I have often heard people say, "God will never depart from America. There are too many praying Christians in this country. Our victory in the war with Iraq is proof God is still with us. We're a Christian nation, the apple of God's eye! World missions depend on us. We've always been a great nation, and the Lord will bless us as long as we exist."
It was the Feast of Tabernacles and Jerusalem was crowded with religious Jews from everywhere. Jesus spent two days teaching in the temple. He slept that first night on the Mount of Olives and rose early in the morning to begin His teaching. The big question in Jerusalem was, "Who is this man?" I wonder if His disciples became discouraged by all the unbelief and all the accusations of the scribes and Pharisees. I wonder if they said to Jesus, "It's hopeless. This city and this religious system have shut You out. Let's move on!"
"Hatching Snake eggs" is a biblical term, not a joke, and it has to do with walking in holiness before God. Isaiah the prophet discovered the secret cause of the spiritual breakdown of God's people, and God commanded Isaiah to sound a piercing trumpet against them. "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins" (Isaiah 58:1).
The prophet Micah delivered a message for our day which is both frightening, yet very hopeful. The importance of his message can be found in these works: "Hear now what the Lord is saying!" (Micah 6:1). Micah speaks forth the heart of God to men of all ages - to the backslidden Jew of his day, to the remnant of the last days, and especially to the shepherds in our time. Keep in mind the message of Micah is the burden of the Lord and His view of the church and of His shepherds.
"And all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground." (Ezekiel 38:20).
There is an ominous Scripture in the Bible that is a source of comfort to many Christians. It is Matthew 7:22,23: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
In recent months I have had a sinking feeling inside me, a feeling that our entire society is spinning out of control. There is an eerie kind of confusion spreading throughout the land.
There is a gnawing inside that no one (not our President, not our congress, not our courts) can change what is happening. In spite of the optimism of the President, we all seem to know he can't do a single thing to stop inflation, unemployment or crime.
Get ready now to blow the lid off your theology. Be prepared to see Jesus in an entirely new light. Did you know we have been coming at our problems from the wrong end? We have been so preoccupied with our own problems, we have not even entertained the thought that our Lord has a problem, too. And if we can understand His problem, we will soon get to the root of our own.
We cannot separate Christmas from Christ’s resurrection. You may think of the resurrection as an Easter message, but the birth of the child in the manger can’t be separated from the man on the cross. God’s message to us through both events is one and the same.
My friend the evangelist Nicky Cruz calls the church a Holy Ghost hospital. I couldn’t agree more. The church is and should be a place of healing. In my decades as a pastor, I’ve counseled a lot of people who needed restoration after lifelong heartbreak.
Is your life a spark or a torch? When it comes to our walk with Christ, the Bible shows us there is a crucial difference between the two, and that difference determines whether our walk is pleasing to him. We see this difference in the lives of Saul and David.
