Blessed Assurance :: By Dennis Huebshman

Frances Jane VanAlstine lived from March 24, 1820 to February 12, 1915. During her lifetime, she wrote more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs. In case that name doesn’t ring a bell, she was better known as Fannie Crosby. VanAlstine was her married name. Though she was caused to be blinded by a quack doctor shortly after her birth, she did not use this as a “handicap.” She stated that she forgave the person that caused her blindness, and said she held no animosity in her heart toward him.

She heard many times about how sorry people were about her blindness. It’s said that a Scottish Minister once told her it was too bad that God did not give her the gift of sight. Her remarkable reply was, “If I had been given a choice at birth, I would have asked to be blind; for when I get to Heaven, the first face I see will be the One who died for me. (all emphasis mine)

Even though she could’ve been bitter, she chose a most beautiful pathway that has brought a mass of inspiration into this world. As I looked through just a partial list of songs credited to her, memories of worship services all the way back to my childhood came to mind. I never realized one beautiful person wrote so many of them.

Her husband was also blind, and they met at the New York Institution for the Blind where she was a student for 8 years, and then stayed after graduating as a teacher at the school. They married in 1858, and were separated only by his death in 1902.

For being a “non-sighted” person, her hymns give us a most graphic view of what will be coming just about any day now. She gave us “visions” of Our Savior, and that He will come for us to take us away to be with Him forever. She “saw” more than any sighted person I know, including me.

The song “Blessed Assurance” was written by her in 1873, yet the words are absolutely significant for today’s world:

(1) “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine. Oh what a foretaste of Glory Divine. Heir of Salvation, purchase of God. Born of His Spirit; washed in His blood.

(c.) This is My Story; this is My Song; Praising My Savior all the day long. This is My Story, this is My Song; Praising My Savior, all the day long.

(2) Perfect submission; perfect delight. Visions of Rapture, now Burst on My Sight. Angels descending, bring from above. Echoes of Mercy, whispers of Love.

(c.,3) Perfect Submission; all is at rest. I and My Savior, are happy and blest. Watching and waiting; looking above. Filled with His goodness; lost in His Love.”

Ms. Crosby developed a great relationship with the Savior, and was not afraid to say, “Jesus is Mine.” How many people today are so intimidated by the ways of this sinful world that they won’t even acknowledge the name “Jesus” except maybe to use it in vain? After all, according to this Satan-driven world, to say you Love Jesus would make you a “hater.”

The chorus – Her Story, Her Song, Praising Her Savior all day every day – is absolute perfect “communion” that she experienced every day, not just an hour or two each week. She knew without a doubt she was a part of Jesus’ “Church,” in or out of a building. A true Lamb of God.

Would it not be wonderful if we were able to look into her mind to see the “visions of Rapture, now burst on my sight”? “Watching and waiting, looking above.” Rather than taking her talent and keeping it to herself, she followed what Paul said we should do in Romans 12:4-8:

“For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function; so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another. And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If that gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his/her faith. If it is service, he/she must serve; if it is teaching, he/she must teach; if it is exhortation, he/she must exhort; if it is contributing, he/she must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he/she must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he/she must do so with cheerfulness.”

To this group of talents, I would add: if someone has the gift of heavenly songs within their heart, they must share them with the world. Ms. Crosby filled that talent well. For anyone seeking the Lord, besides reading God’s word regularly, music is great for the soul. Getting into a song such as “Blessed Assurance” is comforting to know that anyone who wishes can have a true relationship with Our Savior, who just also happens to be the creator of our world and of us (John 1:1-5).

No other so-called deity is said to want a relationship with their subjects. They’re designed after man’s quest for power and control, and woe be to those who resist.

Our Heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one Godhead in three entities; they are in perfect harmony, and the desire of our God is to let us know He loves us beyond all understanding (Philippians 4:7; Ephesians 3:15). We’re all familiar with John 3:16 and Romans 5:8. There was never a doubt we are all sinners (Romans 3:23) and in need of a divine Savior. The only possible acceptable solution would be for God Himself to provide the sacrifice that could not be equaled by any other source.

This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but was made when this earth was first created (Genesis 3). Prophets such as Isaiah told of the coming Messiah and what He would endure (Isaiah 53). Jesus did not come here as a human, and then discovered His role after He grew up. As John 10:18 states, He came “willingly” to fulfill the Father’s love for us. He fully knew all He would go through. The one part of the whole process that He dreaded was being separated from the Father for the first time ever. When He took all our sins – my sins – on Himself, the Father had to look away. For that brief moment, Jesus became the true sacrificial lamb for us (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34; Psalm 22).

After all that our Savior went through, our God could have demanded we all worship Him, and in any way He would choose. Instead, our Heavenly Father demonstrates His true and pure love for us by giving us the free will to accept or reject the most precious gift we could ever receive.

For those who accept, first and foremost, we’re promised to be kept from the coming Wrath/ Tribulation (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:9). While God is in the process of allowing the ultimate antichrist to cause havoc on this sin-filled world, all true believers will be with Jesus. When He returns to step foot on the earth at the end of the Tribulation, we believe we will be with Him as His holy army. We won’t be there to fight, but to witness Him put the rebellion down with just His word. We will have new forever bodies, and our minds will be compatible with His.

For those who choose to reject Jesus, God will allow them to do so. If they should die without ever asking Jesus to be their Savior, they will face the Great White Throne Judgment and be cast into the Lake of Fire with Satan and his demons forever (Revelation 20:11-15). No other option exists.

Our Father made a covenant with us through the shed blood of our Jesus. His covenants are forever. We have the Blessed Assurance that what we will have forever is far beyond what we can even imagine. Wonderful souls such as Ms. Crosby have given us a glimpse; however, I imagine she was overwhelmed when she first saw her Savior on February 12, 1915. I look forward to thanking her and many others who have been an inspiration in my life; that is, right after I bow to the ground at my Jesus’ feet and thank Him for loving someone as unworthy as me. I believe there will be many who feel the same way.

Plan on calling on Him to be your Savior today; and I’ll look forward to you being at my side at His feet.

Ahavah Olin! (Love Everlasting)

huebshman46@gmail.com

 

 

Viewing the World with Biblical Lenses :: By Gene Lawley

Our current world is in a “topsy-turvey” panic situation. The left is totally dedicated to somehow solving that “impending” climate-change disaster that is—in their view—about to suffocate us, or on the other hand, engulf us with roaring waves of water as the ice melts at the poles.

Then, a Corona virus comes along and explodes those issues in favor of a very real and present danger to civilization, worldwide. Their idea of a God in heaven, if that idea were ever to take place, has no ability to do anything.

If mankind wants to know his future, he can find it in the Bible, the Word of God, the God of the universe, the Sovereign Voice of Prophecy. Jesus said, in Luke 21:28, “When these things begin to happen, look up, for your redemption draws near.”

God has a plan for the universe, and it has not changed from its existence before time began. These three verses give us some idea that we can know what is coming to pass, in addition to that quote from Luke 21:28 above:

John 16:13 – “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but what He hears, that He will speak, and He will tell you things to come.”

Amos 3:7 – “Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”

 Habakkuk 1:2,5 – “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out to You, ‘Violence!‘ and You will not save.‘

“Look among the nations and watch—be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you.”

To those thoughts we must also add the following from Romans 11:33-36:

“Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”

Viewing the world through Biblical lenses is like thinking God’s thoughts along with Him. That is how it seems to be when I am reading the Word as it is verbally inspired, or “God breathed” as I am reading it in its present tense. In other words, God is saying it in eternity now, but I am seeing it in present time. Therefore, we can view current and future events as they appear in the Scriptures with confidence that they are our future.

A very real and vital example that tells us about this Corona virus and whether or not it means this is the end of the age, and Jesus is going to appear at this time, is in Luke 17:26-30:

“And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”

The picture shown here is as it will be when Jesus is revealed. It will not be the picture of devastation and doom that we are seeing today. There will be, then, a restoration of the economy and related lifestyles to resemble those in the passage above. (Incidentally, some have placed this passage’s parallel in Matthew 24:37-39 at the Lord’s second coming at the end of the seven-year tribulation. However, at that time there will be no such thriving economy, but devastation and a struggle to survive will be the conditions.)

Daniel 9:26-27 is the bullseye of the prophetic target that opens up the culminating end of this age:

“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, and till the end of the war desolations are determined.

“Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”

We see that the time of this beginning point is when the Messiah was crucified. We also see here that one who is of the lineage of the Romans who destroyed the city of Jerusalem and its temple in 70 A.D.    He will join with many to confirm a covenant—with many nations, no doubt, since it will have been the United Nations which established nationhood for Israel in 1948. This one who rises out of the ashes of the old Roman Empire is seen as a “prince,” perhaps someone of a higher political stature than a person rising out of obscurity, at least at this point. Who is now hovering in the shadows just off-stage, waiting for that opening to come to him and he is elevated to leadership of the world?

The one who is to come will bring forward that sixth head of the Beast of Daniel’s prophecy to the front page of today’s current events. With whom the covenant is made is revealed when we see that a new temple is evidently allowed to be built soon after the covenant is in place, just as touched on above.

Again, as mentioned above, this points to a restoration of Israel as a sovereign nation. It also reveals who the “many” are who also confirm the covenant—the United Nations. God often made a promise to the Jews that after He scattered them to all the nations of the world, He would later restore them to their native land again in the latter days. Ezekiel prophesied in Ezekiel 37 of that restoration and ends that chapter with a promise of an everlasting covenant with Israel. This. Time-wise, parallels with the seven-year covenant the secular world will make.

The key figure in this context is that “prince” who arises with authority to take control, as the Scriptures indicate. How will that happen, we may wonder? It is also the timing of the Rapture of the saints; and the resulting “sudden destruction” the world will experience, no doubt will open the way for “someone” to take charge, for the world will be looking for a leader.

That mortally wounded sixth head of the Beast will arise as this person takes control and fronts his actions behind the face of the New World Order proponents who have been longing for a one-world government to give them elite status.

This coming lawless one is revealed coming forth on a white horse, “conquering and to conquer.” This is a simple preview of what he will be doing throughout the seven years of the covenant period, although he will cancel the covenant halfway through it. That first seal opened by Jesus in Revelation 6 and the action portrayed in Daniel 9:27 displays the strange authority that will have been given to the Antichrist. Somehow, he will come to a world leadership position that is identified with his confirmation of the covenant with many other world leaders. There is no Scripture which tells of his being assassinated, then rising again to convince people that he is the Christ. Once the Rapture occurs, no Christian will be left on earth to challenge his authority, and the Lord will bring upon those who are left behind an evil, deceptive spirit to turn their hearts.

Currently, it is obvious that the “falling away” Paul writes of in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-8 is underway, full bore. In that passage we see that the “falling away” leads to a complete “taking away” with the removal of all resistance against the evil that is overwhelming the world.

The covenant’s confirmation is the pivotal event that triggers the Rapture, evidently, for Paul also writes of it in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 to 5:10, noting in 5:2-3, “For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night, for when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.

Who in the Middle East is fervently interested in “peace and safety” but Israel? That little country, the apple of God’s eye, is the bullseye also of prophecy. And thus we see it as the focus of seven years of judgment, along with the whole world, from which God will salvage a third of the Jews and restore them to a relationship with Him. (See Zachariah 13:8.) In Zachariah 12:10 we read that the Jews will “look upon Him whom they have pierced, and mourn for Him as for an only begotten son.” They will recognize Jesus as their Messiah during that seven years, at a feast of the atonement.

Closer at hand is the current epidemic of Corona virus. What do the Biblical lenses reveal to us about that issue? There is no direct reference to such things encountered by mankind during the ages particularly, but Biblical history shows that God deals with the sinfulness of man in drastic measures. The most destructive event, of course, was the flood of Noah’s time. It was worldwide and so extensive that only eight people survived, though warnings were evident for about 120 years.

That event was brought on because people of the world were so degraded with sin that “every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). Is this world approaching such a condition? It may well be so. God is certainly shouting out a warning that His judgment has not been nullified whatsoever. At the least, this episode has the ability to shake the population loose from its grasp onto false gods and false doctrines and point them to the truth that is in Jesus Christ. A saying akin to that thought comes out of the wars of the 20th century, “There are no atheists in the foxholes.”

The agnostics believe God created everything then left it to fend for itself, so I understand. But that is not so. God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). That is where we are today.

Contact email:  andwegetmercy@gmail.com