Back in 2012, when our Oldest literally went ‘viral’ in her rebellion, the heart of this Mother fell into a ‘deep depression.’ And to be honest, I do not think I have ever ‘recovered from’ it, even to this day. Just today, I found my little notebook that I would ‘feverishly write in’ that year whenever I had some free time at work. It helped so much to write scripture, quotes, and sayings that pertained to what I was going through.

This whole heartbreaking process has been more than a journey; it has been a life-altering experience, to put it mildly. For those who may be going through the same or something similar, I thought I would share my notes in a series of articles to hopefully be a comfort or some type of help in a time of such emotional need. Throughout this process, I found God’s Word to be a type of a ‘healing balm’ to my soul, so here goes, my friends.

Page 1

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18).

“Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word: ‘Your own people who hate you, and exclude you because of my name, have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy!’ Yet they will be put to shame” (Isaiah 66:5).

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Page 2

You don’t ever have to feel guilty about removing toxic people from your life. It doesn’t matter whether someone is a relative, romantic interest, employer, childhood friend, or a new acquaintance. You don’t have to make room for people who cause you pain or make you feel small. It’s one thing if a person owns up to their behavior and makes an effort to change. But if a person disregards your feelings, ignores your boundaries, and “continues” to treat you in a harmful way, they need to go. – Danielle Koepke

Page 3

Thank You, Lord, for motherhood

With all its vale of tears,

For happy moments never dimmed

Through all the many years. – Strecker

Being a mom is a sacred partnership with God.

Page 4

Know that when a person is toxic, it is because of their own issues. Accept that a toxic person’s behavior has nothing to do w/you. In life, each of us has to take responsibility for our own actions. Toxic people do not do this. They have a habit of turning things around so that you feel bad, you feel guilty, & you feel like you are at fault. Realize this & take back your power. – bellaonline 

Letting go of toxic people in your life is a big step in loving yourself.

Page 5

Being betrayed is a form of dishonesty or disloyalty that may come in many different shapes or forms. Sometimes being betrayed may consist of being cheated on by someone w/whom you are in a serious committed relationship with. While other times being betrayed might mean that a person chooses to be loyal to someone else over you when, in fact, they had a covenant or promise to be loyal to you before anyone else. Being betrayed can cause one of the worst emotional meltdowns that a person can ever experience, because when you put your heart & your all into someone or something & they show a lack & utter disrespect for the hard work & love you put in, it feels as though you have been robbed & left w/nothing. When a person has been betrayed, it is important for them to forgive, & to move on. Holding on to grudges & anger will do nothing but stop you from living the rest of your life as you should, in peace.

Page 6

Turn your face to the sun, & the shadows fall behind you. – Charlotte Whitton

We honor God when we make reconciliation w/others a priority. After we have been reconciled, we can then fully enjoy communion w/our heavenly Father. – Dave Branon

It’s not easy, Lord, to swallow our pride & ask others to forgive us. But You want us to seek reconciliation before worship can take place. Help us to seek forgiveness when necessary.

Page 7

Confession of sin is the soil in which forgiveness flourishes.

God’s mighty arm is outstretched for us as well. No matter the outcome of our situation, He can be trusted to bring about His will for each of His children. We can depend on God’s strong arm. – Anne Cetas

I have sincerely apologized to J, N, & tried reconciliation w/G & P to NO AVAIL. What do I do then? Is my worship acceptable? – Me

Page 8

“A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother” (Prov. 10:1).

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Eph. 6:1).

Page 9

“Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:3).

“A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man despises his mother” (Prov. 15:20).

“If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness” (Prov. 20:20).

“The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother” (Prov. 29:15).

Page 10

Unforgiveness

Father, I come before You today broken, asking for the very thing I was not strong enough to give – grace. I know unforgiveness is a serious offense in Your eyes, and I accept full responsibility for my bitter spirit.  Please forgive me and help me to lay down this offense so that I will not have to lose another night’s sleep over it.

Send Your Holy Spirit to teach me how to forever cast aside my anger and resentment so that I can be healed. Please restore what has been lost through my stubborn anger. Lord, I pray for the persons who committed the offenses against me and ask You to help me understand what motivated them to do so. Show me this person’s heart, Father – the pain, confusion, and bondage that lies deep within – so that I may feel mercy for him or her. Help me to have compassion on each individual’s situation, and show me how to demonstrate Your love and grace to them.

Father, I am grateful for Your promise to lift me up, even when I stumble and fall. Thank You for showing me how to be free of unforgiveness and how to live a life worthy of Your name. Truly, there is none more merciful, compassionate, loving, and kind as You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen. – In Touch

Page 11

Anger

Father, how grateful I am that You are patient, loving, kind, and forgiving toward me. You have many more reasons to be angry than I ever do; yet, You always treat me with compassion. Please help me to be more like You in word, thought, and deed.

I confess my anger to You and ask You to cleanse my heart of any resentment and bitterness I feel. Please show me where this pain originates and remove it from my soul so that I will not sin against You. When I am angry, reveal constructive and loving ways to deal with my emotions, giving me the patience and wisdom to deal with what is really going on within me, rather than simply lashing out.

Please teach me to be a person of peace and grace, Father. Help me to understand why certain traps entangle me and how I can be free of them. Show me how I can be Your representative, helping others to be liberated from their anger and leading them to faith in You. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. – In Touch

Page 12

Rejection

Father, how grateful I am for Your Holy Spirit and precious Word which You use to set me free from my pain and suffering. Thank You for always loving me and never giving up on me. It is a great comfort to know You will never leave or forsake me.

You know the wounds of rejection that have marred my heart. You know how useless, helpless, & worthless I feel when yet another person casts me away. So many of these feelings originated long ago & have deep roots. But I am grateful for how You have set me free from these feelings; how You give me a sense of belonging in Your eternal, heavenly family as Your own beloved child; how You bless me w/a sense of worthiness through Your death on the cross & resurrection; & how You fill me w/ the sense of competence & adequacy, empowering me to accomplish all You call me to through Your indwelling Holy Spirit.

Father, I know I must make a decision – either I will believe what others have spoken about me, or I will trust what You say about my character & future. I know what You say counts in eternity, Lord, so I choose to listen to You. Thank You for Your unfailing love & for creating me w/a good plan & purpose. Help me to keep my eyes on You. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. – In Touch

Page 13

“Turning the other cheek” doesn’t mean being a doormat. Other people’s behavior is not our responsibility. Sometimes, loving mean taking our hands off the situation, letting go, & trusting God w/the outcome.

Saying no & having boundaries that honor what’s right & holy allow a relationship to heal. We have to begin to shift our perspective to trust God w/the people we love, rather than continuing these same patterns of trying to fix, manage, or rescue them.

You are to love God first & others second. Not the other way around. Often, the other person has taken precedence over your relationship w/God. And you almost act as if you’re their Savior, not Jesus.

The truth is that He loves & cares for them far more than you do. He wants you to realize your powerlessness to fix or control them, & is calling you to appropriate responsibility: to first let Him work in you. – Dr. Clinton

Page 14

There are too many Christians who nurse their bitterness as if it were a baby. But as we have been forgiven, so we must forgive others. It is a command, not a choice.

“But it is quite another thing to adopt a lifestyle of forgiveness. It takes effort, determination, & sacrifice. To live a lifestyle of forgiveness means choosing to pursue a life of holiness & avoiding the things that could defile you. You have to repent.” – Dr. Clinton

“Daily you have to pray, daily. You have to read the Bible, daily. And you have to forgive others far more frequently than that.”

“Forgiveness is a process, & it is one that can take years. You might forgive someone once or twice – choosing not to give in to bitterness & instead to offer grace & kindness. But the wounds we carry within us take far more than bandages & kisses to heal. It often takes years to overcome emotional pain.

And when you are dealing w/people who deliberately act to harm you, the whole thing just becomes even more complicated & painful.” – Medad

Page 15

“Forgiveness is like breathing in & breathing out. We must inhale & exhale, asking forgiveness of our own sins & offering it w/out charge to those who have hurt us. Without it, we suffocate. Without forgiveness, we die.” – Medad

What we know for certain is that the Lord is good, & that in the end His goodness will win the day (Rom. 8:28, Phil. 2:13). We may not see or always feel Him, but He’s there, abiding within us & working among us. – In Touch

Looking back on my notes, I remember this as a time when I could not bring myself to pray for my enemies; and if I did pray for them, it was as the prayers of King David asking God to bring ‘swift justice’ upon them! Now I realize this scripture to be true for me in my life (Psalm 119:71 “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.”) Like I said at the beginning, this process has been more than a journey, it has been a life-altering experience in growing in Grace through immense internal suffering.

My next article will contain my notes from pages 16-30 and so on until I finish sharing the contents of my notebook. My prayer is that this may help someone in a time of emotional need like it did me. In Jesus Christ’s Name, Amen.

Finally, an excerpt that spoke to me from the ‘Prince of Preachers’ notes that I read last night during our Bible Study that I would like to share as well.

KJV Charles Spurgeon Study Bible Notes

1 Samuel 30:6 “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.”

Study Notes Excerpt:

If there is anything in this world for which I would bless him more than for anything else, it is for pain and affliction. I am sure that in these things the richest, most tender love has been manifested toward me. Love letters from heaven are often sent in black-edged envelopes. The cloud that is black with horror is big with mercy. – Charles Spurgeon

Until next time… Maranatha!

JESUS = THE WAY, THE TRUTH, & THE LIFE!

Jesus Will Come!

 

[Note: This author is a pre-Tribulation rapture believer, and this article reflects that view.]

Introduction

I wanted to address this seemingly controversial passage of Scripture, with a strong desire to avoid any contention it may cause. How successful I’ll be able to attain to this goal will be totally dependent upon the reader.

I truly want loving fellowship with all brothers and sisters in Christ, despite any differences we may have with any interpretation or views regarding Scripture and the non-essentials of the faith. (I never even knew this was a controversy, until fairly recently.) I only want to offer my take for the reader’s consideration and allow them to make up their own mind as to what they may deem the appropriate view.

We most certainly should have unity in all doctrine revealed to us in the Word of God, but there are those situations – and this would be one of them – where it can be considered “open for debate.”

Let us not lose sight of the importance of the essentials and at the same time consider, with love and grace, those things that have been left open for us to investigate and are free to come to our own conclusions, with no animosities of others who may disagree.

The Passage and a Breakdown

“That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thessalonians 2:2-3).

I see, in these two verses, two false teachings that Paul is attempting to put to rest. We can decipher this from how Paul is addressing his response to them in these two verses alone. By dissecting the two verses, we see the two errors that have been taught to the struggling Thessalonians, in the name of Paul, by the false teachers.

Error #1

The first is found in verse 2 which reads: “That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.”

The error is that some were being taught that “the day of Christ [was] at hand.” That is, the rapture wasn’t only imminent, it was about to happen right then, right there.

How many times have we heard this in our own day and age? How many times have we seen segments of the body of Christ quit their jobs, sell their material goods, and wait for the Lord at a certain time appointed by false teachers?

We just went through this as recently as September 17-23, 2020.

I had received emails and newsletters from those claiming they knew, for a fact, that the rapture was going to happen during this time frame. One such ministry (a ministry I recently came across, enjoy, and have much in agreement with) made the astonishing claim, that if “this theory falls apart… we’ll have to recalibrate.” So, you’re just going to go back to the drawing board and recalibrate and recalculate, after your first failed date setting attempt?

Stop it! Please, just STOP IT!!! Keep preaching Christ and edifying the church with valuable insights, but please, discontinue the date-setting of the rapture. We know we are in the last of the last days, and we can almost hear that shofar blast now. That should be good enough. Nobody wants our “blessed hope” more than I do. But I refuse to get caught up in date-setting, something that was never commanded of us by the Apostles or our Lord.

Verse 2 clarified and remedied this false teaching and comforted those that were deceived. The rapture wasn’t going to happen then and there, and they needed to understand that truth and continue to abide. They most certainly were to live life as if the rapture could happen at any time – and indeed it could have – but they were not to be persuaded that that day was “at hand” and absolute.

Error #2

The second error being taught by false teachers is found in verse 3, which reads: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”

That is, the second error the church at Thessalonica was being taught was that they were already living in the Tribulation.

“That day” is none other than the “day of the Lord” which commences with the “day of Christ.” (My article, An Examination of the ‘Day of the Lord’ discusses this in great detail, and can be found here: https://www.raptureready.com/2020/08/11/an-examination-of-the-day-of-the-lord-by-mark-a-becker/ or https://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=205363 )

We know this because Paul goes on to describe what the Tribulation will look like under the Antichrist. He also elaborates on this “falling away” (which we will be discussing below) with the following details: “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8).

Virtually all agree that the “He” that will be “taken out of the way” is none other than the indwelling Holy Spirit within every truly born-again believer, being removed in the rapture of the church.

So Paul, in just two verses, destroyed two false teachings that were distressing the Thessalonians. Verse 2 assured them that the rapture of the church wasn’t about to happen (although they, and we, should always live as if it could), and in verse 3 he reassured them they were not living in the Tribulation, as the rapture of the church had to happen first.

The reader should find it just as fascinating as I do that these two errors are the very errors that have been plaguing the church for 2,000 years and are so prevalent in our day and age.

Addendum

In regard to the position I hold, I will not outright say that, “I am right, and you are wrong.” And, honestly, I respect everyone’s right to whatever perspective they may hold on this particular issue. But, as you will see later, there is a possibility both interpretations may be in view.

So, hang in there as we continue on.

Apostasia

I’ll start with quoting from my above-mentioned article, An Examination of the ‘Day of the Lord’:

While there certainly is a “falling away” happening within the church in regard to pure doctrine and the infiltration of demonic teachings (1 Timothy 4:1), this, unfortunately, has always been a problem within the church. Paul’s epistles often battled blatant false doctrines infecting the church on numerous occasions. But this is not the primary meaning behind the phrase, as rendered, in this verse.

Dr. Andy Woods has written a powerful book called, The Falling Away: Spiritual Departure or Physical Rapture? explaining that the Greek word translated “falling away” is “apostasia” and means “departure” or “departing,” translated as such in seven previous English translations, including the Wycliffe, the Coverdale, the Tyndale, and the Geneva Bibles. This is most definitely the proper translation, and I highly recommend Dr. Wood’s book for further information regarding this subject.

The 1599 Geneva Bible translates 2 Thessalonians 2:3, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a departing first, and that man of sin be disclosed, even the son of perdition.” This departing is the rapture of the church.

In addition to my quote from my article above, I’d like to offer the following.

“Apostasia” is derived from the Greek root word 868/“aphístēmi” meaning “leave, depart,” which is derived from 575/apó, “away from” and 2476/histémi, “stand”) – properly, departure (implying desertion); apostasy – literally, “a leaving, from a previous standing.” (Biblehub.com)

What Do I Make of This?

Not that my opinion matters much, but I really see a possible trifecta here. That is, it may be possible that Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, was using the Greek word “apostasia” to cover three different aspects of his teaching of what will come before the Tribulation.

Before I reveal them, I wanted to make this point that I made in my article, Allusions to the Rapture in the Tanakh, found here https://www.raptureready.com/2020/09/17/allusions-to-the-rapture-in-the-tanakh-by-mark-a-becker/ or https://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=205722.

“One of the many things I have learned from my Scripture study is that the Word of God is layer upon layer of remarkable multiplicity. That is, when one digs deep beneath the surface, there is an insurmountable amount of treasure to be found. So much so, that this is the reason I truly believe we will be studying the Scriptures in eternity with The Word, Jesus Christ, teaching us things we never would have been able to see without His insight.”

An example of this is in Daniel:

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Daniel 12:4).

This “running to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased,” isn’t only about the increased transportation and scientific knowledge we see in today’s world, it is also a reference to how we study the Scriptures “to and fro” throughout the books of the Bible and how our knowledge of the Word of God has increased exponentially in these last days.

So, in regard to an alternative, uniting interpretation, Paul’s possible trifecta would be as follows: #1 is the bride of Christ’s “departure and falling away” from the earth at the rapture; #2 is the “departure and falling away” of sound doctrine within the professing church; and #3 is the “departure and falling away” of modern society from Biblical, moral, and governmental law.

I offer this possible alternative as an “olive branch” to the other side of the issue, but I truly take the position of “apostasia” as that of describing the rapture of the church.

The Controversy’s End Result

I have done my own study on this topic and have shared the results in this article. For me, this is how I see this issue and hold no ill-will against anyone who doesn’t see this as I do.

For those who desire to debate this issue, I’m not your man. If the reader has issues with this topic, I suggest their grievance is with the following:

Dr. Andy Woods, and other scholars who also hold this view, and the early English translators, mentioned above, who translated their Bible versions hundreds of years ago; hundreds of years closer to the original Greek language, and hundreds of years closer to the Apostles and the first-century church.

Conclusion

This is not an essential issue for the body of Christ, and it should be treated as such.

When it comes to the interpretation of this passage of Scripture, we should be treating each other with respect and not allow this issue to progress into division within the church.

It reminds me, to a certain degree, of the differing views on the timing of the rapture of the church which, in its own right, has caused division and schism that never should have been. Where someone sits on the rapture fence will in no way jeopardize their chances of being “caught up” at the pre-Tribulation rapture of the church.

Do you like what I did there? Come on, we’ve got to have some humor in this messed-up and fallen world!

With all that said, I pray we would all go along to get along, and to agree to disagree. I think this is our reasonable service to the Lord in such matters.

Love, grace, mercy, and shalom in Messiah Yeshua, and Maranatha!

[Author’s note: This article was written in its entirety August 25th through August 27th, 2020, but wasn’t released to the public until late September/early October 2020 due to the rapture of the church predictions of September 17-23, 2020, by certain ministries. I really did hope that they were right but, as we now know, they were not. My prayer for them is that they refuse the temptation to date-set the rapture in the future.]

Email: mab10666@yahoo.com