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Like A Thief In The Night

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).

Are You Ready?

Be Ready Stay Safe And Steady

There is a story that I heard years ago about a farmer who needed help on his property. A man applied for the job and when the farmer asked, “What are your qualifications?” the man answered:

“I can sleep through a storm.”

Understandably, the farmer was confused. He probably thought, “I’m not hiring you to sleep, buddy.” But hired him anyway, thinking he could use him, and teach him a few things.

One night, a heavy storm swept through the valley. The farmer woke up in a panic and rushed to find the new worker – and found him fast asleep. The farmer and his wife started checking the farm themselves, worried that everything might be ruined.

But as the walked around, they realized everything was already taken care of:

  • The shutters were fastened
  • The logs were stacked by the fireplace
  • The barns were locked
  • The tractor was put away
  • The wheat was covered
  • The animals were calm, fed, and safe

That’s when the farmer understood. The man could sleep through the storm – because he was prepared.

When we prepare, we can rest easier

We live in a world where storms -both literal and figurative are guaranteed. Emergencies, heartbreaks, financial hits, personal struggles, unexpected loss… life has a way of surprising us.

But if we are living prepared, those surprises don’t have to wreck us.

Preparation isn’t just about food in the pantry or gas in a generator. It’s about being mentally, spiritually, and practically ready. So when life gets hard, we’re not scrambling.

That’s exactly what God wants for each of us.

Proverbs 6:6-8 says, “Go to the ant, O sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, no overseer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.”

Here are a few ways to prepare:

  • Build a steady prayer life. Don’t pray just when things go wrong, pray everyday. A regular prayer life that’s consistent makes peace, a regular visitor in our minds. When chaos shows up, our first instinct will be to stay calm and not panic.
  • Keep Things in order. whether it’s finances, repairs on the house, relationships, or health, maintaining responsibilities keep small issues from becoming a big crisis.
  • Have a support system in place. Life feels heavier when we’re trying to carry things alone. Invest in relationships, whether family, friends, church, or neighbors -so when the storms come we can have people checking up on us.
  • Know the Bible. God’s truth won’t magically pop into our heads when we never read it. But when it’s already in our hearts, it comes back when we need it most.

Peace comes from preparation.

Imagine if that farmer had hired someone that was lazy or unprepared. The storm might have destroyed everything. Instead, it didn’t even wake the farmhand, because he had already done the work before the storm came.

That’s real peace. It’s not about pretended life is always sunny. It’s about knowing that when it rains -or pours – we’ve already secured what matters.

Spiritually speaking, this means abiding in Christ Jesus, practicing wisdom, and living responsibly. It’s less about trying to control every outcome and more about doing what we can, with what we have, right now.

Jesus said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

That’s the kind of peace that lets us sleep through any storm.

Storms will come, but if we prepare in advance, we can face them without fear.

Peace isn’t just a feeling. It’s a byproduct of preparation.

Something That Seems Ridiculous Now That Happened Growing Up

When I was a child in the 70’s at school there was something called the Mcgruff crime dog. He would come tell us to “take a bite out of crime.” To keep our doors locked, and stay off drugs. I always thought it was ridiculous that they were come to school to take our fingerprints, and give us papers to take home.
The ploy was to take our fingerprints to keep in their files so if something “bad’ happened to us we would be able to be identified. But few failed to recognize the police had our fingerprints if we committed a crime.

I thought this was ridiculous because the generation I lived through was what I called the latchkey generation. We were expected to come home, lock the door, do our homework, and sometimes feed our siblings, all before our parents got home, with my mother being a stay-at-home parent. I didn’t go home. I stayed gone as long as possible to avoid her. At night, I would come home, get whatever was in the refrigerator to eat cold, and sneak off to bed.

Most kids were expected to do everything this program taught. It was a waste of funds and time. It failed, as you can imagine. It except allowed the police to get our fingerprints.

The Book That Changed Me

A few books changed my perspective. The Bible allows me to understand what’s happening in the world. Which gives me peace that surpasses all understanding.

The second book is The Highly Sensitive Person by Dr Elaine Aron gave me understanding of why I never felt like I belonged anywhere. It helped me why I feel emotions intensely, and required strategies to avoid becoming overstimulated by things around me.

Go In My Strength -Joshua 1

There’s a moment when the day comes for us to step into our callings.

The very thing God has been preparing us for. When God speaks, doors open. It’s will be time to take the step. But then, suddenly, we may feel unqualified.

That’s where Joshua found himself in Joshua 1. Moses was dead. And the weight of leadership rested solely on him. God told him something impossible, “lead these people.”

Joshua watched the great leader, Moses, fail to gain entry to and possess the promised land. And now, it is him. No warm-up, no gradual transition. Just a call that felt bigger than him.

“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people…” Joshua 1:6

God isn’t asking Joshua to feel ready. He is asking him to move anyway.

Our calling will often stretch us beyond our natural ability. This is not a flaw -it’s be design. Because if we could do it in our own strength, we wouldn’t need God. The size of the assignment isn’t a mistake – it’s an invitation.

An invitation to trust

An invitation to grow

An invitation to parter with God

Where is God calling you to step up, but you feel unqualified? I was told the other day to “speak up, that I had a lot of good things to say.” I know I need to find the courage and to trust God. Then I came across Joshua this morning. God was speaking to me through it, that it was time for me to step up.

We don’t have to feel ready to go. I’m sure we have all had a responsibility we weren’t ready for. A dream which feels beyond our capacity.

The step God asks us to take, but everything in us is holding us back. God didn’t deny Joshua’s fear. He spoke to it -move anyway.

How To Save Your Soul According To The Bible

Redwood National Park – California

To have eternal life and inherit the kingdom of God is probably the best goal anyone can have. But how can we save our souls? How can we save ourselves on judgment day and avoid eternal damnation?

The world has many religions and churches. They have their own belief systems and doctrines. They offer various ways of salvation. But if you strongly believe the Word of God (the Bible), here’s a way to save your soul according to God’s Word.

  • 1. Believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” -John 3:16

  • 2. Believe in Jesus as the head of the body -the church.

“And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence” -Colossians 1:18

  • 3. Accept Jesus Christ as Savior of the church.

“For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body” – Ephesians 5:23

  • 4. Be part of the church or the body of Jesus Christ and Accept Him as your Savior.

“Now you are the body of Messiah, and members individually” – 1 Corinthians 12:27

1 Corinthians 12:27 when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or when one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

  • 5. Be part of the church through baptism by the Spirit of God.

“For by One spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into One Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many” -1 Corinthians 12:13-14

  • 6. Receive the grace and mercy of God, accept the gift of salvation given to us when Jesus Christ sacrificed His life and died for our sins.

“Even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Messiah (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and made us sit with Him in the heavenly places in Messiah Yeshua, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Messiah Yeshua, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast” – Ephesians 2:5-9

7. Have Spiritual Rebirth.

“ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘Rabbi, who know that You are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him. How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit (Holy Spirit) he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” -John 3:2-6

  • 8. Live in the Spirit, not in the flesh.

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revealings, and such like, of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such, there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” – Galatians 5:19-25

  • 9. Confess your sins.

“He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy” -Proverbs 28:13

We need to trust in Jesus’s sacrifice and live a life of righteousness. These are central to our salvation.

God warns against false prophets in the last days. In 1 John 4:1 he tells us to test the spirits or teachings to see if it is Him. They must measure up against biblical truths and spiritual fruit. We do not want to be deceived.

What Language Do I Speak And The Impact

Coming from a Hungarian family, my nagymama, (my grandma) would speak Hungarian and English and my father spoke Hungarian and English, so I picked up some words along the way. Some things I only knew in Hungarian like a dresser was a fio’k and a apple was alma for apple.

I remember in kindergarten my father was called by the teacher, telling him I didn’t know how to say some words like dresser and apple. My father told her I was speaking Hungarian.

When my father cursed he would always speak Hungarian. So naturally I picked up a few of those.

Trust God’s Battle Plan

If God has never lost a battle, then any we are facing situation isn’t the exception. Our seasons are not outside His control. Our problems are not bigger than His power.

We should not panic in our storms of life, we should go straight to prayer. It’s important that we shouldn’t surrender to our fears. It doesn’t measure our future by anything we are going through today.

Because the same God who parted the seas shut the mouths of lions, raised the dead, and made a way where there seemed to be no way -is still the God holding our lives right now.

Even when it looks like the doors are closed, God is still working. Even when prayed feels delayed, He is still faithful. Even when we don’t understand, God is still good.

Choose peace over fear. Faith over fear. And trust over anxiety.

We may not know what tomorrow will hold, but we know who holds tomorrow.

Advice I Would Tell Someone Younger

I would tell them, something I wish someone would have told me, many years ago. I think Malcolm X said it best, “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

So many people think they have time to prepare for their they end up wasting there lives away for fun and what they want right now, and don’t plan for the future.

God’s Promises vs. Fear

Mounds in Utah

Fear is one of the most persistent struggles in our life. It can grip our mind, tighten our chest, and whisper lies about the future.

This fear is more than a feeling, sometimes is an attack from Satan meant to weaken our confidence and silence, our faith.

If you look at this as if fear is a spirit and God has not given us a spirit of fear. God does not intend his children to live in bondage to worry, dread, or anxiety. Instead, He gives us His Holy Spirit, and He repeatedly offers promises – solid, unchanging, eternal promises to steady our hearts and anchor our faith.

Fear feeds on forgiveness about who God is and what Ge said, and how He has provided for us in the past.

We see an example of this in Timothy when fear caused him to forget the gifts God placed within him. Paul told Timothy in 4:14, “Don’t neglect the gift that is in you, it was given to you through prophecy…” When we focus on fear it takes all the blue out of the sky. We forget who we are and what God has done for us.

Fear also grows from a wrong view of God. I was raised on fear -fear that if I wasn’t perfect, God would judge me. But we magnify our problems more than God; our hearts, naturally, tremble. God desires us to live not in faith, not in fear. He repeatedly tells us, “Do not fear,” not as an impossible burden, but as a loving invitation to trust Him.

God wants us to be free from fear because fear shrinks our lives, silences our gifts, weekends, our testimony, and robs our joy. Faith, however, enlarge as our lives, open the doors, strengthens our spirits, and fills us with peace. 

God Promises His Strength

Chimney Rock Near Fish Lake -Utah

“Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” -Isaiah 41:10

Every day I wake up reminded of my weakness. No human being had ever liv d a perfect day. But there is goodness in God’s promise. God promises His strength when we are weak, and I believe we can live in the real, meaningful, and powerful strength of God.

God in His infinite wisdom and love chose to create mankind full well that we would choose our ways over His. We’re made with the terrible capacity to live out of our own strength.

As a result we see both in scripture and our lives incredible failures example of our weakness played out before our own eyes. We see the declining mortality in society. We see it in people’s lives that can’t seem to get it together. Weakness seems to be threaded into the fabric of our world.

But scripture also contains incredible accounts of the victories of God’s people. Like Moses and the Egyptians, David and Goliath, Solomon and the Philistines, and the early church spreading the gospel across the world despite insurmountable odds. And along the way all the accounts of victory. But there is also many accounts of failure. So, what made the difference? What separates the accounts of success from the failures? The difference is the people of God who allowed God to be their strength. Success came solely when God was made strong in man’s weakness.

Psalm 103:13-14 says, “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. For He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust.” Remember, fear of the Lord is an attitude of awe, reverence, and respect towards Him.

God created us and knows our weakness. He knows apart from Him we can do nothing. And because of what Jesus chose to do on the cross we are no longer apart from Him.

We must choose God’s way over our own if we are to succeed in this life and eternity with Him.