Tag: Love

People who know me know that one thing I absolutely refuse to do is back down from speaking the truth.  That strong stance naturally brings with it a great deal of conflict and I have experienced plenty in my time following the Lord since ’96.  Most of us don’t like conflict, but we should never be afraid to speak the truth and debate issues.  Whether it be social, political, theological, or whatever other topic there might be, we need to be able to freely discuss what we believe and why.  Our freedom of speech here in America is a precious right that we should never forsake!  Use that freedom for God’s glory and don’t be afraid to speak the truth!

The last few days I have been blessed to have conversations with several people that do not agree with me on theological and political issues.  Not only have these conversations given me the opportunity to speak truth to crucial issues regarding the Gospel and politics, but it has also sharpened me.  Conflict produces pressure and out of that fire of disagreement we grow in ways that we can’t without conflict.  Out of the one disagreement I ended up writing from 4 p.m. Friday afternoon until 2 a.m. Saturday morning, then I got up before 8 a.m. and edited it for another 2 hours before finally publishing it.  That post was titled “Jesus Died For The Sins Of The Whole World,” and it is possibly the strongest post the Lord has ever written through me in defense of the Gospel.  I might not have ever written a post like that had I not experienced the conflict, so I praise God for that disagreement!  By the way, that is why I have been resting the last couple days, but I’m rested now and today’s post is also going to be bold (and a bit longer than usual).

The photo below is what it has felt like the last few days.  Our daughter got a great photo of three bucks butting heads the other day.  Great shot sweetheart!  I’ve never seen three bucks go at it like that!  Hilarious!

The Apostle Paul was no stranger to conflict.  Just read his letter to the church at Galatia. It is a bold admonishment and he knew it would produce conflict, but he also knew it was necessary conflict that would help the church grow in the truth.  Paul was fully aware that his letter was going to shake things up and he was not afraid of displeasing men.

“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God?  Or am I trying to please men?  If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Galatians 1:10

Just like Paul, we should speak the truth and not fear being challenged.  Preach the truth of God’s Word boldly and don’t back down!  God’s Word will defend itself and He will give you the words to say by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit the Lord gave us is powerful, not timid!  I feel the Lord inside of me like a lion!  Jesus is the Lion of Judah and when He comes back, which will be very soon, He will not be riding on a donkey!  He will be coming back in great power and glory and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, amen!

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”

2 Timothy 1:7

We are in a tremendously crucial election year in 2020 and I will continue to speak bold truth to power regarding political and social issues in my country.  I am not ever going to just lay down and let evil win.  We must fight the good fight and stand firm in God’s Word!  We do not need to fear conflict.  We do not need to fear being challenged, disliked, or even hated.  Jesus told us the world would hate those who believe in Him.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you.  Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’  If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.  If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.  They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.”

Jesus speaking in John 15:18-21

It’s no surprise that the world does not want to hear the truth of God’s Word spoken over societal issues and it’s no surprise when they hate us.  Keep standing up and speaking the truth anyway.  Our Lord has commanded us to go, so we go!

Never back down from speaking the truth!  Yes, we must speak the truth in love, but please remember that those who hate God are doing everything they can to label God’s Word hate speech.  They are doing everything they can in our country to label anyone who speaks God’s truth as hateful, even when it is spoken in love.  God’s Word is not hate speech and those of us who preach His Word are not hateful.  God is love and His truth is loving.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

1 John 3:16

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.  And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”

1 John 4:14-16

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16

Saying abortion is murder is not hate speech.  It is loving truth to protect our beautiful babies!  Saying there are only two genders, male and female, and marriage is only between one man and one woman is not hate speech.  It is loving truth that leads to a moral and healthy society in harmony with God’s order.  The gay agenda is depraved and immoral and it has caused great sin and confusion in our country.  We will not ever agree with their sin and it should not be forced on our children in the schools!  Homosexuality is a sin and we must warn society that those who live that way will not inherit the kingdom.

“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

I’m also going to speak boldly about my support for Trump.  I am well beyond fed up with all the lies from the left!  It is not racist to protect your borders and it has nothing to do with xenophobia!  Please stop listening to the filth on CNN!  Trump is not a racist and never has been.  Like Floyd Mayweather Jr. said back in 2017, “You never heard anything about Donald Trump being racist until he ran for president.”  That’s because liberals and their liberal media created that lie!

Trump doesn’t hate women either.  That was another lie to stir up hate.  That’s all they ever say!  They don’t have any truthful facts to back up their lies, so they shout, “Xenophobia!  Racist!  Misogynist!”  That is where all your race baiting hatred is coming from.  It’s not coming from Trump or the American patriots who support him!  I am not a racist, never have been, and I would never support a racist!  The hate is coming from a liberal media that hates Trump, our Constitution, and our country.  What’s sad is that even some Christians have fallen for their lies and they go around saying the same lies.

The liberal media, with CNN at the helm, whipped up hatred and violence with all their lies and they continue to lie about Trump every day.  They refuse to report the truth about the great things he has done for our country even when the healing and progress is staring everyone right in the face!  CNN is nothing but a liberal anti-American propaganda machine that spews lies and hatred 24/7 365 days per year.

Trump is not a racist for protecting our country.   Praise God he is strengthening our borders!  God’s Word says, “love always protects.”  Every country must maintain its national sovereignty.  We must resist the globalists and their one world government!

Yes, we know the last days are near and we know eventually there will be a global government that is ruled by the anti-Christ, but that does not mean we just give up!  No, we press on in Jesus and fight for righteousness!  We don’t know the times or dates of the end and to the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day, so we must keep fighting the good fight in our time!  Nothing is impossible for God!  He can give us more time to push back evil and give our children a peaceful future!  I have two children that I love with all my heart and as long as I’m alive I will do everything I can to fight for their freedom and right to live in peace and righteousness in this great country we love!

There is nothing xenophobic about protecting our borders!  Normal immigration is not the issue.  America has always welcomed peaceful immigrants looking for a better life.  The globalists (like Soros and his NGOs) are working to tear down borders and they are using mass immigration from hostile countries as a Trojan horse invasion because they want to cause chaos and destroy our country and Europe.  Why?  Because they want a one world government that will be run by the devil!  That is the real issue and we must stand against it!  It’s about the spiritual war we are in between Heaven and hell!

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Ephesians 6:12

Socialism and communism are an atheist scourge on the earth and it must never be allowed to rule America!  The globalists are using socialism to achieve their new world order goals.  The liberals who are pushing so hard for socialism with all their anti-American rhetoric better take a long hard look at California.  That is what they want for the whole country and it’s sickening!  We can’t have socialists running America!  They had their shot for 8 years and they just about ruined our country!

I pray the Lord spreads revival in our great country!  I love my country with all my heart and I will continue to fight for righteousness and fight the good fight in 2020!  I will be voting for Trump again because he truly loves this country and he has been a man of his word despite all the lies and attacks from the liberal dominated anti-American leftist media.  I didn’t vote for Trump because he is some super Christian.  He is learning and growing in his knowledge of the Lord and he is an imperfect sinner saved by grace just like the rest of us.  I voted for him because he honors God, he is a real American who loves our country, he speaks the truth about the globalists and he has the grit to fight them, and he speaks the truth about what America needs and can actually get it done!

I pray for our President daily.  The Lord is using him as a battering ram against the new world order and I love it!  Praise God we have a president that is a real American President who is actually fulfilling promises and making moves that benefit our country!

Like how he got rid of the globalist scheme to de-industrialize America called NAFTA and he wrote up a new deal called the USMCA that actually re-industrializes America, creates jobs, and makes trade fair for our country for the first time in almost 30 years!  We don’t need the globalist “free trade” that was designed to crush our economy!  We need Trump’s fair trade plan!  Look at how many companies and jobs have come back to our country since he was elected.  He is fixing everything that the last president tried to destroy, but you will never hear any of this in the leftist controlled mainstream media!

Trump also fixed the healthcare disaster that the last president caused!  He protected our pre-existing conditions and he terminated the unconstitutional and very socialist individual mandate.  The last administration flat out lied and it ended up that it was all a big insurance scam to make them all rich.  Not only could we not keep our doctors, they flat out ruined our healthcare system!  We lost our doctors and the prices went sky high!  Don’t ever forget how terrible socialist healthcare truly was!  Praise God that He used Trump to fix it!

Socialism does not work!  Socialism is not about “sharing the wealth” as they say.  It is a scheme to consolidate and control all the wealth into the hands of tyrants who desire to inflict poverty and suffering on the people.  It has and always will be a bridge to tyranny!  America is not a socialist country and by God’s grace may we always fight to keep it that way!  This is the land of the free and the home of the brave and the socialists are never going to take this country as long as real American patriots stand up and fight back!

I also greatly appreciate that Trump has strengthened the economy, and he appointed judges that will uphold the Constitution!  He also strengthened the military and he is letting them do their jobs.  No more Benghazi’s on his watch!  We are also energy independent and America is now the number 1 producer of oil and natural gas in the world!  We have never needed Middle Eastern oil and should have never used it in the first place.  Praise God we are free of it!  The Lord has blessed our country with a leader who honors Him, and our country in turn is being blessed!

Trump even recognized Jerusalem as the rightful capital of Israel and he moved our embassy there!  Talk about honoring God!  Praise God!!!

“Looking around and all over this large, magnificent planet, the truth is plain to see.  If you want freedom, take pride in your country.  If you want democracy, hold onto your sovereignty.  And if you want peace, love your nation.  Wise leaders always put the good of their own people and their own country first.

The future does not belong to globalists.  The future belongs to patriots.  The future belongs to sovereign and independent nations who protect their citizens, respect their neighbors, and honor the differences that make each country special and unique.”

-Donald Trump speaking to U.N. General Assembly in New York Sept. 24, 2019

Trump is not a globalist traitor like the last president.  He is a real American who truly loves this country and he is fighting hard to uphold our Constitution and keep us a sovereign nation!  He has honored God and given Him glory in the White House, he invites Christians to the White House for prayer and discussion, and it was awesome when he rebuked the last president by declaring that America is indeed a Christian nation!  The last president is a traitor and he had some wicked audacity speaking death over America like he did!  Praise God we have a President who is not afraid to speak the name of Jesus and give Him glory!  Seriously, we should be praising God and praying for the man!

The impeachment was a total hoax filled with lies and false accusations!  They can’t move forward with their phony articles of impeachment because the whole thing is a lie!  They have done everything they can to stop and remove our President and they have failed miserably at every turn.  Trump is in office by God’s hand and power and he isn’t going anywhere!  The impeachment has become so pathetic that even top Democrats are saying it’s time to give it up and move on now.  Amen to that!

We must honor God to retain His hand of blessing on our country!  Going down the dark road of atheism and socialism only leads to destruction and death.  People must repent!  For example, stop murdering babies and passing laws to even murder babies outside the womb!  How is that any different than King Herod or Pharaoh?  It’s not any different!  It’s the same sin and same evil causing it in our time and our country is even worse with it!  Our country has institutionalized murdering babies even to the point of selling their body parts!

Trump de-funded Planned Parenthood!!!  Praise God!!!  We have a President who stands up for God and protects our beautiful babies!  What an amazing difference from the evil stance of the last president!  Praise God we have a President who is seeking righteousness and bringing blessing on America!  May the Lord bless him with wisdom to continue leading our nation in a way that honors God, may the Lord protect him and his family, and may the Lord bless our country and keep him in office for 4 more years!

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the

Lord,

the people he chose for his inheritance.”

Psalm 33:12

The liberal agenda is full of sin and death and we must fight against it!  We must fight the good fight and never give up!  We must pray for revival in our country and fight for our country to be righteous!  Let us show God that we love Him and we desire His guidance and blessing on our country!

“Fight the good fight of the faith.  Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

1 Timothy 6:12

This country and the whole world needs to hear the truth of God’s Word.  They need to hear it spoken over every issue we are dealing with in our time.  People must hear the truth, or else all they will hear are the lies coming from those who hate God!

“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”

Jesus praying in John 17:17

I’m not going to back down from speaking the truth.  It’s not wrong for Christians to speak truth to power and I strongly disagree with anyone who says that Christians should stay silent on political issues.  I greatly appreciate people like Franklin Graham who speak God’s truth to power.  John the Baptist was arrested and beheaded because he told King Herod it was not lawful for him to have his brother’s wife.  Talk about bold!

I don’t fear conflict.  Jesus is Lord and I am ready to die for Him if necessary.  In fact, that would be a great honor!  I trust in God and pray that He will use me to speak the truth in love for His glory.  I hope you do the same!

Grace and peace to you all!

 

 

There is a theology that has been circulating since 1619 called “Limited Atonement.”  Those that believe in the doctrine prefer to call it “Particular Redemption.”  I call it false teaching and blasphemy because it falsely teaches that Jesus Christ did not die for the sins of the whole world.  Let me be clear here, that is exactly why Jesus died!  Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, and anyone who tells you that He didn’t is not preaching the truth!

The Gospel is the message that God has offered the whole world forgiveness of sins and salvation through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, and anyone who believes in Jesus will be saved.  God accomplished this through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus when He died for the whole world on the cross.  There is nothing limited about His atonement or particular about His redemption.  His atoning sacrifice is all sufficient to cover all sin and anyone who believes in Jesus will have their sins forgiven and be redeemed!  Salvation by faith in Jesus is available to the whole world!

First off, this post will be a bit different and, fair warning, it will be my longest post ever.  I usually don’t get bogged down in theological arguments over doctrine, but this debate is over the very core of the Gospel and I must speak truth to it.  I never went to Seminary and I am not a Pastor, nor do I pretend to be.  I don’t go to a denominational church nor do I claim any denomination.  I am not religious nor have I ever been.  I didn’t grow up going to church.  I was an atheist who loved to party and get drunk before I came to faith in Jesus.  I just believe in Jesus.  I follow Him and He leads me by the power of the Holy Spirit.  I have the gift of evangelism and I preach the Gospel just as the Apostle Paul preached it.

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

I came to Jesus in October of 1996 at the age of 18 my freshman year at the University of Northern Colorado.  I came to Jesus at that time because I had just spent the last four years all through high school living in a house possessed by a demon.  My Mom, Dad, younger sister, and I all experienced poltergeist type torment and it was terrifying.  After I accepted Jesus, I went back home two months later that Christmas break and rebuked the demon out of our house in the Name of Jesus!  I had no knowledge of doctrines or denominations or theology.  I just knew that Jesus died to forgive our sins and give us eternal life, I came to Him by faith, and then I received power when I was filled with the Holy Spirit.  I understood I was covered in His Blood and I had real power against evil!

I received discipleship training in the Bible and evangelism through Campus Crusade for Christ my entire four years in college.  The Lord put me in a leadership position quickly and I began preaching sermons at the weekly fellowship meetings just about every Friday night from the time I got saved until the time I graduated.  I also preached on campus daily, and led a Bible study my sophomore through senior years.  My brothers in Christ and I were also blessed to baptize many of our fellow classmates and the Lord took me on three spring break mission trips to the inner city of Denver.  For my senior year mission trip, I was chosen to be the leader to help coordinate the ministry efforts and watch over the younger brothers and sisters.  All of that training provided a solid foundation for studying and preaching God’s Word for the last 23 years that I have followed and served the Lord.

I came running to Jesus because my family lived with a demon!  I didn’t run to a denomination or a doctrine.  I just came to Jesus by faith and He saved me and filled me with His Holy Spirit!  He gave me the gift of evangelism and I have been preaching the Gospel and sharing my testimony ever since!  I preach the true Gospel that God has offered salvation to the whole world by His grace and anyone can be saved through faith in Jesus!

“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

1 Corinthians 2:1-2

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

People who believe in the doctrine of limited atonement do correctly believe that only those who believe in Jesus will be saved.  However, they misunderstand and misinterpret that truth when they say it means Jesus only died for a select few.  His death on the cross covers the sins of the whole world, not just a few.  Of course there will be people who reject Jesus, but He still died for their sins.  It does not limit His atonement when people refuse to repent and choose to reject Him.  It is not His fault if people choose to reject His forgiveness and salvation.  His atonement is available to everyone, but we have to receive Jesus by faith in order to receive the forgiveness of our sins.

“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.”

1 Peter 3:18

“And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

Hebrews 10:10

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”

Romans 1:16

The main argument limited atonement preachers use to say Jesus only died for a few is the Scripture that says only those who the Father gives to Jesus will be saved.  Saying Jesus only died for a few is a complete misunderstanding and misinterpretation of Scripture.  Yes, only those who believe in Jesus (the ones the Father gives to Jesus) will be saved, but salvation by faith in Jesus Christ is available to the whole world because Jesus died for the sin of the whole world.  Anyone can believe in Jesus and become one of the ones the Father gives to Jesus!  He didn’t just die for a select few only to let everyone else perish!

Let’s look at the entirety of what Jesus said when He talked about “All that the Father gives me”:

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.  For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Jesus speaking in John 6:37-40

Do you hear that?!  Jesus is inviting everyone to come to Him and He promises that all who believe in Him will have eternal life and be raised up at the last day!  It is God’s will that everyone who looks to Jesus and believes in Him will have eternal life!

Remember what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus coming toward him?

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

John 1:29

The sin of what?  Just a few people?  No, John said, “who takes away the sin of the world!”  Limited atonement preachers will mince words about the word “world,” and they will say it doesn’t mean the whole world.  They are also incorrect about that.  The New Testament was written in Greek.  The Greek word for “world” used in the context of John 1:29 is “Kosmos,” which means “the inhabitants of the world, the universe, creation.”

It is used again in John 3:16 and 1 John 2:2:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16

“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

1 John 2:2

God’s Word couldn’t be any more clear!  Did Jesus say God so loved the few that he gave his one and only Son?  No, He said, “For God so loved the world,” kosmos, the inhabitants of the world!  God loves everyone in the whole world and He gave the whole world His Son Jesus Christ, so we can be saved and go to Heaven through faith in Him!  Jesus said so Himself!  Limited Atonement preachers are arguing with Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Lord and Savior of the whole world!

The Apostle John clearly states that Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for all sins, not just the sins of a few.  John specifically takes the time to make it clear that Jesus didn’t just die for them, “but also for the sins of the whole world.”  He even adds the word “whole” to it!  The Greek word he used for “whole” is “holou,” which means “all, the whole, entire, complete.”  So when he wrote “for the sins of the holou kosmos” he was saying for the sins of all the inhabitants of the world!  Anyone can become one of God’s elect by believing in Jesus Christ and that offer is for the whole world!  John 1:29, John 3:16, and 1 John 2:2 completely refute the false limited atonement doctrine!  If all I gave you were those three verses, it would be enough to understand the Gospel and understand that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world!

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God–children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

John 1:12-13

“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”  For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile–the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 10:9-13

There is no urgency to preach the Gospel in the false doctrine of limited atonement.  In fact, if you believe in limited atonement, then why preach the Gospel at all?  If you truly believe that Jesus didn’t die for the sins of the whole world, then you must believe that God creates some people just to be condemned and go to hell, and that is not what the Bible teaches.  God does not want anyone to perish!  He wants everyone to repent!

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

2 Peter 3:9

I preach the Gospel because the Lord commanded us to preach it to the world.  Why would Jesus do that if He had only died for a few people?  Jesus told us to go into all the world because He died for the sins of the world and He wants us to share that good news with the world!  There is no good news in the limited atonement doctrine because it is false and has nothing to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus speaking in Acts 1:8

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

Jesus speaking in Matthew 24:14

That is all the authority and power I will ever need to preach the Gospel to the whole world!  Jesus even said the end will only come once the Gospel is preached in the “whole world (holou kosmos) as a testimony to all nations.”  Jesus clearly would not have commanded us to “make disciples of all nations” if He had only died for a few.  By the power of the Holy Spirit we are His witnesses to the ends of the earth!  Don’t ever let anybody lie to you and tell you that Christ’s blood doesn’t cover the sins of the world.  Jesus Christ is the perfect and final atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world!  God does not want anyone to perish!  God does not want anyone to be condemned!  That is why He came to earth to die for us as the man Christ Jesus!

Just like Jesus said:

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him.”

John 3:17

There is that word “world” again.  Don’t let limited atonement preachers tell you it doesn’t mean the whole world.  Yes it does!  God sent His Son into the world (kosmos) to save the world (kosmos) through Him, and He does not want anyone to be condemned!  God is love and He so loved the world that He gave us His Son.  He gave Jesus to all of us in every nation of the world!

“And they sang a new song:

“You are worthy to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

because you were slain,

and with your blood you purchased

men for God

from every tribe and language and

people and nation.”

Revelation 5:9

Jesus purchased men for God from all over the world because He was slain for the sins of the whole world!  How could Jesus have purchased people from every tribe, language, people, and nation, if He had not died for the sins of the world?  Again, Christ’s atonement, which is the forgiveness of our sins by His sacrificial death on the cross, is available to every single person in the whole world through faith in Jesus Christ!

Look at how the Apostle Paul preached the Gospel:

“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood.  He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished–he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

Romans 3:22-26

Paul said all have sinned and all who believe in Jesus are justified freely by God’s grace.  God justifies anyone who has faith in Jesus!  Why?  What kind of sacrifice did God present Jesus as?  That’s right, “a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood.”  The blood of Jesus is all sufficient to cover the sins of the whole world and anyone who believes in Jesus will be redeemed and stand forgiven before God!  Jesus is the final and perfect sacrifice of atonement and His powerful blood covers all sin once and for all!

“He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.”

Hebrews 9:12

The doctrine of limited atonement was a source of controversy and debate even among those who issued the five points of Calvinism.  Calvin did not even believe in limited atonement!  He believed that Jesus died for the whole world and that anyone in the whole world could receive salvation through faith in Jesus!

Here is a quote regarding the history of limited atonement doctrine:

“Limited atonement has always been a controversial belief.  The Synod of Dort in 1619 issued the points of doctrine now known as TULIP; however, several theologians at the synod rejected limited atonement while accepting the other four points of Calvinism.

Long before the Protestant confessions and synods, though, the early church father Athanasius was describing universal atonement.  In his “On the Incarnation of the Word” (2.9), Athanasius writes that Jesus’ death was “a substitute for the life of all” and that, because of Jesus’ sacrifice, “the corruption that goes with death has lost its power over all.”  Note the word all.  Athanasius’ point is that Jesus’ death atoned for all of humanity.

Ironically, Calvin himself may not have placed much value on the idea of a limited atonement.  After all, the five points of what is called “Calvinism” came from a synod in the Netherlands almost 60 years after his death.  Calvin had this to say about John 3:16: “It is a remarkable commendation of faith, that it frees us from everlasting destruction…And he has employed the term whosoever, both to invite all indiscriminately to partake of life, and to cut off every excuse from unbelievers.  Such is also the import of the term World;…he shows himself to be reconciled to the whole world, when he invites all men without exception to the faith of Christ, which is nothing else than an entrance into life” (Commentary on John, Vol. 1).”

-GotQuestions.org

Athanasius and Calvin were right!  The death of Jesus is a substitute for the life of all people and God is reconciling the whole world to Himself through Christ!  He is inviting all people in the whole world to come to faith in Jesus because Jesus died for the sins of the whole world!

Just as the Apostle Paul said:

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.  And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.  Though once we regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.  And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

2 Corinthians 5:14-21

Just like Paul, I too am convinced that Jesus died for all and that God is reconciling the world to Himself in Christ!  He has committed to every believer in Jesus that we are to share this message with everyone, that God will not count our sins against us if we believe in Jesus!  Believers in Jesus are His ambassadors to share the good news of the message of the Gospel with the whole world!  I urge you with all my heart, come to Jesus and be reconciled to God!

Jesus loves you and He will forgive you!  He died for the sins of the whole world and anyone in the whole entire world can come to Jesus by faith!  That includes you, no matter where you are in the world!

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8

“But the gift is not like the trespass.  For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!  Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.  For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.  For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

The law was added so that the trespass might increase.  But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 5:15-21

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 6:23

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that Jesus didn’t die for your sins! Yes He did!  Just as sin came to all people through Adam, justification is available to all people through faith in Jesus Christ.  Many will be made righteous, not just a few!  Jesus died for the sins of the whole world and that is exactly what God’s Word teaches!  Someone who is preaching a gospel that says Jesus didn’t die for the sins of the whole world is not preaching the True Gospel.  That is no gospel at all!

As Paul warned:

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel–which is really no gospel at all.  Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!  As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!”

Galatians 1:6-9

There is only one Gospel of Jesus Christ and the gospel of limited atonement is not it!  Limited Atonement is a perversion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Paul’s bold statement serves as a warning to anyone who would pervert the True Gospel.  Limited Atonement is a false teaching that blasphemes the perfect atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of all mankind!  The atoning sacrifice of Jesus’ death on the cross is final and complete to pay for the sins of the whole world and there is nothing limited about it!  That is the True and only Gospel of Jesus Christ!  Jesus died for all of us, all the inhabitants of the whole world, and if you call on the Name of Jesus, your sins will be forgiven and you will be saved!

“Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.”

Acts 13:38

“The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!”  And let him who hears say, “Come!”  Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”

Revelation 22:17

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Colossians 1:13-14

Grace and peace to you all!

I was reading Colossians this morning and I was very encouraged by the prayer the Apostle Paul wrote in the introduction.  I prayed the verses over myself and my family and I would like to share the prayer with you, so that you can do the same.  We who believe in Jesus have great power by the Holy Spirit to pray to Him.  Jesus intercedes for us and He answers our prayers in accordance with God’s will.  This powerful prayer is definitely the will of God for us as we walk with Jesus, and it will help every believer live a life that pleases God!

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men–the testimony given in its proper time.”

1 Timothy 2:5-6

“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

1 John 5:11-12

Here is the prayer Paul wrote to the church at Colosse:

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.  For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Colossians 1:9-14

Amen!  Man, that is one powerful prayer and sermon right there!  Jesus has rescued us from the darkness of sin and death!  We have been redeemed and our sins are forgiven!  May the Lord answer this prayer for all those who believe in Jesus and may we live a life that is worthy of Him!

If you do not believe in Jesus, please know that He did not come to condemn you!  He died for the whole world to save us, not condemn us!  He died to forgive our sins and set us free!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16-18

Jesus wants to forgive you!  Jesus wants to give you eternal life!  Jesus wants to fill you with His Holy Spirit and give you wisdom and understanding and power to live a righteous life that pleases God!  Do you want that?  Do you want to be saved and be at peace with God?  Do you want His joy flowing through you?  Do you want your sins forgiven and cleansed from you?  Do you want to receive the great inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven?!  I truly hope so and if you answered yes, then come to Jesus!  Only He can save us from our sins!  It is by faith in Jesus alone that we can stand redeemed before God!

“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.  He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished–he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

Romans 3:21-26

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 6:23

You receive Jesus by faith.  Our sins are forgiven by His blood alone.  There is nothing you could ever do to earn salvation.  Your sins must be forgiven and Jesus is the only One who can forgive your sins!  Jesus is the sacrifice of atonement that God provided for our redemption and He did not provide any other sacrifice.  There is no other way to Heaven.  We cannot work our way to Heaven through good works.  We will always fall short of God’s glory because of our sin.  God only justifies those who have faith in Jesus and that is a free gift of His amazing grace!

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession–to the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 1:13-14

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

“Where then is boasting?  It is excluded.  On what principle?  On that of observing the law?  No, but on that of faith.  For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”

Romans 3:27-28

“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Romans 10:9

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6

If you know Jesus, I pray you rest in His grace and the fullness of the assurance of your salvation!  If you don’t know Jesus, I pray you come to Him today and cross over from death to life!  Jesus loves all of us and He is our only Lord and Savior!  He is the only One who died for us to save our souls!  Take Jesus at His Word!  He is the only Way out of sin and death!  He alone is our salvation and eternal life!  May all of us who love Jesus live a life that is worthy of Him and what He has done for us!

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

Acts 4:12

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

Jesus speaking in John 5:24

Grace and peace to you all!

Hello Everyone and God bless you all!  Christmas break ended for us yesterday and my wife and kids are back to school this week.  It was a very blessed 18 days off and we are very thankful for the time we had together.  I didn’t write yesterday due to issues with Celiac.  I didn’t think I was going to write today either, but the Lord has been giving me strength and helping me through the pain.  Like I said in my last post regarding my 8 year anniversary with Celiac, sometimes I still have hard days as I fight this disease.  The Lord is blessing me with some much needed rest, so I would just like to share a few photos and a few verses from God’s Word today.  Enjoy!

That photo above is what I saw when I looked through our kitchen window this morning.  It was encouraging to see the whole family of deer out there.  I decided to go down into the backyard and say hello, which they didn’t seem to mind.  The open space behind our house is pretty big and they feel safe out there.  We live within city limits, so there is no hunting out here and the deer have become very comfortable around people.

Now you can see how long and wide the open space is.  If you read my post regarding the amazing experience with the F-22 Raptor, now you can see how he flew from the top of the open space down to right behind our house.  He was hovering just on the other side of the sidewalk about 15 feet up.  It was awesome!

The deer left this morning, but they came back this afternoon.  I stepped out on the deck to take these photos around 12:30 p.m. Mountain Time.  It is a gorgeous 60 degrees today and we are all loving it, me and the deer!  The photo below shows the view I had when I saw the F-22.  It was hovering in the spot right between our big pine tree on the left and the maple tree to its right, just on the other side of the sidewalk.  If you look in the distance at the rim of the big gulch we are in, you can see the wide open flying space that pilots have up here.  He just swooped around and came right into our open space like it was nothing.

As I sat in the sun and enjoyed the peaceful presence of the deer, I thought of Psalm 23 and how the Lord gives us rest.  He takes care of us and restores us daily.  We all need that!  We all need the goodness and love of the Lord to lift us up and sustain us through our trials.  I am so thankful that He sees our pain and He takes time to comfort us.  He truly makes us lie down in green pastures and His love restores our souls!

“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be

in want.

He makes me lie down in green

pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

he restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of righteousness

for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk

through the valley of the shadow of

death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the

LORD

forever.”

Psalm 23:1-6

No matter what suffering we are fighting down here in the valley of the shadow of death, we have everything we need in Jesus!  He will lead us and guide us and our cups will overflow out of His abundant grace and love!  His comfort gives us strength and we press on with our Lord and Savior knowing we will be with Him forever!  May His loving comfort be with all who are suffering today!  Jesus loves you and you are not alone!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16

Grace and peace to you all!

 

I was reading an article yesterday that mentioned a recent report by NBC Nightly News where they talked about implantable microchips in Sweden and the benefits of people getting chipped.  This technology has been available for several years now and even though I have known about this and warned people about it many times, it was still chilling to watch the report.  The Bible, which was written almost 2,000 years ago, warned us that this would come upon the world, and now the technology to do it is here in our time!  To those who say the Bible is irrelevant, I say you are not paying attention, you don’t know the prophecies, and you better start learning the truth.

NBC talked about how easy and painless it is to have the chip implanted under your skin and they showed how rapidly the idea is spreading in Sweden.  They talked about how much easier and convenient life is with the chip and they showed people using it in their daily life.  To their credit, they did talk briefly about the dystopian danger of human beings being chipped by an all powerful government, but they brushed that off as a story line for fiction writers.  They should really spend more time on the dangers of it because it is not fiction.

There is a coming one world government and there have been people working towards it and calling for its arrival for many years in our time.  They are the ones who speak of a “new world order” and call for the destruction of national sovereignty.  They do everything they can to tear down borders and cause chaos because they want to rule the world.  They are the ones behind the creation of the chip and that is why they promote it.

Here is the link to the NBC Nightly News report.  The video will open in a separate window.  If you want to know what mainstream media propaganda looks like, this is it.  I do not support liberal NBC or any of the globalist owned mainstream media stations.  I am only posting this for your information, so you can see just how close we truly are to the prophecy regarding the mark of the beast.

ID, wallet, keys all in your hand: Sweden moves into the future with microchipping

The Book of Revelation tells us very clearly that there will be a dominating one world government in the end times, that government will be ruled by a man (the anti-Christ a.k.a. the beast) who is indwelt by the devil, and he will force everyone on earth to receive his “mark” in order to control people.  The warning the Apostle John gives us in Revelation chapter 13 is terrifyingly dire.  The word “dire” means: “Warning of or having dreadful or terrible consequences; calamitous.  Urgent; desperate.  Causing or attended by great fear or terrible suffering; dreadful; awful.”  Consider this post a most urgent and desperate warning to absolutely never let anyone implant a microchip inside your body, especially on your right hand or forehead!  There are terrible and dreadful eternal consequences for those who take the mark!

This is how it will be when the anti-Christ comes and establishes his one world government on the earth:

“Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast?  Who can make war against him?”

The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.  He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.  He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them.  And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.  All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast–all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.”

Revelation 13:4-8

“He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

This calls for wisdom.  If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number.  His number is 666.”

Revelation 13:16-18

This is not just another advancement in technology.  This is not the next iPhone.  The devil himself is behind this, and it will be used in the future to make human beings his slaves!  This is not about convenience.  It is about control, and make no mistake, the people who are working to build a one world government desperately want to control and dominate the world.  Having all of our personal information on an implantable microchip is the ultimate way to control how people “buy and sell” in society.  It would control how we live our lives and those without it would not be able to function in society.

The world government will be controlled by the anti-Christ (who will be seen as a great ruler worthy of worship) in the last days during the 7 year Tribulation and he will force everyone who is left on earth at that time to receive his evil mark.  The people who will worship the beast “whose names have not been written in the book of Life belonging to the Lamb that was slain” are people who do not believe in Jesus.  If you do not believe in Jesus, please understand how serious and deadly the coming new world order truly is!

The NBC report makes the microchip implants sound cool and they say the people who are doing it now are on the “cutting edge of technology.”  This is already here folks and people have been getting chipped for several years now!  Now it is being promoted on mainstream liberal news (which is owned by the globalists) here in America and this is just the beginning of it.  They are slowly introducing it to society as they roll out their master plan to dominate every human being on earth.  We will continue to see news reports highlighting the benefits and convenience of having a chip in our hand.  They will continue to speak of a “cashless society” and how the implantable microchip is the “wave of the future.”

“Imagine carrying just about everything you need beneath the surface of your hand–your wallet, keys and ID, all in a microchip.  That’s reality in Sweden, as some early-adopters implant the tiny devices beneath their skin.”

NBC Nighty News, October 13, 2019

You can just see it now.  Commercials with athletes and movie stars saying, “I got my chip!  Did you get yours?”  They will make it look like the coolest and most futuristic act you could ever do and they will shame those who reject it.  It will eventually become harder and harder to shop without the chip as more businesses and retailers adopt the technology.  And finally, when the anti-Christ comes, it will be forced on society, and all who worship the beast and take his evil mark are actually rejecting Jesus Christ at that time and they will lose their souls.  Worshiping the beast is worshiping the devil!  That is how deadly this technology actually is!

“What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?  Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Jesus speaking in Matthew 16:26

If you have already been chipped and you are using this technology like thousands of people in Sweden do, I urge you with all my heart to have it removed immediately!  It is not yet the mark of the beast and you still have time!  Get it out of you!  You are not a slave to be tracked and dominated like an animal!  You are a human being created in the image of God and He loves you!  God does not want you to be a slave to the evil one!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16

There is nothing cool or hip about the chip!  It is pure evil and the globalists who are promoting it are evil!  They are working for the evil one and they are waiting for their leader to arrive!

None of us know the times or dates of the end, but we are very close in 2020.  The technology for the mark of the beast is here, people are already using it, and they will continue to make rapid advances with it just like they do with our phones and all other technology.  Within this decade, we may very well see so many people being chipped that those who don’t do it will be looked at as strange and behind the times.  No matter what happens in society or how many commercials they run promoting it, nobody is ever implanting a microchip in me, my wife, or our kids!  I strongly recommend you take the same stand against it!  It breaks my heart seeing people getting the chip and it is disgusting.

Jesus Christ is Lord and He is coming soon!  Many prophecies of the Bible are being fulfilled in our time and we must keep our eyes fixed on Him.  The world is blinded to the truth and many think the implantable chip is a great idea.  They consider it the next great technological advancement and they cannot even fathom the wickedness behind it and the great suffering it will cause.  Those who are chipped in 2020 think it makes them more free, when actually they have willingly stepped into slavery and they are now primed for total domination.  When the anti-Christ arrives, they will be that much easier to control and many will run to worship the beast.

Only Jesus Christ can save your soul and rescue you from the coming wrath of the Tribulation.  The wrath of that time is not for believers in Jesus Christ and if it happens in our time, then we will be rescued from it by a powerful miracle of the Lord known as the Rapture.  Yes, I believe in it, it is found in the Bible, and no, I’m not even going to waste time arguing with believers who don’t believe in God’s miracles.  Mid-Trib and Post-Trib Rapture don’t even make any sense, they don’t line up with God’s Word because both state that believers will suffer the wrath of the Tribulation, and after 23 years of ministry I am tired of debating those who subscribe to those doctrines.

I’m not here to get into unfruitful arguments with fellow believers.  I’m here to please God and preach His Truth to unbelievers who are lost in their sin.  If you don’t want to believe you will be rescued from the coming wrath, fine, but you are not ever going to convince me otherwise.  And don’t even try to tell me Pre-Trib was a doctrine made up in the 1800s by some preacher.  We know about it because the Apostle Paul preached about it and he told us to “encourage each other with these words.”  There is nothing encouraging about Mid-Trib or Post-Trib because both remove the truth that God will rescue us from the coming wrath.  If it happens in our time, we will go through everything leading up to the Tribulation (including WW3) and we must faithfully endure, but believers are rescued right before it starts.  Believers in Jesus are not appointed to suffer the Tribulation.

The Word says what it says about the Pre-Tribulation Rapture and I believe it with all my heart.  By the way, I know the word “rapture” is not found in the Bible.  The New Testament was written in Greek.  The English word “rapture” came from the Latin word “raeptius,” which was translated from the Greek word “harpazo,” which is the translated root word for “caught up.”  Harpazo means “to seize, catch up, or snatch away, to seize by force, or snatch up suddenly and decisively.”  That is the word Paul used in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 when speaking of believers being “caught up together with them in the clouds.”  The Apostle Luke uses the same word “harpazo” when writing in Acts 8:39 about how “the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away.”  The Lord will literally snatch us away suddenly and rescue us from the wrath that He will pour out on the earth.  We are appointed for salvation, not for wrath!

“and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead–Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.”

1 Thessalonians 1:10

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore encourage each other with these words.”

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

“For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Thessalonians 5:9

If you don’t believe in Jesus and all this ends up happening in our time and we see a one world government come to power, remember the warning in Revelation and turn to Jesus!  Do not worship the anti-Christ or take his mark!  My advice is to accept Jesus by faith while there is still time before the Tribulation.  Today is the day of salvation because you might not get a tomorrow, and every day we move one step closer to the end.

Jesus is the only Way out of the great trouble that is coming to this world.  May the Lord spread revival and open people’s minds and hearts to the truth of His Word!  Only Jesus can forgive our sins and give us eternal life!  May people clearly see what is going on in this sinful fallen world and come running to Jesus!

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6

Grace and peace to you all!

Good morning Everyone and God bless you all!  It is a beautiful day the Lord has made and we even had some furry visitors this morning that God used to inspire this post.  There is a family of deer that come through the open space behind our home just about every day.  Sometimes they sleep in our backyard and other times they like to snuggle up close to the fence underneath our big pine trees.  As I watched them resting there so peacefully this morning, the verses about the Lord being a shelter came to mind.  Jesus is our shelter of peace and we can truly rest in Him!

“He who dwells in the shelter of the

Most High

will rest in the shadow of the

Almighty.

I will say of the LORD, “He is my

refuge and my fortress,

my God, in whom I trust.”

Psalm 91:1-2

Amen!  Jesus is our refuge and fortress of great rest and peace and we can trust in Him!  When you believe in Jesus, you dwell in Him and He is your shelter both now and for eternity!  He is our Savior and our only refuge from sin and death!

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 6:23

Look at how happy she is!  She even smiled for me!  Those deer are at peace.  They have found refuge and they are not afraid.  They use the safety of the trees as a fortress and they rest under their shadow.

When we dwell in Jesus, He protects us and takes care of us.  We are His children and we are safe in His love.  What a beautiful and mighty shelter, refuge, and fortress we have in Jesus!

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.  For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Jesus speaking in John 6:37-40

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus speaking in Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus is Lord and He alone is the shelter and rest for our souls!  He is welcoming you with open arms and He will forgive all your sins!  Jesus loves you!  Come to Him by faith and He will receive you as His own!

“Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.”

Acts 13:38

“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Romans 10:9

“for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 10:13

Grace and peace to you all!

 

 

 

Happy New Year Everyone!  Welcome to 2020!  I don’t usually post this late, but I wanted to share a quick encouraging word for this first day of the new year before it’s over.

For the last few weeks leading up to today, I have been thinking a lot about moving forward.  Moving forward from my past mistakes and sins.  Moving forward past my regrets and shame, and truly living in the joy of His forgiveness and salvation daily!  Even after following Jesus for 23 years now, my past mistakes rob my joy far too often.  Once you come to Jesus you are free and forgiven and His blood covers all your sins, past, present, and future.  God is not keeping a record of wrongs on us.  He disciplines us when we mess up and He never leaves us.  Sanctification is a lifelong process and the Lord will prune us as needed.  He is the potter, we are the clay.

Dwelling on the past, especially the negative things we have done, does not do anybody any good.  Once we have repented of whatever it was that we did or said that was sinful, we need to move on in the Lord.  As long as we learn from our mistakes and grow, then the pain is not in vain.  The Bible promises that God’s discipline will produce a harvest of righteousness in us.  God can take our mistakes and turn it into something beautiful every time.  Don’t beat yourself up over things that were forgiven and forgotten by God the moment you admitted your wrong and turned from it.  Move forward in His grace!

These verses have been on my heart all day:

“Forget the former things;

do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not

perceive it?

I am making a way in the desert

and streams in the wasteland.”

Isaiah 43:18-19

God wants to do new things in all our lives!  As one who suffers a chronic illness, I can say wholeheartedly that you must keep your hope strong that He still has good plans for you.  Trust in Jesus!  God can make a way where there is no way!  Keep trusting, praying, and believing and don’t give up!  Give that hurt from the past to God and rest in His forgiveness.  When you come to Jesus by faith, God removes your sins from you as far as the east is from the west and remembers them no more.  Live in that wonderful peace every day of your life!

We only get one shot at life, friends!  Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, love your neighbor, and love each other!  That is what Jesus wants for all of us in 2020 and beyond!  May we not waste time hurting ourselves or others over the past.  Forgive yourself, forgive each other, and keep moving forward!

Grace and peace to you all!

Hello friends and family!  Well, here we are, the last day of 2019!  My prayer for us all is that we would enter 2020 with renewed strength and soar above our troubles in our hope in the Lord!  We all know that we will face plenty of trials in 2020 just as we have in 2019 and every other year of our lives.  This is a truth we face every day of our lives here on fallen planet earth.  I also know without a doubt that we can overcome all our troubles through faith in Jesus!  We can truly take heart because He has overcome the world just as He told us!  We can rise up with great hope and soar on wings like eagles!

Thank you all for sticking with me this year!  From friends around the world to family I grew up with, I appreciate all of your support and encouragement!  Reading all of your blogs and chatting with you every day has been a blessing to me, especially in my fight with Celiac.  Thank you all for your prayers and encouraging comments throughout the year!  The Lord has me preaching in almost 140 countries now and my prayer is that He would increase that to every country in the world in 2020!  Please pray that I would be faithful to Him and His calling on my life!  I just want to please the Lord and do as He commanded.

I will continue to preach the Gospel and share God’s Word in 2020 and my fervent prayer every year is that the Lord would spread revival through the world!  People desperately need God’s love and we all need a Savior!  The societies of the world are suffering from a lack of knowledge of God’s Word.  In an age where we have access to seemingly unlimited information through technological advances, we are at the same time living through an age of spiritual ignorance and darkness as people call good evil and evil good.  A time where truth is whatever someone wants it to be regardless of what God’s Word says.  No matter what human beings say, truth is not relative.  God’s Truth is eternal and it is the only Truth that is sovereign over our souls and this entire universe!

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”

John 1:1-4

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John 1:14

The most beautiful message in the world is that God loves us and came to earth to save us!  You are not alone and you can know God deeply and personally by the power of the Holy Spirit!  You can walk with Him and talk with Him and enjoy His comfort, peace, and love every day of your life!  God has opened a Way to Him and that Way is Jesus Christ.  He is the only Way to Heaven and that is a truth that all people must hear!

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus speaking in John 3:16

The beauty of the Gospel is forgiveness!  God wants to forgive you!  He wants to save you!  Let 2020 be a true fresh start!  There is no sin too big.  God can forgive anyone and He will forgive you too!

“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Romans 3:22-24

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 6:23

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

2 Peter 3:9

When you receive Jesus by faith, you are completely forgiven and your sins will never be counted against you!  You are made new by the power of the Holy Spirit that God deposits inside of you upon receiving Jesus, and you are truly a new creation!  You are born again and made brand new in Christ!

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.  And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession–to the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 1:13-14

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

“In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

John 3:3

Not counting our sins against us!  That is the great Truth of God that sets us free!  Do you want that freedom?  Are you tired of being in bondage to your sins?  Call on the Name of the Lord Jesus and you will be saved!  Every sin will be washed away by the atoning Blood of Jesus through faith in Him!  That is the true fresh start we all need!  Come to Jesus this New Year’s Eve!  He will receive you as His own and you will be born again as a child of God who is free and forgiven forever!

“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”  For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile–the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 10:9-13

May 2020 be the year that you take hold of the eternal life God is offering!  May you become a new creation experiencing the cleansing joy of God’s love and forgiveness!  I would never promise that life will be without trouble, but you will have power to overcome any trial and you will walk in the newness of life that only a relationship with Jesus can bring!  The old will be gone and the new will come!

Grace and peace to you all!  Have a very blessed and happy new year!

 

 

 

If you live here in America, then you most likely heard that on Saturday night, the 7th night of Hanukkah, five people were stabbed by an intruder at the home of a Jewish Rabbi in New York.  The man was wielding a machete and he attacked them out of hatred for Jewish people.  I am praying for my Jewish brothers and sisters who were attacked and for the entire congregation there in Monsey.  I stand with you and I stand with Israel!  We both love the same God, the Creator of all things, YAHWEH (YHWH), the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Father of Jesus Christ.  I pray healing over those who were attacked and I pray blessing, peace, and protection over all of you.

I cannot stand seeing this kind of anti-Semitic hatred.  Nobody should be attacked because of what they believe!  These attacks come straight from the evil one because he hates and persecutes all those who love YAHWEH, both Jews and Christians.  We need to be in prayer as the spiritual battles intensify as the end approaches.  May the Lord spread revival and bring healing and peace to people’s hearts, minds, and souls!  Jesus died for all of us, both Jew and Gentile, and He is the only One who can save us from sin and death!

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

2 Corinthians 13:14

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Galatians 3:26-29

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Romans 1:16-17

I will always bless Israel!  May the Lord pour out His Holy Spirit on Israel and all our Jewish brothers and sisters!  Bless you all in the Name of Yeshua, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.  Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Hebrews 4:14-16

Grace and peace to you all!