A Waste Of Life

I wonder when we stand before God if He will ask us about what we did with our time. We waste so much time everyday on cell phones, on social media, some people sit in front of the television all day when their not at work or playing video games.

On average teenagers spend eight to twelve hours a day on a cell phone and adults about 4 hours a day. It’s such a big waste of life in so many ways.

Someone once asked Billy Graham if he had any regrets in life. He said he wished he had spent more time praying, more time studying the Bible, and less time traveling and taking speaking engagements. He said that he wished he had spent ore time telling the Lord how much he loved him.

One day we will be held accountable for what we did with our time and perhaps even the opportunities we’ve missed.

When we are standing before God on judgement day. He will want to know what we did with our opportunities. Did we grasp them? Did we use the influence God gave us to reach out to people we know with the gospel? How did we use or resources? How did we spend our money?

These things all will be reviewed at judgement. But, this judgement won’t be about success as we like to define success. It will be about our faithfulness to the Lord.

For we must all be revealed before the judgement seat of Messiah; that each one may receive the things in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

2 Corinthians 5:10

We do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then it vanishes. James 4:14

Is God Judging America

If we consider the fact that God looks upon our nation like He does Israel, then is it possible that the blessings and judgements God places on Israel could apply to America?

Have you ever wondered why thing seems to be getting worse in Amy. Why crime is up, why things seem to be falling apart, why the weather is changing?

The answers to this questions are in the Bible.

The Old Testament is not a book for those that lived long ago, but is relevant to us today.

God told the nation of Israel that if they did not obey His law, love Him, and serve Him that He would pass judgement upon them. I believe that this hold true to America today.

We founded our country on the precepts of God and God holds us accountable for our actions.

If we fail to adhere to His word then judgement will come. God Will remover our cover of protection.

God will send judgement in 5 stages. These stages comes to a nation that turns away from God.

We can learn from the past or we can continue to make the same mistakes those in the past made.

The decision is ours.

We can make a difference and we can change the course the nation is traveling.

Stage 1

Loss of health, decline of agricultural prosperity, terror in combat, loss of our personal freedoms:

But, if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, and if you reject my statutes, and if your souls abhors in my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, I also will do this to your; I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consumer the eyes, and make the soul to pine away. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it. I will set my face against you, and you will be struck before your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you; and you will flee when no one pursues you.

Leviticus 26:14-17

Stage 2

Economic recession and depression, increased personal discipline:

If you in spite of these things will not listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more your sky like iron, and your soul like bronze. You strength will be spend in vain; for your land won’t yield its increase, neither will the trees of the land yield its fruit.

Leviticus 26:18-20

If we disobey God and live in our sins, we shall receive punishment for our sins seven times over.

You see people have nervous breakdowns.

Suicides will increase.

Weather will be affected, crops will be affected.

All the efforts you put forth in your work will be in vain

No one will recognize your efforts.

All your hard work will yield no fruit.

Stage 3

Violence and breakdown of law and order, cities destroyed:

If even then you remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey, I will inflict you with seven more disasters (plagues) for your sins. I will release wild animals that will kill your children and destroy your cattle, so your numbers will dwindle and your roads will be deserted.

Leviticus 26:21-22

You will see more disasters than ever before.

More violent acts against one another.

An increase in animals killing our children.

Future population will begin to decline.

Stage 4

Military conquest, foreign occupation of the land, scarcity of food, break up of the family unit:

And if you fail to learn a lesson from this and continue your hostility toward me, then I myself will be hostile toward you, and I will personally strike you seven times over for your sins. I will send armies against you to carry out these covenant threats. If you flee to your cities, I will send a plague to destroy you there, and you will be conquered by your enemies. I will completely destroy your food supply, so the bread from one over will have to be stretched to feed ten families. They will ration your food by weight, and even if you have food to eat, you will not be satisfied.

Leviticus 26:21-26

If we continue in our sins, we will see these things come to pass.

Stage 5

Destruction of the nation

If after this you still refuse to listen and still remain hostile towards me, then I will give full vent to my hostility. I will punish you seven times over for your sins. You will eat the flesh of your one sons and daughters. I will destroy your pagan shrines and cut down your incense alters. I will leave your corpses piled up beside your lifeless idols, and I will despise you. I will make your cities desolate and destroy your places of worship, and I will take no pleasure in your offerings of incense. Yes, I myself will devastate your land. Your enemies will come to occupy it will be utterly shocked at the destruction they see. I will scatter you among the nation and attack you with my own weapons. Your land will become desolate, and your cities will lie in ruins. Then at last the land will make up for its misses Sabbath years as it lies desolate during your years in exile in the land of your enemies. Then the land will finally rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. As the land lies in ruins, it will take the rest you never allowed it to take every seventh year while you lived it. And for those of you who survive. I will demoralize you in the land of your enemies far away. You will live in such constant fear that the sound of a leaf driven by the wind will send you fleeing. You will run as though chased by a warrior with a sword, and you will fall even when no one is pursuing you, you will stumble over each other in flight, as though fleeing in battle. You will have no power to stand before your enemies. You will die among the foreign nations and be devoured in the land of your enemies. Those still left alive will rot away in enemy lands because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors.

Leviticus 26:27-39

We need to repent and turn away from our wicked ways soon.

We need to cry out to God and ask for mercy.

We need to confess our sins.

We need God in America again.

W need God in our lives.

God always warns us in advance of everything He will do.

What Stage Do You Think We Are In Right Now!

Grace

Grace frees us from the dissatisfying claustrophobia of our individualism to enjoy the fulfilling freedom of loving and serving God.

Individualism is not freedom. Living for yourself is not liberty; it is a self-imposed prison. Doing what we want to do, when we want to do it, and how we want it has never been the good life; it never leads to anything good.

Making up our own rules and following our own paths leads to disaster. God calls us to Himself and commands us to follow Him so that, by grace, He May free us from ourselves. In calling us to obedience, God is not robbing us of Liberty, but is leading us to the only place where Liberty can be found.

To understand this, we must look at life from the vantage point of creation and the fall to sin. As the Creator, God designed us to live a dependent life. We were built for a life of loving, worshipful dependency and obedience. You and I do not have the power and wisdom we need to live the independent existence that modern society make us to believe. There is the law of the Universe that if we are not aligned with we will end up destroying ourselves. To try and live life completely independent to God is like trying to drive a beautiful boat down a Superhighway. The boat is a wonderful creation, which is loaded with amazing design details, but it was not built to run on pavement. If you try to run it on land, you will destroy the boat and go nowhere fast.

The entrance of sin into the world and into our hearts teaches us that we were not hardwired for independence. It complicates things. The fall made us all a danger to ourselves. Because of the sin in us, we think bad things, we desire bad things, we are attracted to bad things and we are blind too, to much of what is going on inside of ourselves. So not only need God’s presence and His wisdom to guide and protect us we also need His grace to rescue use.

The doctrine of creation and the fall into sin drives us to conclude that living for ourselves- that is working to independently rule our own little worlds will never work. Life is only ever found when we put ourselves in the hand of our Creator and cast ourselves on His amazing grace. An honest look at how we were put together by the Creator of the universe and what sin did to us destroys any confidence we have in our ability to make it on our own and drives us to the cross of the Lord.

It really is true that individualism is a delusion, that joyful submission is the good life and that Jesus alone is able to transport us from one to the other.

Grace Is The Only Power That Rescues Us From Us

What Is The Great Outpouring Of The Holy Spirit?

The great outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the pouring out of God’s Spirit to fill and indwell people- was prophesied in the Old Testament and was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost (Act 2). This event was predicted in the Old Testament. Isaiah 44:3 God said to Israel, “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessings on your descendants. The Holy Spirit is pictured as the “water of life” that saves and blesses dying people. On the day of Pentecost. Peter quoted another prophecy as being fulfilled: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days… And everyone who calls on the day of the Lord will be saved.” (Joel 2:28-29). I believe that “those days” are today.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit ushered in a new era, the church age. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was a rare gift that was only given to a few people and usually for only a short period of time. When Saul was anointed King of Israel, the Holy Spirit came upon him (1 Samuel 16:14). But when God removed His blessing on Saul, the Holy Spirit left him (1 Samuel 16:1). The Holy Spirit came for specific moments or seasons on people like Gideon and Samson. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on all believers in Christ and He came to start. This was a pivotal point changing the Holy Spirit’s work.

Before Jesus’s arrest, He had promised to send His disciples the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-17). The Holy Spirit lives with us and will be in His believers.. Jesus said I John 14:17 that this was a pprophecy of the indwelling of the Spirit, another distinctive of the church age. Ever since Pentecost, the Holy Spirit ahas baptized every believer into Christ at the moment of salvation (1 Corinthians 12:13), as He comes to permanently dwell i His children.

In the book of Acts, there are three outpourings of the Holy Spirit, to three different groups at three different times.

The First; was to the Jews and proselytes in Jerusalem (Acts 2).

The Second; was a group of believing Samaritans (Act8).

The Third; was to a group of believing Gentiles (Acts 10).

Significantly Peter was present at all three outpourings. Three times, God sent the Holy Spirit with demonstrable signs, as the Great Commission was being fulfilled. The same Holy Spirit coming up in the Jews, Samaritans, and the Gentiles in the same manner in the same presence of the same apostle that kept the church unified. There was not a Jewish church, a Samaritan church not a Roman church – there was one church, one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4:5).

The outpouring of the Spirit is different from the filling out the Spirit. The outpouring was a unique coming of the Holy Spirit to earth; the filling happens whenever we are surrendered to God’s control of our lives. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). In this regard it is possible for the believer either to be “filled with the Spirit” or to “quench” the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). In either case, the Holy Spirit remains with the believer. The filling of the Holy Spirit camel as a direct result of submission to God’s will, and the quenching isa direct result of rebelling against God’s will.

Some still look for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on a specific group of people in a specific place or time, but there is no biblical support for the repeat of such a Pentecost-style event. The church has already begun, the Apostles have already laid the groundwork of that foundation (Ephesians 2:20).

Sometimes we sing songs that ask the Holy Spirit to ‘come’ but the reality is that He has already come to us -at the moment of our salvation, and once He comes, He does not leave. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a completed prophecy that usher in the church age and the New Covenant in which all believers are given the Holy Spirit.

The Difference Between Happiness And Joy

We often use the terms “happiness” and “joy” interchangeably, but are they they same thing?

Though you have not seen His; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

1 Peter 1:8

Happiness and joy are seemingly similar, but are quite different. The key point being that God promises joy, but He never promises us happiness.

Being happy is an emotion, just like sadness or jealousy or fear. It is fleeting. You might be happy about something, but you are not going to be continually happy. Happiness is great, but we can get happiness from a lot of things.

Joy on the other hand, is a long-lasting state of being. Joy is promoted by God and something we should strive towards. Hebrews 12:2 states, “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

We all know there will joy in heaven, so we can have joy now in our expectant waiting. God promises us joy when He promises salvation. When we keep this truth in the front of out minds, we can find peace and joy even in our earthly suffering.

Psalm 16:11, says “You make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.”

Once again, God gives us joy, even if we are not happy. We do not have to smile all the time. We are not promised sunshine and rainbows in this life, but we promised salvation and eternal life, which is cause for great joy even in the midst of pain and unhappiness.