Are you hearing these subjects preached and taught in
your church:
· - The imminent return of Jesus…likely in your own
lifetime.
· - The long list of Biblical prophecies of things
to happen before Jesus’ return that have happened in recent years
· - The amazing level of deception today in all
levels and positions in society. (Jesus’
first response when asked about the time of his return was to watch so as not
to be deceived.).
· - The dramatic falling away from God in society.
· - The extraordinary anti-Christian actions taken
by government and other groups today in so many areas of life (and how they
relate to scripture).
· - Jesus and the full gospel message itself – who
he is and all he did and still does….and who you are in him.
· - The Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit –
The Holy Spirit is one of the three members of the Trinity and the one active
on earth in all believers today. Divine
healings, miracles, all still real and true today.
· - The fact that you can do the same things as
Jesus, even greater. He said that.
If
you are not hearing these taught today, ask your pastor why not. If he cannot give you a good answer or does
not believe the above, get out of that church.
It is not a requirement of the Lord or the Bible that you go weekly to a
false or dead church and sit under weak and false teaching. Unless there is a great spiritual revival
affecting many before the Lord returns, Jesus surely will not recognize as his
believers a great number of those who call themselves Christians.
The
Bible does speak about the benefits of being around believers, around those who
can encourage you and through whom you can learn. You do need to find those types of people
where you live even if it is a small number and try to spend time with
them. I know that is difficult. You would be amazed at the calls and emails
and general requests we get from people over the years asking “where can we go
to church.” The lack of real churches is
one of the reasons so many serious believers have taken to meeting in small
groups outside the traditional mainstream churches. Those small groups really become “real”
churches.
One
of the great concerns of serious ministers and believers today is the number of
people (1) who are not born of water and the spirit as Jesus had said was
required to be in the kingdom of God and (2) who sit in churches once a week
where they receive dry, worldly oriented sermons or feel-good sermons and
believe they are all right with God and the future. There is little or no growth in Christian
maturity. Ministers in those churches
will answer to God, but so will the people.
Do you truly know the Lord Jesus
Christ? Do you absolutely know you will
go with him when he returns, that you are in the Kingdom of God now?
· - Jesus
himself said a person had to be born again, or born anew (or born from above to
look at the original Greek) in order just to see the Kingdom of God. To actually be in it, a person must be born
of water and the Spirit. This being born
again is the actual receiving of a new spirit.
As the Bible says, initially a person is born of human parents. But when a person is born again, or born
anew, God himself becomes their father.
They receive a new spirit. (See
John 3:3-5 and John 1:12-13). A key focus
of the rest of life on earth for a born again person is working to rehab their mind
and eventually get the physical body under control. That is called renewing the mind in the
Bible, and has to do with reading and studying the scriptures.
· - Paul
speaking about how a person gets to this position declares that if a person
confesses that Jesus is Lord and believes that God has raised Jesus from the
dead, then he will be saved (Romans 10:9).
That “saved” uses a Greek word which means healed in all aspects of
life. When Paul says the word “believes”
here, he is using a word that means absolute belief – such as you believe there
is enough air in the room in which you are reading this right now to keep you
alive, or else you would be running out.
Absolute belief.
· - Or
the famous John 3:16 statement of Jesus, that God so loved the world that he
gave his only son that whosoever believes in him would not die but would have
life eternal. Again, that word believes
that means absolute belief.
Do
you have that absolute belief? Do you
believe in Jesus that way? Another term
that connotes such belief is knowing the Lord.
Do you actually know him? When
you pray, do you connect with him, with the Holy Spirit? Do you have that absolute faith that your
words are heard and received?
One
clear sign of being in the Kingdom is noted by Paul when he says a person,
having believed, is marked with a seal, the Holy Spirit who is a deposit
guaranteeing our inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14).
If
you aren’t sure or don’t think you believe like that, ask Jesus to help
you. Ask him to be the Lord of your
life. Give your life to him. Ask for forgiveness for your sins. Jesus is always looking for people who pray
prayers like that. There is no formula,
just a truthful recognition of who Jesus is and asking him to come into your life.
THE KEY POINT OF ALL THIS!
All
around you notice that people really fall into two groups – those who truly
believe and know Jesus, and everyone else.
That everyone else includes all those in other false religions such as
muslims, buddhists, hindu, and so on, and it includes those who profess to be
atheists, and it includes all those who go to church on Sunday but have never
truly known the Lord nor truly in their heart committed to him.
We
are living in the last of the last days.
The Lord is returning soon. There are some serious believers who truly
know that. And there are a great number
of people who attend traditional and other churches where lukewarm sermons deal
with none of the essentials of faith and belief, people who do not know the
seriousness of the times. Add to that of
course the large number of people who just know nothing about the Lord. Difficult times for us all, to be sure.
When
Jesus comes, will he find faith on earth?
The most important question for you – will he find that faith in
you? And will you be ready? What about those you know?
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(July,
2016)
Copyright © 2016 by John
Newlin
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