For many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. The first and most important point I want you to give complete attention to is that even with the bad news in these first several prophecies, Jesus tells us do not be troubled.
The only way we will not feel worried or downright disturbed by such news as wars, famines, diseases, earthquakes is if we are unshakable in our faith in him whose name is Faithful! Also cling to Psalm , The facts and figures — from Wikipedia list of ongoing armed conflicts — only counting conflicts with at least deaths in the past two years, there are 32 wars, involving 64 countries right now.
Low-end estimate is more than 12 million casualties in the past 50 years. Suring the 20th century alone, an estimated million people died from famines. Does anyone remember ebola of ? From the World Health Organization, cases of malaria, cholera, measles, hepatitis b, influenza, and rotavirus, the one-year total is 1,, deaths. According to the CDC, from late to our present hour, the Coronavirus global pandemic has claimed more than one million lives.
From the usgs. In 10 year increments from , , , , , , , 1, , 1, , 1, , 1, , 1, In the first 10 years of our 21st century we have had five times more earthquakes than the first 10 years of the 20th century! Consider the inhumanity of human trafficking. From fbi. America is number 1 for cases of rape in the world, with , America may have stopped counting but God has not! Truly the world is progressively growing colder because of sin. Remember to keep focused on Jesus for peace of heart in these end times.
God bless you and keep you, as you follow him. Since , the LeFevre name has been synonymous with gospel music. The LeFevre name is truly legendary in gospel circles, but it takes more than a famous name to become as popular as The LeFevre Quartet. They have great voices, great energy, and a heart for ministry. Their goal is to reach the world with a message of hope, grace, and salvation through Jesus Christ.
The concert is free and open to the public. Interested persons may contact Mount Airy Wesleyan at or contact the church via website or Facebook. A love offering will be taken during the service. Mount Airy Wesleyan Church will be hosting a gospel music concert on Saturday at 4 p.
Jeff and Sheri have shared gospel music with audiences all over the world since forming their own group in Jeff and Sheri Easter, and their vocalist daughter, Morgan, have received six Dove Awards which honor outstanding achievements and excellence in Christian and Gospel music.
They have also received two career Grammy nominations and a multitude of individual awards for their excellence in gospel and bluegrass music. Apart from their frequent appearances on the Gaither Homecoming tour and videos, Jeff and Sheri have toured extensively. We want them to know God loves them and that He is in control. This is a ticketed event, and persons may contact Mayberry Music Center at or for tickets or information.
How he was so excited about what Jesus had done in his life and to his body. We talked about how we could not see him losing that excitement for the rest of his life. We also talked about how that so many believers today have become complacent with our salvation. We have lost the excitement of being a child of God and all the wonderful blessings He has given us because of our faith.
In these columns I have been sharing challenges to help us reawaken the excitement of our salvation. We have looked at challenge one, that we must simply get excited about our salvation again. When we think about just what Jesus did for us when He went to the cross and died for us so that we could have eternal life, and when we think of all the benefits of salvation, we must renew our excitement.
Challenge two, we must get excited about spending time in prayer. There is nothing that builds a relationship more that communication. So let us stop making prayer a ritual and truly make it an exciting time to talk with the Lord. It will guide and change your life and there are so many exciting stories in it. Challenge four, we must be excited about joining together corporately at the house of God.
Challenge 5, we must be excited about giving thanks to the Lord for His bountiful blessings. When the man that Peter, through the Lord healed, jumped up, he ran into the temple, and I can assure you he was giving thanks for what the Lord had done for him. God has blessed those who are His children with so much.
He watches over us, guides us, and meets our needs, often in ways and times we do not even realize. Yet so often we will not even bow our heads at a meal and thank Him for our food, let alone thank Him for the other things He does for us. Several years ago, before I was called into the ministry, I was blessed to lead a youth group and we would go occasionally into the rest home and visit and sing. One night, there was a man that I found out later did not have any family or no one to visit him in the rest home.
It is time we get excited about giving thanks to the Lord for His wonderful blessings. Challenge six, we must get excited about sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with others.
One of the problems we experience today is no one wants to share Jesus with people. Yet we have the greatest news that anyone could ever hear, and we often keep it to ourselves. Many have used the illustration but if we found the cure for cancer and would not share it, people would call us so selfish and unloving. Yet we have the cure for eternal death and a separation from God in the Lake of Fire forever and ever and yet we fail to be excited enough to share this wonderful truth.
I pray we would see the urgency of sharing the gospel and would do so with great excitement. As believers today I want to encourage us to stop enduring our religion and begin to enjoy our salvation so much that we will get excited to be a child of God. Then the world could see a difference in us and desire what we have in Christ. A church spokesperson said the quartet decided to call off the appearance as a result of the recent surge of COVID cases.
How he was so excited about what Jesus had done in his life and to his body he excitedly entered the temple. We also talked about how so many believers today have become complacent with our salvation.
In these columns I want to share challenges to help us as believers reawaken the excitement of our salvation. We looked last time at challenge one, that we must simply get excited about our salvation again. When we think about what Jesus did for us when He went to the cross and died for us so that we could have eternal life, and when we think of all the benefits of salvation, we must renew our excitement.
There is nothing that builds a relationship more than communication. Today let me share with you challenges three and four. Challenge three, be excited about Bible study. There is so much going on in the world to capture our attention that we do not have time for reading the Bible.
We feel like the preacher or Sunday School teacher can teach us all we need to know. It is time we get excited about reading our Bible and teaching our children to have a love for it too. We have come to believe reading the Bible is boring and the reason is that most people do not realize some of the exciting things one can find in the Holy Bible. A talking serpent and a talking donkey, a burning bush that does not burn up, an axe head that floats on the water, a man digging a grave when he allows the body he is burying to touch a bone of a prophet that was buried in this grave and the man comes to life and runs off, a king starts to quickly ride his chariot toward a city and a prophet of God out runs him on foot and arrives in the city first.
These are just some of the exciting stories one can find in the Bible. We need to get excited about reading the Bible once again. Challenge four, we must be excited about worship time. We are living in a day when it seems most believers think church attendance is of little importance. People say, I do not have to go to the church house to worship the Lord. Yes, that is true, but there is something that brings strength, peace, comfort and hope when one corporately comes together with other believers for a time of worship.
My friends it has been wonderful to have drive-up services or online services during this pandemic but let us remember what the Bible teaches us, to not forsake the assembling of our selves together so we can exhort and encourage one another.
When many of us returned to in-person worship, I was hearing how excited people were to get back together. Yet in just a few short weeks people have already begun allowing this honor, privilege, and the excitement of coming together for worship to be taken for granted. People are already beginning to find excuses to stay away. In Acts 3 there is a familiar story of Peter and John as they approached the temple.
There at the gate lies a man who was crippled and begging for money. Peter said to this man as he passed by, I do not have any silver nor gold but what I do have in the name of Jesus I give it to you. This man because he was crippled was forbidden to enter the temple.
Now he entered the temple leaping, shouting, and praising God for his new ability to walk. I wonder did this man ever get over what Jesus had done for him? This writer personally does not think he ever got over what Jesus had done for him and continued to praise the Lord continually. Today, there are so many believers that were once lost and headed for hell and Jesus saved and transformed them but yet it does not seem so important to give the Lord praise and honor.
We live in a world that says praising God is too old-fashioned for me, we do not shout and praise the Lord because someone might see me, we do not have to go to church to be a believer, we do not have to share our salvation experience with anyone. We have lost the excitement of being changed from one who was dead in trespasses and sin and made into a child of God, headed for heaven when this life on earth ends. I would like to share with you over the next three weeks six challenges for all believers that have become complacent of being a child of God to experience a reawaking of excitement.
Challenge one, renew your excitement of salvation. We might say, well if God had healed me of being lame like the man in the story, then I would be more excited.
Let us be reminded that we were on our way to the Lake of Fire and God showed His love to us, while we were yet sinners, that He would allow Jesus to die on the cross for us. We have something to be excited about. One verse reminds us that since we were saved God has brought us through so many toils, dangers, and snares. The last verse reminds us that one day we will, as believers, get home into the presence of Jesus and because of His amazing grace after 10, years, we will have just begun to enjoy our salvation.
Challenge two, we need to be excited about spending time talking with God in prayer. The way we build relationships is to learn to talk with each other. This is true of all relationships: husband-wife; parent — child; friend to friend; employer — employee just to name a few. We have often allowed our prayer time to become a check the box to ease our conscience.
We go through the motions of prayer so we can feel good about ourselves but do not spend quality time with God. We often use prayer also as a emergency number, and we use it when a storm arises in our lives and the rest of the time it is non-existent.
Prayer for a child of God is one of the most powerful tools we have but we must truly get excited about using it if we are going to truly make a difference in our circle of influence. Let us seek to more excited in our faith.
Next week we will look at some more challenges for an exciting walk with the Lord. When a person is contagious there are at least three meanings for contagious that we need to remember.
First, contagious means to spread by direct or indirect contact with others. This means to spread viruses by either touching or coming into direct contact with another person. We can also spread germs indirectly by touching something such as a doorknob and then another person touches that same surface. Secondly, contagious means a person who is a carrier or transmits disease to others. Often this is done inadvertently by someone who really does not know they are infected, but they are spreading a virus to others.
Thirdly, contagious means someone who goes out with intention to spread germs to someone else. In our world it is considered a negative thing to be contagious. Today I want to look at contagious as being a positive thing. I want to consider how different our world would be if we were believers that were contagious in our faith.
Let us look at the definitions we just used and apply them to being contagious in our faith. The first thing we must determine concerning having a contagious faith is, are we infected ourselves? We have to come to a point in our lives that we realize we are a sinner and in need of a Savior. We have allowed the Holy Spirit to take up residence in our hearts and to lead and guide us as we walk through the world daily.
It is when we have done this that we must become contagious. If we are contagious in our faith, then we will spread the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ in three ways. First, we will go about spreading the gospel either directly or indirectly. If we are spreading it directly, we will be sharing the message of salvation through Jesus Christ in our spoken witness of what Jesus has done for us and will do for whosoever will come to Him.
We will be using words, songs, testimonies, and witnessing to reach others with the gospel. We will be spreading the message indirectly by living a godly lifestyle for others to see. We will strive to act and react like Jesus would in the different circumstances and situations of life. Others would see that we are living separate from the world. When we are contagious in our faith we will not walk, talk, or act as the world, but as born-again believers in the Lord Jesus. Therefore, we will be contagious in our faith.
Secondly, if we are contagious in our faith, we will become carriers of the gospel message. This means that we will become so infected with the gospel and our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that it would transmit the truth of salvation though Jesus Christ to those we encounter every day. We will without even trying spread the gospel to others. We will become contagious in our faith. We will, go out into the world looking for opportunities to infect others with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We will want to see people that think they have no hope and do not know the truth come to know our Lord Jesus and the difference He can make in their lives on earth but most of all their eternity. We will be contagious in our faith. Let us be contagious with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Part of the work of a pastor is developing and guiding moments of public celebration of God. This could include weddings, baptisms, Christmas, and Easter worship. As well as funerals. As the world around us is taking steps for gathering after a long period of shelter-in-place, the importance of celebration seems more precious. Gathering to celebrate is set against the need to control. The disruption from the pandemic has spun much of the world into a struggle for control.
Amidst the endless dates about following science and medical guidance, to the divergent opinions of our preferred news outlets, celebrating God seems a remote interest for most people these days. Giving focus, however, to what matters to God holds the key for moving forward.
When the Apostle Paul wrote the Letter to the Ephesian Christians, it was during a similar time of tension and struggle. Paul begins this letter by reminding the Ephesian Christian community to remember and celebrate what God has already provided. Everything that is most needed has been provided already — redemption and forgiveness through Jesus.
I choose to believe this is an ongoing thing. This outpouring of grace and love is still at work, like the rising and setting of the sun each day.
This amazing gift of redemption and grace is still unfolding! What is God up to? What is the goal or purpose of this gift? And why extend it so extravagantly to all people and to creation itself? Do you know the story of the tower of Babel Genesis 11? To control the world. The effort backfires. As punishment for the arrogance of humanity, which spoke one common language at the time, God destroyed the tower and scattered the people to the ends of the earth.
That is, the goal of God is to bring the world together in unity. Furthermore, 2 Corinthians describes this mystery, as well as the call to be partners with God in this mission to bring the world together. This is a key question for all time. When I consider the difference makers in history who have done great things to bring about cooperation out of division, healing out of brokenness, reconciliation out of war, resilience out of trauma, and hope out of defeat it seems this theme is front and center in the story.
Furthermore, it seems these extraordinary people found a way to celebrate God first. Even when all around them was mired in division and struggle.
We need to make the same effort as we seek to reopen businesses and churches. Put the good of all above our own goals. The Delta variant is still taking lives and impacting the young. The three main vaccines are very powerful against this variant, but slightly less than they have been against the original virus. That means there remains risk for all of us. As much as I would love to gather as normal to celebrate, caution is needed. Knowing that God cares about building unity in our communities, it inspires me to make the effort to be careful.
I trust the time to celebrate freely is coming, and I look to God to grant us patience as we try to take the steps to get there safely. As we celebrate Independence Day, my thoughts this year go to the meaning of freedom and equality that are the foundation of the core values of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. This year they seem more important, as the COVID pandemic and the political tensions of the past two years continue to challenge us.
So many voices in the media contend that freedom and equality cannot coexist. Yet many stories of scripture declare that they can. In fact, for justice and love to thrive, freedom and equality must coexist. I am grateful that this has been embedded in the Christian faith hands down to me.
From an early age I have had a deep appreciation in how Christian faith and practice played a significant influence on the founders of our country and this state.
It was collaboration of indigenous people and tribes spanning much of the East Coast. These missionaries played a role in helping Franklin make this discovery. Did you know Thomas Jefferson was influenced by the writings of many European thinkers who had advocated for personal rights, freedom, and equality? Such writings would influence Luther and others to bring about the Protestant Reformation. They would also influence several political revolutions in European history that became the seed bed for western expressions of democracy.
Thomas Jefferson himself remained fascinated by the intricate role of freedom and equality as the foundation of democracy, and the requirement of pulling together to be a community of citizens that chooses to honor both in balance without the threat of violence or the direct oversight of military regime.
But how do we strike such a balance? Did you know the first community to officially observe a celebration for Independence Day was the religious settlement of Moravians in Salem, here in North Carolina? Soon other religious communities led the way. Early on few communities celebrated this day because most citizens were not confident the thirteen colonies could emerge as a sustainable and independent democracy.
It seems to me this year the celebration of July 4 is unique. Following the challenge of the COVID pandemic, along with recent the political and social unrest, this is a season for reflecting anew on the core values our Christian religious forebearers had for freedom and equality. Simply put, they understood that unlimited freedom often leads to excesses that prevent equality. At the same time, unlimited equality often leads to limited freedom.
They also understood that justice demands a reasonable limit for both freedom and equality, which was reflected in early Christian settlement community covenants like Salem. I find myself longing today for a deeper expression of working together to support and preserve a balance of freedom and equality without resorting to actions that create more division and isolation.
I am grateful that Independence Day falls on Sunday this year. Many faith communities will gather today to pray for our nation and its people. I hope that our mutual prayers will take us further than our aspirations for our country to be the beacon of freedom and equality for the world. They are just the beginning. May they be accompanied by our actions, as well as a renewed effort in mature choices that build a stronger balance for freedom and equality.
Make this month a special time to pray for our community, our state, and our nation to find a deeper passion for freedom and equality that fosters a vision of hope for all people. And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?
It is important to note early in this column that God has a promised land for each of us. Of course that ultimate land of promise is in heaven with God in our very own mansion that has been built for us to reside in, but our promise land here on earth is found in the specific purpose He has laid out for each person individually.
You will see in Deuteronomy the words of Moses to the Israelites as he prepared them for their Promised Land that was filled with purpose for their descendants.
The question posed here is what does God require of us as we journey toward that land, as we look toward residing in our purpose, or better stated how to live a life that God desires us to live to the fullest? For the sake of space and time I will not be able to go into deep detail about each of these points, but simply I can state that each of them can be found intertwined in the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20 and echoed by Jesus in Matthew Paul in 1 Timothy states that the commandants of our life should be derived from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from a sincere faith.
It is this pure heart that Paul talks about that gives us our genuine desire to please God through service to others. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Fearing, pleasing, serving, obeying and loving are simple requirements when we consider that God sent Christ to forsake it all for us to have freedom from the bondage of our sin. My friend God is love. That love should compel us to love others, which will result in a display of all the requirements needed to inhabit the promises from God.
May God bless you and keep you and allow his face shine upon you and give you peace. Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.
What can man do to me? I want to start today by saying God wants you to know He is right there with you today and forever. The writer of Hebrews is clear in stating this point by first saying He will never leave you and then follows that with the wording of never forsaking you.
As I counsel people I ask them to make a list of all their fears, their worries, their struggles, and most of all their weaknesses. Very rarely do I find people with the exact same list. Some express identical words but very seldom do the causes behind those words look the same.
For when I am weak, then I am strong. But even that requires that we trust He will do it. Remember Peter was standing on solid water one minute and then sinking the next. One more time I want you to remember that God wants you to know He is right there with you waiting to hear not only your voice, but he wants your heart, your mind, and your soul to desire that He is the force in this sinking world to save you.
So quickly our heart says yes to the ways God tells us to face the things of this world, but our mind drifts to other means. There are times our mind knows that He is the only way, but that same mind becomes clouded with things of this world. 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.
Today my friend I encourage you to seek God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul. Look for Jesus and keep your eyes planted on him for your direction. Make a list of all your fears, your worries, your struggles, and most of all your weaknesses and one by one give them to God and he will set you on a path to strength.
One last time, God wants you to know He is right there with you today and forever. Free is one of the most recognizable tenors in gospel music. The mission of Brian Free and Assurance is to lift up Jesus Christ through their music, see souls come to know the Lord as Savior and be an encouragement to Believers across the nation and abroad. The community is invited to hear Brian Free and Assurance at a. Interested persons may contact Mount Airy Wesleyan at or via the church website or Facebook.
There is no charge for the concert. Rulers, scholars, and commoners — history shows people from all walks of life have made errors in judgement that cost them something. In the Shakespearean tragedy Romeo and Juliet, the lovesmitten Romeo plots his own suicide upon hearing the announcement that his Juliet is dead. In his haste, he ingests poison before he receives the message that she is not gone, but merely drugged.
Just look at the world around you. Evil is rampant. The innocent are oppressed while the wicked prosper. High rise moguls get rich while the assaulted are shunned. Peter begins by reminding his readers how the Scriptures warned there would be scoffers in the last days who depart from truth and follow sinful desires.
They purposefully overlook the fact that God had intervened before, both in the account of creation and the flood. God would surely intervene again on a final day of reckoning for the unrighteous and rescue for the righteous 2 Pet.
Peter then moves to his central argument on how to understand the delay of the parousia in verses The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. I also find this highly unlikely. We should read these verses according to their genre apocalyptic eschatology , appreciating that Peter is a Jewish Christian who has been shaped by apocalyptic visionaries throughout the centuries.
Through this technique, he is able to help them and us! Check out his two points:. His eternal, everlasting perception of time frees him from human concerns. Thus, what seems so long to us, might not be as significant when viewed from the perspective of the eternal God who surveys and rules over all of human history.
Lest we think God works according to his own timetable without any sense of the urgency with which evil and suffering confront us, Peter gives his second argument taken from Jewish apocalyptic writing—God delays not because he is slow, but because he is patient toward sinners, giving everyone time for repentance.
This is as true as ever when it comes to the parousia. Additional Messages. Sydney S. Susan L. Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Wilford Woodruff, chapter Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F.
Smith, chapter Gospel Topics. Doctrinal Study Abrahamic Covenant. Doctrinal Study Adversity. Doctrinal Study Agency and Accountability. Doctrinal Study Answering Gospel Questions.
Doctrinal Study Atonement of Jesus Christ. Doctrinal Study Book of Mormon. Doctrinal Study Covenant. Doctrinal Study Dispensations. Doctrinal Study Eternal Life. By clicking 'Continue' you agree to allow us to collect information through cookies. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is going to come back and when it happens, absolutely everyone will know about it.
His return is often called the Second Coming. It will be an extraordinary, unprecedented moment in history - very different to his first arrival as a helpless baby in Bethlehem. The Bible gives clues about what it might be like but does not say when it will happen. Jesus spoke about his return in the days before his crucifixion in Jerusalem 2, years ago. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect Christian believers ….
Christianity teaches that Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion and spent a further six weeks with his followers.
More than people saw him during that time. Then he took his followers up the Mount of Olives, a hillside overlooking Jerusalem, and was taken up into heaven right in front of them. As the followers gazed in amazement at what had just happened, two men in white suddenly appeared.
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