Sunday, July 19, 2020

He chooses...His time...His way...

And God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. 
I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, 
but by My name Lord I was not known to them.”

Exodus 6:2–3

As God has walked with His people through the generations, He has progressively revealed His nature according to His purposes and the needs of His people. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew Him as God Almighty, because they needed His mighty power to protect them from their enemies. Moses and the Israelites learned that God was Lord, Master over every nation and every thing. God not only delivered them from the most powerful ruler in the world, but also brought them into the Promised Land. They came to experience Him as Lord, preeminently powerful over the pagan gods of their day.

God will continue to reveal His character to you according to your needs and according to His purposes. You will come to know more and more about Him as you obey Him. When you grieve, He will come to you as Comforter. When you are in need, He will demonstrate that He is the Provider. When you face a serious challenge, He will reveal that He is God Almighty.
Your understanding of God's character ought to be greater now than when you first became a Christian. You ought to know Him today better than you did five years ago. Sadly, some Christians continue to live year after year with the same basic knowledge of God that they had when they first began walking with Him. Whatever your present situation, view it in the light of what God is teaching you, through circumstances, about Himself and you will come to know God in dimensions you have never known Him before. - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

When you look at the solution to the human dilemma, which is sin, the answer to it is a choice.  

We have been reading about what is our choice, that being accepting the free gift of Salvation or not.  

The real choice that started all this...was in Adam and Eve.  They chose to sin.  They chose to try to be like God.  

Then, in the judgment that followed, another choice happened that you need to be aware of.  Jesus chose to be the sacrifice to save mankind.  No other sacrifice would do. Nothing but a perfect sacrifice would satisfy the perfect wrath of God towards sin.  

We boast in our arrogance of the power we can wield in nuclear weapons.  That in an instant we can level a country.  That the combined nuclear power of every nation on this planet can reduce the whole planet to a cinder.  Such arrogance it is.  Boasting in our ability to destroy like that.

Really look at the choice of Jesus.  His Father so loved...everyone...that He gave...His only Son...to be the one to receive the full wrath of God in our place. 

Consider that choice well.  We read of a symbolic sacrifice in Genesis.  A man of God told to sacrifice his one and only son.  A foreshadowing of what was going to happen in centuries to come. 

Jesus willingly said yes He would do that because He loved what His Father loved. 

The perfect focus on that day over two thousand years ago was beyond astonishing.  In our self boasting of our nuclear power, which is always a catastrophic mess, the full power of the wrath of God concerning all the sin heaped upon Jesus Christ ought to have obliterated the universe.  

There was no fallout after it hit Him...but His death. The wagging of faces at him nailed to a cross as it was completely foretold in Psalms.  Read it. Exactly word for word what they said that day, David had written way back then!  

The choice to receive the wrath of God upon Himself was the choice of Jesus.  The Father said that if He would do it He would have the authority to take up His life again.  For the only time in eternity the communion between the Father and Son was broken.  The Father had no doubts as to the outcome.  In that moment of separation is when He chose the time of the future return of Christ that we who believe long for.  

Right now, Jesus, nail pierced hand and feet, sword stabbed side, glorified again, sits at the right hand of His Father awaiting that moment to get up and recieve us to Himself.  

Jesus chose to love you enough to not just die for you, but to take on the punishment for YOUR sin in YOUR place. 

All who reject Christ will indeed answer for their sins.  The punishment of the wrath of it was satisfied on the cross, but the sentence of eternal separation from God in the lake of fire is coming to those who have rejected Christ.  Everyone who was ever born will have a glorified body. Those in Christ will spend eternity with Jesus. Those who rejected Christ will not. 

That choice is still yours to make.  

Your past doesn't define you in your here and now moment.  Right here right now you can choose Christ and forever alter your future. Putting on the clothes of someone you are not doesn't make you them.  I can get the right haircut/hairpiece, right make up and right clothes. Won't matter because I won't be Richard Dean Anderson. My nickname might be Macgyver but I won't truly be that fictional character.  You can put on all the things that make you look like a Christian. You can show up at church, you can even participate in their activities.  It doesn't make you a Christian.  You can even be baptized either as an infant or as an adult or both, doesn't make you a Christian. 

You have got to choose to be saved.  Not get warm by being near where Christians are, you have to commit your life to Christ. 

Something to consider. Jesus died for the billions that died when the Genesis Flood happened.  He died for the billions who are currently in Hell.  He died for those dying right now without Christ. He died for those who will die from now until the final judgment.  So why is it a matter of choice?  People are not animals.  We have a soul spirit that is answerable to a Holy God.  Our choices define our destination. 

Jesus doesn't WANT anyone to go to Hell.  But the choice to receive or reject Him is not in His hands.  They are in yours. 

He chose the most painful thing that nobody could ever imagine, His Father's wrath, to save you.  He chose.  He followed through and made it possible to be saved.  The offer of Salvation has an end prior to the events of Revelation.  Once the Rapture of the Church happens...the real Church, not the worldly watered down church, leaves. People will indeed still be saved.  But the wrath of God is what they will experience here on Earth until they are singled out to be killed.  Satan will not want one single Christian alive in the time following the Rapture. Read those judgments. Under the Throne there are thousands and thousands who were killed for their testimony of being Christians in a Post-Rapture world. 

My friend you don't have to experience that. In Romans it says there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  We will not be here when the Judgment of God begins on Earth. 

The Scripture is clear, that moment in Human history when the Father says it's time, is fast approaching.  We live in the times described.  We can see the markers that Scripture had said to look for having happened.  No man knows the day nor the hour for sure. Scripture says that.  But one thing is for sure.  It's only going to happen when the boat is full.  When the last person who would be saved is saved. Like Noah's Ark, the Lord Himself will close the door of opportunity.  Like what happened then will happen at that moment of realization. Billions will know what just happened and will cry out to God to come back and get them!  But it will not happen. Just as the only time the Ark was opened after the Flood was when God said so.

It won't be Hell on Earth after the Rapture.  It will be much much worse.  You can read in the Gospels what Hell is like. The Judgments of God in Revelation are certainly worse.  

Jesus spoke of wheat and false wheat.  That He who knows the thoughts and intentions knows the difference.  There will be no sneaking into Heaven.  The final point of clarity is the Book of Life.  The Spirit records the name of every Believer in Jesus Christ in it.  No listing no entry. 

Know today my dear reader.  Know today. 
Today may indeed be that last chance to be saved.  Jesus Christ died for me. My life is hidden in My Savior's hands.  I am still a sinner, but am saved by the grace of God.  Forgiven and awaiting that call to come home.  Are you?  Look up Romans Road.  Don't put it off. Millions die every second believing that they had a today to live.

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