The Time Is Now

It is Time to get Right with Jesus – R. Nelson

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.” Revelation 2:5

ENCOURAGING WORD:

Back when John was writing the seven letters to the seven churches, the first church that he wrote to was the church of Ephesus. Apparently, the church of Ephesus had a lot of good going for them, but when we get to verse above Jesus lets them know where they fell short. We read in Revelation 2:2-3 where Jesus says, “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.” Jesus gave them a good commendation for their works in His name, but then down comes the gauntlet. The church of Ephesus was a church that was so busy doing the work of the Lord, they forgot about their love for the Lord. Jesus prefers a relationship with us over any form of works imaginable.

When I look out into the world and specifically America, I see the same thing happening, but we have even gone further down the road of apostasy from our Lord. Not only have we fallen away from the true doctrine of God’s Word, we have gone out of our way as a nation to blaspheme our Lord and we have stooped so low as to even parade around celebrating our sinful ways. We read this prophecy in Isaiah 5:18; “Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as if with a cart rope;” This is prevalent in our country today. We see parades masquerading around our country where they actual celebrate actions that are an abomination to God. What does it say, “Woe” to those who do such things! 1 Timothy 4:1-3 tells us exactly what is happening today in our country. “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” Unless you have been in the Word of God, you will have no idea that this is what is happening in our country because you will not hear this teaching from the mainline pulpits of today. The reason that is, is because most of what these three verses say will happen is coming from those same churches that refuse to teach the truth.

Ever since the early sixties, I have witnessed the watering down of the Word of God and the up rise of evil and disrespect for the Word of God. It is evident in how we live our lives and how distant we have become from the foundational roots that our country was founded on. We have seen generation after generation fall from the values that our once great country was built on. It seems that every generation tried to make things better for the upcoming generation, but in turn we have made it worse. When you remove God from society, you will see a decline in moral values and once again ever since the sixties we have seen this happen. It started out slow but gained speed every year with the last two decades moving at lightening speed to make sure that God is not a part of our country. That brings us to the threshold of today where we have gone far beyond rational behavior toward our God. Billy Graham once said, “If God doesn’t judge America soon, He owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.” Let me show you the following verse that explains way God has not judged America yet. 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” God is long suffering toward our nation because He is patient and waiting for all those who are going to turn to Jesus to do so, but when that happens, judgement will come and it will come fast and swift.

Now for the good news, we read in 2 Chronicles 7:14; “If My people (believers in Christ) who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I (God) will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  It is verses like this that give me hope. God is leaving it up to us as to where we turn from here. Gods people are still the Jews but also those that have given their lives over to Him for repentance and salvation. If we, who are called by His name will humble themselves and seek Gods face, He will hear from heaven and heal our land. I believe He has already done this a few times in our short history as a nation. The day will come though when it will be over and there will be no more healing of our nation. Psalm 103:9 gives us this short but to the point message, “He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever.”  This means that there will one day be an end and that day could come very soon. It is time for all of us to realize that no matter what we have ever done during our life, there is hope for you to be saved. This is evident in the following verse from the Word of God, 1 John 1:19; “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This applies to every person standing on God’s blue earth. God is a loving God and from what we read that is why He is long-suffering.

I personally believe that we are at a pivotal point in our nation’s history where we as Christians really need to get on our knees and cry out to God for healing and revival, a revival that will bring about a new birth and make us the great nation that we once were. When I say the Christians that is what I mean, not those that say they are believers, but those that have truly given their life to Jesus Christ. Unbelievers have no role in making our country a great nation, because God does not hear their petitions. God only hears His children and the way to become one of His children is to become born-again into the Holy Spirit. We read in James 4:8; “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” What is God saying here? He is saying draw near to Him and then He will draw near to you. He is not doing the chasing; He is doing the receiving. God will not force you into anything, He does not want forced obedience, God wants true love that produces obedience. How do you do that, you reach out to Him in repentance and faith and call on His name. Romans 10:13; tells us, “For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”  Are you a whoever, of course you are, therefore, if you reach out the Holy Spirit with true repentance, you will be saved, doesn’t that sound wonderful? Acts 16:30-31 tell us this, “And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So, they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” The keeper of the prison where Paul and Silas were being held in asked them this question. This was Paul’s response to him. If you truly give your life to Jesus and your confession is sure, then you will see a change in your life that will prove evidence of your conversion to Christ. I mention this because of the following verse that we read in Matthew 7:21-23; “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” God knows if your conversion is true, He will not be mocked. Make this commitment today and repeat this prayer in the presence of your own home. “Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey you, and to do your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.” If you said this prayer and meant it from the bottom of your heart, let me be the first to welcome you into the family of God.

ACTION POINT:

There is no doubt whatsoever that we are living in some pretty unprecedented times unlike never before. Sure, we have had other pandemics that shook the world, but we did not have all the other issues of the world tied into it at the same time. This one is truly different beyond any stretch of the imagination. Most people are blind to what is really happening in our world and in some sort of way, which might be a good thing. From a Christian perspective, it is leading to a time that is spoken of in the Bible as the Blessed Hope. The blessed hope of the soon return of Jesus Christ, how soon, nobody really knows but for those of us who have been watching the signs of our times and watching all these events unfold, we believe it is close. We read this closing verse in Luke 21:31-33; “So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. The things that are being referred to here are the things that we are clearly seeing happening today! With all this being said, you need to do your own studies and come to your own conclusions of what the Holy Spirit tells you. Please do not accept what I am telling you, I am not responsible for your salvation, you are. Like John the Baptist said, “I am ‘just one of many voices crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD. Believe what you will but know this, God’s Word will not return void, so, shouldn’t you know what God’s Word says? “Written To the glory of God, Inspired by the Holy Spirit!”

From our Chaplin-R. Fritz

It is Time to get Right with Jesus

People are and have been looking for a revival for a long time. The problem is revival starts with “you.” Those who have the Holy Spirit in them have to step up and be a doer of the word and not just a hearer of the word. God knows who these people are. James 1:22-25 says “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”  We need leaders and prayer warriors, real men, and women of God to step forward in their calling and spiritual gifts. If your waiting on God, He is waiting on you. If your waiting on the church, God is still waiting for that group of people that really want to know him and be in his mighty presence. We are talking about where the spirit is, there is liberty. 2 Corinthians 3:16-17 says “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”  It’s time for all God’s people to do what they are called to do and “obey” and trying to justify that it is somebody else that is called and not you or I do not have the time. These are excuses for not obeying. In the parable of the wedding feast, Mathew 22:1-14 it talks about wedding invitations sent out by a king to guests. No one showed up. The king was furious and sent out servants to find out why they were not coming. They made excuses. The end of the parable has Jesus saying in Mathew 22:14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”  To be “called” means an invitation more than a life serving ourselves, it is an invitation to live life together with Jesus Christ, serving God and experiencing life to the fullest, an invitation to be a disciple of Jesus, and finally an invitation to spend eternity with Him. “Chosen” means to accept the invitation and give up the things of this world. We do this by being a faithful disciple, something most people will not do. 2 Peter 1:5-11 says “And beside this, giving all diligence, add  to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  Notice it says if we do these things, you shall “never” fall and enter into the everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ. This is a life changer for Gods people. Those that really want to walk in his footsteps are given grace to bear fruit. Romans 8:14-17 says “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear: but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”  It saysthose with the Holy Spirit are the sons of God and the Holy Spirit speaks to our spirit that we are his children, joint heirs of Jesus Christ and glorified together. That should give ‘Hope” to every person that reads this that with the Holy Spirit, going through issues in their life that even though we will suffer with Jesus we will be with him forever. Revelations 5:10 says “And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.”  We will be kings and priests together with Jesus forever. This is what we have to look forward to if we are “Born again” and “obey” what the Lord wants us to do. It is hard to obey without the Holy Spirit giving you the orders and the ability and words to accomplish what the Lord wants done. Without the Holy Spirit, we are fighting our flesh and Satin and not collaborating with the Spirit.

There should be “hope” to all the people that believe that their life was too wicked or that God would not forgive them for the things that they did in their life. Paul the disciple (formerly called Saul) used to kill Christians before one day suddenly their shined round about him a light from heaven and he fell to the earth. Jesus then talks to him about why he is persecuting him. The Lord sent Ananias to work with him and he was filled with the Holy Ghost. Read Acts 9:1-31 and find out God used a murderer of his own people to give hope to anybody that thinks God will not forgive. My point to anybody that Satin has told you a lie that the Lord would not ever forgive and I just gave you proof that Satin is a liar and he will forgive you, repent, speak to God and be Born again, this is what Paul did. The Holy Spirit will show you grace to follow Jesus Christ and to overcome this world and Satin, the devil.