 20:4-6)

What Resurrection Sunday means to me, is that my sins are held against me no more by God.  I who am guilty, stand as innocent because Christ already paid the price for me.  It means one day an angel of the Lord will sound a trumpet, and give a shout, and those whom Jesus has redeemed, will go to be where Jesus is. No more sickness.  No more sorrow.  No more pain.  The former things will have passed away, and all things will become new.

I have been around the block a few times in this old world.  I’ve had my share of troubles, as everyone has.  There is nothing this world has to offer that I would trade my life with Jesus for.  It has been an awesome ride, hardships and all!  And His resurrection encompasses the promise of a whole other life ahead to look forward to.

A baby in the womb does not know it has not even been born yet.  It likes it where it has been, safe and warm, floating in it’s familiar surroundings.  When the contractions start, that baby gets active.  A pre-determined course of events follows God’s design, and with or without help, that baby makes it’s way out into the world, kicking, screaming, not happy for the rude introduction.

He didn’t know that all those days and hours were in preparation for “real life” that was yet to come.

God created us to glorify Him.  This life actually is a dress rehearsal.  We are not bodies that have a soul.  We are souls temporarily residing in defective earthly bodies for a relatively few short years.  There is more to life than this! Yes, a million times yes!

But only in Jesus.

Do you know Him today?

What’s Christmas all about? Watch this and in 4 minutes you’ll know

What’s Christmas all about? Watch this and in 4 minutes you’ll know.

Hope in Unspeakable Sadness ~ J.D. Farag

Pastor JD takes a different approach to the unthinkable horror in Newtown Connecticut.