End Times

Jesus disciples asked him "What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3)
Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.
⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Jesus disciples wanted to know when the "end of the age" would happen.  Jesus told them that they could not know (24:36).

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,^[f] but only the Father. ³⁷ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
⁴² “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come."

Dear friends: Pay heed to the signs we have been witnessing in our country and around the world. Take a lesson from the wars and civil conflicts, the famines, the financial crisis, the disastrous weather patterns and the rise of subjective "good" and political correctness. We are in the throws of the "birth pains". Now is the time reach out to the Lord. Build your relationship with him. Only through Jesus can we have salvation. Keep watch, because we don't know when the Lord will return.  






 



 

Heaven

What is heaven? We don't know, but it is more wonderful, beautiful, awesome, than we can humanly imagine. It is where we will spend eternity with our God. Reference to heaven can be found more than 600 times throughout the Bible and it begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation.

 Genesis 1:1  The Creation of the World ] In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The Bible also tells us that there will be a new heaven and a new earth--a renewed creation! Read Isaiah 65:17 in the Old Testament. The Lord says, “For behold, I create new heavens
    and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
    or come into mind."
And in the New Testament, 2 Peter 3:13 writes: "But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."
And in Revelation 21:1 John the apostle says: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more."

We will live in heaven with our God and marvel at our eternity.  
As the apostle John states, (John 3:16): “For God so loved the world,^[a] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus says, (Matt 6:19-21)“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust^[a] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Genesis 3:1-13

One of our teachers, Edward Freeman, has asked us to study these verses in Genesis:  

The Fall

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You^[a] shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,^[b] she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool^[c] of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”^{[d] 10} And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The blame game. We have all played this game at some time or another. We can see how disastrous our poor choices can be.  And it started with Adam who blamed God for the woman he, Adam was given, then Adam blamed Eve for giving him the fruit, then the woman blamed the serpent. Quite simply, they disobeyed God. Their disobedience led to hardship and tragedy not only for themselves, but for all mankind. But God had and has a plan for us. He has redeemed those whose faith is in Jesus and His work on the cross. Our human hardships and tragedies will end for we have salvation in Jesus Christ.

Repent. The Time is Near

When people hear the word repent, they might conjure up a thin, poorly dressed man, standing on a street corner, Bible in raised hand, sternly admonishing passersby to "Repent!" They shun him and quickly walk by never giving his message a thought, other than thinking that the man is a lunatic and fanatic.

Truly, we need to pay attention. Repent means to turn from our sins and sin is not a fashionable word these days either. But we know we all "sin".  In 1 John 5:17All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.
See All... we can read, "All unrighteousness is sin . . ."   Scott Ashley writes in Good News on line magazine:  "Sin, then, is to transgress those boundaries God has set for us or to miss the target He set for us." (see http://www.ucg.org/christian-living/how-does-bible-define-sin/) .  We can go beyond breaking or bending the laws of the Ten Commandments. Ponder Matthew 22:35-40:
³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[a] 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[b] 40} All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Do we do what Jesus advises? If not, we need to repent, yes, turn from our sins and seek God's forgiveness.  This is an ongoing process of repentance because no one is without sin. And, by putting our faith and trust in the work Jesus did for us on the Cross, we can be seen by God as justified and righteous.  He died for our sins so that we could be cleansed, past, present and future. "Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses" (Acts 13:39)  And, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor.5:21).
Dear readers, don't scoff at the words "Repent" or "Sin".
For truly:
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt. 3:2)
This is serious business. Don't be left behind.

Why Did God Let That Happen?

We hear this so frequently. We read the horror stories online, in the newspaper or hear them on TV. We see our loved ones in terrible grief, pain, and distress. Even our pets suffer. Why? So much of what God allows to happen we simply don't understand.

Be comforted.  In Isaiah 55:8, 9 it is written: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Seek the Lord. You have said, "Seek my face." My heart says to you, "Your face, Lord, I do seek." (Psalm 28:8)

Be patient.  "Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord." (Psalm 31:24)

God loves us.  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.

Trust the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

The Apostle John writes in John 11: 17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles[c] off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[d] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

1 John 5:11 And this is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

Ponder this and pray to our Lord for wisdom...

Death by Crucifixion and the Miracle of Resurrection

1. After the verdict of crucifixion was announced, Jesus was stripped of his clothes, then severely whipped with by a flagrum which had a sturdy handle and attached to it were leather thongs, of different length with sharp, with jagged pieces of bone and lead woven into them. 2. The cross, called a patibulum, weighed about 110 lbs. and was strapped to his shoulders. 3. When they mounted Jesus on the cross, about a 7 inch spike was driven through his heel bone and wrist. 4. The only way for a person nailed to the cross to get exhale was for the victim to push upward by his legs. Legs were broken to hasten death. In Jesus' case, the Roman's didn’t have to have his legs broken because he was already dead. The Burial 1. Usually the tomb was out of solid rock, with and entrance of 4-5.5 feet high. 2. The body was generally prepared with spices. Herod had 500 lbs., Gameliel had 85 lbs., Christ had 75 lbs. as recorded in the Bible. A gummy substance was also used, Myrrh as added to the mix. The grave clothes were wrapped around the body with a separate piece for the head. The total encasement for Jesus was probably about 92-95 lbs. 3. The stone to fit the doorway would be about 1.5-2 tons. The rock was set to roll into position via a trench. 4. The security at Jesus’ tomb was either the temple police or the Roman guard. The temple police could represent 10 or more. If a guard member fell asleep, he was beaten and burned in his own clothes. If it was a Roman guard, it would be 4-16 men who were trained to protect 6 feet of ground. Guards in ancient times slept in shifts. Any group trying to move the stone, and unwrap Jesus’ body (wrappings were left behind as stated in the Bible) and get Jesus' body out of the tomb, would have to step over a lot of sleeping warriors. When Jesus' disciples came to look for him, the tomb was empty! Not only did Jesus appear to Mary Magdalene the day she found the tomb empty, but he subsequently appeared to his disciples, apostles, and the Apostle Paul writes, in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 1 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I a what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them-yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.