Tag Archives: Tribulation

The Rapture

1 Corinthians 14:33 (KJV) For God is not [the author] of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

When confusion is evident, God is not in it. It is the devil who tries to throw a wrench into God’s Work. In the case of the Church at Thessalonica, people were told that “The Day of the Lord” was passed, and that those who died before Jesus came would miss His coming. Christians began to fret and worry that their loved ones would miss out on the glory of Jesus’ coming. So let’s read the Scripture in context. The Apostle writes: Continue reading

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The Reason For Suffering

Hebrews 12:5-11 KJV And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: {6} For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. {7} If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? {8} But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. {9} Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? {10} For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. {11} Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

No one likes to suffer. When we go through suffering, our first response as humans is to seek to avoid or repair the suffering. We all do it. When God took Israel out of Egypt, He took His people through a series of water tests.

At the Red Sea, Israel experienced too much water (Exodus 14:10-12).
At Marah, God led Israel to bitter water (Exodus 15:22-26).
At Rephidim, God led Israel where there was no water (Exodus 17:1-7).

At each encounter, Israel responded exactly the same way. They muttered and moaned and complained and blasphemed God and His servants. Israel did not respond to the tests in faith, paying attention to how God saved her each time. Because Israel repeatedly failed the tests and did not turn to God in the midst of their need, their faith never grew. Since their faith never grew, when Israel got to Kadesh Barnea Continue reading

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Our God Reigns

It’s true that God says “God is faithful, Who will not {allow} you to be tempted above that which you are able”. This text is specifically addressing TEMPTATION to sin. God will not allow temptation to come to you greater than you can bear. When you read the context around 1 Corinthians 10:13 it becomes clearer. God speaks of Israel who fell in the wilderness. Israel “lust(ed) after evil things”. Had they looked to Jesus, they would not have fallen in the wilderness. Instead, Israel looked to her own resources, and “became examples for us, that we not lust after evil things as they did” (1 Corinthians 10:6).

Does God allow more to come our way than we can bear? Yes. God’s Son cried out on Calvary, “My God, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). In His humanity, the Cross was more than He could, at that moment, bear.

Yes, He sometimes does do this. God doesn’t do this because He enjoys it, but because He wants us to take our burdens to Him.

Trials force us to acknowledge we desperately need our God. Trials force our prodigal hearts to return to the Lord that loves us.

God allowed more stress to fall on to the Apostles than they could bear. The Apostle Paul wrote:… Continue reading

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The Kingdom Is Where The Eagles Are Gathered

The Pharisees – constantly at war with the Lord Jesus – wanted to know WHEN the Kingdom of God would come. Why did they ask Jesus this question with such force? Because Jesus had previously presented Himself as the Messiah. Jesus called Himself “Son of Man”. Our Lord told people:

Matthew 8:20 The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

In Matthew chapter 9 Jesus told a crippled man,

Matthew 9:2 … Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.

The Scribes on hearing this said “this man blasphemes God, for only God can forgive sins” (also Mark 2:6-7). Jesus told them:

Matthew 9:6-7 … that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. 7 And he arose, and departed to his house.

The phrase “son of man” was used in prophecy… Continue reading

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Praying The 23rd Psalm

We live in a fallen, sin ridden world. I know when I say this, I’m not telling you anything that you don’t know. All you need to do for proof of this is to just turn on your televisions. Not too long ago an young woman decided that she would hitchhike across Europe to prove her theory that people are, at heart, all “good people”. This has been tried several times over the years, and each time it has not been a good ending. Though other people have tried, and have either been raped and/or killed, this young lady believed that “all people are good”. So she tried. Just a few days into her adventure she was raped and robbed by a person posing as a taxi driver. The young lady claims that she will try again in a few years, that she has not given up on human “goodness”. It is a miracle she was not murdered. Continue reading

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The Amazing Love Of God (Red Letters #24)

The Apostle in writing to the Church at Corinth paints a picture of spiritual warfare, an on going battle between the light and the darkness. He speaks of what hides the Gospel from those who so desperately need it. As Paul went about preaching the glorious Gospel of salvation by faith in Christ he realized that another force warred against him – a force of darkness. He wrote about this force in .. Continue reading

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Come And See

“Come and See” is what Christ bids each person to do. To come to Him. To watch Him. To experience His Presence. “Come and See”. The world has rejected the “Come and See” of the Lamb of God. They have “trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace” (Hebrews 10:29). What is left then? Continue reading

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