Unconditional Salvation?

American church, you have lost your way!  You are a ship, adrift at sea, cut loose from your moorings.  Great storms are coming, yet you have been rocked to sleep and are drifting unaware into the eye of the hurricane.

You call your prophets alarmists, and in your hearts you mock the messages God sends to you.  You shun words of correction, but chase after those who will flatter you and say what you want to hear.  You adore those who tell you that you can live as you wish and still inherit the kingdom of God.  (In this case, who is the God, and who is the servant?  By living this way, you exalt yourself to be God and relegate God to the position of a genie who grants your wishes whenever you rub his bottle in prayer!) You pick and choose what to believe, casting aside whatever doesn't suit you.

Some of you have 'chosen God' as a means to wealth, power, unlimited blessings, unending grace and supernatural protection.  I'm not just speaking to the leaders!  Most of you see Christianity as the way to a blessed life here on Earth.  What will you do if He takes it all away?  If He strips you to your bare skin and all you have left is His outstretched hand and His invitation to walk with Him?

God is fully able to keep those who want to walk with Him.  He will guide them so that they stay on the path, and help them up when they stumble.  But, unlike the adversary, God holds no man against his will.

When you, who are Christians, choose to live in sin, you abuse the generosity of God and insult his gift of grace.  If you continue to live that way, His anger will burn hot against you.  You were chosen to be a cleansing, preserving salt, and a light of wisdom and hope to the world around you.  Many of you are neither.  Of what use are you then to God?  Step aside and let another take your place, lest He sweep you away in His anger!

You have been given the choicest meats, the finest grain, the most fertile and beautiful lands, yet you take it all for granted!  Many of you even think you deserve it.  On what grounds?  What makes you any better than the man in India who will never sleep one night in a bed?  Or the filthy little orphan children who dig their food out of a garbage dump, and are never rocked to sleep in the arms of a loving parent? 

Don't you know you are balanced on the head of a pin?  All that you hold dear was given you by the grace of God--yet  how many of you even remember to thank Him?  If a little breeze should blow, you would topple to the ground!  God chooses who to humble, and who to exalt.  Don't make the mistake of thinking your position is secure!!

Do not practice sin, it will not release you from its grip. Make no mistake, it is 'him who endures to the end' who shall be saved.  If, after knowing Christ, you resume a life of sin--there is no sacrifice left that will cover your sins! 

Examine your heart and your motives!  Do you really love God, or merely the gifts He gives His children?  At dusk, He will come and take His children by the hand.  They will gather up their toys and take them from you, then they will head for home.  All that will be left for you is silence, and the vision of their backs as they walk away intothe deepening night.

If you have let your zeal for God grow cold, if you are living a life of sin, BEWARE!  You are standing on the edge of the abyss!  You are in very real danger of eternal damnation! 

It is not that God cannot forgive your sin, it is that you may soon be unable to repent--unable to feel sorrow, shame or regret, or to even summon the motivation to seek forgiveness! 

Sin deceives you, sears your conscience, takes away all shame and modesty, hardens your heart and mind, and closes your ears to the invitation of God to return to Him!  You don't know which stab of guilt will be the last you feel--which will be your final call to repent, before sorrow can no longer penetrate the hardness of your heart, and ceases to strive with you, leaving you to practice your sin unbothered.

Don't be deceived, God is not mocked--a man reaps what he sows.

Deathbed Conversions

I think deathbed conversions are a crock.  I doubt the sincerity of someone who waits until their dying breath to call out to God for a pardon because suddenly they can see what lies ahead.  I think it's an insult to God and an abuse of His grace.

My attitude reminds me of someone else's:  a guy who had a brother that insisted on having his inheritance early, and then ran off and blew it partying and whoring around.  He was understandably irritated when, after hitting rock bottom,  his brother decided it was time to come home.  After all, he'd stayed home and had to pick up the slack. 

But, as I look at the father of these guys, I see a man who is running down the driveway to meet his son.  He welcomes him back and showers him with gifts.  It's not that he loves one of his sons more than the other--it's that this one was lost, but has come home.

So, if that's the way God feels (and I know it is, because Jesus told the story), then I'm just going to let it go.  If God isn't offended, then why should I be?

However, If you're that one who's lost, and you are planning to wait until you are on your deathbed to make that commitment, consider this: sin will harden your heart.  Every time you feel the Holy Spirit tugging at your heart and you pull away, your heart gets a little harder.  By the time you are on your deathbed (if you even get that chance), you may not be able to muster the repentance you need in order to be forgiven.

Beyond that, the stakes are even higher now!  God is sending a powerful delusion to those that refuse 'to love the truth and so be saved'.  He sends them this powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie of the Antichrist and be condemned (those who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness).

The time for taking God's grace for granted is nearly over.  Who knows. . . this may be YOUR last chance!

The Gates Of Hell Shall Not Prevail Against Us
It's Time To 'Shake The Dust Off'

Are You Afraid? (forced vaccinations)

I've just spent this cold, dreary day surfing the Web and reading lots of scary things about what is going on now.  What was most terrifying of all I saw today was a video on You Tube, about forced vaccinations. 

I'm not going to link you to that video.  Let me tell you why.  I was not too concerned when I first started watching, and the Lord impressed upon me, simultaneously, two things:

1. The incident that Paul had when bitten by a viper (Acts 28:5-6: 'But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.  The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.'  Of course he wasn't a god, but this shows how lethal the venom of that viper was).
2. ' And these signs shall accompany them that believe: . . . and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them . . .' (Mark 16:17-18)

But as I watched the video, even with full faith in these things, fear came over me.  I have learned some mighty scary things lately, yet have not been afraid because I've had the 'peace of God which transcends all understanding' which is promised to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  I've even contemplated, quite a bit, the probability of death (eventually) for standing up for what I believe.  But this video made me afraid.

With the video came a spirit of fear.

Now, what is in the video may be true--or not. And I'm  not saying the motive behind it was to engender fear, because I believe that is a strategy and tool of Satan.  But, he is working in concert with things like this.  There is a lot of hysteria developing, and that hysteria will have repercussions.  As Christians, we should be the sanest, calmest people in the room.  We should understand what is happening, and why.

The Lord promises us not 'a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind', and  'you did  not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear . . .'  This should reaffirm to you that fear is a bondage, and this type of fear is not from God.

Now, I can understand if you are afraid, but let God take your fear away and replace it with strength and boldness.  He has done it for many of us already.  He will give you the grace to go through whatever comes your way. 

There is one other point I want to make briefly, but cover in greater depth soon: The Rapture. 

Yes, Christ will return after seven years of tribulation on the earth, but there is no 'Rapture' before the Tribulation.  We will not be whisked away just as trouble and persecution reach our shores.  I think in your heart you know this, but you are desperately trying to believe in it anyway, and this is why you struggle with fear. 

When you try to believe in one thing while the Spirit is telling your heart differently, it makes you off balance spiritually and more prone to the attacks of the enemy.  When you understand that it is God's design for Christians to go through the Tribulation, then the things He has been trying to impress upon your heart, to prepare you, will make sense.

Back to the issue of forced vaccinations--I really don't want one, and I don't want a tracking device on me.  But, not because I am afraid of that. For most of my life I feared the things that were to come, but now that they are at the doorstep, the Lord has given me peace and boldness. I am just a hermit-like person who prefers privacy.  I will not take the vaccination, unless I have to.  But if I have to, I will--and it will not harm me. 

That is not my personal 'line in the sand'. However, as a society, I believe we should continue to fight such things, when they are unfounded. But, the thing is, sooner or later, there will be a legitimately good reason for such measures. And, when that time arrives, we would be foolish to stand in the way.

I think it is important that we continue to remain sane and rational, because if hysteria takes hold we will lose all credibility.  Fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

We talk about living by faith, but how will you live in faith tomorrow if you can't live by faith today?  Start practicing now!!


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