Matthew 24 (Jesus says)
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
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When the announcement was made that Russian troupes were gathering outside the border of Ukraine, I began praying and I heard this, "There will be wars and rumors of wars. Let not your heart be troubled."
I know we will have earthquakes in divers places. We will have pestilences (coronavirus?) .
Unless we belong to God and really know how to follow God, it is really fearful to me.
I'm sure most people who identify themselves as Christians do not know how to follow God.
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I was born in 1937, so I have known several wars and we see the same basic errors repeated by the civilians over and over. Often they stay in the war zone until it is too late to get out. (It is so difficult to leave your possessions yet in the end of this world God will destroy all that we can see with our natural eye.)
The world considers it very noble to give your life for your country. This we see in movies many times.
But as Christians I know we are like strangers and pilgrims on this earth as we wait for the return of Jesus when HE will remove us from this present earth.
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Recently Pam Padgett got involved in the Ukraine situation and began to think, "Why don't we do something and go in there to help them?" And she found she had to quickly "back off."
That often happens to me when I try to watch documentaries about the Civil War in the USA in 1860's. I find it stirs me up and I often have to stop watching knowing it does no good thing.
I can't watch the persecution of the Jews in WW2 at all!
When we are stirred up to no good and riled, our flesh often rises up to do something.
There are many things of this world that I abstain from. I find world organizations quickly rise up to do things but in my dealings with Bible and living in peace until Jesus removes us, which I am sure is the message from God, I cannot deal with the way of this world. I can only deal with myself and what I see from God for the elect of God.
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When we follow God, we are led by God. HE speaks to each of the elect of God by HIS Spirit showing us what we are to do. We recognize the ideas that come from God and the "voice" of the Holy Spirit when HE speaks and we obey the instructions that we are certain to be from God.
Some very bad things that are hard to see come upon this world happen.
God sent two angels to destroy Sodom because of the sins of the people. When those angels came to get Lot out before the destruction, men from every quarter of the city (homosexuals) came to try to have sex with the 2 men who were really angels. (Angels look like natural men. They didn't know these were angels. Angels do not have wings as many people think.) These angels removed Lot and his daughters before Sodom was destroyed. Then came the fire and brimstone killing all the other people of Sodom. (Gen. 19)
At the end of this world we will see much destruction from God because of the sins of this world.
This the Bible shows us.
I Thessalonians 5
(We must reckon that God's judgment is always correct.)
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ (the Word of God),
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ (the Word of God),
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Jesus told them in the Bible that when they see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, flee ... don't come back to their houses to get things. (Mt. 24:15-21; Luke 21)
(Of course, many in Jerusalem do not believe in Jesus and they will do what seems right in their own eyes, especially holding onto their accumulated possessions.)
We are warned:
Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
If we are following the opinion of humans, we might be in great danger. If we hear from God and follow that which God shows us by HIS Spirit, we rest in HIM and believe to salvation.
Destruction will come upon many.
There is only one sure thing and that is God and hearing from God and following God as we live on this earth.
Here is a critical thing:
And Peter tells us:
2 Peter 3
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to HIS promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of HIM in peace, without spot, and blameless.
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If we are at the wrong place, at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing, it is very fearful.
Jesus says to watch and be sober, knowing the things appointed by God to come upon this earth.
Luke 21
34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting (over indulgence), and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
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.
(Consider moment by moment what you are choosing to do on this earth ... and pray over all things.)
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Peter says there will be scoffers in the last days.
2 Peter 3
2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of HIS coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
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Several years ago, a young man contacted me. He said he was a pastor in the Philippines. He wanted me to come speak to his church.
I told him I could not travel due to my age.
He took some of my writings and read them to his church group. They became very angry and hostile over the things I wrote. They told him to leave the church property where he was living with his wife and son.
I told him to do what the apostle Paul did and get a secular job and support himself and his family.
Apparently he did not do that.
I didn't hear from him for about 3 years then I received an email from him. An earthquake struck the church housing where he was living and destroyed his house.
I could not help thinking of what might have happened had he chosen to leave that rebellious church group and get a job and pay for his own housing. He might have needed to move to another country. And he might not have been present for the earthquake that destroyed the church property.
Wrong place ... wrong time ... doing the wrong thing with rebellious church people.
There is a time to stay and a time to go elsewhere.
But there is never a time to remain in rebellious church groups after they show a hatred for portions of the Bible. For to do such puts yourself in the rebellion and in the destruction which is to come.
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Jesus will destroy the antichrist church groups with HIS coming.
II Thessalonians 2
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
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I don't stay among those people who show a hatred for portions of scripture.
2 Corinthians 6
15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be MY people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you,
18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be MY sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
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