General Articles

In Peace and Rest :: By John Lysaught

Published on: by RR7

Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

What times we are living in! In the last chapter of this era, we get closer each and every day as we await the rapture of the Church and meet Jesus in the air! While we wait for this joyous event, we must still live in the world. If you are like me, you are getting weary of what is happening in the world. I don’t want to say we are stressed about it because we know who is coming for us and who is in control. I would gander to say that there is anxiety amongst the believers of waiting and wondering when this chapter ends.

The only way to relieve this angst of the times is to find peace and rest in Christ. I mean, most believers’ sixth sense is telling them that something big is coming (rapture) any time now, and with each passing day, the anxiety of waiting continues. It may ebb and flow from our minds, but it is still there, and it needs to be dealt with. One way is to find rest in our Savior for what He did on the cross for us.

Matthew 11:28 tells us Jesus will give us rest. He doesn’t give us anxiety but takes it away. He won’t turn us away, nor will He ignore our calling out to Him for rest. We can… no, we will find rest in Jesus if we seek Him out and worship Him as our Captain, our Leader, and our Savior.

Each day that comes brings with it new ills to worry about relating to our world and faith. Apostasy is rampant. People and church leadership are getting soft on today’s obvious issues and coming rapture. As believers, we can get frustrated and anxious about all of this.

Feel-good messages. Watered down sermons. Reality avoidance. These are all happening in churches and circles of believers. I feel alone most of the time because of the lack of like-minded folks around me, and I want to scream and yell at my fellow believers that can’t see what is going on.

Argg! It drives me crazy to see them not see the obvious. It causes me to become frustrated and, yes, anxious. But that’s not all.

There is the world we live in and the society we are surrounded by. I won’t even begin to describe what the world is or how society is twisting out of control with evil, other than saying it is bad today and will be worse tomorrow or next week, etc., until the Church Age concludes.

Though there is no hope for the world, there is hope for believers. Not hope of a miraculous change of heart by the world, but a hope of rest and peace until the rapture. There is no need to be stressed, anxious, or scared of the world. Jesus overcame the world with His death and resurrection. We don’t need to worry at all because the rest and peace we can have if we want is found in Christ.

Even though things are amiss and disintegrating around us, we can gain strength and peace and rest through the knowledge that there is a God in Heaven who is in control of the present and the future. He oversees everything. He made everything and directs everything. Nothing happens without His permission, and He has been guiding us to this time and to the yet future to be for the moment of the rapture and so on.

John 14:27 Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

Jesus leaves us peace and gives us His peace. Notice this? Notice that He gives us His peace. Not the world’s peace, but His peace. Do you think His peace is greater and more than the world or our idea of what peace is? Surely it is. If it weren’t, the Word would not have expressed it this way.

When everything is going well in our lives and there are no troubles, we feel at peace. Yet, when something goes amiss and throws a wrench into our lives, our peace is disturbed and taken away. The peace Jesus offers to those who partake in Him and His peace is above the worldly peace that we have. It is greater than our circumstances and our problems. It surpasses anything; any type of offered peace by the world or others is nothing compared to His offered peace.

It is one thing for Him to offer it to us, and it is another thing for us to partake in it. We have to want this peace and have to be willing to do what is necessary to have it. What is the necessity? To surrender to Jesus!

The peace and rest of Christ is not for the unbeliever.

It is only for those who believe and surrender to the faith in His deity, His death, and resurrection. Only through this belief and faith can we have peace and rest in Him.

I want you to think for a moment. Think for a moment of the peace and the rest that the world has compared to that of Christ. It is quite different.

Think for a moment of your interactions with unbelievers when you are held by the peace and rest of Christ. They act differently than us. They have a different disposition and reaction to the things going wrong in the world than believers do. We have the disposition of a peace they don’t understand.

I’ve been asked before why I don’t worry about things going on in the world with the downward spiral and all its troubles.

I’ve been asked if I care or not because of my lack of perceived concern. I’ve been asked why I’m not all spun up about what is happening. My response is that God is in control. That I need not worry because I have the peace of Christ in me. And yup, I mostly get that “look” we all get from unbelievers, and they move on.

Though we may have anxiety about the world, we can be at rest. We can have peace knowing that history happening now and not yet complete is under the authorship of God. No person nor evil entity can take that peace and rest of Jesus away from us believers.

How do you attain and maintain the peace and rest of Christ? Simple; studying the Word and through prayer. By doing both, you will remain and grow stronger in your faith.

God bless.

Johnflysaught@gmail.com

 

Satan’s Warfare on the Lineage of Kings, Part 2 :: By Gene Lawley

Published on: by RR7

You can read part 1 at this link: https://www.raptureready.com/2021/06/27/satans-warfare-on-the-lineage-of-kings-part-1-by-gene-lawley/

The next major potential break in that ongoing legacy of kings is in the time of King Hezekiah (2 Kings 16:20). The record of Hezekiah’s reign is in 2 Kings, chapters 16-20 and 2 Chronicles, chapters 28-32. But Hezekiah had no sons to inherit his throne in Jerusalem. A unique action of God then took place, reported in 2 Kings 20:1-11, that of God telling Hezekiah, “Get your house in order, for you are going to die.” Hezekiah was in bed, sick, and this was fearful news that brought him to tears and caused him to pray for God’s healing. His repentance and appeal were heard by God, and the Lord gave him fifteen more years to his life.

Two years into that added time, Hezekiah fathered a son whom he named Manasseh, who reigned after him. Thus, we see how the disruption of the lineage from Abraham to Christ was again averted.

Was that of Satan’s doing? The sinfulness in lack of foresight and concern in Hezekiah’s life gave Satan all the opportunity he needed to try to sneak that by.

However, another issue was resolved at the same time, for the extension of fifteen years to Hezekiah’s life was promised with a sign from God that it would be done. The sun was stopped in its steady movement toward sundown by ten degrees on the measuring device. What did this do? It completed the halt of the sun for a full twenty-four hours, which was begun in the time of Joshua.

In Joshua 10:1-15 is the record of Joshua’s conquering of five kings led by the king of Jerusalem, following his victories over Jericho and Ai. God was overwhelming their enemies with hailstones from heaven, and Joshua appealed to God for His further help in this way:

“Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel:

‘Sun, stand still over Gibeon; and Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.’ So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the people had revenge upon their enemies.

“Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel” (Joshua 10:1-14).

[A full day of twenty-four hours would result in 360 degrees of time. This time, the better part of a whole day, no doubt amounted to 350 degrees, and with those ten degrees allowed for Hezekiah, a full day has been added to that Friday in Joshua’s time. It means that the twenty-four hours belonging to the Sabbath following Joshua’s battle were absorbed by that long Friday. It also means that the Sunday that was to follow that Sabbath has now become “the day of the Lord’s rest right where the original Sabbath rested. The Lord of the Sabbath is the Lord of the Resurrection, and the two events—the seventh day Sabbath and the day of His resurrection—are now on the same day!]

Getting back to the lineage of kings, we learn that while the added fifteen years to Hezekiah’s life allowed a son to be born with an age to take over the throne when Hezekiah died. Manasseh was an evil king, perhaps the worst of all, for most of his reign. Even so, God forgave him when he repented, and the legacy of kings remained intact.

After that vivid attempt to disrupt the continuity of the kingship in Hezekiah’s time, it seems to have been without any break in the linage. Even during the Babylonian overthrow of the nation and the quietness of prophets during the four hundred years until Christ came. Historical/secular records show that attempts to interject a false Messiah into the unfolding plan of God but were not successful.

Once the birth of Christ had happened, Satanic endeavors formed to eliminate Him, or sidetrack His plan to redeem mankind as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. One of those times when Satan tried his tactic of warfare against God was recorded at Matthew 16:21-23, and Christ’s unwavering and direct rebuke of that evil one stands out vividly as how firmly fixed is God’s coming complete victory:

“From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.

“Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!’

“But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.'”

The Scriptures detailing the events of the end times tell of the intent of the Antichrist, Satan’s man on earth and one in whom he indwells once he is cast out of heaven. That one will be in charge during those seven years of tribulation and will promote himself to take over the new temple, declare himself God, and demand all people to worship him as God. (See Daniel 9:27 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3-7.)

Revelation 12 tells the story of Satan’s continual warfare against “the woman and her son,” Israel and Christ, attempting to do away with them. Finally, Satan assumes the position of the “eighth head of the Beast” (Revelation 17), having overcome all opposition—except God—and then he is chained in the bottomless pit for a thousand years. After that, he is released for a short time, and one more battle, and is cast into the lake of fire to burn forever and ever. The legacy of the King of Kings remains intact also forever and ever.

What a wonderful certainty it is that “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world!” (1 John 4:4). And further revealed in 1 John 5:4-5:

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

And finally, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20b).

Contact email: andwegetmercy@gmail.com