23 May, 2010

THE END TIMES FACTS!

                                                                                               1 Timothy 3:1-5

Using the acronym THE END TIMES FACTS, we have the following prophecies from the BIBLE

TENSION– Matthew 24:6 says, “You will hear of wars and rumours of wars!”
Since World War 11 ended in 1945, there have been hundreds of wars throughout the world!
“But see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come!”

HOLY LAND RESTORED – “Ezekiel 36:24 says, “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land!” (This began in 1948)

EVANGELISM WORLDWIDE – Matthew 24:14 says, “And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come!” (The Gospel reached Mongolia – the last country to receive it) in 1990 – only twenty years ago.  The Wycliffe Bible translators claim that they will have a portion of Scripture in every language by the year 2025!

EDUCATION EXPLOSION - Daniel 12:4 says, “But Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret until the end times, when travel and knowledge will be vastly increased!”  Knowledge is increasing at an incredible rate since the introduction of the Internet in about 1990. This incredible increase has vastly increased the opportunity for proclaiming the Gospel to all nations!

NATIONAL DISASTERS – Matthew 24:7 says that “There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains!” The world of nature has been going through amazing upheaval and climate change in recent decades!  I was teaching at TIGS in 1989 and when I told this to a class there, they scoffed. But three months later, Australia had its own dramatic earthquake in Newcastle!

DISEASE – Luke 21:11 adds that there will be pestilences along with famine. Since 1980 there has been AIDS and Ebola disease, mad cow disease and bird flu etc!

FALSE PROPHETS – Luke 21:8 says “For many will come in my name, claiming I am HE!” Billy Graham claims that at the Los Angeles Olympics alone in 1972 there were more than 300 claiming to be Him!

APATHY – 2 Timothy 3:4 says Many will be “Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God!” Apathy is the spiritual disease of our time, as people pursue pleasure in every possible way!

CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION – Matthew 24:9 says, “You will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death!  From 30AD to 1900, there have been 15 million martyrs. In the twentieth century, 30 m!

TRAVEL EXPLOSION - Referred to in Daniel 12:4. Before 1950, many people worldwide never left their own village! Plane travel has totally exploded to now include billions!

SPIRITUAL OUTPOURING – Joel 2:28 says, “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people!” (This has happened to all ages, and every kind of person worldwide since 1900!)

Revelation 16:15 says, “Behold I come as a thief!” No-one knows the day or the hour! Be ready! “Blessed is he who stays awake!”

16 May, 2010

LIVIING IN THE NEW AGE

                                                                                                        Deuteronomy 18:9-13
These days, some people will pray to anything and everything except God.  A classic example involves the TV star David Hasselhoff, star of Baywatch for many years. He has reported that in June 1998, the year after Princess Diana died, a memorial service was held for her in the grounds of her ancestral home in England. When the day came, it was pouring rain, and David Hasselhoff  prayed to her to stop the rain so that the service could go ahead! And he says that the skies cleared – making this her greatest miracle of that day! But only God can answer prayer! And Jesus added that no-one comes to the Father except through Him! And as we come to communion this morning, we remember that through His death on the cross, we have forgiveness through Him also!
Each year Sydney has a Festival of Mind, Body and Spirit! Now since the Bible tells us that we are made of these three components, it seems quite an appropriate kind of festival to have!  But the Bible also tells us to “test the spirits” and determine whether something is really of God, or whether we’re being led up the garden path!  Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, “May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ!”
The Festival itself though, is not promoting the Christian faith! It is promoting a different kind of faith which its supporters call “The New Age” or “The Age of Aquarius!” Some of the secular radio stations are quite happy to advertise this festival with all its options, but would never promote the Christian faith as one of the options.
 In the 1960s, the Age of Aquarius was the ascendancy of human achievement, when any traditions seen as restrictive were abandoned by many, and this included the Christian faith! But since man is a spiritual being, the New Age has ushered in a whole range of beliefs and practices to fill this need! Most of them have been around for thousands of years, and therefore the New Age should really be called the Old Age! It involves people are searching outside the truth of God and into the spirit world! This was predicted in 1 Timothy 4:1 as a sign of the end times,  “The Spirit clearly says that in the later times, some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons!”
Satan told Adam and Eve in the garden, that they could taste the forbidden fruit and become like God! New Age exponents also accept this idea and have been tasting the forbidden fruit we have just read about so that they would each become like gods! They believe that they themselves are gods, because they believe that “everything there is can be found in the self”! For this reason, they promote the idea of “consciousness raising” activities so that they can discover new truths within themselves through expanding their minds! But what they are really doing is opening their minds to every kind of demonic force available!
This type of activity is called the Occult – which means ‘hidden’ because people seek what is hidden from general human knowledge! Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever!” Whereas Christianity is a revelation of God, the New Age is an attempt to explore what is hidden from us, especially our individual futures! Whereas the occult was previously taboo in our society because of the commands of Duteronomy, our secular society now accepts the whole gamut of these alternate practices as being “respectable”! I’m referring her to such things as wirchcraft, psychic readings, fortune telling and so on! But the new age is simply the occult with a sugar coating! But 1 John 2:24 says, “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you!”
The Bible teaches that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19) We either allow Him control of our minds and spirits as well, or we surrender to the other spirits! Whereas the Holy Spirit’s main function is to convict us of our sin, and lead us away from it, the New Age philosophy doesn’t believe in sin or evil as such! But sadly, those who think there is no sin live in a fool’s paradise! Jesus said, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves! Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves!”
Proverbs 14:12 also gives us a warning: “There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death!” We can’t afford to make the wrong choices! Only Jesus gives us life!  If you would like to seek Jesus more fully today, a number of us are willing to talk to you about this opportunity!


09 May, 2010

HOW SACRED IS HUMAN LIFE?

                                 Psalm 139: 12-15, Psalm 92: 12-15
The day Jesus was crucified could also be described as the first Mother’s Day! While Jesus hung on the Cross in excruciating pain, His first thought was for His mother. Speaking directly to her, he said to her, “Behold your son!” referring not to Himself, but to His best mate John, who was assigned to look after her for the rest of her life! Likewise, America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln once said, “God bless my mother! All I am or hope to be, I owe to her!”
As we honour our mothers today – whether they are with us or not – we remember that without them, we would not be here! When I taught Scripture at St George Girls’ High School some years ago, I had a discussion with my Year 10 class about Abortion and a number of the girls were all in favour of it! I pointed out to them that if their mothers held the same opinion, they probably wouldn’t have been born themselves! Although scientists now know that the tiny embryo inside the mother is a living human being, this was first revealed again through Jesus’ mother Mary! When she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist, the arrival of Mary caused the baby to jump with excitement in his mother’s womb! But let’s get Mary into perspective! She acknowledged herself as a sinner when she sang the words in Luke Chapter 1: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour!” In referring to God as her Saviour, she admits that she needs to be saved from the penalty of her sin!
Our topic today is the sacredness of human life! A group of medical students was once challenged on the subject of abortion. They were given a test case and asked whether the baby should be aborted!  The case study said this: “The mother and fourth child already have tuberculosis! The father has syphilis! The first child is blind, and the second child has died. The third is a deaf mute. Would they abort the fifth child? Most of the students agree that this would be wise! But the lecturer tells them that they have just killed Beethoven! In other words, every child is a creation of God and deserves a chance to live and to love!
Our first Bible reading today tells us that “Every day of my life was recorded in your book! Every moment of my life was laid out before a single day had passed!”  This means that where a human life is artificially terminated, someone is interfering with God’s eternal plan – not only for that life, but also for the lives of those who would have been touched by that life! The sin which seemed to horrify God especially in the Old Testament times was the sacrifice of children! There are many instances where God wiped out whole tribes of people for that sin in particular! When God said “Be fruitful and multiply,” he did not want children to be used either as a contraceptive or a sacrifice!
God’s purpose is the opposite of the enemy, of whom Jesus says in John 10:10, The thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy!” Jesus says the opposite of Himself:  Ï have come that they may have life, and have it to the full!”
But what of the elderly people in nursing homes who aren’t living life to the full? Psalm 92:14 says, “The righteous will still bear fruit in old age!” My mother is 92 and is sadly a shrivelled version of her earlier self! (Some have even said the same of me!) But my mother continues to bear spiritual fruit in her life as she smiles at all who speak to her, and greets each one with a joyful response, as many of my friends can testify! Proverbs 16:31 says, “Grey hair is a crown of splendour: it is attained by a righteous life!”(which probably explains why I don’t have very much!) Genesis reminds us that each of us is made in the God’s likeness! All human life is therefore sacred! Even the most deformed or decayed person is a light of life and part of God’s plan – because each of us will one day be restored without pain or imperfections! Isaiah 35:5 says, “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy!