The Rock of Our Faith - Rio de Janeiro 2010

Written and published by Jean-Louis Mondon

Do not be afraid, Abraham. I am your shied and your very great reward. Genesis 15:1.            
The Song of Moses
…"How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, And the LORD had given them up? 31"Indeed their rock is not like our Rock, Even our enemies themselves judge this. 32"For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, And from the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes are grapes of poison, Their clusters, bitter.…Deuteronomy 32:31

(The above picture was taken on a hazy day) 

Three days ago, while sitting at the top of our apartment building roof top, contemplating the magnificent view of the mountains towering over the bay of Rio de Janeiro, my eyes stopped at a rock outcropping that I never noticed before. .

Seen from afar, it looked to me as if the huge rock near the top had been forced out of the mountain, its distinct contours outlining the shape of a shield.

Here is a better view on a clear day of the Pedra do Maroca - Morro dos Cabritos

Interestingly enough, I had never noticed it even after spending some time meditating on the Scriptures on the roof top before, during the 3 weeks since our arrival here.

Besides the adjustment expected from being in new surroundings, the spiritual battle has been intense, especially with Mírian having to train at a new job, while my life here has been quiet and gratifying.

Needless to say praying for protection efforts have been redoubling. The Lord has answered with an increase in his grace over the situation as he is orchestrating the circumstances in our lives. We have seen the hand of God moving in our family and heard his responses in ways that are so encouraging as we witness his faithfulness and his ever present loving kindness and tender loving care in our lives. 

The morning this happened we had been praying for the edge of protection to be around Mírian and that her faith would be strong against the schemes of the enemy.

As I was looking more closely at the shield shape, the Lord reminded me of the covenant with Abraham and his words when the Lord appeared to him in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abraham. I am your shied and your very great reward. Genesis 15:1.

I am not one given to seeking signs, but the Lord at times shows me visuals and then  confirms it for me through the Scriptures and other witnesses. We all know the various verses relating to faith in the Old and the New Testament. This however was directly related to fear that Mírian was feeling. To me this was clear, we are to raise our shield of faith against the enemy’s flaming arrows as a part of our spiritual armor.

But in looking at the mountain two things seem to be relevant and underline the relevancy of the situation. The shield formation was taken out of but still very much attached to the mountain, which is to say that our faith depends on being connected to the Rock of our faith, namely our Lord Jesus through the communion with the Holy Spirit. 
Secondly, the faith shield was near the top of the mountain, which to me, means that the victory was close but that more efforts and cooperation on our part was necessary to reach the top of the mountain. 

Another component of that scripture is that the reward of faith comes after having exercised the faith that God requires in our daily walk. Isaiah talks in chapter 40: 9,10, 11 about not being afraid and looking at the coming of the Lord in the last days:
Lift up your voice with a shout, Do not be afraid .See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, his recompense accompanies him. He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.

Hebrews 10:35-38 says basically the same thing adding the need for perseverance in doing the will of God:

"So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him."

And finally on the last page of the Book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus himself reiterates His promise in Revelation 22: 12:

"Behold, I am coming soon, my reward is with me and I will give to everyone according to what he has done."
 
Since the Word says that a matter shall be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses, three more confirmations with more explicit details came from our family who had been praying fervently about our present situation.

I feel so grateful and greatly encouraged that when our Lord gives us instructions and shows us the way, in response to our prayers, He also empowers us and accompanies us even though sometimes we get discouraged and temporarily experience fear and doubts that we are in the will of God. This is why we need to exercise the faith that He provides when we ask Him and to receive the encouragement that we are on our way to the victory that he has promised us and that He already gained for us at the cross.

Jean-Louis.

The Double Minded Man (Pastor Charles Lawson)

I was not saved by a loving Jesus wooing me

Reblogged from  the-end-time.blogspot.com
I wasn't saved by love. The Gospel was not attractive to me. It was not made attractive to me by smiling Christians. I was saved by wrath.

This is NOT my Jesus

Glorious Jesus who was and is and is to come did not woo me to the cross. No one fulfilled my felt needs. No one befriended me and cajoled me into loving Jesus. He battered my head with a 2X4, dragging me kicking and screaming to the cross, where He made me face my sin. Once I saw my sin, I saw His coming wrath for it.

I repented.

THEN I loved Him. After He opened my eyes I saw all His loveliness and grace and mercy and long-suffering and patience and grief over sin and sinners. But I was not wooed, nor was I loved onto Mt Moriah. It is not true that "Jesus won't come where He isn't welcome". It is not true that "Jesus won't force Himself on anybody." He is sovereign God! He goes where He pleases! (Psalm 24:1). He drop kicked Saul/Paul to the ground AND blinded him! He didn't ASK Mary if she'd like to become pregnant and an object of ridicule and rumor the rest of her life. No, He sent an angel to TELL her how it was going to be. (Luke 1:30-37)

He isn't wringing His hands in heaven hoping that Jane or Tom or Mary will believe in Him, and maybe they will, if he just sends the Spirit to soften the pew cushions ... or energizes the preacher with a louder "WOO!" ... or if the musician plays one more verse of "Just As I Am." Maybe if He can make church "exciting" then Harry will repent and believe. No.

It was the sovereign wrath that convicted me and convinced me. It is why I love passages like this.

The Judgment at Christ’s Coming

The Great Day of His Wrath, John Martin ~1853

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10)

Let us begin the marveling now. Marvel at a Savior who saves by His sovereign election, will, purpose, and plan! Marvel at He who is wrath and judgment and holiness and fierce anger! Be afeared of His anger over your sin. Marvel that El Shaddai... El Elyon ...sent His Son to take on all anger for sin. Marvel that He is also Jehovah Rapha, and Jehovah Jireh, the LORD that heals, the LORD will provide. Marvel at the wrath. It makes marveling at the grace all the more sweet.

Occupy until I come - Jack Kelley

Saturday, February 21st, 20

• Christian Life
• End Times
• Featured
• Prophecy

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Occupy Until I Come

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley
 

Some of you are aware that we post a “Question Of The Day” on Facebook each day. Recently one of these questions received more comments than any other we’ve ever posted by a wide margin.

It concerned a woman’s frustration because in a recent conversation her friends confirmed that they believe in an any moment rapture but then went on to tell her their plans for the next 10-20 years, what they expect to do when they retire, what kind of career they hope their children will have, and how they can’t wait to have grand children. She felt like they were just paying lip service to the nearness of the rapture and were more focused on their long term hopes and plans for this world.

I agreed with her, saying that what people pay attention to in their life gives you a clue as to what their intentions are for their life. When people spend more time talking about their long range plans for their life in this world than they do about their longing for the Lord to return for the Church and what they’re doing for Him while they wait, it tells us they intend to be here for a long time.

The comments I received in response to this posting were all over the place. A few agreed with the questioner, but most thought there is nothing wrong with making long term plans for our lives because we can’t know for sure when He’s coming. And more than one person said, “We can’t just abandon our lives and go camp on a hill waiting for Him.”
Several quoted the phrase “Occupy until I come” from the Parable of the Ten Minas (Luke 19:11-27) as their justification for making long term worldly plans, but I wonder how many of us realize the context in which the Lord said this.

In the parable, a man of noble birth was going on an extended trip and was leaving his servants in charge of a portion of his wealth saying, “Occupy till I come.”
As you know a parable is a heavenly story put into an earthly context where every character is fictional and represents an actual one. In the Parable of the Ten Minas the man of noble birth represents Jesus, and His servants represent us.

The Greek word translated “occupy” in the King James translation of Luke 19:13 can mean to be occupied in anything, but in the context of the parable it means to “carry on a business.” In place of “occupy till I come” some English translations have the nobleman saying, “Put this money to work until I come back.” Others say, “Engage in business with this until I return.”

While there are a number of ways in which different translations convey this idea, I didn’t find a single one that indicated the nobleman was just telling his servants to idly wait for him as in “camping on a hill.” Nor did I find one that had the nobleman telling them to do whatever they wanted while he was gone. They all conveyed the idea that he expected them to conduct his business on his behalf using the resources he was leaving with them.
Therefore, the phrase “occupy until I come” doesn’t mean we’re free to live our life according to whatever priorities we’ve established while we wait for the rapture. It means we’re to be occupied in the work He’s given us until He returns, and to have something to show for it. The fact that the nobleman criticized the servant who preserved the money he’d been given but didn’t increase it at all lends credence to this interpretation. He expected a return on his capital.

What Work Has He Given Us?

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship (Romans 12:1).
Romans 12:1-2 could be called Paul’s interpretation of the phrase “Occupy until I come.” I say that because the Greek word translated “worship” in Romans 12:1 is not the one that would normally be used. In fact, it actually means “service” and that’s the way many translations render it. The King James translation calls it our “reasonable service”. In Romans 12:1 Paul urged us to offer ourselves to God to perform whatever service He has in mind for us as our response to the mercy He has shown us. And how are we supposed to know what that is? Verse 2 gives us the answer.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2).

Do you know what God’s will for your life is? We can discover His will for us by refusing to accept the pattern of this world with it’s “bigger this and more of that” mentality and allowing our minds to be renewed and become focused on the much more meaningful plans God has for our life.

You can make this discovery at any point in your life. The minute you decide to give your life to the Lord and start seeking His will for you, He will meet you right where you are. The only radical change you’ll have to make is in the area of your priorities. God has to replace you or anything else you might currently have in your number 1 position. But even then, He knows you have family and financial responsibilities and will not expect you to abandon them.
Remember, in the early Church there were no paid positions. Every one was a volunteer, and earned his or her own living. Even today there are untold numbers of bi-vocational pastors, para-church ministries, missionaries, etc. who earn their own way in life, yet consider the work they do for the Lord as their reasonable acts of service and their number 1 priority.

Remember, the mission fields aren’t all in far away places. They are all around us. There are people everywhere who need food, shelter, and clothing. There are sick people who need visitors to comfort them, lonely people who need someone to talk to, ministries who need volunteer help, the list goes on and on. Some are even missionaries to their own local congregation. Also, there are two kinds of missionaries; those who go and those who send them.

Gifted For Service

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in everyone. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good (1 Cor. 12:4-7).
All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He gives them to each one, just as He determines (1 Cor. 12:10-11).
The ten minas the nobleman gave to each servant can represent the Spiritual gifts we’ve all been given to enable us to accomplish the Lord’s will for us. And just as the nobleman expected his servants to put what he had given them to work, so does the Lord expect us to put the gifts He’s given us to work for him. Listen to these words He spoke.
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:14-16).

Do you know what spiritual gifts He’s given you to help you achieve His will for your life? We all have them, you know. We just need to discover them, and put them to use. That will happen as we seek His will for our life.

No One Knows The Day Or Hour

Most people have no idea that the Lord only spoke this phrase in reference to the 2^nd Coming, never the rapture. Even so, no one knows exactly when the rapture will happen. But the Bible gives us a number of signs as to when the end of the age will arrive, and tells us the rapture will precede it. And for the first time in history, every one of those signs is visible today.

Paul said the coming Day of the Lord should not take us by surprise because we’re children of the light (1 Thes. 5:4-5). That means we’ve been given all the information (light) we need to know the times and seasons of His Coming. The only people who can be taken by surprise are those have not made themselves familiar with end times prophecy, whether by accident or design.  In other words, those who say we can’t know the nearness of the rapture simply haven’t made an effort to inform themselves.

Read what the Lord said to the generation that wasn’t expecting Him the first time He came.
“When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times” (Matt. 16:2-3).
It was not that they couldn’t have known He was coming, because their Scriptures contained hundreds of prophecies of His first coming, many of which pointed to their time. It was that His coming had become less important to them than knowing what the day’s weather would be, so they didn’t bother learning about it. He could say the same thing to much of the Church today.

Some scholars are calling what’s happening in our time the convergence of signs. That means we don’t just have a few signs showing up, which would be exciting enough. It means that all the signs we were told to look for can now be found and they are all converging on a point in our not too distant future. No generation since His first coming could say this.

Does This Mean I Can’t Have A Life Of My Own?

Truth be told, the Bible never promised us a life of our own. In fact it says, “We are not our own. We’ve been bought at a price” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). But God never forces any of His children to do anything. The single condition for our salvation is to “believe in the One He sent” (John 6:28-29). So you can have a life of your own. If all you want is to have your “fire insurance” policy paid up, you did that by becoming a believer (Ephes. 1:13-14). Even if you never do a single thing for the Lord and all your works are burned up in the fires of judgment, you yourself will still be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames (1 Cor. 3:15).

In Romans 12:1 Paul said, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy …” He didn’t order or command us, he urged us. Even the Holy Spirit is only our counselor, not our commander. No one will force you to do anything.
Instead, what this means is you can have a better life than the one you’ve planned for yourself. Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). In the first place, when you turn your life over to the Lord, He will see to it that all your needs are met, so you won’t have to worry at all about what tomorrow might bring (Matt 6:31-34). He will see that everything works together for your good (Romans 8:28). He will give back to you all out of proportion to what you give to Him (Luke 6:38). He will make you rich in every way so you can be generous on every occasion (2 Cor. 9:11), and you’ll be storing up untold treasure in heaven (Matt. 6:19-21) as well.

So you see, neither camping on a hilltop and waiting nor getting on with life while waiting is the Biblically correct approach. To occupy till He comes is to be engaged in the conduct of the business He has called us to.

Final Thoughts

In closing, I’m reminded of my favorite paraphrase of James 2:17 where the apostle wrote, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by deeds is dead.” The version I like goes, “If what you say you believe does not result in action, maybe you don’t really believe it.” If you’re not longing for the rapture and engaged in the Lord’s work while you wait for it, then maybe you don’t really believe it’s coming soon.

When viewed from a strictly human perspective, the rapture of the Church is the most incredible event in history. The resurrection of believers is the fulfillment of a promise that was made on the cross, the delivery of the greatest blessing ever given to mankind. And among resurrected believers, no other group has been or will be blessed as richly as the Church. Paul said God is doing this so that in ages yet to come He might demonstrate the incomparable riches of His Grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus (Ephes. 2:7).

But even above all this, He has chosen one generation of the Church to pass directly from mortal to immortal without experiencing death. This generation will be standing on Earth in our mortal, sin filled bodies and then in the twinkling of an eye we’ll be transformed directly into a perfect, immortal version of ourselves.  Immediately, we’ll transported to the home He has spent the last 2,000 years preparing for us to begin a life with Him that is literally beyond imagining. And it could happen any day now.

But what if it doesn’t happen today? I was a business consultant when I became a believer 30 years ago. One of the services I provided was to help individuals and companies identify and achieve long term goals. Following my own example, I had binders full of five year plans for my self and my company which I faithfully tracked each month and completely updated annually.

I had learned about the rapture early in my life as a believer and, like most people, I was immediately excited about it. When I felt the Lord telling me to put my plans for my life aside and follow the path He had laid out for me instead, I thought, “Why not? We won’t be here that long anyway.” I decided to stop making my own plans for the future, and began letting Him implement His plan instead. Later I realized that this is what He meant in Matt. 16:24-25.
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”

That was 30 years ago, and I haven’t made any future plans for me or anyone else since. The life I have today is nothing like the one I had planned for myself. But it’s more exciting and more fulfilling than anything I could have imagined. I still see the rapture as an “any day now” event and I’m ready to go the instant I hear the trumpet. But I also realize that if that doesn’t happen today, the plan the Lord is unfolding in my life is the next best thing that could have happened to me, because I’m occupying until He comes. You can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah 02-21-15.

Related posts:

1. Occupy Til I Come
2. Spiritual Gifts … Occupy Part 2
3. Israel And The Church. Follow Up
4. Are Pastors Allowed To Retire?

When Jesus Says 'I Never Knew You'

When Jesus Says 'I Never Knew You'