If you are a regular reader of this blog, I ask that you would pray in the Lord for the healing of my daughter whom has a bad case of acid reflux. It is hard for her to breath at times with the constant gagging, especially at night. It is heartbreaking to see her suffer as I stand helplessly by her, but I stand in the trust and might of our Lord.
May the Lord Bless you and yours,
“Fret not thyself because of evildoers….” (Psalm 37:1).
After salvation in the Lord Jesus, the rapture of the church and the 2nd coming of Christ are the most important topics in the bible. These events mark the end of the church age, the redemption of Israel, and the beginning of the millennial rein of Christ as King on earth in the literal Kingdom of Heaven.
Today arguably, the church has the greatest witnessing tool and greatest opportunity in its history to reach the lost through the teaching of bible prophecy. Bible prophecy will bring people to the feet of Jesus for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy itself.
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19:10
For every prophecy of Jesus’ 1st coming, there are about 8 concerning His second coming. Prophecy helps us to understand the bible’s storyline as a whole with the Cross standing in the middle of it.
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. Col. 1:17-20
The rapture of the church and Christ’ second coming is so important that God’s very first prophet Enoch (7th generation from Adam), predicted Christ’s return and was a living testimony to the rapture of the church.
22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: 24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Genesis 5:22-24
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Hebrew 11:15
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints. Jude 1:14
God has declared the end before the beginning of time and He is in complete control of all. He even knew the plans he had for you before you were born. Take a moment to realize that God has placed you on earth now, in the last days, in perhaps the most exciting time a person could be alive, when it could have been any of the other 6000 years of human history……
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Isaiah 46:9-10
Do you know someone that is troubled by the world events of today? Are they uncertain of their future in this ever changing, chaotic world? Point them to the bible and prophecy. Show them the events of today have been prophesied in the Old and New Testament. Tell them Jesus is their only savior from their sins and the eternal security from the calamity of this world.
Remember the words of Paul, in that if any man does not love the Lord, let him be accursed; the Lord is coming.
If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. 1Co. 16:22
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. Revelation 1:3
Lord, hear my Plea
So I shall not Flee
For your love of Me
Is deeper than the Sea
Your Wisdom flows
Where no man Knows
As I look to You
For Your Will to Pursue
Grant me O’Father
A Bridge Over this Water
The Arctic Ice cuts far below
Mt. Kilimanjaro covered in Snow
Egypt’s plains with all its tombs
Rolling sand of the Sahara Dunes
Raging Waves of the Baltic Sea, Russian Tundra covered in Trees
Cooper Canyon deeper than Grand, The Sequoyah tree mighty as it stands
Christ’s crown of Thorns
He was beaten and torn
That old rugged Cross
For all are born Lost
The sins of all
Put on Him to fall
Salvation Attained
He rose Ordained
Psalm 2
2 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7 I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
Christmas – the time of year when Christians celebrate the Virgin Birth of Jesus. It was prophesied in Genesis 3:15 that Messiah would be brought forth from the seed of a woman: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Jesus’ set time to come was also prophesied in Genesis 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Jesus fulfilled over 400 prophecies concerning his birth, life, and death. For a man to fulfil just eight of those prophecies requires the probability of 1 in 10 with 28 zeros after it; a feat only God Himself could accomplish. Arguably, the most important prophecy fulfilled was that of the Virgin Birth. If Christ were not born of a virgin, He could not offer us salvation. He had to be born of uncorrupted seed, a sinless man, and would be called “Immanuel” which means “God with us”.
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14
The virgin birth and subsequently Christ’s sacrifice at the cross provides salvation and righteousness to all who would believe in Him. The Virgin Birth was so important that around A.D. 200 the father of Latin Christianity Tertullian wrote: “Whosoever wishes to see Jesus the son of David must believe in Him through the Virgin’s birth. He who will not believe this will not hear from Him the salutation, ‘Thy faith hath saved thee.’ And so he will remain blind, falling into antithesis after antithesis, which mutually destroy each other. Just as the blind man leads the blind down into the ditch.” (The writings of Tertullian, part 2, chapter 36).
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1 John 1:7
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Romans 3:24-26
A prophecy told in Jeremiah set the stage for the Virgin Birth and concerns that of King Coniah (also known as Jeconiah and Jehoiachin) whom came to rule in 597 B.C. during the siege of King Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem.
Joseph and Mary had four sons, Jesus, James, Jose, Simon, and Judas and an unknown number of sisters. All of the siblings came from royalty and have a family linage from the tribe of Judah that goes back to King David.
55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? Matthew 13:55, 56
Although all 5 brothers came from a royal line, only Jesus qualified to be King of Kings for he was born of a virgin and if He was born any other way, then God could not literally be His father.
In less than 100 years after Christ’s sacrifice and one of the earliest theologians to address this subject was Ignatius (A.D. 30-107), a disciple of the Apostle John. In one of his epistles he writes: “Stop your ears, therefore, when anyone speaks to you at variance with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was descended from David, and was also of Mary; who was truly begotten of God and of the Virgin, but not after the same manner. For indeed God and man are not the same. He truly assumed a body; for “the Word was made flesh,” and he lived upon Earth without sin”. “Mary did truly conceive a body, which had God inhabiting it.” (The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians, chapter 9 and 10). Why were the brothers of Jesus disqualified from the throne? Let’s return to the prophecy against King Coniah.
In the autumn of 609 B.C. Pharaoh Necco appointed Jehoiakim as king to Judah; however Egypt was soon to give up Judah to the Babylonians. Judah was subject to three Babylonian invasions (for the years 606, 597, and 586 B.C.). The 597 B.C. invasion was a result of Jehoiakim renouncing his allegiance to Babylon which led to his eighteen year old son, Coniah, taking the throne for three months and ten days. Coniah in his naïve state of mind led his whole family out to meet King Nebuchadnezzar whom were quickly arrested, deported, and imprisoned in Babylon. God cursed Coniah’s future generations as recorded in Jeremiah.
Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not? 29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. 30 Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah. Jeremiah 22:28-30
There is the prophecy. Jeconiah’s (Coniah) linage was disqualified from the throne of David. As Jeconiah is listed in Matthew’s genealogy (Matt. 1:11), Jesus would have been affected by the curse had he been the begotten son of Joseph. Jesus had to be born a virgin, and as for his four brothers, the curse of Coniah was upon them!
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6
Merry Christmas!
Looking for that Blessed Hope! 