Getting our House in Order!

This entire post is a ‘what if’ scenario designed to make you think about where your loyalties lie!

We have all heard or read the stories of what is to come in the book of Revelation. How food will become expensive and scarce. How a rival to our faith will rise to power and persecute us. How he will establish a monetary system that will restrict your ability to buy what you need unless you subscribe to his agenda. How he will form a world wide government and lead them to a final battle with God…

As Christians we have all heard the stories!

But what do they mean to you? Do you believe it, or is it rhetoric? Do you think it is some kind of allegory that isn’t really going to happen exactly that way and we will need to look for the signs of what Jesus really meant? Or does it mean what it says, that those living during that time will experience a season like no other the world has seen before or will see again… Jesus said it would happen, and he also said; “that He will shorten the time for our sake or none would survive it”.

What if He meant that it was going to happen to you?

We have also heard the stories of rapture, and for sure it will take place, because it is clearly discussed in scripture. But, there are those that believe in a rapture that is pre-tribulation and those that are post tribulation and others that are everything else in between. But what if it is post-Trib, and the rapture comes on that final seventh trumpet blow after the tribulation ends with all of its horrors and all of us as Christians have to live through it.

Now lets imagine something else… this is where we need to put aside everything the liberal government led media is feeding us. Imagine if this $700 billion dollar bailout doesn’t work… and the economy as we know it collapses. Imagine if our government goes belly up broke, because of the transgressions of those who lead us. Imagine if it dominos into a world wide collapse of all economies leaving disaster on the doorstep of every nation… Then a leader steps up with a solution for all of the economies of the world… a world wide monetary system, with a central form of government and we all will benefit from the collective labor of a global economic system. He will say that war will end because we will all be dependent upon each other to live. And to help us all get along he creates a centralized religion that allows for all peoples of all faiths to express their beliefs. (Except for those that don’t give room for any other beliefs and teach only one way to God)… What if?

What if it happened this year, or next year… what if?

Now, what if simply being a Christian and following Jesus jeopardized your ability to feed your family. What if, being seen going to a Christian church meant imprisonment? What if proclaiming the Gospel and sharing the scriptures with others constituted a criminal act, punishable by death?

What if?

It happens to some every day… it happened TODAY in China and the Middle East and other parts of the world. But, what if it happened here?

Where would your loyalty lie then?

Would you be a ‘SAC’ (Secret Agent Christian)? Or would you stand proud? Would you be willing to die or go to prison, for what you believe? Or would you hide your faith or worse yet renounce your faith? Would you take the mark of the beast?

Revelation is allegorical in nature… but not in its entirety! Some of its warnings like those mentioned above are repeated in other parts of scripture… and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture and it is not an allegory. Someone is going to live through this time. It may be us it may be our children or their children… BUT IT WILL HAPPEN TO SOMEONE.

What if that someone were you… What if?

And WHAT will you do?

The Role of Father

I think about how much my children complain when they are made to follow the rules. Rules like going to bed on time or being home in time for dinner or doing home work and on and on.

They want to rebel against what to them are seemingly un-necessary rules. But that is because they don't see the bigger picture. They don't have the experience or insight to see beyond the moment, to see what the consequences of their choices would be.

The role of a father is to know when to protect them from a wrong choice... and when not to. When to fence them in so they are safe... and when to let them fail so they can gain the experience from their mistake. We only control their environment for so long; eventually they will go on their own. Eventually they will grow to an age where they must make their own choices.

There are decisions I must make as a parent that I know will cause anger or discomfort, but they are the decisions that shape them into the mold of who they are to become. My feelings of wanting to shelter or hide them from the pain are insignificant compared to the consequences of allowing them to go the wrong way.
Their perception is that, I am uncaring and inflexible in my position of authority. But nothing could be further from the truth. It pains me to correct or discipline them. But it must be done in order for them grow to their potential.

Chuck Swindol has said: “Words & reason do not shape character, consequences due.”

We as parents also have a Father. His role in our lives transcends the role we have in our children’s lives. But in order for us to grow to our potential He corrects and disciplines us just as we do our children. He often times denies us the things we desire because we can't see the harm it would bring. We often don't understand what He is doing because we don't see the bigger picture. We moan and groan and kick our feet, rebelling against the guidance of His divine hand.

If we don't want to be disciplined we need to do what He asks. And if want His blessing, we need to be in the middle of where He is working, not doing what we want and asking Him to bless our work.

In our jobs if we are furthering the purpose and mission of the company we work for then they reward, promote and empower us so that we can continue the good work we are doing.

It is the same with God.

If we are in the mainstream of His work He will reward and provide us with what we need to continue His good work. But if we go rouge and pursue our own interests, He has no interest in facilitating what is not of Him. If we are His, He has promised us salvation and protection from the evil one while meeting our needs, but for the rouge, after that you are on your own. Conversely, if we are in the middle of where He is working doing His will, not only does He provide all of the above, but He blesses us even more so that we can better carry out His work.

God holds our hand and guides us for as long as we will allow Him to. He corrects and disciplines us to mold us into the shape that best fits His guiding hand. We are under His tutelage only for as long as we decide to remain there. As we grow and mature in our walk we begin to see more clearly the footsteps of the one we follow. He has a specific purpose for each and every one of us. The closer we walk with the one we follow the closer we become to the center of the will He has for our life.

The greatest pain in my life comes from the moments when I realize how far away I am from how close He wants me to be.

33 days to Go!

This is all going to sound kind of selfish in the light of the Grace and Mercy that God extends towards mankind… but I am tired of what seems like a losing battle and I am ready to go home.

When I look around I see, a battle for the family that is going down in flames, a battle already lost for Gods ordained division of sexuality between men and women. The continuing rise of the Muslim religion which I believe will be the root of the Army that wars with God in the final battle of Armageddon. I see a once great country, which has all but turned its back on God. A choice of political candidates that is nothing more than the lesser choice between two evils.

If there is still a hope for revival it is fading fast.

There are 33 days left until the election, and many are praying for one candidate or the other hoping that they are the answer to all of our problems. But, both of them are products of and part of the machine that is our demise, and regardless of who wins, it will be nothing more than a whitewashing of the dilapidated corrupt system that we are under.

As for me, I am changing my prayers for a candidate of my choice and asking God to install the one who will bring us as a world one day closer to His return. That whoever wins ushers in what ever God is looking for to mark the beginning of the end of what we have made such a mess of.

I don’t see much chance for the winds of change to blow, and I am certain we crossed the point of no return as a country long ago… the machine has become to big to turn off or turn around… not for God but for us. If God willed it, it would change… but I am not so certain that ‘change’ is in the cards. We have passed to many prophetic markers from what He predicted would precipitate His return.

Pray for the will of God to be done, to speed up the return of Jesus… it is time for Him to set it right… it is time for our resurrection ride.

Click Here to Hear the song:

http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=5243402&q=hi

Resurrection ride
© James Fuller 2006 / Tom Solanto 2007

Vs. 1
Gods train is coming from the eastern skies,
Wheels of justice are turning, to set it right
Injustice reigns travesty abounds,
His holy power will soon rain down.
Hear the wings of angels in the sky.
Judgments coming, hear the battle cry.

Chorus
Train tracks are shaken, can you hear it roll?
The whistles blow’n; it's time to pay the toll.
Jesus is coming with ten thousand’s on high,
The time has come for our resurrection ride.

Vs. 2
God has awakened; it’s the time of our Lord,
Get your ticket in hand and climb up on board.
His train is a roll’n; I can hear it on high,
the thunderous sound of His wheels passing by.
His horses are loosed, His bowls He will pour,
The new world is com’n on the day of our Lord.

Chorus
Train tracks are shaken, can you hear it roll?
The whistles blow’n; it's time to pay the toll.
Jesus is coming with ten thousand’s on high,
The time has come for our resurrection ride.

Vs. 3
I can hear Him calling He’s taking us home.
It’s Jesus who’s com’n, so climb up on board.
A ticket He holds in His nail scarred hand.
Your toll has been paid by the blood of the lamb.
Blood of the lamb
Blood of the lamb
Blood of the lamb
His gift is free for the ticket He holds,
But all we give, for our soul must be sold

Chorus
Train tracks are shaken, can you hear it roll?
The whistles blow’n; it's time to pay the toll.
Jesus is coming with ten thousand’s on high,
The time has come for our resurrection ride.
Resurrection ride.
Resurrection ride.
Resurrection ride.

Chorus
Train tracks are shaken, can you hear them roll?
The whistles blow’n; it's time to pay the toll.
Jesus is coming with ten thousand’s on high,
The time has come for our resurrection ride.

Present Time or Time Present?

The present is the point in which time touches eternity.
C.S. Lewis

I think I see what C.S. Lewis means. In eternity it is always NOW. There is never a yesterday, and there will never be a tomorrow, it is always just simply NOW.

What is time anyway? Lately for me, it is something I don’t have enough of; and for us as a collective whole I think it is something we are running very short of.

The true definition depends on who you ask. Stephen Hawkins and Einstein differ widely on their view of time and there are a multitude of explanations for time in the dictionary, but to put it into the simplest of terms, it is the space between the beginning and the end. I say that because after all the theories and hubalub, I believe time is a temporary thing created just for us. I don’t believe time existed before God created us and I don’t believe it will continue after we are gone. It is what we do between our personal beginning and end or with the time He has given us that matters.
We are all citizens in eternity. We are a world of self serving Eternal beings squandering our place in Gods Kingdom for what we hold today. A "fool’s treasure", that will disappear like the morning mist at the dawn of eternity.

I thought about how to relate time and eternity to each other after I woke up from a very realistic dream. I don’t remember the dream, but I will never forget the dawn of my new realization afterwards. The dream was so real that I felt like I could touch, feel and breathe every thing that was happening. It was so real that when I woke up it took me a minute to realize that I was only dreaming and that I had woken back up into the reality that is my life. Have you ever had a dream that strong? I think that the feeling I had after the dream is very close to the feeling we will have when we step into eternity.

Imagine if the life we are living is the dream… everything we know, see, feel or do is all part of the dream that God created just for us. (Our Time Present) For now it is our reality… but then… time ends, and we wake up! And the reality that exists outside of the dream (eternity) becomes the reality that is our life. And we find our selves stepping into and beginning our new life in eternity. I can’t begin to fathom eternity, but I know that when I am in it, I will have more than enough of what I don’t have enough of now to do, see, talk to and walk with, anything or anyone I want.

I know we can’t understand eternity, but I heard a very good description once. Imagine if all the sands from all the beaches of the world were piled into one gigantic earth sized mountain and once every one thousand years a small bird fly’s to the top of the mountain, picks up one tiny grain of sand and fly’s away. When the bird has finally removed the last grain of sand… eternity will have just begun.

How and where you will spend eternity is directly related to how you spend your gift of time today.

Today choose to trade ALL of what you can not keep for what can never be taken away. Life is too short to waste and eternity is too long for regrets.

The Morning Star

I was reading in the beginning of Revelation this morning and something kind of jumped out at me.

In the second and third chapters of the book of Revelation an angel instructed John to write a letter to the seven churches. Most of the letters are critical of the way the churches were living and treating their Christian walk. However, after each rebuke Jesus offered a reward for overcoming this life. I have listed below the seven rewards mentioned to each of the churches and then combined all of them into a paragraph at the end.

Revelation 2-3

To Ephesus He wrote:
Rev. 2:7 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

To Smyrna He wrote:
Rev. 2:10-11 I will give you the crown of life… He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.

To Pergamum He wrote:
Rev. 2:17 To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.

To Thyatira He wrote:
Rev. 2: 26-28 To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— 'He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery'— just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give him the morning star.

To Sardis He wrote:
Rev. 2: 5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.

To Philadelphia He wrote:
Rev. 2:12 Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name.

To Laodicea He wrote:
Rev. 2:21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.

And He finishes each letter to the seven churches with; “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”.

The Greek word for Overcome is Nikaō, which means to overcome, overpower, to conquer, triumph. So, Jesus is telling us that to those of us are triumphant in this life… To those who can conquer our desire for this world, He offers… the right to eat from the tree of life, the crown of life and will not be hurt at all by the second death, some of the hidden manna, a white stone with a new name written on it known only to him who receives it, authority over the nations, I will also give him the morning star *. I will never blot out his name from the book of life. I will make (him) a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, and I will also write on him my new name, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.

*In both 2 Peter 1:19 and Revelation 22:16 Jesus is referred to as the morning star

That sounds like some pretty special treatment for overcoming! But it also sounds like there isn’t a whole lot of room for a bunch of people on that throne!

Matthew 7:14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

I don’t know about you, but I want my own special name and a seat next to the Morning Star on His thrown… and there is nothing in this life I won’t trade for it!

Up Crap Creek

I remember when I was growing up my Father had a saying that aptly describes how I feel this morning. When things were going badly for someone he would say; “Buddy, it looks like your up ‘crap’ creek in a chicken wire canoe without a paddle”.(expletive removed). And when I lived in Florida we had a saying; “When you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your original objective was to drain the swamp”…

This morning I feel tired, a little beat up, and worn out. I know in the book of James it tells us:
(James 1:2) Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.

And I would love to tell you that I got that thing down pat… but I was reading in Lamentations this morning, and I found that the words of Jeremiah have more of a familiar ring to them…

(Lamentations 3:1-18)
I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light;
indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.
He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones.
He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.
He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.
Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.
He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.
Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding,
he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help.
He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.
He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver.
I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
He has filled me with bitter herbs and sated me with gall.
He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust.
I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
So I say, "My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD."

I know Jeremiah was watching the destruction of Israel when he penned these words, so his plight and mine are far from the same. But I found a certain sense of familiarity with the feelings he poured onto the page.

The latter part of this chapter opens the door for Gods hand of mercy and compassion, but it would be some time into the future before Israel would see this side of God again… It makes me wonder when I too will see His mercy and compassion in this period of my earthly life, and this arduous chapter of my existence will begin to close.

The ship I sail is not my own, the course set before me is unseen beyond the moment.
Though my ship burns, still I do not feel the flames.
Though it is cast upon the shoals, yet I have no fear.
Though my mind is numb I still have clarity of purpose.
Though the pain of life overwhelms me yet I still can find peace...

(Job 13:15-17 )
Though he slays me, yet will I hope in him;
I will surely defend my ways to his face.
Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance,
for no godless man would dare come before him!

Open Hands

If you are holding on to what you have with both hands you do not have a hand open to receive more of what God offers you. Lend & Give freely, without expectation, that is how it is given to us and it is how we are COMMANDED by God to give to others. (Deuteronomy 15:11) Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.

Do not fear losing a life that is not yours to keep! Instead fear losing the Life inside that desires God, while we still live.