Jesus’ first miracle was the Wedding at Cana. Here it is:
“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him. When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, 1and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.” This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.” (John 2:1-11) Continue reading “Wedding at Cana first miracle and Wedding supper of the Lamb as last miracle”→
If you are reading this, then it means that the rapture occurred. The rapture is a term for the moment Jesus calls to His believers, resurrecting the dead in Christ and bringing the already living believers up to heaven to be with Him. Here it is in scripture:
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
Why did it happen?
We were living in what was called the Church Age, AKA the New Testament times. In Old Testament times the people lived under the Law (The Ten Commandments.) The Old Testament folks had faith, but the faith was that their Messiah would come. Jesus the Messiah had not come yet. But in order to demonstrate that faith in the future promise of Messiah’s coming, and to be cleansed from their sins, they had to kill an animal twice a day and sacrifice it. Why? The blood is the life. (Deuteronomy 12:23). “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” (Leviticus 17:11).
Then Jesus came, but the Jews didn’t recognize Him as Messiah, or those that did, rejected Him. When Jesus died, was resurrected and ascended into heaven, everything changed. Believers no longer needed to sacrifice because Jesus was the sacrifice. He shed His OWN blood for us! As a result of the Jews’ rejection of Him, Jesus has spent the last 2000 years building His church from Gentile peoples (Romans 11:25, Acts 15:14-17). Now the Church Age is over, He is returning His attention to the Jews, and now it is Judgment time for all of those left behind.
Why weren’t we taken?
You might wonder about people whom you thought were Christians who are still here. Not everyone who professed Jesus was truly saved. We cannot tell who is saved and who is not, but Jesus knows who is who. He took the true believers. Intellectual assent is not saving faith. Tradition is not saving faith. Church-going habit is not saving faith. Only true believers were taken. A true believer is described in John 6:29: “Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”God sent Jesus to die for your sins, as the eternal sacrifice to satisfy His justice. Sin must be punished, because it is a crime. Jesus took the punishment and paid the debt for all sins forever.
As a result, you would have been pardoned- IF you had believed! But you chose to reject Jesus’ pardon, during the now concluded Church Age, or you added to belief in Him with a man-made rules or tradition. So, you are here now. John 11:25 “Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” I hope the rapture convinced you to believe it! Repent now. Right now!
What will happen next?
Unfortunately, you are in for the roughest time that there ever was and ever will be. Jesus said “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. (Matthew 24: 21-22).
He is saying that if the Tribulation went on longer than 7 years surely EVERY person would die! The Tribulation is when Jesus will pour out His anger against sin and sinners. Christians who repented in the Church Age just prior to the Tribulation do not have to endure it because we took the pardon and believed in Him before the rapture, or before they died. So Jesus removed us from this terrible time. Jesus will send increasingly terrible judgments on the earth to punish sinners.
Starting now, ¼ of earth’s population will die in war and famines and diseases. Then another 1/3 will die, equaling half the globe’s population before the Tribulation is even half over! Your life is at extreme risk. If you die before asking Jesus forgiveness of your sins and becoming a believer in Him, you will go to hell forever. Sin is real. God’s judgment of sin is real. Satan is real. Hell is real. The coming Antichrist is real.
Everything in the Bible is real. Not any other book. Not the Mormon Bible. Not the Catholic Bible. Only the Christian BIBLE is truth!
What must I do to be saved?
You must repent. The jailer at Philippi saw the marvelous joy in Paul and Silas, even while they were chained in the lowest jail, and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you & your household.” (Acts 16:30-31). You have to believe that your sins prevented you from being raptured up to heaven and will prevent you from going to heaven when you die. Sins are your wrong thoughts, words, and deeds against God. Everyone has wrong thoughts, words, deeds, so that means everyone sins! You need to be sorry for them, and have faith in Jesus. King David was sorry, in Psalm 38:4 he said: “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.” Do you feel guilty for your sins? You should. They are crimes against a Holy God.
Do as David did: “I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.” (Psalm 38:18). God is so holy He cannot even look upon sin. He is offended by sin and will not tolerate it.
In so doing you acknowledge that Jesus is the only person who CAN forgive them, having lived a sinless life and shedding His blood as the pure sacrifice for YOU. Once you do this, He will forgive you and then He will send the Holy Spirit to you to help you understand the Bible. If you do not confess and come to faith in Jesus, the Bible will never make sense. And worse, you will be at risk from the lying delusion coming upon the whole earth.
What if I wait and see how things go before I confess and repent?
Don’t do it! A great delusion will come over the whole world and those who are not saved in faith by Jesus’ blood will believe the delusion. The Bible says, “The coming of the lawless one (ANTICHRIST) is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).
The Good News is, Jesus still loves you and wants you! If you repent and ask Him to forgive, He will. You’ll still go through the horrendous times, or even be martyred for your faith, but when you die you will go to heaven and live forever with Jesus. Your first step is to repent & believe, and you will be saved from hell. Also, you will then understand the Bible because the Lord will send the Holy Spirit to you to help you understand it. The Bible tells you what to do and what will happen next. The most important thing to remember is, JESUS LOVES YOU! Don’t mess it up again. Repent now!!!!!!!
The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? (Psalm 27:1)
There’s nothing like the Psalms for comfort. I first met the Lord as Light, and I gravitate to all the metaphors of Him as Light. Though to be sure, He IS the Light, and not just metaphorically on this side of earth. He will someday literally provide the only illumination:
The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. (Revelation 21:23)
In Psalm 27, David’s unwavering confidence in the LORD in times of trouble or fear is a good example to us today. We awaken in the morning to more and more bad news
Jesus told us that the run-up to the Tribulation would be fraught with wars and rumors of wars, and nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom. (Matthew 24:6-7). Men’s love will be waxing cold, and disobedience and futile thinking will run rampant in the end time. We are in the end time. We have been since Jesus ascended. The time between his departure and His second coming, though, will progressively worsen, and it sure feels like we lurched forward a notch in 2020. Continue reading “The Goodness of the Lord”→
I vacationed frequently at the beach in Venice, Florida. The Gulf coast is so peaceful the water so blue, I found it incredibly relaxing. One day, I watched a couple of kids make a huge sand castle. They spent most of the day on it. It was not architecturally sophisticated. They simply dragged up pail after pail of sand, made it about as tall as themselves, and spent a while looking for the perfect stones and shells to adorn it. A stick on top and a scrap of seaweed made the flag. And what castle is complete without a moat? The kids wanted to be sure no enemy could raid their fortress, so they made three moats.
Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. (Matthew 7:26).
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires… (2 Timothy 4:3)
Do you notice that word “endure”? The verse does not say “they will not like sound doctrine…” It does not say “they will not enjoy sound doctrine…” It doesn’t even say “they will not accept sound doctrine.” It uses the word endure. When you endure something, you writhe. You wish you were not there in the midst of it. If anyone has ever undergone physical therapy, you know that you have to endure it but if you could you would shoot out of the gym so fast you’d be like a speeding bullet. If anyone has ever had to get a root canal, you know that you endure it. You do not seek it, you do not like it, and if you could, you go away from it. Continue reading “They will not endure sound doctrine”→
An historic tussle is occurring in the United States right now between Church and State. The Framers of the Constitution were mindful of the potential for overreach in their civil leaders, monarchs, and other authorities. They had known of the persecution of the Protestants, Puritans, and Huguenots of the 1600s. So when they hammered out the rights of the citizens, protecting the freedom to worship (or not) was part of the foundation of this country.
Screen grab from live stream August 8 worship service at Grace Church
The highest law in our land is the U.S. Constitution, which has some amendments, known as the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights guarantees that the government can never deprive people in the U.S. of certain fundamental rights including the right to freedom of religion and to free speech and the due process of law. (Source)
Harvard’s “Inner Life of the Cell” is a success story in unexpected viral interest. Originally developed for classroom education, it went viral on the internet after a showing in 2006 at the Siggraph Electronic Theater. The video below is the shortened version and contains the beautiful musical soundtrack.
Watching this with the Creator in mind as the One who planned us down to the cell and beyond, brings tears to my eyes. Evolutionists believe the cell activity evident in the animation was developed by accident over time. Yet how can such a bustle of activity in each cell be happenstance? It cannot.
This version is the full 8 minutes with music AND narration:
This link gives a longer an explanation of the series, its genesis and intent, along with information about the animation. Go here. The synopsis is below:
“Inner Life of the Cell” was originally intended for undergraduate life sciences students at Harvard. However, the animation went viral after being shown in the Siggraph Electronic Theater in 2006. The mix of publicity, criticism and acclaim proved that there was an unmet demand for compelling scientific visuals that educate as well as inspire. “It’s quite clear that we understand the world primarily through sight,” says Dr. Robert Lue Ph.D., Director of Life Sciences Education at Harvard and a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. “Somehow we don’t use that in teaching science as we really should.” (Source)
While watching the video, I feel moved beyond description, and it is because I am seeing my insignificance compared to His wonderful Glory.
“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (Psalms 8:3-4)
That though this is an animation I trust that it accurately depicts the life of the smallest parts of our body, and I know: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
I praise Him! “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Revelation 4:11)
The Bible is replete with statements attesting to His power, creativity, and glory in creating all there is, “I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.” (Isaiah 45:12)
Please take encouragement from this video, which illustrates His power and in so doing, remember, though we are insignificant compared to Him, He created us to have a relationship with Him. I pray yours deepens today, and if you do not know Him, begin a relationship today by asking Him to forgive your wrongs and to take you unto Himself as saved sinner, and His friend.
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. (Matthew 19:24).
On the Fourth of July holiday in 2016, Beth Moore tweeted about how wonderful it was to have all their friends and family with them on the holiday at “a bay house”.
When Beth Moore tweets fun tweets like that, about being unglammed in “a bay house”, she isn’t telling you the whole story. It’s not “a” bay house, it’s Beth Moore’s bay house. A fact she cunningly chose to hide in her carefully crafted tweet. At the date of that tweet, they had bought the waterfront mansion just three weeks prior.
We are in a war. We forget, but we are under constant attack. We know that since the beginning, we have been attacked on any and all fronts by Satan. It’s more apparent now, especially in America, than when I started his blog 11 years ago.
Worse, our enemy, satan, has over a 6000 year head start on us here in the end of the end times. Paul spoke of our warfare in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4; “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses,”
It is a good warfare.
“This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightiest war a good warfare; Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:” (1 Timothy 1:18-19)
It is constant warfare: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” (1 Peter 5:8)
Jesus in us is greater than anything. We do not fight with bombs nor with planes or with sword. We fight with prayer, appealing to Him Who is above all things to intercede. We fight with knowledge of His word. We fight with faith. It IS a time when satan will be doing his utmost to interrupt or break any Christian’s faith and to prevent any faithless person from becoming a believer. It is a dangerous time, in the physical and in the supernatural. The principalities and powers may gather for their final fight (Ephesians 6:12) because satan knows his time is short (Revelation 12:12), but we stand in Jesus’ victory.
So be sober, be vigilant!
Any day any one of us may suffer a spiritual attack. I see them occurring in my own circle of friends. Little to big things; physical infirmities to character attacks to arguments and division at otherwise healthy churches. We can look at it as an opportunity to stand on Jesus’ strength. It is an opportunity to pray in advance. It is an opportunity to follow Peter’s command to be sober and vigilant. And following a biblical command is always good, no matter the circumstance surrounding the need for it.
It may be hard, but we don’t have a spirit of fear, but we walk in His strength.
By Elizabeth Prata*
the-end-time.org 