Don't waste my death - Seek the Truth Bible Media Blogs

Don't waste my death - Seek the Truth Bible Media Blog
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Getting & Giving

There is a lot of pain and misery in our world today, especially in the Middle East where a power struggle is taking place in Iraq, Syria and Iran, where ISIS is trying to get control to enforce Sharia law and secure the oil revenues of those countries.

Russia is similarly getting control of parts of the Ukraine, the Crimea has yielded to insurgents, and other areas are being targeted to usurp authority and control natural gas supplies through the country. All these acts of war are leaving thousands of people dead, men, women and children falling to military powers of one persuasion or another, but each wanting to get something that they do not have by force. Some refugees will have nothing to go home to, their homes and livelihood has been decimated.

In many countries materialism is affecting many individual lives; this longing to have more possessions is sapping the quality of life in many households. In Western society the god, Mammon, has taken hold and lotteries, bingo and other forms of gambling encourage covetousness. Companies are encouraging their management teams to be more assertive, an aggression that holds no thought for the good of others but rather the promotion of self.

Jesus said in Mark 8.36 “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 5:13 “There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?” 

Both texts ask the question what profit? and teach us that we brought nothing into the world and our hands will be empty when we leave the world. What is the point of being the richest man in the cemetery? And where will your soul be then?

Some Charities run television advertisements appealing to people to give two pounds a month to supply water to African villages, or to save children from malnutrition or being cruelly abused. Each appeal might touch the heart but not the pockets of ‘Joe public’. Sceptics say that these problems should not have money thrown at them but be resolved at their source by eliminating corruption, greed and selfishness.

Man’s giving is often measured and looks for something in return, but God’s giving exceeds anything and everything, He "so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son", to die on a cross for bankrupt sinners like you and me. 

Romans 8:31 reads like this , “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”  

Many people do not believe that God created this Earth and the systems that sustain life. Even the breath of air that you just took into your lungs was provided by God. You didn’t have to think about it yet there is enough for the billions of lives on this planet, but uniquely the same provision does seem to be in place for other planets. Physical life requires water and sunlight and God gives abundant supplies of each for earth dwellers, but not a drop on other planets, despite the fact that scientists and atheistic governments spend billions of dollars on space research looking for water to prove their doctrine that life evolved from water.

Jesus said in John 10, “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”  

Physical life involves the body, spiritual life relates to the soul and spirit. The spirit of an unbeliever is dead in trespasses and sins and needs to be born again in order to receive eternal life. Five times in the New Testament we read that Christ “gave himself”. The first one in Galatians 1:3 says, “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.” God the Father gave His Son, God the Son gave Himself, He died on the cross on account of our sins. 

In the next chapter Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” 

In 2 Corinthians 9:15 he said, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” Paul had great appreciation for being saved and to know his sins forgiven but there was something more, he received Christ Himself and the Holy Spirit.

When the rich man Zacchaeus got saved, Luke ch.19 says, “And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” 

Salvation changes lives and this tax collector’s life was changed and his perspective of getting and giving was changed too. He had a new heart and a new outlook on life. What he had, money could not buy, but faith obtained it freely by God’s grace. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  God bless.

This blog was written for FTMP by a Guest Blogger

For more blogs, podcasts, Bible Teaching Videos and contact details please visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk

The World is heading for Utter Chaos

My studies in the gospel of Matthew have taken me to chapter twenty four where the Lord Jesus talks to His disciples about future events on God's agenda. For me, it has reinforced the reality of what is known by Christians as the 'Rapture'. Therefore I feel a need to apologise in advance if    the following happens:

• to my employer, colleagues and patients for either not appearing at work one day, or disappearing during the course of my duties;
• to those hurt, and for the damage done in the event of my car swerving off the road because no-one is at the wheel;
• for the fire caused in my house in the event of suddenly stopping watching the dinner cooking on the gas hob;
• to the electricity and gas companies for not paying the bills I run up whilst leaving utilities       running unattended indefinitely;
• to the people I may suddenly disappear from mid conversation in a very abrupt fashion;
• my pets left abandoned;
• the unlocked door of my home; Feel free to walk in and take anything     you want. We don't need it any more.

Mind you, I don't think anyone will particularly notice my failings, as the world will be in utter       chaos. 

Planes will have crashed, 

trains come off the rails, 

multiple car crashes will have taken place, 

fires will rage, 

operations will cease, 

wards will empty, 

staff will disappear, 

pupils will be abandoned, 

shops will be unmanned, 

houses empty, 

doors open, 

dogs running wild, 

people will be scared... really, really scared.

The day the Lord Jesus comes to gather up all those on earth who are indwelt by His Holy Spirit to be with Him in heaven (1 Thess, 4. 16-17), is the day that God's agenda becomes visible       again. It is the sign that He is about to intervene and has therefore sent His Son into the skies to  call up those who trust in Him so they don't go through the awful tribulation and judgment assigned to those who reject His forgiveness. 

I won't be left behind, will you?

Written by a guest blogger (please note the chaos in the article - we can write we just want to make a point!)

Mayan Calendar

According to the Mayan Calendar, December 21^st. 2012 is when there will be some dramatic signs in the Stella heavens. Wikipedia says of this phenomenon, The 2012 phenomenon comprises a range of eschatological beliefs according to which cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on 21 December 2012. This date is regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae have been proposed as pertaining to this date, though none have been accepted by mainstream scholarship.

A New Age interpretation of this transition is that this date marks the start of time in which Earth and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era. Others suggest that the 2012 date marks the end of the world or a similar catastrophe. Scenarios suggested for the end of the world include the arrival of the next solar maximum, an interaction between Earth and the black hole at the center of the galaxy, or Earth's collision with a planet called "Nibiru".

Scholars from various disciplines have dismissed the idea of such cataclysmic events occurring in 2012. Professional Mayanist scholars state that predictions of impending doom are not found in any of the extant classic Maya accounts, and that the idea that the Long Count calendar "ends" in 2012 misrepresents Maya history and culture. Astronomers and other scientists have rejected the proposals as pseudoscience, stating that they conflict with simple astronomical observations. In a following paragraph called ‘Apocalypse’ we read, In 1966, Michael D. Coe wrote in The Maya that "there is a suggestion ….that Armageddon would overtake the degenerate peoples of the world and all creation on the final day of the 13th [b'ak'tun]. Thus ... our present universe [would] be annihilated [in December 2012] when the Great Cycle of the Long Count reaches completion."

In a recent programme on the Discovery Chanell, Prof. Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University stated that the universe would ultimately (several billion years?) be pulled back into the black-hole that it emerged from billions of years ago! He gave an analogy of that event saying it was like rows of marbles lined up and that was where luck came in, five or so broke loose and by so doing caused the other marbles to gravitate towards each other. Anyone that believes that, I would think that they have lost their marbles!

When Jesus was born at Bethlehem there were signs in the heavens. Matthew ch.2 commences, “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,  Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.”  These men were not astrologers, people who study the movement of the stars and then predict your future according to the position of the stars. These men were astronomers, men that observed the heavens, charting the courses of the stars. They had observed activity in the heavens that caused them to follow the direction of a particular star; they said to Herod that the star that directed them was “his star”. Some have suggested that the star was a merging together of two stars to give the appearance of one star. These men were not fools; they were wise men that associated the stars presence with the coming into the world of Messiah. The star guided them and the scriptures directed them to Bethlehem. Micah 5:2 reads “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

The gifts they brought signified their understanding of the baby born in Bethlehem. The gold spoke of His deity, the frankincense His purity, the myrrh His suffering. The title ‘King of the Jews’ was nailed to His cross.

There will be signs in the heavens when Christ returns to earth to establish His thousand-year reign on earth. That return is not imminent, but His coming to the air to take His Church to Heaven is, this could happen any moment now. When the Church has gone from the earth, the Day of the Lord will begin on earth ushering in traumatic and cataclysmic happenings throughout the world but particularly in the land of Israel. Current skirmishes by Hamas (Foreign Terrorist Organization violently opposed to the state of Israel. Hamas, an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawana al-Islamiya (Islamic Resistance Movement), Syria, Iran, Iraq and other neighbouring Arab nations are only a precursor  of things to come. The Tribulation period will last seven years, the Great Tribulation is the second half of those seven years. Jesus said, “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh……And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21:20).

This activity in the heavens is all connected with the opening of the seals, the sounding of the trumpets and the vials of God’s wrath recorded from ch.6 to 19 in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war…. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. The heavens will glow with splendor on that day when Christ returns to earth.  God bless.

Written by Stan Burdit for Stephen Baker

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Weekly Update

As many of you know I have been away in Wallingford for nearly two weeks now. I have been working in schools and with Christians in the local Gospel Hall telling people about the need of a relationship with God, about the person of Jesus Christ and his claims. It is amazing to have the opportunity to speak to such a wide spectrum of individuals about the one message that can meet all of our needs.

In one day I spent some time with a tramp called Morris, he was a poor soul, and I was able to help him a little as well as tell him about the fact that God cares for him and sent his Son, Jesus to die for him. The same day I spoke to a group of parents and mums, who were fairly well to do, about the same message. Different people, different perceptions of who they are and how they relate to God but the same message applies to all and is needed by all. Later in the day I was able to speak to a couple of ladies about what I was doing in Wallingford. They were professionals and again most likely didn't see the need of God and forgiveness as my friend Morris did.

I wonder about you? How do you see life? Self sufficient! No apparent need of God! Don't feel guilt or the need for forgiveness? Maybe you see all that as weakness and in fact inapplicable to you!

Could you do me a favour? Read 2 Peter 3 in the Bible and see what you think of that. In that section of the Bible God warns us that this world will not last for ever. Read 2 Thessalonians 2 -  God warns of the disastrous consequences of our refusal to listen to him and believe what he says.

Be wise, prepare to meet your God. This life is not all there is.

For more audios and video's go to www.seekthetruth.org.uk

Stephen