Posted in atheist, blasphemy, discernment, flying spaghetti monster, jesus

Atheists, unbelievers, the foolish: Of pastafarianism, spaghetti monsters, and wearing a colander on one’s head

Posted on by elizabethprata

I was once all of the above. Though I never went so far as to declare my godlessness to the world by wearing a colander on my head as a spaghetti monster statement, I very likely did just as many foolish things that blasphemed my God that were just as evidently foolish to the believers around me as wearing a strainer on my head.

Asia Lemmon, whose legal name appears on her driver’s license as Jessica Steinhauser, is shown wearing a metal colander on her head on her Utah driver’s license in this undated photo. Lemmon says the pasta strainer represents her beliefs in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and says state employees took the photo after she presented them with documents on religious freedom. (AP Photo/Utah Department of Motor Vehicles via The Spectrum). Source

Woman wears colander for driver’s license photo

The Flying Spaghetti Monster movement, also known as “Pastafarianism,” started in 2005 as a protest against teaching intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in Kansas schools. … Hats and headgear are not allowed for driver’s license photos unless they’re religious garments, Rolfe said. After the first few Pastafarians came in about two years ago, state officials determined the church is a recognized religion and its members don’t require any special paperwork, she said.

Wikipedia’s write-up of the Flying Spaghetti Monster movement/religion/parody.

On the one hand, it is difficult to live in a time where God is maligned on every side and at every turn. It hurts to see and hear our precious Savior mocked so badly. It just hurts.

To the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. (Psalm 14:1)

On the other hand, it is wonderful to see people turn from their blaspheming ways, repent and be saved. We know those who are not saved are in darkness, and they are in despair. They would deny it, but they are. Being in Jesus is refreshing to the soul-

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, (Acts 3:19)

I often cry out to the Lord to come and get His Bride. It is hard to be around so much sin, and worse still, to sin myself. But then again, I am sure people were crying out to the Lord in 2003 for Him to return and I’m glad He didn’t then because I wasn’t saved until the end of that year. There are many we are praying for who aren’t saved yet.

At some point though, He WILL return and leave behind many unsaved people, some of whom may be wearing a colander on their heads. Meanwhile, two things. First, let’s be patient with them. They can’t help wearing a colander on their head. They think they are doing something good and wise and funny.

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? (1 Corinthians 5:12)

And second, witness with urgency. Jonah preached,

But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. (Jonah 3:8)

Yes, let everyone urgently call on God.

Posted in israel, jerusalem, prophecy, synagogue

Israel in prophecy: Peace talks, Jerusalem divided? ISIS blows up pipeline, Synagogue attack

Posted on by elizabethprata

Israel and especially Jerusalem has been in the news a lot lately. Israel is the ground zero for prophecy. As Joel Rosenberg wrote in his non-fiction book Epicenter, that part of the world is prophetically known as the epicenter because “the eyes of the nations are riveted upon Israel and the Middle East, the epicenter of the momentous events shaking our world and shaping our future.”

For thus says the Lord of host, After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you– that is Israel–touches the apple of His eye. (Zechariah 2:8)

He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. (Deuteronomy 32:10)

Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings, (Psalm 17:8)

“Israel is very precious to God; and they who vex and harass him are as they who hurt that which God prizes inestimably, and which a mere touch offends and injures.” (Pulpit Commentary)

And yet we know that in the end of time no one on earth will be Israel’s friend. Zechariah 12:3 says that at the time of the very end, all nations will be gathered against her. This is to show that God alone is Israel’s protector. All who try to move Jerusalem, the immovable rock, will injure themselves, the prophecy states.

By these verses and others we can see and know that the hatred against Israel and the Jews is irrational. This is because it is from satan. This rage and hatred of Israel will only become worse as time goes on and God executes His final plans for human history.

Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
2The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
3“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”
(Psalm 2:1-3)

For the last few weeks tensions and violence in Jerusalem has inched up to the nearly unbearable zone. Fox News has a timeline. Here is an excerpt

Nov. 5: A Hamas militant slams a minivan into crowd waiting for a train in Jerusalem, killing two.

Nov. 8: Israeli police shoot and kill an Arab Israeli protester at a demonstration in northern Israel. Video indicates the man was walking away from the officer when shot.

Nov. 10: Palestinian attackers kill two Israelis in Tel Aviv and the West Bank in separate stabbing attacks.

Nov. 13: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Amman; the trio agrees on steps to defuse tensions at Jerusalem holy site.

Nov. 14: Israel lifts age restriction at holy site; Friday prayers go off without incident.

Nov. 16: Police say Israeli man stabbed in the back by an “Arab” attacker in Jerusalem and wounded. Assailant escapes.

Nov. 17: Israeli government says it will step up punitive demolitions, gives notices to families of Palestinian attackers

Nov. 18: Two Palestinians storm Jerusalem synagogue, kill four five and wound six.

November 7:
Call to Mobilize Reservists to Secure Jerusalem

Avi Naim, head of the Beit Aryeh council in western Samaria, called to mobilize reserve forces to stabilize the security situation in Jerusalem on Friday, in a special interview with Arutz Sheva. “The situation is explosive and sensitive,” Naim stated. “There is the guiding hand of [Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud] Abbas there, who wants to burn the city [down], and the fact that there are no incidents in Judea-Samaria.” “[Jerusalem] needs reinforcements, and we should call up the reserves, so the [IDF] is seen everywhere and so that we take a firm hand [against terrorists],” he added.

Remember, the end of November was supposed to be a drop-dead date for finalization of peace talks, long-stalled but supposedly resumed in October. The goal in early November was this:

The Palestinians are expected to submit a resolution to the UN Security Council by the end of November or early December that calls for an end to the occupation and the recognition of a Palestinian state along 1967 lines.

Joel 3:2 prophesies judgment upon the nations for the way they treated Israel, which the verses above show God considers His own, near to Him as the apple of His eye. Dividing His land is something He will render wrath for, and dividing Jerusalem is an even worse idea. Yet Luke 21:24 shows us that the Gentiles trample Jerusalem anyway.

They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Revelation 11:2 says it will be for 42 months.

but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.

November 8
EU urges two-state capital in Jerusalem as tensions soar
Europe’s top diplomat on Saturday called for a Palestinian state sharing Jerusalem as its capital with Israel, hours after the police killing of an Arab-Israeli further fanned tensions. … “I think Jerusalem can be and should be the capital of two states,” the new EU foreign policy chief told reporters in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. The status of Jerusalem is a sensitive issue that has blocked peace efforts for decades.

November 13
Martin Sherman wrote an opinion piece on the Jerusalem Post asking a terrible question,

Into the Fray: On the cusp of carnage?
A perfect storm brewing

A perfect storm is brewing for Israel. On virtually every front, ominous clouds are gathering, and should the menacing maelstroms they portend hit together, it is far from certain that the Jewish state will survive the destructiveness of their combined impact. Since I began writing this Into the Fray series in mid- 2011, I have warned repeatedly of the perils of the government’s policy of counterproductive compromises and concessions. I cautioned that this “cavalcade of capitulation” will elicit nothing from our adversaries other than demands for more – and more far-reaching – concessions, as indeed it has. In my column of December 2, 2011, I wrote: “By adopting a policy of continually trying to avoid confrontations in which it can prevail, Israel may eventually find itself forced to engage in a confrontation in which it cannot.”

Precisely such a perilous predicament is now beginning to develop before our eyes.

Across every border Israel shares with its Arab neighbors, within its own borders, and far removed from them, a formidable range of threats – from damaging economic sanctions and international isolation, through murderous terrorist attacks, jihadi insurgency and domestic insurrection, to the specter of weapons of mass destruction and a nuclear Iran – is coalescing with disturbing speed into a multi-faceted menace that jeopardizes the survival of the Jewish nation-state to a degree arguably unprecedented since its inception.

There is one yet-to-be fulfilled prophetic confrontation that Israel engages in which they cannot and do not win: The Gog-Magog battle of Ezekiel 38-39. In that confrontation, Israel is taken by surprise, and would lose, unless the LORD had directly intervened.

November 15
ISIS Blows Up Egypt-Jordan Gas Pipeline
The pipeline through Sinai exports Egypt’s natural gas to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Jordan is in the anti-ISIS coalition.

The Islamic State’s Sinai Peninsula terror organization, which was named Ansar Bayt al-Makdas until it swore allegiance to Islamic State (aka ISIS), has blown up the pipeline carrying gas from Egypt to Jordan. The pipeline, which is 1,200 km long, and was built at a cost of $1.2 billion, is used for exporting natural gas to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. In the past, it was repeatedly attacked by Islamist terror groups, until Egypt’s gas exports to Israel were halted. The Islamic State’s Sinai Peninsula notified the press that it would not allow gas to be exported to Jordan unless ISIS head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi allowed it. It said that the attack was a response to Jordan’s participation in the military coalition against ISIS.

Speaking of being on the cusp of carnage, though in his opinion piece Mr Sherman was speaking of general war between nations, there was carnage today, sadly and mournfully.

Four Five killed in attack on Jerusalem synagogue

Four Israelis were killed and eight more wounded in a frenzied assault by two Palestinian men on Jewish worshippers praying at a Jerusalem synagogue in the most lethal incident in the city in years. The two assailants who launched their attack with meat cleavers and a gun during early morning prayers were then killed by police officers in the ensuing gun battle at the scene of the attack. The deaths occurred as the two men – identified by family members as cousins Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal from the East Jerusalem district of Jabal Mukaber – burst into the Bnei Torah synagogue in Har Nof, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of West Jerusalem.

Israel vows harsh response to synagogue attack

Israel vowed harsh retaliation Tuesday for a Palestinian attack that left four rabbis hacked or shot to death on the blood-smeared floor of a synagogue in Jerusalem, a major escalation of already-high tensions after weeks of religious violence. The attack during morning prayers in the west Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof was carried out by two Palestinian cousins wielding meat cleavers, knives and a handgun. They were shot to death by police after the deadliest assault in the holy city since 2008. Three of the dead were born in the United States and the fourth was born in England, although all held dual Israeli citizenship. Six others were wounded, including two police officers.

Tuesday’s attack, however, appeared to mark a turning point, with the gruesome scene in a house of worship shocking a nation long accustomed to violence. The government released a photo of a bloody meat cleaver it said came from the crime scene. Government video showed blood-soaked prayer books and prayer shawls on the floor of the synagogue. A pair of glasses lay under a table dripping in blood, and thick streaks of blood lined the floor.

Source

Tears.

How Long, O Lord?
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
13 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
(Psalm 13:1-6)

Posted in arminianism, calvinism, doctrines of grace, limited atonement, tulip

Doctrines of Grace: Explaining Limited Atonement

Posted on by elizabethprata

I was listening to RC Sproul on RefNet this weekend. He was preaching John 17, the High Priestly prayer where Jesus asks to be glorified.

I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. (John 17:6)

Pastor Sproul went backwards for a moment to relate another verse in John, No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

free photos

Sproul briefly explained that their church (St. Andrews Chapel) was Reformed, noting the citation on the back of their church bulletin. He said that for those who were visiting or who had not gone to the new members class yet, he outlined the Reformation in a few sentences and quickly stated the five doctrines of grace that the Reformers (beginning with Martin Luther) had stood upon. It is widely known as an acrostic that spells the name of a familiar flower T – U – L – I – P.

T — total depravity. This doesn’t mean people are as bad as they can be. It means that sin is in every part of one’s being, including the mind and will, so that a man cannot save himself.

U — unconditional election. God chooses to save people unconditionally; that is, they are not chosen on the basis of their own merit.

L — limited atonement. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross was for the purpose of saving the elect.

I — irresistible grace. When God has chosen to save someone, He will.

P — perseverance of the saints. Those people God chooses cannot lose their salvation; they will continue to believe. If they fall away, it will be only for a time. (source)

A fuller explanation of unconditional election from the same source is as follows:

The second point inescapably follows from the first: since one is born totally depraved and enslaved to sin, one’s ELECTION cannot be dependent or CONTINGENT on any spiritually worthy actions one commits. According to this point, God predestines or chooses to soften the hard, sin-enslaved hearts of certain fallen individuals and liberate them from their death not because of any merit they have but despite their demerits–i.e., He ELECTS to change their hearts (and thereby join them to Christ and His saving work) DESPITE the fact that they hate God and oppose Him and have hard hearts, not soft hearts, and have sin-enslaved wills, not free wills. Thus, believers have no reason to boast about themselves or their own actions: the only thing that differentiates them from Judas, Esau, or others who never respond in faith is that God gave them grace that He withheld from such reprobates (Calvinists cite, e.g., Ezek. 11:19-20; 36:26-27; Rom. 9:11-18; 1 Cor. 4:7; Eph. 2:8-10; cf. Jn. 1:13; 15:16; Acts 13:48; 16:14; 18:27; Phil. 2:13).

In a Q&A on RefNet after the sermon, Pastor Sproul was asked if it was “fair” that God chooses to elect some to salvation and not all.

What is “fair” is that we all deserve hell for our sins against God. Fair (justice) would be that all sinners would go to hell.

Alternately, taking the “fairness” issue to the extreme other end of the spectrum, what if God chose to elect all human beings to heaven, and none to hell? Is it fair that all humans who sinned receive a pardon? Where is the display of His justice? His wrath? His hatred of sin?

The middle road is that He elects some to heaven and some He leaves in their state of sin. Sproul posed the following question back, and I’ll paraphrase:

If God decided to save all people, pardoning all sins for all people for all time, and leaving the person himself to decide whether to ‘accept Jesus’ or not, would that include the sin of unbelief? Yes, it would. So if the sin of unbelief has been paid for by Jesus, and a person dies without having believed, is it fair to punish them in hell for their sin that Jesus paid for?

Robin Schumacher wrote an essay titled, “Unlimited or Limited Atonement?” Schumacher said, “John Owen wrote what is perhaps the most definitive work on Christ’s atonement in “The Death of Death in the Death of Christ”,

“God imposed his wrath due unto, and Christ underwent the pains of hell for, either all the sins of all men, or all the sins of some men, or some sins of all men. If the last, some sins of all men, then have all men some sins to answer for, and so shall no man be saved.

… If the second, that is it which we affirm, that Christ in their stead and room suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the world. If the first, why then are not all freed from the punishment of all their sins? You will say, ‘Because of their unbelief; they will not believe.’ But this unbelief, is it a sin, or not? If not, why should they be punished for it?

If it be, then Christ underwent the punishment due to it, or not. If so, then why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which he died from partaking of the fruit of his death? If he did not, then did he not die for all their sins. Let them choose which part they will.” (page 61).

So once again, if God leaves salvation up to the individual’s choice, and they do not choose Jesus, then Jesus paid for their sins for naught, and they are paid for twice. Yet…nothing God does is imprecise. Not a drop of blood that Jesus spilled is wasted. Not a moment of punishment in hell for the unbeliever is unwarranted. God is precise, fair, and just.

Not only is God fair, because God does it, it is fair. He is the very definition of fairness, the epitome of justice.

Schumacher concludes his essay this way,

>Dr. James White speaks to the simplicity and beauty of limited atonement when he says, “In its simplest terms the Reformed belief is this: Christ’s death saves sinners. It does not make the salvation of sinners a mere possibility. It does not provide a theoretical atonement…Christ’s death saves every single person that it was intended to save.”

Calvin’s doctrines of grace are in fact an answer to Jacobus Arminius, for whom the opposing viewpoint is named, Arminianism. In Arminianism, one can lose their salvation it is not secure.

Some Arminians, however, believe that mankind has so much influence in their own salvation that their actions can cause God to revoke it. They believe we must continually reject sin and live a godly life in order to maintain our position with God. (source)

Hence RC Sproul’s wit regarding the daisy. He said,

“If you went to the new member class, you’ll know the Reformed view. But if you don’t, the acrostic flower stands for, Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible Grace, Perseverance of the saints”. This flower differs from the Arminian flower, the DAISY. Which is, ‘He loves me, He loves me not…”

free photos

Dear friends, if you are saved, it was not your choice, but Father God through Jesus. He saved you through no merit of your own, but to glorify Jesus. No one can snatch you from His hand, and your salvation is securely sealed within you, the Spirit being the deposit of this guarantee, until the Day. Our sovereign and merciful God is the author and finisher of our faith, and He keeps us in it until the time when all men are glorified in heaven. Then as Jesus prayed in His high priestly prayer,

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24)

O, Jesus, we long to be with You, our High Priest, too!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Further reading:

FMI: Calvinist Corner

Why I am a Calvinist, Part 1 (of 5)

What is Calvinism? Is Calvinism biblical?

Posted in encouragement, love, repent, salvation, sin

Big sin? Big God!

Posted on by elizabethprata

“I was sinking deep in sin…” goes the first line of an old song. (Love Lifted Me, 1912)

Mixed media collage, plus digital overlay. By EPrata

No matter how deep in sin a person is, no matter how low…no matter if they are in the gutter, or even one foot down the shaft of the gates of hell (like I was)

God’s arm is not too short to lift you from it!

He won’t make you wait. He won’t toy with you. If you call out to the Lord to save you and forgive your sins, He will, instantly. If you are saved but have sinned or strayed, and you call out to the Lord to forgive you, He will, instantly.

He was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ He said, ‘why did you doubt? (Matthew 14:29-31)

Posted in discernment, elijah, encouragement, eternity, moses, personal revelation, transfiguration

Talking with Jesus

Posted on by elizabethprata
Not the ‘Mount of Transfiguration’. Source

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. (Matthew 17:1-3)

A spiritually awe-filled scene, as we mentally behold it and picture Jesus glorified and being fully God. However, today I am picturing Moses and Elijah, talking with Him.

Imagine, in the Millennium Kingdom and in Eternity, we will do the same! We will stand casually on a mountain and talk with Jesus! My mind veritably breaks apart just thinking of this. What will I say? What were Moses, Elijah and Jesus talking about? What could I possibly have to say to Jesus, except only “thank You!”

But we are His friend. We will talk with Jesus, and He will talk personally and directly to us.

The Graphics Fairy

For all of you who envy Beth Moore and her personal conversations with a different Jesus, and for all of you who covet the personal touch Sarah Young claims to have had with Jesus Calling her, I have this to say. Those women and all those like them are having the only talk with “Jesus” they will ever have, except at the Great White Throne Judgment when He says “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” Will they then wonder, were the five or ten or fifty chats they thought they’d had with ‘Jesus’ worth an eternity of missing the real Him, and never speaking to Him again?

Yet for the persevering and patient Christian who clings to Hebrews 11:1 and believes that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (and not heard), we will be talking with Him just as Moses and Elijah were.

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (John 3:2)

We will join Moses and Elijah and be talking with our wonderful Savior, Friend, Shepherd, every ‘day’ throughout all eternity.

Hallelujah.

Posted in andrew wilson, evangelicalism, parody, satire

Andrew Wilson’s "The Case For Idolatry", satire that’s edifying and instructive

Posted on by elizabethprata

Andrew Wilson of THINK blog wrote a brilliant parody of the (non) evangelical writer/thinker/seeker who blogs about why it is all right to sin. You know the ones, the Rachel Held Evans’s of the world, writing about why woman can have positions of authority. ‘Rise up, women, get over your patriarchal oppressor!’ Or the Rob Bells who write about why Jesus is only love and hell isn’t what we thought it was. ‘Hell, hell doesn’t even exist, really, if you squint when you read the bible and hold it in the right light’. Or any other of this kind of writer, recapitulating the biblical stance on homosexuality (and we have all seen way too many of those of late, haven’t we?)

If you’re familiar with that kind of blogger and that kind of Christian-y writing, you will enjoy this essay immensely. In fact, it is the best parody of any kind I ever read. Here is how it begins:

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to worship idols. It’s not that my parents raised me that way, because they didn’t; I was brought up in a loving, secure, Christian home. But from childhood until today, my heart has been drawn to idolatry. In fact, if I’m honest, one of the defining features of my identity has been my desire to put something else – popularity, money, influence, sex, success – in place of God.

That’s just who I am.

Please enjoy Wilson’s The Case for Idolatry: Why Evangelical Christians Can Worship Idols at his blog.

JD Greear wrote of Wilson’s piece,

This is a piece of satire, and an insightful one at that. You should be able to recognize some common arguments here dressed up in different clothes. Parodies can be edifying (though not all are), and I think this offers us a helpful perspective on a hotly debated topic today.

GotQuestions explains the difference between satire or sarcasm from a biblical perspective, offering several examples of when Paul was bitingly ironic, and Isaiah and Elijah were satirical. Their essay explains,

Sarcasm is the use of irony (saying one thing while meaning another) or other rhetorical devices in a biting, hurtful way. There is a difference between sarcasm and satire, although they are related. Satire is the use of irony or ridicule to expose foolishness, but without the “bite” of sarcasm. Satire is gentler; sarcasm is more derisive and sneering.

Sometimes, irony can be painful because the truth it reveals is convicting. Satire, which uses irony to gently deride and prompt needful change, can be appropriate on occasion; we have examples of satire in Scripture.

As far as the painfully convicting, RedState reported on the reaction to Wilson’s essay.

“The Heretics Are Upset“

You may have never heard of Andrew Wilson, but you should. He is a theologian in the United Kingdom and has done a marvelous job repackaging so much of the heresy of the modern age in this very brilliant post. In fact, a bunch of “Christians” who’ve declared 2000 years of church orthodoxy wrong and themselves right are screaming like stuck pigs. It is a strong indication that Andrew Wilson is right over the appropriate target.

Posted in death, eternity, life, prophecy

Deathbed words. Do we die before our time?

Posted on by elizabethprata
Source: The Graphics Fairy

I read this on Facebook from No Compromise Radio

“Deathbed words: “I am dying before my time and my body is going to return to the earth.This is the fate of Napoleon the Great.”

The dead always think it’s too early to die. It is never too early to die. It’s always just right.

God numbers our days and they are determined from long before the foundation of the world. He has appointed each one of us to a time, and a nation and a place. He stretches out our days or years to the exact amount of time He wants us to walk the earth. He appoints some to His wrath and others to His joy.

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, (1 Thessalonians 5:9)

The appointment of God’s grace is here mentioned as the efficient cause of our salvation; and the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Mediator through whom salvation is bestowed. (Pulpit Commentary)

If there are some appointed to salvation then that means there are some appointed to wrath. Gill’s Exposition says,

For God hath not appointed us to wrath,…. To destruction and ruin, the effect of wrath; though there are some that are vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, of old ordained to condemnation, and who are reserved for the day of evil;

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2)

I’d said at the start that the dead (unsaved people) always think that their death is too early. No one who is unsaved think their death comes too late. Or rarely do they think so. But we all have a number of days.

“Man who is born of a woman
is few of days and full of trouble.
2He comes out like a flower and withers;
he flees like a shadow and continues not.
3And do you open your eyes on such a one
and bring me into judgment with you?

4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
There is not one.
5Since his days are determined,
and the number of his months is with you,
and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
6look away from him and leave him alone,
that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day. (Job 14:1-5)

Matthew Henry says of the Job passage, and eloquently too,

Job enlarges upon the condition of man, addressing himself also to God. Every man of Adam’s fallen race is short-lived. All his show of beauty, happiness, and splendour falls before the stroke of sickness or death, as the flower before the scythe; or passes away like the shadow.

Source: The Graphics Fairy

The dead have only a short life to cling to, but the living have Jesus, who is the Giver of Life and the Eternity in which we dwell. Since they know, and we know, our days on earth are short, how will we spend them?

I hope it is that we will share life. Share the Gospel today. For some, death will come early. At least, compared to eternity, it will feel very early.

No Compromise Radio also posted these deathbed words from a person who knew Jesus:

“Live in Christ, die in Christ, and the flesh need not fear death.” ~John Knox

Posted in faith's checkbook, God, psalm, spurgeon

Spurgeon Archive: The Unfailing Watch

Posted on by elizabethprata

From the Spurgeon Archive.

Thursday, November 13, 2014
Faith’s Check Book, Daily Entry
C. H. Spurgeon
November 13
The Unfailing Watch

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:4)

Jehovah is “the Keeper of Israel.” No form of unconsciousness ever steals over Him, neither the deeper slumber nor the slighter sleep. He never fails to watch the house and the heart of His people. This is a sufficient reason for our resting in perfect peace. Alexander said that he slept because his friend Parmenio watched; much more may we sleep because our God is our guard.

“Behold” is here set up to call our attention to the cheering truth. Israel, when he had a stone for his pillow, fell asleep; but His God was awake and came in vision to His servant. When we lie defenseless, Jehovah Himself will cover our head.

The Lord keeps His people as a rich man keeps his treasure, as a captain keeps a city with a garrison, as a sentry keeps watch over his sovereign. None can harm those who are in such keeping. Let me put my soul into His dear hands. He never forgets us, never ceases actively to care for us, never finds Himself unable to preserve us.

O my Lord, keep me, lest I wander and fall and perish. Keep me, that I may keep Thy commandments. By Thine unslumbering care prevent my sleeping like the sluggard and perishing like those who sleep the sleep of death.

Posted in discernment, encouragement, gossip, paul washer

Paul Washer on persecution in America, the bible is complete, salt makes a person thirsty, gossip

Posted on by elizabethprata
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On Monday we had an 80-mile widespread internet outage here. A fiber had been cut on “some very important lines” the tech person told me. It lasted 14 hours. Otherwise known as an eternity. I’ve been playing catch-up ever since.

I love me some internet. I make no bones about it. I did enjoy the opportunity to read my new John Grisham book distraction free, but overall, I realized that I enjoy and depend on the internet for my theological studies quite a bit.

I have some commentaries, atlases, a book of biblical natural history, and several bibles as well as other books, but for overall fast access to all of the above and more, the internet cannot be beat. And what a grace-filled gift the Lord gave us when laying the path to the birth of the internet and now I can listen to so many sermons. That is what I missed the most- sermons.

Of course I enjoy using my laptop for all my entertainments, movies and tv shows and Youtube clips etc. I also play with my photos and sometimes use a photo editor to make digital collages or even photo gifts from Snapfish. I’m trying to make bookmarks out of some of my photos for stocking stuffers.

I’m not in any different of a boat than anyone else who has become dependent on technology and an online access point for work, entertainment, and communication. Perhaps I’m less stressed when it goes off because I don’t have a business that depends on active and reliable internet connections.

Anyway I am still catching up. I surely would not be a good pioneer woman. I hardly know how to do anything except light a candle when the power goes out, or read a book when the internet goes off, lol.

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I have a few different thoughts for this blog essay. Not one big point but a variety of different thoughts that I re-read in my spiritual journal. I re-read it because I wanted to use the journal for note-taking at school and I ripped out the written-in pages. I read them before I tore them out, and there were some pretty good thoughts in there. I think they’re good thoughts. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether you agree.

You know how we are called to be salt and light?

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. . (Matthew 5:13-14a).

Being salt, to me, means adding seasoning to a bland world by sharing His word and doing His works. Of course there is more to it but this is just a quick notion here tonight.

Here is the thought about salt: salt promotes thirst. Salt makes people thirsty. Jesus is the Living Water. If we are truly salt, even if what we are saying or doing in the world causes aggravation or offense (Gospel offense, not rudeness) then the recipient will become thirsty, one hopes. And in their seeking to slake the thirst, they will turn to the bible, to Jesus, to God, to the Spirit…(one hopes).

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Pr. Paul Washer of HeartCry Missionary Society

Paul Washer had a good word one year ago on truly knowing the Lord. As the synopsis states, “It was a sermon delivered to a body of students at the Master’s College, headed by Dr. John MacArthur. Brother Washer doesn’t allow these students to hide behind their school or association with Dr. MacArthur. Everyone must know the Lord for themselves, and be known of Him. Adam knew his wife and she bare him the fruit of the womb. Has Jesus so known you that you bear fruit? Included was a statement about persecution in America. His words are coming true. Here are just a few excerpts.”

“The church in America is going to suffer so terribly and you laugh now but they will come after us, they will come after our children, they will close the net around us while we are playing soccer mom and soccer dad, when we’re arguing over so many little things and mesmerized by so many trinkets. The net even now is closing around you and your children and your grandchildren and it does not cause you to fear. You will be isolated from society as has already happened, anyone who tries to run for office who actually believes the Bible will be considered a lunatic until finally we are silenced. We will be called things that we’re not and persecuted not for being followers of Christ, but for being radical fundamentalists who do not know the true way of Christ, which of course is love and tolerance. We’ll go down as the greatest bigots and haters of mankind in history.”

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The holy Bible is perfect. It is finished! There is no more to add, nor should any be taken away. People who have allegedly been to heaven, and come back with “a message”, or who have heard God speak to them with a word and told to declare it, are wrong, deluded, and dangerous. The perfect, and complete bible says, via the Spirit:

“You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.” (Deuteronomy 4:2)

“Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.” (Proverbs 30:6)

“Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.” (Deuteronomy 12:32)

“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:18-19)

It is clear! The bible is finished and we are not to add new revelations to it. Besides, it is perfect. Why would a person want to add to it?

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Gossip. It does a body harm.

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For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. (2 Corinthians 12:20)

The Greek word for gossip here is psithurismos, a word that means “a whispering, secret slandering.” Moreover, it is an “an onomatopoetic word for the sibilant murmur of a snake charmer.”

Think of that the next time you (or I) want to spread gossip about someone…our mouth making the sss of the snake as we gosssssssip.

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I am studying the glorified body. I’ll be writing on that soon. Just think of it, a body that has no aches and pains, eyes that can behold Jesus face to face without bursting apart, never getting old, a body that can transcend matter and perhaps…even fly. Won’t that be wonderful!

Posted in armistice, spiritual warfare, veterans day

Armistice Day, Veterans Day…the war is over for many valiant military men and women, but not for the Christian fighting on

Posted on by elizabethprata

This is a slightly updated and refreshed post I published a few years ago. May it glorify the Lord.

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The signs of the end are unmistakable. Though the signs Jesus warned us about (wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, apostasy, false messiahs…) have always plagued man, the rush of prophetic activity the Lord has been doing the last 50 years is unlike any other in history. The headlines we are reading today were unthinkable even 10 years ago. The Lord could come at any time. And yet, that has always been true. The Lord could come at any time, therefore He told us to be ready always.

It is not time to get ready, it is time to be ready. The schoolbus is not in the next neighborhood, it is not down the block, it is not even at the next house. It’s downstairs honking, and the time is now to be ready to get on board. We need to be already packed and ready to go.

Sometimes I read in the news, or see in a novel, a particularly tragic event that happens in a war. I am thinking particularly of WWI, where a famous armistice was the prelude to the final peace treaty. An armistice is a cessation of hostilities as a prelude to peace negotiations. The armistice in WWI was signed on the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month. The commemoration of WW1 Armistice Day is now known to Americans as Veterans Day. It is different from a truce and it is not a treaty, but it is effectively the beginning stages of the end of the war. Did you know that though the 11-11-11th 1918, is held to be the official end of the First World War, final peace with Germany was not ratified until 1919, and peace was not finally ratified on all other fronts until January 1920?

Anyway, the when the news of Armistice got around, soldiers started to relax because they knew they were going home soon. The war is almost over. Almost.

It is such a tragedy when a soldier dies after the armistice is signed. In France, 3,500 casualties occurred between the armistice signing and the official end of hostilities.

Here is an article about the aftermath of those deaths. It is a good article that explains the thinking of the commanders and generals and what happened to cause so many to die when the end was so near. Were those soldiers’ lives wasted?

Wasted Lives on Armistice Day
“On November 11, 1918, Armistice Day, the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the Western Front in France suffered more than thirty-five hundred casualties, although it had been known unofficially for two days that the fighting would end that day and known with absolute certainty as of 5 o’clock that morning that it would end at 11 a.m.”

General John J. Pershing, in a Congressional hearing a year after the armistice period, said, “When the subject of the armistice was under discussion we did not know what the purpose of it was definitely, whether it was something proposed by the German High Command to gain time or whether they were sincere in their desire to have an armistice; and the mere discussion of an armistice would not be sufficient grounds for any judicious commander to relax his military activities….”

You see, although the soldiers and commanders knew that the end was near, they were not sure what the enemy was going to do, whether it was a feint or not. They remained vigilant because they knew that the enemy was likely still out to kill and destroy.

Besides, the thinking went, the word had not gotten to all the soldiers that the end was near. They could not relax because some of their compatriots were not relaxing their guard. They were all in this together, one unit, even though strewn on different battlefields. The article continues with Pershing’s testimony:

“No one could possibly know when the armistice was to be signed, or what hour be fixed for the cessation of hostilities, so that the only thing for us to do, and which I did as commander in chief of the American forces, and which Marshal Foch did as commander in chief of the Allied armies was to continue the military activities.”

My grandfather, serving in WW1, British Army, Royal Leicestershire Regiment

It makes sense, doesn’t it, if the soldiers didn’t know the day or hour, then they were duty bound to continue the good fight.

“Marshal Ferdinand Foch, commander in chief of Allied forces in France, issued on November 9, to keep up the pressure against the retreating enemy until the cease-fire went into effect. …Foch had described to his staff his intention ‘to pursue the Feldgrauen [field grays, or German soldiers] with a sword at their backs’ to the last minute until an armistice went into effect.”

Keeping up the pressure on the enemy, pouring ourselves out as a drink offering… As Paul said in the bible, “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:24).

Pershing continued, on the notion that the very idea of an armistice was repugnant, because the enemy was still fighting. The enemy was still the enemy, after all:

‘Their request is an acknowledgment of weakness and clearly means that the Allies are winning the war,’ he maintained. ‘Germany’s desire is only to regain time to restore order among her forces, but she must be given no opportunity to recuperate and we must strike harder than ever.’ As for terms, Pershing had one response: ‘There can be no conclusion to this war until Germany is brought to her knees.’ “

Pershing is right to say that the war is not over until every knee bows and all acknowledge the victor.

“that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,”(Philippians 2:10.)

“Pershing saw his army akin to a fighter ready to deliver the knockout punch who is told to quit with his opponent reeling but still standing. Conciliation now, he claimed, would lead only to future war. He wanted Germany’s unconditional surrender.”

That’s right. Unless the job is done thoroughly, the enemy comes back stronger than before.

“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” (Mt 12:43-45).

I hope by now you have caught the metaphor. Though we old prophecy soldiers can see the signs that the end of our war in the spiritual realms is near, we cannot relax. “And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:9)

It feels so close, doesn’t it! But the enemy is still on the field and actively engaged. We won’t go home until the Commander in Chief calls for us, and until then, we continue to fight the good fight with all due vigor and attention. Until we hear the Trump of God, carry on, soldiers! (1 Thess 4:6).