Showing posts with label Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christ. Show all posts

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Faint light at the end of the tunnel...

Praise the Lord.  He is so good.  He let me see a glimpse of hope today and not just in one area of my life, but in two!  I can see how He is orchestrating the environment of the events in my life and the lives of others for the better.  Not just to save us from our struggles, but that we will be able to help others who are in similar situations.

For instance, my husband worked in a cancer center for 5 years and stayed with the same company after moving to a different department.  He completed his BA degree and for over a year could not find a job in his chosen field.  Because he was still with the same company when he was diagnosed with cancer, he had full benefits and supplemental income benefits to help during his surgeries and time away from work.  Many bosses would not have had the patience to wait for him (being gone longer than FMLA provides for), but his particular boss is a cancer survivor and not only has supported him professionally, but also personally as no other employer would have done.  God provided for my husband all the way and continues to do so.  In our new non-physical struggles God is also providing and guiding us.  He's providing help and the willingness to look into getting help.  It amazes me and I am so grateful.

With the other instance of hope, God is showing me through the lives of godly women around me, just how present He is in our lives.  I am witnessing the struggles of other women and seeing the hope God has given them and the power we have to support each other and be the hands and feet of Christ.  It is so awesome.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Prophecy becomes Reality

This isn't the first time, nor the last.  To me, as one who has been studying God's word and seeking Him, this new event is eye-opening...I have seen the biblical prophecy of 2 Timothy 4:3 come true in the individual lives of others and in other religions that have formed, but this, this changed a bible teaching church!

A church in Minnesota has removed it's affiliation to Christianity and completely changed who and what they are.  Instead of teaching the truths of the bible (although they still have a group to meet to discuss the bible), the 'spiritual leader' teaches sermons on secular ideas and occultist practices.  I read a couple of his sermon blogs he has named "Soul Seeds".  He denies the belief that all good things come from God and suggests the good things we receive are based on our own persistence.  In another sermon he suggests that people let go of old hurts because those belong to the 'karma' of the person who inflicted the hurt.  And in the third and final sermon I looked at, he compared prayer to intentions and said his own prayer life has changed from communicating with an outside supernatural being to a deeper, larger part of himself.

This church is welcoming with open arms the false belief that man can be his own God.  They are an "inclusive" church and welcome all people and all sorts of new-age practices and eastern religious ideas. 

2 Timothy 4:3-4 "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables."
This passage also comes with a command in verse 5, "But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

Many people will be deceived and have been deceived by such teachings.  I expect increasing negativity towards Christianity.  "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." John 15:18 and also John 16:33 "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

It will not be 'politically correct' to be a Christian soon, and will not be the easily accepted belief it is now.  In the years to come, I believe that the Christian faith will undergo severe testing.  It will weed out those who claim to be Christians from those who truly are.  How much will you suffer for the name of Christ?  What are you willing to sacrifice?  Or will you turn away from Him because it will be the easy choice?

Faith in Christ is simple, nobody ever said it was easy.