End Times are near Part 2

"Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."                                                                           John 3:3   NKJV

Nicodemus, a Pharisee ruler of the Jews, came to see Jesus by night. He no doubt didn't want people disturbing his discussion with Jesus, or to be seen to be associating with Him. He was drawn to Jesus and recognised Him as a teacher from God v1-2. Jesus told him that he must be born again, which confused Nicodemus because, he saw the the physical limitations of this. 

Jesus went into a lengthy discussion with him and said, '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. He reinforced this with these dramatic words, 'He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe, is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God' John 3:18. And there it is. We can either have salvation or condemnation. The choice is ours. Either of these offer a place of eternity; but only salvation will take you to heaven. The other will lead to hell.

The times, as we saw yesterday, are evil and nearing the end. The only certainty is in Jesus Christ. Think about this, if you were dying and a doctor offered you a miracle cure, but you turned it down; as you faced death, you would only have yourself to blame. It is the same thing here; you need Jesus! The Apostle Paul, quoting Joel 2:32, wrote in Romans 10:13, 'For whoever calls on the name of the LORD, shall be saved.' And this is the way you need to go if you want to spend eternity with Jesus. To be left behind when Jesus has been for His church, will be hell on earth; it's called the Tribulation, read about it. There will be suffering like the world has never known and then will come the judgement. If a person doesn't know Jesus as their Lord, there will only be a place in hell for them - no second chances. But you don't have to go through all of this. 

The world as we know it, is coming to an end pretty soon. You have a choice to make. Jesus will create a new heaven and a new earth. Do you want to be part of it? Then say this prayer:

Lord Jesus, I am aware that we are nearing the end times. You will be returning for Your church when the Father gives the go ahead. Lord, I want to be with You, therefore, I confess my sin to You and ask Your forgiveness. Please come and live in my heart from today and, fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I give myself to You, in the knowledge that I am are Yours, the King of kings; and I have eternal life. In Jesus' name. Amen

Copyright 2022 Grahame Howard.                                

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End Times are near Part 1

"Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" v5    Genesis 6:1-8  NKJV

In verse 4 of the NIV version of the bible, the giants were known as the Nepthilim - people of great size and strength (Numbers 13:31-33). The Hebrew word means Fallen ones. A popular

thought of bible scholars is that the Nepthilim were fallen angels who took on the human form of men who married the women - the daughter's of Adam. They were extremely lustful. The fallen angels were demonised and, their sexual activity and intimacy, led to a demoralised society. They were given over to the powers of darkness.  Sourced from the NIV, NKJV & CSB notes

God looked at the evil that was over the earth and was extremely hurt. People had become corrupt, shameful, obscene and full of depravity. This brought God into action, hence the flood. He issued a decree of total destruction. There was one man who pleased God and this was Noah, a most righteous man. God gave him the task of building an ark, miles away from any water, to save the animals and Noah's family, when the floods came. 

We have fallen a long way since then. Even though God wiped the earth clean, sin was still rampant and still is today. There are corrupt governments throughout the world. Evil spreads like a virus. Many people are totally controlled by greed and corruption. In addition to this, computer technology has made it possible to view pornography, sick videos and opportunities for certain people to groom children while online. Some websites promote the sick practice of encouraging children to commit suicide or take part in dangerous sexual practices. 

Then we have drugs, human trafficking, murder almost daily; stabbings on the streets, terrorism, people targeting groups in schools and churches and shooting them. Added to this, there are rapes and wars where family life is ripped apart by dictators intent on gaining power. To be a Christian in certain parts of the world is very risky with the threat of imprisonment, torture and even death unless they renounce Jesus. Gender values are being ripped apart with many church leaders, wanting to re-write part of the bible to bring it up to date.

When we view the current situation in the world today, one has to ask how long will God put up with all of this? We are living in a decaying world and the signs point to the fact that, Jesus may return very soon, to claim His church, His Saints, every person who has accepted Jesus as their Lord.

We've read the book, we know that we will have victory in the end. However, it leaves us with the questions - 'What about those who don't know Jesus?' 'What will happen to them?' The bottom line is - if they don't know Jesus, they will be left behind. Be determined to take as many people with you as you can, by telling them about Jesus. They need Him and if they or you, don't know Jesus as your Lord, then accept Him into your life right now.

More on this tomorrow. 

Copyright 2022 Grahame Howard.                                

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How we speak

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer."             Psalm 19:14   NKJV 

Most versions of the bible replace the word, 'Strength' for 'Rock'. Of course, both are right. The New King James Version gives us a fuller meaning by stating 'Rock', which is our strength. The other versions use the word 'Rock' which when you think about it, gives us a solid foundation. When we know that we are building on the Rock (Matthew 7:24-27), we can be sure that this will give us and our situation, strength.

As we walk closely with Jesus, He gives us a rock-like strength to live our lives victoriously. However, we need to be careful how we speak - what comes out of our mouth. We can study the Word of God on a 7 day a week basis, read the bible through each year and go to church each week. But, if we allow foul words to come out of our mouth, it undoes everything we have accomplished. We become like a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1). People notice.

The Living Bible says, 'May my spoken words and unspoken thoughts be pleasing even to You'. The Amplified ends the verse with, 'O LORD my [firm, immovable] Rock and my Redeemer'. Therefore, we have to be alert to check our thoughts about anything before, we process them and they come out in words. The Lord is a firm, immovable Rock and this is what we should be building on; if we mean business with Jesus.

Yes, we will speak unedifying words at times by reacting to bad comments from people and the situations that we find ourselves in. But, we are only human and open to mistakes, in fact, we are still a work in progress. But, as we pray about this, we can eventually become more like Jesus. It is though, very difficult to achieve this high standard. But, we don't give up; we keep on trying. This is why James said in 1:19, 'let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.' This is actually very much like the old, 'Count to ten before you say anything.' And it works.

We will never be able to tame the tongue, 'But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison' James 3:8. However, Jesus can master our tongue if we ask Him to help us. It happens by prayer and meditating on Him, giving Him every part of ourselves. You'll never do it yourself. It's far better to seek our personal tongue-tamer - Jesus Christ. He can teach us how we speak.

Copyright 2022 Grahame Howard.                                

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Walk in Divine favour

"For You O LORD, will bless the righteous; with favour you will surround him as with a shield."                                                                           Psalm 5:12   NKJV 

In the Hebrew, the word favour is described as ratson. The meaning is pleasure, desire, delight and favour. It suggests 'to be pleased with' or 'to be favourable towards something'. This Hebrew term is similar to the words hen or hesed. Hen describes mercy, kindness and graciousness. Hesed means loving-kindness, mercy and pity. (Note that hesed has a silent 'C' - Chesed).

All of this is what God provides us with, everyday. We just need to receive it. Notice the 'You will surround him as with a shield.' God actually envelopes us when we ask Him to. His favour always draws blessing to us and totally demonstrates His love towards each of His children. So everyday, we need to confess that we are walking in the favour of God. Daily, we need to receive His favour and confess and believe that we are walking in this.

God's favour opens doors for you. Next time you are out driving and need a parking space, ask Jesus, and believe me, you will find one. We do this on a regular basis when we're out. Mostly we find one very quickly. At other times, we have to drive round a bit, but, He never lets us down.

You are surrounded by His favour - pleasure, desire, delight and blessing. Why wouldn't he bless you? Just the other day, we had our Covid booster jabs. I had an appointment but my wife hadn't booked one. I went straight past the queue and my wife had to stand in the cold at the back of the queue to wait her turn. I mentioned this to one of the volunteers and she said that my wife could go in with me. This is God's favour.

Verse 11 reads, 'But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; let those also who love Your name be joyful in You.'

Tony Evans comments on this verse: He encourages people to boast about Him and to shout for joy as a way of expressing recognition of who God is, what He has done and what He can be trusted to do.'  Tony Evans Study Bible. Holman Publishing. CSB Version

God wants you to embrace what King David discovered - His favour. David walked in this for the biggest part of his life and, I encourage you to do this as well. To be surrounded by God gives us protection. In fact, there is no safer place to be. It also opens up a whole new way of discovering, just how much fun God can be Therefore, Walk in Divine Favour!

Copyright 2022 Grahame Howard.                                

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Get the joy back in your life

"Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! 2Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works!
3Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!
4Seek the Lord and His strength;Seek His face evermore! 5Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth,
6O seed of Abraham His servant, You children of Jacob, His chosen ones!"

                                                                                           Psalm 105:1-6   NKJV

When men and women meet for the first time and then, discover that they want to be together - always; love is hatched. In fact, this is all they talk about, they are so happy and elated that they want everyone to know about it. This is usually the same when someone accepts Jesus as their lord. They read the bible endlessly, go to church and speak about Jesus at every opportunity. For the first six months or so, Jesus is all they think about; it's like a honeymoon period. We often think that this would be nice to live this way forever, but the Busy-ness of life takes over and we tend to cool down somewhat. Mind you, it doesn't have to be this way; we can still keep that fire - that wonderful feeling going in our lives. 

Let's look at some of these verses:

Verse 1  Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name'. Being thankful about all He has and will do for us, is a great way to start the day. There is so much He blesses us with; just stop for a moment and think about this. We are so fortunate to have Him in our life - the King of kings is our friend. That is amazing in itself. However, we need to call on Him to let Him know how grateful we are. He's always ready to listen.

Verse 2  'Talk of all His wondrous works'. Romans 10:17 says, 'Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.' Therefore, talk about what Jesus has done in your life, at every opportunity. Many may not respond but, they may remember later when they think things through. You have sown a seed.

Verse 6  Remember His marvellous which He has done'. There will be times when you feel downhearted - it goes with the territory. These are the times when remembering all He has done for you personally, can lift your spirits. What about the time when you had nothing and couldn't pay a bill? He turned up didn't He and made things good. What about when you had problems at work? You had sleepless nights worrying about this but, he turned up and it was like nothing was wrong at all.

You may have other experiences that you can fall back on; remember them because, as you do He strengthens you v4. To get and keep that initial joy you first had is down to you. Jesus hasn't changed so it must be you. Determine to get back into this intimacy with Jesus once again. You know that you want to!   

Copyright 2022 Grahame Howard.                                

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God has your back

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called to His purpose."                                  Romans 8:28   NKJV 

Tony Evans says, 'The promise of Romans 8:28 is conditional. If believers are not loving God and progressively being conformed to the image of Christ, they will not see things working together for good.'                         The Tony Evans Study Bible. Holman Publishing CSB

Through life, we can have many disappointments, hardships and sufferings. We can be wrongly treated and basically walked all over at times. But, as we allow God to have the first place in our lives, He is able to fulfil His good purpose. Even if things don't appear to change, His promise is faithful towards us. He always has a plan.

His purpose, as mentioned in this text, is a Greek word called prothesis and this means 'Deliberate plan.' As I mentioned, He always has a plan but, each believer was called to this 'deliberate plan' which He endorsed from the beginning. Even before you were born or before anyone had heard of you, God knew you and formed a plan just for you. You were His purpose and He has a purpose for you in this world.

Remember the account in Daniel where Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego were thrown into the hot oven for being disobedient? When Nebuchadnezzar looked into the oven, he saw four figures. 'Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?' They answered and said to the king, 'True O king'. 25 Look!' he answered, 'I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God' Daniel 3:24-25.

Then there was the account of Daniel being thrown into the lions den (Daniel 6). When questioned by Darius the next morning, Daniel said, 'My God sent His angel and shut the lion's mouth so that they have not hurt me'  Daniel 6:22.

These are great examples of God working things together for good. Things may seem alarming but God, has your back - if He has the first place in your life. He will always bring things together for us but, rather like Daniel and his friends who had to go through these ordeals, He may not change things but, He will see you through it.

So, whatever you face today, know that God is with you; He has your back and He will work things for good because you are special to Him.

Copyright 2022 Grahame Howard.                                

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

        

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Attitude

"But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him"  v30    Luke 15:28-30  Christian Standard Bible 

The Prodigal, as we saw yesterday, has returned home, broken and crushed and full of repentance, and his father has thrown a party to celebrate this fact. However, his brother is not happy about this, 'this son of yours'.

When a person returns to Jesus after falling away for a time, not everyone is happy and greets them with open arms. If this is you, you may have noticed this. Some begrudge the fact that a person has been away from the fold and then returns. The people, who have an attitude, feel they shouldn't be welcomed back but, if they are, they should not receive a pat on the back for it.

This is how the older brother felt. He was angry that a party had been thrown for him and the fattened calf slaughtered. Everyone seemed delighted but, not him, not only was he angry but, he began speaking from his child ego, refusing to go into the house where the celebrations were taking place. No matter how much the father tried, he refused to enjoy the party and he began complaining, criticising and judging and then feeling sorry for himself. One can see his point to a degree, after all, he had remained fathful and hardworking while his brother took half of the inheritance and blasted it on wild living; yet, now he was being treated like a king. One can almost hear him saying, 'It's not fair.'

He had a heart problem - it was full of pride and now hate and, his attitude matched this. He had no compassion, sympathy or love for his brother. Note the father's comments in verse 32; he matches the language of the older son, 'But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found' (CSB). The older son had referred to his brother as , 'this son of yours' v30. The father was reminding him that this was his brother and he needed compassion and forgiveness.

And it is the same for us. People in the church may offend us; they may hurt and anger us but, we need to get our attitude right because they are our brother or sister. We all make mistakes and we all need forgiveness for making them. Our remit is to love and uphold a brother or sister who may be in the wrong, or may have taken a wrong turn but then returned to the fold.

Let us remember that, this is what Jesus did for each of us. So, keep checking your attitude!

Copyright 2022 Grahame Howard.                                

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

        

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

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