Children of the Living God :: By Dennis Huebshman

Most of the time when we talk about “Children of God,” we think of pre-teens, not grown people. We don’t consider that all humans are “children” to our Creator. After all, no matter how old we get in earth time, we’re all still children to Him. (emphasis mine)

In 1 John 2:1, John refers to those he’s writing to as “My little Children.” John was advanced in age by this time, and he had a strong paternal feeling for the fairly new believers. The churches of his day were just about into the second generation since the resurrection of Jesus, as 1 John was written between 95 and 110 A.D. in Ephesus. John was the only apostle to die by natural causes at an advanced age. It is obvious that there were false prophets and antichrists already at work in this world, trying to pull believers away from the true Word – Jesus. From 1 John 2 through 5, he gives detailed warnings about this.

John also gave believers the instructions for getting forgiveness for the sins they would commit. The sacrifice for all sin was made by Jesus, and any attempts to make further sacrifices would be an insult to His shed blood. It would be as if Jesus did not do enough to cover us. Instead, all who have received and accepted Jesus have the Holy Spirit in us, and to obtain forgiveness we follow 1 John 1:8-10. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [also see Romans 3:23]. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

As a final warning, in 1 John 5:10-12, he emphasizes what Jesus said in John 14:6; “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself/herself. Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar [not wise at all], because he/she has not believed in the testimony God has borne concerning His Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” There are no exceptions given.

As stated, we all will sin as long as we’re in these mortal human bodies, yet God stands ready to forgive all His children when asked. To be sure, this does not eliminate the possibility of being disciplined by our Heavenly Father, as given in Hebrews 12:5-8. The one sin that leads to “death” (forever in Hell), is to reject the gift that Jesus has given to all of us. For the gift to be ours, we must “open” (accept) it and claim Jesus as our Lord and Savior. John makes it clear in 1 John 2:22-23; “Who is the liar but he/she who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he/she who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.”

Jesus made it clear in a couple of instances that we should approach the Kingdom of Heaven with the innocence of children. Matthew 19:13-15; “Then children were brought to Him, that He might lay hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven’, and He laid His hands on them and went away.”

Referencing the growing instances of abusing children today, consider the Savior’s words in Matthew 18:4-6; “Whoever humbles himself/herself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever cause one of these little ones, who believe in Me, to sin, it would be better for him/her to have a great millstone fastened around his/her neck, and be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

Fernando Ortega released a song in 1997 called “Children of the Living God.” It’s a definite praise and glory song that seems so simple, yet there is meaning that runs deep. It’s a song that is for “Children” of all ages. Consider the words:

(1) Children of the Living God, come and sing, sing out loud. Children of the Living God, sing to the Living God.

Sing of the wonders He has made; bird in flight; falling rain. Sing of the wonders He has made; sing to the Living God.

(ref) How He loves us, with great love, He who sits enthroned above; for our lives He spilled His blood; sent His Spirit like a flood. Children of the Living God, sing to the Living God.

(2) Sing of His gentle healing hands, how they found the lowliest man; sing of His gentle healing hands; sing to the Living God.

(3) Sing of the mercy that He gives; though we sin, He forgives; sing of the mercy that He gives; sing to the Living God.

(4) Sing of the morning when He comes, in the clouds, glorious Son; sing for the morning when He comes; sing to the Living God.

The mercy of God allows us forgiveness of our sins, and for us to be longing for and looking for the appearance of our Savior when He comes in the clouds to take true believers up to meet Him and be kept from the coming wrath, just as God promised.

The biggest issue present is to have Jesus as our Savior before the Trumpet of the Lord sounds, and the shout of the archangel takes place. The process to do this is so simple that one pastor has labeled it the “ABCs” of Salvation. It’s given in Romans 10:9-13. First is “A,” admit we are all sinners in need of a Savior. Then, “B,” believe Jesus died for our sins and was raised up from the tomb to conquer sin and death for all who would receive and accept His gift. Finally, “C,” Call on the name of the Lord, and you will be saved.

No mysterious initiation ceremony; no secret words to memorize and repeat; no works to gain favor; no purchase price whatsoever. The song lyric, “Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain; He made it white as snow,” is absolutely on the mark. As I stated earlier, to think we can do anything to earn/buy Jesus’ gift is an insult.

For those who reject the Son of God, their eternity will be in the Lake of Fire with Satan and all his fallen angels (demons). This is described in Revelation 20:11-15. No one who has received and accepted Jesus will be at that judgment. All who are saved will be with Him forever.

By the way, there’s no third option, and to try to accept Him after your last breath on this earth will not work.

Take control of your “forever” and ask Jesus to forgive you and be your eternal Savior. Now wouldn’t be too early as His coming for us is imminent – right at the door. It could be any day, hour, minute, second now. Proudly declare that you are one of the “Children of the Living God,” and He will in no way pass you by.

Hope to see you there when we fall at the feet of Jesus to worship Him in person at last.

Maranatha! Shalom!

huebshman46@gmail.com

Jan 4, 2021

Why We Have Reached a State of Total Monetary Madness

The Nobel Prize is awarded to people in the field of economics because there are rules that equally apply to the financial world as in the world of physics and chemistry. The Nobel committee might as well suspend the prize for economics. We are at a point where financial guidelines that have existed for centuries are suddenly void.

In 2020 we had bond yields at a 5,000-year low, and the price of oil traded at a negative price for the first time ever. Another first was Tesla reaching a market cap of $670 billion, which is greater than the combined value of every other car company on planet Earth.

We had several times in 2020 where the stocks of defunct companies would go on wild price rides. The Hertz car rental company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company stock dropped down to 56 cents, and then it began to soar as day traders pushed up the price to $5.50. Never mind that the company had warned its “common stock will be worthless.”

Hertz received approval from a bankruptcy judge to sell up to $1 billion of common stock to take advantage of its recent share rally. The plan was scrapped when it became clear there would be lawsuits once people realized they were issued stock that had zero real value.

The craziest thing I witnessed was the massive amount of debt the government racked up. The House of Representatives got the ball rolling when it passed the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package on the 27th of March. The lack of tax revenues from all the lockdowns led to a $2.3 trillion shortfall for the federal government. Year-to-date, the national debt has grown by $4.3 trillion. Now that Trump has just signed the new stimulus package, we will have a $6 trillion deficit within a year’s time.

Two years ago I said that a fiscal crisis could lead to a $3 trillion deficit. If I went back to 2018 in a time machine and informed myself of this current situation, I would have thought that I had gone insane. I’m amazed that we’ve exceeded 100% of my worst nightmare vision. We still have three months to add another stimulus spending bill to the ever-growing debt.

The size and scope of this debt orgy is so enormous, most people probably do not understand what is happening. In 2000 we had a total federal debt of $5.6 trillion. In less than a year, our government has spent more than it spent during the first 224 years.

Almost every government in the world has joined the U.S. in issuing massive amounts of new debt. All that new money led to higher stock prices. Worldwide market capitalization was $85 trillion in 2020. This value dropped to $65 trillion at the March low but ended the year at $100 trillion. Most businesses have seen their actual incomes decline by at least 30%. The stock prices for airlines and cruise ships are high because governments just give them money.

I do not see how we can keep the economy going. Millions of people are several months behind on their rent and mortgage payments. People who have been unemployed for close to one year will be less likely to want to find work. Entire sections of the economy have been devastated by confinement, and millions of jobs have been lost for good.

Another indication that monetary madness has taken over is the price of bitcoin. The cryptocurrency marketplace is the largest financial bubble in percentage terms in global history. Bitcoin began trading at less than a cent, and now it’s traded as high as over $34,000. The total market cap of bitcoin is still small at $500 billion, but it’s crazy for people to be paying for a number that currently comes in 8,111 flavors.

If your password is lost or stolen, your bitcoin disappears forever. Every time I turn around, a new danger to cryptocurrency arises. The latest one came from the FCC declaring the cryptocurrency XRP a security in the way it was marketed. When the news of the move became public, the value of the XRP went from $30 billion to $8 billion, which was a 75% haircut. At the time, there wasn’t any concern that the same decision could be applied to Bitcoin.

The U.S. national debt will soon rise to $30 trillion, and it will probably continue to rise without much consequence. Bitcoin may reach $100,000 in the coming days.

God has total control over the world economy. He appears to be keeping things calm because tranquility will be the calling card of the rapture. The fact that we have arrived at such an extreme state of financial stability tells me the “Blessed Hope” must be very near.

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-27, NIV).

“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Mat. 24:44).

— Todd


China Prophetically Destined to Fail

Much talk from within the world of America’s news reporting is that China is the chief culprit in stirring much of the trouble in our nation and the world. Others, mostly from the leftist side of the political spectrum, tell a different story. China is, they say, a “competitor” but not an evil enemy.

That has been presumptive president-elect Joe Biden’s take for years. He has, through his son, the facts are revealing, worked within the communists’ state to bring about deals of various sorts. It’s been a more or less friendly competition from Mr. Biden’s perspective—and he has directly called it such.

People on the political right have and still do consider the Chinese Communist Party the greatest threat to world economic stability, if not to world peace. Those within the Trump administration who aren’t incognito (not really deep-staters) are convinced that China is by far the most profound threat America and the world will face in the immediate and distant future.

Certainly the facts, just by observing the moves of that government, prove that they are extremely aggressive in most every area of global interaction.

Consider their building of bases, creating islands in the South China Sea. We watch while they face down with aggressive naval force anyone who enters what they deem their territorial waters—waters that are clearly, according to maritime governance, international. Consider how it is that their labs from which came the dreaded virus that has, in effect, all but destroyed the Western economies through shutdowns, etc.

Prior to the Trump administration, it was the American State Department and previous administrations—both Democrat and Republican—which made agreements that enriched the communist state. Our own negotiation blunders, in effect, have helped build the Chinese communist regime into what is becoming a massive force that has prophetic overtones—that portend the destruction of much of the world’s population.

I have often believed that the Chinese will produce the chief force that will lead Asian nations as described in the following prophetic Scriptures.

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. (Revelation 9:13–18)

The following description gives further evidence of theprobable identity of these invaders from the oriental world.

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. (Revelation 16:12)

I am convinced that we have been watching the king of these “kings of the east” preparing to lead an unstoppable force into the occidental world. The river that has been barrier to such land invasion—the Euphrates—will be dried up, either by some sort of engineering or by supernatural means. I personally believe it will be supernatural.

Those who view this great force as one to fear is on the right side of how to view China as it grows and becomes more menacing. The Biden administration, if it comes to be, doesn’t seem to have anyone on its list of advisors who even recognizes that it is an economic threat, much less a military threat.

The question is moot, really, as to whether we are seeing China develop in the prophetic sense. The “kings of the east” are scheduled to invade and at the same time kill one-third of the world’s population. Whether it’s China or any other nation or force, they are coming from that part of the world and will represent the most deadly military force in human history. It will happen, according to God’s prophetic Word.

China looks at present to be extremely successful. It is building ominously as described above. Evidence more and more shows that it is influencing politicians, governments, media, business interests, and every other American (and even world) governing entity through economic methods—–bribes, etc. Things do not look good for the upcoming days. Many fear we will one day become the slaves of a Chinese communist state.

Don’t believe it. God’s prophetic Word tells a different story. The great force from the Far East will be held back until just before the time of Armageddon. It will not take over economically, then militarily.

The developing globalist forces of the Western nations will be a blocking force as well. Antichrist’s regime will grow, as we can see in daily and hourly news stories.

China—the king of the “kings of the east”—will meet the same fate as the regime of the first beast of Revelation 13: the Antichrist. We see how all will fail in the verse that follows the description of the “kings of the east” force just above.

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. (Revelation 16:13–14)

China, like all other anti-God forces, will meet its fate on the killing fields God has chosen.

–Terry