Christ Expectations!

 

Come and Dine.

 

Logic

 

Signs

 

Idols- Tear Them Down

 Hos 3:1  Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. 

The Lord told Hosea to love a sinful woman, strange? Very. Yet the reason why the Lord told Hosea this was because it mirrors the Love of God toward his backsliding people.

A wayward husband or wife-- who doesn't know about such things? Some know firsthand how it feels to be cheated on, others don't. Most people know someone who was cheated on. There are way too many divorces from this very thing for people not to know anyone at all who wasn't cheated on. Barring any personal experience with infidelity- either yourself, family members, relatives of any sort, friends, co-workers-- friends of friends … we have television, movies, and books that are filled with this sort of behavior. The truth is, you know about cheating even if you don't have experience with cheating.

Still, and I have to bring this up, right or wrong, many people live in relationships where they say it's fine to look (lust) upon others and find them arousing, as long as they don't touch (commit the physical act) of adultery. It's true, you hear about it all the time. Men will be men, women will be women, and it's all natural to do this, God made us this way, it's normal for human beings to lust after each other that's how the species keeps going, and so on.

When God told Hosea to find… no, that's not right, God told Hosea to go LOVE an adulteress He was telling Hosea to go LOVE a woman KNOWN to stray from her husband.  

God's people then and still right now, are prone to adultery - straying from HIM and taking other 'gods' into their lives that they shouldn't. 

The Book of Hosea tells of how Hosea's love of this adulteress and her continued cheating on him resulted in a very hard relationship. We are shown that Hosea's unrelenting love is just that- a love so deep it cannot be lost. 

Am I saying a person should stay with a cheating spouse? I'm saying if that person desires to stay because they truly love that spouse even though that spouse is unfaithful- well, that's a personal decision the person has to make and no other.

God chooses to stay with His people. God chooses to have a people upon a corrupt earth filled to the brim with mostly cheating people- people cheating on Him. God chooses to believe there will be an adulteress people who will cease their adulteress acts and love only Him, a faithful people.

In the parable of the prodigal son we know that the wayward son returning was more joyous than anything to the father! But, the wayward son was not joyous to the father while he was being wayward, it wasn't until he returned, leaving his wayward existence.

It is extremely hard living in a world so full of evil that only a few out of the many will truly belong to God. We live in a time where God has been altered to fit into a sinful existence. Changing God to suit a sinful life makes it all the more harder to recognize sinning because we no longer recognize the adultery for what it is, we've made what was once considered adultery (straying from God) into something acceptable. Satan has done his job very, very well.  We've erected false idols covered in the apparel of God and bow down to worship them fooling ourselves that we are worshiping God when we aren't. We don't recognize our adultery and this is why when our Lord returns He is going to tell many, many people that He doesn't know them. 

Look at the God you are worshiping very, very closely. Go to God's word and study it like never before! Get on your knees and pray like your life depends upon it because it does. Seek God with all your heart! Search for God with all your heart! God will be found if there is even a sliver of sincerity in our searching, our seeking!

Don't lie to yourself, don't blind yourself to truth, don't stop up your own ears to keep from hearing truth because it might mean destroying the beloved idols of your life. Those idols whatever they are- will gladly holdfast to you all the way to non-existence.

Hosea was told to love an adulteress as God loves his people- God loves his people and wants them to be true to Him, to turn away from the adultery in their hearts, the idols they cheat upon Him with. God wants us wayward people to return to a true love of Him.

God please help us do this, please! Bring our hearts back to the true love of Your love. God, give us all we need to tear down and rid ourselves of the idols in our lives- especially the idols we've decked in the garb of Your appearance. Don't let us fool ourselves any longer that we are worshiping you in truth if we are not! Create in us clean hearts! Renew in us right spirits! Take us back into Your fold, let us filthy, desperate, prodigals come home, show us the way back to You and let us walk in that way while all around us the world wallows in the filth of deception. Let us not be deceived, help us! Save us! We know You love us with an unwavering love, You sacrificed all because You loved us, love us still and always!  

In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, Yours is the glory, the praise, the honor now and forever! Amen!

Innumerable Company of Angels.

 Trapped. No way out. No help to be seen. Can you imagine how this must feel? Elisha's servant felt this way. Elisha and his servant were sleeping and when the servant woke up he went and spied out the land. To his dismay there were enemy horses and chariots all around the entire city surrounding them. With fear filling him to his very core he cried out to Elisha, asking what they were going to do.  Elisha wasn't fearful at all, why? Read the following… 

2Ki 6:15-17  And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. 

… FEAR NOT for they that be with US are MORE than they that be with THEM. 

Yet, the servant couldn't see ANYONE on their side, let alone MORE than those that were surrounding the city! Then Elisha PRAYED and asked the LORD to open the servants eyes so he could see.  When the young man's eyes were opened he did indeed see that the MOUNTAIN was full of horses and chariots of FIRE all around Elisha! What a vision to have, what a blessing to see the unseen.

We often feel alone, defeated, demoralized, despairing, ready to scream in frustration as we walk our Christian walk. We, like the servant of Elisha, have no clue what we are going to do in our awful, seemingly unsurmountable circumstances. We long to see the unseen army of angels on our side. We have to walk by faith, not by sight. We have to take God's word into our hearts. God's word is written for US, for our learning! We need to believe in God's word.  Elisha had an army of angels to protect him and his servant. We have angels to protect us as well! We have ministering spirits as we are those who are going to inherit salvation, and those ministering to us are angels, real angels.

Does this mean that in every situation we will be miraculously helped- that we won't go through awful times, horrific trials, nightmarish tribulations? NO! A very resounding NO, it doesn't mean this at all. It means that we have angels on our side and as God wills, and if we aren't meant to endure the trial, we will be given supernatural help. It means that most of our trials and tribulations are refining us in ways we can't comprehend, preparing us for God's kingdom as we hold fast to God in spite of Satan trying his hardest to rip our faith in God from us. We will do a lot of suffering now, but joy will come.

People often wonder how anyone would believe in God after they go through horrific situations, and that person of God will tell them that we live in a Satan ruled world, and God is in control of our eternal life and this is why. We understand that in this world there are going to be lots of nightmares, lots of them, but we also know that in the world to come there will be NONE, not a single nightmare. We know the world to come is for ETERNITY, while this world has an expiration date stamped on it. Knowing these truths, we know that angels are here to comfort us and see us through the trials, to keep us from the despair as they minister to us God's truth. 

May we belong to God when this world expires. May the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be ours now and forever! Al through HIS LOVE!

AMEN!!!!!!!

*******

(Excerpt)

5. NUMBER OF THE ANGELS

The definite number of the holy angels is not given in the Scriptures, yet there are declarations from which we may form an idea of the vastness of this host of God. Jesus said: "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels?" Matt. 26:53. 

John, as he had a view of heaven, the glory and majesty of God, and the vast host of angels worshiping before the throne, spoke of their great numbers thus: "And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands Of thousands." Rev. 5:11. 

Bengel, in his Gnomon, translates this, "Myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands." He adds the following excellent note: "A myriad consists of ten thousand; myriads, if only two of them are meant, make twenty thousand; a thousand taken twice, makes two thousands. But there are myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, i. e., the myriads are multiplied with each other, and, likewise, the thousands. In order to more easily conceive the meaning, it could be imagined thus: Here is a regiment consisting of ten thousand angels; then there would be ten thousand such regiments, and this not only once, but at least twice. In the same way are thousands to be taken thousand-fold; that is to say, if one counts a thousand angels to one body, then there are of such bodies of thousands (in the plural) at least two thousand bodies. The myriads make two hundred millions, and the thousands two million, a Vast throng!"

While this gives some idea of the greatness of the throng, it is by no means certain that the computation is nearly large enough. Instead of being simply two myriads, as the plural must contain, it may mean many more, which would enormously swell the aggregate. And all these were only those whom John saw worshiping around the throne at one time. We have no language in which to express the number of the heavenly family; we can have no conception of the number. The Bible declares that they are the messengers of God to carry out His will, and it is reasonable to believe that they are His messengers to other worlds. On a clear night view the stars, consider the millions in the milky way, and remember that each one is a sun, with a whole system of worlds revolving around it, and consider that the angels are God's messengers to all parts of His dominions, to all these countless worlds, and then we shall best be able to appreciate the words of Paul, that there is "an innumerable company of angels." Heb. 12:22.

Angels: Their Nature and Ministry

 (Excerpt - for continuing study) Revised by J.H. Waggoner.  1891 by Pacific Press Publishing Co.)

Comfort One Another!

 Do you remember the day the Lord descended from heaven with a shout?

Do you remember the day the Lord shouted with the voice of the archangel?

What about this… Do you remember the day the Lord shouted with the trumpet of God? 

Do you remember the day that those who died believing in Christ rose from their graves?

Or maybe you remember…  the day when you, still living and believing in Christ were caught up together with them in the clouds?

Do you remember meeting the Lord in the air?

Do you remember being with the Lord forevermore?

You DON'T remember any of that do you, you CAN'T because none of it has happened yet.

We are told to COMFORT one another with those words above.

How can I comfort you with those words? I am told to comfort you with those words, BUT HOW?

To comfort someone means one thing for certain- they are in NEED of being comforted, they are in some sort of distress. There can be no greater distress than living in a world over run by sin and all the results of sin. We need the comfort of what? Of KNOWING that --

-- the LORD will descend from heaven one day and he'll do so with a shout! 

He's not going to descend from heaven in silence, in stealth mode, quietly behind the scenes.  Our LORD is going to SHOUT out His glorious return and everyone will know of His returning at once! You say that's impossible? It's far from impossible!  We who live in this world where if everyone in the entire world could be woken up at once- sure it might be in the middle of the night for some, but it's still a very real possibility. 

You can be sure if I wrote a story about aliens coming from outer space and wrote that at the moment of that ship's arrival everyone's cellphones sounded at once, everyone left their homes and pounded on their  neighbor's doors, not a single person was left to sleep through it- it didn't matter the time of day because this wondrous thing was occurring. Sirens were blaring everywhere, alarms going off as never before.   You could picture that couldn't you?  I can.  If at 3am in the morning an alien ship arrived in the United States and the majority of the United States people were sleeping, do you think they'd be sleeping for long? Not in our day and age of technology. Something as momentous as an alien ship coming to earth would be worth being woken up for, right? The news would travel so fast. Now couple that with a NOISE that alien ship blasted in such a way that it sent that very loud, earl splitting, wake up noise all over the world at the same time.

Science fiction allows for us to believe this could happen. 

There we are sitting in the movie theater, munching away on popcorn, eyes riveted to the huge theater screen and we see that alien ship arriving and the response of everyone seeing it happening.  Then we watch as the Aliens set off an alarm that is being heard around the entire earth. The scene cuts from the United States where people everywhere are running out of their houses, buildings, from wherever they happen to be to get out into the streets to see what's happening  to find out where is that noise coming from?!  Then the scene cuts to the United Kingdom where the same thing is taking place, and China, and Russia, and Israel, and Africa, and Australia, everywhere - but all those scenes are depicting people hearing that noise. We watch the movie and understand that these aliens possess powers and abilities far beyond ours that have the entire earth hearing their noise and them at once - night or day around the globe everyone is awakened to this noise.

Are you still with me? Hopefully you are. What I'm getting at here is we CAN believe that ALIENS could do something like that, but we let our mind get boggle-down at the thought of when Christ descends from heaven with a SHOUT, with the voice of the ARCHANGEL, with a TRUMPET sound that not everyone will be able to hear Him at the same time. FAITHLESS people! 

Our LORD is going to return with that LOUD SHOUT! Our LORD is going to return with a voice EVERYONE can hear! There will be such a loud noise when our LORD returns that everyone in the entire world will hear it! And I'm telling you RIGHT now, find comfort in that! No matter what your circumstances right now, no matter how awful, horrifically awful, painfully awful, devastatingly awful your life is in this moment or in future moments…  CHRIST IS GOING TO RETURN! This is our ONLY comfort! This is our ONLY HOPE! Don't put your hope anywhere else! There is NO comfort in this world. You can be given a world of hope one day only to have it all taken away the very next day! As long as your comfort and hope are tied up in this world you are setting yourself up to be perpetually in distress and unhappy.  I can ONLY comfort you with CHRIST'S RETURN, because that is the only surety of comfort we truly can have! When ALL ELSE around us completely crumbles away there is forever CHRIST'S RETURN! 

CHIRST will return and in such a manner EVERYONE WILL KNOW!

And when CHRIST returns, ALL those who have ever died in His love- from Adam and Eve, to the last person to die in His love a second before His return, will be RAISED UP TO MEET HIM IN THE AIR!  

Not everyone will be raised up ONLY those who are called 'the Dead In Christ' and, there is an 'AND'…. ONLY those who are alive in CHRIST will be caught up together in the clouds to MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR and from that moment on we will EVER BE WITH THE LORD!

This is our HOPE, this is our COMFORT! I have NO other comfort to give anyone at all! None. I have the HOPE of our LORD returning for us and ushering in a NEW Life for all of us forever more. A LIFE without ANY of the millions and millions of heartaches and horrors of this sinful world!  

Don't you dare ask me WHEN Christ is going to return, because I DON'T KNOW.  What I DO know is that HE WILL RETURN and whether I'm DEAD IN CHRIST, or ALIVE IN CHRIST I will rise to meet HIM in the air and be with HIM forevermore! And forevermore is a lot longer than any number of years I will ever be given to live upon this earth. 

I long for HIM to return while I still live, but I know no matter what-- I will SEE my SAVIOR RETURN just as every other person that belongs to Him will see Him, we will ALL see HIM at the same time! Our God is a mighty GOD!  

FIND COMFORT in CHRIST, HE IS GOING TO RETURN!

1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 

1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 

1Th 4:18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.