GOD’S WORD IS TRUTH: FULFILLED PROPHECY PROVES IT

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Scripture says this about its own nature:

“Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16

“No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination, for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” 2 Peter 1:20-21

The people in Berea were commended for subjecting the apostle Paul’s words to God’s Word:

“Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” Acts 17:11

Everything the Bible says about God is true; everything anyone says about God that contradicts the Bible is false. Apart from a belief in the authority of God’s Word—as well as a growing knowledge of what it says—we’ll be vulnerable to deception. This is why one of the greatest needs in churches today is the consistent teaching of sound doctrine. Without it, and without people reading good books that reinforce a biblical worldview, God’s people will drift along, swept away by the current of popular opinion.

Faith is not inherently virtuous. Its value depends on the worth of its object. The Bible, understood in context and given precedent over our own instincts and preferences, is our dependable guide for faith and practice. Only by learning what Scripture says about God can we know what’s true about Him.

When we delight in God’s Word, we are delighting in Him.

I’ve heard people say, “Don’t take pleasure in the Bible; take pleasure in God.” But to study God’s words is to take pleasure in God because His Word is an expression of His very being.

Anyone who finds happiness in God must find happiness in God’s words as David did:

“In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.” Psalm 119:14

“I find my delight in your commandments, which I love.” Psalm 119:47

“Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” Psalm 119:97

Notice these Scriptures demonstrate that to delight in and to meditate upon God’s Word is to delight in God Himself.

The point of studying God’s Word is to know Him.

There is a danger of idolizing our own knowledge of the Bible rather than remembering the point is to know Him better. (If we fail to understand that, the problem is with us, not the Bible!)

J. I. Packer, in the first chapter of his book Knowing God, says this: “To be preoccupied with getting theological knowledge as an end in itself, to approach Bible study with no higher a motive than a desire to know all the answers, is the direct route to a state of self-satisfied self-deception. We need to guard our hearts against such an attitude and pray to be kept from it. …there can be no spiritual health without doctrinal knowledge, but it is equally true that there can be no spiritual health with it if it is sought for the wrong purpose and valued by the wrong standard… Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are. As he is the subject of our study, and our helper in it, so he must himself be the end of it.“

May we see Bible study and doctrine as a basis for humble worship of our King and Savior, not for prideful posturing.

God’s words have the power to bring heart happiness.

When Jeremiah said that God’s Word “became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16), he was suggesting that Scripture has a cumulative effect that increases over time. Happily, by God’s grace, As Joni Eareckson Tada says: “If you want to increase your desire for God, then get to know Him more deeply. And there is no better way to know Him than through His Word. Get into God’s Word, and you will get a heart for Jesus. Get passionate about Scripture, and your passion for Him will increase. Feelings follow faith…and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.“

God promises that His Word “will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). We live in a time where the Bible is increasingly minimized. Let’s be committed to doing everything we can to uplift and honor God’s Word, as a means of knowing and loving Him.

Adapted from an article by Randy Alcorn, “Is There a Danger of Worshipping the Bible Instead of God” http://www.patheos.com

FULFILLED PROPHECY IS PROOF THE BIBLE IS INSPIRED BY GOD

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Did you know that a whopping 31% of the Bible is God revealing how events will unfold before they happen? Our Heavenly Father wants His children to know what the future holds! Moreover, surely it is sufficient proof the Bible is the inspired word of God.

God’s prophetic Word has excited me and many other Christ centred ministries to alert the church to the events surrounding Jesus second coming. Lamb & Lion Ministries is one that has been faithful for over 40 years now. And they say, that excitement will never abate in the years ahead, for the Good News and hope-filled message about our Saviour’s return is what energizes their passion for evangelizing.

We want you to be invigorated by that same passion as well! And so, Todd Hampson of the Prophecy Prod podcast, and Lamb and Lion Ministries put a list together to share some of the reasons why we believe Bible prophecy exists. Many more reasons exist so I would appreciate your feedback in Comments,

10 Reasons Bible Prophecy Exists
God provides us with the true history of His world and our role in it from Creation to its prophesied end.
  1. Bible prophecy has been given to us to show that God exists. God is God. He is the Creator! He is Sovereign. He exists outside of time. He knows everything. And so, whatever God says, you can take it as the truth. So the first reason that Bible prophecy has been given to us, is so we can live by that truth.
  2. The second reason why God has given us Bible prophecy is to prove that the Bible is God’s word. The fact is that the Bible is the only book ever written that contains genuine, fulfilled prophecies. These prophecies were fulfilled to… the…”T”! Fulfilled Bible prophecy proves the Bible is truly God’s Word and so we can place our faith and trust in it and its Author.
  3. A third reason is to show us that God is in complete control. He is sovereign. Sovereign means that God is ultimately in control of every single detail. Bible prophecy puts that fact on display like nothing else.
  4. The fourth reason for God giving us Bible prophecy is to demonstrate that God loves us and that He has a plan for our lives. We are not just floating around on a big spinning orb out in outer space with no purpose and no meaning, as Atheists claim. God has crafted a purpose for every person He has ever made because He loves His children. God has also planned a destination for the faithful. He wants us to live with Him in Heaven and on the New Earth forever. And so, He gives us prophecy to show how world history will end with the faithful living forever with our loving Heavenly Father in the Eternal State.
  5. The fifth reason , God provides us with many specific details about His plan for the ages. This plan shows how God is working to bring humanity back into a right relationship with Him so that one day we shall dwell in a blessed time of peace, righteousness, and fellowship with our Creator. Bible prophecy is very specific and very purposeful so we can be confident even through the prophesied times of persecution and tribulation that He is refining His church prior to its rapture and the wrath of God being poured out on an unrepentant world.

In the next post we will add another five reasons and any that I receive in Comments that add to the story.

IS GOD IN CONTROL OF HISTORY?

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Jonathan Cahn shows how the Bible reveals events that have taken place in the recent past and how it reveals what is to take place in the near future. Ii is all in his new book the The Paradigm – The Ancient Blueprint That Holds the Mystery of Our Times.

Listen to Jonathan being interviewed on Sky Watch TV. It will change your view on the greatest book of all time, The Bible. God is the master weaver of all events that play out in history. The rise and fall of leaders down to the timing of these events. Apostasy will accelerate, as we are seeing it today. Start living eternal now, knowing Jesus Second Coming will happen exactly as prophesied in the Bible. Are we doing exactly what God has called us to do in these last days?

https://youtu.be/x7jTGn-KVKk

BIBLE BASED SYNOPSIS OF END TIMES

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If you are interested in a Bible based synopsis of End Times signs, this is a must listen. You will need one and a half hours, but it is well worth the time. The content is comprehensive, make a note of all the Bible verses for your own study.

IN THE LAST DAYS MANY WILL COME TO CHRIST

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Most of us are familiar with the story of the 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt who held fast to their faith and were beheaded by ISIS in February, 2015. But did you know that only 20 of them were actually Copts from Egypt? Did you know that one of the martyrs was from Chad, and he had not been a Christian prior to the day of his beheading?

All 21 men had been working in Libya when they were kidnapped by ISIS. But as can be seen in pictures where they are lined up on the beach to be killed, one of them had darker skin and different facial features. This was the man from Chad.

The Coptic Christians were given a choice to deny Jesus or die. They refused to deny Him, knowing it would cost them their heads.

When the terrorists ordered the man from Chad to deny Jesus or die, he answered, “Their God is my God,” thereby sealing his fate.

That’s how moved he was by the faith of these Christians. Their refusal to deny their Saviour, even at the point of death—literally, at the point of a knife to their throats—moved him to make a profession of faith, one that would cost him his head as well. Can we grasp the intensity of this story?

The man had not been a believer. All he had to say was, “I don’t believe in Jesus” or “Jesus is not the Son of God,” and he could walk away a free man.

He would be with his family again. He would not die a brutal death. He would live to see another day.

How many Christians would be sorely tempted under such circumstances? How many would waver and, for that moment, deny their Lord, just to avoid beheading?

Yet this man, who had not been a follower of Jesus before then, was so moved by the dedication of these Christians that he became a believer on the spot.

“Go ahead and behead me,” he was saying. “Your god is not my God. Their God is my God.”

That is the power of the gospel, and that is how we overcome Satan, by not loving our lives to the point of death (Rev. 12:11).

That is why this story needs to be told and retold until the faith of those martyrs becomes our faith, until people look at our lives and say, “Your God is my God, whatever may come my way.”

And here’s something striking. As I have listened this week to the stories of persecuted Christians, even hearing from family members of martyrs, I have not heard a word of self-pity. Not a word.

I have heard words of courage and dedication. I have heard words of great love for Jesus. I have heard requests for prayer and help. But I have not heard any self-pity.

The daughter of an Iranian pastor martyred 20 years ago spoke of her own life experience and of her father’s refusal to back down. Now, 20 years after her father was buried in an unmarked grave, she could speak of multiplied hundreds of thousands of Iranian Muslims coming to faith in Jesus. Her father’s blood was not shed in vain.

That is how a seed planted in the ground first dies and then produces much fruit (John 12:24-25).

A Syrian Christian leader shared how a radical Islamic group offered to arm them to fight against another radical Islamic faction. He replied, “We already have two arms: love and forgiveness. We don’t want to become another militia.”

That is how we overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21). Some Christians even said to ISIS, “Thank you for helping to unite us!”

Yet it would be wrong to think of these suffering believers as super saints, which is another lesson for us all.

Most of them are just ordinary Christians, not preachers or pastors and certainly not big-name evangelists. They are mothers and fathers, young people and old people, laborers and housewives, educated and uneducated. Yet they have remained faithful under hellish pressure, enduring unspeakable suffering.

Yet rather than curse God, they bless Him, and rather than retaliate against their enemies with hatred and vengeance, they offer forgiveness and love.

Earlier this year, a couple told me about their trip to Ethiopia where they met with family members of the Ethiopian Christians beheaded by ISIS. They spoke with the widow of one of the martyrs, who was pregnant when he was killed, making his death even more painful.

But when they talked with this young woman, rather than bemoan her terrible loss, she said to them, “How is it that I had the privilege of being married to a martyr for Jesus?” She was an uneducated woman with no social status, and she was humbled beyond words that she was chosen to be the wife of a martyr.

This is why radical Islam will ultimately fall before the name of Jesus, and why every other force that seeks to wipe out the church will fail in the end. It’s also why we should stop feeling sorry for ourselves when things get a little rough. Are we not also more than conquerors through Him who loved us? (See Rom. 8:37)

Extract from article by Dr Michael Brown in Charisma News

MICROROCHIP IN HAND ALLOWS YOU TO PAY FOR GOODS IN UAE

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It might sound like something from a dystopian science fiction fantasy but you could soon be able to pay for goods and services with a microchip that is embedded in your hand, according to Etisalat (UAE telecoms giant) officials.

It does sound like a prophecy from the Bible “And he (Antichrist) causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads.” Revelation 13:16

microchip-in-back-of-hand

Etisalat unveiled new injectable microchips, which store all your credit card, ID and business card data inside, for the first time at the Middle East at 2016 GITEX Technology Expo in Dubai.

The technique is called bio-hacking, where an alien device is embedded on the back of the hand between the thumb and forefinger using a special syringe, medical tattoo artist Hazim Naori told 7DAYS.

“We clean the skin with sanitiser and after this we put the marks exactly where we want to pierce it,” he said.

“We insert the needle under the skin with a part of the need that pushes it in, and that’s where it settles and it needs a week or two to heal.”

Naori performed the implant for the first time on October 7 on George Held, from Etisalat’s Innovation team.

Speaking about the implantation, he said: “It’s like a piercing, it doesn’t hurt, but it feels a bit uncomfortable for the first day. The bio-hacking improves and enhances your body and will be not just a wearable device, but a device within yourself. You cannot replace or lose it, if you have an accident it’s still with you.”

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The technique is called bio-hacking

Held warned, though, that before it can be commercially launched, decisions need to be made on what role it will play in society.

“There is no legality issue here. We already have agreements with Emirates ID and Visa and we issue a credit card with it through Etisalat, we have rights to issue those,” Held explained to 7DAYS.

He revealed that final costs for the procedure are not confirmed yet but it is expected to cost Dhs500 ($100) for both the injection and the gadget itself.

Asked if the information stored on the chip could be hacked with the right equipment, Naori said using the card would still require the necessary authentications.

“We have to internationally agree on the system and this is eventually going to happen, let’s be honest,” said Naori.

“Thirty to 40 years ago there were no (bank) cards and now I have a card with all my ID and sim card on it and put it in the machine without showing anyone my passport.

“It’s an electronic smart gate. It’s the same thing, instead of having the card you just have it under your skin and it verifies you.”

This is just another one of the many prophecies about JESUS SECOND COMING that is being fulfilled in our day. Are we ready for Jesus return? What is He asking you to do today? Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.” Do you spend time each day in His word so you can hear His voice? There are more prophecies about Jesus second coming than there were about His first coming. The Sadducees and Pharisees missed His first coming. Is the church preparing for His second coming?