Pastor JD echos the heavy heart that I have been feeling. But that is not really a good description. It is more than that. It really is a very strange combination of heavy heart, intense feeling that something big is just about to happen (anxious & nervousness combined), and finally a felling of things getting harder, as if the incline is quickly increasing on the treadmill of life.
Not a simple or pleasant feeling or easily described, but even though I feel weighted down by it. I have this thread of nervous excitement, anticipation. For what I am not exactly sure.
When I heard JD’s update this week, I was so very comforted. Not because it necessarily cleared anything up for me, but it echoed the feelings I was having. It confirmed that it is not just me. I have since confirmed this with other brothers and sisters in Christ that I trust and listen to.
He quoted some very eerie prophetic words from Paul Harvey back in 1965. I have included the full audio & text of it below. It was the second time I have heard it this week and it just really hits home.
Paul Harvey’s words really do exactly match what has happened since they were spoken some 47 years ago. They paint a picture of what Paul told Timothy the last days would be like.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 – (NKJV) – Perilous Times and Perilous Men
3 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
Lets run down the list:
– Lovers of themselves — check
– Lovers of money — check
– Boasters and proud — check
– Blasphemers — check
– Disobedient to parents — check
– Unthankful — check
– Unholy — check
– Unloving — check
– Unforgiving — check
– Slanderers — check
– Without self-control — check
– Brutal despisers of good — check
– Traitors — check
– Headstrong, haughty — check
– Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God — check
– Having a form of godliness but denying its power — check
I think that about sums up what we are seeing. But wait you say, we have seen all of these things throughout history what makes this time special.
Ahh, I may agree if Paul was talking about the world but he is talking about the church. This is what has crept into the church in the last days. Read the next five verses.
2 Timothy 3:6-10 – (NKJV)
6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; 9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.
The other piece that makes me so sure in my heart is the magnitude we are seeing and the combination with other end times signs. It is the entire picture God is painting for us, if we just have eyes to see.
“For men will be lovers of themselves…” and
“…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…”
Those two really stood out to me and drove the nail home.
The phrase “Pastors will preach man centered sermons” and the term “itching ears” pops into my mind.
JD does an excellent job stepping through the progression we are seeing.
God’s Word is truly amazing! Praise God!
It is all there for us to read, all we have to do is have the desire to look. To knock and the door will be opened…
Another area that JD explores is the comparison between the two end time churches Jesus speaks of in Revelation.
Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-13) and Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22)
“…I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name….” – Revelation 3:8 (partial)
“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’…” – Revelation 3:17 (partial)
What pastor JD pointed out that I had not caught before was that the Philadelphia (faithful) end time church will be “weak” or “weakened” in the last days. It will be the Laodicea (unfaithful) church that will be strong when measured by this worlds standards.
Give it a listen, maybe it will bring you comfort as well.
_________________________________________________________________
——————–
_________________________________________________________________
Click on the article title for a link to full original referenced article.
Satan wants us uninterested in the things of God.
The stakes are so high: eternal life or eternal death.
Why would you not be concerned about that!
If you have not asked Christ into your life, the essential gospel is that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and that He was raised on the third day (1 Cor. 15:3-4). Believing this is the only qualification for salvation. We are sinners in need of a savior. Jesus died for our sins, and to prove that His death was sufficient for us, God raised Him from the dead on the third day. Believing in our heart that God raised Him from the dead is our assurance that He will raise us, too.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, (1 Cor. 15:3-4).
