I can’t believe it’s that time again. Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and another year will soon be gone forever. Thanksgiving Day is my favorite holiday.

Fall (autumn) began a few months back, and I love the fall. Can’t say much for winter, but it does make the anticipation of spring come alive within me. Since I’m talking about the seasons, I’ll reveal that my favorite time of season is summer, even though I have to mow, and my second favorite is the fall. Winter of course is last and that leaves spring at number three.

Thanksgiving is football, parades, and lavish meals for many people. I’m not a very big sports fan, but some of my neighbors would have a heart attack if the TV went out during their game time. Bless their hearts. It is nice though to be able to relax and watch some football and/or basketball now and then. I just can’t get into baseball however. I’ve tried, but I’d rather stand in the pasture and watch cows graze than watch a televised baseball game.

Anyway, there is so much we have to be thankful for in this country. Even with all our problems, and there are many, I wouldn’t live anywhere else if I could.

I’m thankful most of all that God has saved me and that my and my wife’s family know the Lord too. What a blessing it is to be married to a beautiful Christian lady, who loves the Lord and longs to know Him more and more. She is my best friend and I don’t say that facetiously.

When I think about my children and grandchildren, I am so proud of them, and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that kind of pride. I love them dearly and feel so bad for them that they have to face a world of so much moral rot. They didn’t get to enjoy the “Mayberry” years I grew up in. It is tragic that society has crawled down into the sewers of moral degradation.

I also thank God for the tough times I’ve been through in the past because He showed me and taught me so much of Himself. That isn’t to say I enjoyed the difficult years, far from it, but looking back, I wouldn’t trade them away. When I could see no light at the end of the tunnel at times, He was preparing blessings for me beyond my hopes and dreams. I asked for water. He gave me the well. I ask for bread. He gave me a banquet. You can’t beat that.

Now some of you are going to assume my wife and I live in a million dollar mansion atop some knoll looking down on everyone else. If so, back that buggy up. It ain’t so. We live in a small modest house in a sub-division with great neighbors and yapping dogs (theirs). By the way, I actually prefer cats, but after 21 years our little buddy passed away. Many of those blessings have been material in nature, but not in material riches. The riches have come spiritually and through family and friends.

Don’t you find it sad and annoying that Thanksgiving has become the “freckled-faced step-child of the latter part of each year? The fourth quarter of the year has four main holidays; i.e. Halloween, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Isn’t it puzzling that Satan’s crowd wants to push out of existence anything referring to God? So why hang on to Christmas? The Ten Commandments have been kicked out of the schools, along with prayer and God’s Word, the Bible. Manger scenes are a “no-no.” I’m surprised crosses haven’t been removed from the highways where people have died in car wrecks. So why hang on to Christmas? Greed. Money. There’s money to be made from this holiday, so they try to change it to Xmas. I pray that people continue to rebel against that blasphemous attempt.

Anyway, Thanksgiving got lost somewhere between Halloween and Christmas. Christmas advertising starts even before the arrival of Halloween. Thanksgiving is rarely mentioned though, other than to remind us to buy (money again) that turkey and spend the whole day watching those parades and ballgames.

Are we not thankful for anything at all? Thanksgiving to me is a family experience, enjoying each other’s company, and reminiscing on our blessings from God. To so many people though, it’s more about food. Hey look, I like food as much as the next guy, and I love the food prepared at this time, but I also feel we’ve lost the true meaning of Thanksgiving, just as we have with Christmas. Thanksgiving equals food. Christmas equals presents. There’s something wrong with that picture.

I thank God especially for saving my soul. I know I’m not worthy of it and I know I don’t deserve it, but that is the beauty of His grace. None of us could ever be worthy and certainly none of us deserve it, but He paid our sin debt anyway. All I had to do at some point in my life was believe upon Him by faith, and that I did. Since He never leaves anything half-done, He lives within me each day, helping me follow Him in the power of His Spirit, and assures my arrival in Heaven when this life is done.

Have you ever sat down and just started writing out the many ways the Lord is blessing you, especially when you think Murphy’s Law is pressing down on your life? I have. It can be very eye-opening. We may complain about having no shoes, but then someone else may have no feet. We may complain at the long-winded preacher keeping us from our Sunday dinner, but how many others gather together to worship Jesus at the risk of their lives? We may complain that our arthritis is acting up, when our neighbor is dying from cancer. Finally, we may complain of the knuckleheads destroying this once Christian country, and I do, but would we rather live in North Korea?

I’m thankful to God that we in this country have been so materially blessed, but let us not forget why. Our forefathers set us upon the right path, but those blessings could go at any time, and they very well may since we have strayed from the narrow road. What then? This may sound cliché, but if we have the Spirit of God living within us and live for Him, we are rich and blessed beyond measure.

Grant Phillips

“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” Revelation 3:10 NIV

The Lord Jesus Christ promises His bride, the Church, that He will keep us “from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world.” The word “from” in the Greek is “ek,” and it means: out of, from, by, and away from. It doesn’t say that He will keep us through it, but He will keep us from it.

In John chapter fourteen Jesus tells us that He is preparing a place for us in Heaven and will come again to receive us unto Himself.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 He tells us by the Apostle Paul how this will take place. He will come for us before the seven years of Tribulation starts. He will call for us to meet Him in the air. Those who have already died at that time will precede those who are alive when He comes for us and we will all meet Him in the air and be taken to Heaven.

Revelation 4:1 is clear that when the Church age ends the Church is no longer on earth but in Heaven. Chapters two and three of Revelation speak of the Church age from the first century to the end of the Church age. Chapter four verse one begins, “After this” and ends “I will show thee things which must be hereafter.” In other words, after the Church age ends the seven years of Tribulation begins. He will show the Apostle John things that will happen after the Church is removed. The Church (the bride) is not mentioned again until chapter nineteen of the book of Revelation, at the end of the Tribulation period.

Many have said that we who look forward to the Rapture simply want to escape. We are accused of wanting to throw in the towel and bail out. So let’s just call this commentary “The Great Escape.”

An old song called “This World Is Not My Home” pretty much says it for those who long to see Jesus.

“Oh Lord, you know, I have no friend like you. If heaven’s not my home, Oh Lord, what will I do? Angels beacon me, To heavens open door, And I can’t feel at home, In this world anymore.”

Do I want to “escape?” Let me answer that with a question. If I could choose between a world of lying, murder, hate, perversion, sickness, death, grief, greed, poverty, fear, calamities, etc. or a world of no lying, no murder, only love, no perversion, no sickness, no death, no grief, no greed, no poverty, no fear, no calamities, etc., which do you think I would choose? And to top it off, instead of Satan and his cohorts constantly trying to devour me, he is out of the picture, and I get to live with and worship Jesus in all His glory. Heaven or hell? For me, that’s a no-brainer. Heaven means always with Jesus. Hell means apart from Jesus.

Is it wrong to want to escape? Some think it is. Some think we, as the Church, should suffer by going through the Tribulation with all of Satan’s kids. Why? Are you nuts? What good would that do anyway?

The Church is not going through the seven years of Tribulation on earth. Why?

1.     These particular seven years are the remaining seven years that belong to Israel. The Church dispensation must end before the remaining seven years due Israel begins. God tells us about the 490 years due Israel in Daniel chapter nine. They are for Israel, not the Church. 483 of those years ended with the first advent of the Messiah. The remaining seven years are yet to come. These particular seven years are God’s judgment upon Israel and His drawing them to Him. They have nothing to do with the Church.

2.     These particular seven years are also a time of God’s judgment upon the world. This judgment will be carried out by the Lord Jesus personally. He is not going to administer judgment upon His own bride, the Church. Why? He has already taken our judgment upon Himself. Also, the bridegroom, Jesus, is not going to beat the crap out of His bride and then say, “Okay honey, let’s go celebrate with a big wedding feast.” Think “spouse abuse” and “domestic violence.” I don’t think so.

3.     The judgment that Jesus administers during this time will be a time of wrath like the world has never seen, even surpassing the flood of Noah’s day. Jesus isn’t mad at His bride, the Church. He loves His bride and will remove her from His wrath, but He isn’t too happy with Satan and the world.

Some will say, “But the Church has suffered since its inception. Why shouldn’t it suffer during the Tribulation?” Because all the suffering the Church has endured since its inception has come from Satan and his followers, not from God. The suffering handed out by the Antichrist during the Tribulation won’t be toward the Church, because the Church won’t be here. God is administering justice through Satan’s puppets in the first half of the Tribulation, and then the last 3 ½ years will be direct judgment from God upon a fallen world. Satan is not in control, and neither are the Antichrist and the False Prophet of course. God is in control and His judgment will be fierce.

No member of our Lord’s Church wants anyone to experience this time of misery that is coming upon the world, but it is coming. We are so thankful that our Bridegroom loves His bride and will remove us from harm’s way. We will escape His fury. We are also most grateful for those He will save during this terrible time and there will be many. Yes, many will be saved, but through much suffering and probably death.

Do I believe in the “Great Escape?” You betcha, and I’m all for escaping the wrath of God. Would you like to escape? Notice these words of Christ.

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20

He is speaking to the Ladicean church, the apostate church of this age that does not know Him. Oh, they claim they do, but they do not. Come to Him today and you will not be disappointed. How?

“…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…”

“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:10

Is it wrong to want to escape the Tribulation and be with Him at the Rapture? Would you rather die in a burning house or put your faith in the fireman to rescue you? I’m for the fireman.

But what if I die before the Rapture? Are you a child of God? Have you come to Him through His Son Jesus? Then what’s the problem!? If I die before the Great Escape (Rapture), I get to be with Him even sooner. By the way, if that happens, I’ll see you at the Rapture. I’ll be coming with Him to pick up my new body.

“and the dead in Christ shall rise first; Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

The world around us, which includes pseudo Christians, will continue to mock what they call our Great Escape, but for those of us who believe, just keep looking up. It is going to happen, and it could happen at any time.

 

Grant Phillips