Everyone is watching the situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip; the rocket attacks with some reaching Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. There are some born-again Christians wringing their hands over everything that is taking place in the Middle East, so at this point, I must ask, IS this what we are to be doing at this point in time? Yes, I understand that the Rapture and the Tribulation are very close at hand and I am as able as you to take note of the prophecies that are coming to bear everyday.

I truly understand that the worst the earth has ever seen since its creation is about to erupt and decimate the population of the world, but my question still stands: “What are we to be doing…right now?” Did Jesus Christ not say, fear not for He has conquered the world and death? It appears everyone that understands what is about to take place (the Rapture) is more interested in watching the boob-tube for the latest developments than being out and about, with the work of the Lord.

Matthew 9.36-38, emphasis added: “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”

Luke 10.1-3, emphasis added: “After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.”

Have I missed something here? IS it me or are we not the labourers? IF we are indeed the laborers, then why are we sitting around doing nothing? Some may think it is better to see the pictures of face of the lost flash before their eyes. One day the Lord will ask why you weren’t there, doing as HE has asked of us. Please understand this: These people may be nothing to you, but they mean a great deal to the Lord! The question is, who are you more fearful of disappointing, a person in the here and now that needs the Lord or disappointing the Lord, Himself?

“Well…never fear, the Lord works in mysterious ways and HE will reach that person, he doesn’t need me to interfere.”

Is that the fact that you wish to face when you stand before the Lord? How will you answer the Lord God, when HE looks at you, remember now, HE knows the intent of your heart! Honestly, I would be fearful for my own salvation, I don’t know about you. Suffice it to say that is not something I want to contemplate, but rest assured that Satan has that thought in mind for many others than just little ol’ me. Be on your guard!

1 Peter 5.6-9, emphasis added: “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.”

How many times have you gone to church and while sitting there it dawns on you how long it has been since you took someone with you that is not saved? It is never enough for us to sit idly alone in our faith without exercising it and telling others what the Lord has done for us Your personal testimony is there for you to show the world and this is what we need to be doing at all times. As the Bible teaches, it is our reasonable duty.

I am more afraid of what my Lord thinks of me, than what anyone here on this planet thinks of me! If you truly stop and think about it, you might come to the conclusion that it is not enough for you and me to be forgiven of our SIN. We must KNOW what the Lord has done in us and for us….then we MUST go and tell others. If they don’t want to hear it, so be it. But to stand before the Lord and HE asks, “Did you ever bring anyone to ME?”

What is going to be your answer?

It is truly wonderful, when the Lord is your Savior, that your SIN is forgiven, but do we hurt our Lord by neglecting to witness to others? I’m sure I would hear, “I die to save you and then you decide that you can’t tell someone else all I have done for you, so that they can say the Lord died for them as well and be saved?”

Wow…what a slap in the face that would be!

I know…that’s a hurtful thing to say to anyone! Would it be better for you if the Lord said it to you? I sort of doubt that! The Lord asks us to engage ourselves in the Great Commission preaching and teaching others, wherever He may want us to go and I mean where ever! Stop for a moment and think of the story of Jonah. You never want to try and run from the Lord, it just ain’t possible, my friends. No one is saying you must be a minister or a preacher like Billy Graham.

Join the choir if you have the gift to sing, or become a deacon, help out in the nursery or a Sunday School, something is better than nothing at all, better than sitting there in the pew each and every Sunday. All who are born-again have been given certain gifts, certain abilities, whether it is singing or writing. We were given these gifts to be used for the Lord. What is that old saying, something about “mimicking someone is one of the greatest compliments, the best way to flatter someone else? The point is, whom better to emulate than Jesus Christ?

As the days and weeks fly by, as we live out every single day that comes along, no matter what is going on in this world, we must be about our Fathers work, that my friends, is the bottom-line! I’m being very honest. Some days things happening in this world, whether it is prophetic or not. Some things will happen that you must investigate further, like the 9/11 in 2001 or the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the earthquake in Haiti, many other things as well. But we must keep our noses to the grind stone because we know…what is coming ahead. We have the holy Word of God to tell us everything that is to take place in the future.

At the same time we know as well the Lord has given us HIS Laws and His gifts to us and we need to be doing exactly what HE has asked us to do. Join me and let’s praise the Lord always! Let’s make sure we have done all we can, to be a real part of the family of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Excuses are irrelevent!

Jesus Christ paid the price, we must share the Good News!

The “end of days!” Oh, big words, filled with fear and foreboding! For some it is truly a fearful thought and one they would just a soon not think about. For the born-again believer the “true” follower of Jesus Christ it is going to be a wonderful experience, to say the least. We hear the Mayan calendar will end as of December 21, 2012 and scholars are predicting nothing to take place on that day, any more than any other day.

Is it true, or should we be spending more time considering the Word of God and HIS day, otherwise known as the “Day of the Lord─the Tribulation and also spending time considering the coming Rapture. And then we see all these “preppers” making excessive accommodations to meet the coming catastrophe when the USA will descend into an abyss of financial failure, evoking the call by the president to a “national emergency” and the takeover by FEMA. So many horrible scenarios to be considered and, “What will people do?”

The problem here is this: Who will take on the duty of being prepared and who will let the Lord handle these things? I believe the problem breaks down to: Who is afraid to die and who is not? I truly believe this is the crux of the matter. I’m not talking about being dumb and walking into trouble, carelessly. I’m talking about the innermost thoughts of people about the coming “end of days” and how they are handling these thoughts.

Followers of Jesus Christ already know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). It is this knowledge that holds us to a different standard because the Lord is our protector and benefactor in all things. And as we already know, the unsaved do not have this knowledge to rely on.

Revelation 6:15-17: “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”

For a moment, remember where the Taliban hid themselves: In caves, and then look at where the preppers are making their accommodations now, many in old missile silos! It would appear that they are headed underground, thinking this to be the best place for safety─Bible fulfillment right before our eyes! For the followers of Jesus Christ, we often forget what happened to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Thrown into a furnace seven times hotter than normal and still the king saw four people walking about and when they came out, there wasn’t even the smell of smoke on any of them.

We like the phrases, “critical thinking.” Why have we not made these stories of the Bible into that same “critical thinking?” What most people miss is this: The “physical” is nothing, it will die and decompose one day. The “spirit” is whole different story all together, the “spiritual life” that the Lord has given each of us, saved or otherwise, is the essence of all that will come in the future. And again, “Where” exactly you spend that “spiritual life” is of significance in the here and now!

So many things are around us exclaiming the truth of the Bible. A “switch” in code of computer programming is a 0 or a 1. It is either nothing or it is “on”. You are either standing or sitting here or you are over there, but never both at the same time, right? I could go on and on, but I believe you get the idea. Everything in our lives is a “decision” and it is good or bad, right or wrong, but never both. That is why a “gray area” is always wrong, because it is never a “right.”

Go ahead on and let that bounce around the old head a few times and you’ll get the gist of statement. Odd isn’t it? Once you get this concept straight in your head, life will be so different than you thought before hand. BUT…too many don’t want to accept that rule, it matters little, God made it a rule of life and we must then learn to accept it or not, just like salvation. It is then the reason that life becomes so very difficult, the “gray areas” tend to grow exponentially and skew our views. I love the one statement people like to use, “Well…it’s complicated.” Umm yeah, when it contains too many lies.

Matthew 5.37, emphasis added: “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay [Yes, yes; No, no]: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”

Why is it that we tend to complicate our lives when at the same time we seek it to be simple? Just saying ya’ll…another oxymoron, right? How many times have you sat in a conference and heard the speaker talk about being “transparent” to keep things easy and simple or to speak from the heart? Is it not apparent to you, these are always the same individuals that require their lives to be complicated, usually in the name of “sophistication?”

What they are endeavoring to promote, is something about them, not about what they are talking of. Stop once again and thinking of things you say, are they for the betterment of someone else or to promote you in better light? Come on, let’s be honest here and let’s simplify our lives.

In the “end of times” do you think you will have a chance? Will anything save you from the wrath of God, if you do not belong to HIM? Your life has never been in your hands, never has and never will be in the days to come! Hide from God, that’s like trying to hide from air! In the end, even your thoughts are going to be known by God and the question always is this: “How are you going to respond to the question, concerning all your thoughts?”

Either your name will be written in the “Lambs book of life” or it will not be written there. It’s still an either/or. Your “oxymoron” just caught you. You tried to be complicated and sophisticated and simplicity found you out and made you answer the ultimate question known in front of all of us.

You see! Everyone runs around saying, “It’s all about ME!” And then you are all so “deep” so filled with color, like a kaleidoscope. But ultimately, you just want “someone” that will “love and accept” you “as you are.” Now you’re trying to be simplistic. I think we’re getting better at understanding the word “oxymoron,” don’t you?

The Word of God has said from the beginning that we are a fallen people. Then when we hear this, we think we can be better than that, somehow or the other!

“Fallen, who me?” “Never in life am ‘I’ a fallen anything!” And off we go, complicating the simple, skewing the truth, wiggling for position…wiggle all we want, we’re still a worm when SIN is still in us. With the Word of God, filling our lives, we are like a pupa that eventually emerges as a new creature, like a butterfly. Without the Word of God in us, we die as a pupa and never become anything more. Without Jesus Christ, our lives are worthless and amount to nothing.

Make Jesus Christ the Center of your Life!