O Lord, how many are my foes!  How many rise up against me!  Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.”  Lord, there are many enemies and our lives are filled with many trials.  Enemies abroad, enemies in our own nation.  Enemies far and near who plot our destruction.  They mock You, Lord, and say You will not keep us from harm.  But I say You will protect those who follow You.  I trust in Your promises, Lord.

But You are a shield around me, O Lord; You bestow glory on me and lift up my head.  To the Lord I cry aloud, and He answers me from His holy hill.  I know You are near, Lord.  I will worry not about my enemies and the harm they desire to do.  I will worry not about the economy, the state of the world or anything that brings anxiousness.  I will worry not, Lord, because when I bring all my worries to You, I know You listen.  I know You are near.  I know You will not break Your promises, Lord, and I trust only in You.

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.  I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.  No matter what happens, Lord, I know as Your follower You will give me provision.  Although my world seems to crumble around me, You Lord, do not crumble.  You are my Rock and my Firm Foundation and You will not be moved.  I will fear not because I have You, Lord.  And because I am Yours, and You are mine, whom do I have to fear but You?  Who can be against me when the Lord is always with me?

Arise, O Lord!  Deliver me, O my God!  Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.  I pray for You to come, Lord Jesus.  Free this world from all its violence and sin.  Rule and reign in righteousness forevermore.  I long for the day we can live in Your holy presence forever.  Gone will be all the wicked and the evil doers.  Only Your Kingdom will remain and those who love You, Lord.

From the Lord comes deliverance.  May Your blessing be on Your people.  The Lord is the only One who can truly save.  All others promise with deceitful words and malicious actions.  They manipulate and lie with false tongues.  Only the Lord can deliver us from all our enemies, all our sin, all our mistakes and all our wickedness.  Come, Lord Jesus.  I pray You come and deliver us.

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?  All the nations of the world are full of evil with contemptous plans and schemes of wickedness.  The kings of the earth take their stand and the the rulers gather together against the Lord and His Anointed One.  The rulers of the nations of the world turn their backs on the Lord.  All their intentions are filled with sin.  Their worldly view has shadowed and darkened their thoughts and hearts for the Lord until there is nothing left but hate toward the Father and His Son.  Let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters.  They blame the consequences of their evil actions on the Heavenly Creator and those who follow Him.  They accuse those who live in the ways of the Lord for their destruction.  They are filled with malice for anyone who loves the Lord. 

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.  Who is a man to plot against the Lord?  He is but dirt and the Lord is the ruler and reigner over all.  The Lord knows their evil hearts and finds folly in their presumptuous plans.  Then He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath saying, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.”  Those against the Lord and His Chosen People Israel are doomed.  The Lord puts all who are in power in their position, they are not there by there own doing.  The Lord will bring destruction upon all who are against Him and His Holy Son, Jesus. 

I will proclaim the decree of the Lord:  Let Your followers be silent no longer, Lord.  May we speak Your ways to all and declare Your word:

He said to me, “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.”  The Lord is Holy and is Father to all.  Everything created was created by Him and there is nothing and no one who was not created by the Lord.  “Ask of Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession.”  The world and all that is in it, all nations and peoples, all things belong to the Lord Jesus.  The universe and everything in it belongs to the Lord.  He is King of all!  “You will rule them with an iron scepter; You will dash them to pieces like pottery.”  The Lord is coming and He will rule the whole world with righteousness, justice and perfection.  None will be able to scheme with evil thoughts and intentions. 

Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.  Listen to the Most High, turn your hearts to the Lord.  Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.  Do not place yourself above the Lord in your heart and in your thoughts.  No one is greater than He.  Serve the Lord in all you do.  Stop your foolish and selfish ways.  Fear Him, do not mock Him.  Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for His wrath can flare up in a moment.  The Lord is patient with His creation, but His patience draws to an end.  Turn from your evil ways now, He is coming and He is coming with great vengeance and fury for those who do not know Him as Lord. 

Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.  Turn from destruction and ruin.  Turn from judgment and fury.  Follow the Lord who will bring rescue, comfort and life to those who follow Him.  Be blessed with His love or be damned for eternity.  He is offering Himself to You now, but soon it will be too late to come to Him.  Take heed and come to Him today.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  America, dear Lord, has become the counsel of the wicked, we live the way of sinners and we mock those who act and live righteously.  The blessed man’s delight is in the law of Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.  How can we be blessed, Lord, when we delight not in You but in our own wicked ways?  We choose not to believe in You, oh Lord, but instead we run from You and deny You day in and day out.  The blessed man is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  We were planted by streams of water, Lord, You planted us there.  But we uprooted our righteousness and sowed ourselves in mire and muck.  We no longer yield fruit but poison and our nation is withering away with each passing day.  Whatever the blessed man does prospers.  The only thing we prosper in, Lord, is wickedness and sin.  Our blessing removed, our judgment begun. 

The wicked are like chaff that the wind blows away.  Our nation, once rich and blessed is now the chaff you warned us about, Lord.  We are full of wicked and evil notions.  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.  We deserve Your righteous judgment, Lord.  We belong not with the righteous.  How can we stand in Your presence, dear Lord, when we refuse to even bow down before You? 

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.  Lord, you have watched us flee further and further away from You.  Truly our nation is running towards destruction. 

Lord, we need Your guidance today.  Help us to see that the further we are from You, the closer we are to our own ruin.  Open our nation’s eyes and hearts, Lord, so we may know that You are the only way to life and blessing.  Help us to know that when we turn from You and Your ways, Your judgment comes upon us swiftly and severly.  You, Lord, are willing to forgive us all our sins.  Help us to come to You and ask for forgiveness, help us to live and walk in Your ways so that we can again be in Your favor.  Only You, Lord, are righteous in everything.  Only You, Lord, can lead us to everlasting life.

As Christians, we are to defend the Jewish people and nation.  They are God’s Chosen People and they always have been and always will be.  Sure, some people claim that since it was the Jews who crucified Jesus, they lost their “chosen” status with God and the church became the rightful heirs to that claim.  Well, I have news for you…you are DEAD wrong!!  The Jews are still the people of God, and when it comes to crucifying the Lord Jesus, guess what?  We ALL did that because of our sins!  He willingly died on the cross for us!  And furthermore, what do you think Jesus was?  JEWISH!!  God tells us in Deuteronomy that when it comes to the Jewish people, He will bless those that bless them and CURSE THOSE WHO CURSE THEM!!  And that, my friends, is not an idle threat because God does what God says.  We all should take heed and stand beside Israel in their hour of need!

Back to Ahmadinejad…remember when he came to the U.S. to speak to the college students?  He is full of lies as I believe he is from the father of all lies, satan himself.  He will say anything to appease the world while in his heart he schemes and plots and manipulates to destroy all those he hates so much.  And this includes Christians as well as the Jewish people.  He is applying for a visa right now to gain entrance again to the U.S.  Please stand against this.  Please tell the White House that you do not want to see this proven enemy of Israel, this terrorist, this modern day Hitler gain access into our country!  Please sign the petition at this link:  http://tool.donation-net.net/entrance/enter.cfm?dn=1032&source=2054&id=393628&commid=92357730&CFID=5824976&CFTOKEN=58220895

PLEASE DO IT TODAY!!

In John 16:5-12, Jesus is coming to the time when He will be arrested and crucified and He tells His disciples in verse 7, “But I tell you the truth:  It is for your good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”  Here we see that Jesus sent someone called the ‘Counselor’ or in some translations, ‘Helper’.  What will this Helper help us with exactly?  Let’s keep reading in verse 8-15, “When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:  in regard to sin, because men do not believe in Me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see Me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.  I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.  He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.  He will bring glory to Me by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you.  All that belongs to the Father is Mine.  That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is Mine and make it known to you.”

So, what the holy heck does all that mean and what does it say about the Holy Spirit?  From this passage, we know that the Spirit that Jesus is sending will lead us to truth in all things.  Have you ever known what is the right thing to do but you just can’t bear to do it and end up doing or saying the wrong thing?  That voice pulling you to do the right thing…that’s the Holy Spirit!  And the Holy Spirit helps us come into a relationship with the Lord and know who He is.  The world tries to block out God from their lives and make it seem like He is only a figment of imagination, a man-made deity who is only there to make people feel better and behave better.  The fact of the matter is, God is real and no matter how much the world tries to pull away from Him, the Holy Spirit is always there telling everyone the truth and showing them that God is real.  Whether people choose to listen to the Spirit or not is another story, but He is there…always.

So how do we get this “Holy Spirit”?  The Holy Spirit is always there.  At first, He tries to lead you into a relationship with the Creator, God.  After we have been baptized and accept our relationship with the Lord, the Holy Spirit then begins to work on us as followers of Jesus.  You watch pornography?  He’s going to convict you of it because it is not what God desires for us.  You treat others badly?  Guess Who?  Yup, conviction.  You gamble your children’s college fund?  You lie?  You manipulate?  The Holy Spirit will let you know you’re messing up.  What exactly is conviction?  Well, first of all, you are not being condemned!  You are not going to go to hell because you sinned.  We’re all sinners.  That’s why Jesus died for us.  He atoned for our sins when He was nailed to the cross.  So we ask for forgiveness and He is faithful to give it to us if we are truly sorry.  No, conviction is that guilt you feel.  It’s that “I probably shouldn’t have done that” or “Maybe that isn’t such a good idea after all.”  And He will work on you and work in you to help you live more the life that Jesus desires for us.  It’s a lifelong process.  It took us years and years to become the way we are, we’re not going to wake up the day after we’re baptized and be perfect.  In fact, we’ll never be perfect until the day we’re with the Lord.  We may get angry at the Holy Spirit and feel like He’s got His nose in our everyday lives and we don’t like it, but He’s there to make us better.  Again, we’re not God and even though we may feel like we know the best way, we don’t.  But God does, and the Spirit speaks to us from God.

There are many other things the Holy Spirit does.  He enables us with “spiritual gifts” that we can use.  These gifts include wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, prophecy and others, (see 1 Corinthians 7-11).  He prays for us as is seen in Romans 8:26-27, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words can not express.  And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”  Have you ever prayed this prayer…”HELP!”  Oh yeah, that’s one of my favorites!  But I can rely on the Holy Spirit to tell God exactly what I need.  The Holy Spirit also comforts us.  Once I felt very alone.  I can get very anxious about a lot of things and feeling alone and afraid is one of those things.  (See, the Bible says not to be anxious about anything…still a work in progress.  It really is a lifelong process!)  Anyways, I had an immediate feeling of peace and I knew, I absolutely without a doubt knew right then, that I am never alone.  God is always there…everywhere.

If you’re not a believer of the One True God yet, I pray the Holy Spirit is working on you to bring you into a relationship with the Lord.  It is the best, most exciting, most joy-filled, awesome relationship you will ever have.  It can be scary and you can feel unsure sometimes when you’re in it, but the Holy Spirit will be there to comfort you and help you through all those feelings.  I hope you come to the Lord today.  He hopes you do too!

Have you noticed that the lines of what’s right and what’s wrong are getting more and more unclear these days?  What would never be considered right in the past is now so normal that we are numb to it and consider it a part of everyday life.  Consider foul language.  In the past, cussing was unclassy and dirty.  It even made people wince when they heard it.  Nowadays, cussing can be seen on almost every tv channel no matter what time of the day it is.  I hear men and women cuss all the time.  People don’t wince anymore when they hear foul language, they’ve become numb to it…it has become justified and ‘normal’.  It’s still unclassy in my opinion, but I myself have done it more times than I’m willing to admit to you here.

Modesty is a thing of the past.  I remember my mother watching the movie “Grease”.  When Olivia Newton John ‘changed’ near the end of the movie to gain John Travolta’s affections by becoming more his style, my mom said, “That’s not how it was back then!  If a girl dressed like that she would’ve been laughed out of the school!”  Look at us now, if shorts get any shorter, we might as well just go without anything on at all.  Clothes worn today leave little, if anything, for imagination.  And if that’s your style, I guess more power to you.  My point is, things have changed drastically, and not all things have changed for the better.  In fact, in my opinion, things have gone from bad to worse and we keep going further and further from the ‘right way’ and we speed towards destruction.  Just because something is socially right, it could still be morally wrong.

In America, its especially difficult to tell people they are doing something wrong, or even to have a voiced opinion on something.  “It’s a free country, we’re all entitled to do and say whatever we like,” right?  And people don’t like absolutes.  Today’s society can’t accept that something is absolutely right or absolutely wrong.  Instead, everything is ‘relative’.  Yes, we are a free country, but that doesn’t mean we’re “entitled” to do whatever we like.  Just because we’re free, the rules of morality aren’t changed.  And yes, there are lots of absolutes.  1+1=2…that’s an absolute.  If you jump off a building, you will fall…that’s an absolute.  And guess what?  The Bible is an absolute too because God is an absolute. 

Listen to what God said in Jeremiah 8:12, “Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct?  No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush,” (sound familiar?  When is the last time you blushed because of something someone did?), “So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished.”  God sees everything and just because we as a society have decided that something is all right, if God says it isn’t, it isn’t.  He will judge everyone and if you think that when you are standing in front of Him you can say that the Supreme Court ruled that you could do this or that, that He will take that into consideration…your absolutely wrong.  God’s way is the only way and His rules are the only rules.  The rules He gives us aren’t to say “Nanee Nanee Boo Boo, I’m God and you have to do it My way”.  His rules are to help us and guide us so that our lives aren’t disgraced and we can live happily and healthily.  He is God and because He is God, He knows what’s best for us.  I mean geez, He created us, don’t you think He knows what’s best for us?

Have we fallen short of what God intended for us?  Yes, way short and falling deeper quickly.  Will God bring judgement on everyone for their actions?  Yes He will, all people, all nations…including America.  What can we do?  We can start living the way God tells us to live in His word.  We can repent of all our sins and ask forgiveness from the Lord.  We can find refuge in Jesus who will not only cover all of our sins and save us from God’s wrath, but will change our lives when He enters them and help us to truly know the difference between right and wrong.  We can pray that our world comes to know the Lord before its too late.  Will God forgive us if we believe and follow Jesus, His Son?  Oh look there…another absolute!

The Book of Micah in the Bible was probably written somewhere between 735 and 700 B.C.  In Micah 5:2 we read, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”  Jesus was born in Bethlehem and His blood lines (through Mary) are from the tribe of Judah.  He is returning at the end of the tribulation period and will rule and reign from Jerusalem in Israel.  Jesus was there before the creation of the universe.  So in this verse we see 100% accuracy from a book written between 700 to 735 years before the birth of Christ even occured.  But to overcome any critics that may say I am using “circular reasoning” in that Jesus is not ruling over Israel right now and unless you believe in Him and Father God as the Creator, how can you prove He’s from ancient times, let me give you a more modernistic example of prophecy coming true.

Let’s look at Ezekiel 37.  In this chapter in the Bible Ezekiel is looking at a valley of dry, dead bones.  The Lord says to him that he will breathe breath into the bones and give them life.  As Ezekiel is watching the bones, they come together with tendons, flesh and skin and then the Lord breathes life into them.  What the heck do bones have to do with anything you ask?  In Ezekiel 37:11-13, the Lord explains to Ezekiel that the dry bones are the people of Israel.  Up until this time they have been scattered about by the people who have conquered them, but the Lord tells Ezekiel that he will bring them back together into their own land.  On May 14, 1948, Israel was declared a state after years and years and years and years of not being a country.  It’s the only nation in history to have it’s people disbursed to so many different places that has been able to come back as a nation years and centuries after it was conquered by enemy nations.  But when the Jewish people began to come back to Israel, it was a dry, dead, desert place.  Life there seemed dead.  But the Lord told Ezekiel that it would flourish after His people (the Jews) returned.  In Ezekiel 36:30, “I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the fieeld, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine.”  Do you know that today in Israel, their agriculture and citrus exports to the world has become more than a 3 billion dollar industry?  Life and agriculture has surely flourished since the Jews have come back to their homeland…just as God promised it would.  Did I mention that the Book of Ezekiel was written probably between 590 to 570 B.C.?  Everything fulfilled 100% to the letter as it was shown to Ezekiel.

Zechariah 9:9 says, “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jersalem!  See, your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  Zechariah was written probably between 520 and 518 B.C.  When Jesus entered Jerusalem during Passover Week, the same week He was to be crucified, He entered riding the foal of a donkey that he had asked His disciples to get.    In Zechariah 11:12-13 says, “I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it. So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.  And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”-the handsome price at which they priced me!”  Jesus was betrayed by his disciple Judas for thirty pieces of silver…over 500 years after this verse was written!

These are just a very little few of the many, many prophecies in the Bible which have already been fulfilled to the letter…100%…with no errors!  Only God could do that, man just isn’t smart enough.  People may say its coincidence, but with as many prophecies as there are about Jesus alone in the Old Testament that have come true completely and accurately, 100%, it is mathematically impossible for even a few of them to have been fulfilled so exactly by chance or coincidence, let alone all of them!  This is proof positive for me that the Bible is truth.  God tells us in His Word that he knows the end from the beginning and He has shared it with us through His Word.  It is another way to know that He is God and the Bible is God’s Word.

I’ll discuss the reasons I believe in God, Yahweh, in the short future.  I hope you can come to know Christ if you don’t know Him already.  He really is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Listen to what the God of the Bible says in John 14:6, “Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  We can tell from this verse that if we want to be close to God the father, Jesus is the only way to do so.  But does God want to have a relationship with us?  Let’s see what the Bible says in John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”  From this verse we can see that, yes, God loves us and has shown us by sending His Son Jesus to us.  Can we have eternal life?  Yes!  This verse says that when we believe in Jesus, we will have eternal life.  But, we are sinners.  Will God accept us?  We can also see from this verse that Jesus did not come to condemn us, but to save us.  How?

Colossians 2:13-14 says, “When you were dead in your sins and (in your sinful nature), God made you alive with Christ (Jesus).  He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”  God is a perfect God.  He is without sin and because He is perfect and without sin, God can not accept sin.  God requires a blood sacrifice for sin.  In the Old Testament, animals were sacrificied to attone for the people’s sins, but all the animals in the world couldn’t cover the sins of man.  God loves us so much, that He sent us His perfect and sinless Son.  Jesus was crucified on the cross and died willingly to be the blood atonement for our sin.  And with Jesus’ death on the cross, sin was forgiven once and for all.  No more blood sacrifices were needed or will ever be needed again.  Christ’s death was the only atonement any of us will ever need.  Romans 5:6-8 says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  So, Jesus died to atone for our sins and if we confess them to Him, our sins will be forgiven and we will be right with God.  There is no other way to be forgiven and washed clean from our sin.  Only through Jesus can we be cleansed from all unrighteousness.

So, if Christ has forgiven us our sin, what requirements do we need to fulfill to please God and gain eternal life?  In Luke 10:25-27, Jesus was asked what one must do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”  To be right with God and have the hope of eternal life, to have forgiveness of all our sin and to be secure and without a doubt of our future in Heaven with the Creator, Yahweh, we must first believe in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  We must believe and know that without Jesus, we can not be saved.  We must confess our sins to the Lord and ask His forgiveness.  And we must love.  Love the Lord and love each other.  Once you get to know the Lord, loving Him is easy and loving others doesn’t seem so impossible.  Its not about praying a certain way at a certain time of day, its not about sacraments or religious traditions…its all about Jesus.

Won’t you ask the Lord to come into your heart right now?  He loves you so very much and is waiting for you.  He wants to be a part of your life and He wants to be there now.  If you are ready to have unconditional love forever and throughout eternity, won’t you pray right now?  Pray, “Lord Jesus, Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, I ask you to forgive me of my sin.  Come into my heart, Lord.  Be Lord over my life and all that’s in it.  Lord, I believe in you and I thank you for believing in me and loving me.  Thank you, Lord, for hearing my prayer and washing me clean of all my unrighteousness.  You are Lord alone and its in your name, Lord Jesus, that I pray and ask all these things.  Amen.”  If you just prayed that prayer, God bless you and welcome to the family of Christ.  If you didn’t pray that prayer, or if your just not sure, won’t you think about it?  What have you got to lose?  Think it over and I hope and pray that you make the right decision and come to Christ today.  God bless you!

While Jesus was here, He gave His disciples the signs that would preempt His coming.  In Matthew 24:4-8, the signs of the beginning of the end are listed.  It says, (24:4-5) “Watch out that no one deceives you.  For many will come in my name, claiming, I am the Christ, and will deceive many.”  Today we have many cult leaders who claim themselves to be the Messiah.  We have different religions who claim that each individual is their own god.  When the antichrist comes, he will claim to be the Messiah and many will believe that he is.  Those who believe him will be destined for hell.  Matthew 24:6-7a says, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.  Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.”  Turn on the news at any given time and you will see the wars going on in the world.  Just this morning, more news was coming out of Georgia and how Russian tanks have not withdrawn even though the Russian president is claiming they have.  President Musharref is no longer president of Turkey and violence has erupted there.  Iraq is volatile and there are hostilities in Afghanistan.  Do you know that violence and wars will just continue to become worse and worse until Jesus returns?  But believers should not be troubled.  When Jesus returns He will rule with justice and peace and war and violence will finally be a thing of the past.  The more wars and violence that erupt, the more hopeful we can be knowing that these things must happen according to God’s Word and that Jesus predicted them to happen before His return.  Matthew 24:7b-8 says, “There will be famines and earthquakes in diverse places.  All these are the beginning of birth pains.”  There have been multiple earthquakes just this year in China, California, under the ocean and other locales.  Food shortages have reached the critical stage all over the earth and food prices alone are creating havoc right here in the USA.

Today’s world saddens me but at the same time I have hope.  Do you?  If you accept Jesus right here, right now, you can have hope as well.  Tell Him, “Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.  I know that you died for me to wash away all my sins.  I ask you Lord to come into my life, come into my heart.  I accept you today as Lord of my life and Savior of all.  Thank you Lord for forgiving me my sins.”  That’s all it takes to bring the Lord of hope into your life.  Won’t you accept Him today before its too late?  He is coming soon.  He promised.  Don’t wait, invite Him into your life right now.  He loves you and is waiting for you.

I have found that when the Bible does use a symbol, the Bible is perfect at interpreting itself.  If you notice in Daniel 7:2-14, the Bible talks about Daniel’s vision of four beasts who come up out of the seas.  If you were to spiritualize these verses, you could make each beast symbolize whatever you wanted.  One person would interpret them as being one thing, while inevitably another person who interpret them in a different way.  But God’s Word interprets itself.  Notice in Daniel 7: 17-26, the Bible interprets exactly what each beast represents leaving no question as to what these verses mean…exactly.  This is just one of many examples of the Bible interpreting itself when a symbol is given.

Other chapters and verses in the Bible don’t need interpretation at all.  They say exactly what they mean and mean exactly what they say.  Why do people take what is written and decide that it isn’t what it means and it means something else?  God gave us His Word, the Bible.  You don’t have to be a theologian or have a doctorate degree in hermeneutics to understand it.  God wants each one of us to be able to understand it completely, exactly and easily.  We may not understand something said in the Bible or even like what it says, nonetheless, that doesn’t give us the right to change it to mean whatever we want it to.  If you say you believe in God, if you say you believe in the Bible, can you not believe God enough to say what He means and mean what He says in His Word?