Hold Fast :: By Nathele Graham

Published on: July 25, 2021 by RR7

We are in a time of great turmoil. Everywhere we look, there are wars and plagues. It’s always been somewhat of a joke about crooked politicians, but it’s not a joke anymore. It’s impossible to know truth by listening to the news media. It’s important to study all sides of a news item to decide for yourself what’s the truth. Even the foundations of our faith are being attacked, as we are forced to accept sin and lies as “normal.”

The only way to know truth is to study Scripture. Unfortunately, a very different Gospel is being preached from the pulpits today. Pastors are more afraid of offending liberal politicians than offending God. Jesus spoke to His disciples about following the Master. If we follow Christ, then we need to respect Him. If we say we are Christians but bow to other masters, then we need to rethink our faith.

“It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household…. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but ae not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:25 & 27-28).

If you respect and fear any master other than Jesus, then you have misplaced your loyalty.

There are many messages of deception found in the liberal news today, and from liberal pulpits. Deception was the first warning Jesus gave to His disciples when they asked for signs to look for, signaling the end of the age.

“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you” (Matthew 24:4).

We are living at this final time of history, and if we don’t hold fast to our faith in God Almighty, we will be deceived by Satan instead of standing firm on God’s truth. We live in a time when fear is strong. We need to be sure we run all things through Scripture. Jesus told us these things would come to pass, so why do we fear Satanic devices rather than holding fast to our faith and Biblical truth?

There are many Scriptures that tell us to hold fast, and we need to pay attention. Paul wrote to the young pastor, Timothy, telling him that he needed to be true to the Lord, Jesus Christ.

“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles” (2 Timothy 1:8-11).

Young pastors and older ones, take heed. If you are tempted to water down God’s word in order to appease liberal lies or to protect your tax-exempt status, then you are doing a huge disservice to the One you call Lord. Preach the Gospel as it is taught in Scripture. Teach line upon line through the Bible in order to not miss any important teachings of God.

“Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:13).

Paul, who once persecuted Christians, renounced his evil ways and became the strongest evangelist we’ve ever known. His letters are a guide to living for Christ. He never compromised his faith but spread the Gospel by speaking God’s truth. He held fast to the end.

If we hold fast to the truth of God, we won’t open ourselves to the wiles of the devil. If we don’t study Scripture, we can easily be deceived.

“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

How do we “prove all things”? By prayerfully testing it by God’s word.

“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, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

If man’s laws contradict God’s truth, then hold fast to God’s truth. If you use Scripture as your guide, you know that “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1), and you won’t allow the lie of evolution to confuse you and draw you away from God’s truth. By holding fast to God’s truth, you will understand that there’s no “gender choice,” only male and female, and you are one or the other; no amount of lying, hormone tampering, or surgery will make you what you aren’t.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27).

You may be confused, but God isn’t. You’re special because you’ve been created in the image of God. Prove all things by Scripture, and hold fast to God’s truth.

We are living in the end times. How do I know that? Scripture gives many prophecies that make it obvious that time as we know it is coming to an end. There are many things that make this life worthwhile, but I long for the Rapture. It will happen soon. Will it happen this year? Many Bible scholars think it may, but others believe it will happen a few years from now. Whether this year, next year, or a hundred years from now, don’t waiver in your faith but trust in Jesus. Jesus Christ was God incarnate and loves you enough to have given His life for you. If you profess to be a Christian, hold fast to God’s truth, and don’t allow Satan’s deception to confuse you into compromising your faith.

“Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee” (Revelation 3:3).

This verse comes from a letter to the believers in Sardis. Jesus had dictated it to the Apostle John. It’s one of seven letters that summarize the history of the ecclesia (the congregation of believers throughout history). This was in the letter to Sardis, and it contained warnings because they were slipping away from Truth. They weren’t paying attention to prophecy and were living life apart from God.

“Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God” (Revelation 3:2).

Not all the people in that congregation had turned from God’s truth, and we need to heed Christ’s warning to them. They were compromising their faith, and God wasn’t pleased. There’s more than a bit of Sardis in the world today, which is shameful.

The Jewish priesthood was just a foreshadowing of the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ. It was the priests who made the sacrifices according to God’s Law. There were qualifications for the priesthood regarding age and Tribal restrictions, but Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law, and He is our eternal High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek, who was a priest long before the Law was given and is without restriction.

“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession” (Hebrews 4:14).

Jesus is the Creator of everything, yet He is aware of you. He loved you enough to enter His creation, knowing full well that He would be rejected, beaten, and mocked. He knew He would be crucified, but He gave His life so that whosoever believes in Him will have eternal life through His righteousness. Do you believe?

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9).

If you’ve made that profession of faith, then you need to understand what it means. Your life should change. The old lifestyle of sin needs to change as you hold fast to your new life in Christ.

“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).

In this verse, the word “conversation” doesn’t just mean the way you talk, but it means the way you live. Paul is saying to live for Christ, not for sin. Before confessing Christ for salvation, the world approved of you raging in anger, gossiping, following sexual promiscuity, and many other sinful actions. Your new life in Christ should reflect forgiveness instead of anger, not talking about people, and understanding that God made people male and female, and a one man/one woman marriage is the only place for sexual relations.

“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised)” (Hebrews 10:23).

Jesus paid a huge price to redeem you. You’ve confessed Him as your Saviour and expect Him to give you eternal life; now hold fast to Scriptural truth, and live for Him.

It can be easy to slip away from Scriptural living when we make friendships outside of the Christian faith. We have to be around lost people in order to witness to them and share the Gospel, but we need to assemble with Christian friends in order to keep each other grounded in Scripture.

“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

See what day approaching? The Rapture. The signs of the times are screaming that Christ will call us Home soon, but many Christians don’t care. Our children are sent to public schools, where a witch’s brew of lies is fed to them daily, and the Scriptural foundation of Biblical truth is broken. Most Moms and Dads are busy building their fortune with worldly treasures, and those treasures don’t include assembling together with fellow Christians or caring about their children’s salvation. It’s the world and its allure that matters to most people.

It isn’t too late to turn away from the world and turn back to Christ. It isn’t too late to hold fast to Scriptural truth. This world and all that’s in it will soon pass away, but Christians need to hold fast to eternal things that will never pass away.

Don’t turn away from Christ. Look to Scripture and see that the signs of the times are here. Understand that events of the Great Tribulation are falling into place today. Unless you hold fast to Jesus and His truth, you will fall for the lies of Satan. Don’t let any man deceive you, but hold fast to God’s truth.

God bless you all,

Nathele Graham

twotug@embarqmail.com

ron@straitandnarrowministry.com

All original scripture is “theopneustos,” God-breathed.

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Warnings :: By Daymond Duck

Published on: July 25, 2021 by RR7

God always warned the Jews before His judgments fell.

We are watching the development of events that were prophesied 2,000-2,500 years ago.

Some prophecy teachers believe these developing events are warnings that His judgment will soon fall.

Here are some examples:

One, concerning world government, censorship, etc.: in his July 2021 Newsletter, author and prophecy teacher Britt Gillette wrote, “So what does the Bible say about all of this? The Bible says a time is coming when a global dictator will rule the world (Revelation 13:7). He will succeed in everything he does (Daniel 8:24). His power will be so great, no one will be able to oppose him (Revelation 13:4). His control over the earth will be so complete, he’ll regulate the purchase and sale of everything (Revelation 13:17). For most of human history, this was impossible. As this is written, it’s probably still impossible. But that window of impossibility is closing fast.

Two, concerning the New World Order (world government): on July 9, 2021, Brad Hazzard, Minister for Health and Medical Research at New South Wales, Australia, said, “This (Covid) is a world pandemic… We’ve got to accept that this is the New World Order.”

Hazzard saying this does not make it so, but the implications of a prominent Australian politician saying Covid is the beginning of world government should not be overlooked.

Daniel declared 2,500 years ago that there will be a world government at the time of the end (Dan. 7:23).

Three, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog: on July 11, 2021, i24NEWS reported that Israel’s leaders believe negotiations between Iran and the U.S. over Iran’s nuclear program may break down, and the Israeli military has requested funding equivalent to billions of dollars in the Israeli military budget to prepare for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities (Ezek. 38-39).

An Israeli attack on Iran would not be the Battle of Gog and Magog, but it could easily trigger the Battle of Gog and Magog, and it would be a clear sign that the latter years and latter days have arrived (Ezek. 38:8, 16).

Some prophecy teachers, not all, speculate that the Rapture and the Battle of Gog and Magog occur close to each other on God’s timeclock.

Update: On July 15, 2021, it was reported that the requested funding has been put on hold (not rejected).

Four, concerning the Days of Noah (wickedness, corruption, and violence; Gen. 6:5, 11-12): on July 14, 2021, The Washington Times reported that “at least 150 (police) officers nationwide have been shot this year as of June 30, 51 of whom were shot in ambush-style attacks, which are up 91% compared to the same time last year.”

Hundreds of police in the U.S. have retired, resigned, or requested a transfer.

Defunding, demonizing, and attacking the police is harming, not improving life in black communities.

Five, concerning corruption: on July 15, 2021, in Maricopa County, Arizona, it was reported that the vote recount found that:

74,243 mail-in ballots were counted, but there is no record that those ballots were sent to voters.
25,000 ballots were duplicates of other ballots (it sounds like someone used a copier and these ballots did not have serial numbers).
3,981 voters registered after the cut-off date and should not have been allowed to vote.
There were problems with tens of thousands of other ballots (ballots were on wrong kind of paper, etc.).
18,000 names were removed from the voter rolls after the election. If they were ineligible to vote, why were they not removed before the election?
The Board of Elections and Dominion Voting Systems Co. refuse to release the passwords so the voting machines can be inspected.
The number of votes cast and the number of votes reported are different.
Biden supposedly won the election by 10,457 votes.

Update: On July 16, 2021, it was reported that the Arizona state senate has ordered the votes counted by independent voting machines other than Dominion.

Update: On July 20, 2021, it was reported that preliminary results show that there were enough fraudulent votes in Maricopa County alone to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.

Six, concerning corruption: on July 15, 2021, in Fulton County, Georgia, it was reported that the VoterGA audit group can now prove that the election in Fulton County was riddled with errors or fraud.

The audit of this one county in Georgia found that:

The votes on 923 of 1,539 mail-in ballots (60% of the votes) were incorrectly counted.
36 batches of mail-in ballots contained 4,255 extra votes (3,390 extra votes for Biden, 865 extra votes for Trump, and 43 extra votes for Jorgenson).
7 falsified audit tally sheets with fabricated vote totals (100% of the fabricated vote totals went to Biden).
There were other errors the Fulton County election commission has known about for months, but they have chosen to ignore or cover them up.

Update: On July 15, 2021, Georgia Sec. of State, Brad Raffensberger, called for the two top Fulton County election officials to be fired for mishandling and failing to properly supervise the election, but Democrats on the committee oppose their firing.

Seven, concerning corruption in the U.S. Dept. of Justice: on July 21, 2021, it was reported that a federal prosecutor paused the investigation of Hunter Biden before the election to protect Joe.

Some say the prosecutor just delayed the investigation until the election was over, but the election has been over for several months, so why isn’t Hunter being prosecuted?

Eight, concerning tracking everyone: it has been reported that:

On July 6, 2021, Pres. Biden announced his “community by community,” “neighborhood-by-neighborhood,” “door-to-door” effort to vaccinate America’s unvaccinated citizens.
On July 15, 2021, it was reported that Biden and the Democrat National Committee will be working with cellphone companies to monitor text messages to silence critics of the government (if they do not have a warrant, monitoring citizen’s text messages is unconstitutional).
On July 15, 2021, White House spokesperson Jan Psaki admitted that the federal government is working with Facebook to censor “misinformation.” (The problem is that some “misinformation” appears to be coming from the CDC, FDA, NIH, and WHO, and these groups want to censor the truth. The suppression of free speech means the destruction of free speech, and that is unconstitutional.)
On July 19, 2021, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of a group called “America’s Frontline Doctors” in an Alabama Federal Court alleging that the U.S. government is involved in a massive coverup of vaccine-related deaths. The group’s attorney said YouTube (Google), Facebook and Twitter are also involved in the coverup.

Nine, concerning the Covid Pandemic: on July 19, 2021, it was reported that about 47 % of the new Covid cases in the UK are people that have already been vaccinated.

If true, mandatory vaccinations will not stop the spread of Covid, but they will cause many people to have adverse reactions (get sick or die) from the contaminants that are injected into their body.

More: It has been widely reported that a group of Texas Democrats flew out of Texas to avoid voting on a voting reform bill, six of them had been fully vaccinated but they got Covid-19, and the White House has confirmed that they met with a fully vaccinated senior member of Nancy Pelosi’s staff who has now tested positive for Covid-19.

Ten, on July 19, 2021, on the American Family Radio program called “Sandy Rios in the Morning,” Sandy discussed the fact that she and her husband came down with Covid-19, were treated with Ivermectin, and they recovered.

https://afr.net/podcasts/sandy-rios-in-the-morning/2021/july/white-house-is-working-with-social-media-to-stop-misinformation-matt-braynard-discusses-rallies-for-january-6th-prisoners-and-kelli-ward-discusses-arizona-audit-and-happenings/

Several studies show that the safe, inexpensive and widely used drug Ivermectin will save lives, even the lives of Covid-19 patients, but big pharma and others want to force people to be vaccinated with something else at the risk of their lives.

Be warned, there is more than one kind of judgment, and pay day is coming.

Finally, are you Rapture Ready?

If you want to be rapture ready and go to heaven, you must be born again (John 3:3). God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried, and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this.

duck_daymond@yahoo.com