He Will Do IT Again!

And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee. [Exodus 15:23-26]

Murmuring or complaining is one of the sins that are overlooked quite often. A lot of times people go out of their way to focus on the "much bigger sins" such as murder and adultery that we overlook the sin of murmuring and complaining,  but the Lord doesn't not over look it or give this sin a free pass. It is just the opposite. It's an   unseen destroyer of the believer! The sin of murmuring and complaining started a plague that killed thousands of Israelites! [Numbers 16]

In this chapter, we read how the Israelites, who were to a great extent thirsty, looked only at the fact that the water they had come to was undrinkable because it was bitter. Look how fast they forgot God, who had brought them out of Egypt, from their slavery and led them out from there with signs and wonders. They had, not long before witnessed the Lord’s parting of the Red Sea and obliteration of those who had enslaved and imprisoned them. But they still, so quickly returned to looking only with their natural eyes at the problem in front of them. They were completely forgetting the miracle working power of their God! They murmured against Moses, but to tell the truth, when you stop and really look at it, they were really murmuring against God? Moses once again interceded for them, once again showing them the faithfulness of God. Instead of going to the Lord the Israelites would rather cry and complain.  People are the same way today. Some things never change.

Sad to say, people in today’s world are just like the Israelites. People focus on their despairing situations with their physical eyes, and not with the eyes of a person with faith. Some people can receive a miracle one day and the very next day they are complaining about something else. This very thing (murmuring and complaining) is truly a sin that we all must guard against.

We cannot allow the sin of murmuring and complaining to grow and expand in our lives. It can very easily become a vice-like grip! The same wonder working power God used to led the children of Israel out of Egypt and into the promised land, is still at work today, so we must not hinder God by our complaining.  Our country is in some pretty dark times right now and a lot of people, including me, complain about how things are when we should be on our knees asking God to deliver us. HE WILL DO IT AGAIN! 

THE NEXT GREAT EVENT: Are You Ready?

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also [John 14: 2-3]

No it is not about the coming of the circus or carnival, not some great sporting event, but it is the great event that is next on God’s time clock. What is this great event? It is the coming of the lord Jesus Christ for His people. These are the people who have placed their trust, faith, and hope in His death burial and resurrection.  These are the people that are looking for the promise.  God cannot and will not lie. He promised that He will return and what He has promised He will surely do.  It will be a unexpected and sudden event.  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. [1 Corinthians 15: 51-52] People will get up to go to work like they always do. Kids will go to school, people will be coming and going and then the Lord will come suddenly and take His people home with Him. Will you be one of those people?

Only those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their Savior will be taken when Jesus comes in the air for the rapture of the church. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.   [1 Thess. 4: 14] Can you imagine the chaos that will take place when Jesus comes and takes His people out of this world, in a moment, in the twinkling of the eye? There will be panic and turmoil like this world has never seen. People will wonder where all the other people went. People from all walks of life and from every nation, will be gone. It will be a very sobering time, but the big question still remains: Will you be ready, FOR THE NEXT GREAT EVENT?

THE OLD PATHS: What America Needs!

“Thus saith Jehovah, stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest

 unto your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein (Jeremiah 6:16).

The prophet Jeremiah had one of the more difficult tasks in the history of Israel. His divine task was to give a warning to the citizens of ancient Judah to return to the Lord, from whom they had wandered. The nation was decaying under the danger of coming punishment (the Babylonian captivity), and repentance was its only hope. The Old Testament is filled with many lessons for God’s people. It was written for us to learn from. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope (Romans 15:4). It was written to warn us. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. (1 Corinthians 10:5) One such lesson is found in the days of Jeremiah time. There was religious and social turmoil, unrest, and disorder. The nation of Israel was being pulled in many directions. Sin was everywhere.
The Lord wanted to offer them rest for their souls. The Lord tells the nation of Israel to seek the old paths, the tried and true way, but they would not. It is the same way today, we fail to seek and ask for the old paths when we know from history that it is the tried and true way. America is following in the same path that the Jews in Jeremiah time took. The words of Jesus are pretty "old" by today's standards or that what people think. But are they?  What happened to Israel appears to be the case of America today. America needs to wake up. Just as Israel forgot God, America has done the same thing. The Lord created a highway of holiness for His people to travel on and they decided to go by the wayside.
Jesus established a "highway" for us to follow, so what happen? We went from being a holy people, ones that went to church on Sundays, Bible study, and prayer meetings, to being a people who does not go to church, a people who does not seek God, and sin abounds in the lives of the people. For us as a nation to survive we must turn to the Lord and travel that highway of holiness, we must seek and cry out for the old paths, and walk in them, because they are good.

How strange this seems to those of our present “pluralistic” society who have so much contempt  for the concept of a 

solitary “way” of truth in which all members of the human family are required to walk. The path to such rest is an old path                                                                                                                               Found only in Him who lived and died for our sins nearly 2000 years ago. Whose doctrine has been faithfully preserved in the Holy Bible. There will ever be the need to speak to disobedient and rebellious brethren, urging them to come back and reunite with their God. There are numerous passages in the New Testament that stress this concept and belief. Some of us who are older can remember our own history in the church. In those days, controversies in the church were mostly matters of disagreement as to what the Scriptures teach, all parties equally reverencing the Bible as a divine production. Now, numerous professing disciples could not care less about scriptural authority. There was a by-gone era when one could travel the country and have little concern about when he would stop for worship; nowadays he is likely to encounter anything in the church. Many of our preachers know little, if anything, about restoration history. Those who ignore history are destined to repeat its mistakes.

A second reason for returning to the “old paths” is the end result of not doing so. Jeremiah warned: “Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts”. The term “evil” has to do with a judgment from the Lord, not moral evil.
Jeremiah thus turns from the past to the future. In a word: “If you don’t reflect upon the lessons of the past, you can, in the future, reap the reward of trusting your own thoughts.” This reference obviously is to the impending captivity. This horror was to come because the people said: “We will not walk therein” This is the same words that America is saying today, We will not walk there in.
Time is running out fast for most people in America and the judgment will soon be on us. There will be no turning back then. I can tell you this, when the call goes out: WHO IS ON THE LORD”S SIDE how many will answer the call? It is time for every American to say, AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE WE WILL SERVE THE LORD!