Where Do You Stand?
24/05/09 18:44
Every day, the people who truly seek to follow God and obey His word, are coming under an increasingly closer scrutiny. Personal attacks and open persecution are becoming more and more frequent. The religious freedoms that have been enjoyed and cherished for so long in this country, may soon come to an end. Those who seek to live their lives without any boundaries, or moral convictions, want to banish and remove those who do. A Pastor and his wife who hold weekly bible studies in their home in San Diego, have come under attack by the county. They are being required to obtain a permit from the county to hold the bible studies in their home!
The permitting process requires environmental and traffic studies as well as parking regulations. This is an outright attempt to prevent the bible studies from taking place in their home, which is attended by an average of 15 people weekly. The time is coming very near now when those who choose to obey God and to do His will are going to be faced with obeying God, or facing the consequences. The people of God, down through history, have been faced with this same decision. When that time comes where will you stand? Who will you obey?
Just before Joshua died, he charged Israel to follow God and to fear Him:
Joshua 24:14-15
14 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River in Egypt. Sere the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
There was no doubt, or hesitation in Joshua...he was determined to follow God no matter what obstacle was put in front of him. We will all be faced with the decision to follow God, or not. That decision will have a direct impact on whether we will receive eternal life, or not. To truly follow God and to do His will, requires sacrifice. That is something that each of us should have carefully and thoroughly contemplated before we chose to go God’s way. God requires things from us...our lives are no longer our own, but belong to Him and to His Son who paid a very dear price for us.
Romans 12:1-2
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Did you really understand and consider what God expects of you? Did you count the cost? When we accepted Christ, we made a commitment. We entered into a covenant with God! Our lives are no longer our own and we live to do His will and whatever He requires of us. There was a time in the history of this world that it meant death to possess a bible...could we see a repeat of that time again? Prophecy shows that there will be a great martyrdom before the return of Christ.
Revelation 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads on their hands. And the lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
None of us likes to think about these things, but they will happen. It is only those who are prepared to do whatever God requires of them and those that put their full faith and trust in Him, that will survive those things which will come upon this earth with great fury. We can be confident and we can be secure in the promises that we have been given. God will never, ever, go back on His word. What God has promised, He will deliver to His faithful.
Matthew 16:25-27
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
Being prepared, mentally and spiritually and setting ourselves to do whatever it is that God requires of us, is the way that we will conquer and overcome and gain God’s kingdom. The things that we suffer in this life will be as nothing compared to the incredible and amazing things that God has in store for those who love Him and follow Him no matter the cost.
Where will you stand?
Until next time...
The permitting process requires environmental and traffic studies as well as parking regulations. This is an outright attempt to prevent the bible studies from taking place in their home, which is attended by an average of 15 people weekly. The time is coming very near now when those who choose to obey God and to do His will are going to be faced with obeying God, or facing the consequences. The people of God, down through history, have been faced with this same decision. When that time comes where will you stand? Who will you obey?
Just before Joshua died, he charged Israel to follow God and to fear Him:
Joshua 24:14-15
14 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River in Egypt. Sere the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
There was no doubt, or hesitation in Joshua...he was determined to follow God no matter what obstacle was put in front of him. We will all be faced with the decision to follow God, or not. That decision will have a direct impact on whether we will receive eternal life, or not. To truly follow God and to do His will, requires sacrifice. That is something that each of us should have carefully and thoroughly contemplated before we chose to go God’s way. God requires things from us...our lives are no longer our own, but belong to Him and to His Son who paid a very dear price for us.
Romans 12:1-2
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Did you really understand and consider what God expects of you? Did you count the cost? When we accepted Christ, we made a commitment. We entered into a covenant with God! Our lives are no longer our own and we live to do His will and whatever He requires of us. There was a time in the history of this world that it meant death to possess a bible...could we see a repeat of that time again? Prophecy shows that there will be a great martyrdom before the return of Christ.
Revelation 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads on their hands. And the lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
None of us likes to think about these things, but they will happen. It is only those who are prepared to do whatever God requires of them and those that put their full faith and trust in Him, that will survive those things which will come upon this earth with great fury. We can be confident and we can be secure in the promises that we have been given. God will never, ever, go back on His word. What God has promised, He will deliver to His faithful.
Matthew 16:25-27
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.
Being prepared, mentally and spiritually and setting ourselves to do whatever it is that God requires of us, is the way that we will conquer and overcome and gain God’s kingdom. The things that we suffer in this life will be as nothing compared to the incredible and amazing things that God has in store for those who love Him and follow Him no matter the cost.
Where will you stand?
Until next time...