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There is a
storm coming!
The faithful, as they
see the intensification of the signs around us, will know that the day of the
Lord's return for them is quickly "approaching" (Hebrews 10:25) and will be
those who stand firm in their faith through all the end-time distress (Matt.
24:13).
They will be the ones who have applied the power of Scripture
to all the little problems of daily living: anger; frustration with employment;
parenting; marital relationships; forgiveness; etc. The Scriptural teaching is
that we must faithfully surrender to God in the small things of life before we
graduate to the next level of experiencing God's provision:
"Well done, good and
faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in
charge of many things." [Matthew 25.21]
For others they will have become
so comfortable with their life of tolerance, compromise, convenience and
appeasement that to accept the lies and deception of an Antichrist will not be
difficult for them.
If we cannot believe Him and surrender to His
power in the daily frustrations of life, how can we have faith and receive His
power in the big problems of life? Our lack of faith (acting upon our trust in
God's Word and provision through the Holy Spirit) in the small things prohibits
us from maturing and growing in faith for the large problems. Thus, when the
storm beats against our house, will we have the faith to stand firm?
"Not everyone who
says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who
does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day,
'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out
demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew
you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
 "Therefore everyone who
hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who
built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the
winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its
foundation on the rock.
But everyone who hears
these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man
who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the
winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
[Matthew 7:21-27]
You see, there will be two kinds
of Christians in these last days: the wise and foolish.
- There will be one group of believers who will not fall -
they will be able to withstand every demonic onslaught that comes on them.
Nothing will be able to move them when the storm comes.
- There will be another group of Christians whose fall will
be great - total, complete, devastating collapse of everything.
They built two different kinds
of houses. And the only thing that will hold up in the coming storm is to be
the house established on a rock foundation.
Many Christians may say,
"I'm a believer. I've built on the rock." Yet they don't truly
understand what this phrase means. And they will have a great shock and
surprise when their relationship with Jesus does not endure the storm. They
will be exposed as having no foundation.
What are you building our
house on now? What is it's foundation? Those things you are building into your
faith now have certain characteristics that will determine how you react under
pressure in the future.
Faith
Hope
Love
Trust
Commitment
Perseverance
Truth
Honesty
Integrity
Sacrifice
Obedience
Why do only a few people follow
Christ for a lifetime? Why do some appear to follow for a time and then fall
away? What prevents us from following Jesus wholeheartedly? Why do many of us
prefer to build on the sand rather than the rock?
It can't be that we
don't know about Him. With all the technology available today, the
archaeological research confirming the people and places of the Bible, the
immense volumes of writings of believers explaining their faith, and the
exegetical study of the words of the Bible - it's as if we know so much, yet
believe so little.
The Cost of
Following Jesus
As they were walking
along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus
replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
has no place to lay his head."
He said to another man,
"Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."
Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim
the kingdom of God."
Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say
good-by to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and
looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." [Luke 9:57-62]
What keeps us
from following Jesus wholeheartedly?
- We want security: home, job, marriage, family. We want
personal pleasure and comfort: an easy life, no conflict, to get along with
everyone. We want earthly rewards: popularity, friendships, leisure time.
- Some follow only with 'conditions'. Jesus, however, wants
complete loyalty with no conditions. Total dedication, not halfhearted
commitment. We can't pick and choose among Jesus' ideas and follow him
selectively. Jesus did not appoint us to be editors who select the portions of
Jesus' teaching which we "think" are irrelevant.
This man said in Luke
9:57-62, he first wanted to bury his father. It's likely the father was not yet
dead and the man wanted to wait until he died.
- Our priorities do not place Jesus at the top.
- Some have one foot in heaven and one foot in this life.
They cannot let go of the things of this earth.
- They say, "Let me take care of important family matters
first."
- "Let me take care of my financial situation
first."
- "Show me a miracle"
- "Heal me."
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In America we see deepening poverty, racial
division, homelessness, crime, physical and
sexual abuse, and the disintegration of the
traditional family. Alcoholism, drug addiction, pornography, and other
dangerous behaviors are eating away at society. And these are further
complicated by plagues of many kinds, including AIDS,
tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted diseases. Combined with earthquakes,
physical storms, and natural disasters of many kinds all across the land, one
wonders how much longer before we wake up and recognize their significance and
our response to them. Jesus said these are merely a warning of things yet to
come. .
All these are the
beginning of birth pains. [Matthew 24:8]
We are being shaken - gently. But
like the birth pains of childbirth, the shaking is getting more frequent and
severe.
Isaiah prophesies that God
will one day rise up and shake the whole earth - more firmly and with eternal
seriousness.
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See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth and devastate
it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants-- it will be the same for
priest as for people, for master as for servant, for mistress as for maid, for
seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor.
The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The LORD has
spoken this word.
The
earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of
the earth languish. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the
laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore a curse consumes
the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth's inhabitants are
burned up, and very few are left.
The new wine dries up and
the vine withers; all the merrymakers groan. The gaiety of the tambourines is
stilled, the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent. No
longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers.
The ruined city lies
desolate; the entrance to every house is barred. In the streets they cry out
for wine; all joy turns to gloom, all gaiety is banished from the earth. The
city is left in ruins, its gate is battered to pieces. So will it be on the
earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, or as when
gleanings are left after the grape harvest.
They raise their voices,
they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the Lord's majesty. Therefore in
the east give glory to the LORD; exalt the name of the LORD, the God of Israel,
in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the earth we hear singing: "Glory
to the Righteous One."
But I said, "I waste away, I waste away! Woe to me! The treacherous
betray! With treachery the treacherous betray!" Terror and pit and snare await
you, O people of the earth. Whoever flees at the sound of terror will fall into
a pit; whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare.
The floodgates of the
heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken up,
the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken. The earth reels
like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt
of its rebellion that it falls--never to rise again.
In that day the LORD will
punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below. They
will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up
in prison and be punished after many days. The moon will be abashed, the sun
ashamed; for the LORD Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and
before its elders, gloriously. [Isaiah 24:1-23] |
The prophets Ezekiel, Joel, Haggai, and the writer of
Hebrews all concur that God is going to literally shake the earth one more
time! See Ezekiel 38:20-23; Joel 3:14-17; Haggai 2:6-9 and Hebrews 12:25-29. He
will shake our economy, the stock market, Fortune 500 companies, banks,
insurance companies, our education system, our government, our families, our
churches - everything we put our trust and confidence in, everything that seems
safe and secure.
As a matter of fact, it's when people are saying,
"Peace and safety,"
destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant women, and
they will not escape. [1 Thess. 5:3]
Peace and Safety
Right now in America, there is a false peace
sweeping through churches - a peace that will fail in the troubled days ahead.
It is the false peace of stubborn, sin-blinded Christians. Moses called such
believers "self-blessed" - meaning, self-deceived. He warned Israel that a
curse would come upon all wicked, disobedient children of God who walked in
idolatry. He said they would plaster over their sinful ways with a false sense
of peace:
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And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse,
that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk
in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst. [Deuteronomy
29:19] |
We have become desensitized to Satan's evil
plans. Things that once appalled us now have become commonplace and we've heard
so much evil that it doesn't bother us any more. Knowing his time is short he
will pour out more of his filth, wickedness and testings beyond anything our
minds can imagine. Those testings are now reaching critical mass and we seem to
be ignoring it. It will become increasingly difficult for many to distinguish
God's truth from Satan's lie as the church spirals into moral
relativism.
- We tolerate killing our unborn children and call it
"freedom of choice."
- We tolerate homosexuality and call it
"diversity"
- We tolerate paganism and call it
"multiculturalism"
- We tolerate killing of the elderly or sick and call it
"compassion"
- We tolerate religious segregation and call it
"denominationalism"
The liberal humanist agenda is clear: to do away
with God by denying the conscience He has given us. Virtue is ridiculed, evil
is praised as good and liberating, and God-given moral standards are mocked as
the narrow-minded thinking of a past generation.
Others have given up,
believing that everyone and everything is so corrupt, there is nothing that can
be done. As a result, they accept any activity that appears to improve their
life.
- We accept "affirmative action" as a solution to racism
rather than dealing with the condition of the heart that brings about such an
evil.
- We accept "higher taxes" in order to bail out failed social
policies rather than accepting our God given responsibilities to be "our
brothers keeper."
- We become increasingly indebted to credit card companies,
banks, and others rather than accepting our personal responsibility to be "good
stewards" of what God has given us.
- We accept police intrusion into our homes, businesses and
automobiles to rid us of guns and drugs.
- We allow the government to regulate with impunity our
businesses to give us a sense of security in our business dealings.
- We accept censorship of the media so we're not offended,
rather than turning our TV's off, throwing away our pornography, and not
supporting those companies that sell us their filth.
When presented with alternatives, it's as if many
don't even hear them. In fact, they probably don't want to hear them because it
would call for them to change.
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We must be willing to abandon
everything else that has given us security and not allow anything to distract
us from the calling He has made in our lives.
As Jesus walked
beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net
into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and
I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed
him.
When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee
and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called
them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and
followed him. [Mark 1:16-20]
Simon and Andrew left their sole
livelihood, their job to respond to Jesus' call.
James and John left their
job and their father to follow Jesus.
Once again Jesus
went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach
them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax
collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and
followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax
collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were
many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him
eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why
does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" On hearing this, Jesus said to
them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not
come to call the righteous, but sinners." [Mark 2:13-17]
Levi, renamed Matthew by Jesus,
gave up his job as a tax-collector which likely included great wealth and
power.
The Pharisees were uncomfortable
with Jesus' life-style and attitude that allowed Him to be willing to associate
with those whom the Pharisees had judged as evil people, those who did not
follow the Mosaic law: tax collectors, adulterers, robbers and the like. Many
churches tend to treat people like this by rejecting them or demanding they
change first.
There is a double standard within some Christian
churches. Christian leaders point their finger at cults and cult leaders and
accuse them of deceiving their members. Perhaps we need to examine our own
history as Christians believers. How many Christians today are guilty of the
same sin? Too often our Christianity is in our mouths and not in our minds.
Often the outsider can see through our facades; he calls it hypocrisy. He has
heard the stories of Christian churches that have been divided by anger and
hatred. He knows about the deacon who left his wife to run away with the church
organist. He knows how some of the Sunday morning faithful spend Saturday
night.
The next day Jesus
decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow
me." Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip
found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the
Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph."
"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael
asked. "Come and see," said Philip. [John 1:43-47]
The first thing Philip did after
he followed Jesus was he told someone else: evangelism. Nathanael response was
at first skepticism. What about Christ stirs skepticism today? What stereotypes
about Christ prevent people from trusting Him today? We must set aside all our
preconceived ideas about Christ and allow Him to fill our hearts and minds with
the true Spirit.
Many today respond to Jesus with a lack of
commitment. They believe with their mind, but not their heart. They are
skeptical about who He is. They are not willing to give up themselves to follow
him. They are willing to follow some of His commands, but not willing to
sacrifice their own needs. They may hold on to parents, siblings, or
children.
"If anyone comes to
me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers
and sisters ... he cannot be my disciple." [Luke 14.26]
"If anyone
comes to me and does not hate ... -- yes, even his own life -- he cannot be my
disciple." Luke 14.26
Whose goals and aspirations
direct your daily living? God's or your own carnal, self-centered
desires?
There is a flow of obedience in our lives - a flow that springs
from the motives of the heart.
Legal obedience - a cold,
technical formality, based on fear of consequences. They obey because they are
afraid to go to hell. They fear the Fathers wrath. Their obedience is "legal"
only - they have no genuine desire to please Him. They do not obey out of
pleasure or because they love Jesus - on the contrary they are angry at him for
restricting their freedom and life-style.
These people will stand
before God's throne someday and say, "Lord, in You name we cast out devils, we
healed the sick, we did many wonderful works for You." But they built their
houses on sand. They cried, "Lord, Lord!" throughout their lives - coming to
Him for relief, for power, for rewards. But they never stopped long enough in
His presence to get to know Him. They were busy for Him - but they don't obey
Him with a love that flows from a totally abandoned heart.
Loving
obedience - "I do it because I want to please my Lord - to bring Him great
pleasure." These people don't need the "law" because they wouldn't do things
that would hurt their Father because of their love for Him. Their every action
and desire is to please God and willingly forsake the world and its
lusts.
The next day John
was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he
said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" When the two disciples heard him say this, they
followed Jesus.
Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked,
"What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are
you staying?" "Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and
saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth
hour.
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what
John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to
find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the
Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are
Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is
Peter). [John 1:35-42]
The first thing Andrew did after
he had followed Jesus was to tell someone else. He told Simon Peter who later
was to become a pillar of the church.
Have you told anyone about Jesus
today? This week? This month? This year? Ever?
What does it mean then, to
follow Jesus? Clearly, we must step out of our comfort zone. We're not to
be sitting in church but reaching out to the lost and the needy. We're to be
telling others about the Savior! It's a life of evangelism and sacrifice of
self.
"Go therefore and
make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;
and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" [Matt. 28:19-20].
Expect
resistance
We are told in Scripture
that men will reject three things:
- God created the world, which at first was covered with
water (which means that its surface was cool at the beginning, not a molten
blob as evolutionists teach).
- God once judged this world with a global, cataclysmic flood
at the time of Noah.
- God is going to judge this world again, but the next time
it will be by fire.
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First of all, you must understand that in the last days
scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will
say, "Where is this `coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died,
everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." But they
deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the
earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of
that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and
earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction
of ungodly men. [2Peter 3:3-7] |
The scoffers skepticism is based
upon their evil desires, which lead them to prefer a view of the future in
which there is no divine judgment. The scoffers maintain that everything in the
world goes on without divine intervention.
Notice that the emphasis
here is on a deliberate rejection, or as some translations put it, a
"willing ignorance." Thus, it is a deliberate action on a person's part
not to believe. People refuse to believe these things even when presented with
evidence -people simply do not want to be convinced. Ignoring the flood as a
divine intervention was not an oversight; it was deliberate.
We read
in Romans 1:20 that there is enough evidence to convince everyone that God is
Creator, so much so that we are condemned if we do not believe. Furthermore,
Romans 1:18 tells us that men
"suppress the
truth in unrighteousness."
It is not a matter of lack of
evidence to convince people that the Bible is true; the problem is that they do
not want to believe the Bible. The reason for this is obvious. If people
believed in the God of the Bible, they would have to acknowledge His authority
and obey the rules He has laid down.
What does Christ expect you to
give up to follow Him?
What are you willing to give up in order to follow
Christ?
What does Jesus ask all of us to do?
 A
day of reckoning will come.
What is YOUR response?
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