A long video (32min) but seriously, this is really worth your time to consider. Which position about the end times just makes more sense? The idea of a rapture, seven years, millennial reign on earth, and then Satan gets ‘one last hurrah’ or that the NOW-reigning Christ will majestically return ONCE to end this age, destroy Satan forever, and end this age judging the living and dead, forever summing up all remaining “loose ends”? Which option shows the Lord Jesus as ultimately more glorious and victorious? That, if nothing else, should be a clue to every believer.

Posted: August 22nd, 2009 under Scripture.
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Posted: August 17th, 2009 under Challenge.
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From a site and preacher I’ve highly recommended before comes another succinct and powerful message…

LACKING “ONE THING” OR “NOTHING”

Lacked ye anything? – Luke 22:35
One thing thou lackest. – Mark 10:21

When the disciples went forth at the bidding of Jesus without purse or scrip or shoes, they lacked nothing. The rich young ruler had purse and scrip and shoes, but when he went away he lacked one thing, and, lacking that, he lacked everything.

When we obey our Lord’s orders and go forth by His commission we find His grace sufficient and our needs supplied through God’s riches in glory by Christ Jesus. But a man may have all else, yet if he be not willing to abandon it all for the Master, he is a pauper. The supreme thing in this life is to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord. A man may have kept other commandments, but if he will not cut loose from his dearest earthly treasure at the bidding of the Lord, he has failed at the vital point and is still a rebel.

Nothing matters but this: does Jesus have the utter absolute first and final say in your life? If He does, you will lack nothing.

The daily devotions are from Day By Day by Vance Havner. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1953.

Posted: August 17th, 2009 under Devotions, Quotations.
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Pastor Kevin Williams, of PuritanFellowship.com made this comment on a sermon I listened to yesterday:

“The Gospel you preach will only be as powerful as the gospel you live.”

Good stuff.

Posted: August 11th, 2009 under Quotations.
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“And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.” (Ex. 13:21,22)

At the Red Sea, as Pharaoh’s chariots raced towards the Israelites: “And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other” (Ex 14:19,20)

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Cor 1:18,23,24)

Pharaoh’s charioteers raced into darkness. They ran their horses headlong into what resulted in chaos and judgment. The redeemed of the Lord traveled onward, relying only on the light God provided, in the way He instructed them, to lead them to where He wanted–and eventually to a land “flowing with milk and honey”. Two very different ends. One was to obfuscation and the other to revelation. One was to death and the other to life. One sped onward in hardened disobedience while the other journeyed in new-found blessed obedience.

We see a similar divider in the New Testament, the Cross of Christ. There are only two types of people in the world: those of think it foolish and those who have come to know it to be the power of God to salvation. As with the cloud, so with the cross. Each divides between two very different ends: obfuscation and revelation, death to live, hardened disobedience or blessed obedience.

Finally, an invitation to you friend. If you were back in the days of the Exodus, what side of the pillar of cloud would you be on? At this very hour, what side of the cross are you on?

“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.”
(Eph 5:14)

Posted: August 6th, 2009 under Challenge, Devotions, Scripture.
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Speaking of the Israelites’ hurried exit from Egypt, Scripture says, “nor had they prepared provisions for themselves” (Ex. 12:39)

God could have told Israel to start making provisions the entire time of the plagues, and before; but he didn’t. He knew they were leaving. He told them they were leaving. He knew that when then they did they would need provisions for the nearly one million of them, plus animals.

But He didn’t say a word to them about it.

God was doing something. He was about to begin teaching them that He was their chief Provision. God would supply all their needs. And sure enough, He did.

The lesson for us is not that we should neglect to prepare in life, but that in all circumstances even the provisions we prepare are given to us by the Lord. And yes, there may be times when we are caught by surprise by some tragedy or event that requires us to immediately get up and go like the Israelites, but the Lord wasn’t surprised when it was time for Israel to go, He won’t be caught off-guard in our time of travel-without-provisions (or any other time!), and He will always be our Chief Provision!

Posted: August 5th, 2009 under Devotions, Scripture.
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