General Articles

Interruptions :: By Grant Phillips

Published on: by RR10

Have you ever noticed, as a Christian, those times when you just want to have some quiet time for prayer and to read your Bible that something interrupts you? It’s amazing how Satan will send his goon squad out on errands to distract you.

Satan will use any means necessary to keep God’s children from reading the Word of God and from communicating with our Lord in prayer. Bad situations may sideline us. I am reminded of the words of the apostle Paul.

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13).

Paul did not consider those bad times when he went through so many trials, such as imprisonment, for example, as times to not study God’s Word and pray. No, he still studied the Word, prayed, and even sang songs to the glory of God. Actually, bad times would be more apt to draw us to God.

What about the times in our lives when most everything is going smoothly? Satan will use more subtle tactics to interrupt us.

My wife and I enjoy our morning Bible reading and prayer time together. However, almost without fail, our cat Pepper finds that as a time she decides to get our attention. I’ll come back to this.

Pepper was born May 4th, 2014, and has always been an indoor cat since then. Over the years, eight plus now, she has picked up on our words and habits. She knows her name. She knows other words and phrases such as: treat, pumpkin, water, potato chip, bedtime, hush, and probably more we haven’t noticed. We have often wondered why an animal can learn our language, but we can’t learn theirs. I guess they’re smarter.

Debbie and I try to go to bed around 10:00 P.M., and Pepper will let us know it is time to go to bed … NOW. She likes to get me up the next morning around 5:30 or 6:00. She is a good alarm clock.

When we get the grooming brush out to brush her, she hears the click of the button on the brush and goes straight to the area we groom her. She loves it.

She likes to drink water from the bathroom sink, as most cats do, and will certainly let us know if we forgot to leave her water in the sink. Due to our sometimes forgetting this little detail, she will sometimes meow before she jumps up on the sink, I guess, so she isn’t jumping up there needlessly.

Her dry cat food is in a bowl on the floor in the dining room, and it must be full at all times. If it is a few bites short, we’ll hear about it.

Yeah … she’s spoiled, but let me get back to Debbie’s and my Bible study and prayer time. We do this at the dining room table, and almost without fail, Pepper begins her meowing until we open the closet doors in the hallway right off the dining room. So, one of us will get up and open the doors, and then she is happy as she checks out the closets for the hundredth time.

And then, on just a few occasions, while we’re having our Bible study, she’ll run through the house at warp speed. We look at each other and say, “She’s got the spirit.”

But there’s more …. When Debbie and I are eating, at the same table of course, she doesn’t bother us, only when we are having our Bible study and prayer time. Hmmm.

I realize that we have created this situation, but we can live with it. Although, sometimes I want to kill the cat. JUST KIDDING!

We do not have small children or grandchildren. They are all grown, but have you noticed that the baby cries just when you’re ready to spend some quiet time with the Lord, or the two-year-old suddenly demands your attention?

The phone rings. Your mind wanders. You’re tired. You just thought of something else you need to do. There’s a knock at the door. Something’s burning in the oven. Your spouse needs help with something. Well, you get the point.

None of these sources of interruptions are evil. The pets, the children, the phone, the doorbell, food in the oven, the spouse, etc., are all totally innocent. I have never experienced Satan sending an ugly demon to yank my Bible from my hand and curse me. No, it’s innocent distractions that he will use. Why? They are successful!

If you are a Christian who actually studies the Bible, in addition to just reading it, you are even more of a threat to Satan and his cause. Maybe that is why actually studying God’s Word is hard. It requires work, but the rewards are unlimited.

The following Scripture verses have always been my bedrock. I’ve always had the first three typed and taped to the front inside of my Bible.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalms 119:11).

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalms 119:105).

It is amazing what lengths Satan goes to in keeping us from reading God’s Word and spending time with the Lord in prayer. When Pepper interrupts our Bible study and prayer time, my wife and I jokingly say that Satan must be pinching the cat, but in reality, he will use that which is totally innocent to distract us. We have learned to just open the closet doors and continue. The cat is happy, and we are happy.

Is Satan stealing your time with God? Don’t let him. There are many things in our lives that we make time to do. Is there anything more important than our time in God’s Word and prayer?

Grant Phillips

Email: Phillip5769@twc.com
Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com
Rapture Ready: https://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html

Interesting Answers to Questions Not Asked :: By Gene Lawley

Published on: by RR10

Connecting the dots between related Scriptures can result in some interesting conclusions. Following are a few that fit into that category.

1. Why was Jesus in the tomb for only three days and three nights?

It is answered in Psalm 16:10, saying, “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.”

Then, look at John 11:1 and following. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus, along with his two sisters, Mary and Martha. But Lazarus was deathly sick, and Jesus knew he was about to die. Yet He waited four days before going to see them.

What Martha said, in their following discussion, is the point of this topic, for she said to Jesus, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

The promise of no corruption of the body of Jesus is kept in place by His being in the grave only three days and nights. Jesus had purposely waited until that condition occurred in order to perform the miracle of raising Lazarus back to his physical life even though his body was corrupted.

2. A question exists of just when Jesus was crucified, given that He was in the grave three days and three nights, and He had risen on Sunday, the first day of the week. We must remember that Jewish days begin at sundown and end at the next sundown.

When the two disciples were walking to Emmaus that Sunday afternoon (Luke 24:13), a stranger appeared and walked with them. The two were amazed that their new associate did not know what had been going on in Jerusalem, and one of them told of one named Jesus who had been crucified and had claimed He would rise from the grave after three days and three nights. Moreover, two women had gone to the tomb early this day to anoint His body, and it was gone from the tomb! The two disciples exclaimed, “And this is the third day.”

Let’s stay with the topic and count backward. If that was the third day and Jesus had appeared to the women, then His resurrection was completed. Three days and nights back—Sunday and Saturday night, one day and night. Saturday and Friday night, one more day and night. Then, Friday and Thursday night, the total of three days and three nights. Jesus was crucified on Thursday, before the next Jewish day began at sundown Thursday evening. He was in the grave on Friday, and it looks like “Good Friday” is just a concoction of the Roman Catholic Church.

The calculation backward from the testimony of those two disciples on the road to Emmaus establishes the timing of the crucifixion, but does the scenario of the Jewish festivities attest to the same conclusion?

Look at Matthew 27:62: “On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate” to have a guard at the tomb.

The Day of Preparation was the time of preparing the sacrificial lamb for the Passover supper. It was a time of special Sabbaths, not just on that Saturday coming up. Remember that the legs of the two thieves were broken in order for their deaths to happen before the sundown that would begin the special Sabbath. Also, the women had to wait until Sunday morning to anoint His body for burial because the Sabbath did not permit their endeavor.

The legs of Jesus were not broken, for He was already dead, as the Romans discovered. There were hundreds of sacrificial lambs being prepared for the traditional festival remembering Israel’s escape from the bondage of Egypt. It was, and is, a look-back event for the Jewish people.

But “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) also was sacrificed at that same time, being “prepared” for the deliverance of many from the bondage of sin! (John 3:16). It was just as the prophet had predicted in Isaiah 53.

3. In Joshua 10:13, a recording is made of a major miracle occurring that enabled the Israelites to conquer their enemies, but without explanation of what happened to that extended day: “So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the people had revenge upon their enemies.”

That was the appearance of what happened, but the sun is stationary, and the earth and moon have revolutions daily, revolving in a pattern that creates a night and a day in twenty-four hours. The moon encircles the earth in a four-phase pattern. It is said that the earth measures 25,000 miles in its circumference. Thus, the earth is revolving just over 1,000 miles per hour for a full revolution in twenty-four hours. It was, indeed, a gigantic miracle. (This is not a study in astronomy, so readers looking for such details in exactness need to find other sources.)

Daylight was extended “for the better part of a day,” so how long was the extra daylight? We do not know, but another incident later makes it appear to have been ten degrees short of a full 360-degree day, but all in daylight hours.

Let’s go to that “other incident” and see how they tie together. In Isaiah 38 is the record of King Hezekiah’s impending death from a sickness, and he prays to God with tears for healing. God responds, saying, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years.”

Some background information makes this account very interesting. At this point in his life, Hezekiah had no son to follow him as king of Judea. It was in the third year of the fifteen years that Manasseh was born. He became king at twelve years of age, just as his father’s life ended on the fifteenth year, as promised by God.

Two things, then, were accomplished with the addition of those fifteen years. The lineage of the kings from Abraham to Jesus was satisfied to this point, and one other issue was completed.

When God gave Hezekiah those added years, Hezekiah wanted verification of the promise, so he asked God to set the sun back ten degrees on the sun dial, for setting it forward would not be as significant as the former. Thus, God did just that.

Now, go back to the extended day of Joshua’s time, when a period of extended daylight of most of a day, or perhaps 350 degrees, and a full 360-degree day has been pushed forward to move time into the next day.

As nightfall came at the end of that extended day, it came at the same time as would have been the second day following the day the battle was being fought. The unique and surprising thing God allowed to happen was the elimination of a day, the normal day of the Sabbath, to fall on the first day of the week, Sunday, and thus, the Sabbath has been merged with the Day of Resurrection! There is no more Saturday Sabbath for worship. The Lord’s Day, Sunday, is the Day.

Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath, has fulfilled the Sabbath, and all of those who believe in Him find their rest in Him. It is summed up in Hebrews 4:10: “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.” (Look also at what Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”)

The conclusion is that the Sabbath has been fulfilled completely in Christ and is so forever, just as He has fulfilled “every jot and tittle of the law” (Matthew 5:17-18, KJV).

Contact email: andwegetmercy@gmail.com