A series of 5 short lessons on prayer.
An audio lesson.
A big part of the problem is that we simply do NOT know how to pray as we ought!
Listen to this audio lesson here, or click on the Audio Player to download as an MP3 file.
Sometimes we are apt to completely lose sight of how vulnerable we are.
Prophecy can help us in dealing with our problems in life. It can give us patience and endurance which we can obtain no other way.
An audio lesson.
Jewish Chronicles describes how the Jews came to be sidetracked from following, and how when they are converted to their own Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, it will be a world-wide game changer.
If you know that judgment is coming, and believe it, it will clearly change your ethics and behavior.
An audio lesson.
Revelation is a series of parallel visions that give us an overview of our age, and the big players during our age. Revealing the Christian Age is available from your bookseller.
Examples of Lot in Sodom knowing that the city would soon fall, dramatically changed his behavior. Or again, take David knowing that he would receive the kingship of Israel, and how this dramatically affected his ethics.
Notice that many first century Jews lost their souls because they didn’t believe prophecy!
An audio lesson.
And remember: you don’t have to understand everything, to be enough to save your life.
The basics of how Bible prophecy works is discussed in detail in Prophecy Principles. Available from you bookseller. See the tabs about the books and the author for more information.
What we anticipate about the weather, or whether a thief may visit our house, are examples of how what we think is about to changes our behavior. Further, Bible Prophecy is indeed supposed to change/modify our behavior for the good.
An audio lesson
Many make Revelation more mysterious than it should be. The information you need to reconsider the book of Revelation is included in Revealing the Christian Age. Available from your bookseller.
Many despise prophecy, treat it as inconsequential. But prophecy is part of that whole armor of God which helps us to acts as we should. It is an ethical matter. Take for example the stories of Noah and Abraham.
An audio lesson.
The basics of how Bible prophecy works is discussed in detail in Prophecy Principles. Available from you bookseller.
An audio lesson.
Another look at a subject which unnecessarily befuddles so many people in studying prophecy: the use of time in prophecy.
However, no matter how you look at it, our views of the future do affect our actions in the present!
Time after time Jesus speaks with certainty of the fact of coming Judgment of all men for their sins. Of those who will not listen Jesus says,
“Most assuredly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.”
Mtt 10:15
Jesus points out that men of ALL generations will stand before the Lord to answer for their sins, and that they will also see and comment on the answers of others.
Jon 3:3 says that Nineveh “was an exceedingly great city,” and that it took three days to just to walk across it. The prophet Jonah with perhaps a bleached acid washed look to him, as it has been with other men through history who have been swallowed by “a great fish,” began his preaching.
“Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” ”
Jon 3:4
Then a strange thing happened.
“and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.”
Jon 3:4
Even the king heard and fasted and prayed, Jon 3:6. The King proclaimed,
“8 … Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”
Jon 3:8-9
“The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.”
Mtt 12:41
This is prophecy which even some twenty-seven-hundred years later has not been fulfilled, yet! So it is pertinent to those Jews of the first century who were hearing these words of Jesus, and is also pertinent to you and I ! Knowing and believing these prophecies should change our behavior, and if we truly believe these things, it will change our behavior.
They are prophetic statements by the greatest prophet of all times. The prophet who was to be like Moses, Deut 18:15. His name is Jesus of Nazareth.
It is an ethical matter. We should seek to know what will happen. These things are of eternal importance to us all. As Paul says,
“Don’t despise prophesies.”
1Thes 5:20
It seems to be a common failing of fleshly men to despise what he cannot immediately see. However, if we are walking after the Spirit,
“Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.”
2Cor 5:16
Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901
There is a long discussion by Jesus in Matthew 12 about how we talk and the things we might say. At the center of the discussion is questions about the Spirit that is behind Jesus works. Both Jesus and His opponents acknowledge that there is a spiritual power behind His ministry. His opponents said that Jesus is working by the power of the devil. They say,
… “This man does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.”
Mtt 12:24
Jesus went on to show that this was not a reasonable proposition, the idea that Satan would oppose his own destructive work. Then He went on to warn of ominous future consequences.
“31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.”
Mtt 12:31-32
A scary prospect to say the least.
“34 You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. 35 The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things.”
Mtt 12:34
Again here Jesus is commenting that if we store evil and wicked things in our hearts, they will without fail tend to come out of mouths.
“36 I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Mtt 12:36-37
Jesus tells us that there IS a record of all of our activities and all of our speech. This is testified to more than one Scripture.
“I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.”
Rev 20:12
More than that, we will have to give an account for ALL of those stupid and senseless things we may say from time to time. That should be a scary thought to all us. Who of us would not be caught in such a net.
These are prophecies springing from that same Holy Spirit of God that Jesus opponents were slandering. Prophetic statements of the nature of things in our world. Statements, which if we believe them, and we should, SHOULD change our conduct and our speech.
Prophecy is NOT an optional extra! Believing what God says in prophecy does matter! It is an ethical matter.
Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901
Sometimes disasters are very directly related to our sins. Lying can very often directly lead to troubles for us. Immoral sex quite often leads to direct problems for us. Paul says of such things,
“Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.”
1Cor 6:18
Sometimes it is so direct that we have sexually transmitted diseases from our sins, and we are in direct agony from our sins. At other times it is more indirect, but it is still there, in the form of troubles with our sexual partners, or destroyed homes, of the fathering of children who bear part of the curse of our sins, even as it is with all sin. Or even further, possible damage to our own genome, so that years later we have premature aging and health problems that no one can heal.
King Ahab clearly comes to an early death in battle, because of his many sins. This death was by the direction of the Lord, as told in 1Kings 22. On a more personal level we see the story of one of Judah’s sons, a man by the name of Er. Simple statements are made, without explanation of where or how.
“Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of Yahweh. Yahweh killed him.”
Gen 38:7
Such things happen all the time. We often hear it on the evening news.
Jesus is an example, and Job is another example, and there are many others we can see both in life and in Scripture.
Some men came to Jesus telling stories of men dying in horrible and disastrous ways.
“Now there were some present at the same time who told him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.”
Lk 13:1
Many might assume they were worse sinners than others, and that is why they died. It is true that God sometimes takes men early because of their sins, as is documented time after time in Scripture. However, Jesus says that not all calamities are because of our sins.
“Jesus answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered such things?”
Lk 13:2
Jesus gave another example, then Jesus tells us,
“I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.”
Lk 13:3
Unless we repent? Perish in the same way? What does that mean? I guess it means we will all die a violent death unless we repent?
Jesus is forecasting what “will” happen. If we believe this prophecy, it will indeed provide powerful motivation to repent, and be reconciled to God. Prophecy is never a neutral informational matter. Believing what God says in prophecy does matter! It is an ethical matter, and indeed an eternal matter.
Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901