Read Without Hearing!

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I, the [Lord], also promise you
a terrible shortage,
but not of food and water.
You will hunger and thirst
to hear my message.

You will search everywhere—
from north to south,
from east to west.
You will go all over the earth,
seeking a message
from me, the [Lord].
But you won't find one.

Amos 8:11-12

The words are not in the Bible but many times I heard sermons that declared that "the age of miracles has ceased." I struggled with that "truth" for years until I realized that there was no age of miracles and if there was one it certainly has not ceased. God still intervenes in the affairs of men whenever He chooses to do so and every such intervention is miraculous.

I also believed that God would never withhold His message from anyone who wanted to hear it. But these verses in the Book of Amos say otherwise. Sometimes God will not let you find His Word for your life. You may search and search and still not find it. You even are tempted to believe that the "age of God speaking directly to the hearts of men" has ceased.

What do you do if you seek God's message for you and can't find it? You want to know what God wants you to do but the well is dry and you find nothing. The answer is simply this: Repent of whatever sin you are holding in your heart. It probably is the sin that so "easily besets" you. Then instead of seeking a message from God, seek God Himself! Ask God to let you sit in His presence. Quietly come before Him and enjoy the slightest touch of His hand.

Wait quietly before God until you hear His message for you. When you do, it will come!

You see, you can read God's Word without hearing God's Word. When you open the Bible looking for a message from God make sure your heart is ready to receive and believe God's Word for you!

Too Late to Repent!

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I can't stand the pain!
My heart pounds,
as I twist and turn in agony.
I hear the signal trumpet
and the battle cry of the enemy,
and I cannot be silent.

I see the enemy defeating us
time after time,
leaving everything in ruins.
Even my own home
is destroyed in a moment.

How long will I see enemy flags
and hear their trumpets?

I heard the [Lord] say,
“My people ignore me.
They are foolish children
who do not understand
that they will be punished.
All they know is how to sin.”

After this, I looked around.
The earth was barren,
with no form of life.
The sun, moon, and stars
had disappeared.

The mountains were shaking;

no people could be seen,
and all the birds
had flown away.

Farmland had become a desert,
and towns were in ruins.
The [Lord]'s fierce anger
had done all of this.

Jeremiah 4:19-26

There is extreme shock and an unspoken shout of "Oh God no!" when tragedy strikes. One minute before everything is like it has always been and then nothing is ever the same again.

It may be the death of a loved one, the sudden and unexpected loss of a job or a tornado that blows away everything you own.

It was a beautiful sunny day in Ohio on June 15, 1992 and all was well, but by nine o'clock that night our sixteen year old daughter, Leah had died. Without warning everything changed and almost twenty years later it is hard to tell you about it. She had been driving for less than a year when apparently a small pot hole sent the car out of control and into a tree. She died later that day in surgery.

The United States of America and much of the rest of the world is like a car going out of control. We ignore the limits God has placed on men and laugh at the signs of coming judgment. We bravely declare that God would not do anything to hurt us. Our highest official has declared that we are not a Christian nation and we still snuff out the lives of thousands and thousands of children before they are born.

The moment of reckoning will come and we will be held accountable for our sins! Let your voice be heard warning everyone to stop sinning against God before it is too late to repent!

Like a Mighty Oak!

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The Spirit of the [Lord] God
has taken control of me!
The [Lord] has chosen and sent me
to tell the oppressed
the good news,
to heal the brokenhearted,
and to announce freedom
for prisoners and captives.

This is the year
when the [Lord] God
will show kindness to us
and punish our enemies.
The [Lord] has sent me
to comfort those who mourn,

especially in Jerusalem.
He sent me to give them flowers
in place of their sorrow,
olive oil in place of tears,
and joyous praise
in place of broken hearts.
They will be called
“Trees of Justice,”
planted by the [Lord]
to honor his name.

Isaiah 61:1-3

About 45 years ago I found an acorn under an oak tree in a town called Beersheba Springs, Tennessee. I remember that acorn because I planted it in a small pot of dirt and waited for it to begin to grow. When the acorn became a tiny oak tree in the pot, I took that little tree and brought it more than 400 miles from where I found it and planted it about a quarter of a mile from where I am sitting right now. When you look at that tree and the others around it, you would never know the path it took in coming to live in this place.

Jesus said these verses in Isaiah 61 apply to Him.  Jesus came to let men and women exchange their sorrow for flowers, tears for olive oil and their broken hearts for joyous praise.  He then says that they will be called "Trees of Justice" planted by the Lord to honor His name!

Like that little acorn, Jesus found you and lovingly nurtured your life until you began to sprout and grow.  In a very real sense, you did not find Jesus, Jesus found you.  All you did to become the person you are today was to let Jesus do His work in and on your heart.

Not far from my almost 50 year old oak tree stands an oak that must be more than 200 years old.  No one alive today has any idea how that tree began it's life on that spot, but it still stands and brings cooling shade every hot summer day.

Are you a "Tree of Justice" planted by the Lord to honor His name?  If you are then let everything you do, think, and say be something that will honor the Lord.  Stand firmly in His love and then one day you will become a Mighty Oak in God's Garden!

Look for the White Horse!

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I looked and saw heaven was open, and a white horse was there. Its rider was called Faithful and True, and he is always fair when he judges or goes to war.

He had eyes like flames of fire, and he was wearing a lot of crowns. His name was written on him, but he was the only one who knew what the name meant.

The rider wore a robe that was covered with blood, and he was known as “The Word of God.”  He was followed by armies from heaven that rode on white horses and were dressed in pure white linen. 

From his mouth a sharp sword went out to attack the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod and will show the fierce anger of God All-Powerful by trampling the grapes in the pit where wine is made.

On the part of the robe that covered his thigh was written, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Revelation 19:11-16

It makes me feel quite old to tell you this, but I remember traveling across the United States with my family before the days of the Interstate Highway and at a time when there were still lots of useful horses on farms in America. As a way to occupy our time my mother would tell my brother and I to look for and count white horses.

At that time there were enough horses on farms that we could look for white ones instead of just looking for horses. If I were to play the game today I suppose we would look for John Deer tractors.

I wonder when men first discovered that God created horses with the amazing ability to give a man the freedom to go fast and leap over fences.

When she was a little girl, my wife had a horse named Duke. She never specifically told me, but I'm sure that if Heaven meets up to her expectations she will have a horse to ride and I would not be surprised if it is Duke!

When I was a boy we would look for a white horse when we traveled. Now that I am an old man I realize that the greatest journey I will ever make is ahead of me. And on that trip it will be the same as when I was a boy. When I go to Heaven I will certainly look for the White Horse with Jesus on his back!

God Knows What He is Doing!

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When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of everyone who had been killed for speaking God's message and telling about their faith.

They shouted, “Master, you are holy and faithful! How long will it be before you judge and punish the people of this earth who killed us?”

Then each of those who had been killed was given a white robe and told to rest for a little while. They had to wait until the complete number of the Lord's other servants and followers would be killed.

When I saw the Lamb open the sixth seal, I looked and saw a great earthquake. The sun turned as dark as sackcloth, and the moon became red as blood. The stars in the sky fell to earth, just like figs shaken loose by a windstorm.

Then the sky was rolled up like a scroll, and all mountains and islands were moved from their places.

The kings of the earth, its famous people, and its military leaders hid in caves or behind rocks on the mountains. They hid there together with the rich and the powerful and with all the slaves and free people. Then they shouted to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us! Hide us from the one who sits on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb. That terrible day has come! God and the Lamb will show their anger, and who can face it?”

Revelation 6:9-17

When I see a cloudy sky I am reminded that Jesus will come with the clouds. Whenever I hear of a great earthquake I am also reminded that such an earthquake will be the beginning of the end!

But instead of looking forward to the will of God being done of this earth, even many Christians are hoping God delays the end of all things at least until we have lived out our lives here on earth.

What "on earth" are you waiting for? Are you waiting for things to get better. Are you hoping for human solutions to all the turmoil around the globe? Are you hoping that "freedom" instead of slavery can be restored and men can once again pursue their dreams in peace.

Do you believe that if we can just defeat terrorism in all of it's forms and spread democracy around the world then we can all go back to living in peace?

The problem with such hope is that it leaves out the God Factor. We are not free to decide how things in the world should go. God has mapped out a course for human history and all humanity will conform itself to His plan. He will use the righteous and the unrighteous to accomplish His purposes for planet earth and it's inhabitants.

My job is not to change the future, but to do the will of God. There is not one prophecy in the Bible that I can change by human will.

"Lord help me to trust You completely in the storms of this life and obey your every Word. And put my hope totally in You and not in the world! Amen."

Do You Have a Lamp Stand?

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This is what you must write to the angel of the church in Ephesus:

I am the one who holds the seven stars in my right hand, and I walk among the seven gold lampstands. Listen to what I say.

I know everything you have done, including your hard work and how you have endured. I know you won't put up with anyone who is evil. When some people pretended to be apostles, you tested them and found out they were liars.

You have endured and gone through hard times because of me, yet you have not given up.

But I do have something against you! And it is this: You don't have as much love as you used to.  Think about where you have fallen from, and then turn back and do as you did at first. If you don't turn back, I will come and take away your lampstand.

Revelation 2:1-5

If you work hard and endure. If you won't put up with anyone who is evil. If you root out false apostles and prove them to be liars and endure and go through hard times because of Jesus and have not given up, but then you let your love fade, you are in danger of having your "lamp-stand" taken away.

Have you noticed that unloving people who do all the right things are not good witnesses for Jesus? A lamp stand puts the light up high enough that many people can see it. Without a lamp stand the light shines for only a few to see.

Jesus wants the world to notice His followers who are filled with His love. As a follower of Jesus, if you are not shining forth with the love of Christ, He may take away your lamp stand.

Is your light on a lamp stand? Can the love of Christ be seen by men and women far and wide through you? If the answer is "no," then it is time to work on your love. When you combine the light of the Gospel of Jesus with His love flowing through you, Jesus sets you on a lamp stand for many to see.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, when you love those who don't love you, Jesus lifts you up for all the world to see His glory shining through you!

Don’t Change the Story!

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Here is my warning for everyone who hears the prophecies in this book: 

If you add anything to them, God will make you suffer all the terrible troubles written in this book.

If you take anything away from these prophecies, God will not let you have part in the life-giving tree and in the holy city described in this book.

Revelation 22:18-19

As stories are told from person to person and generation to generation they have a tendency to change. When human beings repeat something they hear, it is quite easy to add a detail that was not in the original story. Over time, stories evolve into quite altered accounts of something that started as a total truth.

That is one reason why we have the Bible in written form. We must tell the stories of the Bible, but we must not change them. God even warns that there will be trouble for those who add to or take away from the Bible.

So here is a good thing to do. Take the story of your own life and compare it with the stories in the Bible. Is your understanding of Jesus based on popular children's songs or does it come from the Scripture? Is your walk with Jesus like the ones described in the Bible? Does your expectation of the Second Coming of Jesus come from the Bible or somewhere else?

It is critical that I continually filter my own life and understanding of God through the Written Word. When I do that, then the changes to the story that come from those who are not careful to say only what the Bible says can be corrected.

When we do that and God looks at our lives, we will hear Him say "Now that's what I've been talking about, or Well Done, good and faithful servant!"