Jesus is Coming Soon

Wise Men Still Seek Him

2010-09-12T00:45:00.003-05:00

Matt 2:1-2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him."

Después de nacer Jesús en Belén de Judea, en tiempos del rey Herodes, he aquí, unos magos del oriente llegaron a Jerusalén, diciendo: 2 ¿Dónde está el Rey de los judíos que ha nacido? Porque vimos su estrella en el oriente y hemos venido a adorarle.

Intro.: The Wise Men were looking for a Savior, and they recognized the sign of Jesus. They followed that sign until the found Jesus. When they found HIM they worshipped HIM with very costly offerings. Our challenge is to still be seeking the sign of the Savior, to do whatever it takes to get to where Jesus is, and to worship HIM with our very best gifts. This is our highest calling.

Matt 6:31-34 Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

NOTHING ELSE MATTERS UNLESS WE SEEK THE KING & HIS WILL FOR US

I. I See His Star Shining Once Again

Tim. 3:1-5
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

Matthew 24:42,44 “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. . . . Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh”

The ungodliness of this generation is the surest sign of Christ’s imminent return!

Every biblical prophecy regarding the end times has been fulfilled except for the rapture of the Church

Jesus is coming again soon & very soon. Wise men are seeking HIM!

While on a South Pole expedition, British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton left a few men on Elephant Island, promising that he would return. Later, when he tried to go back, huge icebergs blocked the way. But suddenly, as if by a miracle, an avenue opened in the ice and Shackleton was able to get through. His men, ready and waiting, quickly scrambled aboard. No sooner had the ship cleared the island than the ice crashed together behind them. Contemplating their narrow escape, the explorer said to his men, "It was fortunate you were all packed and ready to go!" They replied, "We never gave up hope. Whenever the sea was clear of ice, we rolled up our sleeping bags and reminded each other, 'The boss may come today.'"

II. Push Aside Every Obstacle

Hebrews 12:1 kjv Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Fight the Crowd, like the woman with the flow of blood

Touch the hem of HIS Garment

III. Bring an Offering to the KING

Geneses 4:3-5 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

Come looking for HIM but don’t come empty handed

Don’t bring HIM a 2nd class offering

Don’t go cheap on GOD!

Bring HIM the first born of your flocks, and see how the favor of GOD brings victory into your life!

Conclusion: Wise men still seek HIM. His star is shining once again in our generation. Push through every obstacle, set aside every distraction, and bring an offering into the presence of the Most High King.

Finding faith from skepticism

2010-02-18T19:36:00.000-05:00

I was reading Exodus this morning, and the first bits of Leviticus. I was reading from a skeptical point of view, not because I have doubts, but because I am always looking for a better defense of my faith. As I read about the sacrifices, I noticed that all of the really choice portions of the offerings got to be eaten by the priests. I thought about the liberal critics and their scoffing attitude towards the WORD, and I saw a real opportunity for the skeptics to jump all over this. From a critical, doubting perspective, it looked like Moses set up the Tabernacle and the priestly sacrifice to benefit himself and his family. He and his close relatives got the best food the nation could provide, wore the finest garments in all of Israel, and held tremendous authority and power over the people. Then I got to chapter ten. Leviticus 10:1,2 Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. 2 So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.
Aaron was the High Priest and his four sons were priests. This was the very beginning of the priestly ministry for Israel, and two of his sons were killed by God for not following Moses' exact instructions for worship, as given by God. Now I really started thinking! To whom much is given, much is required. Sure, the priests got to eat well and dress finely, but what a responsiblity they assumed! Every time they handled the Lord's sacrifice or performed the rituals of the Tabernacle, they were literally putting their lives on the line. Another verse came to mind: A workman is worthy of his hire.
Moses didn't set up the priestly order and Israel's sacrificial system to benefit his family: his family paid dearly to answer God's call upon them!
I approached the scripture with skepticism and came away with greater faith! When we approach God's word honestly, HIS word can handle the close examination and build our faith. It isn't wrong to question, or even to doubt, as long as we keep seeking until we find truth.
In the end, the word of God is living and sharper than a two edged sword, and well able to answer our doubts and fill our hearts with ever greater faith.

Do you believe in modern Prophets & Apostles?

2010-01-21T13:36:00.000-05:00

I recently picked up a Charisma magazine. Generally, I have very literal interest in what's going on in the church world beyond my own neighborhood. I stay loosely informed, but I despise christian fads. What struck me from Charisma was the preponderance of Prophets, Apostles, and other minor deities. In Lystra, Paul and Barnabas were extremely vehement about not allowing the people to worship them. It appears to me that there is a massive movement in charismatic circles today to solicit worship for the preachers. Some of the ideas are fantastic, such as armor bearers. But, the potential for abuse is real and appears to me to be a common pattern.

Is this a WOF thing or part of the broader charismatic world? The whole concept of SUPERSTAR preachers is antithetical to the gospel.

I seem to recall a worship leader named Lucifer who began to crave the anointing of his Master.

Am I wrong? I have never met anyone whom I thought would qualify as an Apostle. Everyone I know of who has called themself Prophet or Prophetess "X" has had an easily exposed track record of false prophecies which were never fulfilled. I am not saying there are not prophets and apostles among us: I am saying that men and women with that type of anointing in their lives are unlikely to have the hubris to label themselves as such.

MLK & Founding Fathers

2010-01-19T13:50:00.001-05:00

Yesterday the world stopped spinning in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Would Dr. King appreciate this holiday, now that it has been co-opted by the homosexual community? I cannot, for the life of me, imagine Dr. King marching with a gay pride parade. The social gospel was important to King, but it would never have eclipsed the Biblical gospel for him. He was flawed, human, and great. He was not blasphemous, profane, nor sacreligious. For MLK day to become a day for celebrating homosexuality is indicative of just how subjectively our generation views the world. Facts are trumped by feelings.
Doesn't this play out in America's current portrayal of our own history? Revisionist historians are completely ignoring factual reality and re-telling America's story within the framework of their own world views.
They do it to the Bible as well; re-write or re-interpret the Word of God to prove their views rather than to be the authoritative source of truth.
Seriously, how could an entire generation become so stupid that truth is no longer empirical? There has never been any evidence to prove any type of macro-evolution, but it is taught in every public school in America. Every major "proof" of evolution, ever, as in all, 100%, have been entirely debunked as fraud, hoax, or merely bad science. Again, perspectives define reality rather than reality providing truth.
Shall we blame the countless hours of video games, pornography, music videos, dumbed down state universities, illegal immigration, legal immigration, religious diversity, tolerance over truth, affirmative action . . . Beelzebub, Democrats, Republicans, Howard Stern . . . or just maybe, the Church?!?
Matthew 5:13 NKJ

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men."

Understanding that in this context, salt is the primary preservative for foods, let's apply the metaphor to the 21st century American church: the church is the primary preservative for their community and culture. If the cultures has soured or spoiled, perhaps it would be appropriate to blame the preservative for failing to preserve. Our nature tends to blame the world for being worldy and contaminating the church. My thought is that we should be the influencers, not the influenced. If my understanding is correct, then we have every reason to rejoice in hope, not to despair. Simply stated, if the world's problems are the symptom of a negligent church, then the world's solution lies in the church arising from her slumber and becoming once again the salt of the earth.
We can do that, because it is God's will and His Spirit which will empower us if we will but try.
Arise shine, for the light has come!

Bible Possibly Written Centuries Earlier, Text Suggests

2010-01-19T12:34:00.000-05:00

Scientists have discovered the earliest known Hebrew writing - an inscription dating from the 10th century B.C., during the period of King David's reign.
The breakthrough could mean that portions of the Bible were written centuries earlier than previously thought. (The Bible's Old Testament is thought to have been first written down in an ancient form of Hebrew.)
Until now, many scholars have held that the Hebrew Bible originated in the 6th century B.C., because Hebrew writing was thought to stretch back no further. But the newly deciphered Hebrew text is about four centuries older, scientists announced this month.
"It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research," said Gershon Galil, a professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, who deciphered the ancient text.
BCE stands for "before common era," and is equivalent to B.C., or before Christ.
The writing was discovered more than a year ago on a pottery shard dug up during excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, near Israel's Elah valley. The excavations were carried out by archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. At first, scientists could not tell if the writing was Hebrew or some other local language.
Finally, Galil was able to decipher the text. He identified words particular to the Hebrew language and content specific to Hebrew culture to prove that the writing was, in fact, Hebrew.
"It uses verbs that were characteristic of Hebrew, such as asah ('did') and avad ('worked'), which were rarely used in other regional languages," Galil said. "Particular words that appear in the text, such as almanah ('widow') are specific to Hebrew and are written differently in other local languages."
The ancient text is written in ink on a trapezoid-shaped piece of pottery about 6 inches by 6.5 inches (15 cm by 16.5 cm). It appears to be a social statement about how people should treat slaves, widows and orphans. In English, it reads (by numbered line):
1' you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord].
2' Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an]
3' [and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and]
4' the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king.
5' Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger.
The content, which has some missing letters, is similar to some Biblical scriptures, such as Isaiah 1:17, Psalms 72:3, and Exodus 23:3, but does not appear to be copied from any Biblical texts.

Clara Moskowitz

LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com clara Moskowitz

livescience.com

Fri Jan 15, 9:40 am ET

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Very Interesting Article About Joel Osteen

2005-07-05T20:47:00.000-05:00

http://www.internetmonk.com/archives/2005/01/019842.html#more

The Stranger

2005-01-17T21:58:00.000-05:00

A few months before I was born, my dad met a stranger who was new to our town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer, and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around to welcome me into the world a few months later.
As I grew up I never questioned his place in our family. Mom taught me to love the Word of God, and Dad taught me to obey it. But the stranger was our storyteller. He could weave the most fascinating tales. Adventures, mysteries, and comedies were daily conversations. He could hold our whole family spellbound for hours each evening.
He was like a friend to the whole family. He took Dad, Bill, and me to our first major league baseball game. He was always encouraging us to see the movies and he even made arrangements to introduce us to several movie stars.
The stranger was an incessant talker. Dad didn't seem to mind, but sometimes Mom would quietly get up - while the rest of us were enthralled with one of his stories of faraway places - go to her room, read her Bible, and pray. I wonder now if she ever prayed that the stranger would leave.
You see, my dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions. But this stranger never felt an obligation to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our house-not from us, from our friends, or adults. Our longtime visitor, however, used occasional four letter words that burned my ears and made Dad squirm. To my knowledge the stranger was never confronted.
My Dad was a teetotaler who didn't permit alcohol in his home not even for cooking. But the stranger felt like we needed exposure and enlightened us to other ways of life. He offered us beer and other alcoholic beverages often. He made cigarettes look tasty, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (too much, too freely) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing. I know now that my early concepts of the man/woman relationship were influenced by the stranger.
As I look back, I believe it was the grace of God that the stranger did not influence us more. Time after time he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked and never asked to leave.
More than thirty years have passed since the stranger moved in with the young family on Morningside Drive. But if I were to walk into my parents' den today, you would still see him sitting over in a corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures.
His name?......We always just called him...TV.

Pastor in Prison for Preaching Homosexuality Sinful

2005-01-17T01:24:00.000-05:00

Pastor gets prison for sermon
Sentenced to month in jail for offending homosexuals
Posted: July 8, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

A Swedish court has sentenced Ake Green, a pastor belonging to the Pentecostal movement, to a month in prison, under a law against incitement, after he was found guilty of having offended homosexuals in a sermon, according to Ecumenical News International.
Green had described homosexuality as "abnormal, a horrible cancerous tumor in the body of society" in a 2003 sermon.
Soren Andersson, the president of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights, said on hearing Green's jail sentence that religious freedom could never be used as a reason to offend people.

Hate Crimes & Reverse Persecution

2005-01-17T01:20:00.000-05:00

Criminalized thoughts?
By Amy Doolittle
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Jokes about political correctness have been around for more than a decade, and many Americans now take for granted conflicts over manger scenes on public property and Christmas carols in public schools. Hostility toward religious expression is no joke, however, to advocates concerned that "hate crimes" laws could be used to rob Americans of religious freedom, which they say is already the case in some parts of Europe. Exhibit A: Ake Green, a Swedish pastor who was arrested for speaking against homosexuality from his church pulpit.

While American hate-crime laws currently punish criminal acts motivated by bigotry, William Murray, chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition, says the principle behind such statutes could be "worse than a slippery slope" toward restricting fundamental freedoms. "In the '40s, '50s, '60s and even '70s, we were taught that the difference between the free world and the communist bloc was that in the free world if you committed a crime, you were going to go to jail for what you did, but in the Soviet Union and other countries, you would go to jail for what you thought," Mr. Murray said. "Hate-crimes laws are not really hate-crimes laws — they are really hate-thought laws," Mr. Murray says. "We have a movement in the entire Western world ... for people to go to jail for what they think." It is not mere speculation to think that hate-crimes laws could be used to quash free speech, he says, citing an October protest in Philadelphia. On "National Coming Out Day," a Christian group held a demonstration on a public walkway outside a homosexual-activism event called "Outfest." Protesters at the Oct. 10 event were informed by police that they could stand wherever they wanted, since the festival was being held on public sidewalks. However, when their demonstration was interrupted by a group called "the Pink Angels," the police ordered the Christian group to relocate and later arrested them. Ten of the demonstrators were held for 21 hours and released; one member of the group was held for 10 days because of confusion involving an outstanding parking ticket. All were charged with eight criminal counts, including "ethnic intimidation," a second-degree felony. The Philadelphia case, says Mr. Murray, is the perfect example of the "hate crime" mentality gone bad. The movement from a "hate crime" to a "hate thought" is "worse than a slippery slope," Mr. Murray says. "A slippery slope you go down slowly — this thing is a cliff. These people were peaceably demonstrating, but they were demonstrating for something that was politically incorrect." That the Philadelphia demonstrators were charged with a hate crime based on speech does not fall in line with the specifics of Pennsylvania's law against ethnic intimidation, says Brain Fahling, attorney for the protesters. He says they will not be convicted of the charged crimes because they didn't commit them. "The ethnic-intimidation law has conduct associated with it, which means that to be guilty of it requires something more than speech," Mr. Fahling says. A videotape made by an independent San Francisco film company of the protest and subsequent arrest shows no hate actions at all, says Mr. Fahling, just a group of people proclaiming their religious beliefs. "There is nothing in that videotape that would demonstrate that my clients did anything other than exercise the rights the constitution allows them to exercise," he says. But Christians aren't the only ones who think that hate-crimes law should not dictate thoughts. Joe Perez, owner and contributing writer of the Gay Spirituality & Culture blog (www.gayspirituality.typepad.com) says he understands that every person has a right to speak what he or she thinks to be true, even if it makes him uncomfortable. "Hate speech is not a behavior that I ... want to see made illegal. The line that's drawn in the United States is generally between the speech that is simply offensive to a great number of people and speech that incites violence within a group — and that's a line that I feel comfortable with," Mr. Perez says. "If someone says that I think a group is wrong, or a group is acting immorally, or a group is wicked, or evil or condemned to hell, I may find that offensive and objectionable, but I don't think it should be illegal." In fact, as Mr. Perez argues that condemning Christians for speaking against homosexuals is no different than condemning homosexuals for speaking against Christians. "Can you imagine the outrage if a Christian fundamentalist intruded in a private gathering of queer activists, overheard a speaker say, 'Fundamentalism represents an abnormal, a horrible, cancerous tumor in the body of society,' reported him to the authorities, and then the laws of our land permitted the speaker to be arrested and imprisoned for a month?" he writes on his Web log. "That speaker would become a martyr and hero to the cause, a victim of the unjust, evil times in which we live and rage would ferment against our 'enemies' and all that they represent." Mr. Perez also warns that laws that punish ideas are not only unfair, but are counterproductive. "Using the laws of a state to imprison folks who do not understand or agree with us, or who say mean-spirited things, cannot create a culture that makes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender folks safer and more secure," he says. "Instead, it will taint all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activism with the stench of extreme political correctness gone amok."

Consider this Prophecy

2005-01-12T14:55:00.000-05:00

I neither endorse nor condemn this prophecy, it is offered for your consideration and comment.

http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/Prophets/The.5.Angels.of.Continents.html

Matthew 4:37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

2005-01-12T13:55:00.000-05:00

The following link is to a radio transcript from the John Merrow show. The topic is preteen sexual activity in America. I propose that the immorality of our generation is the most blatant sign that Jesus is coming soon and we are living in the end times. If you click this link, be prepare to read a shocking report about the evil in our midst, sin so dark that our children have become perverted.

http://www.pbs.org/merrow/tmr_radio/transcr/pgm06.pdf

I feel intensely about this subject.

2005-01-10T16:01:00.000-05:00

I feel an intense sense of the imminence of the coming of the Lord. All of the scriptures point to HIS return at such a time as this. In my personal life, I feel an overwhelming unworthiness and gratitude for salvation. I want HIM to come, and I want HIM to find me working for HIS harvest.

http://www.messiahrevealed.org/

2005-01-10T14:58:00.000-05:00

This is a very good link. The site is administered by a group of Messianic Jews.

Jesus Christ is the Messiah

2005-01-10T14:41:00.000-05:00

Messianic Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth
This list is merely an example and is by no means intended to be exhaustive. The Old Testament Prohecy is followed by the New Testament fulfillment. Click any of the links below for the complete lesson.

1
The Messiah would be announced to his people 483 years, to the exact day, after the decree to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
Daniel 9:25
John 12:12-13
2
The Messiah's hands and feet would be pierced.
Psalm 22:16c
Matthew 27:38
3
The Jew's authority to administer capital punishment would be gone when the Messiah arrived.
Genesis 49:10c
John 18:31
4
The Messiah would be killed before the destruction of the temple.
Daniel 9:26c
Matthew 27:50-51
5
The Messiah would be rejected.
Isaiah 53:3b
Matthew 27:21-23
6
The Messiah would die for the sins of the world.
Isaiah 53:8d
1 John 2:2
7
The Messiah would be born of the "seed" of a woman.
Genesis 3:15a
Luke 1:34-35
8
The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
Micah 5:2a
Matthew 2:1-2
9
The Messiah would be sacrificed on the same mountain where God tested Abraham.
Genesis 22:14
Luke 23:33
10
The Messiah would be killed.
Daniel 9:26a
Matthew 27:35