Blog 07-01-2011

 Friday

 PRaP 07-01-2011  

 250 Events In The Life Of Christ/ A Harmony Of The Gospels Part 202

Section 2: Message And Ministry Of Jesus

“Jesus Tells About Remaining Watchful”

Matthew 24:36-51

Mark 13:32-37

Luke 21:34-38

The Day and Hour Unknown

    36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[a] but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

   42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

   45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The time and date we know not of but the signs are all around us so even more now then ever should we be responsive and vigilant to be prepared and to prepare as many will listen and be willing to give up their worldly ways to receive eternal life through a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is so difficult these days to look past the veil of the world and get past those things that she makes so desirable to touch and taste but we must resist. I am human too and I know that sometimes we fail but we must get back to our True love in Christ that will save us from ourselves. We know that God so loves us and we know we can gather the strength that Christ gives. This is the hope we can stand on that when that day He comes we will not be the ones left behind.

Peace and Agape Love,

Pastor Steve

Blog 06-29-2011

Wednesday

 

PRaP 06-29-2011  

 

250 Events In The Life Of Christ/ A Harmony Of The Gospels Part 202

Section 2: Message And Ministry Of Jesus

“Jesus Tells About His Return”

Matthew 24:26-35

Mark 13:24-31

Luke 21:25-33

 

²⁶ “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. ²⁷ For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ²⁸ Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

   ²⁹ “Immediately after the distress of those days

   “‘the sun will be darkened, 
   and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky, 
   and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’^[a]

   ³⁰ “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth^[b] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.^{[c] 31} And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

   ³² “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³ Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it^[d] is near, right at the door. ³⁴ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

 

So be prepared.  We have seen many things and have experienced the birth pains of life.  For He is coming soon and waste no more time on the things of this earth for it will pass away yet every word spoken by Jesus Christ will live on forever.  This is His message of love to all of us.  What you do with it is your choice.  Be careful what you choose because it will last an eternity.

 

Peace and Agape Love,

Pastor Steve

Blog 06-28-2011

Tuesday

 

PRaP 06-28-2011  

 

250 Events In The Life Of Christ/ A Harmony Of The Gospels Part 201

Section 2: Message And Ministry Of Jesus

“Jesus Tells About The Future”

Matthew 24:1-25

Mark 13:1-23

Luke 21:5-24

 

Matthew:

¹ Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ² “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

 ³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

 ⁴ Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.

   ⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

   ¹⁵ “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’^[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. ¹⁸ Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. ¹⁹ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ²⁰ Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.

   ²² “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. ²³ At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. ²⁴ For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ See, I have told you ahead of time.

 

In times of persecution even strong believers will find it difficult to be loyal.  To keep from being deceived by false messiahs, we must understand that Jesus’ return will be unmistakable, no one will doubt that it is He. If you have to be told that the Messiah has come, then He hasn’t.  Christ’s coming will be obvious to everyone.  All people of the earth will know that it is Jesus when the day comes not a living soul will doubt or miss it.

Jesus warnings about false teachers still hold true.  Upon close examination it becomes clear that many nice sounding messages don’t agree with God’s message in the Bible.  Only a solid foundation in God’s Word can equip us to perceive the errors and distortions in false teaching.  Be careful out there and remember that if it doesn’t line up with scripture then it isn’t the Truth.  Gain wisdom along with your knowledge for knowledge without wisdom is useless.

Peace and Agape Love,

Pastor Steve

Blog 04-15-2010

Thursday

PRaP 04-15-2010

 

“Things That Are Certain”

 

Have you paid to Caesar what belongs to Caesar? It is tax day here in the United States.  They say there are only two things certain in life and that is death and taxes.  Well as true as that cliché is there are some other things that are certain.  Jesus Christ is coming back there will be another earthquake, there will be another storm, there will be poverty and famine, there will be disease, wars and rumors of war.  These are some of the things that are certain in life because the Bible says they are certain.  Jesus told us with His own lips that the poor we will always have and He also says for certain that the only way to the Father is through the Son those things are certain as well.  The Bible also says that one day every knee will bow down to Him and confess He is Lord that is certain as well.  The evil of this world and hell itself will be thrown into the lake of fire, which will bring on the new era of living with the Father for eternity.  Hell itself will be destroyed in that fire and all the souls that are refined will take their place in heaven be it on level one or at the one of the gates.  There will come a time that these things will take place.  In that time will you be on the side of Light or will you be one of the ones thrown into the fire to be refined with all who are in hell?  These are things that are certain they are to come.  I am not speaking of hearsay and rumors but facts as they written in God’s Word.  Can you say beyond the shadow of a doubt that when these things do come to pass that Jesus will be standing there with open arms to greet you or will He send you packing telling you that He doesn’t know you.  You see it’s not about what you have or how much you have done for your fellow man.  For our works is not the path to heaven.  You can be as good as any man can be yet without knowing Christ you are still just a man who chose to live in sin.  The Bible says that not one single person that walks this Earth today is sin free.  Only Christ did that.  So we need a Savior to get us to our ultimate destination and that Savior can only be Christ.  He is the only One that can open the gate and tell you to come in.  If you try to cheat and jump the gate it will do you no good because then you are a thief and will be in torment for eternity outside the gates of heaven, outside looking in.  Never to quench that thirst, never to be able to receive your hearts desire, only looking in never to be satisfied.  You have a decision to make and today is the perfect day to make that decision.  Do you want to live with Christ and be forever safe from sin or do you want to continue to live in your sin because it is fun and it feels good and it taste good?  Well if you have never tasted of Salvation how do you know you have the best?  Don’t take my word for it I am just a man.  Reach out to Christ and repent of your sins and get into His Word that you may learn of who He is.  Start in the book of Romans and then Matthew and then work in the rest of the precious Word of God and see what happens to your  life, your family, your friends that you have now will not likely be your friends then.  These are the things that are certain.  Think about it!

 

Matthew 24 and Mark 13

 

Key Verse:

1. Matthew 24:6
   You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
   Matthew 24:5-7 (in Context) Matthew 24 (Whole Chapter)
2. Mark 13:7
   When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
   Mark 13:6-8 (in Context) Mark 13 (Whole Chapter)

Peace and Agape Love,

Pastor Steve

Blog 01-15-2010

Friday

PRaP 01-15-2010

 

“How Big?”

 

How many hours do you spend in prayer meetings praying for the sick and the needy?  How many days do you ask God to help you out in something small in your life?  Not that there is anything wrong with these prayers because God tells us in His Word to bring these things to Him.  My point today is how big is God to you?  Have you ever asked Him to show Himself in a situation that only He could fix?  How big is He?  Well we have a God sized task in Haiti right now.  Many lost their lives and left behind loved ones that now find themselves homeless, widowed, or orphaned by the earthquake.  The Red Cross estimates are in the range of 40,000 to 50,000 people were killed and 3,000,000 people which is one third the population of Haiti have been affected in one form or another by the quake.  We need to send out a God sized prayer for the people of Haiti.  Here is an excerpt from an ABC News report that I found on the Internet

REPORTER 1: The car park at the hospital was just full of dead bodies. There were even children sleeping in amongst those dead bodies and then doctors trying to treat people desperately but they have no materials here.
One doctor turned to me and just said, “This is all we have. We need help and we need help now.”

Now I ask you are you willing to seek God’s face in this situation?  Ask God to show Himself in Haiti.  Miracles that only He can do and not tomorrow but right now, today He shows up and rescues the ones who need rescue.  Rebuild the broken and repair what needs to be repaired.  Help out with a $10 donation text HAITI to 90999 and a $10 donation will go to the Red Cross relief and it will show up on your next phone bill.  We have people from this ministry that are going to help with the children and as soon as I get the information I will let you know so we can support them.  God sized miracles.  Pray the big prayer.  Brothers and sisters in Christ this was a contraction, a birth pain of what is ahead for us.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke say it.

 

Matthew 24:7
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Matthew 24:6-8 (in Context) Matthew 24 (Whole Chapter)

Mark 13:8
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
Mark 13:7-9 (in Context) Mark 13 (Whole Chapter)

Luke 21:11
There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
Luke 21:10-12 (in Context) Luke 21 (Whole Chapter)

 

Peace and Agape Love,

Pastor Steve