=================================================== PropheZine Newsletter #132 October 10, 2001 Bob Lally Publisher/Senior Editor Bob Ippolito Asst. Editor To Subscribe, Unsubscribe or Change email addresses see notice at the bottom of this newsletter. Disclaimer: PropheZine publishes articles by many authors and may not necessarily agree in total with each authors belief's (timing of the rapture, etc...) ====================================================== IN THIS ISSUE ----GREETING FROM BOB LALLY ----ARTICLES What is Really Going On? John (Jack) Kinsella The Sellout Of Israel Joseph Farah (WorldNetDaily) The Church at the End of the Age and What to do About It Lambert Dolphin For Those Who Hurt Dr. Charles Swindoll ----SUBMISSION GUIDELINES ----SUBSCRIBE and UNSUBSCRIBE ----PRIVACY NOTICE =================================================== GREETINGS FROM BOB LALLY =================================================== Hi Everyone! I read the news via the Internet every morning, throughout the day and then again in the evening. Sometimes I wonder if I am addicted to the news but the reality is that I want to be aware. I want to know what is happening so I can determine if I will be minimally or greatly affected. The enclosed article by John Kinsella really brings to light some interesting points. Many of these points have already been discussed on the Last Days Prophecy email list (http://www.prophezine.com/text/lists.html). The Discussion Board is extremely active (http://www.prophezine.com/msgboard/) so head over there for some great discussions. At no time has PropheZine been an alarmist. We have never flown off the handle in times of crisis - even during the Y2K non-event we kept our cool. We presented the latest confirmed news information from reliable sources (http://www.prophezine.com/text/lists.html) and also provided survival information just in case - you can never be too prepared for a potential catastrophe. During the WTC destruction we presented news literally minute by minute round the clock. The Prophecy Clock is no longer moving at the normal rate of 60 seconds per minute but at one minute per second. My point is that you can quite literally see the end times unfolding before our eyes. Talk of ID cards in the UK and the US. Talk of weird diseases and infections. Talk of wars and rumors of war. The wars are now religiously based instead of political (One World Religion). One World Government is coming together as we once again build an alliance of many nations. A massive infection on the Pakistan/Afghan border caused by a virus that has not been seen in 50 years and the government says not to worry. Anthrax in the U.S. I have been informed that there is only one facility in the US that makes Gas Masks and that is in Spokane, Washington. Only 12 million Anthrax vaccinations to go around. How many Gas masks do you think are available? Is a real catastrophe right around the corner? Is God warning His children? Was Y2K a warm-up? And, a rift has formed between the US and Israel. A separation that has forced Israel to be all alone. I believe we need to pray for Wisdom and Knowledge as never before. We need to stop for one moment, literally stop and think and examine our lives - Are our lives in alignment with God's word? Are my thoughts in alignment with God's thoughts? MOST IMPORTANT: Are we living in God's will? Many Christians are quietly calling for others to begin preparations for a long term period of contamination - biological, chemical or nuclear. I'll be quite honest with you. As you know I have 2 young children. I watch them play innocently enough, running around, throwing the ball, riding their bikes and I think to myself, "Is the air they are breathing free of contaminants?". I'm tired of being told that the citizens of the US need to wake up to the reality that most of the world has already been awakened to. But the fact is...we have been sheltered physically, not mentally. We HAVE led sheltered lives. "Those things" always happened someplace else. Well, no longer. That shelter has been removed and we are now exposed. I asked this in the last issue - Do you realize that bin Laden is actively trying to kill your children? I'm sorry if this sounds unchristian to you but my attitude is get them before they get my children, my wife, my mom, my dad, my brothers and sisters and myself. The Koran does say to convert infidels or kill them, no? Enjoy this issue. Bob Lally and the staff of PropheZine.com bob@... Donations to support PropheZine.com may be sent through the following URL or send me an email requesting the ministry address: bob@... https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=bob%40prophezine.com&item_name=Prophe Zine+Ministry&item_number=PM1&image_url=http%3A//www.prophezine.com/images/t logo-headlines.gif&no_shipping=1&return=http%3A//www.prophezine.com&cancel_r eturn=http%3A//www.prophezine.com ====================================================== What is Really Going On? John (Jack) Kinsella http://jackkinsella.com/news/commentary/Jack/newsletter_comm_full.asp ====================================================== No matter how you slice it, there's considerably more going on than meets the eye, here. There seems to be no shortage of questions, but all the answers are the same, and they just don't add up. How can it be merely a coincidence that in all of the 20th century, in a nation as large as America, there were only 18 cases of pulmonary [or inhaled] anthrax, and it just so happens that at the same time we are gearing up for a bioweapon attack, Bob Stevens of South Florida just 'happens' to come down with it? The administration's point man went out of his way to say the victim was an 'outdoorsman'. Thompson even mentioned that he had drunk from a stream in North Carolina recently. What Tommy Thompson didn't mention was that he lived a mile from the airport where hijacker Mohammed Ata took his flying lessons. Hold on a minute! With apologies to Shakespeare, methinks he doth protest too much! There's lots of outdoorsmen in America! And there are lots of streams in North Carolina. I've even drunk from a couple of them myself when I was stationed there in the Marine Corps. Come to think of it, there's lots of military bases in North Carolina, too. Could it be possible that more outdoorsmen than just me and the late Bob Stevens of Florida both drank from a North Carolina stream in the last hundred years? Cause I don't have it! Why in the world would Thompson even make such an obscure comment? Why not mention the connection to Mohammed Ata? Especially given the fact that pulmonary anthrax is inhaled! People don't inhale water, even from a stream. Or could it be that somebody is pulling our national leg? What about the hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Afghanistan? Something funny about that, too. Suddenly, up pops Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever. It has only appeared twice before. Once in the Crimea in 1944, and once in the Congo in 1956. Now it turns up in Afghanistan of all places. And we are told it is a coincidence, not a bioweapon! The US, NATO and the UN say they are conducting a war against terrorism and terror. Who would argue that Yasser Arafat is not a master terrorist? Who would argue that Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah, the PFLP and the Palestinian Authority itself are not terror groups? But the world is prepared -- not to make war on them, but to extend official recognition of statehood to them! Hamas, the PFLP, Hezbollah and a half-dozen similar organizations maintain offices in the major cities of the Palestinian protectorate. Despite the fact several of them just made the State Department's terrorist list. An airplane filled with Jews is shot out of the sky by an 'accidental' training exercise. The whole world says, 'aw, it was just the Ukrainians'. The Ukrainians say, 'no it wasn't'. It's pretty much forgotten already! When was the last time we shrugged our shoulders when a passenger liner got shot down by the Russians? Remember, this was a Russian plane! Not even the Jerusalem Post is making a big deal about it, and every single passenger was an Israeli Jew! The Saudis say 'you can't use our bases'. Colin Powell says the Saudis are cooperating. Iran says "we are not with you." NATO says, "Iran's on board." Pakistan is the Taleban's protector and advisor. We call Pakistan our 'most important ally' and share intelligence information with them. And the various news sources on the net, the New York Times, LA Times, CNN and so on, just nod in agreement. We keep hearing that Islam is a peaceful, happy religion that has been 'perverted' by some radicals. But the Koran says to convert infidels or kill them. Being a Christian is a bad thing, but being a Muslim is something special to be celebrated, understood and tolerated. Just don't bring a Bible to school. What do you think would be said if kids brought the Koran to class? In the war against terror [except terror against Israel] we will have to submit to biometric identification systems, hand geometry, face geometry, stricter banking laws, ID's in order to use cash, our travel will be tracked, anybody not in the system will be suspect; and it appears that Europe is the one calling the shots. Is this starting to sound familiar to you? It is to me. Something funny is going on here, and it doesn't quite add up. Especially if one is a Christian. The Bible says that there is an approaching world order, one in which no man will be able to buy or sell without being part of a system. One that is under absolute control. One in which there will be a 'good religion' and a 'bad religion'. One in which the only ones less popular than Jews will be Christians. A system that will rise out of the Roman Empire. A system described in detail in Revelation Chapter Thirteen. It isn't here yet, but we can see the shadows on the horizon. The Rapture is coming, but the Rapture is not here. We are. And so are millions of unsaved souls that don't know what is happening, and we can't explain it to them. Because all we have for evidence of what is happening is what CNN, BBC, CBS, ABC, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal want to tell us. There has to be a better way. In fact, there is, and that brings me to my point. There are number of 'intelligence' sources available for free on the Internet - but you get what you pay for. Free sources are generally about what they are worth. But we need more information than that. The real sources are expensive. Sites like Jane's Defense Weekly or Jane's Intelligence Digest, Stratfor, DeCourcy and others - these usually cater to large corporations. Subscriptions to these sites can cost thousands of dollars per year apiece. My plan is to pull together the 'big guns' of these intelligence services under one roof, so to speak, analyze the information, summarize it, and then run it through the truth detector of Bible prophecy. And then put together a daily intelligence briefing that contains real intelligence information. What will come out in the end will be the clearest, most concise and accurate intelligence available on the 'net - from a Christian, Bible prophecy perspective. But I can't do it alone. I'd prefer to offer it for free. And I will, if that is what the Lord wants done in these last days. So I am putting out a fleece. If there are enough voluntary donations to cover the costs, I'll get started right away. If this isn't the leading of the Lord, my mailbox will be empty tomorrow. It's just that simple. If there isn't enough interest, I'll just send back the donations that do come in. No harm, no foul. Each of you will have to step out in faith, as I am. These are the last days, time is short, and accurate information is critical if we are going to use the evidence of fulfilled prophecy -- and that which is about to be fulfilled -- to prove to our unsaved loved ones that the sands are indeed running out of the hourglass. Please see John's Web Page to participate: http://jackkinsella.com/news/commentary/Jack/newsletter_comm_full.asp ====================================================== The Sellout of Israel Joseph Farah WorldNetDaily.com ====================================================== Joe has graciously allowed PropheZine to republish articles. Please visit WorldNetDaily.com. Immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, conventional wisdom suggested the dramatic turn of events would bring America closer together with its long-time Mideast ally Israel. As usual, conventional wisdom was dead wrong. In fact, very clearly now, you can detect Washington increasingly distancing itself from Jerusalem. There are even some within the U.S. State Department who are beginning to deny there is any Arab terrorism directed at Israel at least not terrorism as defined by our so-called "war on terrorism." Here's how State Department spokesman Richard Boucher explained that those attacking Israel aren't really terrorists at all despite the suicide attacks, the bombings and the shootings of civilians: "Essentially, there are, on some planes, two different things. One is that there are violent people trying to destroy societies, ours, many others in the world. The world recognizes that and we are going to stop those people. On the other hand, there are issues and violence and political issues that need to be resolved in the Middle East, Israelis and Palestinians. They are clearly issues that are different." In other words, attacks on the United States are terrorism. Attacks on Israel are attempts to "resolve political issues." But it gets worse. STRATFOR, the global intelligence company whose reports are run exclusively on WorldNetDaily.com every weekday, is suggesting that U.S. Mideast policy is about to get much tougher on Israel as a direct result of the war on terror. "Geopolitical realities after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon will force the United States to back away from its relationship with Israel and favor Muslim allies such as Egypt and Jordan, as well as old foes like Iran and Syria," the report said. STRATFOR said the change in thinking in Washington could represent a "sea change in U.S.-Israeli relations." Washington has become convinced it needs Muslim cooperation in its war on terrorism. "But Washington's close ties with Israel make such cooperation difficult," reports STRATFOR. Therefore, the sellout of Israel is under way. STRATFOR claims there are only two reasons for 50 years of U.S. support for Israel: The Cold War and political pressure from Jewish groups within the United States. Well, the Cold War is over. And Muslim power within the U.S. is close to eclipsing the Jewish lobby. "The danger of domestic political consequences for a tough policy on Israel has been alleviated to a certain degree by the emergence of a Muslim voting bloc in the United States," STRATFOR reports dispassionately. While Muslim political organizations do not yet match their Jewish counterparts in funding, they can match them in sheer potential voting power, according to the report. It cites estimates that there are 6 million Muslims in the United States a number about equal to Jews. The report says it has not gone unnoticed within the Bush administration that about 70 percent of the Muslim vote went for George W. Bush. That support made the difference in the election with 28,000 Muslim votes for Bush in Florida and only 6,000 for Gore. Now Bush says he has always wanted a Palestinian state. Israel is about to be sold down the river, it seems, because it is politically expedient to do so. It's somewhat ironic. Back in 1948, support from the United States was crucial to Israel's rebirth as a nation. President Harry Truman reportedly asked his aides how many Jewish voters there were in the United States and how many Arab voters. At the time, it wasn't even a close call. In other words, as far as Mideast policy goes, right and wrong have seldom entered the equation for the United States. It's often been about counting votes, with a dash of self-interest thrown in for good measure. It's also ironic that it takes a Muslim attack of epic proportions on the United States to push the pendulum of U.S. foreign policy toward the Islamic world. Imagine if the attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. closer to Japan. But it's more than ironic. It's tragic. If the Bush administration is determined to make foreign policy based on voting blocs, it's time for 100 million Christians in this country to stand up in support of Israel. It's not a matter of politics. It's not a matter of expedience. It's not even just a matter of right and wrong. It is, quite simply, a matter of survival for Western civilization. ====================================================== The Church at the End of the Age and What to do About It Lambert Dolphin http://www.ldolphin.org ====================================================== The church of Jesus Christ is described by at least seven symbols, or figures, in the New Testament: Jesus is the Great Shepherd and we Christians are the sheep (Jn 10:1-18). He is the True Vine and we are the branches (Jn 15:1). We are "living stones" building built into a house which is a habitation for God---Christ Jesus is the cornerstone (1 Peter 2:4-7, Ephesians 2:19-22). The Lord is described as a merchant who finds and buys a single pearl of great price (Mt. 13:45). He is Great High Priest over the household of faith, and we are his servant-priests (Heb. 4:14-16). The church is the Body of Christ, every one a member of every other, and all under the direction of Christ the Head of the Body (1 Cor. 12:12-14, Ephesians 2:11-18, 4:4-16). Finally the church is the Bride of Christ and Jesus the waiting Bridegroom (2 Cor. 11:2, Eph. 5:26, 27; Rev. 21:9). Jesus announced the calling out of a new believing community, the church, on the occasion of Peter's testimony of faith in the Lord Jesus at Caesarea Philippi, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18) Incidentally, Jesus was here speaking of the church prevailing in an offensive, not a defensive posture. The very gates of hell itself, he said, would not be able to resist or withstand the assaults of his church. The church was intended to be a formidable powerful opponent which would overcome all evil, "Who is this who looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?" (Song of Solomon 6:10) Paul closes his letter to the Romans with the admonition, "...I would have you wise as to what is good and guileless as to what is evil; then the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." (Rom. 16:19-20) The amazing fact which the Scripture clearly declares, but which thousands of Christians have failed to see, is that God has designed that his church should be a kind of government on earth undergirding visible governments. This would make possible a climate of benevolent law and order, the rule of justice and peace, and would hold in restraint the wild forces of tyranny, anarchy and murder. (See Matt. 5:13, 14; Phil. 2:14, 15; 1 Tim. 2:1, 2.) Whenever the church has approached the biblical pattern, righteous conditions have begun to prevail. And when it has turned from this divine pattern to rely on secondary forces it has become proud, rich and tyrannical, or worldly, weak and despised by all. (Ray C. Stedman, Body Life, 1972, 1995). The calling out of Gentiles and their grafting into believing Israel as a whole new class of believers under a New Covenant with God was not revealed in the Old Testament. It is a "mystery" which in the Bible means something previously hidden but now made known by the Spirit in the New Testament: "When you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that is, how the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace...to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Ephesians 3) Jude, the brother of our Lord, began his short epistle urging his readers with all diligence and earnestness "to contend [epagonizomai, from epi, upon or about, (intensive) plus agon, a contest], for the faith which was once for all time [hapax] delivered [paradidomi, or delivered over, handed over] to the saints." Jude is talking about the faith, the total content of the Christian faith, not just simple faith or trust in God. This faith was handed as a package from the Lord Jesus to the Apostles and was then transmitted from one generation into the next, person to person. Finally, we, too, in our own time were reached with this glorious good news, transmitted to us by faithful witnesses. We are now responsible for the whole package and its communication to the next generation, undiluted and unpolluted. The package includes all that the Old and New Testament have to teach us accompanied by a sound heritage of interpretation and wisdom from God imparted to his people. That way the church maintains its central integrity and orthodoxy. Though Christians may differ in certain peripheral matters, we all need to seek and hold on to a core of sound understanding and to establish a Biblical world-view for ourselves. We are all strangers and pilgrims in an evil world, en route to the heavenly Jerusalem---traveling companions with those saints who have gone on ahead of us. An urgent, diligent concern for balance, wholeness and the content of the faith is reflected in Paul's last words to the elders at Ephesus where he had labored long and arduously: "And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they came to him, he said to them: 'You yourselves know how I lived among you all the time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which befell me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ...I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with the blood of his own Son. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears...'" (Acts 20:17-31) There is little doubt that today many churches in America promulgate a contentless Christianity, and false teachers certainly abound on every side. Not only does Paul warns of these "fierce wolves" who will draw away many by subtle enticements of slightly off-centered teaching, he also indicated that men will become less responsive to truth as the age draws to its end, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." (1 Tim. 4:1): "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears [knetho, itching, is a metaphor meaning eager to hear (anything that suits them at the moment)] they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry." (2 Tim. 4:1-5) In their concern for doctrinal corrections and theological orthodoxy in teaching, the Apostles wanted all believers to be acquainted with the "whole counsel of God." How can we do the will of God if we remain unacquainted with his ways and his character and his plans for mankind? Yet orthodoxy in doctrine and full Biblical knowledge is not sufficient---as the Lord himself warned the church at Ephesus (they excelled in doctrinal excellence), "I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first." In the faith, (which was once for all time transmitted to the saints), lifestyle, conduct, self-giving love and godliness are vitally important. Truth not acted upon is lost and hypocrisy is something God deeply hates. Mere profession of faith not backed up by a changed life is worthless. In his great chapter on love (1 Cor. 13) the Apostle warns that "If I have no love it profits me nothing," and Peter says, "love covers a multitude of sins." (1 Peter 4:8) God seeks for wholeness in his children, which requires doctrinal integrity plus a responsive daily walk with God---in order that our lifestyles come around to match our beliefs. Indeed we are to pursue holiness, "without which no one will see the Lord". (Heb. 12:14) The church at Pergamum was warned against the doctrine of the Nicolatians. Many Bible scholars hold that this departure from the truth concerns clericalism: the establishment of a division between a paid-professional clergy and a more or less passive laity. Elders are to encourage the flock as shepherds, and not run or manage the affairs of the church as if it were a business, professional, organization. The New Testament calls all believers into the ministry. All receive enabling spiritual gifts, all are priests under one Great High Priest, Jesus. Infiltration of the world's values into churches has certainly brought serious problems today, for instance the introduction of top-down management rather than servant-authority into church government. Jesus said clearly in this regard, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:25-27) Jesus said, "When the son of man returns will he find (the) faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8) These words cause us to question the final state of the church around the world at the time of Second Advent. The Old Testament is a dismal record of Israel's continued and repeated failure---despite the patient long-suffering love and mercy of God. Why then should we expect the church to succeed where other sinful sons of Adam have failed? True the promises of God and provisions made by the New Covenant are stronger and more powerful than those given to Israel under the Old Covenant, but it is biblical to say that the predicted end of the church in the New Testament is failure. Only a "remnant" will be saved out of professing Christendom---as was the case with Israel. The majority of professing nominal Christian church-goers will, sadly, go into the false, or harlot church of the tribulation period. The idea that the Gospel would gradually subdue the people of the world and eventually bring them to the feet of Christ is contradicted alike both by the Scriptures and by history, and the result has been the rapid decline in the twentieth century of optimism in relation to the triumph of the church in the present age...A survey of Scriptural prophecy as it relates to the spiritual trends of the present age should have made clear to any inquirer that the present age will end in apostasy and divine judgment rather than victory for the cause of Christ through the triumph of the church. Major passages of Scripture deal with this subject and the expositor is embarrassed by the wealth of material which plainly teaches that the end of the age will be characterized by apostasy (Matthew 24:4-26; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12; 1 Timothy 4: 1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 4:3, 4; 2 Peter 2:1-3:18; Jude 3-19;Revelation 3:14-16; 6:1-19:21). An examination of these major passages on apostasy in the New Testament will reveal that the development of apostasy will be in three stages: 1. the doctrinal and moral departure in the church prior to the rapture, i.e., during the last days of the true church on earth; 2. the apostasy in the professing church after the true church is raptured, i.e., in the period immediately following the rapture: 3. the final apostasy in which the professing church as such will be destroyed and the worship of the beast, the world ruler, as the human representative of Satan will be inaugurated (Matthew 24: 15; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; Revelation 13:4-8; 17:16-18). Of major importance is the fulfillment of the prophecy relating to apostasy in the church being fulfilled in the contemporary situation, a subject to which the Scriptures give considerable space. (John F. Walvoord, The Nations, Israel and the Church in Prophecy, Zondervan, 1967) In seven parables of the kingdom of heaven recorded in Matthew 13, two apply directly to the weakened decadent, corrupt state of Christendom at the end of the age of the church: "Another parable he put before them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.'" Ray C. Stedman comments on this parable as follows: Mustard seeds are small seeds and ordinarily grow into reasonable shrubs. Mustard is a spice, an irritant, used in earlier times to make burning mustard plaster, which when placed on the chest was thought to cure all manner of ills. Here Jesus describes the state of the kingdom of God (at the end of the age) as an outlandish, overgrown, useless tree in which the vultures perch. The final state of the church will be like an inefficient bureaucratic organization infiltrated with evil birds of prey, no longer a company of pilgrims on a journey out of this life-pilgrims who should be salt and light wherever they go. How visibly this has been demonstrated in our day when from the pulpits and the spokesmen of the church have come up a flood of stupid, crazy, mixed-up ideas---evil concepts which have blasted and blighted and ruined the hearts and minds of people, just as our Lord said. These things have only occurred since the tree has become fully grown and branched out, as we near the end of the age. (Ray C. Stedman, Behind History p76, Word, 1976) The second parable is equally ominous in its warning about the course of the age: "Jesus told them another parable. 'The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.'" (Matthew 13:31-33) Ray C. Stedman comments on this parable as follows: Leaven in scripture is always a symbol of evil. The measures of flour represent the fellowship God intended for his people to enjoy with him and with one another. The pervasive influence of the leaven of hypocrisy which was the leaven of the Pharisees, the leaven of the Sadduccees which was rationalism, the leaven of materialism, characteristic of the Herodians, the leaven of legalism---all have worked together to ruin the quality of spiritual life God intended for his church. Our Lord is looking down the centuries to follow and he sees the thing which is most precious to God about the work which he himself has begun among mankind. This is the fellowship of God with his people, the sharing of life with each other and with God, the family of God, the oneness of the body of Christ, with all the members sharing life in openness and honesty together under the love and forgiveness of the Father. And into that wonderful fellowship these false, evil principles are introduced by those who had the right and the authority to preserve this fellowship, i.e., the leaders of the church. It is they who introduce the leaven into it, who permit it to come in and do not exclude it as they should. Those who are charged with the responsibility of developing the fellowship of God's people nevertheless allow hypocrisy, formalism, ritualism, rationalism, materialism, legalism, immorality---all of these things-to come in. And when these things set into a church they destroy the fellowship of God's people. What an instructive parable this is! As we apply it to ourselves we can see that this is what has been happening. This is why churches are oftentimes charged with being cold and unfriendly-because there's no fellowship. It is too often only on the most superficial basis that people come and sit together in the congregation, not as members together of one great family, but as individuals listening to a service but not relating to the person next to them. But that isn't Christianity as it is intended to be manifested. That is only a form, only a moment in the Christian life. The major part is to be the sharing of each other's concerns, the bearing of one another's burdens, the confessing of our faults one to another and praying for one another that we may be healed, the opening of our lives and the transparency of our actions before others. This is the great fellowship that our Lord is seeking. As you trace this pattern down through history you can see how leaven has been working. The very ones who were responsible to keep God's house free from it---the leaders, the pastors, the elders, the teachers within the church---are the ones responsible for allowing these conditions to come in and to prevail. And each time they have done so they have destroyed this marvelous fellowship. (Stedman, Behind History, p90) A great apostasy, or falling away, from true, biblical Christianity is another clear sign of the end of the church age according to Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians: "Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day [of the Lord] will not come, unless the apostasy comes first...The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thess. 2) Each of the letters to the seven churches in Revelation (Chapters 2 and 3) contains a special message to the remnant of true believers in every congregation and in every age. This minority group in every church is described as overcomers. Each of these groups is given a special challenge appropriate to their situation and circumstances. All Christian churches now in existence can be described as belonging to one of these seven generic groups. In addition, the course of the church age from the First Century till now has enjoyed a season of time in which each of these churches in turn has been the congregation of predominant influence in that age---beginning with Ephesus and closing with Laodicea. To the church which is doctrinally sound but has lost its love, warm and openness (Ephesus) the remnant is urged to recover that lost love fervent love for the Lord Jesus---and for one another. They are promised: "To him who overcomes I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." To Christians who are suffering persecution and great hardships, Smyrna-type believers are encouraged to not fear and to endure, if necessary, to the death. "He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death." Pergamum-like churches with their hidden idolatry and permissive attitude towards immorality need urgently to repent and correct these serious problems. Their faithful remnant is promised: "To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it." In both the church of Pergamum and Thyatira, Jesus was gravely concerned about their continued toleration of sexual immorality and associated idolatry infiltrating in from the pagan world outside. Thyatira's faithful remnant was given the challenge, "He who overcomes and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received power from my Father; and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Sardis' remnant Christians, who have not soiled through garments through defilement by the world are encouraged, "He who overcomes shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." There can be little doubt the church in America today is fully Laodicean. The age of Philadelphian Christianity has quietly slipped away from us in the past half-century. The Philadelphian Christian remnant was told, "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Since the Laodicean church is representative of the church as a whole at the close of our age we should pay special attention to the Lord's analysis of this church and his words of exhortation to the faithful remnant that remains at the end of the age. "The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation. 'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. He who overcomes, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Returning to the various symbols of the church mentioned in the first paragraph, the figure of the church is a reminder that Christ is calling a virgin bride out of an idolatrous world: "...Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." (Ephesians 5:26,27) The church described as the body of Christ, with Christ the head of the Body (Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12-14) is a reminder that the true church is a living organism, not an organization. We need one another and depend on one another as the various organs and systems of the human body are interdependent. Each member of the church reports directly to the Head, there is no hierarchical leadership in the church. All members have spiritual gifts and all are called to the ministry. "If one member suffers, all suffer, if one rejoices all rejoice." "But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift...And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, in order to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the purpose of building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love." (Ephesians 4:7-16) Ray Stedman describes the fellowship and Body Life of the church and how to recover it in our time: Now, openness and oneness of the body together is the key to all revival. Every time the Spirit of God has ever moved in history he has always begun here. He has restored to the church the sense of belonging to each other and to God together, the sense of openness and honesty and transparency, of the need to bear each other's burdens and to uphold one another before God, to be concerned and to care for each other, and to demonstrate it by deeds of help and mercy toward each other---all because we share the life of God. We are free to do this because we do not have to be hung up with defensiveness about ourselves. We have received the forgiveness of God, the grace of God, and that frees us to be at one with someone else. This is the most precious thing in the world in God's sight... That is what is often lacking in the church today. We have taken away the koinonia, the commonness of the body of Christ. We have lost that to a great extent in the church in general. But we have held onto the kerygma, the preaching, the proclamation. We expect to convince everybody by an intellectual presentation of truth. But the reason why the evangelical church of our day is rejected and set aside in so many quarters is that people who come to it are disappointed because they hear great words but they don't see great lives; they don't see warmth, they don't see love and acceptance, they don't see understanding and forgiveness. What they too often run into is strife and bickering and fighting and quarreling and unforgiveness, jealousy and bitterness, grudges and splits and feuds and divisions, hostility and anger, worry and anxiety. They listen to the preaching of these great words that the church has to say and then they look at our lives to see how it works. And what they see convinces them that the words are not true. What they see is exactly what they find in their own lives and homes. So they say to us, "What are you Christians talking about? What's the difference? What do you Christians have that we don't have---without the inconvenience of having to go through all the rites you go through. What is so great about this message? Why doesn't it do something for you? Why should we believe it and go to all the trouble of becoming a Christian when we can live the same way ourselves? We don't need the church or the Bible to teach us how to fight. We don't need the gospel to help us to be angry and resentful and bitter and divided against each other. We can do all that without it." And so there is an immediate loss of attention to the message that we are proclaiming because there is no evidence of the witness of communion. What is missing is the oneness, the precious fellowship together of the people of God living the life of God. (Stedman, op.cit. p91ff) What can we as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ at the close of the age of the church? From the messages of Jesus to the seven churches it is clear that Christ offers special words of encouragement to the overcomers in each church. Each of us can make himself or herself unconditionally available to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not necessary for us to get dragged down by those around us if our individual congregation has departed from the truth in teaching or conduct or has lost its first love. We can study to show ourselves approved, (2 Tim. 2:15), we can turn aside from the base things of the world and seek God's best so that we are worthy of the Master's most honorable use (2 Tim. 2:19-21). Above all, we can pray. And we ought to pray for revival, for those "times of refreshing" God gladly brings to his church when a few of his people turn to him in real repentance and intercession. In response to Solomon's great prayer on the occasion of the dedication of the First temple in Jerusalem, the Lord spoke these words to the King: "When I (the LORD) shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:12-14) http://www.ldolphin.org/ ====================================================== For Those Who Hurt Dr. Charles Swindoll http://www.watch.org/showart.php3?idx=17827&rtn=/articles.html&showsubj=1&mc at=1 ====================================================== We cannot prepare for a crisis after that crisis occurs. Preparation must take place before we are nose to nose with the issue. Sometimes we are barley keeping balance on the spiritual tightrope as we are . . . and then something shakes the rope! Disaster blows in the door. Proverbs 24:10 refers to this: If you are slack in the day of distress, your strength is limited. If the day of distress caused you to stagger and slump into depression, your strength was small. In other words, the real test of your spiritual stability does not come while your little pond is free from ripples. It comes when the waves of suffering roll in. If you maintain an optimistic, faithful outlook, your strength is great. You were properly prepared for he day of distress. Consider Jeremiah 12:5: If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan? If you are limping along barely able to handle lifes pressures when things are fairly peaceful stumbling along with the infantry what are you going to do when the calvary charges into the scene? What are you going to do when jungle warfare erupts, when you have to double-time through the thicket? God wants you to be properly prepared for the days of affliction. He wants to clothe you for the thorns of the thicket. God Is Involved Like a series of devastating dominoes, Job lost his crops, his cattle, his home, his prosperity, his children and finally, his health. On top of all this, his grieving wife, in a rash moment, suggested he curse God and die. Bankrupt and broken, he spent many days listening to a few so-called counselors who pointed self-righteous fingers and blamed him for all of his own trouble. On one occasion, he replied to the accusations with words of amazing wisdom: He knows the way I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot has held fast to His path; I have kept His way and not turned aside. I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. Abut He is unique and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does (Job 23:10-13) Do you hear what hes saying? God desired to bring these troubles into my life. He knows what is best. I refuse to turn aside in doubt. This man who knew the flash-flood of sudden trouble as well as the long, long days of persisting pain, said: He performs what is appointed for me (Job 23:14). God performs brings about causes what is appointed for me. This suffering that I face all suffering is exactly as God designed it. You will never learn the lessons God wants to teach you until you realize this. Your trouble is God-ordained. He either appoints the affliction, or allows it to happen for your good. The Bible erases all doubt concerning this: And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Lets confirm two facts weve discovered from Scripture: Fact one: We should be prepared for suffering before the suffering occurs. Fact two: Whatever the affliction, it has been appointed or approved by God, our Heavenly Father, for our good. If these twin truths are cemented in your mind, you are ready for the first chapter of 2 Corinthians. This is a personal letter. It wasnt easy for Paul to write. Pulling back the curtain, the Apostle bares his deep personal struggle and allows us to glimpse something of what he had to endure. Years ago, I took a red marking pencil and circled all the terms in this letter pertaining to suffering, such as affliction, distress and troubles. By the time I finished, there were red marks throughout the letter. Second Corinthians is also Gods personal letter, written by Him and addressed to you. You who are hurting. Closer than anything else, this letter approaches the all important Why question. A deeper look at the first chapter reveals three significant reasons for suffering. Why Do We Suffer? There may be dozens of reasons why we suffer, but Paul highlights three. With your Bible open to 2 Corinthians 1:1-11, take a pencil and circle the little four-letter word that in verses 4, 9, and 11. Each of the three reasons is introduced with that. Lets begin by looking at verses 1 through 4. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God which is t Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of all mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. If you were to read down through verse 7, your attention would be called to a term that appears no less than ten times comfort. This is from the Greek terms para, meaning beside, alongside, and kaleo, to call. Called alongside. This is no shallow sympathy card with rhyming words and gold-glitter greeting. It is eternally more than a slap on the back or a quick cheer up bit of advice. Our mighty God is called alongside. He brings genuine comfort, personal assistance, deep involvement and infinite understanding. Notice that God admits He is the God of all comfort. Regardless of the need. God comforts. No matter the cause, God gets personally involved in your life, suffering friend. He is the God of all comfort! Thats His specialty. Then observe that He comforts those who are in any affliction. That draws the circle around your situation. Regardless of the particulars, any affliction is His concern. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15) Casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you (Peter 5:7) He genuinely cares deeply cares. But why are we afflicted? That We Might Be Prepared to Comfort Others Who can understand what it is like to sit alongside a friend or loved one dying with a friend or loved one dying with a terminal illness? Who knows the heartache of having a home split apart? What about someone to understand the loss of a child . . . or the misery of a teenager on drugs . . . or the loss of a business? Who on earth understands? Ill tell you who the person who has been through it wrapped in the blanker of Gods comfort. Better than anybody else. You who endured the stinging experiences are the choicest counselors God can use. This is one of the reasons we suffer to be prepared to bring encouragement and comfort to others who come across our path enduring a similar situation. Remember that! Consider the chain reaction. We suffer . . . God comes alongside to comfort . . . others suffer . . . we step alongside to comfort them. With Gods arm firmly around my shoulders, I have the strength and stability to place my arm around the shoulder of another. Isnt this true? Similar experiences create mutual understanding. Because of this we can confidently say that out troubling circumstances are never in vain. The bruises may hurt, but they are not without reason. God is uniquely preparing us for the comfort other will need. In one sense, we are all preparing for the ministry. Our Father is preparing us to meet the deep inner needs of others by bringing us through the dark places first. Notice verses 8-10. For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, if our affliction which cam to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will deliver us. We wish we knew more about Pauls experience in Asia. All we know is that the battered apostle was pushed to the very edge of his endurance. And then a little bit farther. No walls left to lean on, no water left in the well, no fine phrases left to repeat in the face of crisis the face of death. Paul said, This is it. End of the rope, end of the line. Perhaps these words are your words. Maybe you are standing with Paul at the desperate point beyond your own strength. Hope has quietly slipped out the back door. The despair is beyond repair. Burdens push heavily on bruised inner tissue. The end has come! Unbelievable as it may seem, God has a reason even in this. That We Might Not Trust In Ourselves Did you miss this truth, wedged in verse nine? Paul puts his finger on another reason for our season of sorrow: That we might come to a complete end of ourselves and lean the power of total dependence. When Pauls own strength had ebbed away, he found another strength. When his own will to go on faded like the last morning star, the sun of a new hope blazed on his horizon. When he finally hit bottom, Paul learned that he was in the palm of Gods hand. He could sink no lower than the Everlasting Arms. Let me remind you of Gods dealings with His friend. Abraham, in Genesis 22. The very first verse of that chapter tells us that God tested Abraham. In fact, He told Abraham to take his beloved son Isaac to a mountain called Moriah and offer him up as a burnt offering. Though the old mans heart hemorrhaged within him, he did not argue he obeyed. What a test! Clinging only to his hope in God, Abraham cooperated. On that stark mountain a few days later, the aged patriarch raised a sharpened knife poised to plunge into the heart of the son he loved. (Think of it!) But God stepped in and stayed his hand. You ask, How could Abraham actually carry out such a plan in an obedient manner? The answer is tucked away in Hebrews 11:17-19, which says: By faith Abraham, when he was tested offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promise was offering up his only begotten son: it was he to whom it was said, IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED. He considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead... Abraham was determined to shift the weight of his trust from himself to God, who is able to raise men even from the dead. And this, the Bible calls faith. Perhaps I am writing to a stubborn, suffering saint who is wrestling with God over an affliction. You have not yet laid down your arms, rested your case, and decided to trust in Him completely. Cant you see, my friend, that God is trying to teach you the all-important lesson of submission to Him total dependence on His infinite wisdom and unbounded love? He will not let up until you give up, believe me. Who knows better than God that case-hardened independence within you? How much longer are you going to fight God? In Psalm 46:10, He says to us: Cease striving and know that I am God . . . Cease striving be still! Surrender to your Lord . . . now. He does not design your ruin only your refinement. For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). The great hymn, How Firm a Foundation says it best: When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design Thy dross to consume And thy gold to refine. Years ago, I came across a statement which has returned to my thoughts again and again: Pain plants the flag of reality in the fortress of a rebel heart. Pain reduces us to a primary level, the level of dependence on our God. While we stretch out full length on Him, everything within us that is useless and abrasive is simply melted away. Those who were hard and harsh are humbled in Him. Those once proud and self-sufficient are drawn to their knees. Suffering reveals our creature status. We are not all-wise or infinite in strength. But God is. And we need Him we were created to need Him. Desperately. Sometimes it takes coming to the end of ourselves to see that. God knows. We need to take everything we were, everything we are and everything weve ever hoped to be and simply place it all in the nail-scarred hands of our loving Lord. And lean hard upon His Word. Andrae Crouch, a contemporary composer, captures this truth in a song called: Through It All Ive had many tears and sorrow, I've had questions for tomorrow; Thereve been times I didnt know right from wrong But in evry situation, God gave blessed consolation That my trials come to only make me strong. Ive been to lots of places, And Ive seen a lot of faces; Thereve been times I felt so all alone. But in my lonely hours, Jesus let me know that I was His own. I thank God for the mountains and I thank Him for the valleys, I thank Him for the storms He brought me through, For if Id never had a problem I wouldnt know that He could solve them, Id never know what faith in God could do. Through it all, through it all, Oh, Ive learned to trust in Jesus, Ive learned to trust in God Through it all, through it all, Ive learned to depend upon His Word. That We Might Learn To Give Thanks In Everything Youll never be able to understand this third reason, until youve grappled with the first two. Notice how Paul phrases this to his Corinthian friends in verse 11. ...You also joining in helping us through your prayers, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed upon us through the prayers of many. He wrote them a thank-you note. Looking upon his suffering as an opportunity to share his life with others. Paul felt drawn to the Corinthians with cords tied to the innermost being. As they mutually joined in and helped him through their prayers, thanks was rendered to God by many persons. Because of Pauls encounter with affliction, many were led to focus on the Lord Jesus Christ and give thanks. One man offered praise in his moment of sorrow, and God so multiplied his song it became a great chorus, echoing in antiphonal voice from heart after heart. God is interested in using us as living object lessons to others. That is precisely why He urges us to present ourselves as living sacrifices. What might happen in your life if you stopped fighting God and started to praise Him for your pain? Try telling Him that you want to be His living object lesson of patience and stability to others. Tell Him how grateful you are for the crushing blows He has chosen to bring into your life. In your own way and in your own words, express how very thankful you are that He has selected you front he ranks of millions to share in the fellowship of His sufferings, and, like Christ, to learn obedience from the things which you suffer. You will be a rare. refined believer if you respond to suffering in this manner, child of God. Job responded in a similar manner when he said: Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hands? Though He slay me, I will hope in Him (Job 13:14-15). If Job could lift his face and say that to God, so can you. Lordeven though this is the most difficult experience of my life, my hope is in You. Thank You for this canyon of pain. Im leaning on You as I go through it. A whole new dimension is opened up to the one who learns to give God thanks for His plan . . . pain notwithstanding. It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply. A. W. Tozer Looking Back God allows our suffering: That we might be prepared to comfort others. That we might not trust in ourselves. That we might learn to give thanks in everything. Dont doubt for a moment that circumstances of suffering are used of God to shape you and conform you into the image of His Son. . . Nothing enters your life accidentally remember that. There is no such thing as luck or coincidence or fate to the child of God. Behind our every experience is our loving, sovereign Lord. He is continually working things out according to His infinite plan and purpose. And that includes our suffering. When God wants to do an impossible task, He takes an impossible individual . . . and cruses him. Being crushed means being reshaped to be a vital compassionate, useful instrument in His hands. Some Thoughts On Tears When words fail, tears flow. Tears have a language all their own, a tongue that needs no interpreter. In some mysterious way, our complex inner-communication system knows when o admit its verbal limitations . . . and the tears come. Eyes that flashed and sparkled only moments before are flooded from a secret reservoir. We try in vain to restrain the flow, but even strong men falter. Tears are not self-conscious. They can spring upon us when we are speaking in public, or standing beside others who look to us for strength. Most often they appear when our soul is overwhelmed with feelings that words cannot describe. Our tears may flow during the singing of a great, majestic hymn, or when we are alone, lost in some vivid memory or wrestling in prayer. Did you know that God takes special notice of those tears of yours? Psalm 56:8 tells us that He puts them in His bottle and enters them into the record He keeps on our lives. David said, The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. A teardrop on earth summons the King of Heaven. Rather than being ashamed or disappointed, the Lord takes note of our inner friction when hard times are oiled by tears. He turns these situations into moments of tenderness; He never forgets those cries in our lives where tears are shed. One of the great drawbacks of our cold, sophisticated society is its reluctance to showing tears. For some strange reason, men feel that tears are a signal of weakness ... and many an adult feels its immature. How silly! How unfortunate! The consequence is that we place a watchdog named restraint before our hearts. This animal is trained to bark, snap and scare away any unexpected guest who seeks entrance. The ultimate result is a well-guarded highly respectable, uninvolved heart surrounded by heavy bars of confinement. Such a structure resembles a prison more than a home where the tender Spirit f Christ resides. Jeremiah lived in no such dwelling. His transparent tent was so tender and sensitive he could not preach a sermon without the interruption of tears. The weeping prophet became his nickname and even though he didnt always have the words to describe his feelings, he was never at a loss to communicate his convictions. You could always count on Jeremiah to bury his head in his hands and sob aloud. Strange that this man was selected by God to be His personal spokesman at the most critical time in Israels history. Seems like an unlikely choice unless you value tears as God does. I wonder how many tear bottles in heaven are marked with his name. I wonder how many of them bear your initials. Youll never have many until you impound restraint and let a little tenderness run loose. You might lose a little of your polished respectability, but youll have a lot more freedom. And a lot less pride. Looking Ahead So ... here you are facing an uncertain future. You can be fearful and fretful ... or calm and quiet. You can worry, or rest ... struggle or surrender. While in severe pain, a man of God named Horatius Bonar recorded his response in verse, calling it: Choose Thou For Me Thy way, not mine, O Lord, However dark it be! Lead me by Thine own hand; Choose out my path for me. I dare not choose my lot: I would not, if I might; Choose Thou for me, my God, So shall I walk aright ... The kingdom that I seek Is Thine: so let the way That leads to it be Thine, Else I must surely stray. Take Thou my cup, and it With joy or sorrow fill, As best to Thee may seem; Choose Thou my good and ill. Choose Thou for me my friends, My sickness, or my health; Choose Thou my cares for me My poverty, or wealth. Not mine, not mine the choice, In things both great and small; Be Thou my Guide, my Strength, My Wisdom, and my all. Could it be that God seems distant to you right now? Perhaps He does not seem to be you Guide, your Strength, your Wisdom and your all. If this is true then my words have offered little comfort or hope. Just empty words arranged around some colorful pictures. Nothing more. You may feel He is far away but the truth is, He is near ... more real than the pain you are enduring. He longs to support you in the crucible of crisis. Trust Him today. Like a child, look up into the Fathers face. His arms are open, not closed. His Son, Jesus Christ, is ready to enter your life if you will only invite Him to do so. Right now. He will hear you He has a special love for those who hurt. From: For Those Who Hurt, by Charles R. Swindoll ===================================================== SUBSCRIBE and UNSUBSCRIBE ====================================================== Please use the following web page to Subscribe, Unsubscribe and Change you email address for all of the lists PropheZine runs. http://www.prophezine.com/text/lists.html ====================================================== PRIVACY NOTICE ====================================================== Privacy Notice: PropheZine is a religious organization located in the state of New York in the U.S.A. Our policy has been and will always be to never sell, rent, or barter the names and/or information about those who contact our international ministry. All questions may be sent to bob@...