Are you going when the call comes?

In our previous message, we touched on the rapture of the saints from the perspective of being light and living a pure and blameless life. I want us to stay on this topic until the Holy Spirit wants to move on. 

In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, we read about the rapture (Click the link to read the passage). There are two schools of thought about when the rapture will happen. Some believe it will be before the seven-year tribulation starts, and others that it will take place halfway through the great tribulation.  

My belief in the pre-tribulation rapture might not change your mind if you believe in the mid-tribulation rapture. But this is irrelevant because, regardless of when He comes, the question is whether you will be ready to join those who will meet Jesus in the air when He comes on the clouds to fetch his bride/church. 

 

We read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 that a trumpet sounding will precede the coming of Jesus on the clouds. Dave Jones, who did an extensive discussion on the end times, said an interesting thing. He said that at the very moment the trumpet blows, each born-again believer will have the opportunity to choose whether they want to meet Jesus in the air. 

 

I bet you're thinking now that the choice is obvious, but it's not. When I heard Dave Jones saying this, I immediately thought of the following written in Luke 14:16-20 (Click the link). Jesus told the parable of the banquet that has been arranged, and those invited started making excuses. When I heard Dave's words, I believe the Holy Spirit connected the two in my spirit. The trumpet sounding and the cry of command from the archangel will be the invitation for the bride of Christ to join Him for the wedding banquet of the Lamb. 

 

At that moment, each believer will be in either of two positions. You will be ready to say "yes, yes, yes, here we go!" or you'll have an excuse. The choice you make will depend on your priorities at that time. Are you sold out to Jesus, or do you have material things that are important to you and which you feel still need your attention? I’m referring to things such as a business, a type of sport, a social position with its responsibilities, and people such as family and friends. Jesus said in Matthew 10:37-38 (click to read) that loving those who are close to you more than you love Him makes you unworthy to be His disciple.

 

If we consider the latter two passages in the light of the rapture, consider the following scenario when the trumpet blows. You will then have the choice whether you want to meet Jesus in the clouds or to

• look after your business or
• marry your dream spouse or
• look after your children or
• whatever is more important to you at that moment.

I think that, if either of the latter is your choice, you'll stay behind and go through the great tribulation. In other words, if you feel you can't go now because your children need you or your business or whatever need you, you'll stay behind. 

 

The trick, however, is that you won’t have time to contemplate it at that moment. You need to make up your now. Nothing else, apart from Jesus should have any value to you. You ought to eat, sleep, and dream that day when Jesus comes to fetch his bride. You ought to dream about the wedding feast of the Lamb. 

 

Should our lives then stop while we wait in anticipation for that day? By no means - my policy is that I live as if Jesus would come today. In other words, I bear as much fruit as possible and am as pure and blameless as possible. But I plan my future as if He is never going to return. In other words, life goes on, but I remain ready.  

Do you have to keep looking to heaven in anticipation of His coming? In Luke 12:35-48 (click to read), Jesus covered both the options in this respect. He tells His servants to be on the watch for Him coming. He does not want believers to be caught unawares but to expect His coming all the time, looking out for Him.

Then He also urged servants to remain busy with service and not be caught being idle and disobedient. In other words, believers should not just stare at the clouds expecting Jesus to return, but should remain busy with evangelism and caring for God's people. While doing this, they ought to expect to see Jesus in the clouds at any moment. They ought to keep their ears attentive to the voice of the angel and the sound of the trumpet. 

 

What is your position? Is anything in this world more important to you than being with Jesus?

From the Epistles of John: Who will go with Jesus?

Good day dear friend

We are busy discussing 1 John 1:5-6.

Last time I promised that we will look at the kinds of deceptive darkness we walk in, which do not go along with God, the light.

What is it that you do but do not feel comfortable about? You maybe justify yourself that it is not that wrong. 

Perhaps you excuse your behaviour from 1 Corinthians 6:12 as we often do, thinking that everything is permissible. Or do you tell yourself that God would not mind? Yet you have that lack of peace - something keeps niggling at the back of your mind that this is not right. It could be a known sin that you justify, like deciding that a lie is only a white lie. It could also be petty theft; you take small things like stationery from work and justify it by saying they don’t pay you enough anyhow. Then it could be a matter of relationship. You feel that the person deserved it and therefore you are not going to forgive them. Or it was not your fault, so the other person should be the one to apologise.

While we’re on this topic, I’d like to point out how wise the Lord is. Why do you think it is written in Matthew 5:23-24 that when your brother or sister sins against you, you should be the one to make right with them? Is it possibly because they might feel condemned and find it difficult to ask for forgiveness? Therefore, the loving thing to do is for you to recognise it and be humble enough to go and forgive them without their asking.

Do you have an idea how bright God’s light is and how little darkness He tolerates? Yes, we are forgiven in Christ and we live by grace, but we do read in Philippians 2:12-13: “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil His good purpose”. If we have been saved by grace and not by works (Ephesians 2:8-10), why would the Lord have put Philippians 2:12-13 in the Bible? If we are not saved by works but by faith in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, what salvation is Philippians 2 referring to? It is being saved from the power of our flesh and Satan’s attempts to keep us from becoming like Jesus, from becoming the light God is. We have to work at it along with the Lord.

Consider the following:  “…as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless”, (Ephesians 5:25-27), “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel”, (Colossians 1:22-23), and “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.  So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him”, (2 Peter 3:13-14). Doesn't this set a standard for us, something to work toward?

We so easily justify the things our flesh likes to do, but which are condemned by the Word of God. There are many small things we do and are convicted of by the Holy Spirit, but because we like it, we ignore His promptings. This is the darkness that John referred to in our passage under discussion. Purity and holiness open the canal for God’s power and peace to work in and through us. When Jesus comes to rapture His church, He comes for a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless, (Ephesians 5:27). I don’t know whether you experience the same, but it is as if the Lord is intensifying the promptings for me to live holy and blameless. He prompts me daily to confess behaviour not previously confessed and to deal with relational issues and bad habits, such as being critical and judgemental. It is as if He desperately wants me to be ready for the rapture, and the tempo with which He works on me (Philippians 2:13) seems to be extremely urgent.

People, the time for playing church and having a form of godliness is over. It’s time to get serious with your sanctification. 

From the Epistles of John: What will the Light reveal about you?

Good day

When I read the epistle of John, I can sense the love that radiates from John. But this first epistle of his is actually a portrait of God’s character of love and holiness. John succeeded in painting a clear picture of the Lord regarding these characteristics, putting you the reader and believer before this mirror to view yourself in the light of who God is, challenging you to become like Him.

Today we are put before the first of a number of these challenges in this book, a challenge I have failed many times, but God’s grace has pulled me through every time, allowing me to start over again.

We read in 1 John 1:5-7: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him, there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

This is a powerful statement and as direct as it possibly could be. Why do you think the Lord is called light? Have you ever experienced the following, or maybe seen it in a movie, or maybe imagined it to happen to you. You are not properly dressed, or maybe not decent, or don’t feel you would like to be seen by others the way you look at that moment. You’re walking in darkness from one point to another and suddenly the area lights up brightly. Embarrassed you desperately search for a place to hide, but find none. You are exposed in the state you are in. How did it feel or do you think it would feel? Did you feel exposed?

As a child, I had a dream. Maybe you had a similar dream for I have heard of a few people who did. I was still in primary school when I once dreamed I was entering the schoolyard and, as I looked down, I realised I have never put on my trousers that day. The bottom part of my body was completely naked. All the children were around me and there was nowhere to hide. I will never forget the embarrassment I experienced in that dream.

We feel exposed and embarrassed when we are not acceptable to people as we perceive it, don’t we? Yet we try to fellowship with the Light of all lights whilst having darkness in our behaviour and values. How exposed do you think our behaviour is to the Lord who is light? Can you hide something from sight in a brightly lit room?

How much behaviour do you try to justify? “God will understand”, “everybody does it”, “it’s not that bad”, and the worst one that I tried was the passage in 1 Corinthians 6:12: “‘All things are permissible for me,’ but not all things are helpful.  ‘All things are permissible for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything.” Did Satan have me on a leash on this one? Every time I tried to get rid of my pet sins, this passage was used to justify what my flesh enjoyed doing. However, when I looked up this passage just now in the online Bible, called Bible Gateway to quote it to you, I noticed for the first time in the newest version of the NIV that it said: “I have the right to do anything,” you say... and suddenly it made much more sense. We don’t have the permission or the right to do whatever we like, but our sinful nature wants it, as the Corinthians claimed, and therefore we justify our sin.

But God is light and in Him is no darkness at all and neither can darkness survive in His presence. You will never have peace and will always be disciplined if you try to fellowship with the Most High and continue in your sin (Hebrews 12:4-11). We ask ourselves why we do not have peace and get so much trouble. We pretend to love the Lord but do what we like. Darkness cannot abide in the presence of the Light. Jesus said in John 14:21 and 23 that if we disobey Him, we do not love him.

“Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy,” the Lord told Israel in Leviticus 19:2. God has separated Himself to be light, to be perfect, and to accomplish what He set for himself to be and to do, and so should we.

Next time I will look at 1 John 1:7 as well as the kinds of deceptive darkness we walk in that causes us so much trouble.

With love in Jesus

Henry

From the Epistles of John: Is your joy complete?

 Good day

We are busy with a series discussing the Epistles of John. We know that John was the disciple whom Jesus loved. But John was also one of the two brothers who asked Jesus whether they can sit on His right and His left in His kingdom (Mark10:35-45). They didn’t understand at the time that Jesus didn’t come as a physical saviour to literally redeem Israel from the Roman occupation. But I think Jesus actually liked them for asking that, just as God liked Jacob for wanting what He had for him and rejected Esau for despising God’s gift (Hebrews12:16-17, Malachi1:2-3). Even though Jacob seemed dishonest in the way he got hold of the birthright, he did get it through a legitimate business deal. It was Esau, who disregarded his birthright, who displeased the Lord. Although Jacob seemed dishonest when he deceived Isaac, he was doing the right thing, for he had been the rightful firstborn at that moment. The Lord loved his heart which was eager to have what God had for him and as a result blessed him abundantly for it.

In the same way, Jesus loved James and John’s desire to be in His inner circle, even though it seemed obnoxious to the others at the time. John, James, Peter, and sometimes Andrew were in fact Jesus’ inner circle of disciples. He took only them onto the mountain of transfiguration, into the room when he raised Jairus’ daughter to life, with Him when He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, and discussed the end times with them only.

The above were some interesting revelations I received about John, the writer of the epistles, which I thought you might like to know.

Right, let’s see what we can learn from the first epistle of John. We are now at chapter one verse three.

 ^“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us.
And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our (or ‘your’ in some manuscripts) joy complete,” (1 John 1:3-4).

We have learned in the previous post that John and the other disciples had the privilege to experience firsthand this magnificent, eternal person, Jesus, who is eternal life. They saw Him, heard Him, touched Him, had fun with Him, and so on. And now John, the one who had been closest to Jesus, said he wanted the reader to have fellowship with them whilst they have fellowship with the Father and with Jesus Christ. It’s almost like electricity flowing through a wire. You pick the anointing up from John who received it from the Father and Jesus.

Shouldn’t this be a dream for each of us? Your fellowship with Jesus and Father God should shine so much from you that people around you would like to have fellowship with you, just to experience God through you. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Jesus said that you are the light. You have no choice in it. Your light shines regardless. You cannot switch it on and off. The closer your fellowship with the Lord is, the brighter your light shines and the more people are drawn to you, and when they realise that you have been in close fellowship with the Lord, they will glorify the Father!

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus,” (Acts 4:13). Would people be able to say this of you? Is your relationship with the Lord of such a nature that people see the love, the peace, the joy, the patience, the kindness, the faithfulness, the gentleness, the self-control, and the good works, and then realise the Father had something to do with it and glorify Him? This will bring you ultimate joy, make your joy complete. This is all we need in life, but Satan knows it and therefore suggests all kinds of distractions all the time, stealing your joy. Why don’t you deepen your fellowship with the Lord so your joy may be complete?

From the Epistles of John: How do you experience Jesus?

Good morning

I haven’t posted on my blog for a while but felt led to start a blog series looking a little deeper into the epistle of John. John is known as the disciple whom Jesus loved and he obviously loved Jesus as well. He was so close to Jesus that the other disciples used him as a mediator between them and Jesus.

We know that there are different kinds of love. One gets friendship love, which is the love you’ll find between friends, erotic love like

the love you’ll find between lovers, and agape love as the kind of love the Lord prescribed for believers to have (1 Corinthians 13:4-6, Galatians 5:22-23). I, however, believe that there is a deeper friendship love, which is like the kind of love between lovers without the erotic aspect to it. It’s kind of a mixture between the three kinds of love without the erotic aspect.

Friendship love would say “I care about you, but I doubt if I would lay my life down for you”, erotic love would say “I would lay down my life for you, but it’s important to have physical intimacy as part of it”, and agape love is more of an action than it’s a feeling – the kind of love you don’t necessarily feel, but do. That is why it’s possible to love your enemies – you don’t need to feel love for them or to like them – you just do good things for them.

The kind of love I’m referring to is a deep intimate feeling and caring between friends without the erotic aspect of it. It’s the “I’d lay my life down for you” kind of love where you really get to know one another intimately and have deep passionate feelings for one another. This love can be between individuals of any sex.

This is the kind of love John had for Jesus. As I read the gospels, I sensed that the other disciples had a more friendship kind of love for Jesus. Because John was so intimately in love with Jesus, he would obviously have spent more intimate time with Jesus, knowing Jesus on a deeper level than anybody else. I can imagine that, when they were together socially, the others would chat about all the kinds of things people talk about when having dinner or a barbeque together, but John would probably have been in Jesus’ company all the time, exchanging deep, heartfelt information. This comes out very clearly in John’s gospel and in his epistles. The gospel of John has a much different and more intimate angle than the other gospels and so do his epistles.

So let’s get started and have a deeper look into the first epistle of John, Jesus’ beloved apostle.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have
looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us,” (1 John 1:1-2).

Here John harmonises the spiritual and the physical, the eternal and the carnal. He sees Jesus the way we all should see Him, and it’s important for us to ask the Holy Spirit to teach us to see Him this way. Just keep in mind that John received this special insight into who Jesus is because he had a very intimate relationship with Him (and so can you when you spend time with Him intimately). He was one of the very few people in the Bible with this kind of relationship, among whom Moses and David were. They were seen as friends of God.

John didn’t see Jesus as the military leader whom the other disciples thought He was, right to the end when they eventually grasped the truth (John 16:29-31). John saw Jesus as being from the beginning of time. He has been there forever, the one who created the earth (John 1:1-5). He is the Word, and not just any word, He is the Word of Life. Jesus is eternal life. Yet, John and his fellow disciple were privileged to see and touch this magnificent, eternal person. They were able to have an intimate relationship with Him – eat with Him, have fun with Him, laugh and play and joke.

How do you perceive eternal life? Are you looking forward to having a carefree and peaceful life in the perfect environment? Are you looking forward to living in your mansion, as some translations name the rooms Jesus was talking about, enjoying all the materialistic comfort you have always desired while on earth?

Or are you dreaming to be with the Eternal Life, called Jesus? You, know, the Bible states in many places that, if we are “in Jesus”, we will have this and that. Jesus is Eternal Life, and to have it means to remain in Jesus. Jesus said in John 14:1-4: “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” In heaven, we are not going to live in mansions all on our own as we do here on earth, each in our own house – sorry to shatter your dream. Eternal life is Jesus and we are going to be a family with Him in His Father’s house, each having a room like children do. You may ask like I did: How will Jesus and Father God possibly be able to give attention to all of us in this family home? I think heaven will be like the Kingdom currently is on earth – we will be in God and Him in us. It’s not for us to understand.

Therefore, let’s experience Jesus in the right perspective as John has – eternal, but always with you.