SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/13/2023 10:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The
Cost Will Be Too High”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 24:10
Message of the verse: “And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another.”
“20 “The
one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the
word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but
is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of
the word, immediately he falls away” (Matt. 13:20-21). The reason that I am quoting
this verse is to show that there are people who once they get into something
new and love it for a while, but when criticism or conflicts arise they will
flee from it. They will fall away from
it. I have mentioned several times in my
Spiritual Diaries that I was led to the Lord by someone who later on told a
friend of mine “We are not into that anymore.”
Now as I look back on that time in January of 1974 I suppose that after
listening to several sermons by Hal Lindsey on the end times that it was then that
the Spirit of God gave me the effectual call and I said yes to it and was
saved, but it was my friend who allowed me to listen to those tapes and
encouraged me to believe and it was his friend who put the four spiritual laws
on a napkin to show me the gospel. I
usually tell people that I was saved in a Lums restaurant in Casselberry
Florida, and that may be the case but all I know that I went to Florida that
year for much different reasons, but the Spirit of God called me and my life
has never been the same, and that was almost 50 years ago.
Now
as we look at this verse we can see that the sham Christians who will fall away
during the Tribulation will not be true believers who are simply weak and
cowardly but unbelievers who reveal their true character when they openly
reject Christ and then they viciously betray His people. These people will not be like Peter, who in a
moment of fear and weakness denied knowing Christ, but they will be like Judas,
who because of his inner hatred of Christ betrayed Him to His enemies.
In
1 John 2:19 he writes the following that goes along with what we have been
writing about “They went out from us, but they were not really of us;
for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went
out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.” I have heard, from whom I don’t remember,
that we will have three surprises when we get to heaven; who is there, who is
not there, and I am there. I think that
is probably a true statement as some people we know, we really believe that
they are true believers, and will find out that they are not, and others who
are true believers but we don’t see any fruit will be in heaven, and then
because I know what happened to me when I became a believer when I get to
heaven I will be shocked to be in the place that I have looked forward to be
there and will be there. I can say that
because I was born-again by listening to end times tapes which included a tape
about the rapture of the church that it has been my hope that I would be alive
when the trumpet sounds and the entire Church will go to be with the Lord in
the air. “13 But we do not want you to
be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not
grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in
Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive
and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen
asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in
Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall
always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1
Thess. 4:13-18).
Now back to commenting on 1 John 2:19 as such people
that John is writing about abandon Christ’s visible church because they were
never a part of His invisible church.
They will be forsaking God’s earthly family because they were never born
into His heavenly family. Jesus says the
following in John 8:31 and then we will look at Matthew 7:23 after that as that
verse will declare on the day of judgment He will declare to false believers “‘I
never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’” Now John 8:31 “So
Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in
My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.” The bad part is that not many of the Jews did
this, and still today not many do this which saddens my heart greatly as I have
a love for the Jewish people and am certainly praying for them as they are
going through this war that they did not want and do not deserve to be in.
12/13/2023 10:34 AM
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