Bible
The Rain Stopped
I Kings 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
Mark 4:39 And he [Jesus] arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
I Kings 18:20 So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel.
21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
22 Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.
23 Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under:
24 And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.
25 And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.
26 And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.
27 And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.
28 And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.
29 And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.
30 And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down.
31 And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name:
32 And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.
33 And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.
34 And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time.
35 And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.
36 And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.
37 Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.
38 Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God.
40 And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.
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The Problem with Dates
There are people who are focused on the date of the Second Coming of Christ.
Jesus clearly stated that no man knows the day, or the hour, but the Father only. He gave a clue as to the conditions, but not the date.
Matthew 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
The problem with being date conscious is that it leads to discouragement, disappointment, and even to a point of abandoning faith when something does not happen the way one “thinks” it should happen.
Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
This is a grave danger.
Rather than look to dates, we should be looking to “occupy” until Jesus comes.
Luke 19:12 He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.
13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.
Luke 12:40 Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.
41 Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?
42 And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?
43 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
44 Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.
45 But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;
46 The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
47 And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
48 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
What that looks like for each individual differs according to their responsibilities before God, gifts and callings, and place in the body of Christ. Nevertheless, we each have jobs to do and it behooves us to be doing those things rather than waiting around for Jesus to come again.
Jesus defeated satan at the cross. He left the work of enforcing what he did to believers … through faith, the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the power of God, and the promises of God. We have a job to do. And actually, we, by doing our jobs, will hasten the Second Coming of Christ. If Jesus is not here when we think he should be here, it is maybe because, as the proverb goes, “the ball is on our court” and we should be on the court playing rather than waiting for Jesus to do our job.
II Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Habakkuk 2:3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Matthew 16:27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
Job 34:11 For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.
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Moses Needed Help; His Gift of Administrations Found the Solution
I had to give a ride to someone to the location of her vehicle and the topic of roads came up. I had mentioned this topic before to another individual … that a particular area in town lacked good planning regarding roads.
The gift of administrations or governments is given by God and those who have it are capable of finding the best talent for the job and then turning them loose to do the job. In the case of the roads, it was evident that something was lacking.
Interestingly, this discussion had come up before with someone else, and there had been no comment or response back. In this case, when the same discussion came up, I was told that there had been a visionary had tried to convince people to think for the future but he had been rejected.
So there had been a solution, but it was rejected.
Moses was a great leader. He was used to help free the children of Israel from Pharoah. He went into the mount of God and received the Ten Commandments. But as great a leader as Moses was, even he recognized when he needed to delegate a task and needed the talents of someone else.
Numbers 10:29 And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses’ father in law, We are journeying unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you: come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.
30 And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred.
31 And he said, Leave us not, I pray thee; forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes.
32 And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea, it shall be, that what goodness the Lord shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee.
If the last few years have shown us anything, it has revealed how quickly something can be destroyed if the wrong people are in charge. Ideally, people who have been given the gift of administration make it into leadership positions and are able to function according to their God-given wisdom and talents. A heap of good that it took many generations to create can be destroyed quickly by the wrong people in charge. We need to pray that God will bring the right people to fill the places that need to be filled in the days ahead.
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Half-Baked
Hosea 7:8 Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not….
There is a saying “a half-baked idea”. It implies that the idea is not fully developed, that something is lacking.
It should be obvious that the illegal invasion at the southern border is part of the strategy to steal the 2024 elections. No ID laws for voting and lax voting requirements make a theft exceedingly possible even though “the other guy” is way more popular. Popularity has nothing to do with outcomes in the case of stolen elections.
While from an evangelistic point of view, there are those who are coming to the border and getting born again, from a scriptural and Constitutional view, if they repent and are converted and want to be obedient to the scripture to obey the laws of government (Romans 13), in which case is the Constitution, not the illegal unelected government currently occupying Washington D.C. and which stole the 2020 election, then those who are born again need to return home to their nations rather than enter the land illegally.
Any law contrary to the Constitution is no law.
Because if they enter the land illegally, and are able to help keep in power the current unelected government that is illegally occupying Washington D.C., then the next phase of destruction to the United States will involved the removal of religious freedom.
There has been way too much reliance on a hope that Jesus will return and solve the problem before it becomes unmanageable. It is a half-baked idea of prophecy. Hosea 7:8 Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
It has led to this in Hosea. Hosea 7:9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not….
Jesus will return, but that should not be considered a strategy to maintain religious freedom.
Dr. Robert Schuller, Sr., used to say, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.”
President Lincoln said something similar. He did not throw the responsibility upon Jesus. Neither did the Founding Fathers, nor what was referred to as the Black-Robed Regiment, who wore black clerical robes over their army uniforms and who participated in the fight for freedom. Related, also Related
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
President Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863
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