General Articles

Stocks & Bonds :: By Dale V. Nobbman

Published on: by RR10

The Wall Street NYSE has been in the news a lot lately regarding the fluctuating value of stocks during the current tariff war being waged. My blood pressure does not fluctuate with the up and down trading on the New York Stock Exchange because I do not have any monetary stock and bond investments, and thus I do not lose any sleep about what is happening on Wall Street.

I have a different take on the terminology of stocks and bonds. My investments are taking stock in what my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has to say to me in His Word, the Bible, enabling my bond with Him to grow exponentially stronger moving forward as my earthly days roll along.

An investment in Jesus Christ has a guaranteed forecast of a long-term profitable increase throughout eternity to come. Who would want to trade a worry-free, eternal, secure investment in Jesus Christ versus tossing and turning in bed, losing sleep over worry about short-term monetary transactions that last only a few decades at best, during a brief earthly lifetime?

The Bible has much to say about wealth and words of wisdom concerning money, profit, and loss.

“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36).

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

“Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself” (Proverbs 23:4).

“Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17).

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

“Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:9-10).

“No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).

“He who loves money is never satisfied by money, and he who loves wealth is never satisfied by income. This too is futile” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).

These verses are a small sampling of what the Bible has to say about monetary matters. Since Biblical times, King Solomon, the Apostle Paul, and Jesus Christ himself left us words of wisdom about money in the Bible, which have served every generation well, including our own generation today. Perhaps these words of wisdom have never needed to be heard more than in the current times we live in, as we seem to find ourselves near, or in, the ‘end times’ just preceding the Rapture of the Church (Christians) from the earth.

That means the time is shorter than ever for you to decide if YOU will serve mammon (money) or God in this life. There is nothing wrong with having money, or even being rich, if you use it for good in promoting the Kingdom of God here on earth. It is the ‘love of money’ that will get you in trouble. How you use the money God has blessed you with may be a major determining factor in where you spend eternity, either with Jesus Christ in heaven or separated from Jesus forever via the judgment of the unrighteous.

You can be a billionaire philanthropist and give away millions or billions to good causes, but it will not punch your ticket to eternal life with Jesus in heaven. You must put ‘stock’ in Jesus Christ to obtain eternal life. If you give your life to Jesus and believe in Him, then Jesus will create a ‘bond’ between you and God the Father. Now, that is the kind of stocks and bonds we should be excited about investing in for long-term, never-ending benefits, with the indicator arrow always pointing up toward heaven until we hear the closing bell of our life on earth.

Jesus, God’s one and only Son, was God’s blood sacrifice on our behalf, the one and only sacrifice sufficient to make us righteous with God the Father. Jesus suffered and died for us to redeem us of all our past, present, and future sins.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Every Easter, Christians joyously celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead so that when we die, we will be raised from the dead in our resurrected bodies, fit to join Jesus in God’s Kingdom of Heaven for all eternity, just as the Bible promises us will happen, and the Bible has kept ALL its promises. Of course, there is the possibility of the Rapture happening at any time before we die, which means we will be blessed to meet the Lord in the air instead.

 

Waiting For Our Wedding :: By Dennis Huebshman

Published on: by RR10

Revelation 19:6-9; “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the Saints. And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the true words of God.’” (ESV – all emphasis is mine).

All who have received and accepted Jesus as their Savior and have had the Holy Spirit come to live within them are officially betrothed to the “Lamb of God.” As such, we need to live to honor our Savior as the One who has paid a dowry of living a pure, sinless life. And having done so, His pure blood sacrifice at Calvary was more than enough to cover our sin debt to our Heavenly Father, by which we can live with Him forever in Paradise.

As His bride, we need to be ready when the time arrives that the Bridegroom comes for His bride. Does this mean we will live pure, sinless lives before His arrival, whenever that will be?

Hardly. It’s our sin-filled blood nature that we inherited from our first parents in the Garden of Eden that will keep us imperfect as long as we’re in these imperfect human bodies.

Romans 3:10; “As it is written, none is righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:23). “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And then Romans 6:23; “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Knowing how imperfect we are, all who have called on the name of the Father’s Son (Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, and Romans 10:13), and have asked Jesus to forgive them and to become their eternal Savior, have a pathway to forgiveness. When, not if, we sin, 1 John 1:8-9 states, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Please note, even though we are forgiven, we may still receive discipline for whatever sin we have committed. However, as Psalm 103:12 states, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.”

In Matthew 18:21-22, “Then Peter came up and said to Him, ‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times but seventy times seven.’”

Jesus’ remark was for humans forgiving humans. How much more is our Heavenly Father willing to forgive if we truly ask Him to? Ephesians 4:32; “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.”

We need to remember that through the pure, sinless blood shed by His Son, our Father shows us immense grace and mercy if we are a part of the Savior’s flock. When the time comes that we’re called up to meet Jesus in the air at the Rapture, we will have new, immortal, forever bodies and a pure mindset such as our Savior has. At this point, we will no longer be subject to any temptations as we are now. We will be ready for the Bridegroom to take us to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

Jesus, Paul, John, and others have given us signs of what will be taking place on this earth, and we’re seeing them all more and more. The time is getting very near to when 2 Thessalonians 2:7 takes place, and the lawless one (ultimate antichrist) is released. Just before that, all who have Jesus as their Savior will be taken up in the Rapture to fulfill the Father’s promise to keep us from the coming wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10, and Revelation 3:10).

We will be in serious preparation for our “Wedding.” In the meantime, instead of “fainting with fear” (Luke 21:26), we need to be listening for our “Wedding Music.”

In 1995, the Cathedrals released a song called “Wedding Music” written by Kirk Talley. It’s an amazing praise and worship song.

(ref) Is that Wedding Music I hear? The Bride’s adorned, ready to appear. There’s Heavenly preparation for the Wedding Celebration; is that Wedding Music I hear?

1) The family is preparing for a wedding, all of them invited to attend. The Bride is standing ready, waiting for the signal when the Bridegroom says, Christ, My Children, come on in. (ref)

2) Soon we’ll rise to leave this land of sorrow for that ceremony in the air. The Father then will lead us through the Holy Land of Splendor; have you made your preparation to go there? (ref)

3) There’s Heavenly preparation for the Wedding Celebration. Is that Wedding Music I hear?

Our Savior’s sacrifice for our sins is for all, everyone who will call out to Him for their Salvation. The simple steps are found in Romans 10:9-13. Yet, even though we are saved by grace through faith and not of any works we may do (Ephesians 2:8-9), there are many who will reject this free gift.

Jesus is not surprised by this, as stated in Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

The “many” are so wrapped up in the things of this world that they do not consider that this life is but a snap of the fingers compared to eternity in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:11-15) The one they have chosen to follow will already be there for his eternal punishment, along with all his demons (Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:10).

The “hard” part is believing the way is as simple as A-B-C. Admit we’re all sinners in need of a Savior. Believe Jesus is that Savior who came to earth as a human to provide a perfect sacrifice for our sins. And finally, Call out to Him to forgive and save us.

False prophets and antichrists today are giving “ear-tickling messages” (2 Timothy 4:3) that tell people there are many ways to Heaven, that Jesus isn’t necessary. John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 are two verses that totally dispel this attitude. Jesus is the only way to the Father and the only way to eternal life in Heaven.

For anyone who has not read God’s word -the Bible- there are translations that are true and easier to understand, such as the New American Standard and the English Standard Version, for example. I would suggest starting with the Book of John, followed by Romans.

Also, the time to seriously consider calling out to Jesus to be your eternal Savior is today. When the Rapture takes place, 1 Corinthians 15:52 states it will only take a “twinkling of an eye.” We’re told by experts that this is considerably less than one second. People will still call out and be saved after the Rapture, but the cost will most likely be martyrdom.

Remember; A-B-C. And if you happen to be mute, God “hears” your thoughts. He’s “listening” for all who will call out to receive and accept the free gift His Son provided for us.

Call out today! Shalom! Peace be with you!

huebshman46@gmail.com