SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/29/2023 9:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Intro to Matthew 24:4-14”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 24:4-14
Message of the verses: “4 And Jesus answered and said to
them, "See to it that no one misleads you. 5 “For many will come in
My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. 6 “And you will be
hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those
things must take place, but that is not yet the end. 7 “For nation
will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places
there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 “But all these things are merely
the beginning of birth pangs. 9 “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and
will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name. 10
“And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate
one another. 11 “And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many. 12
“And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. 13 “But the one who endures to the
end, he shall be saved. 14 “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end
shall come.”
I think that there are times when people hear the
truth about something, but block it out of their mind because when they hear it
they just don’t want to believe it and so they just pay no attention to
it. Now when it comes to the salvation
of a person people can hear the truth of the gospel message, that they were
born sinners, that on their own can do nothing about it, but perhaps think that
they can do something about it on their own and so they just don’t want to pay
any attention to it. Then one day after
hearing the truth about how they are sinners and can do nothing on their own
the Holy Spirit of God opens their eyes to the truth and they believe it and
become a born-again believer in Jesus Christ.
Now we have been talking about the disciples of which eleven of them
were truly believers, but when Jesus told them a number of times that He was
going to die, not only for them but for all who will accept this they just
seemed to put it out of their minds, and when it happened, that is His death on
the cross, a couple of them remembered that He had told them that in three days
He would arise from the dead, that they finally began to believe it. Their minds were so much put on the things
that they had been taught about the Messiah coming only one time and then set
up the Kingdom and get rid of the Romans.
There
is a lady that lives next to me and a week or so ago he daughter who was
visiting here told me that he mom was dying of cancer. The family is catholic and so it is difficult
for them to understand the real truth of the gospel. I spent the day helping her daughter clean
the leaves from their property and I explained the gospel to her daughter, and
she told me that she was raised catholic.
I pointed out that what I was telling her was the truth and how it changed
my life almost 50 years ago. I said that
I am telling you the truth of the gospel, but there is no way that I can make
her or anyone else to believe it, as it would take a miracle from the Holy
Spirit to open her eyes to the truth and then to accept the truth that Jesus
loves her very much, and that He died in her place on the cross almost 2000
years ago, and to then understand that she, like everyone was born a sinner and
sin because you are born a sinner, and can’t do anything on your own, but you
can listen to the call of the Holy Spirit and accept what Christ did for you
and then you will at that very moment have eternal life. The disciples had their own way of
understanding about what the Messiah was going to do, but it was wrong, as
first the Messiah had to die for their sins and then He would go back to
heaven, and then one day, and I pray it is soon, that He would come back for
them and all true born-again believers as He meets us in the clouds at what is
called the Rapture and then as Paul says we will ever be with the Lord.
Next
soon after that what is called the Tribulation period of seven years will begin
and it will be the worst time in the history of planet earth. Seven years later the Lord will return to
planet earth as He sets His foot on the Mount of Olives where He had left
planet earth almost 2000 years ago. He
will end the greatest war ever fought and then He will separate the sheep from
the goats, send the Antichrist and the false prophet and the goats into a place
where all unbelievers are, and then set up His Kingdom for 1000 years. At the end of those 1000 years there will be
what is called “The Great White Throne Judgment” where only unbelievers will be
at along with the Lord who will judge them and at that time all these
unbeliever will tell the Lord what good deeds they did for the cause of Christ,
but in the end they will all go into the lake of fire, into hell where they
will be forever. After that heaven and
earth will be destroyed as Peter writes about in 2nd Peter 2:9-10 “The
Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient
toward you, not wishing
for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of
the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will
be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” The word for “elements” in the Greek is stoicheion,
and means basic building block. I have
learned that what Peter is talking about is “atoms” which are the basic
building block of the universe. No one
knows what holds the atoms together, and so when they are loosed at this time
the entire universe will blow up with “intense heat.” Now notice verse nine of 2 Peter chapter two
and listen to the plea as he writes “The Lord is patient, not wishing for any
to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
God’s patience will run out and in the end we see what will happen in
verse ten. That is not the end as
mentioned the unbelievers will all enter hell and the believers will go into
what is described in the later part of the book of Revelation. “1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;
for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any
sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned
for her husband” (Rev. 21:1-2). This is
only a taste of what is said, so open up to Revelation 21-22 and read it on
your own to see what God has planned for all who believe, all who have
personally but their faith in the Lord for salvation as they repented of their
sin and trusted Christ for their salvation.
One more verse and then I will stop for today, and hopefully pick up on
the intro to these verses in Matt. 24. “These
things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life”
(1 John 5:14). Yes you can “know” for
sure that when you leave this earth through death or at the Rapture that you
will have eternal life.
11/29/2023 10:20 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment