Last Days

GOD? What Do You Want From Me? [Part 2]


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1 John 4:7-11 – “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  NKJV

 

             Imagine a God who is Omniscient (all knowing) who does not like us.  That is a horrific thought, right?  Most of us have or have had a secret(s) that we were ashamed to confess even to our closest friends but God KNOWS everything about us and knows our thoughts even before we think them.  The terror that would accompany the thought that God who knows all about us and does not even like us would drive us suicidal.  He would be an infinite monster!

The Bible never says:  God HAS Power or Love it says HE IS!  Love is not something apart from Him it is WHO HE IS.  But what is Love?  What is Love as it is spoken of here in this passage?  Love, in the English language has become almost a worthless word for we apply it to so many things and give it some many shades of meaning.  What do we think of when we say or hear Love?

Let me suggest a possibility:  It means that we reach out to someone we can reasonably count on that is in our class.  Before you get self-righteous and pious, that is exactly what most of us do much of the time if not all the time.  In European history when a member of a royal family fell in love with a commoner they were fired.  If the king fell for a commoner and married them he would be required to give up his throne.  Likewise when we humans fall in love we tend to keep within our self-imposed boundaries.  Naturally we do not talk about it and possibly refuse to admit it but we do it.

When we say LOVE what do we mean?  If I love a person I am acknowledging that person calls forth my highest admiration and when I look at them I admire them.  We are so captivated by them that when we talk about them they are elevated to a level of worship in our eyes and minds.  We adore them!  Likewise when we LOVE someone it means they answer to what I feel is beauty (eye of the beholder).  Beauty is something that happens in our heads and that is what we usually understand to be love.

But when it comes to God and the Bible declares:  “God is Love” many assume that God is Love in the same way we love.  Virtually every religion in existence has a concept of God based on human love.  However, if God loves like we love how would that work out?  Think with me through some problems with that concept:

  • He cannot find anyone in His Class so immediately we are eliminated. If he were to get friendly with us he would be fired as being God so we are out in the cold.
  • He cannot find anyone in harmony with Him (before salvation) so our disharmony disqualifies us. He is love and holiness and we are selfish and have no plans to change (before salvation).
  • He cannot find any human that would elicit in Him a sense that says about us, ‘That is the best person I know’ for our righteousness are as filthy rags and there is none good (before salvation).

         The dilemma for us is that if God loves like we love we are TOAST!  It is over! We are without hope and hopeless lost forever!   I heard a most appropriate illustration that explains this beautifully:

A missionary went to a witch-doctor and said:  “You preach to me. I come to you with a problem. How would you tell me to reach the Most High God?  I know you have many gods, but I want to reach the Big One, the Most High God.”  The witch-doctor said: “First, you have a big problem, because the Most High God is not interested in you for you are not good enough for him.”  That’s where their religion begins!  Sadly, we have heard the same thing in much more sophisticated terms in church.  We have been told, in so many ways, that we are not good enough for God and He is not interested.

When the Bible says:  God is Love it means that He does not reach out to someone in His class but reaches out to Whosoever Will or reaches down to mankind.  Human love reaches up but God’s love reaches down.  God loves the lost, hopeless, messed up, twisted, distorted, bent, wicked, evil and sinful man and offers LIFE, LOVE and LIBERTY through Jesus!  That is the Gospel message.  What does God want from us?  He wants to dwell in us and with us and manifest Himself through us!

God bless you as you go through this day!

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THE LAST DAYS – – Part 3 …..


Genesis 49:1 – “Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Assemble yourselves that I may tell you what will befall you in the days to come.”  NASU

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As we further examine this we find a two-fold situation being revealed.  We realize that being ‘alive’ we have a greater capacity to perform, experience, and enjoy than an inanimate stone.  Also, being ‘alive’ we have the ability to choose, resist, reject, and even rebel against what the Spirit of God and God’s master builders are attempting.

I am totally convinced that the Bible predicts a ‘Great Harvest’ in the Last Days and I believe there could well be more people saved between now and the end of the age than have been up until the present time.  I believe that coming to the world is revival, renewal, and restoration.  So, if God has declared and promised a HARVEST there will be a harvest, BUT that harvest must not only be ‘gathered’ it must be ‘garnered’ into the house. The House is not NATURAL but SPIRITUAL and I believe it can be seen as the Church of Jesus Christ!

In the natural, a house is where someone lives and the Church (people) is God’s House.  Christianity is more than heaven or hell its larger purpose is to show forth God’s Glory for God wants COMMUNION with man His creation.

Psalms 84:4, 10-11 – “How blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising You. Selah. 10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside  I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” NASU

Psalms 92:13-14 – “Those who are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.  14 They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing,”  NKJV

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Let me emphasize a few things here:

  • If we are PLANTED we can be developed and established so that we are fruitful throughout the entirety of our lives.
  • If we are PLANTED we can be fitly framed together, able to supply that which we were designed to supply. (Ephesians 2:21-22; 4:16)
  • If we are PLANTED we can avoid becoming a piece of twisted lumber that has no use or function in the building.
  • If we are PLANTED we have authority because we are under authority and in divine order.

           Therefore, divine order is more than a religious cliché or hierarchy it is an indispensable element in the purposes of God for these LAST DAYS.  Divine Order is borne out of relationship rather than some prescribed set of rules.  Satan cannot compete with divine order because through the FINISHED WORK of Christ he is both ‘defeated’ and ‘disarmed’ and in the presence of one who is in divine order he is impotent.

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There is a Harvest coming!  We’ve discussed the ingathering but there is another aspect often overlooked or ignored.  We are going to see a shift from just preaching “come and be saved” to “come bow your knee for Jesus is King.”  The LAST DAYS MESSAGE will trumpet COMMITMENT.  Matthew 6:33 will be a way of life not a spiritual ideal.  We are going to see communities of covenant rather than religious legalism.  There is going to be a pruning, purging, purifying and shaking in the Church of today and all that can be shaken will be shaken separating the wheat from the chaff.  In this Harvest reaping will take place.  Reaping of what has been sown – – Good and Evil.

That is not to be feared but to be cheered for God is going to expose that which needs to be exposed, promote that which needs to be promoted, tear down that which needs to be torn down, and build up that which needs to be built up.  Times are changing and you will see the evidence soon.

God bless you as you turn your focus upon the Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to prepare you for THE LAST DAYS!   God be with you in your journey!

           

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THE LAST DAYS – – Part 2…..


Genesis 49:1 – “Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, “Assemble yourselves that I may tell you what will befall you in the days to come.”  NASU

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I do not know if I whetted your appetite, stirred up your anger, or completely lost you in my last post about the Last Days but let’s continue and hopefully you will hear the conclusion of the whole matter before you render a decision.  I can ask nothing more and suggest that you take what I am saying to the Word of God and either confirm it or refute it by using the whole of scripture not isolated passages.

Isaiah 2:2-4 – “Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.”

Micah 4:1-2 – “And it will come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains. It will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it. 2 Many nations will come and say, “Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD and to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us about His ways and that we may walk in His paths.” For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

Amos 9:11 – “In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, and wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old…”

 

In Acts the apostle James quotes Amos in Acts 15:6 and then in the next verse declares that it was “…in order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My Name…”

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FIRST THE NATURAL, THEN….

The Spiritual… That is a principle we learn from studying God’s word, pattern, plan, and purposes.  If we use that principle in looking at THE LAST DAYS it well may give us a more clear picture and understanding of what is happening. God’s plan and desire is that HIS HOUSE become so glorious it would be a showplace on earth.  Isaiah 40:5 – “And the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.”

Out of all the nations of the earth God choose one nation and commissioned them to become a ‘Kingdom of Priests’ to show forth His Glory. They became a House of the Lord that was glorious!  In Deuteronomy 12:5 we find that God chose Zion in Jerusalem as a ‘habitation’.  Clearly God cannot be contained in a physical building but He filled the ‘Tabernacle of David’ and later the ‘Temple of Solomon’ with His Glory and it was so awesome the priests could not stand to minister. The glory of that house was known throughout the land and world.

THE PROBLEM – Israel began to take for granted the Glory, Blessings, and Visitation of the Lord resulting in their becoming disobedient and negligent so the Powerful Presence departed and Ichabod was written on the doors!   Read Isaiah 64:11, Jeremiah 13:11, Haggai 1:9, and Matthew 23:37-38.  The Natural House failed but God had in mind a Spiritual House that will not fail.  He allowed them and us to get a ‘glimpse of His glory’ and see its beauty as well as the ugliness outside total dependence and unity with Him.

If you will remember when Israel returned from Babylon they attempted to rebuild the House of the Lord and when it was completed they ‘wept sorely’ because it did not compare in Glory with the previous temple.  HOLD IT!!!  That was in the natural, but the prophets declared that God’s House would take on a new dimension in the future and “…the Glory of the latter house would be greater than the former…”  (Haggai 2:9)

Therefore, either we are talking about a SPIRITUAL HOUSE or they were wrong!  BUT the New Testament writers (infallible interpreters of the Old Testament), tell us that this LATTER HOUSE will be SPIRITUAL not NATURAL!  They use the same words to describe the building materials, but identify them as LIVING rather than inanimate objects.  This HOUSE would not be fashioned out of physical stones but would be patterned after the TABERNACLE OF DAVID (Acts 15:16).  It would be PEOPLE (Ekklesia) who would show forth His Glory!

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1 Peter 2:5 – “You also, as living stones (living Zoe), are built up a SPIRITUAL HOUSE…”  Hebrews 3:6 tells us that Jesus became a Son over His own house; whose house YOU are…

I want to say more but will pause there having gone longer than I probably should.  So until next time may the Lord be gracious unto you and enable you to be molded as a LIVING STONE for His building.  Blessings!

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