Time.
Time for us right now is finite.
Time when we die- ceases for us.
When Jesus Christ sounds the trumpet and the dead in Christ rise, time will begin again- and for those rising saved through Christ- it will be eternal time.
During our pilgrimage here on earth as the years go by we are caught up in a twisted, sick, painful, heartbreaking and also- beautiful life.
Men's heart failing them for fear -
Luk 21:26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Luk 21:27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Today, it is so easy to let ourselves fear. There is so much uncertainty in our world on every side. There is no such thing as feeling secure and safe in our life, not really. We can go days, weeks, months and years without too many problems, but that's not often the case. Some people live in a perpetual state of insecurity, uncertainty, feeling vulnerable and yes, scared, fearful. People can and do make themselves sick with fear and worry. Just knowing that we don't know what the future holds and only appears grim, can trouble us deeply. So much in our lives scream out for us to worry and be afraid.
God tries to tell us this very important lesson we’re likely to forget-
Mat 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Mat 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Mat 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Mat 6:27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
Mat 6:28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
Mat 6:29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Mat 6:30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Mat 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Mat 6:32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Mat 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
So much TRUTH to learn!
We are living in very tumultuous times. And we have every reason to fear should we choose to allow this temporary life take precedence over our eternal life.
We are to SEEK the Kingdom of God and His righteousness FIRST before anything else- before money, food, clothes, shelter, health, all things.
Help us to this end, Lord. We would not that our hearts fail us for fear looking after the things coming, no matter what those things are. We ask that You uphold us with the right hand of Your righteousness and give us the peace that passes ALL understanding! Help us to trust in You with ALL our heart and lean NOT to our own understanding. We can't hope to understand what isn't ours to do so. Satan would have us understand everything, but he is evil and wants us to take our eyes off you and keep them on ourselves. Please, Lord, help us to keep our eyes EVER on you even as our individual lives fall apart piece by piece around us, never staying the same, never staying in a place we can be secure and content. Let us fine our security in YOU, no matter what chaos befalls us! Please, LORD, save us from ourselves! Save us! Keep us from evil! Keep our Hearts so they don't fail!
All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, now and forever!!!!!!! Amen!
CONTINUED-
(Excerpt)
Christ and the Pharisees -OR Christ's Faithfulness in Sabbath-Keeping.
BY A. T. JONES. 1894 [Religious Liberty Library, No. 18] [Cont.]
But that was not the end of the story. They did this to save the nation from the Romans. They said, If we let this man thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation. They did not let him alone, and the Romans came and took away both their place and nation forevermore. Their efforts to save the nation destroyed the nation.
Self-efforts for salvation will always destroy him who makes them.
But let us follow this in its direct intent and purpose. Their efforts to save the nation, not only brought destruction to the nation; but the thing which they did that night settled the doom of destruction for that nation forever. There was no more salvation for that nation, as such, after that night, than there was for Sodom when Lot went out of it. It was only a question of time when the destruction would come. And in view of that destruction Jesus sent forth his disciples with the everlasting gospel of this same Saviour whom they had crucified; to call every one in the nation, as an individual, to believe on him, not only for salvation from self, but for salvation from this destruction that was so certain to come.
Every believer in Jesus escaped the destruction that was to come. Those who did not believe on him, did not escape. From that time forth they needed Jesus Christ for their salvation in this life as well as for the other life. They were just as dependent upon Jesus Christ to save them from the ruin that was to come, as they were dependent upon him to save them from their own personal sins. And he gave them a sign by which they were to know when to flee for their lives and escape that ruin:-
"When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountain; let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto; let them that are in the midst of it depart out; let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return hack to take his clothes. But pray ye that your flight he not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day, for these be the days of
vengeance. Luke 21:20-22; Matt. 24:16-20.
So the doom of the nation was fixed that night. And all that the Lord himself could do for them after that was to send his saving message to the whole nation, to all the people, telling them to believe in Jesus and they would be saved out of the nation, and from the ruin that was to come upon all the nation who did not believe.
We have already spoken of a parallel to this line of things in our day. Let us notice this further now. There have been in this nation for nearly fifty years now, a people, the Seventh-day Adventists, giving a special message in which God's ideas of the Sabbath are most prominently advocated, believed, and observed. The Pharisees and the doctors of the law saw it when it began, and they have watched it ever since; and they have said, "O, it will amount to nothing; this is just a little flurry; their preaching creates quite a stir for a little while, but as soon as they are gone, the whole thing will die out, and it will amount to nothing." They have said that at the beginning, and all the way along; but steadily they have seen that it does not work that way. Steadily they have seen God's ideas of the Sabbath finding a place among the people, more and more, and becoming more widespread. Although the word might be spoken in weakness, there was that about the words that were spoken, which caused them to linger with the people, and to stay in a person's heart for twenty years or more, and at last bring him to God. They saw it doing this. And then they saw that they would have to take more active measures than that, if they were going to maintain man's ideas of the Sabbath against the Lord's, and they did it. They enforced the State Sunday laws to a greater or less extent at different times, and in different places; but that did not stop the spread of God's Sabbath. Still it went on. Then they said, "If we let this thing alone, and let this people alone, this will become a whole nation of Sabbath-breakers. They go into a community and preach, and they get only a few at the most, and probably none at all, to keep the Saturday; but they break up the people's keeping Sunday, and therefore they are simply making the nation a nation of Sabbathbreakers; and it must be stopped, or the nation will perish for Sabbath-breaking; the judgments of God will come upon the land, and destroy us all."
Therefore they were compelled to have the power of the nation joined to them to put under foot and crush out pf existence, as far as lay in their power, God's idea of the Sabbath, and exalt man's. They tried it little by little, and more and more, upon the national legislature and the national power; but large numbers of the national legislature, like Pilate of old, said at first: "We find no fault in this; we will have nothing to do with it; attend to it yourselves; it is a controversy of your own; it is a religious matter; and if it comes up here, we will vote against it, every one of us." Scores of them said that. Then these Pharisees and doctors of the law said to the representatives of the government, "If you do not do what we ask of you, if you do not vote for that Sunday law, setting up Sunday here for the Sabbath of this nation, we will never vote for one of you again as long as we live, for any office under the sun."
Then too, just like Pilate at last, these legislators surrendered and said, "We will do it-we will do it." They sat down in their official seat and took jurisdiction of the case, under the threats of these Pharisees and doctors of the law. And in the doing of this, these Pharisees and doctors of the law did as certainly turn their backs upon God, and join themselves to Cesar-to earthly power-as did the Pharisees and priests and doctors of the law of old. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation; the power of God belongs to every professor of the gospel, and he who has the power of God cannot possibly have any other. No power can be added to the power of God.
Then he who professes the gospel, and calls for any other power, denies the power of God; and when he denies the power of God, and puts his confidence in the power of man, whether man as an individual, or man assembled in governments, he puts his trust in human power instead of the power of God. And when these people sent up their petitions and their prayers to Congress instead of to God, they turned their backs upon the Lord, upon the power
that goes with the gospel, and turned their attention to man for their help, to carry out this work in which they were engaged.
And thus they got Congress-yes, they got the whole government of the United States-to take jurisdiction of the case. They took the fourth commandment as recorded in God's word, and put it in the official record of the governmental proceedings, and then deliberately changed it. They definitely and purposely put the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day, out of God's commandment, and put the Sunday of the papacy in its place. They said the words Sabbath day "may mean Saturday or Sunday; it may be one day or the other, and we declare that it is and shall be the first day of the week commonly called Sunday," and that that is the meaning of the fourth commandment. Thus under these threats the Pharisees and the doctors of the law of to-day, got the governmental authority to do just what it did back yonder,-they got the governmental power to put the Sabbath of the Lord under foot, and as far as lies in their power, to crush it out of existence, and put man's ideas of the Sabbath in it instead. That thing is done. Everybody on earth knows that that is past. And to day we are that far along in the record made by Jesus in his faithfulness to Sabbath-keeping. This nation stands now where that nation stood when it rejected Jesus Christ because of his ideas of Sabbath-keeping. Back there they did it to maintain their own ideas of the Sabbath against the
Lord's, and they did it to save their nation. And these here did it for the same purpose. Three United States senators, each one in his place, said definitely that this must be done for the salvation of the nation. Two of them had more to do than any others to carry it through, and the third one not much less,-Senators Hawley of Connecticut, Colquitt of Georgia, and Frye of Maine, each of the three placed the salvation of the nation as the purpose of setting up. Sunday as the Sabbath under these threats. Then, as the same thing has been done here and now by the like parties, for the same purpose, and by the same means, we are that far along in the account. Then what comes next? Will the rest of the account be met? Must assuredly it will; for it was all written for us. (To Be Continued…)
