Friday, December 27,
2013, 7:23 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with this song:
He Was Despised /
Handel (From “The Messiah”)
He was despised and
rejected of men;
A man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief… (From: Is. 53:3).
He gave His back to
the smiters,
And His cheeks to them
that plucked off the hair:
He hid not His face
from shame and spitting (From: Is. 50:6).
Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Revelation 14:1-13 (NIV).
The Redeemed
Then
I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with
him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud
peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their
harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living
creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who
had been redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves
with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes.
They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and
the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.
The Lamb is Jesus Christ, who was slain for lost sinners, in
order that we might go free from our slavery to sin and have eternal life with
God in glory. Mount Zion is the City of God, the New Jerusalem, the church
(temple) of the Living God, the body of Christ; the kingdom of heaven. Jesus
Christ, the Lamb who took away the sins of the world, is standing with the
redeemed of the Lord, whose names have been written in the Lamb’s book of Life.
He is with us, supporting, strengthening, and encouraging us in our faith, and
in these trials we face and are yet to face here on the earth. He will never
leave us or forsake us. These who have the Father’s name written on their
foreheads are the chosen people of God; those who have been set apart for and
consecrated to God and to his service, called to be holy, who have been
cleansed of their sins, made right with God via the shed blood of Jesus Christ
on the cross for our sins; the faithful servants of Christ, separated from the
world, and purified by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. They
follow the Lamb wherever he goes, i.e. they are his servants and witnesses.
We, who hope in Christ, even though our bodies will see
decay, have the promise of resurrected bodies and life eternal with our Lord in
heaven. Amen! Only the truly redeemed can sing such a great song of salvation
as this.
The Gospel
Then
I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim
to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. He
said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his
judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the
springs of water.”
In today’s modern world a different gospel from the one
taught by Jesus and the apostles has gained much popularity among people of
many faiths, and has even gained respect among those with no faith at all, for
it teaches a Jesus whose life could be characterized mainly by the good works
he did in healing the sick, lifting up the fallen, feeding the hungry and
caring for the needy. This Jesus they teach is inclusive of other faiths and tolerant
of sinful acts and practices, and makes no advance toward trying to win others
to faith in Jesus Christ. He does not confront sin, nor does he call for
repentance, for that is considered intolerant, and even hateful. He mixes with
the world of sin, with pagan religions, and does all he can to make people feel
good about themselves no matter what they believe or how they are living their
lives. He teaches that all people are children of God, and that God is within
each and every one of us, which would mean that we are all going to heaven.
Yet, this modern gospel is not the gospel being proclaimed
here by the angel of God, which is the gospel taught in the word of God (of
truth). This gospel proclaimed by the angel teaches that we must have the fear
(awe, honor, respect, and worship) of God. This means to reverence, esteem, and
to treat God with submissiveness or humble obedience. In other words, this
means to accept his words (his truths) into our lives, to believe what he says,
and to act upon that belief in his power and strength within us, by faith. It
means to follow Jesus Christ in all that he teaches us, and not just in the
things that make us feel good about him and/or about each other. This true gospel
not only proclaims our great salvation via God’s grace and Jesus’ sacrifice for
sins, but it also teaches that faith in Christ means dying to sin and self, and
it means living for God and walking and living in his righteousness - all the
working of the Spirit of God within us as we yield to his control in our lives.
To give God the glory not only means to give him the credit
and the praise for what he has done in our hearts and lives, but it means that
we honor, value and esteem him by our very lives, in our submission, obedience,
surrender, love, worship, and in living holy lives, pleasing to him, no longer
conformed to the ways of this sinful world, but transformed in the renewing of
our minds by the Spirit of God who works in us the will of God, as we allow him
to do his work. The best description I know of how we best worship God is given
to us in Romans 12:1-2 where it tells us to present our lives as living sacrifices
to God, holy and pleasing to him, which is our reasonable service of worship to
him. Worship is not just something we do on a Sunday morning in a “worship
service” when we raise our voices in song to God, though certainly that is a
very important aspect of our worship. Yet, if all we are giving is lip service
only, that is not true worship. True worship is the surrender of our lives to
Jesus Christ to follow him wherever he leads us, and to do what he says to do.
Judgment and Mercy
A
second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which
made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”
A
third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the
beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand,
they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full
strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur
in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their
torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for
those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark
of its name.” This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God
who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.
Then
I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in
the Lord from now on.”
“Yes,”
says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow
them.”
Many people like to forget that judgment is also part of the
gospel, yet we are saved by God’s grace, not only from slavery to sin, and to
walk in Christ’s righteousness and holiness, but we are saved from the pit of
hell via his grace and through our faith in him. Because of what Jesus Christ
did in dying on the cross for our sins, and because of our faith in him, we
will no longer face the judgment of eternal punishment in hell, but we will
have the glorious reward of eternity in heaven with God. Amen! Yet, for those
who refuse Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives, which includes those who make
profession of him, but whose hearts are far from him, only eternal punishment
awaits them. There is no escaping this. This is the reality of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Unless you submit to Jesus Christ by faith and give him your
life, you will NOT spend eternity with God in heaven, no matter how good you
are, or no matter what people have told you to the contrary. Yet, not only is
there the judgment of eternity in hell that awaits you, but there is also a
time of judgment on this earth prior to the very end, during which time God
will pour out his wrath on the people of the earth.
Yet, for those of us who have given our hearts to Jesus
Christ, who have been cleansed of our sins, and who have submitted to his
Lordship over our lives, and who follow the Lamb everywhere he leads us, we are
certainly not promised a “rose garden.” In fact, we are promised that we will
be hated, persecuted, and even killed for our faith in Jesus and for our
testimony for Christ and his gospel of salvation. And, in this day and age, the
persecution and killing of Christ’s followers and witnesses is drastically
increasing in severity.
I read in the news yesterday about the National Defense
Authorization Act of 2014 which President Obama just now signed into law. Some
of this law has been in effect since 2012, “authorizing the military, under
presidential authority, to arrest, kidnap, and detain without trial, and held
indefinitely, American citizens thought to ‘represent an enduring security
threat to the United States,’” [1] stripping American citizens of their Bill of
Rights. The definition of who or what is a terrorist (or terrorism) is very
loosely defined in this bill, and can easily be adapted to fit anyone the
government wishes it to fit, including myself and many of you. From what I
understand, “Evangelical Christians” are ranked high on the government’s list
of potential terrorist threats, because they are considered “extremists,” i.e.
we preach the true gospel of salvation as was taught by Jesus and the apostles.
There is a new addition to this law, which is the “Conflict Records Research
Center,” which evidently keeps videos, emails, text messages; social media site
posts, telephone conversations, pictures, etc. on each person of interest, or
perhaps on every U.S. citizen, to be used against us, it appears. We no longer
live in the home of the free and land of the brave.
The Lord Jesus keeps showing me that the U.S. government and
their “New World Order” allies are setting up this rule of the beast, and that
they are purposefully targeting followers of Christ for persecution and for
extinction. They are in the process of labeling evangelical Christians as
terrorists, and are going after them full force. They appear to be especially
concerned with putting a stop to the spreading of the gospel and the spread of
new followers of Christ throughout the world. They are putting the “heat” on
them. I believe this NDAA 2014 is a crucial instrument in this labeling of “terrorists”
for planned persecution, imprisonment and eventual extinction, and Obama has
the authority to carry it out, completely stripping Americans of their rights
as U.S. citizens. Yet, this is global, so there must be a global version of this
NDAA, which is basically the “Deal with the Devil,” i.e. this New Deal with the
New World Order, giving the beast complete rule and reign over all nations and
peoples of the earth. And, by this document, I can now be arrested and even
killed just because I am a follower of Jesus Christ. Yet, I have no cause to
fear, for I know my Redeemer lives, that he will sustain me, uphold me, be with
me, give me courage and strength, and that one day soon he will take me to be
with him forever. Amen!
I Know That My Redeemer
Liveth /
Handel (From “The Messiah”)
I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day
upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall
I see God. (Job 19:25-26)
upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall
I see God. (Job 19:25-26)
For now is Christ risen from the dead; the first fruits of them that
sleep. (I Corinthians 15:20)
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