There’s a story by an unknown author that has a very special meaning. One day, a pastor asked an older farmer, decked out in bib overalls, to say grace for the morning breakfast. The farmer began with, “Lord, I hate buttermilk.” The visiting pastor opened an eye to glance at the farmer, wondering where this was going. The farmer next said even louder, “Lord, I hate lard.” At this point, the pastor got concerned. Without any hesitation, the farmer said, “Lord, you know I don’t care for raw white flour.” The pastor looked around the room and noticed several people were feeling uncomfortable. Then, the farmer said, “But Lord, when you mix them all together and bake them, I do love the fresh, warm biscuits they make.

“So Lord, when things come up that we don’t like, when life gets hard, when we don’t understand what You’re saying to us, help us to just relax and wait until You’re done mixing. It will probably be even better than biscuits; Amen.” (ESV- all emphasis mine)

The story ends by stating that within that prayer, there is great wisdom for all when it comes to complicated situations like we are experiencing in this world today. So, stay strong because our Lord is “mixing” several things that we don’t really care for, but something even better is going to come when He is done with it. Amen.

It’s a rather lengthy story, but taking into account all the disturbing changes taking place today, it fits in well. Evil is coming out of the closet more rapidly every day. All that our Father called abominations are being turned into today’s standards.

The part for true believers that is most disturbing is to be called “haters” just because we choose not to join in and accept what our Father’s Holy Word has told us is sin. Sadly, from all the end-of-this-age prophecies we’ve been told about, it will not be getting any better.

Our Jesus told us to love all of our brothers and sisters, and we do so for the sake of their eternal souls. We do not want to see anyone cast into the lake of fire. However, that does not mean we have to like what they do or even like them as a person. Jesus loved all the religious leaders of His day, even though they gave Him the most problems. There were occasions when He flat-out told them they were destined for the outer darkness if they did not change their ways.

John 13:34-35; “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Going to John 15:18-19, Jesus speaks as if He were here right now giving us instructions for today’s attitudes; “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of this world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

An example of the “woes” that our Savior told the religious leaders to their faces is found in Matthew 23. Just going to verses 23-24, we read, “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”

Jesus stated in John 10:9, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and go in and out and find pasture.” John 10:16 says that everyone who will receive and accept Him will be a part of His precious flock; “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. So there will be one flock, one Shepherd.” The “this fold” refers to the Jewish people, and the “other sheep” are the rest of the world.

There are those who will say they’ve sinned so badly that Jesus would never forgive and accept them. First, God knew that we all would sin, as given in Romans 3:10, Romans 3:23, and Romans 6:23. All sin, no matter how great or small, is the same to the Father – unacceptable. Without Jesus, a soul’s destination will be the lake of fire, or hell.

However, all who follow the simple steps of the ABCs of Salvation in Romans 10:9-13 will be forgiven. Starting in verse 9, “because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth [or mind of a person who is mute], one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says that everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Our Father is not taken by surprise by anything that has, is, or will happen on this earth. The issue is the unbelief of the majority of the people (Matthew 7:13-14). Through Paul, the Father tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”

All is in place today for the next chapter in Earth’s life cycle. That will be the 7-year tribulation, followed by the Millennial Reign of our Savior physically on this earth. All who are currently true believers and have received and accepted Jesus as their Savior will not have to worry about going through the most terrible seven years this earth will ever face. We’re told in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10, and Revelation 3:10 that believers will not go through that time of wrath.

Of course, there are “scoffers,” as we’re told about in 2 Peter 3:3-4, that try to ridicule believers into believing that Jesus will not be coming back, and that it’s just a myth. They’re not looking at time the same way our Father does, as our 24-hour days were made for us, and He is not bound by earthly time as we are. His sending Jesus to gather the believers in the Rapture is certain; the timing is His.

Two verses, 2 Peter 3:8-9; “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Today would not be too early to call out to our Savior to forgive you and to add you to His precious flock. What if you are the one that the Father is waiting for that will signal the start of the Rapture? Also, if the Rapture were to take place today, would you not want to be ready to go?

When the Trumpet of God sounds, and there’s a shout from an archangel, it will be too late to call out to be saved and Raptured. To miss the call will be to enter the tribulation. As stated in 1 Corinthians 15:52, it will happen “in the twinkling of an eye.” To review the Rapture process, go to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-53. If you have received and accepted Jesus as your Savior, you will not have any worries about missing the call. Awake or asleep, you’ll be there.

As I’ve said many times, God will force no one to be saved but will accept all who truly call out to His Son for their Salvation. Your eternity – Your choice. Make it a winning decision today.

Ahava Olin! (Love Everlasting!)

huebshman46@gmail.com

 

 

(There is a special message at the end of this article for those who might happen to read this and do not have Jesus in their life and are looking for peace and a way to better understand the present-day insanity and confusion.)

There are two types of “gloom” relative to this discussion.

We will need to differentiate between them in order for it to make sense.

• There is the apparent gloom (if not studied) of the end times prophecies that are enumerated in the Word of God.
• There is the gloom (and doom) that is present and ever-growing in the secular, unbelieving world in which we are currently residing.

In the first case, a comparison can be made with believers grieving for the loss of a loved one who we know is now in the presence of the Lord because they had received Jesus as Lord and Savior during their living years.

“Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Emphasis added by me.

In the case of the believer, any “gloom” that is experienced (however temporary it may be) lacks the “doom” that is associated with the second case.

Believers in Christ in this world are often accused of espousing a “gloom and doom” view of the future, but the Truth is exactly the opposite.

In the first case, we do not have to resign ourselves to doom because we do, in fact, possess Hope. The Hope that is in Jesus Christ, the Blessed Hope.

“as we await the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

So, as the True Church, do we really spread a message of gloom and doom?

Or do we convey a message of Hope to a world that is in an ever-downward spiraling state of despair and hopelessness and is becoming aware of it?

Perhaps the world could have prevented the conditions that have manifested themselves today, for a period of time, by following the directives of laws – when they were broken in the past by evil men – by bringing criminals to justice when there was some semblance of ethical conduct.

But the failure to do these things has resulted in a steady degradation of society and living conditions that have festered like a wound that was never treated and so continues to grow.

“But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).

Even those who have lived their lives willfully ignoring God and His warnings against living apart from His laws and Precepts are now becoming acutely aware that the world system is broken, and it is not repairable by any measure of “reform.”

The lawless simply ignore the rules and the law. They even publicly announce that they will ignore the law and that justice is not going to be applied to those whose crimes they choose to excuse. Many of these lawless are part of the judiciary.

They openly and publicly defy and mock the living God.

Most politicians create the appearance of involving the citizens in what was once the workings of a representative republic, but then, in actuality, they simply do whatever they want without regard to repercussions. They do not fear the “voters,” and their “oath of office” is just a meaningless nuisance that they must repeat out loud in order to get it “out of the way,” and then it is “on to bigger and better things,” but for who?

They have morphed into a self-identified ruling class, a sort of “royal court” that has placed itself above the serfs and common folk that they pretend to represent.

While there are a small number of politicians who are making an honest effort to uphold the laws of the land, they are now hopelessly outnumbered by the lawless. And whether legitimately or not, the lawless control the reins of power.

Earthly power, that is.

How is that? we ask ourselves. Like children who are threatened but never punished, the lawless have learned over time that they can do as they please, so they do.

When caught with their hand in the cookie jar, they simply smile, switch hands, and take another cookie.

Simple, really, and terrible in its reality.

Like mice, they foul their own nest.

The current state of everyday conduct makes all these conditions obvious, and so the hopelessness of the world system apart from God becomes even more hopeless.

Each and every day, it grows worse as the system that will be used to subjugate the people of the world is being forced toward its inevitable climax.

The Word of God has warned for millennia to an unbelieving world that this would occur.

So, the Christian message is one of Hope for those who have ears to hear it and eyes to see the reality of the world, its course of self-inflicted destruction, and a heart and mind to seek after real Truth.

God has promised:

“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

As well, Jesus declared:

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).

In both cases, action is required of those who will take it.

To “seek” in the first case and to “hear and open” in the second. These are not “works,” as some might say.

They are responses to the calling of the Holy Spirit to the human soul.

As Jesus has promised:

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37).

As time progresses, the dividing line between those who will seek the Truth and those who reject it and the calling of God will sadly widen.

This is, to me, the real gloomy sadness of the times in which we live – that so many will not receive the gift of eternal life promised in God’s Word by the Living Way, the Truth, and the Life.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24).

I am in hopes that the times are driving an awakening that we can’t fully see because the sources of this kind of news are so few, but God will continue to grow His forever family in spite of any obstacles the world may try to put in His way.

“‘No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me,’ Says the LORD.”

And who are these servants of the Lord?

Are they special people who are inherently good? No.

They are just those who have humbled themselves, admitted they are sinners, and received Jesus Christ as the One and Only Savior of ANYONE who will come to Him in Truth.

If you have a Bible, open it to the Book of Isaiah. If you do not, acquire one while you still can and open it to the Book of Isaiah.

“Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon” (Isaiah 55:6).

The only thing stopping you is you.

The special message I promised you:

For anyone who may read this article and has not trusted in Jesus Christ and therefore has no hope or peace in your life.

You can have hope. You can have the peace that Jesus has promised to all who have made Him their Lord and Savior. The peace that passes understanding.

It requires that you come before God on His terms.

And, what are His terms according to His Word?

• Genuine repentance (turning to God instead of continuing to reject or ignore Him).
• Confession of sins (that you are a sinner and acknowledge that to God).
• That you understand that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
• To acknowledge to God that you are unable to pay that debt.
• Belief that Jesus Christ paid your death sentence for you on the cross.
• To believe that Jesus is the Way, the only Way, that God has established by which humans may be saved from the consequences of their sin and rebellion.

God has made it absolutely clear that there is no one who comes before Him, under His terms, that will be refused.

• No one: no race, no color, no country of origin, regardless of any previous belief system: no one.
• No matter what your past sins have been, God can and WILL forgive you because He says He will.
• Salvation is available to everyone without any exceptions.

If you put all your trust for salvation in Jesus, and Him only, you can follow that prayer up by simply saying, “Thank you, Father God, for hearing my prayer and saving me,” because we can trust Him to keep His Word. He always has. He always will.

“Truly, Truly, I say to you that he who hears My words and believes the One who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed from death to life” (John 5:24).

There are no answers and there is no hope in the world by governments, organizations, politics or politicians. There are only lies and deception. But you can have the Truth and the peace you seek.

The answers are in the Word of God—The Bible. If you ask God, with all your heart, He will hear you.

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

Pro Salvator Vigilans

To contact me: canoeman96@gmail.com