Perfection

So, I have been hearing a lot of people saying that "I cant serve God, I have done so many horrible things..." and "I will not date a person that has a tattoo, and has drank in the past, even of they have changed...". Do you read the Bible guys?! So if you are one of these ppl, even if you arent I suggest you take into consideration what I am about to put down.

Guys, Have you ever gotten a married woman pregnant? Then to hide it, killed her husband? well I know someone that did, and God called him "a man after My own heart." yep yep, that would be David!!!

Ladies, The first, FIRST person Jesus ever called Himself the Massiah to what a woman who had been married 5 times, and was then living with a man she was not even married to. And He gave her water and told her she would never thirst again! The woman at the well!!

Paul the Apostle! I believe he KILLED believers before he put off the OLD man and put on the NEW man. How many people do you know would be close friends with someone that murderd your brothers and sisters in Christ, even if he is changed now and loves the Lord???

So I think that we should decide first of all to forgive others, even as God THROUGH CHRISTS DEATH ON THE CROSS forgave YOU! Love one another as God loves us, and quit picking and choosing who YOU think should know the Lord.

My pastor showed our wednesday night service this illistration. I have learned a lot through this and I hope that it can help you out in your situations as well.

The Green Square represents the point of decision making. You have somthing going on in your life and you now have a decision to make. Do I serve what I think is best and what makes ME feel good OR do I look to the Word, and what would glorify God and choose that path? In life we make decisions based on what feels good and what is easier. Proverbs 13:15b says that the way of the transgressors is hard. The self decision seems easy at first, but later on its going to be hard.

Example: Classes... You have this class and it is just so slow, and boring and you really are not learning anything and you dont agree with the teacher. You can complain and wine about it all day to all your friends and sin against the teacher (your brother in Christ) by talking bad about him and the way that he teaches and jsut have a miserable time in th class, barely scrape by with a passing grade, and not glorify God at all because it was just easier to complain about it. With this it will be easy to be bitter in other classes and get lazy, and sin against others ultamately sinning against God and others arround you with your additude.

Now...on the flip side, you can respond godly. You can be thankful that you have the opportunity to go to school and to learn. You can lift up others arround you who might now like the class, have the want to just get the work done and get better grades ultamately bringing God glory for being able to get through such a challanging class.

Easier said than done hu? of corse, Gods way will seem dificult at first because our sinful hearts want to choose self, and what you are used to. But Matthew 11:30 says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. We may not be used to the godly way at first but it gets easier, once you practice it you will progress to be a more godly person and bring God ALL the glory. I will never be easy, but it will be easier. Thats why on the God path is says easier rather then easy.

Finally, do not follow this chart just because it is going to be easier than the path for self. Look at your heart, why are you choosing Gods way? It needs to be because you want to bring Him glory and to serve Him better, not because its will serve you better in the end, that just might me choosing self disguised as choosing God. The heart is deciteful, you need to make God the treasure of your heart. Proverbs 4:23 says "Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." Below the heart there is supposed to be a treasure box. I figured that it would be better to tell you that rather than try to draw it. But anyways, make God the treasure of your heart, and u can glorify Him so much better.

I hope that this helps you more in your decision making. I want to know... do you have any situations or decisions that you need to think through? Talk to God read His word, and if you want to... share it. I know that it would be a blessing  for me to see you thinking through things better than some of us do.

Currently Reading Changed into His Image: God's Plan for Transforming Your Life By Jim Berg see related

Nothing I desire compares to You. I was contemplating earlier this evening. Nothing compares to the greatness of knowing God, and gaining His wisdom. We have so many desires in this world. For example for me is to get good grades, have money, someday a husband. To have all those desires and wants would be awesome for any one, but what are they without the Lord? Proverbs 3: 13-15 says "Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding; 14 For her proceeds are better than silver, and her gain than fine gold.15 She is more precious than rubies and all things you may DESIRE cannot compare with her." No matter what we desire that we think might make our lives better, are nothing without divine wisdom. Who are we without God? Why do we not try everyday to glorify Him as much as possible? Praise God I am able to start understanding His grace and love. You all have a wonderful day or evening, and try not to forget all that wisdom that is out there if we can just lay down our pride and our selfish desires.

And I just want to add more. I wrote the above a while ago, but I am reading a book called Changed into His Image for my General Psych class, and he is talking about our struggles in life. We blame so much of our sin and actions on our past, or the way we were brought up,or an illness we have, ect. We cannot say that those are the reasons, it is our sinful hearts that are. BUT, we can change that.... santifacation. PROGRESSIVE.

EXAMPLE: we are put in a class.... one we really dont want or like, but have to have it because thats how we graduat and move on with our lives. We bicker and moan and are bitter about it. I have seen SOOOOO much of that this past week, eather the teacher is bad, or somthing is just wrong with the people arround you. Pick up the word of God and turn to Acts 16:22-24. Paul and Silas were thrown in jail.... JAIL! now some classes my seem like a prison, but this is the real deal. And they praised God. They sang, and others herd them. WHAT A GREAT TESTIMONY! I would love to have that kind of testimony, one that glorifies God, my Father! And the AMAZING part is that I can, we all can.
In Christ,
Angelle

    I was told to post this one here to start a discussion on the End times.. I hope that all of you enjoy the End times as much as I do!

~Ledbetter~

Revelation 12:1-6

     Often times when one runs into prophecy in the Bible, one also runs into similes or metaphors.  Well in Revelations 12:1-6 we find one of the best metaphorical stories known to man.  This isn’t just a typical metaphor, it possesses much more information than one would first receive upon reading this portion of Scripture.  There must be an understanding of history, of Scripture, of other prophecies, and last but not least one’s relationship with God must be on track.  Without these three things, it is almost impossible to understand what God is trying to say in Revelation 12:1-6.  The purpose of this paper is to explain the meaning of the metaphor in Revelation 12:1-6 and show its prophetic significance. This passage must be broken down into different sections in order to completely understand its meaning.  These sections are:  Revelation 12:1-2 “the sun-clad woman,” Revelation 12:3-4 “the great red dragon,” Revelation 12:5-6 “the man child.” 

The Sun-clad Woman

     “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:  And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.” Revelation 12:1-2.  There are many different translations of this passage.  There are some people that think the woman talked about in verse one is Mary.  We all know that Mary gave birth to the Lord Jesus and that she is to be respected among all women, but these verses do not describe her.  They are not talking about the Church either.  In the Bible the church has been spoken of in a feminine term as the bride of Christ, but it’s not the Church because the woman gives birth to Jesus and Jesus gave birth to the Church.  So who is the woman in this passage?  Well, if one is familiar with history, we find that Israel is also mentioned in feminine terms.  The woman in this passage is Israel. 
     There are many things that give the identity of the woman away.  One of the ways you can tell that the woman is Israel is that Jesus came from Israel, but that isn’t the only way.  If you go back in the Bible to one of Josephs dreams you see Israel described as having “the sun and the moon and the eleven stars” (Genesis 37:9 KJV)  Joseph was the twelfth star.  There is another passage that would help us understand Revelation 12:1-2 better.  This passage is Romans 9:4-5, Adrian Rodgers says, “Paul spoke about his concern for the nation of Israel.  He described the Jews as ‘Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises’.” (Rodgers 143).  What Paul is saying in the passage is that Israel gave us the Messiah, and to thank God for it.  Israel is a God-ordained, God-called, God-protected, and God-blessed nation.  Another proof of Israel being the woman is in Isaiah 54:5-6.  Isaiah 54:5-6 says, “For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of the host is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called.  For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.”  God had a plan for Israel to bring forth his son, but Satan had a different plan for Israel. 

The Great Red Dragon

     “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his head.  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.” Revelation 12:3-4.  Now who is this dragon John is talking about?  This dragon is Satan himself.  In his description if one wasn’t paying attention one would miss some very important information.  He is said to be the color red, why is this?  He is red because of his lust for the blood of Jesus, or the death of Jesus.  He has seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns.  Notice the first thing mentioned is the seven heads.  These seven heads represent the seven Empires that will rule over Israel.  Next are the ten horns which represent the ten nation confederacy and the ten kings of that confederacy (Daniel 2:41-45).  Daniel has some other things to say about this “red dragon” or “beast.”  Daniel 7:7-8 says, “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth:  it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.  I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” The beast in these verses is the Anti-Christ, now the Anti-Christ is Satan’s tool or weapon against Israel.  He is who Satan will use to bring the entire world against Israel.  The Anti-Christ will be the world ruler who has complete control over the ten nation Confederacy.  This is a picture of the revival of the Roman Empire which will represent ten European governments.

     Revelation 12:3-4 also talks about how the dragon drew a third part of the heavens with him and threw them to earth.  This is talking about when Lucifer was thrown from heaven.  Lucifer was a beautiful angel in haven, but one day he decided he was too wise, too strong, too glorious, and too mighty to be anything less than God.  He wanted to exalt himself about the stars of God, so Revelation tells us that his tail swept a third of the stars (angels) from heaven when he led a rebellion and ultimately fell.  No sooner had he unsheathed his sword of rebellion than the thunders of Jehovah’s wrath rolled through heaven.  Satan was cast out and was not allowed to come back unless he was summoned by God.  Why did this dragon stand over the country of Israel waiting for a child to be born?  Throughout the history of Israel, Satan has been trying to destroy everything that is God.  So now he waits for the son of Israel to come, so he can devour (or kill) him as soon as he is born.  By the fact that the dragon was ready to strike, we see that Satan was positive and that he would beat the son of Israel, but Satan underestimated the Power of God. 

The Man Child

     Through the power of God Satan, or the Dragon, fails at his attempt to destroy the child. Revelation 12:5-6 says, “And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron:  and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.”  Now the Man child spoken of in this passage is Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ was born.  He lived a perfect and sinless life, died on the cross, was buried, and rose from the tomb a victorious Savior.  So even though Satan was waiting for him Jesus still defeated Satan in one lifetime.  Now again the same rules apply to this passage as the others.  One must read through it carefully not to miss the entire meaning of the passage.  This says that Jesus will rule the nations with a “rod of iron.”  This is not new to the scriptures though, in Psalm 2:9 David says, “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”  During Christ reign here on this earth he will be a harsh just ruler.  When someone says “rod of iron” normally it means something strong or unbreakable.  That is the same connotation that “rod of iron” is giving off in Revelations 12:5.  Walvoord says “His rule over all nations with a rod of iron is to be distinguished from His rule over Israel which is of more benevolent character” (Walvoord 190)

     The next thing that should be noticed while studying through Revelation 12:1-6 is how the child, who is Jesus, is caught up unto God and to his throne.  Now anyone who has any knowledge of Jesus life will know what this signifies.  This passage signifies Christ ascension in to Heaven after his Death, burial, and resurrection.  It also says that he will ascend to his throne which means he already had a place prepared for him he was just going back to that place. 

     Next we have a Time jump, from Revelation 12:5 to 12:6.  We jump all the way to the Middle of the Tribulation.  Jim Combs says, “At the midpoint of the future TRIBULATION.  The new world ruler, the beast, has severed his seven-year covenant with Israel, slain the two witnesses in Jerusalem... Now Israel, the woman, is persecuted” (Combs 124).  As a result of the persecution many Israelites flee into the wilderness.  In the wilderness God supernaturally protects Israel after the Anti-Christ turns against her.  This wasn’t the only time Israel has fled into the wilderness; back in their captivity in Egypt, after Pharaoh released them the Israelites fled into the wilderness before Pharaoh changed his mind.  There God also supernaturally saved Israel from their enemies. 

      This Metaphor in Revelation 12:1-6 when you completely understand it can help you understand how bad it is going to be for Israel in the End Times.  Now it is important while looking at these scripture to take into consideration the history of scripture, history of Prophecy, and ones personal relationship with Christ.  Without those three things it is almost impossible without some outside source or translation to correctly understand prophecy.  Now that the meaning of Each verse has been brought to light and the Metaphor has been broken down, the responsibility of the knowledge of the insight to studying prophecy lays completely on the shoulders of the reader.  Now it’s the reader’s job to take the section that have been given and delve deeper into the meaning of the prophecy, to uncover things that might not be shown to those in present time but might be shown to others in the future.