A Word of Encouragement

The Pre-tribulation rapture/escape from all will happen, just as the Lord said it would. There is absolutely, positively an escape coming. Tell me there is no rapture? Okay, call it an escape, call it whatever you want. The fact is, the Lord said there is an escape coming, and we are to pray that we are counted worthy of it. That is a fact. That is a direct, non "spiritualized" reading of the Word of God from Luke 21:34-36. In the presence of 2 or 3 witnesses let all things be established right? Luke 21:36-1 witness. The story of Lot-2 witnesses (Matt 24, Luke 17, Gen 6, Gen 19). The story of Noah-3 witnesses (Matt 24, Luke 17, Gen 6, Gen 19). The door open in heaven and redeemed, rewarded men sitting on thrones in heaven-4 witnesses (Rev 4, Rev 5). Wise virgins allowed into a "door" while the foolish coming knocking on that door and are not allowed in-5 witnesses (Matt 25, Rev 4). Nowhere in the bible...NOWHERE do you see an example of the righteous sharing in 1. wrath, 2. vengeance, 3. judgement that is poured out on the wicked-6 witnesses, and I could go on....

Wrath, vengeance and judgement are what the tribulation are about. The time of Jacob's trouble (not the churches trouble, Jacobs's..) that time has a purpose. Is the purpose of the time of Jacob's trouble to somehow "purify" the church? If you answered yes to that, you have no revelation whatsoever of what Jesus did on the cross. What did Jesus accomplish on the cross? Read up on it. The true church is in "right standing"=righteousness, right now because of what Jesus did. Are our sins covered under the blood right now or not? If you are "in Christ" then they are. Are you completely forgiven right now if you are "in Christ" or not? Yes, if you are "in Christ" then your sins are completely forgiven. Does the church need to be tested in the tribulation or has the testing of the church been ongoing since Jesus ascended into heaven?

This testing below, is the testing you and I go through each and every day:

James 1:3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops ...

because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ... for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ... //bible.cc/james/1-3.htm - 16k

Hebrews 3:8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion ...

do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert ... //bible.cc/hebrews/3-8.htm - 16k

The testing above is the testing of the church. There is a different kind of testing coming for the world, not the church, the world, and we will be kept from it because we have already been tested and found worthy (or not-reread Luke 21:34-36)

Revelation 3:10 Since you have kept my command to endure patiently ...

... "Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those wh

Each passing day, more people come out of the woodwork to bad mouth, deny, etc the escape from all that is coming. The hatred is demonic. Those who hate the idea of an escape, hate it in part because they have no revelation that they will take part in it, and if they are not going to escape, they do not want anyone else to escape either. Sorry to inform them, the escape IS coming, just like Noah escaped the flood of his day, just like Lot escaped the fiery judgement of his day, just like the Philadelphian church is told they will not be "tested" with the fiery trial coming on the entire world. The door of the Ark is wide open today, the ramp is down, and myriads of people, many of whom call themselves "christian" refuse to step foot on the ramp.

We can enter the Ark of our day by faith alone. You will not see those people "on the way up" who have no faith in the promises Jesus gave us.

Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

As you believe you receive, they do not believe, they will not receive. I did not say that, Jesus did:

Matthew 8:13

Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour Matt 25 tells us about wise and foolish virgins. The foolish virgins had not the faith, the preparation to take oil in their jars. People say the oil signifies the Holy Spirit, and that is partially true. They skip over the obvious meaning to arrive at a deeper meaning without first taking into consideration the first, most straightforward, literal meaning. What did the wise virgins do? They brought oil for their lamps. Okay, great, why do you need oil in your lamp? Literally, what is a lamp used for? To WATCH, to SEE, to LOOK. Occam's razor, the simplest most straightforward meaning wins the day. Lamps are used to create light so people can see. Why the need to see? Because the wise virgins are WATCHING. Oil is needed for light, light is needed for sight, sight is needed to watch. Our Lord told us to watch...Oil is needed to watch. He told us that He was coming back for us to take us where He is and He told us to be watching for His return. Mark 13:33 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. 34For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. 35Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: 36Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. 37And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch The foolish virgins are the pre-wrath, post-trib, naysaying, scoffers who call you a fool for watching for the Lords return today and every day, but who are the fools really? Are the "other" tribbers looking, watching for the Lord's return today? No, they are not. They are not watching, therefore their lamps are not lit, which is why they brought no oil for their lamps, which is why they are the foolish virgins of Matt 25. Why would people watch for an event that they do not believe will happen? Why would these people bring oil for their lamps to watch today, when according to them, they have time to get oil later (after all their supposed pre-requisite events take place)? While these people go off to "buy" oil later, the Lord comes to take us through the door in heaven. Re-read the parable for yourself (Matt 25). That is exactly how it happens. Know this, the satanic scoffers foretold to assault us in the last days are out in full force: 2 Peter 3:3 First of all, you must understand that in the last ... First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. ... //bible.cc/2_peter/3-3.htm - 17k Jude 1:18 They said to you, "In the last times there will be ... They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires These people are spiritually blind. This writer is 100% sure, absolutely, positively, rock solid convinced that an escape from all is coming. When it will happen, how it will happen is the Lord's. "What" will happen is for us to receive by faith just like everything else written in the bible. Do not let the last day scoffers take away from you one of the greatest last day events this world will ever see. Shifting Gears I believe the Lord reminded me this evening to pay attention to the small things. The Philadelphian church is weak, for many reasons (Rev 3). The Lord knows this. In spite of its weakness, we are reminded to do what we can with the little remaining strength we have. Can't pray for 6 hours today? Okay, pray for 2 minutes. Something is better than nothing. Remember the parable of the talents (Matt 25). The Lord is not a hard taskmaster. His yoke is easy and His burden is light but we are yoked, and we are burdened which means we are expected to do something instead of nothing. Be strong with the remaining strength you have, be courageous. You are weak, so am I, the Lord knows this however He will not be pleased with us rolling over and playing dead. This does ****not**** mean "getting involved" with the world. Our kingdom is not of this world and it never was. Determine what "talent" the Lord has given you and do the little you can with it today. The people of this world, who belong to this world will take care of the affairs of this world. They are the many, the majority. We are the few and we are to be looking to our Father's kingdom, what He requires of us. This world is falling apart, but the Ark is on the ground with the door down....do not let anyone steal your hope. Do what you were told to do, pray you will be counted worthy of the escape that is coming (Luke 21:36). Not because I said so, because Jesus said so. Trust His Word. Trust the promises, till death do us part. That is what I hear the Lord saying today. Grace and peace

"I Just Want My Life Back"

The CEO of BP was recently quoted as saying something like he wants the oil spill to be over with so he can "have his life back," or something to that effect.

The Lord dropped a bunch of things into my heart rapid fire this morning as I was driving home, and a good way to start off is with that quote.

People have been saying for years now, as the world has steadily deteriorated "I just want my life back." It's been housing, the stock market, jobs, floods, earthquakes, war, now this oil mess. This is what the Lord shed light on with me:

A different perspective on:
Luke 17:26“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

What I believe the Lord impressed upon me about this "eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage" text is that I always took it as days of business as usual, and that's it. What I see now is that in spite of the world deteriorating all around them, people don't want to hear about prophesy,the end times or the true God. People could care less, what they want is....drum roll please............"their life back.." You know, back when they were not constantly confronted with these "end times problems." People are trying so hard to just focus on "eating and drinking, planting and building, buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage." They are trying so hard to act like everything is okay and things will get back to "normal" if they just wait it all out.

Sadly, the bible does not predict people "getting their life back." It predicts "losing your life to save it." Again, 180 degrees out of sync with the thinking of this world. There's a way to deal with the end times and its not anxiety or fear or worry. There's a way to stare everything that is coming on this world straight in the face and retain our joy and peace, but its not by thinking or acting or believing like the world does.

We are told here:

Luke 21:34“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. 35For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

There is an escape from all coming, that's a stated biblical fact. We are to pray for escape, thats another stated biblical fact. Those who choose not to pray for escape from all, have an obedience issue with God that if left uncorrected, could cost them DEARLY in the days ahead.

Luke 21 appears to be ripe with meaning for us today, for those who have the eyes to see. Rewind back from Luke 21:36 a few paragraphs to this:

Luke 21:25“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Signs in the sun?

How about this for a headline out of this week's news:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627640.800-whats-wrong-with-the-sun.html?full=true

What's wrong with the sun?

and a quote from the article:

"This is solar behaviour we haven't seen in living memory," says David Hathaway, a physicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Haven't seen this kind of activity from the sun in living memory huh? NASA scientist said this....interesting. The bible tells us there will be signs in the sun moon and stars, but they will all be easily dismissable by those who have explanations for everything! Just like the way the oil disaster is unfolding before our eyes, everything is so explanable. We can see bibilical prophesy happen word for word right down to the nitty gritty details and people will still roll their eyes and try desperately to get back to "getting their life back."

Even when the events prophesied thousands of years ago are kicking people in the teeth over and over and over again. When objective and verifiable evidence is flashing across newscreens daily screaming at people, they'll roll their eyes and get back to "getting their life back."

Part of the problem with people admitting that the Word of God is coming true before their eyes is that they will then have to come to terms with the God who wrote and is the Word. That is something that people have had a problem with for a long long time. People like their religion, they like their social clubs, they even enjoy playing church, but when it comes to standing face to face with the consuming fire, the Holy One who will expose all their pet sins, well, that can wait for another day.....as we see here:

Isaiah 30:8Go now, write it on a tablet for them,

inscribe it on a scroll,

that for the days to come

it may be an everlasting witness.

9These are rebellious people, deceitful children,

children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction.

10They say to the seers,

“See no more visions!”

and to the prophets,

“Give us no more visions of what is right!

Tell us pleasant things,

prophesy illusions.

11Leave this way,

get off this path,

and stop confronting us

with the Holy One of Israel!”

All appearances are that these people who are doggedly determined to wait things out to "get their life back," are in for a long wait. The things I've read about whats happening in the Gulf of Mexico scream out that whatever is happening, it is going to be on a biblical scale. There are scenarios that experts who will never be mentioned by the media say could be apocalyptic.

We recently looked at Revelation 8:

8The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Here's our checklist so far:
and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea->complete (oil rig before sinking).

A third of the sea turned into blood-> in progress, the oil in the water looks like what? Blood...

9a third of the living creatures in the sea died-> in progress, give it time..

, and a third of the ships were destroyed.-> This was the one I thought, I just can't imagine how this whole oil leak thing could destroy a third of the ships? Lo and behold, each day new articles are shedding light on what's going on in the gulf. I seem to remember BP didn't want to bring their own ships in right after the rig blew and I wondered why? Possibly the same reason all the fisherman are getting sick? Still, that would just be dead sailors, what about the ships? Now we read about possible radioactive oil coming out of the depths? We read about methane blowouts from the well that could cause a 600 mph wall of water death across the ocean? Are we getting any traction here on possible loss of ships? Yep, its possible.

As we continue in Rev 8, what do we find?

10The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— 11the name of the star is Wormwood.a A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

Bitter waters huh? A great star? What does the bible call angels? STARS
We don't have to leave the book of Revelation for this proof:

Rev 1:19“Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. 20The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

And Wormwood? Remember Chernobyl? Nuclear? Radioactive oil? Food for thought.

The last thing the Lord impressed on me was this, again from Luke 21:

Luke 21:25“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.

One of the things the Holy Spirit does is bring to our mind remembrance of what has been written.

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father ... But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach
you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Back to Luke 21:25....“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. As we see the maritime drama playing out in our news daily, it should bring into focus for us what has been written. We can expect more drama from the sea, the Holy Word says its coming. It's going to be really hard for all the people who "just want their life back" to do so when men are "fainting from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world.."

The talking heads of TV will try to explain it all away for you. They have an endless supply of meaningless drivel to spoon feed you every day while the bible unfolds, word for precious word before the eyes of mankind.

My disclaimer in all of this is I am not predicting anything. I have eyes, and a God given mind, and I too have the Spirit of God living within me, as was promised to all true believers. I have a bible in one hand and eyes that are going back and forth from the Word of God to the events around me. What I am seeing is hitting "center mass" as we liked to say in the military with what the Word says would happen. All this, predicted thousands of years ago. Someone please compute the Vegas odds on that....

The Word of God is true, and it is vindicating itself before the eyes of man each and every day now. Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus.

grace and peace

The Days of Noah

Luke 17:26"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will
it be in the days of the Son of Man.

Matthew 24:37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

The Lord has given me a troubling question for all the naysayers who would have us believe that we will all go through part, most or all of the time of Jacob’s trouble.


That troubling question is, how much “tribulation” did Noah endure in his days? If the days ahead are going to be just like the days of Noah AND naysayers are right that we will all go through at least part of the tribulation,then we should see some “tribulation” that Noah went through comparable to what we see in the book of revelation, but do we? Where exactly do we see in Noah’s experience plague, famine, the righteous being hunted down and slaughtered etc? If we are to believe the naysayers that tell us there is no escape from the coming days of hell on earth, shouldn’t we see the things that will happen during the tribulation in Noah’s experience as well? Well, we don’t. The fact is, we see nada, zip, zero, NOTHING about the description of the days of Noah that would in ANY WAY compare to the days of the Daniel’s 70th week/time of Jacob’s trouble.

Here’s another troubling fact, Noah was in the ark, a place of physical safety while the rest of the world was punished with the flood. So again, I ask you, where was Noah’s “tribulation?” The mid-trib/pre-wrath/post-trib crowd can only respond with a stunning silence. It’s the same with Lot, where were Lot’s “tribulation” events? If the naysayers are right shouldn’t we see tribulation kinds of events happening to both Noah and Lot? Yea, we should but we don’t, so what can we conclude? The mid-trib/pre-warth/post trib crowds are wrong, dead wrong.

The coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah, and in the days of Noah life went on as usually for everybody right up to the very day that NOAH ENTERED THE ARK. Then all hell broke loose, but not a moment before:

Luke 17:27
People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day
Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.


Noah entered the ark, THEN the flood came and destroyed them all. What part of that don’t people understand? If the coming of the Son of man is going to be just like the days of Noah, then we will enter our “ark” and THEN the “flood” of judgment will come and destroy the world. If Jesus said it he meant it. If the days ahead are going to be just like the days of Noah, then life will go on as usual until the very day we are physically separated from this world by the walls of our “ark” whatever that is. Since we use the bible to interpret the bible, does this jive with what we are told in Luke 21:36?

36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

Yes, it fits like a glove. Noah escaped ALL, Lot escaped ALL and those of us found worthy will escape ALL as well. The how and when of all this are the Lord’s department, but the “what” has been clearly spoken to us. The wise virgins will keep their lamps full of oil, WATCHING for the Lord and praying in obedience to the command we were given to pray that we may be counted worthy to escape all that’s about to happen and stand before the Son of Man.

It’s going to be a very very bad day for those foolish virgins who only come later, after it is painfully obvious that the bible means what it says in plain language, to knock on the Lord’s door asking to be let in. He will tell them “I don’t know you.”

Today is a day for watching and warning. The Lord dropped these words directly into my heart yesterday. Ask the naysayers to prove their point by comparing the days of Noah and Lot to the days of the tribulation. If there was no plague famine or flood inside the ark, NONE, then how exactly is it that we should expect these things for ourselves? If people want to argue until they are blue in the face that they will go through Daniel’s 70th week, then perhaps they personally will get what they argue for.

Every day the facts continue to stack up in support of what the bible says at face value. There is an escape from all and we should pray for it. Many will likely not be watching and ready when the escape shows up, so they will go through part or all of the tribulation. As far as they personally are concerned, they are right to argue that they will go through the tribulation because they probably will, but not everybody will….according to your faith it will be done unto you.

Just imagine what it will feel like to know that some people did escape just as the bible teaches, but you were left behind because your faith and belief placed you in the middle of the tribulation. How will you feel then? How will all the people feel who bought into the idea that there was no escape even though the bible clearly teaches there is one? Perhaps people need to spend a lot less time listening to their “pastors” and spend more time listening to the Holy Spirit. I could truly care less about what most men have to say about God. I want to know what God has to say about God. There’s just way too much deception in this world to be listening to naysayers at this late hour. Determine for yourself what you believe and why you believe it. It would be a pity to miss an escape from the worst days this world has ever seen because some man talked you out of it….

Grace and peace