Month: January 2013

“Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” 3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. Matthew 24:1-12 (NKJV)

Specific signs of the last days:

1. People will say that they are Jesus.

2. A lot of deception (Leading people astray)

3. Wars and rumors of wars (Strife, fighting everywhere)

4. Nation will rise against nation (Nation is the word “éthnos”, is where we get the English Word Etnic.

5. Kingdom against kingdom (Governments)

6. Famines (Hunger)

7. Pestilence (Epidemics)

8. Earthquakes (A lot of shaking)

9. Great tribulation and the mass killing of the true people of God.

10. Great hatred against God’s people all over the world.

11. Many will be offended and leave churches because of offenses.

12. A lot of betrayal and hatred from within the church.

13. The rise of many false prophets that will tell people what they want to hear and move people away from God.

14. Because of lawlessness many will grow cold in the things of God. Everybody will accommodate the law to their convenience to satisfy their carnal desires.

Every activity offer by the world is designed by Satan to keep us from being on fire from God. This is so because Satan is the god of this world according to Second Corinthians 4:3-4

 “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” (NKJV)

From music, to clothing, to movies in Hollywood is all designed to keep our minds away from meditating on the Lord. Even things that appear to be good, when the focus take us away from God Himself it become another distraction and a potential idol.  Many people in the church have become secular minded and are constantly mixing with the things of this world. The world and what the world has to offer is very attractive to our flesh. To justify our carnality we make pitiful attempts to spiritualize our worldly activities.

So many Christians go to clubs and dance to the sounds of secular artist who are enemies of God. As we dance to their rhythm we approve and support their agenda and therefor give Satan legal right to enter into our lives and do greater damage. We find ourselves spending money to support their music, their movies, their TV Shows, their line of clothing, etc. We convinced ourselves that we are not doing it for Satan, but Satan is a liar and a deceiver, so we can actually find ourselves worshipping him without knowing it. In John 15:19 Jesus told us:

“If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (NKJV) 

These are tough words to swallow, but when we find ourselves in a friendly relationship with the world something is actually wrong with our Christianity.

Nobody likes to be hated, everybody likes to be respected and liked, but when you are serious about your Christianity you will clash with the world system. In the last days we will have a remnant that will be on fire for God and because of it, they will be hated by the world according to Matthew 24.

Today we see many politicians who present themselves as Christians and Religious’ leaders who purposely avoid taking a Biblical stance on the issue of homosexuality. They are also avoiding the reality of Christ as the Only way to heaven. Making a Biblical stance on these two issues will guaranty great hate against us.

Take a look at this video where Former President George Bush, who campaigned as Christian, was asked about Jesus being the only way to heaven:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4iVbqCIYPo

Let me also show you another video where one, who is consider, the greatest Evangelist of our time, also denied Jesus as the only way to heaven:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozjLaoPrcQ0

As you can see in these videos, the Gospel is under attack, so many people that  consider themselves saved, are not really, because more and more we see that this new gospel does not need Jesus. Therefor there is no need for repentance. So we have problems right at the door. With the fear for being accused of judging many chose to back off from the topic of repentance.

As you enter then, the house of God’s family, we are also under attack, because now Satan has found ways of taking away our fire by promoting the mixing of the world with Christianity under the umbrella of ministry. We are call to love everyone, but we are not call to fellowship with the world or the things of this world. Second Corinthians 6:13-18 tells us:

“13 Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open. 14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.” 17 Therefore “Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you.”18 “I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the Lord Almighty.” (NKJV)

In Psalm 137:1-4 we see the Levites being capture by the powerful Babylonian nation of that time. The Babylonians wanted the Israelites to sing, it could have been a great opportunity to minister to them in song right? To win a few for Jesus right? But look at how the Israelites answered:

“1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
    when we remembered Zion.

2 There on the poplars
    we hung our harps,

3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
    our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
    they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4 How can we sing the songs of the Lord
    while in a foreign land?”

These people knew that there is no place for mixing with the world for God’s people. The bottom line is that many Christians today are afraid! If we confess Jesus as the only way to heaven the world will accuse us of being crazy, arrogant, close-minded and others. On the other hand if we established that sin is sin, we will be hated. James 4:4 tells us:

“Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (NKJV)

Lets take the issue of homosexuality for example. Homosexuality is, not only a sin before God, but an abomination. The spirit of homosexuality is so strong that their leaders are making the atrocity of comparing their fight for social, moral and legal acceptance of homosexuality to the fight for racial equality. Lets look at another Christian leader speaking on this issue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4i-00c32J4

 It is hard for us as Christians to understand that we do not have a middle line; it is hard for us to understand that everything that refuses to give glory to God will indeed take our fire for God away. The Bible tells us in Matthew 18:8-9

 “If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.” (NIV 1984)

Is there anything we need to cut off? The concern here is, are we as Christians call to miss out on things? Are we called to take away from our children what the rest of the children have? This is how Jesus response to this concern:

“He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39 (NKJV)

The Devil will have us think that we are losing, but we are not, we are actually gaining a life that no one else can offer. We are called to do what God tells us to do…in that we will find the abundant life that Jesus came to give us according to John 10:10.

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” NKJV

So what can we do in this world as Christians? We still need water, food and shelter; we still need to wear clothing and we still need to make a living. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:31-34

“31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” NKJV

These verses are making it clear that God is aware that there are things we need for our survival; but He is also making it clear that we should not make it a priority in our lives to run after those things. God is telling us not to worry, He promise that He will provide, but He also is giving us how the order of our priorities should be. In verse 33 God tells us:

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” NKJV

The word Seek here means: “To strive to find, to go after.” The Kingdom is God’s Government and Righteousness is God’s way of doing things. God must be first; He demands first place in our lives because nobody else can do HIS job. Only God can heal us, restore us, save us, give us purpose, give us true joy and peace that overpass all understanding according to Philippians 4:7.

Why do we continue to mix with the world? The answer is very easy to find; we want the acceptance and validation of this world. The children of Israel did the same thing as they ask for a king that would lead them; that was the system established in the known world, so the Israelites, like many of us today, have the same carnal desire. In First Samuel 8 we see the story of God’s people step in the wrong direction. Even as Prophet Samuel tried to discourage the people from such idea, even after God Himself told them that having a king was going to hurt them deeply, they replied in verse 19 and 20a,

“No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations…” NIV

That is exactly what we do today, we know that we are spending too much time messing with our smart phones, we know that we are spending too much time on Facebook, we know that movie is not Godly, we know that TV Show has a demonic agenda and that is presenting a value and moral system that is against God, we know that those books are drying our souls, we know that those videos games are taking away our ability to sense God’s presence, we know that this or that relationship is not good for us…but we do it anyway because deep inside we want to be like the world. We resolve in our minds that they, the world, have all the goodies, they get to have fun and I want some of that to…after all, I deserve that, I am not a bad person, I go to church on Sundays, I don’t smoke and I have not kill anybody, after all, everybody else is doing it…so, why not me?

Beloved, we are call to be holy, a people separated for God. I know that legalism and man-made religion have done a great deal of damage, however that is not an excuse for us to live our lives as if we are able to do whatever we want without having to pay any consequences. First Corinthians 10:23 tells us:

“Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is constructive.” NIV 1984

We must understand that even as we have the freedom, especially in this country, to do whatever we want as long as we are not violating the law, not everything is beneficial and/or constructive. We must know that those things we insist in doing that are against God’s Word carry very painful consequences. No! We are not call to do whatever we want, we are call to do what God wants. Romans 8:6-9 tells us:

“6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

“You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”

What kind of mind do we have today? What kind of walk are we walking today? Maybe the problem is that the Spirit of God is not in you. May be you are moving away from God because you are offended or because you got a hold of some false teachings.

This writer does not write from the pride of a perfect life where I did everything right. I am writing as one who knows sin very well. I wish I can hide behind the leaves of my days before coming to the knowledge of Christ, but I can’t. I have sinned with the sin of fornication. Oh I know that many say that all sins are the same, but even as all sins will separate you from God and all sin will guide you into hell without Jesus and without true repentance, there are sins that will cause more damage to your soul than others. Fornication is that kind of sin that is designed to destroy a men or a women of God. In First Corinthians 6:18 the Bible tells us:

 “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.” NKJV

I know first hand what it is to go after the desires of our flesh. In my case is taking me years to get back to feeling God’s fire in my life. But I don’t want you to be discouraged. Right now, take the time to truly repent and return to God for He is faithful and He will always love you. God has not deleted His plan for you. I end this small e-book with these words from Romans 11:29 as Paul tells us:

 “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” NKJV