Friday, November 28, 2008

What is going on with Marriages today?

Mike here….

So what is going on with marriages all around us?

All around me marriages are in trouble much like the current housing situation. So many marriages are in various stages of distress, pre foreclosure, or have already been abandoned and left for someone to pick up the pieces.

So, I find myself asking the question , “What is going on with Marriages today?”

While certainly we could look at the earthly pressures and reality of the American society and culture on marriage I first want to look to scripture for some answers.

Marriage is the analogy Christ uses to explain His second coming and our re-union with our Heavenly Father.

Revelation 19 (New American Standard Bible)

Marriage of the Lamb

7"Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready."

8It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

9Then he said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb '" And he said to me, "These are true words of God."

10Then I fell at his feet to worship him But he said to me, "Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

So, how does this question fit into the possibility that we are living in the end times?

Let’s look at the “Apostasy”…

1 Timothy 4 (New American Standard Bible)

Apostasy

1But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

2by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,

3men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.

4For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude;

5for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

While we see that during the apostasy men will forbid marriage I believe the first two versus are even more telling of the spiritual battle that will/is taking place and one of the direct casualties is marriage.

For me personally I’m watching all types of deceitful spirits and pressures pull on marriages. Unfortunately, we don’t often learn of all the challenges until a marriage is so damaged that one or both parties are no longer interested in fighting to repair the relationship.

So, what do we do? Well first and foremost we must hold on to the teachings of the entire Word of God. As believers strive to be Christ like, healthy relationships and marriages will result. I believe first and foremost that selfishness is at the core of all of our sin. It is not hard to see how selfish behavior pulls at the fabric of relationships and marriage either.

I encourage believers to press on to the goal. Continue to read your Bible but also be on guard for deceitful spirits placing selfish ideas and motivations in front of you to pursue.

Our marital commitments are very important to God.

Hebrews 13:4 (New American Standard Bible)

Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

Let me be clear, our marriages are often the first battle field in this Spiritual Battle that is only getting more and more intense.

Hold fast and stay dedicated to one another in prayer.

Mike

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Paul Washer -Ten Indictments

Curt here...

Here is an amazing sermon by Paul Washer, that exposes the problems with today's churches and today's Christians. It is both sobering and convicting.

It is very long, but I would recommend that you take the time to fully view it, even if it takes you a couple of days to get through it.

Curt




Sunday, November 9, 2008

UK's Brown: Now is the time to build global society

Curt Here...

The article posted below states that Gordon Brown, Prime Minister from the UK believes the current "international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society." If find this statement to be very interesting because if your a student of Bible Prophecy than you know from scripture that at some point there will be a final global society that will be born from within the Revived Roman Empire or as I believe, this final empire will come from within the EU.

The Book of Daniel clearly states this final global kingdom will be very powerful. Here is a description of it from Daniel 7.

Daniel 7:7
7. "After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.

From this final empire that will have 10 horns we know that a little horn will come up from among the 10. Here is the next scripture.

Daniel 7:8
8. "While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.

This little horn is of course the AC. He will reign for 3 1/2 years over this global society and will make war with the Saints and overcome them.

Daniel 7:23-25
23. "Thus he said: `The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it.
24. `As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.
25. `He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

This final global empire will also control the monetary system and through the False Prophet will institute the Mark of the Beast.

Revelation 13:16-17
16. And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,
17. and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

I believe much of the final prophetic landscape is already in place, and we are heading towards the fulfilling of ancient prophetic scripture in the not so distant future. The headlines are everywhere and many point to this end. Please take some time to review a link that I have at the top of my blog titled "Herb's Overview". Here is the link...http://www.fulfilledprophecy.com/page/overview/ Herb does an excellent job of summarizing were we might be at.

We could be much closer than many think.

Curt


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UK's Brown: Now is the time to build global society

LONDON (Reuters) - The international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say in a keynote foreign policy speech on Monday.

In his annual speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, Brown -- who has spearheaded calls for the reform of international financial institutions -- will say Britain, the United States and Europe are key to forging a new world order.

"The alliance between Britain and the U.S. -- and more broadly between Europe and the U.S. -- can and must provide leadership, not in order to make the rules ourselves, but to lead the global effort to build a stronger and more just international order," an excerpt from the speech says.
Brown and other leaders meet in Washington next weekend to discuss longer term solutions for dealing with economic issues following a series of coordinated moves on interest rates and to recapitalize banks in the wake of the financial crisis.

"Uniquely in this global age, it is now in our power to come together so that 2008 is remembered not just for the failure of a financial crash that engulfed the world but for the resilience and optimism with which we faced the storm, endured it and prevailed," Brown will say in his speech on Monday evening.

"...And if we learn from our experience of turning unity of purpose into unity of action, we can together seize this moment of change in our world to create a truly global society."
According to a summary of the speech released by his office, Brown will set out five great challenges the world faces.

These are: terrorism and extremism and the need to reassert faith in democracy; the global economy; climate change; conflict and mechanisms for rebuilding states after conflict; and meeting goals on tackling poverty and disease.

Brown will also identify five stages for tackling the economy, starting with recapitalizing banks so they can resume lending to families and businesses, and better international co-ordination of fiscal and monetary policy.

He also wants immediate action to stop the spread of the financial crisis to middle-income countries, with a new facility for the International Monetary Fund, and agreement on a global trade deal, as well as reform of the global financial system.

"My message is that we must be: internationalist not protectionist; interventionist not neutral; progressive not reactive; and forward looking not frozen by events. We can seize the moment and in doing so build a truly global society."

http://mobile.reuters.com/mobile/m/FullArticle/CBUS/nbusinessNews_uUSTRE4A900K20081110?src=RSS-BUS