We who are Christ's are not left in darkness
1 Thess
{5:1} But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
{5:2} For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
{5:3} For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
{5:4} But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
{5:5} Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
{5:6} Therefore let us not sleep, as [do] others; but let us watch and be sober.
{5:7} For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
{5:8} But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. {5:9} For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
{5:10} Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
{5:11} Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
The day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night- unannounced, unexpectedly, without warning, surprisingly.
Have you ever had anything stolen from you? Anything? I have. When I went to look for the thing that was stolen it was missing and a sense of violation filled me. My property had been taken. My personal belongings gone forever. The memories the belongings had, the usefulness was all stolen from me. I've had it happen more than once and it's not a very good feeling. Now had I known when the thieves were going to strike do you think I would have let my property be vulnerable to them? Would I have watched the thieves come and take that which is mine? No. The whole business of being a thief is getting away with stolen goods without anyone being aware. Even if a thief steals something right out from under your nose they are doing so without your knowing and that's the whole point. Being robbed in the night is being taken advantage of without your knowing. So it stands to reason that Jesus' second coming doing so with His arriving as a thief in the night will take many by surprise, it will be that unexpected by them. However...
We who are Christ's are not left in darkness, we won't see that day as Christ's coming as a thief in the night. We will be ready and waiting for him.
We will hear people saying PEACE and SAFETY. Those are wonderful words and words we are hearing daily in our news. Peace, safety, peace, safety. Peace...peace...peace...peace...everything is peace. World peace. Have we called for world peace before as we have now? So many countries having the technology to blow up each other there has to be peace or there will be destruction. On a small scale we see destruction; destruction without nuclear bombs and yet still destruction, just enough destruction that keeps us screaming for peace. If we have peace it will end the senseless killing, the senseless destruction. Religious world leaders are calling for peace as never before, political leaders are demanding peace, peace, peace. You say they've been demanding peace forever and you're right, but right now our world is in an upheaval of change; financially, politically, things are bad. The combination of bad is in a place it never could be before. The woman is having birth pangs and they are getting stronger and stronger. No woman can stop the birth pangs of labor once they begin in earnest, this isn't false labor, this is real birth and Christ is coming and there is NO stopping Him.
The only question we have to ask ourselves is if we are ready? Are we? Are we ready so that we won't be caught off guard as those who will be such as a thief in the night?
1 Thess
{5:1} But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
{5:2} For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
{5:3} For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
{5:4} But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
{5:5} Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
{5:6} Therefore let us not sleep, as [do] others; but let us watch and be sober.
{5:7} For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
{5:8} But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. {5:9} For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
{5:10} Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
{5:11} Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
We know perfectly that the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly when people are saying peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes and it's going to come as a woman in labor - no stopping the birth and the pains getting closer and closer until that birth. We aren't in darkness, we won't be overtaken. We are children of light, children of the day- we aren't not filled with darkness, we are not shrouded in the darkness that reveals nothing. We can't sleep. We CAN'T sleep! We can't let our guard down, we can't stop being vigiliant. Others will sleep, others will tell you not to worry, not to think about it, not to dwell on the bad things, but be optimistic and just forget about all that stuff that is depressing and doom and gloom. Live for now and enjoy life, sleep, rest, relax...NO!
We can't sleep as others do. We have to WATCH and be SOBER. People everywhere sleep and are drunken lost to the night, to the darkness they desire because the light of truth is something they've shunned. We can see it all around us people sleeping, people drunken, people shutting out any light that might take their darkness from them. We can't sleep! We must be sober.
We have to put on Christ.
The breastplate of fiath and love, the helmet of hope of salvation.
We are not to fight against others, we are to obtain our salvation through Jesus Christ- through love.
Whether we are awake, alive or whether we sleep, dead- we will live together with Christ, He died for us.
We need to comfort one another, build each other up in Christ. We must be aware, alert to the goings on and alerting others around us that believe as we believe.
The birthing is near, the labor intense and growing more and more intense. We are witnesses to this now and we know what is to come we are not left in the dark.
Praise be to God for His glorious love towards us allowing us to be alert, to know what is to be and for keeping us awake. All glory to God!
May the Lord bless and keep us in His love, in His mercy, in His grace now and forever. Amen.
5/31/11
Beautiful.
Psa 71:1 In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.
In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust.
This is where our trust belongs, not in ourselves, not in each other but in the LORD. Inevitably when we put our trust in others and ourselves that trust is broken. Do you think it strange that I say putting our trust in our self- ends up with a broken trust? We don't betray ourselves do we? All too often we really do. All too often we'll be filled with regret over something we've done and that's usually the result of breaking a trust we have in ourselves to do or not do something. When we sin and are filled with the regret of that sin - we've broken a trust we WANT to be able to have in ourselves. Is it any wonder Paul could say this--
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would
I do not
but the evil which I would not,
that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not,
it is no more I that do it,
but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law
that, when I would do good
evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am!
who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God;
but with the flesh the law of sin.
Oh wretched PEOPLE that we are!
Paul did NOT want to sin but He couldn't trust Himself! There was only one person He could trust and that was JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD!
We CANNOT trust ourselves!!!! I can't emphasize it enough, I just can't.
In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust.
Our trust has to be put in the LORD and NO WHERE else!
You hear all the time that we are supposed to trust ourselves, or trust another. People will say those words right to our faces- trust me. Vows are taken where trust is pledged eternally- till death parts people. Promises are made even by the young as they look into the eyes of their parents vowing to behave, honestly meaning they will and then a short while later the parent is looking on in disappointment and the child is bewildered by their inability to behave. The trust is broken and if you've never seen the eyes of a young child as they are scolded and filled with dismay by their own actions, you've not seen the results of broken trust. It's my hope that you haven't seen the dark, deep disappointment in one you've betrayed or the awful betrayal in the eyes of one who's betrayed you. We let people down all the time and we let ourselves down, people let us down too, and we let God down, BUT God will NEVER let us down.
I know, I know most people will tell me I'm wrong, that God lets people down ALL the time. Well, they're WRONG. God thinks and acts on an eternal level beyond our comprehension. While we are lamenting what we believe is God letting us down, it's God looking out for us - for our eternal life. We might not get all we want- even of worthy things. Our life might be filled with torment and pain from the day we are born. We might be born so deprived, in the worst of poverty, in the most awful of conditions where all we ever know is hunger and pain but GOD is not letting that person down. Suffering for all it's horrific and on levels I've never had to experience, is temporary. If suffering lasts for 75, 80 years it is still TEMPORARY to ETERNITY. If the worst of the worst we can ever imagine happens to us or those we love and it seems as if the pain is going on endlessly, never endingly and death is longed for, desired more than anything else- it is temporary to eternity in God.
God is our everything! God must be our TRUST in all things. Do we have to like it? NO. We don't have to like when we are called to endure awful things, but we have to accept that there are reasons we can't comprehend and God will prevail in our love as long as HE is our trust.
Easy to say, hard to do. People would call such blind faith, such trust, incredibly stupid and naive. And Satan wants people to believe that, He revels in such belief that faith is stupid. It is ONLY by the grace of God that we can have that trust.
We need to PUT our trust in God and NO WHERE ELSE.
Does this mean that I believe we are to go around mistrusting everyone? No. It means that our full trust can never be place anywhere but in Christ. We can still trust others but know that they can break that trust at any time. We don’t want to imagine loved ones breaking our trust but it happens all the time in many, many ways.
This is my prayer…
In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust, let me never be put to confusion.
Please Lord let us not be put to any confusion, or shame, let us KNOW that our trust needs to be in YOU, always in YOU eternally!
By YOUR grace Lord, by YOUR love, all in YOU!
Amen.
{5:1} But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
{5:2} For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
{5:3} For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
{5:4} But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
{5:5} Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
{5:6} Therefore let us not sleep, as [do] others; but let us watch and be sober.
{5:7} For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
{5:8} But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. {5:9} For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
{5:10} Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
{5:11} Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
The day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night- unannounced, unexpectedly, without warning, surprisingly.
Have you ever had anything stolen from you? Anything? I have. When I went to look for the thing that was stolen it was missing and a sense of violation filled me. My property had been taken. My personal belongings gone forever. The memories the belongings had, the usefulness was all stolen from me. I've had it happen more than once and it's not a very good feeling. Now had I known when the thieves were going to strike do you think I would have let my property be vulnerable to them? Would I have watched the thieves come and take that which is mine? No. The whole business of being a thief is getting away with stolen goods without anyone being aware. Even if a thief steals something right out from under your nose they are doing so without your knowing and that's the whole point. Being robbed in the night is being taken advantage of without your knowing. So it stands to reason that Jesus' second coming doing so with His arriving as a thief in the night will take many by surprise, it will be that unexpected by them. However...
We who are Christ's are not left in darkness, we won't see that day as Christ's coming as a thief in the night. We will be ready and waiting for him.
We will hear people saying PEACE and SAFETY. Those are wonderful words and words we are hearing daily in our news. Peace, safety, peace, safety. Peace...peace...peace...peace...everything is peace. World peace. Have we called for world peace before as we have now? So many countries having the technology to blow up each other there has to be peace or there will be destruction. On a small scale we see destruction; destruction without nuclear bombs and yet still destruction, just enough destruction that keeps us screaming for peace. If we have peace it will end the senseless killing, the senseless destruction. Religious world leaders are calling for peace as never before, political leaders are demanding peace, peace, peace. You say they've been demanding peace forever and you're right, but right now our world is in an upheaval of change; financially, politically, things are bad. The combination of bad is in a place it never could be before. The woman is having birth pangs and they are getting stronger and stronger. No woman can stop the birth pangs of labor once they begin in earnest, this isn't false labor, this is real birth and Christ is coming and there is NO stopping Him.
The only question we have to ask ourselves is if we are ready? Are we? Are we ready so that we won't be caught off guard as those who will be such as a thief in the night?
1 Thess
{5:1} But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
{5:2} For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
{5:3} For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
{5:4} But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
{5:5} Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
{5:6} Therefore let us not sleep, as [do] others; but let us watch and be sober.
{5:7} For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
{5:8} But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. {5:9} For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
{5:10} Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
{5:11} Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
We know perfectly that the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly when people are saying peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes and it's going to come as a woman in labor - no stopping the birth and the pains getting closer and closer until that birth. We aren't in darkness, we won't be overtaken. We are children of light, children of the day- we aren't not filled with darkness, we are not shrouded in the darkness that reveals nothing. We can't sleep. We CAN'T sleep! We can't let our guard down, we can't stop being vigiliant. Others will sleep, others will tell you not to worry, not to think about it, not to dwell on the bad things, but be optimistic and just forget about all that stuff that is depressing and doom and gloom. Live for now and enjoy life, sleep, rest, relax...NO!
We can't sleep as others do. We have to WATCH and be SOBER. People everywhere sleep and are drunken lost to the night, to the darkness they desire because the light of truth is something they've shunned. We can see it all around us people sleeping, people drunken, people shutting out any light that might take their darkness from them. We can't sleep! We must be sober.
We have to put on Christ.
The breastplate of fiath and love, the helmet of hope of salvation.
We are not to fight against others, we are to obtain our salvation through Jesus Christ- through love.
Whether we are awake, alive or whether we sleep, dead- we will live together with Christ, He died for us.
We need to comfort one another, build each other up in Christ. We must be aware, alert to the goings on and alerting others around us that believe as we believe.
The birthing is near, the labor intense and growing more and more intense. We are witnesses to this now and we know what is to come we are not left in the dark.
Praise be to God for His glorious love towards us allowing us to be alert, to know what is to be and for keeping us awake. All glory to God!
May the Lord bless and keep us in His love, in His mercy, in His grace now and forever. Amen.
5/31/11
Beautiful.
Psa 71:1 In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.
In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust.
This is where our trust belongs, not in ourselves, not in each other but in the LORD. Inevitably when we put our trust in others and ourselves that trust is broken. Do you think it strange that I say putting our trust in our self- ends up with a broken trust? We don't betray ourselves do we? All too often we really do. All too often we'll be filled with regret over something we've done and that's usually the result of breaking a trust we have in ourselves to do or not do something. When we sin and are filled with the regret of that sin - we've broken a trust we WANT to be able to have in ourselves. Is it any wonder Paul could say this--
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would
I do not
but the evil which I would not,
that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not,
it is no more I that do it,
but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law
that, when I would do good
evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am!
who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God;
but with the flesh the law of sin.
Oh wretched PEOPLE that we are!
Paul did NOT want to sin but He couldn't trust Himself! There was only one person He could trust and that was JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD!
We CANNOT trust ourselves!!!! I can't emphasize it enough, I just can't.
In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust.
Our trust has to be put in the LORD and NO WHERE else!
You hear all the time that we are supposed to trust ourselves, or trust another. People will say those words right to our faces- trust me. Vows are taken where trust is pledged eternally- till death parts people. Promises are made even by the young as they look into the eyes of their parents vowing to behave, honestly meaning they will and then a short while later the parent is looking on in disappointment and the child is bewildered by their inability to behave. The trust is broken and if you've never seen the eyes of a young child as they are scolded and filled with dismay by their own actions, you've not seen the results of broken trust. It's my hope that you haven't seen the dark, deep disappointment in one you've betrayed or the awful betrayal in the eyes of one who's betrayed you. We let people down all the time and we let ourselves down, people let us down too, and we let God down, BUT God will NEVER let us down.
I know, I know most people will tell me I'm wrong, that God lets people down ALL the time. Well, they're WRONG. God thinks and acts on an eternal level beyond our comprehension. While we are lamenting what we believe is God letting us down, it's God looking out for us - for our eternal life. We might not get all we want- even of worthy things. Our life might be filled with torment and pain from the day we are born. We might be born so deprived, in the worst of poverty, in the most awful of conditions where all we ever know is hunger and pain but GOD is not letting that person down. Suffering for all it's horrific and on levels I've never had to experience, is temporary. If suffering lasts for 75, 80 years it is still TEMPORARY to ETERNITY. If the worst of the worst we can ever imagine happens to us or those we love and it seems as if the pain is going on endlessly, never endingly and death is longed for, desired more than anything else- it is temporary to eternity in God.
God is our everything! God must be our TRUST in all things. Do we have to like it? NO. We don't have to like when we are called to endure awful things, but we have to accept that there are reasons we can't comprehend and God will prevail in our love as long as HE is our trust.
Easy to say, hard to do. People would call such blind faith, such trust, incredibly stupid and naive. And Satan wants people to believe that, He revels in such belief that faith is stupid. It is ONLY by the grace of God that we can have that trust.
We need to PUT our trust in God and NO WHERE ELSE.
Does this mean that I believe we are to go around mistrusting everyone? No. It means that our full trust can never be place anywhere but in Christ. We can still trust others but know that they can break that trust at any time. We don’t want to imagine loved ones breaking our trust but it happens all the time in many, many ways.
This is my prayer…
In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust, let me never be put to confusion.
Please Lord let us not be put to any confusion, or shame, let us KNOW that our trust needs to be in YOU, always in YOU eternally!
By YOUR grace Lord, by YOUR love, all in YOU!
Amen.