Category: jesus

Posted in discernment, jesus, last days, prophecy, second coming

The season of the return of Jesus Christ is near

Posted on by elizabethprata

Did you know that the Second Coming of Christ is one of the major themes of the bible?

There are 300 hundred prophecies about the First Coming of Jesus in the Old Testament, but there are 500 — five hundred! — in the Old Testament about His Second Coming! And in the New Testament, one out of every 25 verses has to do with the Second Coming of Jesus. In other words, there are many, many, many more prophecies about the Second Coming of Jesus than His First Coming. Probably twice as many. Why so many? Because Jesus is returning in wrath. The first time He came, He came as a compassionate Savior with tears in His eyes. But when He returns, He is returning as a conquering warrior with eyes like white hot flames because He is returning to judge and make war against the enemies of God. And so, since God does not wish that any should perish, He has given us sign after sign after sign to watch for. (source)

There are many of us who study the bible, including prophecy, and are eager for His return. We believe we are in the season of His return. The reason is not because there is one specific reason or sign, but because the signs are all converging with rapidity and laser focus. It’s happening fast and it is happening intensely.

One of the signs is that there will be apostasy in untold amounts before the Son of Man returns. Some of the verses which speak of this are:

  • “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) NASB
  • “And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.”(Matthew 24:10, 12)
  • “Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16)
  • “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,” (1 Timothy 4:1)
  • “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; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Can there be any doubt that this time right now has had the greatest falling away from even professed ‘Christians’? Where the foundational precepts that make the faith are ignored or denied? Here is one such example:

Methodist Pastor Frank Schaefer Faces Trial for Son’s Gay Wedding “Schaefer, pastor of Zion United Methodist Church of Iona in South Lebanon Township, told his superiors in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference that he was going to perform at his son’s wedding in 2007 and received no warning or reprimand. It was only this April, when a parishioner filed a complaint, that Schaefer was told he would face discipline for violating church doctrine.”

How sad, that no one said anything for 5 years. Where is the discernment?  

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.” (Philippians 1:9-10). 

 What is my crime? I blessed two people that loved each other,” Schaefer, 51, told ABC News.

Love doesn’t trump God. It’s not a reason nor an excuse. Love is not an indicator of anything, except that the heart is desperately sick and not to be trusted. (Jeremiah 17:9, Genesis 6:5). His crime is that he disobeyed God, and failed his office of pastor.

 “Jesus our Lord and Savior never mentioned homosexuality at all and my point is if it is that important of an issue, why didn’t he mention it?,” Schaefer said.

So we only need to follow the red words in the bible? The rest is chopped liver? Never let it be so! The Old Testament and the New Testament are replete with lists of sins that are abominations to God, homosexuality among them. (Genesis 19:1-13; Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9, and Romans 1:26-27 shows that homosexuality itself is the judgment for those who had continually disobeyed God.) The minister forgot this verse, which says,

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16)

 Apostasy is so rampant now that it boggles the mind that there are any decent churches left at all. And look, the article nears its conclusion with this statement:

 “On Saturday in Philadelphia, nearly 50 ministers participated in a same-sex wedding at a Methodist church as a symbol of support for their colleague, Schaefer, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.”

Apostasy now, but come soon, Lord Jesus.

Posted in antibiotics, grace, jesus, rapture, tribulation, wrath

The end of antibiotics: the beginning of biblical plagues?

Posted on by elizabethprata
SEM depicting methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus bacteria

I read an interesting article linked on Drudge to the UK Daily Mail, and discussed over at the American Thinker. It is that we have come to the end of the era of antibiotics.

Here is the American Thinker’s take on it
They’ve been predicting this for years and it looks like it’s finally come to pass.
In our human hubris, we think we can outsmart or defeat Mother Nature. It’s things like this that remind us how our pitiful efforts to control the natural world usually go for naught.

Daily Mail:
A high-ranking official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared in an interview with PBS that the age of antibiotics has come to an end. ‘For a long time, there have been newspaper stories and covers of magazines that talked about “The end of antibiotics, question mark?”‘ said Dr Arjun Srinivasan. ‘Well, now I would say you can change the title to “The end of antibiotics, period.”‘

The associate director of the CDC sat down with Frontline over the summer for a lengthy interview about the growing problem of antibacterial resistance.

I suffered from bronchitis and pneumonia quite bit growing up and into my 20s. In my 40s I suffered from sinusitis, and in my 50s, various ailments that run the gamut of all of the above now that I’m working in a school again.

I’m allergic to sulfa drugs so that limits the number and variety of antibiotics I could take. After a couple of times in my 40s I never went to the doctor again for relief of any of them. I was always worried that the doctors were overprescribing. I was worried I’d build an immunity to them and that when the chips were really down, that they wouldn’t work as well for me.

My suspicions have been confirmed. The doctor went on in the interview saying,

‘We’re in the post-antibiotic era,’ he said. ‘There are patients for whom we have no therapy, and we are literally in a position of having a patient in a bed who has an infection, something that five years ago even we could have treated, but now we can’t.’.

It’s the era of the superbugs. This story from NPR six days ago tells more.

“Many people are familiar with the type of resistant infections often acquired in hospitals, caused by MRSA, the acronym for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. But most people don’t know about the entirely different group of resistant bacteria that Hoffman reports on in , airing Tuesday on PBS’ Frontline. The show explores an outbreak of resistant bacteria at one of the most prestigious hospitals in the U.S., and explains why there is surprisingly little research being conducted into new antibiotics to combat these new superbugs.“

In the days before antibiotics, men died from the merest cut. That is one of the wonderful things about antibiotics, that people no longer die from simple injuries like they did for thousands of years. In this 2010 article by Rustam Aminov titled A Brief History of the Antibiotic Era, from the journal Frontiers of Microbiology, it is stated,

“Antimicrobials are probably one of the most successful forms of chemotherapy in the history of medicine. It is not necessary to reiterate here how many lives they have saved and how significantly they have contributed to the control of infectious diseases that were the leading causes of human morbidity and mortality for most of human existence.”

 “We usually associate the beginning of the modern “antibiotic era” with the names of Paul Ehrlich and Alexander Fleming. Ehrlich’s idea of a “magic bullet” that selectively targets only disease-causing microbes and not the host was based on an observation that aniline and other synthetic dyes, which first became available at that time, could stain specific microbes but not others. Ehrlich argued that chemical compounds could be synthesized that would “be able to exert their full action exclusively on the parasite harbored within the organism.” This idea led him to begin a large-scale and systematic screening program (as we would call it today) in 1904 to find a drug against syphilis, a disease that was endemic and almost incurable at that time.“

Add caption

The September 3, 1928 event that led to the penicillin discovery by Fleming a year later was synthesized as Fleming and Erlich had done, and by 1945, penicillin was being mass produced and distributed.

I was born in 1960, a preemie by 5 weeks. I had pneumonia and no doubt penicillin saved my life. I grew up entirely in the era of widely available medicines for any variety of illnesses, cuts, or injuries. I see that that era is coming to a close, or as the doctor in the Daily Mail article stated, has already closed. Widely available antibiotics are not widely available any more, and where they are, oftentimes the patients with the infections are showing a disheartening resistance to their effectiveness. This is serious, because people are dying.

“The mortality rates due to multidrug-resistant bacterial infections are high. Each year, about 25,000 patients in the EU die from an infection with the selected multidrug-resistant bacteria (ECDC/EMEA Joint Working Group, 2009), and more than 63,000 patients in the United States die every year from hospital-acquired bacterial infections.” (source)

So what is to be done about this? It seems that the superbugs are rising fast. The answer is complex and involves societies, government, mass behavior change, widespread education, research and mass distribution. In other words, nothing will happen fast that will help, and a lot can happen fast that will hurt. This is where I see prophecy coming in.

Jesus said that many will die by pestilence.

“Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”(Luke 21:10-12)

“When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.” (Revelation 6:7-8)

Soldiers from Fort Riley, Kansas,
ill with Spanish influenza at a hospital ward at Camp Funston.

The time is ripe for any superbug to cover the world quickly. The verse in Revelation says a fourth of the earth will be killed by famine and beasts and pestilence. Assuming a billion are raptured away as Christians (I am being generous, I don’t think there will even be that many), that leaves 6 billion people, so that leaves one billion five hundred million dead from the variety given in the verse. By contrast, the number killed in one of history’s worst pandemics, the Spanish Influenza outbreak of 1918-19 killed 100 million in the largest estimate.

If the Spanish Influenza killed that many and so quickly prior tot he age of travel, what will a superbug do? Well, what the bible shows us.

Now, you may ask, why am I bringing this up? Why speculate on what hasn’t happened? Why camp on gloom and doom? Because it is a matter of scale.

People first of all don’t take judgment seriously. Look at Lot’s sons-in-law. When Lot said the angels in their home were there to render judgment on the city, the men thought Lot was joking. (Genesis 19:14). But just because the Lord is long-suffering does not mean He won’t punish sin- and sinners. (Numbers 14:18, 2 Peter 3:9). He will.

Secondly, the scale of the judgments shown to us in revelation are unknown to any in the history of the world. (Matthew 24:21). Heaps of dead, masses of dead, hospitals overrun, entire communities with dead in the streets. The blood running and running. The police simply unable to keep up, whole neighborhoods will burn, whole oceans become as blood.

it is good to dwell on the might of the Lord and the power of His wrath. it is good not to think ones self able to withstand the torments from heaven that will over take the whole world (Daniel 7:23) and would ave overcome all flesh if Jesus had not elected to shorten the days. (Matthew 24:22). Do not think that you will wait to make a decision about Jesus when you see the rapture happening. It will happen in the blink of an eye. (1 Corinthians 15:52). Death will then ensue on a scale no man or era has ever seen or written about. You will be as a mote on a violent tsunami wave, disappearing in an instant into the gaping maw of hell if you have not repented. Hell is enlarging its mouth even now.

“Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.” (Isaiah 5:14)

Do not cockily think you have “the stuff” to endure, even as you delay repentance and submitting to Jesus. Do not think that you will be able to handle it. Men will drop dead on the spot from fear and terror. (Luke 21:26). You will be no different.

The scale of what is coming and even as I see it on the horizon is something to fear and respect. God’s long-suffering hand has been stayed these long epochs. It will descend one day on an unsuspecting world, and the scale of the horrors will be unlike anything a person can even rationally comprehend.

The era of antibiotics is ending. The era of the Tribulation may be soon on the horizon. But the Age of Grace is NOW. Jesus has come in the flesh to live the sinless life as the spotless lamb, to die sacrificially and be resurrected by the power of God. He substituted Himself for our place for on the cross, so that any person who believes in Him will not have to endure the wrath that is to come!

That is the reason I focus on this, the prophetic, from time to time. It is the end of days and Jesus will return. His long-suffering, mercy, and patience is one of the miraculous characteristics He shows us daily. William S. Plumer wrote in 1865 in his wonderful essay on Providence,

“Truly, it is astonishing that such sinners as we are should be spared; but surely it is not astonishing that if spared at all, it should be under the government of such a God. “The Lord is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish.” God never punishes with delight. He does not will, or plan, or seek the ruin of his bitterest and most inveterate enemies. In the esteem of God the death of a sinner is a dreadful thing. “Many a time he turns his anger away” (Psalm 78:38) before he strikes a blow or crushes a sinful worm. The reason is, “God is love.” None else would bear so long—would so long avert deserved and terrible punishments from the heads of the rebellious. Truly, the prophet told us of the glorious nature of God, when he said, “The Lord does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.”

Come to Jesus now, under His grace. Repent, and live.

“Shall your repentance be unto life and salvation? Or shall it be but the fruitless relenting of a soul in an undone eternity? O accept the mercy offered to you now. Embrace the Savior, while he waits to be gracious.”
Posted in antichrist, jesus, mary worship, pope francis

Pope Francis to consecrate the world to Immaculate Heart of Mary

Posted on by elizabethprata

More Pope Francis news. This man’s rapid departure from age-old Catholic dogma is bringing the world closer to ecumenism in a faster fashion than any other man or philosophy I’ve ever seen. Amazingly bad news just keeps coming from the Vatican

Pope Francis will consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on October 13. The consecration will take place as part of a pilgrimage that will bring thousands of members of groups promoting Marian piety to the Vatican.

 The statue of Our Lady of Fatima is scheduled to travel to Rome on October 12. It will be only the 11th time since the statue was made in 1920 that it has been removed from the Portuguese Marian shrine.

 Pope Francis and the pilgrims will welcome the statue to St Peter’s Square during an evening prayer service on October 12. The statue will then be taken to the Rome Shrine of Divine Love, where the Diocese of Rome plans an all-night vigil.

 The statue and the pilgrims will return to St Peter’s Square on October 13 for the recitation of the rosary and Mass with Pope Francis. In a press statement, the directors of the Fatima shrine said Pope Francis will consecrate the world to Mary during the event. (source)
—————–

First, this is idolatry in every sense of the word. He is lifting up a man-made statue as an object of worship and as a ‘special sign.’ Secondly, this destroys any straight-face notion that the Catholics do not worship Mary (something they deny by parsing the word ‘venerate’, as in “We don’t worship her, we venerate her”.) The Mary here is of course the mother of Jesus who incubated the Savior in her womb, birthed the sinless Son, and raised him with Joseph until Jesus became of age.

But third, the hubris contained in Francis’s seemingly humble action betrays the man’s pride. Or perhaps his realism- the pope is the only absolute monarch in the world, accountable to no one for as long as he holds the office. Francis’ action is intended to ‘consecrate the world’. According to the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, Consecrate means

“To consecrate something is to formally set it apart for special use. Bread was consecrated in the Old Testament (Exodus 25:30; Lev. 25:5-9) as were people (Rom. 1:1; Gal.1:15).”

For the Pope to believe he has the power to set the WORLD apart for any use that he chooses is hubris on the order of the pride that satan himself has, believing he will exalt himself above God’s holy mountain. (Isaiah 14:4).

This is not the first time Pope Francis has been in the news. You remember he became Pope under extremely unusual circumstances. The previous Pope, Benedict, suddenly and abruptly resigned, the first pope to do so in 600 years. This opened the papal monarchy to another candidate. That man was Francis. The resignation event occurred in February of this year. The papacy of Francis began in mid-March of this year, 2013.

The second unusual thing about Francis is that though he has been pope only for 7 short months, he has upended and subverted the entrenched Catholic dogma up on its ear. He has made the news almost constantly since ascending his papacy by uttering liberal policies and teaching what has for thousands of years been anathema to Catholics. For example:

Pope Francis On Gays: Who Am I To Judge Them?

Pope Francis: Gays, Abortion Too Much Of Catholic Church’s Obsession

Pope Francis denies Jesus

Pope says there is no need to convert anyone

and of course Francis displays the usual Catholic Mary-idolatry
Pope Francis prays to Mary in Lampedusa

This is all extraordinary given that if nothing else, the Vatican has always adhered to their false religion and dogma fiercely. It is also unusual in that the Vatican never takes rapid steps or makes abrupt turns. Yet Francis has only been in office for 7 months and seemingly not a monthy gos by without reading of an amazing about-face from the Vatican.

The Vatican is the oldest “international legal personality” in the world, AKA the oldest formed and longest lasting government in the world, established in 480AD.

Take note of the rapidity of the changes Francis is bringing. And always remember that the Catholic religion is a false religion, therefore we are not surprised when the world acts like the world.

Pope Francis’s sudden appearance onto the world stage, his wide promotion as a faithful, humble man, and how clearly he speaks the world’s language is all extremely interesting as it is happening at this juncture in time.

I turn from pope-watching and look instead for my Savior. Is He due at the appointed hour soon to collect His bride? As the world falls further into ecumenism, faithlessness and Christ-less despair, does this mean the soon appearance of our beloved Groom? One hopes so. Even so,

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, (Philippians 3:20)

And we wait, patiently enduring, watching the extraordinary events on earth, knowing a better future awaits those who love him.

Posted in anna, jesus, john, moses

Ahijah was not too old, Jeremiah was not too young, John was not too remote, Amos was not too low…to be used by God

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’m reading 1st Kings. Still. LOL. I am up to chapter 14. In that chapter there is an old prophet called Ahijah. Jeroboam’s wife was told to disguise herself and go see him.

“Jeroboam’s wife did so. She arose and went to Shiloh and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age. And the Lord said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to inquire of you concerning her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus shall you say to her.”” (1 Kings 14:4-5)

As I read the bible I like to picture the scene. I am picturing Ahijah’s humble home, likely at dusk. If Jeroboam’s wife didn’t want to be seen, she would likely have gone when it was dusk or dark. So Ahijah’s house is dark, a few lanterns around. And he’s sitting there, in a rocking chair maybe, in the living room, enjoying the air and listening to the breeze or maybe the village around him.

Maybe he was thinking, ‘I am old and I cannot be used. I am old and used up’. Maybe he was thinking that because he was blind, the LORD would have no further use for him.

But it was not so.

“But when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another? For I am charged with unbearable news for you.” (1 Kings 14:6)

Despite his age, which the Holy Spirit deliberately included in the bible, despite his disability of blindness, which the Spirit deliberately included too, Ahijah was charged with a task. He had a personal charge from God to deliver the message. He did not flinch from it, despite it being unbearable. Really, is there worse news to give than the LORD has marked your son and your family for death? But Ahijah was charged with an important prophecy to deliver. It came true a few years later.

Despite Ahijah’s age and blindness, The LORD used him.

Anna was old also. Luke 2 records this

“And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” (Luke 2:36-38).

Let’s guess, given the era, that Anna married at age 15. She was married 7 years and then became a widow. So from age 22 to 84 she was a widow devoting herself to the LORD- in the temple. As the years droned on, and then the decades, I wonder what Anna thought. We do know that at least for over 60 years, she worshiped. And then, she saw Israel’s redemption! And she “spoke to all” who were waiting Israel’s redemption. From the mouth of a widow the Lord used her to speak to all of Him.

Apostle John lived a long and important life. He followed Jesus, he was witness to the resurrection, he pastored a church, he nurtured hundreds in Christ, wrote a Gospel, wrote the epistles of John, and then he was sent to the Island of Patmos.

A more forbidding place there cannot be. It is Mars-like in appearance, rocky and hot, barren and isolated. It’s only 13 square miles.The Romans used it and islands like it as a modern day rendition- it was a place where legally, political and religious detainees didn’t exist. John was exiled there for the word of Jesus (Revelation 1:9). He was by that time well over 90 years of age.

I wonder what John was thinking. He was very old, and all his old Apostle friends had been killed. His younger friends had been killed or scattered too. Maybe he was sitting on the beach, looking out, thinking, “This is it, the Lord will not use me any more. I am here on this island and remote from the world. There is no one even to preach to.”

The bible records, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”” (Revelation 1:9-10).

John was charged with writing the monumental book of Revelation. The climax, the conclusion of all that the LORD intends, the end of history and the hope of the coming of Christ, was given to John to see in vision and then to write.

Despite John’s remote location, the Lord used him.

Isn’t it funny, the Lord used Moses, a murderer. Despite the fact that Moses stuttered, or had some kind of articulation problem, he was used as God’s mouthpiece as the most famous prophet in all the bible.

“But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”” (Exodus 4:10-12)

Despite Moses’s character and stuttering, God used him.

Jeremiah’s age was no barrier to being used. Just as Ahijah or Anna was not too old, Jeremiah was not too young.

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” 7 But the Lord said to me,

“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,
and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
8 Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
declares the Lord.”” (Jeremiah 1:6-8)

Shepherd and fig-grower Amos was used by God, despite his lowly station in life. Shepherds were considered low, as noted here by MacArthur:

“Shepherds spent most of their time in the fields away from society and had no influence to speak of. In modern terms they were blue-collar workers largely unnoticed by those in power. Shepherds were in the lower classes of society.”

“So Amos answered Amaziah, ‘I was not a prophet or the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman, and I took care of sycamore figs.’ ” (Amos 7:14)

So we see that despite age, ability, character, location, or socio-economic status, the Lord Jesus can and will use you. You could be young and just starting out, like Jeremiah, or old and seemingly finished, like Anna or Ahijah- but Jesus can use you. Gender doesn’t matter either, He used Mary, Rahab, Anna, Miriam, Lydia, Huldah… His power will flow through you and enable you.

“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;” (1 Corinthians 1:27)

If you are weak but being used of God, you are operating from a position of the strongest in the universe. Any and all persons in Christ with the Spirit in them will be used of God for His purposes. Any time, any where, there is no retirement rocking chair mentality. He uses you every day and despite your protestations over your age, location, status, or disability- He uses you. If He chooses you for a certain task, He will enable you to finish it.

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.” (1 Corinthians 1:26)

The one thing these all had in common, was that they loved the Lord. Do you love Him? I hope you do. Jesus is the unique individual of the universe, distinct in holiness and perfection.

Posted in grace, jesus, mercy, watchman

Pray for mercy for each other

Posted on by elizabethprata

Mercy. A beautiful quality of God. Here is CARM.org’s definition of mercy and how it differs from grace:

Mercy
“Mercy is the act of not administering justice when that justice is punitive. Because of our sinfulness we deserve death and eternal separation from God (Rom. 6:23; Isaiah 59:2), but God provided an atonement for sin and through it shows us mercy. That is, He does not deliver to the Christian the natural consequence of his sin which is damnation. That is why Jesus became sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) and bore the punishment due to us (Isaiah 53:4-5). It was to deliver us from damnation. (Compare with justice and grace.)”

 “God saved us according to His mercy (Titus 3:5) and we can practice mercy as a gift (Rom. 12:8). “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).“

Mercy is not grace.

Grace
“Biblically, grace is unmerited favor. It is God’s free action for the benefit of his people. It is different than justice and mercy. Justice is getting what we deserve. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we do not deserve. In grace we get eternal life, something that, quite obviously, we do not deserve. But because of God’s love and kindness manifested in Jesus on the Cross, we receive the great blessing of redemption.”

Sometimes we think to ask for mercy from God. The tax collector was commended for his humble appeal for mercy to Holy God. 

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13)

Here is something to think of even further. There are many people who say they are watchmen. As a matter of fact, we are all called to “watch.” In Mark 13 between verses 33 and 37 Jesus said to “watch” four times! He said to watch for His coming, and to pray. Watch for the householder. Stay awake and watch. And He finished by saying “what I say unto you I say unto all.” So we all are supposed to be watchmen.

So we watch.

But there is more to do than simply watch. What else are Christian watchmen supposed to do? Well, pray, as stated above.

We also share the good news of salvation.

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they seethe return of the Lord to Zion.” (Isaiah 52:7-8).

But there is something else we can do besides watch, pray, warn, and share the Good News. It’s mercy. The prophets of old often warns, often shared the good news, but one of their jobs was to plea for mercy before God on behalf of the people.Do we pray to God for mercy for our people?

The tax collector was praised for acknowledging his own hopeless state, and pled for mercy to God who dispenses mercy.

After we remove the log from our eye and repent of our daily sins, (so we are not prayerful hypocrites) when we pray, plea for mercy for your church family too. We should pray and plead for mercy for our brethren.

Paul asked the Lord to grant mercy on the house of Onesiphorus–

“May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains,” (2 Timothy 1:16)

In his salutation,Paul often wrote that he asked the Lord to show mercy to his loved ones as in this example:

“May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.” (Jude 1:2)

I believe that when we pray for mercy for others by name or in groups, it is harder for us to be critical of them, and it makes it possible to love them even more. Because, He loves us and showed mercy…not dispensing our earned justice of His wrath but instead He mercifully reconciled us to Him through Jesus.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).

“for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,” (Isaiah 61:10b)

Pray for mercy for the people you love.

Posted in depravity, evil, jesus, sadism

Person of the year, Marquis de Sade

Posted on by elizabethprata

Haaretz posted an interesting opinion editorial the other night. In the spirit of the Jewish New Year and the traditional practice of taking stock, their piece is about how the global national sport seems to be enjoying the misfortunes of others to the point of sadism.

My person of the year: The Marquis de Sade

Portrait of the Marquis of Sade
by Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo
(c. 1761)

A happy new year, one of joy at the misfortunes of others
If we were to measure sadism right now around the world, we would discover that deriving satisfaction from brutal acts is one of the most popular hobbies of all. And not just in Syria.

Ironically, this coming year ‏(that is, 2014‏) will mark the 200th anniversary of the death of the Marquis de Sade, the man who gave his name to one of the most common sexual perversions, which is so common today that we no longer treat it as one. When Syrian President Bashar Assad recently attacked his countrymen with chemical weapons, all the journalistic wizards were hastily brought in to explain why. Ask the marquis. What is there to explain here, he would say; there’s nothing more enjoyable than feeling that you are soaring above the clouds of morality and conscience and no longer feel there is anything connecting you to the human race. Other people become objects, pawns in your hand. You’re like God.

 At the start of the international year of Sade, I would be pleased if some psychologist or psychiatrist were to invent a sadism-meter to examine the extent of this perversion in all kinds of patients − not necessarily those who clearly are sadists. And also in large collectives and countries, too. The results would be worrisome. We would discover that deriving satisfaction from brutal acts is one of the most popular hobbies of all. And that along with Assad, who is now the target of the whole world’s anger, there is a gallery of other high-ranking people who are just as power-hungry as he, but are sophisticated enough to conceal their perversion.

A Sadism-O-Meter. Interesting, It would be nearing fullness, by now, I should think. It reminds me of Bonnie Tyler’s song, Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Once upon a time I was falling in love
Now I’m only falling apart
There’s nothing I can do
A total eclipse of the heart
Once upon a time there was light in my life
But now there’s only love in the dark
Nothing I can say
A total eclipse of the heart

Scripturally, the Haaretz editorial author’s plaintive cry and desperate search for meaning as to why there is such evil in men reminds me of the scene in the bible in Genesis 6, right before the LORD determined to personally wipe everyone out. It is like He is peeling the layers off of the world’s heart and showing us the evil within. It is simple. People are realizing how naturally evil we are. Hitler was no anomaly. In fact, we are all Hitler.

“Hitler was not an anomaly. Hitler was not a phenomenon. Hitler was what everyone in this room has the potential of being. Not only that, you need to understand that even in all the wickedness of Hitler, he was still restrained by the common grace of God. And you need to know this, that if it were not for the common grace of God, restraining you in your unconverted state, you would make Hitler look like a choirboy.” Paul Washer

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:5-7)

Unfortunately, the author of the opinion piece, and indeed the world, has yet to learn how deeply the depravity of man will go, if left unchecked. That period will be called the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, or The Tribulation as it is known to us in the church.

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I started this blog in January 2009. It grew from a private newsletter I’d been sending to friends the two prior years before the blog, of thoughts and urgencies regarding the unfulfilled prophecies of the bible. In 2007, hardly anyone wanted to know about prophecy. All seemed well and prophecy was a low blip in a landscape of trends that had previously peaked in the late 1970s. Then the economy collapsed in September-October 2008, Obama got elected. Something about his demeanor caused many to get a knot in their stomach and wonder if the end of all things was in fact really at hand. The economy’s collapse also contributed to the feeling of imminent doom.

Since the inauguration in 2009, we have seen many interesting events occurring which bespeak a soon-prophetic fulfillment of historic proportions. After 100 years, Armenia reconciled with Turkey. Turkey left the West and became overtly Muslim. Egypt collapsed, abandoned its peace treaty with Israel, and became her enemy. The US fell from its position of world leader and sole superpower. China ascended. Russia revived. Mid-east Dictators in the prophetic lands fell, one after another. Syria imploded. One of earth’s largest earthquakes occurred and one of its most devastating tsunamis decimated a nation. Incredible oil and natural gas was discovered by Israel, making her extremely wealthy. She went from an economic importer to an exporter. Volcanoes, long thought extinct, awoke with power. Birds fell from the sky. The weather went haywire, first record heat then record cold then record heat again. Global warming, global cooling, their heads are spinning. Strange sky sounds spooked the world. Exorcisms are way up and demon sightings are common. A pope resigned for the first time in 600 years.

I could go on, but you get the idea. That’s just the last four years. It feels like the world is tilting chaotically. But imagine how much the world tilted when the Gospel went out (HT to Dan Phillips). Acts 17:6 says that the men who preached the Gospel turned the world upside down. Satan in all his efforts to upset the world is like a child batting the bath water. It is the power of the Gospel which upsets, divided, and unsettles!

photo credit: las – initially via photopin cc

For example, last week someone on a secular mommy forum asked if there was a meaning to the sideways cross necklace. They posted a link to my essay discussing the meaning of the sideways cross necklace. I noticed a high amount of traffic from that site so I went to check it out. Some had gone to my blog essay and come back to the forum raving at how”intolerant”, how “judgmental” and how sanctimonious” I am.  I entered the discussion on the forum and shared the Gospel and used bible verses during discussions. They went ballistic! If you poured hot water on a hornet’s nest you could not get any more stinging or buzzing!

This is because in today’s Marquis De Sade world, of flesh and indulgence, make any sort of declarative, unequivocal statement referring to moral standards, holiness, and God’s hatred of sin, and you get a stirred-up mess in return. I was amazed all over again at the power of the Word to upset and convict.

I imagined the men like Jason at Thessalonica who came to preach and how upset the Pharisees and Jews were, as Acts shows. My brief little foray was so small compared to the world-tilting Gospel power of Acts, but it serves to remind me that when you shine the Light in the dark places, the power is there to convict. Some retreat into entrenched sin and are forever literally convicted by the Judge, while others move forward into the light seeking Him to forgive it, but the Light is the key. Keep shining His light of forgiveness from sin and suspension from coming wrath!

In a world where reality tv shows more and more the sick voyeuristic sadism of others, in a world where the news is simply sick with the maniacal gleefulness of people inflicting pain unto others, our gentleness will stand out like a floodlight on a stormy night. Here are some good words from Titus 3:1-2,

“Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.”

As the world continues overtly and shockingly toward total indulgence of the depraved flesh, the one who is submissive, gentle and courteous will be the exception, and people will wonder what force, or what ability, we have to maintain it. It is the forgiveness of Jesus and His Holy Spirit in us! The verses in Titus continue,

“For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:3-7).

God is still sovereign and His ways are unknowable to us. He is in control, despite these unsettlingly rapid evil changes in hearts of men. However “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4).

And never forget, He is still saving souls. Though the world is dark, The Light has come into the world!

photo credit: thisisbossi via photopin cc

Posted in growth, jesus, sanctification

It’s the weekend and I’m filling my moat with water and alligators. And other thoughts on sanctification

Posted on by elizabethprata

One of the kindergarten teachers plays a welcome song every morning and on Fridays it is the Friday Song with the refrain of “It’s Friday! It’s Friday! We love it!” The kids dance. It’s really cute.

I do believe there is nothing like the feeling of driving home on Friday after a ___________ workweek. Insert your own descriptor.

1. a stressful work week
2. a fruitful work week
3. a productive work week
4. a tiring work week.
5. A dull work week.

This week I choose work week descriptor… #1 and #2!

When I get home on Fridays I put the car in the garage. It’s my signal of the boundaries between home and work being set. If I had a moat, at this time I’d be filling it with water and alligators.

I gather my things from the back seat of the car and go in. This is a momentous occasion. Crossing the threshold of my home

photo credit: Stewf via photopin cc

from the outside on a Friday night is a tremendous feeling of relief and release. As I step inside, there actually should be a mariachi band playing.

I close the door and lock it. The ‘tick’ the lock makes cements the feeling that I have now separated from the world.

I’m IN!!

I make sure to have cleaned up the apartment Thursday evening or Friday morning so that when I come in the place looks orderly and nothing stands out as needing attention or to be done. I close the windows, fire up the AC, and unpack. I change into comfy clothes, currently a stretched white Hanes tee shirt and very soft blue stretch pants. The world is now dead to me.

I fire up the laptop and pour a chilled green tea, warm up piece of pita bread to enjoy dipped in hummus.

Weekend has begun.

The above was what I posted tonight on my secular blog. But the work week also presented some opportunities to be a good witness for Christ- or not. In this one short work-week, we had a death, a funeral, training for a new task we’ll be performing, a job loss in our ever-shrinking staff numbers, and an influx of visitors to our Grandparents Breakfast. Phew.

When these things happen, they cause emotions to run at high gear, everyone has an opinion, it’s 90+ degrees out, and I haven’t even added to these the stresses people are feeling in their home lives.

Phew again.

A natural inclination for people, especially me, is to talk and talk and gossip and gossip and to have an opinion about what’s happening. I say this is ‘natural’ because events affect us and we have feelings about them. And again it is natural to talk and hash it all over because the flesh wants to do what is wrong and not what is right.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. (Galatians 5:19-21)

At a time when emotions are running high, it’s tempting to want to weigh in, especially if the topics are what everyone is talking about. But this is the exact time to stop and take to heart the warnings so often given:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:22-24)

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.
(Proverbs 18:21)

Was I a poor witness and stirred up strife and anger with my tongue? Was I a good witness and was calm and gentle and a help to people in building them up? I don’t know the answer to that fully. The Lord knows.

I know I failed in some areas this week. Did I do better this week than last week? Probably. Did I do better than I would have done last year? Definitely.

And that is sanctification. Day by day I feel the struggle, the ups and downs and victories in Christ and sins of the flesh. But the long term back-look is good. Sanctification may be slow, it may not be visible day by day, but it’s there. If you look back across your life over the year, years, decades, you should definitely see growth. CARM.org puts it this way:

photo credit: marrngtn (Manuel) via
photopin cc

“Sanctification is the process of being set apart for God’s work and being conformed to the image of Christ. This conforming to Christ involves the work of the person, but it is still God working in the believer to produce more of a godly character and life in the person who has already been justified (Phil. 2:13). Sanctification is not instantaneous because it is not the work of God alone. The justified person is actively involved in submitting to God’s will, resisting sin, seeking holiness, and working to be more godly (Gal. 5:22-23). Significantly, sanctification has no bearing on justification. That is, even if we don’t live a perfect life, we are still justified.

 Where justification is a legal declaration that is instantaneous, sanctification is a process. Where justification comes from outside of us, from God, sanctification comes from God within us by the work of the Holy Spirit in accordance with the Bible. In other words, we contribute to sanctification through our efforts. In contrast, we do not contribute to our justification through our efforts.”

It’s a process. As with any process, there are bumps and progress, hesitations, fallbacks, and strides.

“Sanctification isn’t easy—it takes faithfulness, hard work, and self-discipline. And even then, it’s not purely a function of your will, but the work of the Holy Spirit in you. It’s not manufactured overnight. I can tell you that faithful Bible study, prayer, and self-discipline play a vital role in your sanctification. As we’ve seen over the last several weeks, we can’t manufacture spiritual growth on our own, but we can certainly hinder it through unchecked sin and spiritual laziness.”

photo credit: Christaface via photopin cc

It is impossible to detect how much of our growth is God (likely MOST) and how much we of what we do contributes to it, but the point is, growth is a must for the Christian. Picture the pencil lines on a doorway of measuring a child’s height over his lifetime. They should be going up.

So I’m sitting here at the end of a workweek behind my moat with floating alligators, privately assessing my behavior during the week. How did I do? Well, my goal this week was to honor Christ in all I said and did, and to be a model to the younger employees. Of course I failed. Of course I repented. Of course He forgave me. Of course I try again. Of course it is He who enables me to grow. This is all normal. I’m glad I’m a normal Christian and not a radical Christian.

The only problem comes if, when looking back over weeks of years, I don’t see growth. If there is no growth and no fruit, then I am not being sanctified. That could mean two things. One is that it could mean I’m justified but lazy:

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:15-17)

Gill’s Exposition: I know thy works … Which were far from being perfect, and not so good as those of the former church: that thou art neither cold nor hot; she was not “cold”, or without spiritual life, at least in many of her members, as all men by nature are, and carnal professors be; she was alive, but not lively: nor was she wholly without spiritual affections and love; to God, and Christ, to his people, ways, truths, and ordinances; she had love, but the fervency of it was abated. … so uses this phrase [lukewarm] to show his detestation of lukewarmness, and that it is better to be ignorant, and not a professor of religion, than to be a vain and carnal one; Christ desires not simply that she might be cold, but that she might be sensible of her need of spiritual heat and fervency.“

Or a lack of growth could mean that I’m not justified at all.

“I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.” (Revelation 3:1b-2).

Gill’s exposition again: “but art dead”; for, the most part, or greater part of the members of these churches, are dead in trespasses and sins; and as for the rest, they are very dead and lifeless in their frames, in the exercise of grace, and in the discharge of duties; and under great spiritual declensions and decays

Did I exercise His grace this week? I think so. All in all it was a good week, despite my failings and despite my successes, because ultimately God brings glory to Himself no matter what I do. He grows me in His likeness, despite my own fleshly, stumbling self. And next week is another week to do it all over again.

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Further reading:

Counterfeit Sanctification

How do you measure up?

Posted in glory, jesus, transfiguration

His face became different

Posted on by elizabethprata

I was reading Luke 9:29 and I became entranced by the following part of the verse:

“And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.”

The appearance of his face was altered…other translations say He looked ‘different’.

EPrata photo

I got stuck on that. I wondered. What did His face look like? How was it altered? How different was it? The disciples knew it was still Jesus, of course. He didn’t change into looking like someone else. But what was it like to see the glory emanate from His face and body?

I looked up the Greek, and the word used for different is from the root heteros. Heteros is defined in Strong’s concordance,

“héteros – “another but distinct in kind” stands in contrast to /állos,”another of the same kind”. Héteros “another of a different quality”) emphasizes it is qualitatively different from its counterpart.”

John MacArthur describes it this way in his sermon A Glimpse of the King: as different as a butterfly is from a caterpillar.

“It was different, it was other than. In fact, Matthew explains it this way, He was transfigured, transfigured, and Matthew uses a Greek verb, metamorphoothe, a metamorphosis took place. You know what that means, don’t you? You think about metamorphosis, you think about what creature? A butterfly because there’s absolutely no way that you could assume, if you looked at what it was before it went into a cocoon, and what it was when it came out, you would not connect the two because the metamorphosis is so total, so dramatic. Jesus’ form, morphe, changed, His body changed. They had known Him only as a human being, His body had been a body like the body of any human being. When the shepherds came to the manger, they saw a baby that looked like any other baby. When Mary picked up her baby, that baby looked like any other baby she had seen. When Joseph looked into the face of that little boy running around the carpenter shop in Nazareth, He looked like any other little boy that Joseph had ever seen. He had the same human characteristics and features that any boy has.”

EPrata photo

“And as He grew into a youth at the age of twelve, He’s in the temple having questions and answers with the doctors, what they saw even though He said He had to be about His Father’s business and was coming into the full awareness of His Sonship, they could see only a boy, only a twelve-year-old boy. And that was the way it was when the disciples saw Him. When they heard Him teach, He spoke as a man. When they saw Him eat, they saw Him eat as a man. When they saw Him sleep, He slept as a man sleeps. He walked and talked and behaved as a man. His morphe, His form, His body was human, it was 100 percent human, it was what they were used to seeing. … “

EPrata photo

“But all of a sudden a metamorphosis takes place and Matthew says, “His face shone like the sun.” All of a sudden His face was as blazing as a noonday sun. Now that’s a change. And then it says, if you look down in verse 29, “His clothing became white and gleaming.” Became leukos, that’s dazzling and brilliant, and exastrapton, to flash like lightning. This is coming from the inside.” 

EPrata photo


“What is this telling us? This is God. This is the Shekinah of God. When God manifested Himself in the Old Testament, He manifested Himself as light, didn’t He? As light. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all, John writes. And light is synonymous with eternal life. God has manifested His Spirit life in light. Jesus had said, “I am the light of the world,” but it never had been seen before.”  

All my pictures of clouds and sunbeams and celestial lights cannot do even the imagination justice as to what the full glory of Jesus looks like, never mind the reality. All I can say is, when you want to be comforted by the soon to be fulfilled truth of His coming, just think on that scene. Peter, John, and James were given a glimpse of the King. His face was changed.

The Light that has come into the world is still here, in the form of the Holy Spirit indwelling each of us. But even that comfort is not the same as pondering the magnificent reality of His Light, fully shining, ablaze with glory. 

I can’t wait to see Him with glory Light unleashed!!!

Posted in death, eternity, hell, jesus

When it is your turn to die

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

In 2013, Aerobatic Wing Walker Jane Wicker and her pilot Charlie Schwenker were killed when the plane crashed at a Dayton, OH airshow.

The second before the plane crashed, the Dayton Ohio air show announcer said as wing walker Jane Wicker positioned herself on the upside down wing: “Jane Wicker, on top of the world!” One second later, she was dead.

I often speak of the soon return of Jesus. Today is one day closer to His return than yesterday was. Paul used to speak of Jesus’ soon return often. As a matter of fact, every New Testament book except Philemon speaks of Christ’s coming. You need to be ready.

However, we are not guaranteed a tomorrow. Yes, Jesus could come, but death could come also.

James 4:14 says “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

I often wondered what Ms Wicker was thinking as she sat on the upside down wing. Nothing indicated that one second later she would be dead. Did she think she had loads of time left to ponder the deep mysteries of faith and salvation? Had she put it off until tomorrow, but tomorrow never came?

I hope she was saved by grace of Jesus.

So many people are abruptly taken out of this world to meet their eternity. Yet so many people put off for tomorrow what they should be reconciling today. I remember during a sermon one of my elders had said that as a teen they were evangelizing in a grocery store. One of the team gave the gospel to a man who was exiting. He said he did not need Jesus. He walked out of the sliding door to the sidewalk and dfell down dead right then.

If you are not saved, then do not put off to tomorrow what should be done today. God has appointed you to a limited number of days in this lifetime. You do not know what that number is.

“Show me, LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.” (Psalm 39:4-5).

Taking care of business means coming to grips with a few things. First, this life is not all there is. We are given a limited number of days to dwell upon the earth, but this body and this life is only phase 1. After death, there is a phase 2. If you have repented of your sins and believed on the resurrected Jesus as Lord and Savior, you will go to heaven and be with Him. You will be given a glorified body that is impervious to death or sickness, has no sin nature, and can withstand the full blast of His glory and Holiness. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 50; Philippians 3:21).

If you rejected Jesus in this life- and you don’t have to actively reject Him but passively fail to accept him (doing nothing is the same as rejecting) then you will go to hell after you die. This is a place of eternal separation from God and you will be given a body that can withstand the full blasts of the punishment that will be inflicted on you as eternal payment for your sins and crimes against Him. (Revelation 14:11, 2 Thessalonians 1:5-9)

It is a lie that you will be annihilated, that there is nothing else after death. It is a lie that hell is only temporary. It is surely eternal, as your sins are eternal and as Jesus is eternal. (Matthew 25:46). That is why Christians can dwell with Him forever, (Matthew 28:20; John 14:3) because He is eternal and He paid the price for our sins eternally when He took God’s punishment on the cross. (Romans 3:23-24).

You say, “God is loving, He would never send people to hell for punishment.” Really? It pleased Him to crush His Son! (Isaiah 53:10). Jesus absorbed all of God’s punishment while He was on the cross. Is God loving who would do that? Yes, He was making a way for YOU, whom He also loves. Jesus did that voluntarily, because He loves His people. If you reject Jesus though, you reject the way to heaven. (John 14:6).

Eternity is real and it is permanent. You do not know what today will bring. Ms Wicker didn’t. I hope these few words from my heart makes you think of the afterlife. For the Christian, it is a joy to ponder the time we will be with Jesus. For the unsaved, there is dread and fear of the unknown. But you can know, your eternity could be secure- if you repent. (Mark 1:15).

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Further reading:

Repentance

What is repentance?

The resurrection body

Is hell eternal?