Various Articles
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words" 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.
It is easy to become so preoccupied with living today that we lose sight of tomorrow.
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"Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine And all the hills will be dissolved. Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, And make gardens and eat their fruit. I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land Which I have given them," Says the LORD your God" Amos 9:13-15.
It is realistic to be an optimist, meaning that there is true basis for optimism. It’s not that we wish and hope for better things in the future; we have solid evidence that it will be so. A time is definitely coming when there will be agricultural abundance, reconstruction, and restoration. What is described in Amos 9 is what Peter the apostle spoke about in Acts 3:21 - “the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”
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"But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" Amos 5:24.
The hike was well worth the effort just to see the beautiful waterfalls. It was a relatively easy trail in the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee, and it ended beside a rushing waterfall. Standing on the rock shelf beside the falls, overlooking a deep chasm below, the rushing stream was clearly visible in the opposite direction; the white-capped waters rushing down the mountainside. That breathtaking sight flooded my mind as I read these words from Amos 5:24.
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"Prepare to meet your God, O Israel. For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind And declares to man what are His thoughts, He who makes dawn into darkness And treads on the high places of the earth, The LORD God of hosts is His name" Amos 4:12-13.
You and I have an appointment. A date has been set for the meeting and the outcome is largely determined by decisions we make prior to the meeting. It potentially can be very positive and rewarding, but it also can be disastrous for the ill-prepared.
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"The words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders from Tekoa, which he envisioned in visions concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake" Amos 1:1
He probably would have been labeled "Least Likely To Have God Speak To". After all, doesn't it make sense that the Creator of all would use the most powerful and influential people to get His message out?
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"For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light" Colossians 1:9-12.
"For this reason" indicated an important purpose for prayer. We read in the previous verses about the faith, hope, and love of the believers in Colosse. This prayer, then, is about what needs to be built upon that foundation of faith, hope, and love. It is essentially a prayer that we know God's will so thoroughly that we then live in such a way as to bear fruit.
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"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:5-11.
The appointed leader of the most important government of all time has placed our needs ahead of His own. He deliberately chose to forego fame, fortune, and comfort in order to serve others. He calls us to have that same mindset.
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"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" Philippians 1:6).
Carpenters and contractors begin construction with the expectation that they will complete the work. It would be an unusual sight to see partially-built homes left to deteriorate, all because the builder decided they weren't worth completing.
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"It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days" Joel 2:28-29.
We're in the midst of a major downpour. The sun may be shining, and there may not be a cloud in the skies as you read this, but I assure you that we are experiencing a downpour. It's the outpouring of the Spirit of God.
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"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" Ephesians 2:4-7.
"But God ..." These two words are easy to gloss over in reading the text, but we must not overlook how vitally important they are. If we read verses 1-3, which precede these verses, we can easily see that we were in a precarious position were it not for God's intervention.
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There is far more going on than meets the eye. There are angelic forces doing battle with evil demonic leaders of world governments, which may give us some insight into current conflicts and governmental actions. It all may sound like far-fetched fantasy, but the biblical evidence is hard to ignore.
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"I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed." Daniel 7:13-14.
You likely are familiar with the famous "I Have A Dream" speech, by Martin Luther King. His dream was a well-crafted, conscious effort, but what about the dreams that come to our unconscious mind at night?
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"The king reflected and said, 'Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?' While the word was in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, 'King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you, and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes.' Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled" Daniel 4:30-33).
Whether we have the means to build a luxury castle or only a sand castle, we can believe too much in our own abilities. I enjoy woodworking, but I sometimes struggle with the satisfaction I find in what I make.
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"As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams" Daniel 1:17.
During one of the darkest times in their country's history, the impeccable character of four young men shone brightly. Following the siege of Jerusalem, they were deported to a life of exile in Babylon. Selected from the most intelligent, best-looking youth, the plan was to subject them to a cultural immersion program that would rid them of their Hebrew heritage.
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"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." 2 Corinthians 5:17-20.
Who doesn't like new stuff? There's nothing quite like the smell of a new car, the feel of new clothes, or the thrill of a new electronic device or appliance.
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"we ... are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:12-18.
A wedding tradition is that the bride wears a veil until the bride and groom kiss after the official pronouncement. The veil obscures the bride's face during the ceremony, but its lifting near the end of the ceremony represents the new relationship between husband and wife.
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"He said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' And I answered, 'O Lord God, You know' ... Then He said to me, 'Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.'" Ezekiel 37:3,11.
We might say that He is the God of rhetorical questions. His questions are asked for our benefit, because He already knows the answer. He asks that He might draw us in to reason together with Him.
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"Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God" Ezekiel 36:25-28.
It was an inside job. The window had been left unlocked by someone at the Midweek service, and they later returned to steal a new piece of sound equipment. Only someone with inside information would know where the equipment was, and be able to efficiently access and steal it as they did.
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"And the word of the LORD came to me saying" Ezekiel 25:1.
Were Ezekiel alive and on the scene today, we might be skeptical of his claim. Many would-be prophets have stood up throughout the ages with "a word from the LORD," and proven to be anything but genuine. Far too many have financially and materially profited from "the word."
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