Are you Ready?

After yesterdays post, I decided that it was imperative that I ask this question of you all.
ARE YOU READY?

Back in the early eighties there was a song out by David Meece that bore that very title, here is a cool video of it...

Courtesy of Downing Media

 

Paul tells us in the book of Philippians chap 2 and verse 12 to; work out your own salvation, with fear and trembling. It is an awesome thing to fall into the hands of the Lord God Almighty, The Lord of Hosts, The Lord YAH-WEH. 

We need to take seriously just exactly where we are with Jesus. In the parables that were recorded by God the Holy Spirit, a few things really stand out that we should pay close attention to. As we will see, Jesus was very specific and most serious about what He spoke regarding our eternal destinies.

In Matthew chap 13, Mark chap 4 & Luke chap 8 Jesus talks about the "parable of the sower". This is near the chronological beginning of his ministry.

"Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

Here He is quite clear about what kind of ears His teaching will fall upon.

The first place His seed would fall upon would be upon the wayside. The wayside would be a heart that received the word, but the enemy easily swooped in and plucked it out because there was no desire in that heart to grow in the faith. That kind of heart might even believe in God, yet just have no desire to make a decision. 

The next kind of seed was the seed that fell on the rocks. That hard rocky heart actually received the seed and began to check out the faith, but while it was still very young and impressionable, the trials, tribulations and temptations that so easily beset even"true" believers, came and easily scorched out the infant seeker. 

The next kind of seed fell among the thorns. This heart received the word and really sprouted up, but it was within a body of other thorns, briars, stickers and tares, and it was choked out by the lowliness and sinfulness of those others around it. False teaching, back biting, bickering, gossip and the like. such are the sanctuaries of many of our churches. They are like the Pharisees of Jesus day. Matthew 23:15 says this;

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Ouch!

The last place the seed falls is in the good soil. The good soil is a heart that is ready to accept the engrafted word of God into his heart, mind and soul with all that is in him. This heart has a desire for the word of God, for Worship and for fellowship with like believers. This is a heart that is tapped into the vine of John chap 15; I am the Vine and ye are the branches, he who abides in Me and I in him, will bear much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing. This heart grows and produces other fruit, some thirty, some sixty & some a hundred fold. Is this the kind of seed that fell in your heart? Lets pray it is so.

Notice the progression in the parable above. Four types of seed, three are bad and one is good. While some may want to argue about it, based on the above parable, only 25% of those who may be in church are actually true fruit bearing believers. We will discuss this further as we peruse some more of the parables.
Hang in there, God is not finished with any of us yet. If we are still breathing, His Spirit is still moving in our lives. He loves us supremely and desires that we would all come into fellowship with Him. Revelation 3:20 says this; Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open that door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with Me.

   Please listen to this song before we continue.

  Courtesy of;Gateway Worship. Kari Jobe- Revelation Song

On to the next parable...

What do you see here? A Cross?? To be certain. But what else do you see? 

In Matthew chap 13 and verse 24-30, Jesus gives us a scenario that has been played out for centuries. Here is the story...  "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, an enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.  

A man(singular) planted good seed in his field. But while men(plural) slept, his enemy came and sowed tares(bad seed) among the wheat and went his way.

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?' But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."

Jesus goes on to explain this parable to his disciples in this way...

"He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Yikes!

Hmm, It's really all pretty self explanatory. But how often do we look a little deeper to ascertain what this parable is really trying to bring out? Look at the picture of the Cross up above. It has six(6) different pictures on it, but they all look the same. When we think about tares, commonly known as "darnel,"  we think about these big ugly weeds that are easy to spot and pull out of the ground, not so. 
They look just like the wheat. 

Here is a definition from Wikipedia that you might be interested in; 

(Darnel usually grows in the same production zones as wheat and is considered a weed. The similarity between these two plants is so extensive that in some regions it is referred to as false wheat. It bears a close resemblance to wheat until the ear appears. The ears on the real wheat are so heavy that it makes the entire plant droop downward, but darnel, whose ears are light, stands up straight. The wheat will also appear brown when ripe, whereas the darnel is (black)). 

What Jesus is letting us know is that "While men(We) are sleeping and not paying attention" Satan will plant lots of people in our assemblies that look and act the part, they may even seem genuine, but there will come a time that the true colors will shine through, and these plants of the wicked one will be exposed. Jesus loves us so much that He doesn't want to try and separate the wheat from the tares right now. He knows it would damage the wheat. Just think, there are people you love, maybe even love dearly, and they are not true believers. Wouldn't that be devastating to find out. It would hurt so badly to find out that maybe some of your closest friends or even family members didn't really love Jesus Christ supremely. But Jesus says that when we get to heaven, He will dry away all of our tears. He will be there to comfort and heal us when all of the truth really comes to light. Please understand, Jesus has made it quite clear that these false brethren are amongst us. These brothers are not going to change and become real. They have been planted by the enemy. We need to be wise in who we listen to and who we follow, and who we associate with. The time is short, lets make it count.  2 Peter chap 2 says this; even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways.

Wow, from this view they pretty much all look the same don't they. If you are not sure who you are listening to "or" you are not absolutely positive that the fellowship(friends) you are involved with have been "planted" by Jesus Christ, I would highly advise you pay attention. Jesus said in Luke chap 6 and verse 43 that A good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. While we have not been called to be fruit inspectors, we do need to use discernment and discretion with those we choose to associate. The Rapture is eminent. Will those with whom you associate participate in that event ?

It's starting to heat up a little... On to the next parable.

What EXCITING Times!

JERUSALEM THE STUMBLING BLOCK OF THE WORLD

Well guys, It's been about eight months since my last post, and what an eight months it has been. Jesus told us in Matthew 24, Mark 13 & Luke 21 all about what we could expect to see happen in these last days and He was spot on, as usual.

We have seen such turmoil in the entire world the past 1 1/2 to 2 years. Afghanistan, Greece, Israel, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Taiwan, Russia, China, The USA, Israel, The EU, Libya, Egypt, Congo, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand, Japan, Israel, Indonesia, Great Britain, Benelux, Germany, Italy, France & Spain. Surely you've noticed that I mentioned and highlighted Israel several times. That's because Israel, Jerusalem in particular, has been a stumbling block for various reasons to most of the countries listed above. These powers simply cannot accept the fact that Israel is a God ordained state with a right of sovereignty and Jerusalem has been; in the past, present & will be in the future; It's CAPITOL. The above list is only a small handful of countries that have been in the headlines this past twelve to eighteen(12-18) months with major problems. From economic instability, major natural disasters to war, famine & pestilence(diseases). Many of these world powers have suffered significantly. We are currently watching the USA completely melt down financially as well as morally. All of Europe seems to want to follow the trends of the US by melting down as well. Political unrest is at an all time high as politicians jockey for power through position. So many Military leaders of the free world seem to want to make Israel suffer for their own well being. Most of the Arabic countries would see Israel destroyed and be happy about it. They threaten her with annihilation if she doesn't give them whatever they want. Ezekiel had quite a bit to say about what has happened to Israel and what will be happening to Israel in the very near future in Chapters 37, 38 & 39.  On May14, 1948 God fulfilled the prophecy of the Valley of dry bones in chap 37:1-14. Israel became a nation of it's own. Before I go on, It should be noted that Jesus Himself said that the generation that witnessed the re-birth of the nation of Israel(Fig tree budding) would be the last generation on earth, that's us folks(Mark 13:28-31).

In 1967,  in the six(6) day war, Israel recaptured Jerusalem as her Capitol city and much of the land around that city as well. These new borders, known as the 1967 borders, won back fairly by the IDF(Israeli Defense Force), was ratified and approved by the United Nations. Now all of a sudden a war that was fought and won more than forty years ago is again in dispute. Well folks, God will soon step in with the prophecy of Ezekiel chaps 38 & 39. He is already at work setting the hook in the jaws of the power brokers mentioned in those chapters. In the Autumn of 2009 one of the largest Natural gas reserves on the planet was discovered beneath Northern Israel. Don't think that didn't get the attention of those who hate Israel. They want that gas. Turkey in the same time period bailed as a friend of the west and decided to get back to their Muslim roots. They now want to form a new Caliphate, that's like a new centralized Muslim government with one leader kind of like the Pope of the Muslim world, wow. This continuing saga is still waiting to be played out.
In September of 2011 when The UN will be jointly meeting in Jerusalem. The topic will be whether or not there will be a Palestinian State and whether or not Jerusalem will be split or entirely taken away from Israel. God will not allow this to happen.

Yom Teruah or Rosh Hash Hannah, The Jewish New Year happens to be at the end of September this year. It is a 2-3 day festival depending on what calendar you are using. The actual festival this year is on the 28th & 29th. Because on our calendar the day starts 6 hours later than on the Jewish calendar, it actually bleeds into the next day making it a three day affair. There are a couple of interesting facts to note regarding Yom Teruah. 

If you go to my You Tube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/joshdangeez , top twelve playlist on the right hand side, has eight(8) videos where Yom Teruah is explained more succinctly, but here are a couple of the interesting facts. 
 First fact; Try to stay with me here, Jesus said in Mark chap 13 in verse 32; But of that day and hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. When Jesus quoted this saying to His disciples, he was using a Jewish idiom describing Yom Teruah. It is known as the feast of "no man knows the day or the hour" because it is predicated on the new moon rather than just being a day or set of days. No one could know but the Father exactly when the new moon was going to appear, hence, no man knows the day or the hour. In that day there were actually two watchers that would pay close attention for the appearing of the new moon. When it could be seen, they would announce it to the High Priest and he would give the signal for the Shofar(actual Rams horn trumpet) to be blown, thus ushering the in New Year. Jesus, in parabolic form was telling us when He would return. In Mark 13 verses 35-37 He told us to watch. If, as in western thought, no man knows the day or hour were literal, what would we be watching for? In 1 Thessalonians chap 4 verse 13-18, Paul tells us: I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning those who have fallen asleep(died), lest you sorrow like others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that those who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not prevent those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an Archangel and with THE TRUMPET OF GOD, and the dead in Christ will 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 thus shall we ever be with the Lord. Then in chapter 5 and verse 2, Paul quotes Jesus when he says that we should know perfectly that the day of the Lord would come as a thief in the night. Then in verse 4 he says; But you brethren, are not in darkness that this day should overtake you as a thief. Paul is telling us that we should know and realize the time when Jesus would be back to get us. Furthermore, Paul corroborates the statements made in the previous passage. In 1st Corinthians chap15 verses 51-53 when he says; Behold I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, AT THE LAST TRUMPET. For the TRUMP will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on in-corruption and this mortality must put on immortality. He tells us when it's going to happen(Yom Teruah) and he tells us what's going to happen(Rapture). The only thing missing is what season? Well go back to what Jesus said in Mark 13:28-31, that generation that saw Israel become a nation would be the last. One might wonder at the length of a generation. Moses gives us the answer and it helps us to even more closely piece things together, in Psalm 90 and verse 10 he says; The days of our lives are three score and ten(70 years). If we go back to the date when Israel became a nation, 1948, and add 70 years, we come to 2018. Factor in the 7 year tribulation and you end up at 2011. Earlier I mentioned the Yom Teruah teaching on my You Tube channel. In that teaching it is clarified that Yom Teruah is the first fall feast of three. There are seven actual Feasts of the Lord mentioned in Leviticus that the Lord commanded us to remember throughout all of our generations. The first four of them were fulfilled literally by Jesus Christ at His first coming. The last three will be fulfilled by Jesus Christ at His second coming. The first of which is Yom Teruah(the Rapture). The second will be The day of Atonement when He sets His feet on the Mount of Olives to end the great battle of Armageddon. The third will be the feast of tabernacles when He rules and reigns and tabernacles amongst His people for one thousand years(The Millennium).