General Articles

Prepare Your Heart – Daybreaks Are Dwindling :: By Lisa Heaton

Published on: by RR10

We only have so many daybreaks remaining until that final sunset when the Son sets out to get His bride. We must make the most of our time because the days are evil (Eph. 5:16).

As much as we watch and read and comb online resources to see what’s happening now and next in this last-moments world we live in, we should be spending even more time on our internal preparations, time with the One who knows what’s now and next and how we best need to prepare. I sincerely believe we should be preparing our homes as well, a point I cover here on my site, but my heart absolutely burns over the topic of preparing our hearts.

Are you right with Jesus? Are you excited over the idea of meeting Him in the air soon, or does fear or dread more accurately describe the feelings that the word rapture evokes? Our solid belief in the pre-tribulation rapture matters. If we can’t be certain of our rescue, then our minds will be stayed on long-term survival rather than on the mission.

What’s the mission? Standing while others kneel. Or as in Daniel’s case, kneeling while everyone else stood. We have an audience watching, those who will be left behind. What will we teach them by our actions? How will our example help them to stand during the tribulation if we can’t even take a stand now as we see the set-up for it?

A verse the Lord has been using with me since early 2020, even before the plandemic was a “thing,” was “…to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” That verse has always held a whisper of a calling on my life. Only now do I better understand its meaning. We are a people, a church hardly ready or prepared for the Lord. The waning state of the church is a reason for us all to grieve when we see the apathy, apostasy, and arrogance of our fellow believers. They don’t care that the Lord is coming soon. They’re living like the world with no regard for holiness. They mock and scorn our warnings.

I’ve concluded this: I can only do so much. I can only help those who want help and explain more to those who are willing to listen. I’m suspecting that’s you since you’re here. You’re in the deeper waters with Jesus, or if not, you’re longing to be. May I help you along in the journey of preparing your heart?

I humbly admit that I’m still learning as well. Much of what I write or speak about is from my own struggles now or over the years. What I do know from experience is this: No matter what comes in the time ahead of us, Jesus is not just enough–He’s everything. With Him, you will not just survive, you’ll thrive and be a helping hand to those around you while you wait for your exfil [removal/withdrawal from an enemy-held area]. Isn’t that what you want, to not be that panicking crybaby running around asking others for help?

When a financial crash or food shortages or whatever the enemy plans to throw at us next comes, what if you’re a stable voice in the lives of those around you who didn’t see disaster coming? You can be no matter how much you underestimate yourself. But it takes a heart made ready, a heart prepared for the Lord.

I’m beginning a new series called Prepare Your Heart. Articles will be published on Rapture Ready, or you can follow along here on my Daybreak with Lisa site as each new entry is added. Watch Prepare Your Heart | Prepare Your Home on my YouTube channel to get started.

You can also get a little louder and share what you know with others around you. If you would like to view my Rapture Ready articles all combined into one location, check out the How Do I Share What I Know? Series. (Since the entries in the How Do I Share series were originally created for web-based reading, they are longer than what I will be sharing in the Prepare Your Heart series.)

Let’s make the most of our time. Our mission now is to warn the lost and wake the found. Our mission is to be a people made ready, hearts prepared for the Lord.

Grace and peace,

Lisa

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About Lisa:

As an author, Lisa Heaton is a storyteller with a heart for truth. Her greatest desire in her fiction and nonfiction work is to challenge the reader to discover the truth of who Jesus is and who they are to Him. Now, here as we wait for the any-minute arrival of Jesus for His church in the rapture, Lisa’s latest mission is to warn the lost and wake the found and to help others discover their unique voice to share the truth of our times. More at DaybreakWithLisa.com.

 

Hebrews Study: The Need for Mature Christians :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR10

Hebrews 5:12-14

“12 For though by this time, you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

We established last week that Jesus is the author of our eternal salvation. Just this past week, I have heard so much misinformation about salvation that I had to address it in our weekly mid-week study. I heard this week that one has to keep the Law to be saved. I elsewhere heard that you don’t need to repent of your sins to be saved, and on and on. The doctrine of salvation has been and always will be under attack as it is the power of God to save souls and rescue men and women from Hell. The author of Hebrews is stressing from the very first verse that Jesus is the be-all and the end-all of salvation. It is by Him, in Him, and for Him that we are saved. No Jesus, no salvation.

In my personal devotions right now, I am reading through the writings of Paul once again. And in church after church, we can see that attacks on the Gospel — from the Gnosticism of the Galatians to the polluted Gospel of the Ephesians, and on — we see that Satan has figured out that if he can pollute the Gospel, then he can take as many as possible to Hell. Many people simply do not know or understand the Gospel of Jesus. The Hebrew writer comments that it is difficult to get further into the teachings and ways of God if we cannot come to terms with the fundamentals of the Gospel. There are many unskilled people that profess to be teachers of the Scriptures, and yet they are novices that need to go back to the very basics of the truth before they can honestly teach the deep spiritual truths of the Bible.

  • Jesus’ Death, Burial, and Resurrection were never plan B.

This is one of the hardest things for people to come to grips with. God knows EVERYTHING. The fall of man was not a surprise. The events of Genesis 3 did not catch God off guard and send Him scrambling to find a solution. What does the Bible say? See Revelation 13:8,

“All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (NKJV).

Jesus was slain, as far as God was concerned, before He ever breathed life into the little clay man He had made. Jesus knew exactly what He was doing when He agreed to create mankind. As such, we can see that God had to work very hard (a relative term for us to understand) to keep the bloodlines safe. He preserved Noah, who was ‘perfect’ in all his generations (Genesis 6:9), meaning that he was pure all the way back to Adam and able to preserve the pure mankind for Jesus to be born, the Perfect Man, who would be our Perfect Sacrifice, so we could be Perfect in Jesus to be accepted by God.

  • Jesus is the ONLY ONE who can save you.

This may sound like I am being trivial, but I am not. To a seasoned Christian, this may be boring, but I hope not. Even after 40+ years of being saved and 38 years in the ministry, I still am in awe that the Gospel is for me as well. You and I could not and cannot save ourselves; there is no amount of goodness or Law-keeping that will save you from Hell. You MUST be saved by Jesus. If you deny that Jesus is the Son of God, making Him equal with God (John 5:18), you are not of God (1 John 2:23). If you deny that Jesus is the Living God, you are not saved.

If you are trying to be saved by keeping the Law, you are NOT saved. God lays this out plainly in Romans 3:19-20 (Berean Study Bible),

“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.”

The Law was designed by God to make you aware of your sinful state and, thus, your need to be redeemed. It was never designed and, in fact, cannot save you. In Galatian 2:16, we see this verse,

“Know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So, we too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Berean Study Bible).

Paul, a former Pharisee, one who kept the Law, is telling us via the Holy Spirit that we are justified by faith and not by works of the Law. No one is justified by the works of the Law. To be justified means to be declared ‘righteous or innocent. Only by faith in Jesus’ work on the cross and in His resurrection can we be saved. The thief on the cross (see Luke 23: 39-43) was saved instantly by his faith. He addressed Jesus as Lord and believed in the resurrection; “Lord remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” This man was never baptized, never tithed, never handed out a Gospel tract, and never joined a church. He was simply saved by faith in Jesus; that is it and no more. You and I must be saved the same way.

Too many are unskilled in the Word of God.

I am not boasting; I know many men who are way better than I at teaching. But I know this: salvation is by God, of God, from God, and in God. Your part is to acknowledge your sinfulness and trust in Jesus’ full payment and His resurrection for your sins. Some would even call you to stop sinning before you are saved. This is impossible, as your very nature is sin. You need a new birth, a regeneration in Jesus (John 3:3). Even after that, you and I will still be sinners, but we will be sinners saved by grace. The Bible is filled with many Godly men, the ‘heroes’ of our faith whose humanity was on display all too often. But they, like Abraham, had this on their side: they believed God, and it was accounted for righteousness. Romans 4 tells us that Abraham is the father of ALL who believe the way he did — by faith, NOT WORKS. He did not earn his salvation; it was a gift from God because He believed God. See Romans 4: 2-3,

“For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.'”

Has God’s righteousness been accounted to you? This is the question.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

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