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Cheer up, discouragement is a powerful weapon of the devil!

Cheer up, discouragement is a powerful weapon of the devil!.

There is a great new site that has news from all kinds of sources coming in. You can blog on it right there on the site then share it to your own blog. Pretty neat!  http://www.thefundamentalist.net

The Real “V”isitors

I recently watched the new  ABC TV series “V” with much curiosity on how they would make a show that seems like it will be a six episode wonder into a good hit that may have many to follow. With all the commercials and money they have pumped into advertisement over the past month and a half, I personally do not think it was all that impressive of an opener. Maybe they should have spent less on advertisement and a little more on the opening episode, but regardless, it has raised my eyebrow and I will watch it and see it through. But as I went to bed I kept thinking to myself about a “Visitor” that will come to this earth and deceive all mankind into following him. Who am I speaking of? The Anti-Christ of course.

At the beginning of the show everyone was just going about their daily routine and then the “Visitors” arrived, at first everyone was scared but then the head alien spoke on that really BIG jumbotron and told everyone that they come in peace and they will not harm anyone, they just want to come and get food and share their technology and they will be on their way. In almost an instant, people were at ease. The Anti-Christ will be almost as deceitful when he shows up on the scene. When everyone is suffering from famine, wars and economic failure he will be accepted by all nations and placed into high authority where he will deceive people into thinking he is there to help when he is in reality going to hurt them. Fortunately for all the believers in Christ, we will not have to be a part of all this, we will already be in Heaven as a result of the rapture.

During the show “Anna”, the head alien, was meeting with all the world leaders to introduce peace between their two worlds. The Anti-Christ will do the same and he will set up his rule from Rome in (Rev 13:4) And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

People will worship him and begin to treat him as a god.

• Revelation 17:3, “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”

In prophecy, a woman is defined as a church…

• Jeremiah 6:2 says, “I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.”

We also understand the Church of Jesus Christ is considered to be the “Bride of Christ” because of many areas of Scriptures that describe her as such. It is also commonly understood that prophecy defines a beast to be a nation.

• Daniel 7:17, “These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.”
• Daniel 7:23, “Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.”

Even in today’s world, nations are described as beasts? The USA is seen as an eagle. Russia is likened unto a bear, and China even carries the image of a dragon.

Many years ago Daniel was given a great vision about all the nations of the earth till the end of time. In this vision he saw the last beast to be “diverse from all the others.” (Daniel 7:19) But how diverse would it be? According to Revelation 17:3 as we have already seen, this beast will have a woman riding it. Since prophecy defines a woman as a church, and a beast as a nation. Is there such an entity described in history? Is there a church and state mixed together as one some place today? Yes there is. Only one place on earth has ever done this. The Vatican of the Roman Catholic church has been established upon this type of union, and is now finalizing plans to use this prophesied church and state structure to obtain global rule in the place of pagan Rome.

Now I do not claim to be a scholar on end times or prophesy, but I study these things out and read a lot of books on it, but when I see a TV show like “V”, it makes me believe that Satan is working to prepare the world for his grand entry into bodily form. Because while everyone is accustomed through the use of fascinating TV shows or movies, it will be of no surprise to anyone when it happens for real.

If you want to avoid the end times mayhem, then take a look at my page, “Highway to Heaven” http://bobwil.wordpress.com/highway-to-heaven/

Lord Bless

How To Pray According to Scripture

I Timothy 2:1

(1Ti 2:1) I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

We are going to take this verse and go through it very carefully today and see what God says about how we are to pray. Many times in my own prayer life I tend to just go through the routine of praying without doing the steps to which I should be. Sometimes we get in a hurry and we just want to get on with our day and we just say a quick prayer because it is what we are supposed to do. When we finish this lesson today, you will have a better understanding or guideline for your prayer life.

Paul starts out by saying here in this verse, “I exhort therefore”, the word exhort comes from the Greek word “parakaleo” which means to call near or invoke. In the King James Version of the Bible, the word, exhort is mentioned 14 times, so it was not a term used loosely in the Bible. He is invoking us or calling us near to pay close attention to what he is about to say, why? Because what Paul is about to say is extremely important and he wants to make sure we understand it. And the next part saying “that, first of all” is not referring to your personal prayer time first thing in the morning; it is referring to every time you pray. This should be our “outline” sort to speak for any prayer we pray even before a meal.

We are going to break down the next part of this verse word by word to better understand the meaning and then we will come up with the outline that Paul is has prepared for us in our prayer life.

1. Supplications – From the Greek word “deesis” (deh’-ay-sis), which means a petition. In Webster’s Dictionary, “petition” means “a formal message requesting something submitted to an authority”. We are to begin our prayer by petitioning God for our needs, whether it is for ourselves or whether it is for someone else and this could be for their body or soul. This could be for food, clothing, finances, discoveries of pardoning love, and supplies of grace, spiritual peace and comfort. When we start our prayer we should be asking God specifically for things we need, and asking him to supply the needs of those that we know are in need of something in their life.
2. Prayers – From the Greek word “proseuche” (pros-yoo-khay), which means exactly what it is, prayer; it also means earnest prayer. This one goes a little bit hand in hand with supplications but not to be confused with its meaning. Here we are now expressing to God our wishes or desires from God either of ourselves or others.
3. Intercessions – From the Greek word “enteuxis” (ent’-yook-sis), which means an interview. Webster’s defines it as a conference with someone with high authority. Wow! That is amazing, we interview with the highest authority in the universe. Here we are intending either complaints exhibited in prayer against others that have done injuries; or prayers put up for others, either for the averting of evil from them, or for the bestowing some good thing on them.
4. Giving of Thanks – From the Greek word “eucharistia” (yoo-khar-is-tee’-ah), which means gratitude; actually grateful language to God, as an act of worship, thankfulness, giving of thanks. We are to thank God for all His blessings, mercies, what He has done for us and what He will do for us, whether temporal or spiritual.
5. Be made for all men – I am going to focus on two words from this part, “all” from the Greek word “pas” which means anyone, thoroughly or whole. And the word “men” from the Greek word “anthropos” (anth’-ro-pos) which means human being. So, here we see we are to pray for or on behalf of all human beings completely and thoroughly.

Now that we have broken this verse down to better understand its meaning, we can now understand how to pray according to Scripture.

Outline For Prayer:

1. Open your prayer time by asking God to supply your needs and the needs of your friends and family. Be specific not general.
   
2. Tell God what you would like to have or what you desire. This could be anything from a new computer to souls to be saved in church this Sunday.
   
3. Tell God that someone has hurt you and you want him to deal with their heart and convict them, or ask God to bless or comfort someone that you know is need of it today.
   
4. Tell God you love Him and just worship Him and thank Him for all He has done for you.
   

My prayer is that this helps you a little bit in your prayer life; I know it helped mine when I studied this out. So many people have no idea how to pray and they are scared to. Something like this as a guide to go by will be a help.

Lord Bless

Look Forward

(Php 3:13) Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

(Php 3:14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Do you hate when someone reminds you of things you have done in the past that you’re not very proud of? Well it happens to all of us, I have been reminded many times of mistakes and things I had done in my past that I just wish people would forget about. It is never good to spend time dwelling on our past sins, but instead, forgive them and forget, God did. (Isa 44:22) I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. God has promised that He has blotted out our sins, so there is no need to look back but to look forward. Like on a ship, you can’t guide a ship from the stern looking to the rear, but guide it from the bow looking forward.

The sky may look dark and dreary with storm clouds all around with people always reminding us of our past, but when we look forward, we have a bright future and a clean slate. God said, “Behold, I make all things new”.

When we trust in Christ to be our guide, we can always look to this promise from Him.

(Heb 13:5)
“for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

I have found that when I am discouraged and beaten down by Satan and the world I begin to praise God and tell Him how much I love Him and it seems that all my worries and discouragement goes away.

Instead of dwelling on your past, look to your future by getting caught up in loving God, He will always love you no matter what.

Lord Bless

Battlefield of the Righteous

The other day I was driving down the road and I heard the song by Jordan Sparks, “Battlefield” come on the radio and I could not write fast enough. Now I would not advise anyone to drive and write at the same time because I nearly ran a couple of red lights and that would have been a bad thing. This song got me thinking about the spiritual battlefield we are on everyday and do we have our Armor on.

(Eph 6:11) Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

(Eph 6:12) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Every day we are attacked by Satan and the worst thing about it is the fact that he disguises himself in many forms to make these attacks. He will disguise himself as a nice party that turns into a bad situation. Sometimes he even will disguise himself as a very righteous Christian that seems to be the most spiritual person in your church, but when the individual is not around other Christians they live their life in total sin that is shameful to the name of Christ.

In this life we are on a spiritual battlefield. The Bible says that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood”, we are fighting against the demons and satan’s attacks. And the more you serve God and get busy for Him, the devil brings on the attacks even more because the more Christians he can cause to become a K.I.A. the fewer unbelievers will come to know Christ. I Peter 5:8 tells us that the Devil is seeking whom he may devour. I have seen Pastors get attacked by Satan from so-called believers in their churches to the point that he falls to the wayside and that tells us one thing, Satan comes in every form.

So get your armor on! As the song says.

Eph. 6:11 says to put on the whole armor of God, If we are gird up in God’s armor, we are protected. If you read through Eph. Chapter 6, you will see what each piece of armor will protect. We need to think of this song when we feel like we are being attacked.

I guess you better go and get your armor
(Get your armor)
Get your armor
I guess you better go and get your armor
(Get your armor)
Get your armor

Self- Cleansing

Lesson from I Corinthians 11:31

10/3/09

It is so funny how we have become a society to which everything is made easy for us. From filing cabinets to a notebook pc, from payphones to cell phones, from pocket calendars to a pda, from maps to a gps, and from vinyl records to an mp3 player. What is really fascinating about all of that is it is all contained in one unit that we carry on our hip, pocket, or purse. Now today I am not going to talk to you about the advancement of technology but the fact that God was way ahead of us in this fast paced world we live in, called “self cleansing”.

Now I know you have heard of a self-cleansing oven. Yeah it cleans all by itself but it still takes some work on your part. Our Christian life is a lot like the self-cleaning oven. As a Christian you have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. You no longer have to fear the consequences of the curse that was put forth on Adam for disobeying God in the Garden. And that is not to say that you still will not get all dirty in this life. You need to get cleaned up from time to time; not re-saved, but a re-commitment. Salvation is eternally based on Christ’s work not ours. The Lord is merciful, he allows us time to repent of our sins before he casts judgment against them. He has also given you the ability to be your own priest and seek forgiveness through prayer. Self-cleansing sort-a-speak. When you have chosen to go against God’s Word, you must seek to renew your fellowship with Him. You must utilize the feature of repentant prayer. How “clean” are you today?

Taking it to the next level

There are five things God want you to know:

1) You need to be saved.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the Glory of God;” Romans 3:23

2) You cannot save yourself.

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us,…” Titus 3:5

3) Jesus has provided for your salvation.

Who (Jesus) his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” I Peter 2:24

4) You must accept Jesus for Salvation.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” Acts 16:31

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Romans 10:9

5) Now is the time to accept Jesus as your Savior.

“Behold, now is the accepted time: behold, now is the day of salvation.” II Corinthians 6:2