The End Times.8

"When you hear of wars and the turmoil of destruction;
do not let your hearts fill with fear:
for these things must first come to pass;
the end is not yet.

Nation will rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom.
Fearful sights and great signs will appear in the heavens.
There will be signs in the sun,
and in the moon,
and in the stars.
On the earth will be great adversity between the nations,
and perplexity,
roaring like the sea's mighty waves.
Famines,
plagues,
and earthquakes will increase.
All these are the beginnings of sorrow.

Because evil will abound, 

the love of many will turn cold."

--Jesus

On a visit to relatives the summer of my 15th year, I experienced a prophetic vision of sorts.  In the early evening I was talking to a cousin and the conversation took a decidedly spiritual turn. As the Spirit of Jesus began to convict her of sin, righteous and judgment, I felt like I was re-living each word and movement that passed between us!  Call it premonition, if you will, but I knew what was going to occur before it happened.  When she reached into a drawer to discard the object of her repentance, I nearly exploded with joy - not only for her salvation but for the special privilege of knowing the Lord had chosen beforehand to show me this special moment!

The prophet Jeremiah was chosen to bring to the

image source: flikr.com

nation Israel very unpopular messages regarding their future captivity and oppression.  He exposed generational sins in the people that God could no longer tolerate.  But much of his message regarded the future and even Jeremiah realized the ultimate test of a prophet is whether the predicted events come true.  

A small event occurred that, I think, gave Jeremiah a moment of joy and a certain validation that God concerned himself with and used even the most incidental events in a magnificent way.  It was revealed to Jeremiah that a relative was going to offer him some property in the occupied city of Jerusalem and that he should purchase it.  Shortly thereafter the cousin showed up precisely as the Lord had revealed it to Jeremiah and the transaction became symbolic of God's future blessing to the nation that they would once again return and live in the land of God's promised prosperity.

There is coming a day when the work of rebellion among the inhabitants of this planet will be consummated, called to account and a final refining of the race results in the rule of righteousness revealed in the Son of Righteousness.  

The events leading up to that moment, make no mistake, are terrible and terrifying.  Even now  we see the wicked attempting to manipulate what they intuitively sense about these impending cataclysmic events into an opportunity to profit and control the masses for their own benefit.

This scaremongering over issues like "man-made global climate change," ebola and radical Islam is a reflection of the nature of their Master.  Not surprising, since the devil knows more about the Bible and its prophecies than most believers!  But in keeping with his nature, rather than bow his will, he will continue to deceive and take down as much of humanity as he can until the final day.

Jesus, the source of all wisdom and knowledge, foresaw all these events, and painted with broad strokes the trials coming upon this rebellious world. Let us reflect for a moment that, in the midst of these horrifying troubles, the one thing that brings Him most sorrow is:

"the love of many will grow cold," 

then let us realize that every transaction between you and another person, however seemingly insignificant in your own eyes, is an opportunity to grow strong in fearless love and symbolize the blessings yet to come for those who put their hope and trust in the Lord of Light, Life, and Love!

We don't need special prophetic gifts to know how we ought now to live! Keep loving and living without fear, always growing in His perfecting love!  Then will we be able to stand strong in the day of judgment, blameless with great joy!

The End Times.7

"Do you see standing these temple walls? Truly I say to you, not one stone will be left upright! Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

--Jesus

The Michigan State University football team played the Oregon Ducks in a battle of top ten teams recently.  That is a fact.  Before the game was concieved in the minds of each school's athletic directors there was a chance, with the development of their programs, they'd be top ranked teams.  But no certainty. As game day approached, oddsmakers made the Ducks 12 point favorites.  I scoffed and predicted the mighty Spartans would win by two touchdowns!


I still have my day job.

The Spartans fell by a lopsided 46-27 score. Another fact.

Predicting the future is tricky business.  When emotions become a factor all kinds of crazy can happen.  Bets made, plans prepared, dizzying expectations launched and, most notably, facts ignored.

Much of life is spent trying to predict the future.  

• If I take this job I can...
• If I buy this house we will...
• If I stick with this diet I'll have...
• If I vote this candidate we will...
• If I use this curriculum my kids will....
• If I invest in this company it will....
• This technology will...
• If I marry this person we'll....
• If I get my kids involved in this they'll...

How would you like to be the One Being in the Universe who can predict with absolute certainty the outcome of everything?!

Omniscience, by definition, means to hold all the facts of the entire universe and calculate in an instant of time the outcomes of every decision of every human being! 

 Dizzying...

Just think if I'd known --with certainty-- the final score of the Spartans/Ducks before the game was actually played how much emotional pain I could have saved myself.  Sad to know they'd lose but not emotionally crushed when they didn't live up to my expectations!

Although there were no Las Vegas oddsmakers around the time of 70 a.d., I'm quite sure the people of Israel, as tenuous as their position was with Rome, wouldn't have bet against themselves in keeping their nation together.  In fact, by handing the King of Truth over to Rome's quirky, malevolent judgment they bet on their own ability to escape condemnation!  

But God, himself, both warned and predicted that their collective decision to reject their King whose Kingdom is Love, would result in the very dispersion of their nation, scattered to the four winds of the world. Jerusalem has indeed been trampled under the foot of many nations for generations.  A historical certainty. 

All of this to say: our trust should not be in our ability to ascertain the future or understand all the predictions for this world.  Rather, our trust --and peace-- should be in the One who knows with certainty the final outcome of all that He's planned for every single person who is willing to know and love Him. 

You can bet on it!

The End Times.6

"The day will come when your enemies will lay a trench around your walls, and hem you in on every side. They will hurl you to the dust, and your children with you, and will not leave one stone standing upon another, all this because you failed to recognize the appointed time when God himself moved among you." 

--Jesus

"You can choose your behavior 
but you cannot choose your consequences." 
--The quiet admonition of a friend to her children.

Recently, a Canadian friend posted a comment about her favorable opinion of Barack Obama after listening to his audio version of "The Audacity of Hope." This sparked an animated discussion on whether a "good" person can author bad public policy.  One comment-er tried to make the case for his moral leadership by stating Obama's bad policy decisions are less bad than George W. Bush's. 

Social media allows us to air our opinions with more frequency and to a greater audience than at any time in the world's history.  But is the human race any more capable of discerning goodness than at any time in human history?  Can we see the "God-ness" in a particular event or person any more clearly than when God himself moved among us?

from obamamessiah.blogspot.ca/

For some reason nearly every U.S. President is scrutinized by the public to determine their qualifications as saint or satan.  For instance, because Ronald Wilson Reagan had six letters in each of his names --666-- some were convinced it made him the Anti-Christ.  On the other hand Barbara Walters, venerated journalist, has referred to Barack Obama as Messiah. She's not alone in her adoration...

"Obama's finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don't even really inspire. They elevate. . . . He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh . . . Obama is, at his best, able to call us back to our highest selves."
-- Ezra Klein

Had the Jewish nation embraced Jesus as their King how would the world be different today? The obvious answer is we Gentiles would not be here to consider the question! Their egregious rejection of God himself became our opportunity to be born...and born again! It also helps us understand God's willingness to allow his Will to be thwarted, at least temporarily, if not tragically, to sub-serve his greater purposes! 

If the challenge to first century humanity was to recognize God moving among men -- and the reaction to his birth indicates that centuries old prophecies had accomplished at the very least (for some) an awareness of the possibility of a heavenly visitation and (for others) an earnest anticipation -- is the challenge any less for modern mankind to avoid the same tragic mistake?  

If we don't have a certainty about Jesus the Man we have come to believe in and those qualities that make him the great I Am, how will we withstand the onslaught of false Messiah's with their promises of hope or threats of change for a world on fire? 

If you are putting your trust in doctrinal positions or theology, you will be swept up in the delusion that Jesus warned would impact even the elect.  

Will He find faith in Him on earth?  What is faith in Him? 

 "The leaving of your way, your objects, your self, and the taking of His and Him; the leaving of your trust in men, in money, in opinion, in character, in atonement itself, and doing as He tells you! To do His words is to enter into vital relation with Him, to obey Him is the only way to be One with Him! The relation between Him and us is an absolute one; it can nohow begin to live but in obedience: it is obedience!" -MacDonald

The Day is coming, and perhaps is closer than we think, when we must choose our allegiance between Jesus and this world order.  However, we make that choice daily by choosing to obey Him.  If you cannot think of one thing this day you have done because Jesus said do this or one thing you have not done because He said don't do this, you have good reason to fear you won't make the correct choice when it may cost you all!

Triumph or Tragedy.  Its all in a choice.  Choose today whom you will serve...

 

 

Feedback Request

"Lord purify my heart 
so that I care little
 for any judgment but yours." --  George MacDonald

I love to write.  But it can be a lonely vigil.  A writer who writes for a living gets a substantial sense of his impact by the books or articles he sells.  Online bloggers/tweeters get feedback through comments, retweets, pageviews, etc.  

For those of you who read this blog you can see I don't get a

lot of feedback.  I write to encourage and build up not create controversy. So perhaps that's why there isn't much in the way of comment.  But I would appreciate an honest critique of this blog if you have a moment.  I'd like to see it expand and grow to a greater viewership but not sure if it is something that appeals to anyone but a narrow tract of friends who either are genuinely encouraged by the insight offered or are just being polite.

Any thoughts, questions, criticism on: 

• the goal of combing Jesus' words, insights from George MacDonald, and my experiences to encourage followers of Jesus in their journey.
• Writing style: predictable, unique, easy/difficult to read, insufficient crediting for quotes, images, etc
• Use of Illustrations, photos, etc
• Theological perspective
• Impact it has on your understanding of discipleship, God, Jesus, obedience, etc.
• Anything else that comes to mind.

If you have any experience in blogging or growing social media that would help me expand this outreach, if you think it has a wider readership potential, would very much appreciated.

Thanks for your help!

In Jesus' love and service,

Charlie

The End Times.5

"When the end times comes, and you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the sacred place, then it is time for those that dwell in the cities to flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetops turn to save anything that is in the house; neither let those working in the field go back to fetch their belongings.

Sorrow, to those who bear children in those days! May their flight not be in winter, nor on the Sabbath: for there will be great distress, unequaled since time began. Except such days be shortened, few would endure: and yet those days shall indeed be shortened, for the sake of God's chosen."

--Jesus

Rush Limbaugh has stated to his vast radio audience, on not a few occasions, that he will assuredly let them know when it is time to panic!

I wonder if Rush is listened to in Iraq?

A note Franklin Graham posted on social media recently:

"Up to 40,000 Iraqis, many of them Christians, are trapped right now on a mountaintop in northern Iraq surrounded by Islamic terrorists. Children are dying of thirst, and if the people come down they will be slaughtered. "Genocide is taking place today in northern Iraq, where Christian and Yezidi populations are being exterminated," Congressman Frank Wolf said in a letter to President Obama. They desperately need our prayers and immediate international intervention. Why is the world standing by and doing nothing?"

Genocide and inhumanity are as much a part of the world's history as invention and progress. Throughout history the Jews, especially, have been targeted for annihilation; seven times to be specific. Jesus's warning regarding the end times adds a new twist to an age old plot: his followers would also be targeted for termination! 

Knowing the premium Jesus has on righteous character, the number of times He's commanded His followers to not fear, and the revelation that cowards will not occupy his Kingdom, does it strike anyone else as odd that He'd instruct his followers to flee?

Pinning His prophetic words to actual events can be an exercise in futility...ask the believers in Mosul whose houses were

Arabic letter "N" for Nasrani symbolizing
followers of the Nazarene - Jesus

identified with the Arabic letter "N" for Nasrani, followers of the Nazarene, who, out of necessity, abandoned their homes, but not their faith, if this is the Great Tribulation! Rather, look how their faith is being broadcast to the whole world while exposing the wretchedness and brutality of a false, man-made religion bent on domination not salvation.

Certainly what ISIL is doing -- identifying Christians, forcing them from their homes, brutalizing men, women and children -- is abominable and leads to desolation; it is a cryptic demonstration of the power source behind it: diabolical, demonic, satanic. And for these dear brothers and sisters in Christ, matters little that it fulfills this or that eschatological perspective.

But it may give the rest of us a little perspective on Jesus' words on fleeing at the trigger point of massive, worldwide persecution of both Jews and Christians alike that precedes His Divine intervention into the affairs of mankind. If we see the world falling apart, He knows it is falling into place right where He intends: the final confrontation between good & evil.  The wrath of satan vs the wrath of God.  The eradication of death and the glorious triumph of Life!

Our part, as always, is to obey His divine directives. Flee, not out of panic, but with resolve to minister along the way prepared and purposeful in our understanding that all these things must happen to fulfill all righteousness!

The End Times.4

"The powers of the heavens will be shaken, and people's hearts will fail them for fear, anticipating the calamities that are destined for this world."

--Jesus

By nature I am a timid man.  That is a polite way of saying I'm a coward.  There are vivid memories -- still painful -- of moments when, in front of family and friends, I exhibited paralyzing fear.

I am not proud of those moments; in fact, you could say I 
loathe them...

There are, however, other moments in my journey through time when I demonstrated a degree of courage.

Clearly I like Richard the LyonHeart much more than Charlie the Cowardly Lyon.

If there were one single attribute for which followers of Jesus are persecuted, I believe it is courage, or at least our potential to be courageous when it counts most.  Fear makes people vulnerable and easily manipulated. Those who would control the masses know that fear factors powerfully in managing behavior. But believers, trained in truth and trust, are not easily manipulated by hysterical cries of impending doom.  "I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able..."

To say "We have no King but Jesus!" is not only a declaration of allegiance but a beacon of hope to those whose hearts would fail them in calamity.

Jesus' most dire warning to his followers is that during times of great difficulty, when evil increases, the love of people grows cold. The cords of Love & Courage are inextricably woven into the fabric of Jesus' life and it's tensile strength in the hearts of His followers is tested most severely in times of trial.

"There is no fear in love," fearlessly declares the beloved disciple.  "Perfect Love casts out fear."  Let us give ourselves to His perfecting love every minute of every day that we may share in the company of the courageous, confident we can withstand the worst the world has to try to scare us into submission.

"Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, 

that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, 

and having done all, to stand."

The End Times.3

"If you had only known, in this your day of salvation, the eternal peace so near at hand! 

But now it is hidden from your eyes." 

-- Jesus

When our boys were small 3-D stereoscopic pictures were all the rage.  One son, Danny, could never see the 3-D effect of the pictures.  The trouble was that he could not

Image from Imgur.com

cross his eyes to get the effect.  We never really considered this much of a problem save for his not enjoying the sensation of the interesting images seemingly floating in space.  However, after attending a vision seminar and having Dan's vision tested we learned that inflexibility of the muscles in his eyes had a direct correlation to his difficulty in comprehending and retaining information when he read. A few recommended eye exercises resolved the problem we didn't even know he had!

Not seeing special effects may be disappointing; not comprehending can be downright debilitating. But never acknowledging the problem and finding restoration? Most tragic of all.

Is there anything more tragic for an individual or the race than to be oblivious both to our condition and the cure?

To the best of my knowledge, there is not yet an app for peace.  All the technology in the world will never repair the wrongness in us that disrupts what should be an adventure-filled, collaborative care-taking and awe-inspired harmony with the Creator and His world.

 The real cause of human-kind's trouble is a something many have not recognized even exists, not yet acquainted with its true nature. However absurd the statement may seem to one who has not yet discovered the fact for himself, 

the cause of every man's discomfort, 

his lack of peace, 

is evil, 

MORAL EVIL.

First of all, 

• evil in himself, 
• his own sin, 
• his own wrongness, 
• his own unrightness

and then, evil in those he loves...

Eternal peace can never be achieved by something outside of ourselves: 

• changing our address or social status
• changing jobs
• changing roommates
• changing wardrobes
• changing spouses
• changing diets
• changing doctors
• changing channels
• changing teams
• changing political parties
• changing names
• changing the world

How ever many ways we promote world-change, even if it were possible, we still fail to grasp that we would be out of tune with the thing we've created when we fail to grasp the truth of our own disharmony with our Maker & Master.

To free a man from suffering, his lack of peace, he must be set right, put in health ; and the health at the root of man's being, his rightness, is to be free from wrongness, that is, from sin. A man is right when there is no wrong in him. The wrong, the evil is in him.

He must be set free from it. 

To this end, the Perfect Son of the Perfect Father was born to our eyes.  To be sure, the suffering is causative of the cure for how else can our eyes be opened to the remedy?  The cure is to be made free from the evil in us.  Only the Eternal Prince of Peace paid the price for our freedom.

It is the indwelling badness, ready to produce bad actions, that we need to be delivered from. Against this badness if a man will not strive, he is left to commit evil and reap the consequences. To be saved from these consequences, would be no deliverance ; it would be an immediate, ever deepening damnation. It is the evil in our being — no essential part of it, thank God ! — the miserable fact that the very child of God does not care for his father and will not obey him, causing us to desire wrongly, act wrongly, or, where we try not to act wrongly, yet making it impossible for us not to feel wrongly — this is what he came to deliver us from ; — not the things we have done, but the possibility of doing such things anymore.

For as long as a man continues on loving the darkness in him will he continue to have his eyes hidden to the Eternal Peace ever close at hand.  Open our eyes to see that cure in one man is the beginning of the cure for the whole race!

(adapted from Hope Of The Gospel, Salvation From Sin, by George MacDonald.)