Month: September 2025

Doubters can refuse God’s Sovereignty…they can reject His Divine Authority, and deny His power. But God created time, it’s under His control, and someday He will suspend it. It’s called the Day of the Lord, or The Second Coming as seen in Obadiah 21 and Revelation 11:15, when God’s promise of a new moral order will happen here on earth as He rules over all the nations. (Psalm 22:28) It will be a time of repentant submission as, “Before Me every knee will bow; by Me every tongue will swear, for in the Lord alone are righteousness and strength.” (Isaiah 45:23-24) On this day of judgment and deliverance, every human on earth will realize either with joy or agony what Paul wrote was true in Ephesians 4:5-6, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism; One God and Father of all, Who is over all and through all and in all.”

The ultimate choice is ours to yield our will to God’s Will. It says here that the benefit will be peace, not internal hostility and unrest…and who couldn’t use a little peace right now? We are then given the chance to receive God’s Divine Law and allow it to be establish in our heart… where it can flourish and grow. And who couldn’t use some Godly wisdom about now? Finally, the gist of all these verses are…we need to change and turn back to the God Who created us…but the choice, chance and change is all up to us.

In His discourse with the disciples in this verse, Jesus is predicting their abandonment of Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. (Matthew 26:56) But earlier in John 8:29, He had also told them, “The One Who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone.” So today, we can take much comfort from this fact… that even when we feel deserted and left behind by people, the Lord has not, nor will ever, forsake us. In Deuteronomy 31:6 it tells us that, “The Lord goes with you, He will never leave you nor forsake you.” which is also repeated in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Thus, with this kind of Divine reassurance, we really don’t have anything to fear, for the Lord is always with us. (Isaiah 41:10)

Jesus was very candid with His disciples in this passage…harkening back to the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, who wrote, “Your brothers will hate you because of My Name.” (Isaiah 66:5) This opposition between God’s people and the world-order is nothing new…it’s been happening since Biblical times when the faithful were cast out of the community for their beliefs. So regardless of the persecution we may have to endure, we must always remember this one thing…the world’s hatred isn’t due to what we’re doing wrong, but rather in what we’re doing right in the eyes of the Lord…namely our allegiance to Christ Jesus.

Elsewhere in Scriptures, the Apostle Paul again calls our present sufferings “light and momentary afflictions” in contrast to the eternal blessings that await us. (II Corinthians 4:17) Thus, sharing in His suffering is the pathway to sharing in His glory…meaning a transformational manifestation of God’s glory in our personal being. And as we consider this revelation, it will more than wipe out all our present and transient harm, pain, and loss…as we look forward on hope to the future as children of God. But while we’re in the midst of these sufferings it’s still hard. That’s why Peter reminds us to, “Rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.” (I Peter 4:13) In other words, When we suffer for the sake of Christ, we are enduring because of His great love for us…and as we experience mistreatment, it can only unit us closer to Him.

In the verse prior, Paul admonishes us to not be anxious about anything…but many times, especially in the volatile atmosphere of the world today, this is easier said than done. We know that anxiety is faltering faith and that peace is the supreme remedy for all our fears…but as we’ve been hit with a barrage of overwhelming pictures and words on Social Media lately…we can’t help but feel upset. Malachi 2:15 reminds us of our responsible to “Guard yourself”….in other words, to protect our hearts and minds by recognizing triggers that cause fear & anxiety and turning away from them. One of Paul’s wonderful prayers for us is found in Ephesians 3:14-20, where he asks for God’s love to transform our hearts and minds with stability and depth of knowledge. For anxiety can’t abide within when we are truly able to grasp His great love for us.

The 11th Chapter in Hebrews prior to this one has been called “The Great Faith Chapter” – a famous discourse on the faithful men and women of the Old Testament…their example encouraging and admonishing us to remain faithful to the certainty of receiving what God has promised, but yet not given. While their hope was based on experiential knowledge of what they had personally observed and encountered, we can still glean much from their single-mindedness and determination to not surrender or succumb to trials and struggles. Psalm 25:15 tells us that, “My eyes are ever towards the Lord…” For when we fix our eyes on Jesus, and not our circumstances, we too can have that type of hopeful trust in our future reward.

This unsettling passage describes the rejoicing of the residents of the earth over the death of two prophets, symbolizing the world’s rejection of God’s Message and the celebration (however temporary) of evil triumphing over good. These two witnesses had been sent by God to prophesy and perform miracles during a time of great tribulation. They are described as tormenting the inhabitants of the earth with their messages, and the plagues they brought upon the people. When they are murdered by a beast that rises from the abyss, the people of the earth rejoice and celebrate…for they’ve finally been silenced. The Book of Revelation shows us very plainly that humanity consists of two groups: the people of God, whose citizenship is in heaven, (Philippians 3:20) and in stark opposition, the rebellious and idolatrous earth-dwellers. Thus, what Revelation 11 reveals to us is the intense discomfort that God’s Truth & Light brings to those entrenched in sin, the ongoing conflict between good & evil, and the total rejection of Divine Authority by the world.

For forty days following His Resurrection, Jesus spent time with His disciples preparing them, (and those who would become the early Church) for what was next. It was during this time that He gave them “The Great Commission”…that the Gospel Message must go into the whole world. (Matthew 28:19) And then the day of Pentecost happened, and the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them. (Acts 2:1-4) But the fledgling Church was very comfortable as a group together, and it took the murder of Stephen to scatter them to the most remote areas (as they were told by Jesus to do in the first place.) Therefore, the Church today can’t stay hidden within the walls of the building and still obey Jesus by spreading the Gospel widely. We must go outside the confines and safety of the building…clothed with the power from on high…and speak the Gospel boldly to everyone.

The first martyr to die for his Christian beliefs was Stephen…a very persuasive public speaker who gave a very masterful, clear and concise presentation of the Gospel Message. And it was for this that he was stoned to death by a furious mob who refused to listen. The Greek word for martyr means witness…a steadfast refusal to compromise in the face of suffering…with their witnessing of Jesus Christ becoming the actual cause of their death. Stephen was the first, but many followed in their unwavering faith to bring light and truth to a very dark world regardless of the persecution…the Apostle James, Apostle Simon Peter, and the Apostle Paul all were martyred for their faith. So I wonder if it was just a coincidence that Peter wrote in I Peter 4:12-19, exhorting fellow Christians that suffering and persecution was part of God’s Will, and that they needed to stand firm in their faith, refuse to back down, remain unafraid of what may happen, and entrust their souls to God.