Only God Knows

The end of the world and God’s judgment day has been on the minds of people for years. Some people have become confused about how God would bring about the events leading up to the second coming of Christ. On March 26, 1997, in a period when Comet Hale-Bopp was at its brightest, police discovered the bodies of 39 members of the group “Heaven’s Gate” who had committed suicide in order to reach an alien aircraft which they believed was following this comet. This group of individuals being led by Marshall Applewhite actually believed that if they committed suicide they would be taken up into this space craft. What a deception. In the year 2000 there was a huge scare known as Y2K. Because of the changing of numerical calendars going from 1999 to the year 2000 many people thought there would be epidemic and catastrophic computer failures that would cause the world to experience many problems. What fear that brought. More recently there was a man by the name of Harold Camping who predicted that the rapture of the church was going to take place on May 21^st of 2011. Well, May 21^st came and has gone and the rapture did not occur on that date. Jesus said that “no one knows the day or the hour.” We do know that we are living in the last days. We do know that the rapture will occur. And we do know that one day God will judge his creation. But only God knows when this will occur. God help us to be a people who are ready for His return!

Power in Prayer

Martin Luther the great reformer and leader of the reformation said this concerning prayer, “If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith.” There is power when God’s people come together, there is power when God’s people come together and pray, and there is power when God’s people become a people of prayer. In prayer situations get smaller, in prayer circumstances collapse, and in prayer God get’s elevated to His rightful place in our lives. Dr. Guthrie the great Scottish preacher prayed for rain one morning. As they were leaving the house his daughter said to him, “Here’s your umbrella papa.” The preacher responded to his daughter, “what do we need that for?’ She said, “you prayed for rain, don’t you expect that God will answer that prayer?’ Well, later that day when it started pouring rain he was thankful that he listened to his daughter. James tells us that, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” Prayer gives us a proper perspective. It shows us how big God is, and how small the request really is.

Prayer Posture

You know growing up; I remember hearing from those who were older then me sharing how important it was to have good posture. They would say stuff like, “stand up straight, or don’t slouch, don’t drag your feet, or walk with your head help up high.” Posture is important but especially when it pertains to our prayer posture. “Erwin Lutzer said, “Although posture is important, I find that I am able to express my dependence better on my knees, it is a sign of our helplessness apart from the divine enablement.” Or like Doctor Steve use to say, “If you don’t start your day on your knees then you will end your day asking God to forgive you on your knees.” A little boy named Johnny came to a preacher one day and asked him to have the folks in their prayer meeting pray that the Lord might cause his sister to read the Bible. The preacher made the request known, but as soon as someone began to pray about it, little Johnny got up and left the prayer meeting. Everyone thought that he was rude for doing that, and the next day the preacher scolded him for it. Johnny’s response to the preacher was, “Sir, I didn’t mean to offend anyone I just wanted to go and see my sister read the Bible for the first time.” Johnny believed in the prayer for His sister and he acted on it immediately. That is what I call great prayer posture. Have you ever asked the Lord to hear your prayers? The term, “Hear my prayer” is used some six times in the book of psalms and it is a confident cry to the Lord that He might hear the psalmist’s prayer. How is your prayer posture?

The ones that worship God

I heard a story of a professor who was walking through the campus of one of our major Universities here in Southern California. He stumbled across something that shocked him and caused him to stop. It was a young college girl who had her arms rapped around a tree in the hugging position. He asked her, “What are you doing?” She responded to his surprise, “Oh, I am just admiring this tree, and letting it know how much I love it, this tree is so tall and so glorious!” Wow, Paul in writing to the Romans said that these kinds of people, “exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” God’s creation was made for a great purpose. We were designed to worship something and that something is God. Many people miss what they were created for when they choose to worship something else rather than God. A.W.Tozer said, “God wants worshipers before workers.” God the creator of heaven and earth is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. God is watching from heaven to see if there are any worshipers here on the earth. God help us to be these kind of worshipers!!!

The Christians Character

There was a Pastor who was having a conversation with some of his members from his fellowship. His members said to him, “Heh Pastor I saw you the other day driving your car.” The Pastor said really, when?” The members replied, “you had just pulled out of the church and we were driving right behind you. We pulled up to a light and there was a girl that was dressed pretty provocative crossing the street in front of you. What was so great about it was how when she starting crossing instead of you looking at her, you actually put your head down and started digging through your cds in your car. You were a great witness Pastor, and you had no idea that we were in the car behind you.” According to Dictionary.com the word character is a quality or trait that makes up an individual. Dwight L. Moody use to say that, “Character is what you are in the dark.” Character is not defined but what you do in front of others all though that is important, but rather character is what you do when no one else is around. Deuteronomy 30:20 says, "that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He [is] your life and the length of your days." God help us to be a people who obey His voice wherever we go!!!