Week Twenty, 2017

THE END OF THE STORY, by John Grant

Says, “Yes, I am coming again soon.” Amen. Come Lord Jesus. – Rev 22:20

A good novelist works to keep the reader in suspense until the very last page of the book. I recently finished reading a book that kept me in suspense until the very last page. As I was reading I kept changing my mind as to the final outcome, but never thought of the way it turned out.

Contrast that with the Bible, which tells the end of the story from the very beginning and throughout the entire sixty-six chapters. While people throughout the ages have speculated when Christ will return, the Bible tells us clearly that He will return.

Here are a couple of the many verses that tell of the end of the story:

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then, you also will appear with him in glory.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

These facts from biblical prophecy about Christ’s return may surprise you:
• One out of every 30 verses in the Bible mentions the subject of Christ’s return or the end of time.
• Of the 216 chapters in the New Testament, there are well over 300 references to the return of Christ.
• 23 of the 27 New Testament books mention Christ’s return.
• In the Old Testament, such well-known and reliable men of God as Job, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, as well as most of the minor prophets mention Christ’s return in their writings.
• Christ often spoke specifically about His own return to earth.
• Throughout the centuries, Christ’s disciples and followers have adamantly believed, written, and taught that Christ would someday return to earth. The Bible teaches it. The Lord stood upon its truths. The apostles declared it and wrote about it. The creeds include it and affirm it.

In the Bible, the end of the story is clear throughout the Bible. The end is clear and there is no room for suspense. He is coming again and that’s a fact.
***

Selected portions of Thoughts on Life can also be read at TheLife.com and Thoughts-About-God.com. You can subscribe directly to those on their respective websites.

Your feedback is welcome and if you want to be placed on or taken off the mailing list a simple e-mail will do it. Feel free to pass this along to others and to contribute your ideas and thoughts.

Address all items and comments to [email protected].            ©Thoughts on Life, Copyright 2017

©2017 John Grant | Florida State Senator (Ret.) | 10025 Orange Grove Drive | Tampa, FL 33618

“HOME, JAMES ” (James 1:1 -Introduction to ‘James’ Series)

THINK On These Things

“Seasons”

God is timeless.  God’s Word is timeless.  Yet, God has an interest in time. Time is for man.  Time is part of the creation.  In Genesis, the flow of creation is spelled out for our understanding as a series of days. It is a story of a particular time, a season, during which God established this world.  Then He paused.  That season was over and another had begun.

The Bible is a seasonal book. We recognize the Old Testament days as being a different season from the New Testament days.  There are many examples in scripture where seasonality is mentioned.  Here are a few:

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

“But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son.” Galatians 4:4

Even in the short life of Jesus, there were seasons.

“These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs; But the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, But I shall show you plainly of the Father.”
John 16:25

“I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.” John 7:8

Just as the Bible is a seasonal book, likewise, our lives are a seasonal experience.  As years pass on, our circumstances change and our opportunities change.  We change seasons.

A very dynamic example is found in the story of David and Goliath, recorded in 1 Samuel 17.  In v33 Saul, with fear and doubt, said to David, about the giant Goliath,

“Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou are but a youth and he a man of war from his youth.”

But in v36 & v37, David, experienced in the power of God,  replied,

“Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them. . . “

“The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine,”

David’s perspective was: I do what I do, God delivers.  He was uniquely qualified for the task at hand. And he knew it.  We recognize this as a great moment of faith in the life of this young man.   NOTICE:

David’s season had changed!

He had been the protector of the sheep.  

Now he became the protector of Israel.  

He entered a new season of his life.

Time Changes Things

Today, we have seasons too!  In this era, we might see a new season beginning –
When we graduate from high school
When we enter the work force
When we surrender to the love of the Lord and are born again
When we are married
When we become a parent
When we reach a certain age or income level
Or  many other times

Our abilities change.  Our circumstances change. Our resources change.  As we mature, that which God is doing in our lives changes.  So, our seasons change.  We will prosper most if we recognize those changes and flow with them.  Has your season changed?  As with Jesus, Has Your Time Come?

Some changes in season are spiritual rather than being linked to daily life situations.  They may be a bit more difficult to recognize but they may be much more important.

What has God prepared you for?

What Is God doing in your life NOW?

In this season of your life –

Are you being sent to minister companionship to the lonely in your realm?
Are you being sent to deliver your handyman skills to some aged acquaintance?
Are you being inspired to apply the writing skills long dormant in your heart?
Are you at this time finally able to be the financial donor you always wanted to be?
Are you accomplished in food preparation and ready to serve those with special needs?
Are you in a position to help others with transportation?
Are you in possession of special knowledge or insight that could enhance the life of some of your friends?
Are you one whom God has called to teach His Word?
Are you inspired to devote your spare hours to private times of thanksgiving and praise?
Are you a natural magnet for prayer requests?
Are you thirsting for a deep study of some aspect of the Word: The Gospels, Prophecy, Healing, Helps, History, Creation?

What season are you in?

Here is the way to find out:

Inventory your gifts, skills and experience.
Ask God which of these He would like to employ in this season.
Invite the Holy Spirit to inform, inspire, lead, direct and enable you.
Commit to follow the Holy Spirit in this labor.
Watch for open doors and go through them.
Deliver what God has planted in you for this season.

Occupy your Season

04/17
Presented by Brother Al Salay, Blessed Man Ministries Inc.
1093 A1A Beach Blvd. #273, St. Augustine, FL  32080-6733

Website: http://BlessedMan.net

Email: [email protected]

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, 9 WEST MAIN ST, EARLVILLE, NY

This old saying could answer a great deal about the criticisms being leveled at President-elect Trump by his enemies.

Have you noticed, in all of the criticisms leveled because Trump has communicated with the head of one of the world’s more powerful states, that they have completely ignored discussing China?

Yet China has been hacking our governmental and military websites for years, and are considered by many experts to be far more dangerous and aggressive than Russia.

It’s China that has built artificial islands that threaten Japan. It is China that just launched a new super carrier. It is China that crashed financial websites in the United States. It is China that has imperial ambitions in the South China Sea and around the world.

And it is China that holds countless $-billions in U.S. treasury bonds, not to speak of the world’s greatest hoard of gold. And it is China that is trying to replace our currency with theirs as the world’s means of exchange.

China’s, too, is a communist state, and its ambition is to rule the world.

Finally, Russian and China are not chums. And Putin does not intend to become China’s chump.

Perhaps his seeming willingness to cooperate with us (the U.S.) at some level, is a very good thing.

So the next time you hear a member of America’s left-wing press accusing Trump of being close to Putin, keep this in mind: The left has a long history of cooperating with every socialist nation.

Both Clinton and Obama have gone to great lengths to “share” our military technology with China.

Just maybe America’s leaders have been kowtowing to the wrong people. Just maybe President-elect Trump will be able to play these two ambitious giants off against one another.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend?” Maybe not quite a friend. But definitely better than my enemy.

In summary, a good friend of mine wrote that we may be facing the most exciting and dangerous months of our lives. That may be true, but our hope is not in man, but in the Son of God.

©Frank Becker, 1/14/2017

It seems to me that we spend too much time on the unimportant issues in life, such as who should be president or should we go to war, and not on the really big deals, like saying, “Happy Birthday” to our grandchildren.

Happy Birthday Elijah, Eliana, and Samantha!

Grandpa and Mimi love you!

Does the Constitution grant us the right to desecrate the flag of the United States by publicly burning it?

Our forefathers would have dealt harshly with anyone who committed such an act—from pouring hot tar over them, and covering them with feathers—to burning their home or business, and even hanging them.

We, however, are a more merciful people. We are more open minded, and more politically correct, and our Supreme Court has interpreted our Constitution to grant people that “right,” as a matter of free speech.

The flag is a symbol of our nation, our homeland. Those who are privileged to be born here, as well as those immigrants who seek citizenship, should all recognize the fact that they take on certain responsibilities with citizenship.

One of those responsibilities is to support their flag, and the nation it symbolizes.

Of course, the United States is not “perfect.” No nation has ever been perfect—and because all people are imperfect—no nation will ever be perfect.  But as  a nation, the United States of America is far superior to any nation that preceded us, and some continue to pray and labor to improve this land. That’s why we still have the ballot box, and the electoral college (which protects minorities from being overwhelmed as they would be in a conventional, “one person, one vote” democracy).

Here’s what most people fail to understand: Our country, our “home land,” is in many ways like our homes. There are very few homes and families across America that are “perfect.” In fact, the entertainment industry goes to great lengths to legitimize and glorify the dis-functional family and the aberrant home.

The true home is more than a house. The ideal home is a place where family members should feel a sense of comfort, safety, and security that they can never experience outside its doors. Few families achieve that ideal, but it’s worth laboring toward.

And that’s the way our nation should be. Even though it is not perfect, it is still our home, the place in which we should all experience comfort, safety, and security. Or, as our founding fathers wrote, the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We are not perfect, but men and women of good will are continually working toward that goal.

Your home is akin to our nation, and your house might be said to be akin to the flag that represents our nation. If someone in your family becomes angry at another member of your family—or with some act or practice with which they disagree, whether right or wrong—they do not have the right to burn your house down.

Likewise, if one American is angry at another American, or at a group of Americans, because of what they say or do, they do not have the right to harm that person. That undercuts the other person’s rights, it undercuts the rule of law, and it undercuts our country.

Burning our flag doesn’t focus on the wrongs that might exist. Burning our flag focuses on our nation. It’s like burning the institutions of freedom, it’s like bringing down the entire nation. To put it another way, it’s like burning our own homes. It is an attack on our own country, and an insult to those who suffered and died to bring us this far.

Those who burn our flag may think they are effectively registering a complaint again some repugnant belief or practice. But what they are really doing is symbolically burning the very institution which provides them the platform on which they are privileged to stand in order to complain.

As long as our country survives as a democratic-republic, you will have the freedom to speak out, to change the course we take. But those who burn the flag are doing away with that platform. They are burning their own home land. They are assisting our enemies to destroy America itself.

We, the people have the right to gather peacefully, to demonstrate against things with which we disagree. We have the right to petition, to compete in the political arena, to alter the laws. We still have recourse to some of the media and to the courts.

We should laugh at the criticism of people in nations from which our citizens fled because of their laws, beliefs, and practices. We should not undercut our own strength. We should not welcome people here who wish to make our country become like the countries from which they fled. We must not burn our own house down.

If that is the intention of those who burn our flag, then we need to ask ourselves whether they are destroying the foundations of freedom which we hold dear.

Are they disloyal, and even treasonous? If so, have they have abrogated their rights as citizens of a free and open society? Do they have any part or place in “the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Much has been made lately of whether a person should honor the flag of the United States, and thereby honor the country.

I do not understand this. When we sing “Happy Birthday” to someone, we know that they are not perfect, but we still show our respect and good wishes without endorsing their entire lives.

America is not perfect, but it has come a long way in the last 240 years. In fact, it’s changed a great deal in the seventy-six years I have been privileged to live here.

It’s still the greatest nation in the history of the world, but clearly it is  not perfect. One of America’s greatest strengths is that we have enjoyed the freedom to argue over those imperfections. In many countries, we would be put to death for expressing such views, but not here. In fact, we fought a war of independence to secure our freedoms, and by God’s grace we won. Then we fought a Civil War to extend those freedoms to all our people.

Now, however, we appear to be losing the freedoms won at such great price, and maintained down through the years. I have become convinced that—because of the many evil things we have done, and the many awful practices that we permit and even embrace—we are in imminent danger of losing the blessings that got us this far.

But back to this issue of national loyalty. We no longer sing great patriotic songs like, “America the Beautiful. If we did—and we paid attention to the words written so long ago—we would soon discover that our forefathers had no starry-eyed illusions about America’s perfection.

The great patriotic song, “America the Beautiful,” recognized that God had blessed America. It made it clear that our nation was not yet perfect, but that we had come a long way. And it affirmed that we can only continue to approach perfection as we trust and obey God. We must hold tight to “the dream.”

Verse one of “America the Beautiful” recognizes that God has shed his grace on America, and notes that our success, our crowning achievement, will be measured by brotherly love. (We need individuals who work to heal the wounds, not reopen and infect them with the poison of suspicion and hatred!)

The second verse acknowledges that America has flaws, and asks God to give each of us self-control and help us support the rule of law so that we can work things out.

The perfection of a nation is like the perfection of an individual. It is progressive. It takes time. I know that many of us are impatient, but It is necessary that our citizens exercise patience. We must become well-educated and well-informed. Then we must make sure that only godly leaders and judges are elected or appointed so that we can ultimately be crowned with brotherhood. (Today we have many “leaders” who pit our citizens against one another in order to win votes.)

Verse three recognizes that, in this land of opportunity, many people will behave badly as they try to become wealthy. The song asks God to prosper those who behave nobly. (Politicians who get rich while in office belong in a prison house, not in The White House!)

Finally, verse four points out that we must look beyond the years, to the time when our cities are “undimmed by human tears.” We’ve come a long way since Abraham Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation. (It’s interesting to note that the man who freed the slaves, Abraham Lincoln, was a Republican. He was a far cry from most politicians of both parties today who put personal interests ahead of the country. If America is once again to be the land of opportunity, our leaders need to help our citizens learn to help themselves, and not keep them dependent on government handouts in order to get their votes!)

Yes, America is beautiful. And when we each align our values with those of the Lord, she will begin to approach perfection and brotherhood.

Here are the words to America the Beautiful, the 1904 version.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
America! America!
God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for glorious tale
Of liberating strife,
When valiantly for man’s avail
Men lavish precious life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev’ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

We should all have opinions. It’s not always wise to voice them.

30 Aug 2016