Day: February 22, 2018

I am surrounded by concrete walls, four feet thick, and a steel door that weighs anywhere from five to six thousand pounds. I’m in! Surrounded by an incalculable amount of wealth. It’s not mine but I am in the vault. No, I did not break in—my son works at the bank so I get the cheap tour. Because of who I know I have access into this incredible vault.

Same with God, because I know the Son, I have access to heaven’s vault. Jesus said, “Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them . . .” (Mark 11:22-24).

Really, is that true? Can I walk into the vault of heaven and have anything that is in the will of God? I only have to ask and I can have it before I leave the vault? Yes! Like any safe however, heaven’s vault holds its own prerequisites for access. One, know the Son personally—Jesus. Two, there is a mountain that first has to be removed. Look closely and you will see it in His closing remarks concerning prayer. “. . . And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses” (Mark 11:25-26).

Did you see it, the combination, the release timer to heaven’s prayer vault? The mountain Jesus refers to is not necessarily our difficulties in life or even a literal mountain—dynamite and bulldozers have proven effective for this. The mountain Jesus refers to is the “mountain of malice.” Often unintentionally, stealthily malice creeps in our heart and hinders our forgiving someone. Subsequently, it also closes heaven’s answers to our prayer needs. Have faith today to forgive someone and watch God destroy the mountain of malice and open heaven’s vault.

Step in

Be amazed

Take the tour

See your wealth of answered prayer

and know His peace

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess 4:16-18). NKJV

Perhaps you have been a bit troubled lately digesting a new twist of an old subject. Naysayers teaching that there will be no rapture of the church. If you are like me you are tired of hearing the proliferous material of misguided teaching on the subject. There is a gross and maligned effort to focus our attention on anything but the contextual and historical interpretation of the Word of God. We only need to look at what Jesus and his followers taught and it will be relatively simple to put the naysayer’s material to rest.

When Jesus taught the disciples He taught that He would one day “go away” but he would “return” and gather all the believers to Himself. Traditionally we have called this the rapture. The word rapture comes to us from the Latin translation of the Scriptures (i.e., Latin Vulgate). Rapture is the English equivalent to the Latin raptura meaning seizure, carrying off or catching away. While the English word “rapture” is not found in the English Bible the truth of the rapture, the catching away—its meaning, is everywhere in Scripture.

Enoch was the first rapture in the Bible “for God took Him” (Genesis 5:24). Never mind then if a rapture is possible—just ask Enoch and you will hear his answer form the pages of God’s Word. Just because the Latin word “rapture” does not appear in the English Bible it does not mean there will not be a “catching away” of all believer one day. Have you ever thought about the word “Bible?” You cannot find that word in the Scripture itself but that does not mean there is not a Bible (i.e, a collection of books). If you will read the Bible clearly and in its context you will find amazingly that Jesus alluded to an event that would take place in the future that sounds just like the “catching away” so descriptive of this Latin word rapture! (Matthew 24, 25) and Paul spoke of it too, (1 Thess 4:16-18; Corinthians 15:51-52) Luke mentions the same event (Acts 1:9-11) and John describes the same (John 14:1-3). This is a really small portion of the Scriptures that speak of an event we describe with the word “rapture.”

I choose to believe Jesus. In addition, I believe the Scripture written by Paul, Luke, John and all the many eyewitnesses of Christ who heard Him teach and preach on the subject! Jesus is coming soon. If you read the Bible you will see this for yourself and the voices that decry this truth will fade away and you will find the comfort Christ gives through this promise. That is why Paul told us the truth of the rapture so that we can, “Therefore, comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess 4:18). Turn to Christ—believe on Him and when He comes—we will go! How comforting! Today, why don’t you live life on the lighter side, comforted with this truth!

 

 

 

 

     “. . . If the salt loses its flavor . . .” (Matthew 5:14)

Surreal, chilled, shrouded in darkness, and dauntingly deep—the massive cave quarried principally by hand into the Romania underground supplied salt for decades. Surrounded by tons of salt the following question flooded my thoughts. How could salt have been there for millennia waiting to be harvested and still it is salty? Just a minute—does salt ever lose its flavor or purposefulness? Jesus indicated that it could. How long does that take? Jesus said, Christians were the “salt of the earth” but then he asked a searching question, “If the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?”

Why would Jesus refer to salt losing saltiness? Salt has been in the earth thousands of years and it is salty still! Science can demonstrate that salt, even after processed, has a really long shelf life and there is really only one way salt can lose its saltiness—it must become mixed with something that dissolves the sodium chloride. In this way it can indeed lose its saltiness.

For a believer this means that their life becomes mixed or diluted in worldliness so that their testimony is weakened and rendered ineffective. No longer will they display an appetizing faith for someone hungering for true answers. The Christian who lives carelessly close to worldliness can indeed lose his or her saltiness, their flavor, or the taste that makes faith in Christ palatable for those who are searching.

Stay close and clean in Christ….stay salty!