One night a thief broke into a house he thought was abandoned. As he walked then the darkened house with a flashlight he heard a voice from the kitchen that said, “Jesus is watching you.’ He stopped and said, “who’s there?” There was no answer so he thought he must have imagined it. But after he took a few more steps, the voice said again, “Jesus is watching you.” He decided to walk toward the voice, just before he entered the kitchen, he heard it again, “Jesus is watching you.” He swung the flashlight up and saw a parrot talking in a cage. The parrot said, Jesus is watching you.” The their turned flipped on the kitchen light and said, “Why you’re just a dumb bird.” The he looked in the corner of the room and seen a huge Rottweiler couching. And the parrot said “Get him Jesus.”
You might think it’s strange that Jesus would compare Himself to a thief. Of course, Jesus isn’t identifying with the sin of stealing. But just a good thief (that’s a oxymoron).that tries to sneak in quickly and quietly and escape with His people. That’s an accurate description of how Jesus will rapture His church.
We should all be living as if Jesus was crucified yesterday; raised from the dead this morning, and is coming back this afternoon.
1 Thessalonians 5: 1-4 tells us, “But concerning the times and the seasons, you have no need that anything be written to you. For you yourselves know that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come to then, like birth pains on a pregnant woman; and they will in no way escape.
We should know these 4 things
1. Jesus will return, But we don’t know the exact day.
Can you imagine a thief sending you a text or email saying, “Just wanted to know that I’m coming to rob your house tonight.” Of course not. Thief’s don’t announce when they’re coming. They sneak in and out.
When I was growing up my Dad used to do military funerals when a soldier or veteran would pass away. My father would keep all the guns in his closet. One night when no one was home the house was broken into and all the M16 rifles were stolen. He was very upset because they trusted him with these rifles. For a long time there would be someone home, or a neighbor would be watching the house.
Jesus told us to keep watch, because you don’t know on what day the Lord will come. We need to understand, if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and not let the house be broken into. So we must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you don’t expect him (Matthew 24:42-44),
There have been times throughout history when many people expected Jesus to return. We use the Gregorian calendar now, but when the Julian calendar turned from year 999 to the year 1000, people expected Jesus to come for a new millennium, the same was true in the year 2000. People were on their best behavior, In the year 1000 history says that worldly goods were sold and money was given to the poor. Prisoners were set free, and many traveled to Israel to wait for Jesus’s return,
In the second and third chapter of Revelation, Jesus gives messages to the 7 churches, which represent all churches of all time. When He wrote to the church at Philadelphia, He says, “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I also will keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth” (Revelation3:10).
In Luke 17 Jesus compares His return to a couple of Old Testament events. “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the dat Noah entered the ark. Then the flood cane and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating, drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and suffer rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son Of Man is revealed (Luke 17:26-30).
I would answer this question by using what God’s Word says. Revelation 22:13 God says He is the beginning and the end. The Bible mentions anything about life on any planets, except our own. This subject is completely out of my element, but I think there are challenges of colonization of mars. we can’t take care of the earth we are inhabiting now, so how can we be expect take care of another planet. Mars is 95% carbon dioxide, our bodily fluids would boil without a pressurized environment. And we would be continuously be bombarded by dangerous rays. It is also it is extremely cold there and it would take enormous amounts of energy just for us to stay home.
The world has access to every bit of information they could ever dream of. Yet it’s a realm of the tangible. It represents the information we acquire through our physical senses,study, experience, and reason. It is built on evidence, patterns, and facts that can be tested, measure, and shared.
Revelation knowledge is different. It refers to truths or insights that are believed to come from outside the realm of human intellect, through spiritual or divine intuition.
Many people believe the Word of God with their minds, but they haven’t meditated on it enough for it to light up their hearts. If they had, the Word of God would absolutely revolutionized their lives. Nothing would be able to shake them loose from it.
In God’s kingdom, there is a knowing that comes from the inside out, rather than outside in.
In verse Matthew 16:18 Jesus said, “I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Sheol will not prevail against it.”
What rock was Jesus referring to? Was it Peter? I think Jesus was referring to the rock of revelation that He lived.
Just before Jesus spoke to Peter, He had asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am? Peter answered Him by declaring, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus responded saying, “Blessed are you, Simon… because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
Peter didn’t learn this information through his physical senses, you received it directly from God.
I believe this is the way we should living our everyday lives. Knowledge that comes directly from God. Anything we can learn in the physical is incomparable to learning it from God. If we did we would see things in a whole new light. It would give us such an unshakable confidence that the “the gates of hell would not prevail” toward us.
But revelation knowledge like this doesn’t come cheap. We have to meditate on the Word and search the Holy Spirit because they are hidden in Him. The Bible says God has hidden His wisdom for the saints. 1 Corinthians 2:7-9 tells us the wisdom of God is a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew.
That being said God won’t just drop great revelations into our lap while we are watching television or scrolling on social media. We need to seek Him.
Revelation knowledge is not just a list of facts or trivia. It has deep power -the power to set us free and elevate us to victories we never imagined possible.
We come across people with a lot of guesses or opinions that change with the wind. Prideful people think they know so much, but humble people hungry for revelation knowledge know they need the Creator and Savior to access truth.
Revelation knowledge is the only way to win the battle for truth. Was Satan ever present spewing lies day and night, in hopes that someone will latch onto them and give them total access to their lives. Jesus said Satan is the father of lies. That’s why we need revelation knowledge.
Spirit, soul, and body in that order. We are a spirit, with a soul, who lives in a physical body. And the body -the flesh is usually the most demanding. Revelation knowledge comes from putting the spirit first, and then the soul and the body last.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 tells us, “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.”
When we choose to follow Jesus we are born again. It is not our body that is transformed, but our spirit. That’s who we are. Our physical body is just what house is our spirit. God is a spirit being, and we were made in His image. We live in our bodies, but no one can see the real us -our spirit. That’s why they call our bodies “the remains” because that’s all that remains on earth of us when we die. Our spirit either goes to heaven or to hell.
The Bible says the outward man -the flesh is decaying every day, but the spirit is renewing every day (2 Corinthians 4:16).
Roman’s 8:11 says, “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your moral bodies.” If we believe this, we can bring our physical desires and impulses under control of the Holy Spirit.
It is essential to put our spirit ahead of all else to receive revelation knowledge. Hebrews 4:12, tells us the Word of God separates the soul from the spirit. God is a spirit, and that’s why we must worship God in spirit, not just soul or body.
In John 4:24 Jesus tells the Samaritan woman, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Because God is an immaterial Spirit, genuine worship is not restricted to a specific holy mountain or building. Worshiping in spirit means, engaging your heart, engaging the Holy Spirit, guidance, and being sincere, while worshiping in truth means aligning our praise with the reality of who God is..
Most people who believe the Word of God only with their minds haven’t meditated on it enough for it to reach their hearts.
Revelation knowledge is the key to our victory. Whenever Satan comes to attack we need to be able to hit him with revelation knowledge to knock him flat every time.
Memes seem to be everywhere. I don’t really care for them because it’s just another way to spread artificial communication that gives people a dopamine hit. They base communication on computers not human interaction. I believe we are in enough trouble right now in society with a lack of human communication.
That being said, most people like them. And they are relatable digital moments that help computer based social health.
I absolutely love the freedoms I have in America. But I have would love to experience the festival Christmas markets that happen in other countries. The chance to walk around and look (and try) different foods and arts in other countries.
We have something called “International days” to celebrate our different cultures, but it all turns out to be different foods with an American twist.
In times of lawlessness, anarchy, terror, and unrestrained evil, we need God’s supernatural strength more than ever. We need God given stability in order to stand firm, stability that stems from the truth of the Bible. Trusting that God will protect us through our storms. Knowing He will guide us through the turbulent times of persecution.
God can steady us and stabilize us during times of testing. Allow God be your fortress when all others collapse into dust.
Jesus told us in John 6:39, “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day.”
God chose His people and called them out of the world . Before the foundations of the world were laid, God looked down through history, saw us, loved us, and chose us. We need to remember this and come back to it often: nothing will put us out of our circumstances more quickly and lift us up to the portals of heaven more completely than realizing that God loves us, knew each of us, and called us by name before history began. This is the kind of stability we can build a life on.
Therefore, Satan will do his worst. Man will be lawless and revealed. And all hell will break loose. We as God’s people will not be shaken. We will not be moved. We will not be intimidated. We will stand firm, confident because we are held in our loving Father’s hands, we are the apple of His eye.
Stability cannot be found in our circumstances. It won’t be found in politics or politicians either. The economy offers no guarantee of security, and the approval of others fleeting. True stability can only be found in God’s sovereign choice of us, in His calling on our lives.
The strength of God will stabilize us, in the stormy days to come. He is faithful and will keep us from stumbling.
I think the biggest mistake people make when visiting America or any other country is that they are they treat people here with disrespect. Or automatically think this country is like their own. It’s not. Where I live there are a lot of farmers and people who work hard for their living. The last thing you want to do is show disrespect for their way of life.
Gratitude is more than just a feeling- it’s a spiritual practice that draws us closer to God. The Bible encourages us to give thanks in all circumstances, recognizing God’s goodness in both trials and blessings. A heart of gratitude can transform our perspective, making us more aware of God’s presence and faithfulness in our lives.
I think that’s why I enjoy nature so much. When a trial comes that I think I’m not going to get through this one. I can go over the pictures I have taken and remember how good God is.
When we cultivate this attitude of getting ourselves out of the way, align our hearts with God’s will, and acknowledge that the source of every gift we’ve ever received is from God.
Gratitude is not just an expression of thankfulness, they are declarations of faith. They remind us that even in difficult times, God’s love remains steadfast.
When we pray we should pray with a thankful heart, and invite joy, peace, and contentment into our lives. This not only strengthens our relationship with God,nit allows us to experience His guidance and protection more deeply.
Gratitude is a doorway to spiritual growth, that helps us focus less on our problems and more on God’s provision.
Each prayer we say should encourage a spirit of thankfulness in every area of our lives: health, prosperity, family, relationships, and even trials.
Gratitude is not something we stumble upon, it’s a daily practice. Finding the good in the ordinary isn’t always easy, but it’s entirely worth the effort.
An oil painting by German artist Friedrich Moritz August Retzsch
Life may look like checkmate, but God still has one more move. What appears final is often a set up for the breakthrough He’s preparing.
Hanging in the Lourve Museum in Paris is a painting that most people walk right past.
It’s not a famous painting like the Mons Lisa or as grand as most, but it carries one of the most powerful lessons I’ve ever heard.
The painting called Checkmate shows two people sitting at a chessboard: one is clearly distressed, His face pale and defeated, and across from him, Satan smiling thinking he,s won.
The title says it all: Checkmate. The game is over. Or so it seems…
But what may seem like the end, we need to take a closer look.
There’s a truth about this painting that tells a different story -the real story:
Years ago a chess grandmaster visited the museum as part of a tour while the painting was on display.
He stood in front of the painting letting everyone else walk by as he was looking closer he realized something. The tour guide came back to him, telling him to move along. The grandmaster told him ‘someone either needs to modify the painting or change its title.
Because the King has one more move.
I’m sure we have all experienced something like the man in the painting.
Trapped.
Out of options.
Certain that your story has reached an end.
You’ve done everything in your power and it feels like defeat is staring you in the face.
But remember just because it looks like the game is over it doesn’t mean it is.
God still has one move left, even when you can’t see it.
Think about Joseph, sitting in a prison cell after being betrayed by his brothers. Or Daniel, surrounded by lions in a dark cave. Or even Lazarus four days in a tomb, while everyone else was mourning.
Each of their stories looked like checkmate.
But they weren’t finished. God was still moving the pieces.
You might not see the move yet.
You might not understand the strategy.
But you can trust the King who is still at the table.
So, don’t give up. Don’t close the story before He’s done writing it.
Because no matter how hopeless the board looks one truth still remains.
My fears came from my childhood. My mother would tells me, I as worthless, I was stupid, I would never amount to anything, that people judged me because of it. That I was meant to be seen and not heard. She would use fear to control me. It taught me to trust no-one because they would judge me.
As an adult I thought everything I did and said had to be perfect or not at all. I feared people paying attention to me, I would rather stay in the background and let others take the credit for my hard work. I internalized shame, because I believed my core was fundamentally flawed, broken, unworthy and an accident. When God found me I had hit rock bottom, I had a choice to end it all or trust that God would pull me up out of the dark pit I had fallen into again. I had to change my entire perspective. I had to let go of the bitterness and unforgiveness, I felt for my mother. Today I still deal with the damage my mother caused. The anxiety that comes from social interactions, the lack of trust I feel towards people. Everyday I choose to override my fear because action cures anxiety.
God has given us everything we need for life and godliness and in retire God expects us to bear fruit as faithful tenants.
In Genesis 1:11 God said, “Let the land produce vegetation, seed bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seeds in it, according to their various kinds, and so it was so.” Think about the variety of fruits – Pineapple, mango, pears, kiwi fruit, papaya, grapes and apples. God has made a world of fruits and vegetables all of them from seeds, the genetic code of which God created at the beginning.
In the beginning God created man, male and female, in His image, this is the command He gave them. “God blessed then and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Fruitfulness that mean’t having children, who themselves, would be made in God’s image, that they would be fruitful and multiply and fill the world with human beings so that the earth would be filled with knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. Throughout the scriptures is that God has lavished on us many advantages and blessings, everything we need for life, godliness, and faithfulness. In return God expects a return on His investment.
Many scriptures speaks on this issue of required fruit. With the coming of the Kingdom of God, John the Baptist preached a very fiery message. He said to His generation, “Produce fruit and keep with repentance.” He also said a few verses later, “The ax is already at the root of the trees. And every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” In Matthew 12:33 Jesus said, “Either make the tree good, and it’s fruit good, or make the tree corrupt, and make it’s fruit corrupt, for the tree is known by its fruit. In John 15, He gives an image of a vine with many branches. He said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him, produces much fruit, because you can do nothing with me. While every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
Mark 12 teaches this vital lesson, that Almighty God expects fruit from His people. He expects a return on His investment in our lives.
Jesus taught the parable of the vineyard to help us understand this in context:
The last week of Jesus life, He told this story directly to the chief priests, scribes, and elders of the Jewish. The situation the religious leaders had just confronted Jesus and angrily demanded to know by what authority He was teaching and clearing the temple.
It is the Passover. Thousands of pilgrims, Jewish worshippers were flooding from all over to Jerusalem. Jesus had already entered Jerusalem to shout of acclaim and triumph to the praise of the people. But, Jesus’s enemies are there as well. They were there to attack Him, and tear His down. The next morning Jesu saw the “fig tree,” with a lot of leaves. Jesus went to get fruit from it but found nothing. He said to the tree, “May you never bear fruit again.”
I think His prophetic cursing of the fig tree with its judgment and its immediate withering was connected to the spiritual fruitlessness of the nation of Israel, because He was just about to go in there and cleanse the temple of all its wickedness, its wicked corruption. This cleansing of the temple involved driving out greedy money changers and corrupt religionists who are making money on religion.
Jesus then begun to teach in the temple. He was doing miracles, healing in the temple, and because of His powerful presence and action, the religious leaders opposed Him to His face. They demanded to know by what authority He was doing these things. He would Andrew with a question. If they answered He would answer their question with authority. He answered with John’s baptism, where did it come from? Was it from heaven or from men?
A very wise answer on Jesus’s part because the same one who sent John to baptize in water sent His son into the world to do what Jesus was doing.
Keep in mind that the vineyard is Israel, the landowner is God, and the tenants were the corrupt religious leaders, and the landowner’s son who is killed by the tenants is Jesus Himself.
Jesus told of a vineyard, there choice vines, and the protective wall around it. There is a wine press, a watchtower. And there is also a very disappointed outcome for the owner of the vineyard.
In Mark 12:1-11 Jesus began to speak to them in a parable. “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the wine press and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard, but they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty handed. Then he sent another servant to them. They struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent another, and that one they killed. After a few more servants. He sent his son, saying they will respect my son. The tenants said ‘This is his heir, let’s kill him and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they took him and killed him and threw him out in the vineyard. The owner of the vineyard came to kill those tenants and gave the vineyard to others.” (Paraphrased).
There are details in this parable that are very valuable. The main idea of Jesus’s parable of the vineyard is that fruitlessness produces judgment from God if the vineyard is absent from the landowner.
Ordinarily, it would take three years to begin getting return on the landowners vineyard. Every advantage as given to this vineyard.
First there’s a wall around it for protection to keep out wild animals and thieves. There’s also a wine press, which is an anticipation of the prophet from the vineyard. Generally, there would have been two basins carved out of rock and lines with plaster, an upper one and a lower one, the servants would have put the grapes in the upper one and tread them out with their feet. Then the wine -the grape juice, would run down into the lower basic where it would begin the process of fermentation. Then their is the watchtower, which enables guards to look out over the vineyard and make sure it’s protected, a constant vigil looking out over the terrain
In this parable there are “tenants” tenants are hired laborers who are brought into work the vineyard. It’s not theirs it the landowners. Their skill and labor are essential to the success of the vineyard. The vineyard doesn’t belong to them, but if they work well, they will share in its profits. This is the key concept: The vineyard belongs to the landowner. The tenants are farmers just working the vineyard in the hopes of sharing its harvest.
It’s essential to pay attention to Luke’s version, that the owner goes away on a long journey. He is not visibly there managing it. So the tenants are on their own. They have to remember and be faithful to him in their hearts.
Jesus crafted this parable to maximize shock. The judgment is there. The details are repulsive. The violence gets worse with each successive messages. The first servant is beaten, the second one is crushed in the head and treated shamefully, and humiliated, and the next is murdered outright.
Even more amazing is how patient the landowner is. The people listening to Jesus, probably thought, ‘How much more of this will the owner going to put up with this. Jesus said the owner actually sent many others. Some of them they killed and abused. Others the beat. Each one got treated shamefully and not one of them got his return on the investment. And then Jesus’s plot twist was he sent his son who he loved. He sent him last saying, “They will respect my son. But the workers said ‘let’s kill him and take his inheritance.
The hearers of Jesus parable were probably thinking, ‘wait don’t do that, it’s obvious what’s going to happen.” Remember that at Jesus’s baptism in Mark it says, “You are my Son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased. That’s the message spoken directly from God to Jesus.
The landowner said, “They will respect my Son.” And that’s exactly what should have happened, they should have respect His Son.
They should have listened to His Son.
They should have honored His Son.
They should have worshipped His Son.
They should have followed His Son.
Instead they rejected Him. They despised Him. They opposed Him, and in the end the killed Him.
In this parable, what is the tenants farmer’s motive? The tenants did not want the owner ruling over them, they rejected His authority. They didn’t want to give Him anything. They wanted full ownership of the vineyard themselves. They wanted all the proceeds from themselves. They wanted control of the vineyard. They thought if we kill the heir and take His inheritance (meaning the vineyard) it will be ours then.
This is clearly prophecy of Jesus’s rejection and His crucifixion outside of the city gates, completely rejected by His own people. He died outside the city.
The ending is what the owner will do to those tenants. Matthew 21:41 tells us “He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers who will give him the fruit in its season.”
In Verse 42 He said, “Did you never read the scriptures. The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner. This as from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes.
We are supposed to produce the fruit of the kingdom. It’s our time.
Many are made to believe that Jesus is coming back the same way He came as gentle as a lamb, but they will be sadly mistaken. He is coming back as a lion to conquer sin and evil. The final judgment and renewal of all creation.
Scripture defines good as that which is aligned with God’s nature, will, and creation, while evil represents rebellion against God. Goodness is eternal, whereas evil originates from rebellion of created beings.
Evil does not balance or compliment good, it is an intrusion into a perfect creation that will ultimately be eliminated.
From Pity to Praise 