Devotions for 15th Jan 2017

Matt 10:39 #daily devotions # bible studies # word of God
Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Jesus tells His disciples that in their Christian life it would not be the same as before, when they chose to follow Him they have turned away from the world and no longer live like the world. The values of the world are not the same as the values of the Kingdom of God. What the world values are what the Kingdom of God deters.

The vales of the world consist of selfishness, pride, greed, unforgiveness, jealousy, slander, gossip and all the evil traits of human behaviour. A little while ago I was watching a documentary on the TV about the rise of the 45^th President of the US. Just five years before this the sitting President was insulting the President elect at a gala function publicly.

There was so much pride, hatred, jealousy in the sitting President who is the most powerful man in the world. He did not even behave decently or politely but was slanderous in his word, attacking and accusing the President elect at that time who is a prominent tycoon in the US.

What I am pointing out is that the world is cruel and evil and even the most powerful man on earth politically is evil and do evil things that is because he does not have Jesus Christ. He is controlled by his master who is the enemy of God. In fact all men in the world who do not have Jesus Christ are controlled by the enemy and do what the enemy dictates them to do.

This is where the difference lies, we the believers of Jesus Christ would do what he taught us to do and that is all contrary to what the evil one taught his children to do. Look at the world today and the countries in the world, most of them are controlled by evil politicians who in turn are controlled by the enemy of Christ. Like their master, they go against the children of God and persecute them or try and destroy them

Today in Paris, 72 countries are gathered to decide and pass a resolution under the auspices of the UN to divide Israel and Jerusalem. Israel is a sovereign nation on its own. How unfair it is for third party nations to determine its fate and to pass a resolution to divide it. But this is how the evil world works, the UN is controlled by Antichrist nations and they have an agenda to destroy the apple of the eye of God which is Israel.

Secondly these Antichrist nations want to destroy all Jews first and then all Christians. In fact all these are already prophesied and recorded in scriptures and we are seeing biblical prophecies being fulfilled right before us. Very soon the political scenario in the world would lead to a global war and many children of God will see and experience tribulation which again is prophesied in the bible.

As such the Christians must be strengthened and be prepared to face tribulation just as some of the Christians in Antichrist nations are going through right now. But we know the end from the beginning, we will not lose, we will be on the winning side. The promise is that though for a short time we may even have to pay the ultimate price of laying down our lives for Christ, there is a great reward waiting for us in heaven. Jesus Christ had promised that He has gone to prepare a place for us, if it were not so, He would have told us.

Similarly Paul said in Phip 1:25 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. This is the truth that all the apostles knew and they were focused on attaining their due reward in heaven. We too must be like them and to prepare to receive the reward and inheritance that Jesus had gone ahead to prepare for us.

Rev 21:5  #daily devotions # scriptures # bible studies

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new.”

This is the revelation that John received when he was brought up to heaven and he received the full message for the End Times. In this scripture God is telling John that He is making everything new. What do we understand from this? This would refer to the future when WW III would be over and the world would have gone through vast destruction upon the earth as a result of war, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and severe flooding all over the earth.

What we know is that the whole earth will become a very unliveable place and there will be famine all over the earth after the natural disasters that would come and create unimaginable destruction worldwide. Eyes have not seen and ears have not heard of what disasters that would be coming ever since the beginning of the earth.

What would happen to the people upon the earth? The non-Christians will have no hope as they would fall into Hell where there will be eternal judgement and torment. Billions of people will perish in hell. At the final battle in the valley of Megiddo we are told that over 2 billion people will die when Jesus personally come against them from all over the antichrist nations.

The question we may ask is how can we escape from the wrath of God which He had planned for the world? In fact God had already given us the escape route. He sends His Son to earth to grant this escape from Hell to all men. Jesus told us in John 3: 3 ..verily I say to you, except a man is born again, he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And again in verse Vs 5 … except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. So Jesus had revealed the salvation plan of God to us. There has to be a renewing of our lives before we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

God says that He is going to make everything new, a new heaven and a new earth and the people who are going to inherit this would be a people who would be renewed. They would not be living in sin as before because they would have been renewed in the mind and their spirit man. Those who would inherit the new earth and new heaven would not be the same carnal people that are around today. They would be literally changed through the regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.

This is what we read in Titus 3:  5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the holy Ghost. There will be a whole new generation of people who would be purified and sanctified by the Holy Spirit and they would be the saints of the New Earth and new Heaven.

In the natural this would be very difficult but we live in the Spirit and by the Holy Spirit. When we totally surrender our lives to Him, He will take it and transform our lives to become a new creature. To explain this Paul wrote about this mystery in 2 Cor 5: 17 therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away, behold, all things are become new.

This transformation is not instant; in fact it is a life long journey and we need to choose to live purposefully in the Spirit and for Christ. We need to ask Jesus to change our hearts and create a new heart and a new spirit within us so that from now we would continually progress forward and onward into achieving a transformation that would change us into a new man for Christ.