Showing posts with label following God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label following God. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
* A STARTLING SIGN OF OUR TIME
Notre Dame is the most famous church in the world. The only other that comes close in world fame is St. Peter’s at the Vatican. I remember staying a block or two from Notre Dame, walking by it several times, going to it to visit. It really is on a little island in the middle of the Seine.
Notre Dame. The church is history! Before Shakespeare, before Voltaire, before John Newton or the original Queen Elizabeth, before Robin Hood, before North America and the United States were even a speck in any European’s mind, before Republicans or Democrats or George Washington.
Notre Dame survived the French Revolution, World War I, World War II, and countless other things over 850 years. Now a horrible fire has greatly damaged this iconic church. It could not survive our day – this time of extraordinary immorality, massive deception, widespread falling away from God. If you will permit this metaphor, I expect this grand church could no longer endure being there, in the midst of Paris, in the midst of France, in the midst of Europe.
It has been said by many that France and Europe are in a post-Christian era. That’s just another way for saying godless. Europe had moved that way ahead of the United States, although much of American popular culture and society is deep into that now. Surely all believers can see the extraordinary and dramatic symbolism of this fire at Notre Dame.
Yes of course Notre Dame was a symbol of France. But more importantly it was a symbol of Christianity. A great church, built to the glory of God by artisans over decades and decades at a time when there were no electricity, no cars, no spaceships, no Internet, no computers. Yes, I know – some French billionaires have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars and the French president is determined to rebuild. Really? Will that ever happen? Are there enough artisans on earth like the ones who built this great cathedral to replicate its craftsmanship? Or the time? It took nearly two centuries to build this church originally. If you have not seen it or one of the few buildings on earth like this, you may not understand the astounding quality of the detail and art. And the time and skill it took to create it. People dedicated their lives to building a church they would never see finished, again all to the glory of God.
This fire surely is a Sign of our Time, of where we are. I wish the French President would dedicate his and his country’s efforts to rebuilding their faith in and dedication to God. But that is not the time we are living in, is it?
And, as we know, the return of Jesus is ever so imminent.
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(April 2019)
Copyright © 2019 by John Newlin
[NOTE: This article may and should be copied, printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or forwarded in its entirety with the appropriate attributions included. We in fact encourage you to do so and especially to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.]
****************************
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Order from our ministry:click on this LINK
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Giving this book to others is one way to reach those around you. Most people will take a book. They may read it later, but at least you will have a book in their hands!
So many don’t know anything about how close we are to the return of the Lord! Help wake them up! Jesus did not tell me to write this book so long ago and then bring it all the way through publication at this time for no reason. It is here to inform all those who would read it about where we are in time, what is coming very soon, what happens next, what it takes to go with Jesus when he comes, and what all should be doing right now.
**************
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Friday, May 19, 2017
* THE COSMIC BATTLE OF GOOD AND EVIL IN OUR TIME
The cosmic battle between good
and evil has reached epic proportions in our day. What we see being played out in our world, in
our nation and throughout the planet, is but the local physical manifestation of
a gigantic struggle in the spiritual realm.
Good. And evil.
Our battle, the battle of those
in the good camp, is not really against flesh and blood but against all those
various hierarchies in the spiritual realm who are in the evil camp. In Pauls’ words in Ephesians 6:12…
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. These
are all ranks and positions in the evil spiritual world. But of course the physical manifestation of
that battle is most assuredly physical as well.
Good. What is good? For our purposes, for our understanding, it
is all those who ascribe to the values and standards and commandments of God
himself. That is the good side. Evil therefore is obviously all those who do
not, knowingly or not.
Suddenly, shockingly in our day,
we are now confronting a large number, a great number we had not heretofore
recognized as so obviously in the evil camp.
For earlier decades in the lives of people living today, evil was
apparent in violent crimes, in the behavior of a certain few national
governments that were so antagonistic to a peaceful world, and on a more
personal basis in the more private inner struggle of individuals not to sin,
not to give in to impulses that obviously are wrong.
But we had not yet recognized the
mammoth scope of evil on earth. Now that
is apparent.
The evil side has always been led
by a cunning being who is sophisticated in his presentation. He uses deception above all else in his
leadership, and appears himself at times as an angel of light. He leads people astray, people who do not
know the truth, who do not have the rock solid foundation of God deep in their
hearts and souls. He is a murderer and
has been from the beginning.
Yes, we are frightened and
troubled by the highly violent without limit terrorist organizations in the
world. That is readily apparent evil.
But what I focus on here is the
giant evil movement that has now become public in America and in other
lands. It has captured a mass of the
population. Half? Who knows?
Maybe.
Of all the scriptures that fit
our time, the one in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that the
god of this world [the devil] has
blinded the minds of unbelievers is the most accurate and to the point.
In past years we could
conveniently ignore that many around us - including many who go to traditional
Sunday church services - really did not know the Bible and did not know Jesus,
did not know God. We as a nation went
forward under some general understandings of a set of civil values that enabled
at least on the surface a somewhat harmonious discourse and relationship among
the people.
That was always a false bubble of
course, but the nation continued on in it.
Now, in these last days, the
bubble is gone. We see that thousands,
hundreds of thousands, millions of people are so apparently deluded. Their minds do not work as ours. They do not see the truths in situations that
we believers see. They take stands and
espouse positions that to us are insane at the core and dangerous to the very
existence of our society and nation.
Yes, that is what is going on and
has happened dear believers. The devil
has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.
And there were always and are now a lot more unbelievers around than you
had thought. They make up the majority
of the nation and world.
These massive groups of people –
political groups, social groups, groups of young people, most of the media,
most of the entertainment world, large numbers of the religious world – that
are so irrationally vocal and virulent, that is the evil side. They cannot see the truth because they don’t
know nor recognize the truth. They don’t
know because they truly don’t know.
Right to our face, right from the
TV screen or the Internet or the newspaper or in public meetings or on university
campuses they say and shout things we know are a hundred percent wrong and
dangerous and harmful, evenly blindly stupid.
Yet they cannot see.
These are the physical manifestation
of the efforts of the evil one to move to that one-world government for which
he has labored for so long. In past
centuries he has at times gotten far in building this only to be turned back –
in the days of Rome, in nazi Germany in the last century, in the communist
Soviet Union under Stalin, in isolated pockets such as Cambodia in the last
century, in parts of the arab muslim terrorist world. But now with all the benefits of modern
electronics and communications he has reached much further – in Europe, in
America, and elsewhere. He is oh so
close, and he knows that. The serious
powerful human leaders of this movement that rarely if ever are public have
been pulling strings and developing organizations for this purpose for
centuries. They and their leader can
taste the prize. It is close.
But suddenly in just the last
couple years there was pushback, maybe a final pushback, from the remnant of
God’s people and their impact on those still not overcome by the evil one. In Britain, then the US, and perhaps
elsewhere, pushback. An effort to stop
the tide to this controlling worldwide bureaucratic, evil government. And that effort has infuriated and enraged
the evil one and all those millions in his camp. It has pushed them over the edge. No longer are they concerned with maintaining
the charade of civility and harmony. No
longer do they want to appear as part of a larger peaceful society. No. It
is full steam ahead no matter what.
Destroy any effort to the contrary, and any people in the way. They appear insane in their views and words
and actions. They are, evil and
apparently insane under the influence of the evil one. They are lost.
And that is happening and it is
going on. It is terrifying and it is in
front of our faces and it is rolling.
This last great push of the evil
side and its leader will result in some form of one-world government, whether
it ever really gets completely to that point or not. It will result in the maniacal leadership of
the anti-christ and his false prophet.
And they and it will be destroyed in short order.
One day the anti-christ will be
revealed, the Lord will collect his believers, the seven year Tribulation will
occur with God’s judgement on the world playing out and ending in the final
battle at Armageddon, the establishment of Kingdom rule from Jerusalem, and the
move into another era.
And what is our role? To clearly recognize the times we are living
in. To utilize the gifts God has given
us to discern the truth in every situation.
To keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, on Jesus. To represent the Lord and tell others about
the Lord every opportunity as the Holy Spirit guides. To watch, to be alert. And to realize that the days of this current
world and American society are numbered and dwindling rapidly, like sand
through an hourglass.
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(May 2017)
Copyright
© 2017 by John Newlin
[NOTE: This article may and should be copied,
printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or
forwarded in its entirety with appropriate attributions included (including the
copyright and the ministry contact information). It may also be quoted in part as long as
appropriate attributions are given. We
in fact encourage you to do all this and to give printed copies to those who
you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.]
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
A WORD
[Received Late At
Night, February 12 ]
God puts kings in places.
And God takes them from their thrones.
He has people elected to positions.
And he has people lose elections.
And still the people struggle.
Still they wonder,
Those that ask at all.
Over and over the people fail tests.
They do not hear his prophets.
They do not see his words in action.
People ask,
Has God
done anything since
Jesus and
the disciples?
It is all as God has said to Isaiah (Isaiah 6:9-10).
It is all as Paul wrote (2 Corinthians 4:4).
And the few, the remnant, who
See God’s actions, who hear
His voice, who see the miracles
And the healings,
Who live in peace with God but struggle
In distress at the world and those
Around,
They wonder: How
long, O Lord, How Long?
Soon.
I am coming soon.
Yes, He is.
Real soon. The
evidence is in.
The prophecies fulfilled.
He is coming soon.
And still the people stumble.
Still they murmur.
Will they ever repent?
Will they ever learn?
Only God knows.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6).
It is true.
Yet their ears, their hearts
Can’t hear the knowledge,
Can’t receive the truth.
They don’t even give it
An opportunity.
Narrow is the way
And few are they who find it (re
Matthew 7:14).
So true.
The Lord will come with a shout,
An angel’s call, a trumpet blast,
And the dead in Christ will rise first.
To do what? Walk the
earth?
Who knows?
Then we who are still alive
Will together with them meet
Christ in the clouds.
And there we will be with Him forever.
God – our God. Our
Lord.
It is a remnant.
A remnant.
With a last second revival.
How many more?
A remnant for now.
And the time is running out.
If you do not stand in your faith,
you will not stand at all (Isaiah 7:9b).
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(March
2017)
Copyright © 2017 by John
Newlin
[NOTE: This article may and should be copied,
printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or
forwarded in its entirety with appropriate attributions included (including the
copyright and the ministry contact information). It may also be quoted in part as long as
appropriate attributions are given. We
in fact encourage you to do all this and to give printed copies to those who
you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.]
Thursday, December 15, 2016
* LISTEN TO GOD
Simple to say. Wonderful Advice. The key is to do it!
We all know every believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ should pray regularly and should keep his spiritual ears open
to hear the Lord. God will speak through
the words of the Bible certainly. He
will speak through circumstances and events, and even through other
people. And he will just speak to you in
real words. My experience is that most
of this occurs in that famous still small voice of God that you alone will
hear. Sometimes though he might speak to
you in an audible voice, or at least a voice that to you is bold and audible
whether it really is or not.
What else can you do of more
importance than to truly live a life of prayer and always, always be in an
attitude of listening expectantly for God’s word, for his guidance?
Anyone who has followed us has
heard or read of instances in my life where the Lord has spoken. I only write or speak about a few as
appropriate to what I am writing. And
too, some of God’s words are just for me, or for Cathy and me.
Let me present one great example
of the Lord’s speaking to me. It occurred
in August and September of 2001. Cathy
and I had an important meeting scheduled near New York City for September 11 of
that year. It involved many people and
had been fixed for some time.
About six weeks prior to that
date, one day while sitting quietly in prayer about that upcoming meeting, God
spoke: “No need to make airline or hotel
reservations…” That’s what he said.
Then in succeeding weeks he spoke
again and again on this. Always the
words contained advice about taking no airplane. Sometimes they included no hotel and no car.
All in all, he spoke about five
or six times on this.
Needless to say Cathy and I were
concerned about these words from God and about the meeting. We even invited over the minister of the
church we were attending and his wife.
They were obviously amazed. One
said “You can’t go!” The other said “You
have to go!”
So we pondered and prayed.
Finally we made what seemed
sensible from a human standpoint. We
flew to the area early, before September 11.
And then we took a hotel quite a few miles away and rented a car.
So on September 11 we were there,
in a city outside New York City, and we drove to the place of our scheduled
meeting. We parked in a garage, got out
and walked through a tall hotel on the way to the building of the meeting. While walking through the lobby we
encountered a television set blaring in the lounge in the bar, and one or more people
standing rapt in attention watching. We
stopped. The television was showing an
airplane flying into the World Trade Center.
It was quiet. A man at a nearby
table prayed out loud. The moment was
overwhelming. Cathy and I looked at the
television and at each other.
Soon quietly we stumbled on to
the place of our meeting. A few minutes
there and we heard another plane had hit the World Trade Center and one had hit
the Pentagon. The meeting was postponed.
Cathy and I left. Later in the day I telephoned the minister
back home. Simple comment. “Did you see what happened?” Of course he had. No words fit.
God had warned Cathy and me over
and over about 9/11. He never told me
what was to happen, but he told me what we needed to do to protect
ourselves. In terms of the gifts of the
Spirit, this could be called a gift of knowledge, and perhaps also a gift of
prophecy. It was a warning to us about
an event to happen, and thank God we at least adjusted our travel plans.
In these difficult days leading
up to the Lord’s return, we all need as much of God’s guidance as he will give
us. Listen to God. Ask him to speak. Seek him.
He will be found by those who seek him.
Who knows the truth but God? Who knows the future but God? Who cares more for you than God?
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(December
2016)
Copyright © 2016 by John
Newlin
[NOTE: This article may and
should be copied, printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is
copied, printed, or forwarded in its entirety with the appropriate attributions
included (including the copyright and the ministry contact information). It may also be quoted in part as long as
appropriate attributions are given. We
in fact encourage you to do all this and to give printed copies to those who
you know would benefit and do not have access to computers.]
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
* BEING THANKFUL
Be thankful that you know the Lord.
That relationship is far greater in importance in your life
than anything else – your family, your work, your home, your friends, your
house, your car, any and every thing.
If you don’t know the Lord when you die, you will be lost
forever.
If you don’t know the Lord when he soon returns to collect
his church, you will not go with him.
If you don’t know the Lord when the tribulation begins, you
will suffer unimaginably.
Never stop thanking and praising the Lord. Yes, you can thank him for all the other
blessings in your life too, but number one is that you truly know the Lord.
Thank the Lord for who he is and for all he has done and who
you are in him. If you don’t know who
you are in him, click on this link http://johnnewlinministries.org/Who_We_Are_In_Jesus.htm
Thank him and praise him!
Remember, God lives in the praises of his people.
And have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(November
2016)
Copyright © 2016 by John
Newlin
[NOTE: This article may and should be copied,
printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or
forwarded in its entirety with the appropriate attributions included. We in fact encourage you to do so and
especially to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do
not have access to computers.]
Monday, May 16, 2016
* LETTING GOD BE GOD
It is the early hours of the morning and I am still
excited.
Learning more every day of the Father’s magnificent hand in
our lives, of the Lord’s putting together every step of his plan.
I will guide you step by step, he has told me. I will show you the way.
So often in recent months and years the point has been
made. I can’t do it. No, I can’t.
For all the best of motives and goals, in trying to go forward and
implement what I understand to be God’s call and assignment, I can’t do
it. I can make headway, to be sure. And good things at times can happen, to be
sure. But to fulfill his plan, his
objective, his assignment, he has to do it.
Through me. Around me. I have to become nothing. To give myself up entirely. To be consciously and unconsciously open to
what he is doing, sensitive to him always, not ever pressing or forcing
anything that I think must happen but rather letting him work through me to
accomplish.
Dying to self. How
many years, Lord? How long ago did you
tell me that, that I would be dying soon?
At least twenty. I remember
talking about that with two wonderful people you put in my path decades
ago. We were pondering. And yes, I and we all had the right answer. Dying to the old self, the old priorities,
the old interests, the old objectives.
But year after year in all you have taught me and all that we have done
together, still learning. Still learning
what that means.
Just not me. No
evidence or glory of or for me. It is
all about you, Lord. It is all you,
Lord. Everything. And if I don’t know or
see how something is to go forward or might happen that you have revealed to
me, well, that’s alright. You will
reveal what you want me to know at your time, your perfect time. It is never my time that counts, but yours.
Surely the Lord does nothing without revealing his plans,
his secrets to his servants the prophets.
Yes, the Bible says that. And how
true it is you have shown me.
So long ago you revealed your plan. You made it known. And then suddenly you act and it all comes to
pass.
There is no god but God.
All things are possible with him.
We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Rest in him. Live in
him. Use all the tools he has given you,
and live in him.
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(May
2016)
Copyright © 2016 by John
Newlin
[NOTE: This article may and should be copied,
printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or
forwarded in its entirety with the appropriate attributions included. We in fact encourage you to do so and
especially to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do
not have access to computers.]
Friday, April 22, 2016
* YES GOD IS LOVE - HE IS ALSO A LOT MORE THAN THAT
I am increasingly concerned with
the continuing modern focus on the love aspect of our wonderful God. Yes, God is love. We know that.
The Bible tells us that. Look at
Jesus’ actions in going to the cross for us.
Yes, it is true. God is love.
He is also many other
things. And this is where so many today
who profess to be Christians just turn a blind eye.
God is patience. He is long-suffering, but that patience does
not last forever. Eventually people have
to realize who he is and what he expects.
And he is jealous. He is a jealous God. You cannot have other gods before him. You cannot put other things in life before
him. You just can’t.
And he is a just God who indeed
does avenge. Vengeance is mine, says the
Lord.
If you read the Bible you know
that God will only tolerate evil so long, even in his chosen people the
Jews. Notice how he brings all sorts of
calamities on the Israelites over the years when they are out of line. Eventually at one point he even lets
Jerusalem be overrun and the leaders taken away to Babylon.
And he makes it clear in the
Bible that all these things that happen aren’t just necessarily by
accident. The book of Nahum notes the Lord’s
way is in the whirlwind and storm. And
the book of Amos asks has disaster come to a city and the Lord not caused it?
Pretty chilling, is it not –
certainly . Except for the fact that we
also do know the goodness and love of God!
Yes, God is God. I wrote about that quite a bit recently in the
newsletter in March titled NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD. People today just can’t seem to get a grip on
the immensity of God. All powerful. All knowing.
All present. He is God.
We humans can hardly imagine
God!
One approach is to look at some
movies where an emperor or other powerful figure is portrayed. Maybe a movie about Caesar or Genghis Khan or
some other powerful historical figure. I
expect you have all seen something like that.
Remember how sometimes a trembling subject or stranger is brought in
before the ruler, and the subject is kneeling or crawling on the floor. They are terrified because of the great power
of the ruler.
Well, they should be. The ruler can just decide to end their lives,
or maybe send them off to some battle, or take their possessions away, or
whatever.
I tell you, none of those rulers
have even a tiny percentage of the power that our God has. If people fear someone who can take away
their life, how much more should they fear someone who not only could do that
but also could send them for an eternity into a horrible place to exist? Here is the actual scripture that makes that
point: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (MT 10:28 NIV)
Most people just don’t appreciate
the immensity of God or who he really is because they don’t know him – let’s be
honest. They just don’t. God to them is someone in a book or someone
talked about once in a while or at church.
But we are talking about
God. Yes, he is love. Yes, he is patient.
But do you remember when he
killed everyone on earth except Noah and seven members of Noah’s family,
because he was so upset by the behavior of people?
And do you remember when he was
going to eliminate all the Israelites because of their behavior, and start over
with Moses? Moses interceded and God
decided not to do that.
God is love all right. The actions of Jesus in his first visit to
earth were love, all right. Lots of
demonstrations of compassion. And his
love for us comes through in our times of prayer and communication with
him.
But even Jesus is returning as
the great leader of the army of angels and saints to win at Armageddon and then
to establish his rule from Jerusalem.
Jesus himself kills everyone in the army opposing him at
Armageddon. Jesus.
I am telling you all this because
I am so concerned that people today just look at the love aspect of God. For sure he loves us and he forgives us and
he wants the best for us. But he also
wants his plans to be fulfilled and his words to be obeyed.
We are very near the time Jesus
will come to collect his believers and take them away, giving them a new glorious
body. During the time they are away in
heaven, the seven year tribulation will occur.
Yes, terrible things are done during that period by the antichrist, the
false prophet, and the devil. See
Chapter 13 of Revelation, for example.
But many horrors poured out during that seven year period described in
many chapters in Revelation beginning in Chapter 6 are horrors poured out on
the remaining humans on earth and on the earth itself by God. They are the wrath of God. At the time of the seven year tribulation,
God will have been long-suffering for long enough. He still will be seeking those who will turn
to Jesus, but he will also be pouring out his wrath.
Don’t let anyone mislead you so
into thinking that God is only love.
Remember, he is absolutely God.
Someone to be feared as well as loved.
And yes, that advice about fearing the Lord is in the Bible too.
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(APRIL,
2016)
Copyright © 2016 by John
Newlin
[NOTE: This article may and should be copied,
printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or
forwarded in its entirety with the appropriate attributions included. We in fact encourage you to do so and
especially to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do
not have access to computers.]
Friday, February 26, 2016
* NO OTHER GODS
THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME
Americans have not done a good
job of following this first of the Ten Commandments, have they? Not just unbelievers, of course, but not even
many believers, I would suggest.
No gods before God. Our focus must be on him first and
always. Family, jobs, friends, hobbies,
sports, whatever, even worthwhile causes, cannot come before God.
Jesus again made the same point
when asked what was the greatest commandment.
He said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul,
and all your mind. Again, God is
first. Jesus in his statement went on to
make loving our neighbor – i.e., all other people – in second place. A close second he pointed out, but still
second. Notice again no job mentioned
anywhere. No work assignment. Don’t think anyone will ever get any praise
in heaven regarding how hard they worked at the office or store or plant or
factory.
So no gods before God.
Look at America today. How many gods can you name that Americans
worship more than God? Or put before God
in their actions. Remember, you can
judge what a person believes or thinks by looking at his actions. What he says means little, but what he does
tells all.
How about money. Income.
How about work. Jobs.
Easy to see in some people’s lives that their jobs are the god of their
life. They sacrifice everything to
getting ahead in that job (There really is a difference between having income
as a god and having work as a god. Some
people just want money, they want more income, they focus on income in
life. And some others really do just
focus on a particular type of work – their job really is them—they revel and
live in that job.).
How about sports. Watching sports, especially pro
football. Or playing golf.
How about good times – vacations,
etc.
How about a spouse or love. Putting a person higher than God. Suppose you are having great difficulty in
your marriage. Suppose you go to all
sorts of experts for help – spiritual experts as well as secular counselors,
and nothing seems to work. And you just
keep at it and keep trying to adjust your own life, yet nothing you seem to do
ever pleases this spouse. You have made
that spouse and your relationship with the spouse your top priority. You have put that spouse above God. You need to stop, repent, and put God back at
the top of the list.
How about children? Strange sounding, isn’t it. We are all supposed to love our children, and
I expect overwhelmingly most do. But I
suggest a strange thing has happened in recent decades. For some reason young parents have become
more devoted than ever to being sure their children have everything possible,
experience everything possible. And to
being sure they are safe, protected. Not
only do they work tirelessly to do that, but they adjust their entire life
schedules and activities to do that. The
children are the center of their lives…and I would suggest their god. Not the way it was supposed to be. Children are wonderful, but they are just
part of the family. Life most assuredly
is not just about the children, although I expect if you are alert you know
some young parents who live that way.
Still having trouble seeing
this? Just look at time – how much time
you or others spend on various subjects.
Write it down. Look at the time
spent in work, in watching television for relaxation or vegging out, in driving
about and going shopping or out to restaurants, in working on the yard or
house, in going to school events, in going to social occasions. You can do this for yourself and those you
know closely. You likely will be
shocked. Looking at where you spend your
time is another indication of your priorities in life.
What if people put God
first? What would happen? They would realize all the other blessings
and promises of God, that’s what. Putting God first surely means you believe
him and his words. It means that you
live and act according to his words. If
you don’t you are surely not putting him first.
That’s just like Paul’s famous words about confessing that Jesus is Lord
of your life. If he is your Lord, then
you by definition obey and do whatever he says.
Never too late to start. At least while you are still living and still
on planet earth. But it will be too late
soon.
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(February
2016)
Copyright © 2016 by John
Newlin
[NOTE: This article may and should be copied,
printed, or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or
forwarded in its entirety with the appropriate attributions included. We in fact encourage you to do so and
especially to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do
not have access to computers.]
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
* THINGS TO THANK GOD FOR
Tomorrow in the USA is the holiday of Thanksgiving.
With that in mind, and realizing that giving thanks is certainly an ongoing role for all believers in all countries, here are just some of the many things all of you might want to thank God for:
- Thank God that you know Jesus.
- Thank God that Jesus is returning soon and that you will go with him when he collects his believers.
- Thank God for his great protection, that he has kept you and your family well in this rapidly disintegrating secular world.
- Thank God for giving you the inner strength and wisdom and peace to live and survive in this difficult world and to deal with all the bad things that do occur – to those you know, to those nearby, to those close to you.
- Thank God that you are able to keep your eyes on Jesus, to keep your focus on him even when others ridicule or disparage or repudiate or just ignore you because of your faith.
- Thank God for the great spiritual gift of discernment, that you are able to discern truth from falsehood, good from evil, in a world that can do neither.
- Thank God for those you pray for who do not yet know the Lord but whom you pray God the Father will draw to Jesus.
- Thank God for all the manifold blessings he has poured on you this year that only you know about (and for those blessings that you don't know about).
- Thank God for the people he has brought into your life – to encourage you, to teach you, to be a friend and companion, to help you, and for you to do the same for them.
- That God that you are a citizen of the Kingdom of God.
- Thank God that he loves you and that he reveals more and more of himself to you.
Cathy and I are thankful for all of you.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
JOHN NEWLIN MINISTRIES
P O BOX 15797
WILMINGTON, NC 28408
www.johnnewlinministries.org
email: john@johnnewlinministries.org
Twitter.com/johnnewlinmin
Blog: johnnewlin.blogspot.com
tel 910 395 1465
P O BOX 15797
WILMINGTON, NC 28408
www.johnnewlinministries.org
email: john@johnnewlinministries.org
Twitter.com/johnnewlinmin
Blog: johnnewlin.blogspot.com
tel 910 395 1465
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
* SOMETIMES LIFE DOESN'T TURN OUT THE WAY WE THOUGHT IT WOULD
One very early morning not long
ago Cathy and I were in the house of a young man who had died surprisingly in
the wee hours of that morning. He was a
vibrant, active, bright, charming, seemingly in-shape man who was well liked by
all, and his shocking death was devastating to the family and all who knew him.
So very early that morning, as I
comforted his wife, suddenly I found myself saying to her a really strange
phrase: “Sometimes life doesn’t turn out
the way we thought it would.” I hadn’t
planned that sentence. It wasn’t a
thought I had pondered. It just came
out. I have to believe it was the Holy
Spirit speaking through me.
The truth of that sentence is
overwhelming. Here was a young family
with friends and plans and good jobs and a bright future. And all of a sudden in the middle of the
night, life was changed drastically forever for those left alive. The words I heard neighbors say who came that
morning were “terrible,” and “this is terrible.” The deceased man’s boss was there, and he
said he had an office full of crying people.
I don’t doubt it. We tried to
comfort. We wondered what more to
do. And in the end of course we all could
do little. A surprising death is like
that.
Now, yesterday we were in a
funeral service for a young woman and mother of three. Cathy and I had gone to her wedding not too
many years before. Her husband and his
parents had lived near us. She had been
in a car accident and had suffered a broken leg. But then, two days later in the hospital,
suddenly she had died. Devastating. The church was overflowing with people who
had come. An enormous number of family
had come, because it was such a shock, perhaps also because just two weeks
prior they had had a funeral for the woman’s father in the same place.
So we sat there and heard some
music and some words from the pastor, who correctly stressed he had no answers
for what had happened. Some spoke personally
about the woman in short eulogies. There
were pictures shown. I looked over all
the heads, all the people. And I thought
here now we have a young husband left with three young children, and a larger
family and group of friends and co-workers whose life has been changed
drastically forever.
“Sometimes life doesn’t turn out
the way we thought it would.” I
remembered that sentence.
And as I looked over all the
people, all the mourning people, I thought about how little people know of what
is going on here. How little we all
know, even those of us who are so blessed to know the Lord. And many of those there certainly did. I thought about how people really are
sheep. As Jesus said to me once in a
service, they really are sheep, aren’t they, John?” The answer is yes, they are. Yes, we all are (Sheep are animals that very
much need a shepherd to thrive and even survive.).
If we ever get deep enough in our
contemplations to think about life and where we are and what is happening,
goodness, yes, people are sheep. Thank
God for those who believe and know the Lord.
We have the peace of knowing where our loved deceased are and where we
will eventually be – with the Lord!
Thank God for that peace.
But why these surprising deaths
of such apparently good people at the prime of their lives, deaths that so hurt
so many? Oh, certainly, yes, God will
and does use their deaths to work in the lives of those impacted. But doesn’t the Bible say why die before your
time? Yes, it does. In Ecclesiastes 7:17. It also says over in Isaiah 57:1 that God may
take a good man away early to spare him from what is coming. Difficult thoughts to fully grasp.
Imagine the terror of those who
do not know God at all when they confront something like these two deaths! Imagine their horror. And anger.
And fear. And panic. And pathos.
This is a strange strange world
in which we live, dear friends. I have
said that more than once, and as the years go by and I see and experience more
and more, I see that is so more and more.
We have a wonderful God – Father, Son, Holy Spirit – and we know all he
reveals to us and all we are open to receive.
And even with all that, we know so little.
In recent months I have been
pressed somehow to consider more and more just how beyond our comprehension God
truly is. Imagine if you can (you really
can’t fully) just how and who this God is.
Imagine a being who can construct a world, planets, people, a universe,
a solar system, a galaxy. The mind reels
just thinking about it. And this Jesus
is his son, his first son, his only son.
We too are adopted in as sons of God.
How wonderful is that. But
imagine who and what we are talking about.
If we spend much time reflecting
on that, speaking about that, praying about that, we will be staggered. We just don’t know. What is truly going on? Well, we do have some knowledge, the guidance
that there is a mammoth battle between good and evil that is soon coming to a
culmination. We are indeed even living
in the last of the days before that time.
We do understand there is a huge spiritual world out there that we
really don’t see or comprehend. Only
once in a while, those who are truly in touch with God, with the Holy Spirit,
sense some depth of that. Sometimes
people see an angel or two. And yes,
sometimes real believers see God’s miraculous work right in front of their
eyes. We do. I hope you do. We certainly also see marvelous divine
healings of people with serious problems.
But the fullness of God? Wow.
Remember Paul’s great prayer that we would comprehend the length and
width and height and depth of the love of Christ? God.
Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit. Even our most serious churches sometimes
speak too flippantly in referring to them.
Awe is the word. Awe is the feeling.
One famous pastor of old, Oswald
Chambers, says that the closer we get to God the more we realize how little we
know.
Well. One thing we do know – that in all things God
works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose (Romans 8:28).
We put ourselves in Jesus’s
hands. He is our shepherd and we his
sheep. We keep our eyes on him. He is our hope. Our only hope. Without him, no hope. Thank God he came two thousand years ago and
went through with the plan his father and he had to redeem humankind. And thank God he is coming back soon!
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(October 2015)
Copyright © 2015 by John
Newlin
[NOTE: This article may and should be copied, printed,
or forwarded by email to others so long as it is copied, printed, or forwarded
in its entirety with the appropriate attributions included. We in fact encourage you to do so and
especially to give printed copies to those who you know would benefit and do
not have access to computers.]
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