Tag: Daily Bread

Posted on

Prepare To Be Ready

29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. ~ Matthew 24:29-31

Today is the first day of the Feast of Trumpets. A day that foreshadows the promise referred to by the  first Church as the Blessed Hope, the Second Coming of Christ. Jesus said that everyone on the earth will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Meaning, He will not be doing this thing in secret.

And… did you also notice how Jesus started off the statement…? He said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days…” indicating that the Church will be going through the Great Tribulation. The block of offense that causes theologians to stumble over is “definitions.” They don’t truly define the churchy terms and words that they tote.

For instance, tribulation is vastly different from judgment: Tribulation is the wrath of man and The Seven Bowls of Wrath is the wrath of God. You’ve heard it said that God loves us too much to let us suffer His judgment. Just look at Noah and the great flood, or Sodom and Gomorrah. God removed His people before His judgment fell.

And yes, that is indeed the truth, but the great tribulation is not God’s wrath, but the wrath of man on God’s Church. So, while it is true that God loves us, He does not necessarily take us out of tribulation, and the biggest reason is that the Church grows best under tribulation or persecution.

Did God take Peter, who was crucified upside down, out before that tragedy befell him? Or Paul, who was beheaded. Or James, who was run through with a sword. Or Isaiah, who was sawn in two. Or the Christians who are being imprisoned and tortured, suffering unimaginable persecution right now, today, in Muslim and communist countries… Does He somehow love them less… those who are being locked in cages and set on fire, or chopped up with machetes, or beheaded with dull knives? Does He for some reason love them less? Or those who are beaten to death? Or those who are beaten and left for dead but survive and are disfigured and maimed for life.

What about those? Does God love them less? Those Christians living in Places like North Korea, where Christianity is viewed as a direct threat to the authority of the ruling Kim family. Christians are arrested there, tortured, and even executed. The entire family can be sent to labor camps if even one member is found with a Bible. Or Somalia which is a strongly Islamic society where extremists consider conversions to Christianity a betrayal of Islam. These converts are hunted down by radical Muslim groups like al-Shabaab and murdered for their faith

Yemen is plagued by civil war and radical Islamic extremism, Christians are regarded as traitors and face severe punishment, including death, especially for converts from Islam. Eritrea is an authoritarian government and religious nationalist state is often considered the North Korea of Africa. Christians are arrested and imprisoned in shipping containers where extreme temperatures reach deadly highs in the day and unbearable lows at night, with no bathrooms to relieve themselves. Or they are imprisoned in underground cells with terrible, inhumane conditions that are almost intolerable. Libya is a country beset with anarchy and Islamic extremism and an unstable government, Christians, especially foreign workers and converts, are abducted, tortured, and killed because of their Christian faith.

So, again, I ask you what about those…? Does God somehow love them less because they believe to the point of shedding their own blood and gladly give their lives for the sake of Jesus and His Gospel? Does God so callously care less for those who are suffering, while we here in the West hide our Christian faith because we are afraid to rock the boat, or that we might offend someone? And not just someone, but those same ones who hate us, and would love to see what is happening to Christians in those countries, to happen to us here in the West.

Today truly put your beliefs to the test. Search the Scriptures and ask yourself, can I find my beliefs in the Word of God or do they favor your own ideas and desires instead. The time of Jesus’ return is truly upon us. It’s getting closer and closer each and every day. Are you ready for His return? Are you ready for all that comes with it?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Prepare To Be Ready.

Like and Share This:
Posted on

A Warning of Trumpets

1 On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets, 2 and you shall offer a burnt offering, for a pleasing aroma to the Lord: ~ Numbers 29:1-2

Tomorrow evening at sundown marks the beginning of the Feast of Trumpets that will last until Wednesday evening at sundown. The Feast of Trumpets is one of seven God-sanctioned feasts. Passover. Unleavened Bread. Firstfruits. Weeks. Trumpets. The Day of Atonement. Tabernacles. Four of these seven have already been fulfilled.

Passover in the Crucifixion. Unleavened Bread in Christ takes away our sin. Firstfruits in the Resurrection of Christ (the Barley Harvest) & The establishing of the Church (the Wheat Harvest). Weeks in the giving of the Holy Spirit.

There are three feasts left to be fulfilled. Trumpets. The Day of Atonement. Tabernacles. These 3 feasts are fall feasts. In Joel 2 we see the prophecy of the coming of the LORD and then we see a promise of rain. The spring rain brought the promise of salvation. The latter (or autumn) rain will bring the fulfillment of salvation, which starts with the Feast of Trumpets.

The Feast of Trumpets is the first day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, which is the month of Tishri. A holy assembly, which is a holy gathering of a people with a reading or recitation. A burnt offering to the LORD for a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

So, what does it foreshadow? At the last trumpet blast, the dead in Christ will rise and then those of us alive will rise to Christ. We will be caught up to Him in the clouds. This is the Second Coming of Christ. We are gathered to Christ in the air as He comes with the voice of an Archangel and the blowing of the trumpet of God. The Burnt Offering as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

There’s a belief right now that the Rapture will take place this year during the Feast of Trumpets. It came from a vision from a pastor in Africa. While I do believe in visions, I don’t believe in shaping my beliefs around someone else’s visions without first checking their visions with the Word of God. When Jesus was asked what would be the sign of His coming, He said the last sign would be the Great Tribulation. In fact, He tells His disciples that His coming will take place immediately AFTER the Tribulation of those days.

In recent years, we’ve used the book of Revelation to attempt to prove the Rapture by quoting Revelation 3:10. This is Jesus speaking to the 6th of the 7 Churches in the book of Revelation. The Church of Philadelphia. They claim that because Jesus says He will keep them from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, this proves the Rapture, but if you notice it says the He will keep them from the hour of trial, not take them out of the hour of trial. In other words, the hour of trial has been pushed back for them, not that they are taken out of it.

The other very important part of this is that they are not the last Church. There is one more Church after them. The Church of Laodicea. If you remove the Church, then that would mean that there is not a church left. The claim is that these are those who will be saved during the Tribulation, but Jesus tells this Church that He will spit them out of His mouth. That they will be spit out of His mouth because they refuse to choose. They refuse to be either hot or cold. First and foremost, they are the Church that doesn’t find God but gets rejected by God. They don’t seek God because they’ve missed the Rapture, but they are spit out of the mouth of Jesus because they refuse to choose. To be either hot or cold.

Which honestly describes the Church today. We’re the Church that doesn’t want to speak out because they’re afraid of offending someone. They don’t want to tell others about Jesus because we don’t want to push our religion on others.

The Church of Laodicea isn’t a church that is on fire for God because of Tribulation. It’s a Church that believes that it’s good. That it doesn’t need anything from God, when it’s in fact not good. When in fact it ushers in the Tribulation itself. Tribulation isn’t God’s wrath; that’s seven bowls described in Revelation 16. Tribulation is the world’s wrath on the Church who refuses to keep it in check.

Don’t take my word for it. This Feast of Trumpets takes some time to search the Scriptures for yourself. Never just take the word of someone telling you, this is so, but search as the Bereans did with Paul when he taught them.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Prepare For The Trumpets.

Like and Share This:
Posted on

Accept Rebuke

5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love. 6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. ~ Proverbs 27:5-6

Open rebuke is better than hidden love. If you are receiving a profuse (An abundant, Excessive, Overflowing). Extravagant amount beyond necessity number of kisses, they just might be from an enemy and not a friend. Evaluate your situation. The truth never lies. Listen, real love involves honest and constructive criticism rather than deceitful kindness.

Please understand that true love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth NIV (1 Corinthians 13:6). Look, a Christian’s main objective is all about your eternal soul. Your soul will spend eternity in one place or the other forever. If you break God’s commandments because a man, or a woman told you it is okay to do so… that will not stand up in God’s court as a valid excuse.

That is why I always, always encourage people to read the Bible for yourselves. It is imperative. It is crucial. It is essential. It is vital. It is critical. It is most important. That you understand for yourself: what you must answer to God for. Realize this: you will answer to God, your own self, for your own actions, and nobody else will give an account for you or stand in your place.

You must be like the Bereans who searched the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was teaching was true → In other words, they searched to make sure that Paul was not misinterpreting the Scriptures but rather, that he was indeed preaching truth (Acts 17:11) … They didn’t just take his word. They confirmed his words. We cannot use the excuse that we didn’t know, or that we didn’t realize.

We have Bibles upon Bibles in every English translation that we can imagine. There is Old English. New English. Contemporary English. Paraphrase translation. Dynamic Equivalence. Formal Equivalence. We have what they call Hybrid Translations. We even have Interlinear Bibles.

What I’m saying is, we have… NO excuse. We, who live in the West, the so-called Free World, have no excuse, and of all people, we will probably be held to a higher standard than most because of it. To whom much is given, much is required, and we have been given much.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Accept Rebuke.

Like and Share This:
Posted on

Ask If You’re Good

John 10:1-5 ESV

[1]  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. [2] But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. [3] To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. [4] When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. [5] A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

A thought I posed to a young woman today was, Are you good? Not, have I done good works? Am I a nice person? But am I good? Am I saved? See, none of us are good. All of us deserve Hell. We’re all unrighteous sinners, that’s why Christ came 2000 years ago.

It’s not about whether or not you do good deeds or whether or not you pray daily. Muslims pray 5 times a day and do good deeds. Hindus and Buddhists meditate daily. It’s not about praying or about good deeds. Salvation is about Jesus. It’s about who you follow.

Be honest with yourself, are you truly following Christ? Are you living in sin or are wrestling with it? Are you dwelling in His Presence through the Son of God or are you jumping the gate? Are you following the Messiah or do you just believe He is the Messiah?

Remember that faith without actions is dead. You need to have faith and you need to act on your faith.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Ask If You’re Good.

Like and Share This:
Posted on

Keep Moving Forward

5 Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. ~ Psalms 126:5NIV

For 7 years I’ve cried and mourned the death of a very close loved one. Her heavenly birthday became a day of deep dark depression that would turn into a week-long. If not longer. But this year, I just feel different. The sadness of missing her is still there, but the heaviness isn’t.

I think I’ve allowed myself to actually mourn. To finally allow myself to let go of the pain. Pain is a really weird emotion because it often comes with a lie. The lie that if you don’t give into pain, then somehow you aren’t honoring their memory. If you keep moving forward in life, then you’re somehow acting as if they don’t matter. But that’s not true. Life is never supposed to solely revolve around those who have passed. Yes, we are to remember them. But life is for the living. It’s for us to do as much as we can while we can.

We’re all born to die. That’s the path of this life, but when we have Christ, it doesn’t end there. It doesn’t end with just death. To die is to gain, because we are united to our LORD, Savior, our God. We are also reunited to saved loved ones who have gone on to be with Christ before us.

Yes, mourning is necessary, but prolonged pain and suffering isn’t. It’s okay to move forward with your life. You’re not forgetting them. They wouldn’t want you frozen in time with them. They’d want you to live out your life following the plan God has for you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Keep Moving Forward.

Like and Share This:
Posted on

Do Not Believe In Vain

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain (1 Corinthians 15:1–2).

Paul was writing to the Corinthian church to remind them of the Gospel he had preached to them. The Gospel of Jesus and Him crucified. They had received that Gospel, and were standing on its truth, and were now being saved because of what he had preached and what they had believed.

Now, this is a very interesting statement …and by which you are being saved … That is the Greek word sōzesthe that finds its root in the word sōzō, which is rich in meaning. It is the only time that this particular morphology of the word sōzō. Sōzō is a complete healing of body, soul, and mind. In Mark 5:34 Jesus told the woman with the issue of blood, that her faith had made her well (sōzō). And Matthew, speaking about Jesus, said in Matthew 1:21 that He will save (sōzō) His people from their sins. And one more, the disciples in the storm cried out to Jesus, “LORD save (sōzō) us! We are perishing” (Matthew 8:25).

What am I saying? I’m saying that we are being saved (sōzō), we have not already been saved. We are being saved and will be saved if we hold fast to the word that was preached to us. If we do not hold fast, then we will believe in vain.

Therefore, do not believe in vain, brothers and sisters, but rather hold fast to what you believed in. Believe that Jesus, being Creator God, came to earth as a little baby, grew to be a man, and went around doing good. He suffered and died, crucified for the sins of the world. He was buried and rose again on the third day. Ascended to the right hand of God the Father and is returning one day to get all those who wait for His return. Believe this and hold fast, and you will be saved.

Father, thank You for loving the world so much. Thank You, LORD Jesus, for loving Your Church so much that You brought us sōzō. Please keep us faithful as we hold fast to that which we have believed, in Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Like and Share This:
Posted on

Light Another’s Candle

Matthew 5:14-16 NIV

[14]  You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. [15] Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. [16] In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

As we all stood together in memory and honor of Charlie Kirk, one single candle was lit and that one candle was used to light hundreds of other candles. It was passed from one to another. And you know what? The original candle that lit all the others never died out. It didn’t lose its flame. It wasn’t quenched. With each other’s candle that was lit by that flame, it grew brighter as they touched.

When we share Christ. When we give. We don’t lose. We don’t go wanting. We are that candle with the flame. The flame is God. When we show love. We show God. When we show compassion. We show God. When we turn the other cheek. We show God. When we give mercy. We show God. And when we do all of these things, the world notices. Because it’s watching us. It’s judging our actions to see if we actually live what we preach.

The only way we can ever lose the light of our candle is if we allow the flame to die by no longer spending time with God, by forsaking the flame itself. That’s it. But to give and show love and mercy and grace. You’re not losing. It may feel like it. But in that moment, you are sharing God with someone else.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Light Another’s Candle.

Like and Share This:
Posted on

A Time For Mercy

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

[9] The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Ezekiel 33:11 ESV

[11] Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

I recently watched a video of a man calling for people to pray for God’s vengeance. He said it’s time the Church gets angry and prays for God’s vengeance if we want revival. He even went as far as to say that if you pray for Charlie Kirk’s killer to find Jesus and repent, then you are a masochist freak who believes they have to lose every battle. He said we should be praying that he meets Jesus and Jesus melts him for all eternity. As I watched, I realized this is why there will be so many people shocked on Judgment Day. There will be so many people shocked at the Second Coming of Christ.

Instead of searching the Scriptures for the heart of God, we create our own version of what we want God to be in our own minds. Imagine saying all of this and firmly believing that it is the will of God that this man die in his sin, and then proceed to pray it. That’s not the will of God. The Father sent the Son so that the whole world would be saved. God says He takes no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. God says His desire is that none perish, but all come to acceptance.

When you don’t know the heart of God, you allow the evil in your heart to influence your idea of God. When you don’t know God, your own evil desires paint a false picture of God that lines up with what you want, not who God is. If this young man in custody is in fact the killer, I pray he admits it, takes responsibility, and repents. I truly do. Hell isn’t a place we should wish on anyone. It isn’t something we should pray anyone experience. The wrath of God is fierce. It’s like nothing on this Earth because He’s not of this Earth.

Therefore, we should pray for God’s mercy on his soul. Yes, I do believe in the death penalty on this earth for a crime of this magnitude, but I do not wish the death penalty on his eternal soul. May the LORD have mercy on him and may he turn from his sin and run to Christ, who already canceled the debt of sin for us all on the cross.

Christians who are seeing the revival right now, aren’t the ones seeking God’s vengeance but His mercy. There’s a revival going on across the world right now. There’s atheists, lukewarm believers, agnostics all deciding to go to church again, some after as long as 30 years others after 10 years of not setting foot in church. The churches were packed Sunday. Worship has broken out all over the streets in cities across the world. We don’t need the LORD’s vengeance for revival. We need God’s mercy, grace, and love.

Dear LORD, thank You for Your mercy and Your grace. Thank You for forgiving me of my sins against You. Help me not to desire judgment, but seek mercy. Help me to see the True You and not the You I have created in my own mind. Show me who You are, oh God, teach me Your ways. Soften my heart to the things of You. Let my heart break for what breaks Yours. Let my heart not grow weary and my angry get the best of me. Instead, LORD, help me to understand righteous anger isn’t against humanity but against the dark forces behind it. For our enemy is not flesh and blood but spiritual beings in the unseen realm. Help me to remember that LORD. Teach me to pray. Teach me to love. Teach me to forgive. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Like and Share This:
Posted on

Still Tarry

2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till He has mercy upon us. ~ Psalms 123:2

To wait for the LORD is to have our eyes fixed upon Him for the slightest movement. For the slightest gesture. We don’t move until we get the signal or get the nod to go ahead. It is having the understanding that God’s clock runs perfectly, even if it doesn’t align with ours. And it probably won’t.

But still, Psalms 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Although it may take longer than we expected. Still, we tarry. Although it seems like it is being dragged out. Still, we continue to abide obediently. Although it feels like our prayers are going unanswered. Still… we wait patiently in full hope and complete surrender. Always remaining in His Presence. And yielding to His will in complete submission.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Still Tarry.

Like and Share This:
Posted on

Wait To Renew

31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings as eagles; They shall run, and not be weary; And they shall walk, and not faint. ~ Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)

God is omnipotent. Meaning, God is All-Powerful. Now… this word, translated as power, refers to physical strength… It suggests the giving of physical might or strength to someone who is weary or lacks the physical fortitude to exert the force necessary to perform some specific function.

It is all about God providing strength to the weak, the powerless, the weary, the tired, and those that lack physical strength. God goes on to explain that even the young and the vigorous, the strong and the mighty, will eventually become tired and weary; they will become so totally exhausted that they will fall to the ground and collapse because of their fatigue. Sometimes our race can be taxing, our road can be burdensome, and our struggle real.

We become tired and weary. We become exhausted with doing good. And because of our fatigue… We can begin to lose hope. But those who wait upon the LORD shall renew in strength.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Wait To Renew.

Like and Share This:
Proudly powered by WordPress