repent – Page 5

end time, prophecy, repent, the end is nigh, winepress

The winepress of His wrath

Posted on July 28, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Jesus often spoke in agricultural parables and allusions, knowing that the farmers, wine producers, wheat gatherers etc would understand. Not much has changed since the ancient days in terms of how wine is made, olives are gathered, wheat is sifted. Today’s layperson, even a city dweller, can understand the simple comparisons He made with gathering wheat as living symbol of gathering His people.

There is one comparison He made which is simple but it is the most dreadful. It is the winepress of His wrath.

In old days the Israelites’ wine production was a major industry. Ancient wine presses have been discovered all over the Middle East, and in and around modern day Israel. The grapes would be gathered, and placed in a rectangular pit entered from a cleaned mosaic floor. The floor of the press would be stone, also washed. The trite picture of people stomping on grapes is not so trite: the gentleness of the underside of the foot would crush the grapes enough to release the juice but not crush the bitter seeds, releasing tannins into the wine. The juice would be allowed to run down a slough, through a filter made of leaves and thorn ranches. Seeds and twigs removed, the second pressing would then involve a press of stone, like the one below. Notice the trough running around the rim of the stone, to catch the juice.

Recently a Giant 1,400-year-old wine press discovered in southern Israel. Its size and unusual shape indicated to archaeologists that it was used for a major export operation. The press, unearthed during an excavation by the Israel Antiquities Authority, is one of the largest ever discovered in Israel.

The LORD has said that He is long-suffering but His patience will come to an end. The world will not end, but most of life as we know it will end. Most will die. He will finally rectify the issue of sin and deliver His children from it. Deliverance will come! But it will be at a terrible price. Read these verses which describe an event that will literally come:

“The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia. (Revelation 14:19-20).”

1600 stadia is 180 miles. MILES of flowing blood. Will your blood be among the flow?

Isaiah asks the LORD where He has been that His garments should be bloodied. God answers:

“I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing. (Isaiah 63:3)

And again in Revelation 19:15

“From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.”

He does this because the armies of the world are aligned to mow down the Jews, because they are assembled to fight Him, because they are rebellious and sinful and deserve Divine Justice. He does this to deliver the believers who dwell in such a dark time. He does this to avenge the martyrs who died in the Woman’s drunken orgy of massacre and became drunk with their blood. “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Revelation 17:6a). He does this because of the saints beheaded for the witness and testimony of the LORD and had not taken the mark. (Revelation 20:4)

Truly, it seems His wrath is nearly complete, it seems as though the moment of His Day is upon us. It seems the winepress is filling with sin and will be put to its prophetic use very shortly. The Day of the Lord is a time period, not just a day. During the entire time of The Day of the LORD He is at the same time sending out increasingly severe judgments upon the unbelieving while showing His fierce wrath and power so that those who rebel will come to Him. Many do come to Him, but still more will not.

The blessed hope is that if you believe NOW, during the age of Grace, you will not have to endure the terrible woes of the Tribulation nor see nor be within the winepress of His wrath. You will be raptured, meet Him in the air, and be led to heaven itself, where a place is being prepared for all believers. He loves you and made a way to dwell with Him forever. If you know and understand you are a sinner then you know and understand those sins will always disqualify you for heaven’s citizenship with the Holy God and LORD of Justice unless you plea for forgiveness and repent.

It sounds trite, but really, repent, for the end is nigh.

DC quake, end time, prophecy, repent

Washington DC, God calling. It’s for you

Posted on July 16, 2010May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

If you have a friend who loves you dearly and frequently calls you, do you let them talk and stay silent the whole time? No, of course not, you reply. How rude it would be to ignore the caller!

Well, God is calling, and it’s for us. He spoke again in sending an earthquake to Washington DC this morning. It was the largest-ever recorded quake in that location, and in my mind, it is no coincidence that it occurred there, and at this time.

The US has been pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to give away land in Jerusalem and to allow a two-state solution, which involves dividing God’s city. God said not to do this, not to give away any part of the Beautiful Land, and He will judge those who do it. (Joel 3:2)

So it’s not enough to say, ‘well, there was an earthquake and that is God speaking.’ How does one reply? HOW do we repent?

Let’s say that there is someone in Washington DC who is listening to God, reading this, or other Christian pieces that call for immediate repentance. Perhaps that person wants to embark a proper course of action, respond appropriately. What should they do?

For that answer we turn to the bible. Jonah preached to the people in the city of Nineveh, saying that God had had enough and within 40 days the city would be overthrown. Now hang on, you might say, that was in the days when Prophets received Word directly from God, we don’t have that advantage now. Oh, yes we do. Jesus is the last prophet and He speaks to us in His book, the bible, and He speaks by the strength of the Holy Spirit through obedient Christians responding to who understand the Word and repeat His messages.

The first thing was that the people of Nineveh took immediate and demonstrable action. “Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.” (Jonah 3:5). First they believed, then they fasted, which means denying yourself something that is necessary for you to live, because “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” (Matthew 4:4) and third, they put on sackcloth.

If you want to make a response today to the DC quake, sackcloth is admittedly hard to find though a burlap sack will do. What it actually means is to humble yourself in dress. That’s what today’s version of putting on sackcloth is. Dress without regard to personal adornment, or in ways that draw attention to yourself, but dress in ways that draw attention away from yourself and are an expression of faith in God and not faith in worldly things.

Next, the king took action. “When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.” (Jonah 3:6) He also humbled himself. He laid aside the things which marked him as exalted, and went low in humility before a mighty God. Power-brokers, today’s version in making a response in this conversation with God would be to leave aside the power tie. Forgo the Armani suit. Put down the Rolex watch, the makeup, and the heels. Humble yourselves in dress, and lay aside the kingly things that make you think it’s an equally shared conversation.

“When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.” (Jonah 3:10)

Next, acknowledge that God is God, and do it publicly. The King of Nineveh didn’t go to an interior room and privately disrobe and humble himself. He did it publicly. Mark 10:33 says “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.”

Most important is prayer. Acts 8:22 says “Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart.” And we are given direction in Leviticus 26:40 also: “‘But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers—their treachery against me and their hostility toward me,which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.” Pray publicly, too. Gather in groups, and pray sincerely and humbly. After the earthquake that devastated Haiti, the Haitians repented publicly and they prayed.

Be broken about your sins, and the sins of the US, and the sins of the world! Be broken-hearted about such rebellion against God. Do not think for a moment that US pressure on Israel to concede land and criticism for building condos inside her own borders, pressure for her to minimize her defenses does not reach the eye of God! He said in Zechariah 2:8, “For this is what the LORD Almighty says: “After he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have plundered you–for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye” and we know that the apple of the eye is the pupil. If you touch the pupil of a person’s eye, they are going to take action! It’s a personal and hurtful jab.

When the Barbadans endured a series of demonic attacks in their village, they prayed. They understood that in allowing themselves to become lax in their relationship with God, it had allowed demons to step in. “[R]esidents and members of the church walking through the small district singing and praying for almost three hours. … We pray and ask God for deliverance. God sends warnings and then the destruction. This is a wake-up call” said a pastor in the attacked village. So they confessed, they repented, and they prayed.

When God speaks, take immediate and demonstrable action. These actions should first include repentance for sins, humility in dress, denial of self through fasting, prayers offered in sincerity, and appeals to God. THAT’S how to respond to the DC quake.

“Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6) It is the only proper response.

end time, holy, prophecy, repent

Holy is a word you don’t hear much these days

Posted on June 11, 2010 by elizabethprata

And that’s a shame, because it is the central point of all of the story of Redemption. God is Holy. That means He is perfect, sinless, well, Holy.

And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 6:3)

Humans are not holy. We were originally created sinless, perfect, but through free will, Adam and Eve in the garden decided to follow Lucifer’s suggestion to eat the forbidden fruit, and in doing so, directly disobeyed a command from God. That is what sin IS, disobeying God. I tell my children in the Good News Club, an after school bible club, that “sin is “anything we think, say, or do that displeases God.” Since we have thoughts, words and actions that displease God all the time, and couldn’t stop if we tried, it means we are sinners with a sin nature. Paul refers to our sinful nature in Galatians:

The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:8)

Even if you do not believe in Adam and Eve and the garden and the forbidden fruit, you know deep down, that you are a craven person who does wrong things. Even if you ever said one lie to spare a person’s feelings (“Yes, that dress looks great on you!”) you are disqualified from being with God in heaven. Why? His Holiness is eternal. So is that lie. Sin is eternal, too. It doesn’t go away after you say it or do it or think it. It remains. And your sin and His holiness shall never meet.

Why would a liar think he is qualified for heaven? A cheater? As self-admitted liars and cheats and adulterers, and gossips and lusty people, why do we think we are “a basically a good person” and therefore qualified to dwell forever with a Holy God? We aren’t.

However, God so desires a relationship with us, that He made a way. He sent Jesus to us. I used to think that Jesus first came to us at Bethlehem on Christmas. But that is not so. He has been with God since the beginning. Genesis 1:1-26 shows that the Father God, Jesus and the Spirit were all involved in the Creation. And just in case there is confusion on this point, John 1:1-3 says

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

At one point known only to God, God said

“I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.(Psalm 2:7)

And God’s Plan to send a Holy One to redeem us was enacted, as reiterated by Paul in Acts 13:33:

that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘YOU ARE MY SON TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’

So if we’ve all been sinners since Adam and Eve and He is Holy and cannot dwell with us, that’s it, then, isn’t it? Not quite! We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19) He loves us SO MUCH! He sent Jesus to us to minister and preach and heal, so that our only, ONLY call to the road to heaven is “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (John 6:29b)

It is very simple. Believe. All other verses are spokes stemming that central truth: for example, believing in “the One” means believing in the Messiah. Why was He sent? To seek and save the lost. Why are we lost? We sin. Why is He Messiah? Because He is the ONLY one who is qualified to forgive our sins, being sinless. Why would we confess? Because He came to seek and save us from our sins, therefore it makes sense that we would acknowledge those sins through our stated belief in Him.

Many people believe in God. Believing in Jesus is a huge leap because the gulf between (Jesus and us) and (God and us) is sin. If you believe in Jesus you believe you are a sinner, like the thief on the cross did, because a person is finally recognizing his OWN sin in the face of the obviously Sinless one. Many people believe in God without believing they themselves are sinners and they leave Jesus out of the equation completely.

Because God is HOLY, and we sin, man must “reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. (Jeremiah 26:13)”

Believe, and turn from your sin. Repent and be dwelling in perfect love for all eternity! Love, love, love, we love because HE FIRST LOVED US! He is wonderful and a holy God like no other. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple,” that is how holy He is. Yet for all His holiness, “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16) He is waiting there for you with open arms.