Peace and grace to each of you in Jesus name!
First I want to thank our newest reader(s) in the Country of Benin West Africa. I am honored that you would take the time to read my articles. I have been to Liberia and hope to return this coming Spring. I would love to visit your country as well! I don't believe I have ever met a representative of the Beninese People so please do feel free to contact me at propheticsword@hotmail.com and let's get acquainted.
For those of you who are not familiar with the Republic of Benin, it is a small Country about the size of the State of Pennsylvania and has a current population of just over 8 1/2 million people. It is located between the countries of Togo and Nigeria. So, to our newest members and readers of Last Days Review, WELCOME ABOARD FRIENDS!!!
Now, the title of this article is "PLEEEEEASE give me a break"!
This title stems directly from the recesses of an already slightly confused but thoroughly outraged mind (mine to be exact) that is having a difficult time processing what seems to be rapidly advancing human depravity on a number of worldwide fronts. Do I hear an "AMEN" to that from anyone? Or is it just me? Am I just paranoid or is our world really trying in vain to put the breaks on while it is skidding steadily down a steeper slope than ever before?!
You know every day I awake thinking that I can resume my teaching and commentary on the end times specifically Matthew Chapter 24. Jesus is predicting exactly what will happen just prior to His coming back to this earth for the second time. While it is no secret that I believe, based upon scripture that this blessed event is just around the corner, there are soooo, many things happening on a worldwide scale DAILY, that I am constantly dealing with realities in a world gone mad! Of course for guys like me, I readily admit that it is very tempting to place all these things into one huge end times scenario. We have to be very careful about that so I try to present thought provoking information for you to use as you decide for yourselves whether my analysis are correct or not.
Having said that, people that study Biblical Prophetic events sometimes have a difficult time maintaining a healthy balance between the potential doom and gloom of the Biblically foretold future and JOY! So today I want to encourage all of you in what is really important. I could throw in tons of scriptural addresses here but I think you are all astute enough to look them up for yourselves. If not please do contact me by email and I will give you all that you need.
Here is the bottom line: The Bible is true! Regardless of whatever silly "bunk"---that is slang for nonsense---, anyone has tried to feed you, don't listen to them. The reason people reject the truth of God's Holy Word is simple. If they dare face the possibility that God said what He meant and meant what He said---they have a very big problem! If they accept the truth of scripture then they must also accept the fact that there is a Supreme Being (GOD), who holds men and women responsible and accountable for their actions---or lack thereof.
This is ONE GOD, and there is ONLY ONE of them! He describes Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That same God changed Jacob's name to ISRAEL who became the father of the Jewish people and He called them His Chosen People.
Prior to the birth of Abraham's sons, God made some Covenant promises and swore that He would NEVER violate or abandon them. He told Abraham that (Genesis 12:3), "I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you---"! Perhaps our worlds leaders should think about that when they are standing by idly watching Iran (Persia) threaten Israel with extinction. Perhaps the worlds leadership and in particular that last four U.S. Presidents should have scrutinized the Bible a bit more closely when they have consistently tried to force Israel to trade land for peace. Did you know that God said He would DESTROY NATIONS that do that? Uh Oh! OOPS!
How could a long suffering and ever loving God say such a thing---and did He really do so? Well here is some scripture. You decide.
First, the Covenants that God spoke regarding Israel. NOTE: For those of you that have been taught and believe that God is somehow through with Israel and that the church is the REPLACEMENT for Israel---think again. This thinking is utter folly and cannot be verified in the Bible in the slightest form. God clearly states that His Word is ALWAYS good and He cannot lie. He is also the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. So let's put on our common sense hats here for just a moment and realize that if this God we serve would somehow UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, cancel His Covenants with Israel, Then perhaps He would also cancel His New Covenant with His church through Yeshua Ha Mashiach, Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel. If you say,"NO WAY JOSE", then you must also face the fact that God will never, ever cancel His Covenants with Israel.
Psalm 105:6-10 "O seed of Abraham His servant, you children of Jacob, His CHOSEN ONES! He remembers His Covenant forever, the Word which He commanded for a thousand generations, the Covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to ISRAEL as an everlasting Covenant---"!!!
So did God REALLY give the land (currently in question in the Middle East) to Israel? Genesis 15:17-19 settles that debate once and for all. "On the same day,the Lord made a Covenant with Abram (Abraham), saying: To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates"-- The land of --" the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites".
Folks, God gave Israel a HUGE portion of the entire Middle East. Right now they inhabit a tiny area about the size of the State of New Jersey. They are surrounded by land (much of which God gave to Israel) that is currently inhabited by Arab Nations that are over 600 times larger than current Israel. And the leaders of the world are trying to force tiny Israel to give up even more land? Now in fairness it should be noted that God also gave an inheritance to Abrahams son Ishmael who is the father of many of the Arab peoples today (Genesis 17:20 and 25:16).
PLEEEEEASE GIVE ME A BREAK! Clearly God decreed that both of Abraham's sons should be blessed but let's finally get the land division right shall we?
So is God really serious about destroying nations that force Israel to give up their land? Joel 3:1-2 "For behold, in those days (NOTE: Reading through Joel you will clearly see that this is referring to the a very near future time in which the Lord comes to this earth for a second time), and at that time, WHEN I BRING BACK THE CAPTIVES OF JUDAH AND JERUSALEM (NOTE: This is happening right now folks), I will also gather ALL the nations, and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat; And I will enter into judgement with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; THEY HAVE ALSO DIVIDED UP MY LAND"!!! Well, once again, YOU decide!
In terms of the very existence of God, back in the 60's, I remember seeing one very large car bumper sticker (we had very large bumpers in those days), that said "IT IS BETTER TO GO THROUGH LIFE BELIEVING THERE IS AND THEN FIND OUT THAT THERE ISN'T---THAN GO THROUGH LIFE BELIEVING THERE ISN'T AND THEN FIND OUT THERE IS". Think about that for a moment!
We as believers know for certain that God exists because He has arranged for His Holy Spirit to dwell within us. Of course there are those that say that Christians are full of mistakes and many are hypocrites. Actually, frequently, that is very true. We do make mistakes and we are sometimes hypocritical, judgmental and down right ugly. However another truth was aptly reflected in yet another large bumper sticker that said, "Christians are not perfect, but they are forgiven". Thank God for that.
Which leads me to the central theme of my encouragement for each of you today. The second King of Israel was named David. Down through the eons of his lineage, there was born a man named Jesus of Nazareth. His mother was named Mary but He had no natural father. The Bible records that THE HOLY SPIRIT came upon the virgin Mary (probably at about age 13 or so) and she conceived a child whose Father was none other than God Himself. This all powerful God did this for the express purpose of providing Israel with Her Messiah who would in the course of time allow Himself to be beaten, spit upon, scourged (whipped) beyond recognition, stabbed with a spear, nailed to a cross and crowned with a horribly cruel crown of thorns jammed into His scalp.
As He was dying in this incredibly painful way, His own Father God heaped upon Him ALL of the sins of mankind, past, present and future. This is Jesus Christ, the true Passover Lamb which we will discuss in the next article as we take a look at the Biblical appointed time of the FEAST OF TRUMPETS (Rosh Hashana).
How could any father do something like this to his only son? Well, for starters remember that since God was in reality His natural Father, that meant that Jesus was part of the Royal family and therefore God Himself. Fully God but also fully man. The other (and far more important) reality was that this Father God knew that mankind could NEVER atone for his own sins and could never therefore stand in the presence of a Holy and Righteous God.
So why did this Heavenly Father make this kind of awesome SELF SACRIFICE? Very simply because He loved His creation (mankind) more than He loved Himself. So He died a death that we in fact deserved and He took our sins upon Himself so we could spend all of eternity in His presence.
But that is not the end of the story!!! Because Jesus died this death for you and I (and any other human that would embrace Him as the Son of God), He knew that we would need a lot of help to live our lives in a Holy way. He also knew that we would make (lots) of mistakes and often look very ugly to those around us. However, in our own appointed time, as each of us confessed our sins to Him and accepted His UTTERLY FREE gift of eternal salvation, He in turn gave us His Holy Spirit to dwell within us so HE could complete the good work that HE began in us. You know the whole thing is really not about us, it's about HIM! But His overwhelming desire is for US! Now who can figure that out?
I don't have time today to expound upon the FACT that death could not hold the Messiah and He rose from the grave. What separates Christianity from all other worldwide religions? It is the resurrection from the grave! No other person has ever done that. Not Paul the Apostle, not the Popes, not Mother Teresa, not the Virgin Mary. Not Mohammed, not the Dalai Lama, not Joseph Smith and not Mahatma Gandhi. That is not disrespect for any of these people but none were God. Only Jesus Christ fits that description and only He rose from the grave!
For many in the world, it sounds like we as Christians are worshiping three Gods because we are always talking about 1). The Father 2). The Son, Jesus Christ and 3). The Holy Spirit. I suppose that can be confusing and in fact there was a time in my life that I did not understand it either. How about you?
The Sh'ma of Israel (Deuteronomy 6:4) says " Hear of Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one"! They mean it---very seriously so. In fact even the Muslims believe in only one God, in their case, Allah. So the perception is that we as Christians really worship three God's, which of course is a no-no! The reality however is far different than the perception.
I have very many extremely good friends that are Jewish. As is my wife by the way. While in the Middle East on a number of occasions, I have also met (and very much liked) a number of Muslims. I remember well a trip we were leading to the ancient city of Petra in the nation of Jordan. My son Santiago (age 12 at the time but only a whopping 3 feet tall and 31 pounds), had a couple of days before, been sitting on the lap of our Jewish tour guide as we were approaching Jerusalem. Santiago had this highly professional Jewish man literally wrapped around his little finger.
Now here we were over a hundred miles inside Jordan. I was amazed to watch a truly huge Muslim bus driver standing by the road holding Santiago in his arms. At the moment my little guy had an entire fistful of this mans humongous black mustache. As I tried to intervene, this gentleman told me that it was his extreme pleasure to have the chance to hold someone as full of love as Santiago. All the while tears falling from his eyes as the S-man (as many affectionately call my son), was trying valiantly to rip this guys mustache out by the roots!
At that moment I realized two things: First, If Santiago were elected as the next Secretary General of the United Nations, the world would finally find true peace!!! Second, I realized that as much as I try, I simply do not have the words to explain to either my Jewish friends or those who are Muslim that the God I worship is ONE GOD and only ONE GOD! He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. His Son is the Messiah of Israel and the Lord and King of all human beings who will simply put their faith and trust in HIM! I also realized, as I have on very many occasions, that our God is so large and powerful that we puny little human beings cannot begin to understand all that He is. I believe it is for that reason that this all powerful God has allowed us to witness Himself in three different personalities: The Father, The Son Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit. And in this way we can at least get a tiny glimpse of Him and the way He has chosen to bring us to perfection so we can spend all of eternity worshiping Him in the form that intended us to be---created after His own image.
Right now the world is in a mess. Just today I witnessed (on the news), yet another oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Will it be another major ecological disaster or a non event? At the same time Hurricane Earl is hurtling toward the Carolina coast with predictions that it could touch heavily upon several population centers.
In the Middle East, a family was wantonly murdered in Israel this week including a pregnant woman. Yesterday another two people were killed by terrorists in a drive by shooting. The news reports tell us that Gaza Arab residents were flocking into the streets to CELEBRATE??? What? A huge victory - the murdering of innocent Jewish civilians??? Meanwhile both Hamas and Palestinian Authority terrorist groups are scrambling to CLAIM CREDIT for these atrocities! ALL THE WHILE, President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority is meeting in Washington with President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to talk about a lasting peace in the Middle East??? Wow, what do you think the chances are of that happening?
Back to the Hurricane watch, two more are lining up behind Earl to do their damage and this is only the beginning of the season. The first is Hurricane Fiona and the next is Gaston. Meanwhile, Back in New York, an author by the name of Peter Schiff was on the tele talking about dire financial predictions in his new book entitled "how an economy grows and why it crashes". Guess what, he and lots of other economists think the good ole U.S. of A is on a crash course worse than anyone could possible imagine. ME TOO, for what it's worth.
But I also heard some REALLY REALLY good news today??????? As I reported last week, the U.S. Government figures say that July's new applicants for unemployment benefits were a full 500,000 people. But the figures for August for new applicants is only 494,000! Now that is progress on a grand scale. Are you confused? Because the very same Government reports that ONLY 58,000 more people lost their jobs in August. If you could see me right now you would clearly recognize a man who's eyes are crossed, who's mind is completely befuddled and is currently slapping himself on the side of the head.
PLEEEEEASE GIVE ME A BREAK!
PLEEEEEASE GIVE ME A BREAK! Oh pretty please.
In the middle of all this there seems to be an awful lot of people who confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who also have their respective lips stuck firmly to terra firma! I know there are lots of negatives for all of us today but as Christians what in the world happened to our JOY? Raise your hands if you FEEL THE JOY OF YOUR SALVATION TODAY. Do you remember the day you first accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord? Let me guess. You felt such great joy that you wanted to run out and tell EVERYONE!!!
Do you think perhaps what happened to the Saints in the church of Ephesus in chapter 2 of the book of Revelation is that they lost their JOY?? You know a casual read of verses 1-3 tell us that these folks were doing it all right! In fact, I'd like to be just like them when I grow up. But things take a very nasty turn as Jesus Himself is speaking to them in verses 4 and 5. He tells them that they have left their first love. Can you imagine that? These guys are doing it ALL but He tells them that they have fallen and must REPENT and return to do their first works. And if they don't, he is going to remove their Lamp Stand from them!
Then in verse 7 He makes it pretty clear. " He who has an ear, let him listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who OVERCOMES I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God"!
Do you think that returning to the FIRST WORKS may include feeling, expressing, witnessing and OOZING, the Joy of our salvation? Regardless of whatever else is happening in the world?
Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 10. This is a time in which the Jewish people were captive in a foreign land. Nehemiah the Jewish prophet was in the ancient citadel of Shushan. It is a long story so I will make it short. He and a remnant of Israel were sent back to Jerusalem, which had been destroyed. Their mission was to begin rebuilding the wall of the city which had also been destroyed. Once there, Nehemiah was the Governor and Ezra was the Priest and scribe. All the Jewish people were gathered together and Ezra read to them the Law of Moses. When the people heard the Word of God, they were grieved to their very core.
Then a truly amazing thing happens. The people who are grieving are told in verse 10, "DO NOT SORROW, FOR THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH"!
So the message here is clear. If you have no Joy, you have no strength! You know my friends, no matter what happens in this world, the reading of God's Holy Word should bring us Joy and point us continually to the Great Commission of Matthew chapter 28:18-20.
What is your condition spiritually? Emotionally? Mentally? Physically? Tired all the time? Near burn out? Worried beyond belief? Well you are not alone. Many other believers are going through this as well. I began by saying that the word of God (the Bible) is real and true. It has all the answers that you need to make it through whatever problems you may be facing.
So let me close today by telling you that God gave his only begotten Son for YOU! Are you doubting whether or not you are worth it? Going through the old, "why am I even here routine?" We all have at one time or another but this is a time when your STRENGTH is needed. That can only be obtained by your daily rejoicing in the Word of God and for your Salvation. God describes us as his Ambassadors. He Says that WE are HIS righteousness through His Son Jesus Christ. However on a much more simple and yet complex plain, consider the following: How important are YOU as an individual to God?
Did you know that not one other human being since Adam was created, has your exact finger prints? Not one other has your foot imprint? Not one other has your exact inner eye design or inner ear pattern? Did you know that no other family on earth but yours has exactly the same DNA markers. You are unique.
Do you think that perhaps God created you for a very distinct purpose and JUST PERHAPS, no one else on this planet can accomplish whatever it is He intended for you? Did you know Ladies, that through Christ, you are a Princess in the Kingdom of God? Did you know Gentlemen that through Christ you are Princes and that someday you will reign with Him for eternity?
No matter how bad things get, the church has always grown during the most of difficult times. Rejoice, sing the praises of your King. Get your lips off the ground and get going.
DO NOT SORROW, FOR THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH!
God bless you all,
Pastor Rance.
