"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed." (2 Peter 3:10)
"'But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning-- lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.'" (Mark 13:32-37)
"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed." (2 Peter 3:10) "Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you." (Revelation 3:2-3) This section in Revelation is not referring to the final judgement, but a warning to the judgement coming upon this church. However, we can learn something about the judgement from this verse.
0 Comments
As fathers we have what is both an advantage and a disadvantage when compared with mothers. We both have the teaching of scripture to teach us about parenting, but as fathers we can also see the example of God the Father as what a perfect father ought to be. There are no examples of perfect mothers in the scriptures. As I said this is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The disadvantage is twofold: (1) Since we have more about fatherhood and a perfect example to follow, God will also expect more of us "to whom much is given much is required" (Luke 12:48)., (2) Because we are imperfect humans and will not live up to the perfect standard that God has shown by His own dealings with His children through the ages we may become discouraged by our failures. The advantage is also twofold: (1) Because of His example and the things we can learn from it we should be able to become better fathers than we could have by the teaching alone., (2) Even though we may see the multitude of our failures, we can have some comfort in the fact that even our Heavenly Father in all his perfection still had and continues to have struggles with His children, and that not all of the problems in a child's life go back to the father. We can learn how to deal with disobedient and even rebellious children because God had to deal with them as well.
There are obviously some differences between God and human fathers, and we'll look at that. However, the similarities will be what we can learn the most from. Let's get the differences out of the way now and then we can learn from His parenting skills. The most obvious difference is His perfection that we already mentioned. Second, is the fact that His interaction with us is not the physical interaction that we have with our children because He is a spirit and because He now only interacts through His written word, but it was not always this way and we will go back to the time when He dealt directly to see how we should deal directly with our children. A third difference is that God's authority is absolute while a human father's is limited, but to a small child that distinction is lost. A fourth difference is that God did/does/will not have a wife like we may. That wife can and should be a help to us (Genesis 2:18), unfortunately some wives are not. Our focus nonetheless is on us fathers and not the wives or mothers. The final difference we will see today is that because God is eternal, omniscient (all knowing), and omnipresent(everywhere at once) His children will have Him with them throughout their lives. He will never die and leave them. They will never do or even think something that He will not know. They can never run away to a place He can't find them. There may be other differences, but I believe these are the major ones that will affect parenting directly. In coming Father Fridays we will begin looking at God's relationship with His first two children. Thoughtful Thursday - What is the relationship between the church and the kingdom?(Church - part 2)5/19/2011 In church part 1 we discussed several things about the building of the church -- who built it, who owns it, what it was built upon, how many were built and how strong it is.
Today, let's look at the connection between the church and the kingdom. We'll begin with more of what Jesus said in Matthew 16: 18-19: "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Here, Jesus mentions the church and the kingdom in these verses. What is the kingdom that he is referring to? To answer that question, we will go back into the Old Testament. Daniel relates a story of how King Nebuchadnezzer had a dream. The king saw in his dream a huge statue. Its head was gold, chest of silver, middle and thighs of bronze, legs of iron and feet of iron and clay. Then a stone that was not cut by man struck the feet and broke the statue to pieces. Daniel goes on to interpret: the head was King Nebuchadnezzer's kingdom. Then a kingdom inferior to his would take over and then a third and forth. Of that fourth kingdom, Daniel says: "And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever," (Daniel 2:44) Remember what Jesus said to Peter? "...and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18) His church/kingdom is so strong it will last forever and even the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Jesus and John the immerser both preached that the kingdom was at hand or near. Now, we will fast forward to after Christ's resurrection. If we look at history, it is during the time of Roman rule that Daniel spoke of the kingdom that would be established coming into existence. The book of Acts records this about Jesus: "He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God." (Acts 1:3) The disciples were eager for him to establish a kingdom because they asked in verse 6, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" Jesus answered them in verses 7 and 8: "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." In Acts 2 they received that power from the Holy Spirit and began to preach and teach on the day of Pentecost. Peter (remember Jesus gave him the keys to the king quoted Old Testament passages (Joel) that had prophesied of that time and the events fit with those things that had been prophesied in other scriptures as well (Isaiah 2). What we learn is that the kingdom prophesied was the church Jesus promised to build. We can study more evidence of this in another lesson, however, both were spoken of as coming in the future before the events of Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost and both are spoken of as already being in existence after this chapter. More about the church in part 3. Here is another website for your use today! Focus Press is home to some great products! Be sure to check out Convicted and Think Magazine. Think is available for subscription and for purchase in bookstores and even in Canada now!
Focus Press Years ago, I heard of a survey given to preachers and elders in the church. This survey showed some things that shocked me. According to the results, there were many preachers and elders who didn't believe that Jesus lived, weren't sure if God even existed and weren't sure if they were even going to heaven! At the time I heard that, I was in disbelief. But the older I get, the more I see the reality of the situation. I have looked into the eyes of women who doubted their salvation. I have talked with Christians who have been members of the Lord's church for 10, 25, even 40 years who didn't understand some basic facts about the Bible and God's creation. If our leaders don't know where they are going then we don't. Notice these points: 1. We can know the truth. "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." (1 John 5:13) 2. We have a responsibility to know the truth. "And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;" (2 Peter 1:5) "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15) 3. Study should be a daily occurrence for the rest of our lives. "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." (Acts 17:11) 4. We should grow beyond only being students and become teachers as well. "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat." (Hebrews 5:12) 5. It is good to study things again to be reminded of them. "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty." (2 Peter 1:12-16) And here is your second item for the day: The Truth is Like Jellybeans James Pasley 04/092000 "Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah."
(Psalms 4:4) I read this in my Bible reading today. In the version I was reading (NKJV), it read, "Be angry, and sin not." That is what called my attention to it. I thought of something that happened recently. In the middle of a trying day, I thought I'd have about 10 mins of peace and quiet before a task. I was just getting settled when something the kids were doing called me away from my R&R. I blew my top! I totally lost my cool. Not good for a Momma trying to be an example for my kids. I had to take a few minutes to calm down. I left the room and sprawled on my bed in the peace and quiet. I had a prayer, read a few minutes and I was able to face the rest of the day. To me, that is exactly what the Psalmist is saying here. Take a moment, stand in awe of Him, pray in a silent place and be still. Being still is something we just don't do in our busy society. We rush here, rush there, never a dull moment. How much better would it be if we take time to be still before the temptation to explode? Find your moment and be still everyday. This is the first part in a series on the church. We won't focus on this each day, but we'll come back to it every now and again in the upcoming weeks.
"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18) In this verse, Jesus is speaking to Peter. There's more to his statement and we will get to that in another part of this series. Let us take note of some very important ideas in this verse: First of all, what is "this rock" that Jesus is referring to? Peter's name means stone, so is he talking about Peter? No, the word for 'Peter' and the word for 'rock' that are used here are two different words even though they are from similar roots. Let's back up a few verses to find out what Jesus meant. Jesus had asked the apostles who people thought that Jesus was. They related what the various 'guesses' that people had. Then Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Matthew 16:16) This fact is the foundation upon which Christianity is based. Isn't a rock a good foundation? Secondly from this verse we'll see who was going to build it. Jesus is speaking, so clearly he is the "I". Jesus built the church. This also shows ownership. He says "my church". If you build a house (or pay to build a house), it belongs to you. It is your house. So this is Christ's church or the church that belongs to Christ. Another thing we can learn from this verse is how many churches Jesus built. If I said I were building my house, you understand that I am building one house. Jesus built only one church. We can also see that the church will be stronger than Satan. "The gates of hell will not prevail against it." Just as Noah and his family were saved from the flood in the ark, so we can be saved from hell in the church. I don't know about you, but this is where I want to be when judgement comes. What are you seeking in your life?
Right now in our nation, there are those who have lost their homes and all that they once owned. There are also those who are facing the possibility of losing their homes to a flood. What should be a Christian's response to these things? Should we be fearful of losing the physical things in life? Let's seek the answers from God's word. Here's what He says: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." (Colossians 3:1-2) AND "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (1 John 2:15-17) What we seek is what we will find. (Matt. 7:7-8) However, the Bible is called the Word of God because the whole transcript is an inspired, faithful, and infallible record of what God determined essential for us to know about Himself, the cosmos in which we live, our spiritual allies and adversaries, and our fellow man.
Walter Martin http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/faithful_2.html#ixzz1MFGldCHC I don't know who Mr. Martin was and certainly don't intend this as an endorsement of him or his teachings, but this quote is significant. If we do not believe whole heartedly in the faithful transmission of God's Word and will for us, then we will never live a life of faithful conviction in our daily activities. There is no doubt we serve a faithful God who expects us to be faithful as well. He knows we are not perfect, but we can be faithful. You will never be a perfect husband, wife, parent, or child (There was one perfect child, but never a perfect husband, wife or parent on this earth), but you can be faithful. Deuteronomy 7:9 (KJV) Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; 2 simple (?) questions for today:
How is your relationship with Christ affecting your relationship with others? How is your relationship with others affecting your relationship with Christ? |