God used pagan leaders for His purposes. Some were good for God’s people and some were bad. Xerxes, Darius, Cyrus vs Antiochus, Herod, Pharaoh …
I don’t know what the next few days will bring. It might be that God uses the Presidential Administration in ways that seem good to us, or he might use evil rulers that seem bad to us. I say ‘seem’ because even in difficult times God ordains evil for His and our good. (Genesis 50:20). So, there’s earthly good and heavenly good and they are not the same, since God’s ways are infinite and above us incomprehensibly. (Isaiah 55:8).
So I do not know what my immediate future holds, but I know my future everlasting future: it is with Jesus in peace and holiness. Perfect justice reigns, perfect love, perfect relationships. There will be no swamp, no corruption, no evil. Satan and his demons will be writhing in the Lake of Fire under eternal punishment, never to harm or influence anyone anymore.
My friend Ekkie Tepsupornchai on social media said:
“Christians understand they live in a fallen world. Part of God’s judgment involves handing sinners over to greater sins (Rom 1:24-32). However, when we see instances of justice, we should give thanks to God as that demonstrates His common grace even over the same fallen society.”
Children are a heritage from the Lord. (Psalm 127:3).
I don’t have children myself but my primary employment in life has been as an elementary educator, working with kids. I love kids. They are genuine, hilarious, adorable, and challenging. They are also truthful, as anyone knows who has been on the receiving end of their blunt but innocent honesty.
I’m not married anymore, my marriage ended prior to salvation. I don’t have a lot to say about married life and kids and domestic life, unless it’s living on a fixed small income as a single older woman, lol. So I don’t really ever post a lot of “Christian Living” type posts. My writing is usually theological, which suits my autistic mind. But here are a few items I came across close together, so I collected them. They are resources about and for children.
Our school closed for the Christmas Break on December 18. We were supposed to return on January 5, but we are educating the children virtually through screens last week and this week. It’s been 4 weeks since I saw them in real life. We are required to come to the school building but not gather and to wear our masks. I labor in my classroom, alone, attending the many virtual classroom lessons during the day that my teacher leads. In between I clean, organize, and do my paperwork. It’s an in-between time, waiting for the go ahead to bring the children back, but making sure we are productive until then.
I look up from my papers and see empty desks, empty tables, empty hallways. It’s quiet. The day passes slowly. I mark the time, minute by minute. I’m waiting. It’s limbo. It doesn’t feel real.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. (Proverbs 18:21).
Civic life second-
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”. (Constitution of United States of America, First Amendment, 1789).
How many promises of God are in the Bible? Some say 7,487. Others say 8,000. Still others say there are too many to count. In any case, whenever God makes a promise, it is sure to be fulfilled.
EPrata photo
“Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel in accordance with everything that He promised; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant.” (1 Kings 8:56).
You just need to trust this. Trust in God, who does not fail.
Acts 6:10-14, the pivotal moment after Stephen delivered his sermon, says:
“they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the Council. They put forward false witnesses who said, “This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the Law; for we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.”
The bottom line was, they didn’t like the words he was speaking. The wisdom in Stephen’s words cut them to the core and they could not cope. Stephen challenged their stranglehold on the community, their status quo, their popularity, and their worldview. So they set about doing something about it. What did they do and how did they do it?
Man 1: How are ya? Man 2: I’m alive. Better’n the alternative! Both: HAR HAR HAR
If you are a Christian, you know that is not true. The alternative which is, death to eternal life, is a wonderful alternative. As Paul said, “we prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:7-9). Paul also said,
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sakes.” (Philippians 1:21-23).
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
We are in the last days. We have been since Jesus ascended. The last days will end when Jesus returns. The last days have lasted so far over 2000 years. They may go another 2000 years, or they may end tomorrow with the rapture of the church and the last 7 years of fulfilling the decree. (Daniel 9:24).
The verse in 2 Timothy next speaks of “difficult times.” It’s always helpful to go the Greek and read the original language the New Testament was penned in. The word for ‘times’ is kairos. It doesn’t mean chronological time, that word is chronos. It means a suitable time, or an opportunity. When Satan finished tempting Jesus, he left Him until a more opportune time, (Luke 4:13). The word there is the same, kairos. GotQuestions explains more:
It’s human to look back nostalgically and sepia-tinge away the bad memories, focusing on only the good ones. ‘Ah, the good old days’ we say. ‘Back when I was a kid’ we begin our stories.
And it’s like that when we read Acts. ‘Ah, that first century church. Those were the good old days of church. We should be like them. I wish our church was like them.’
And it’s true. There was a vibrancy and a wonder to that first century church that seems to be absent from many churches today. There was radical giving, fervent fellowship, tremendous sermons, and powerful signs and wonders. Who wouldn’t want that?
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6).
Barnes’ Notes on the Bible: Blessed are they which do hunger … – Hunger and thirst, here, are expressive of strong desire. Nothing would better express the strong desire which we ought to feel to obtain righteousness than hunger and thirst. No needs are so keen, none so imperiously demand supply, as these. They occur daily, and when long continued, as in case of those shipwrecked, and doomed to wander months or years over burning sands, with scarcely any drink or food, nothing is more distressing. An ardent desire for anything is often represented in the Scriptures by hunger and thirst, Psalm 42:1-2; Psalm 63:1-2. A desire for the blessings of pardon and peace; a deep sense of sin, and want, and wretchedness, is also represented by thirsting, Isaiah 55:1-2.
Interesting, isn’t it? When I’m hungry, all I can think about is getting food. When I’m thirsty, I’m not satisfied until I drink. Jesus wants us to be the same way about righteousness. Hunger for it. Thirst for it. Seek filling it. Don’t do anything else until it’s satisfied.
The way John MacArthur described the current state of chaos in “A World Gone Mad” explains a lot of the unsettled feeling I’m having these days. I recommend the article. Here is the excerpt-
On top of the endless chaos surrounding us, our society is drowning in a sea of lies, such that the culture is permeated by a sense of devastating insecurity. We no longer have confidence in politicians, health experts, social activists, academics, or the media—all of them have lost credibility by pursuing agendas over honesty. Even religious leaders have shown a knack for doublespeak and outright deception when it suits their purposes. We have been lied to so routinely that we treat every claim as dubious. Living in that constant state of doubt and suspicion is both exhausting and exasperating.
There are two points. The deplorable state of affairs in America right now is doing a good job of spotlighting sin. The corruption in systems, in people, in society, in organizations is oozing out in more quantity than the Great Molasses Flood of 1919, and a lot of people are getting swept away in its sickening draw.
Sin is ugly, isn’t it? We sinners tend to forget that, having it in us and all around us all the time. We dwell in it, and so, make peace with it, pet it, weakly slay it, only to allow it to return, grinning. But sin is the ugliest thing in the universe. The current scene in America with obvious moral and ethical corruption in academia, politics, law, government, science, and so on shows us that. This is good.
It should make us hunger and thirst for righteousness all the more, shouldn’t it? Seeing sin exposed in its putrid corruption should make us hasten to the cross in agony, pleading for forgiveness for even the most ‘minor’ sins of our own that we’ve committed. If there is anything we can call ‘good’ about the sin-saturated United States, it’s that. When we hold a puppy’s head over his waywardly dropped feces and say “Look at it, just look at it! Bad dog!” God is doing likewise with His children.
Secondly, the last part of the verse: “they shall be filled.” For those that hunger, the promise is not perhaps they will be filled, or maybe they’ll be filled, or later they will be filled. They SHALL be filled. Barnes’ Notes again:
They shall be filled – They shall be satisfied as a hungry man is when supplied with food, or a thirsty man when supplied with drink. Those who are perishing for want of righteousness; those who feel that they are lost sinners and strongly desire to be holy, shall be thus satisfied. Never was there a desire to be holy which God was not willing to gratify, and the gospel of Christ has made provision to satisfy all who truly desire to be holy. See Isaiah 55:1-3; Isaiah 65:13; John 4:14; John 6:35; John 7:37-38; Psalm 17:15.
The desire to be holy should be in each one of us, if we are saved by His grace. The pursuit of that holiness should be a fervent goal daily. Imagine what a life filled with hunger & thirst for righteousness is like contrasted to the darkness all around!
One who pursues righteousness and loyalty Finds life, righteousness, and honor. (Proverbs 21:21).
the-end-time.org 