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Now Is The Time
My dear brothers and sisters, too long it has been since I have written to
you all. Please forgive me for the lateness of the hour where I have failed many
of you in the Lord with the encouragement and the uplifting of our faith. My
heart is broken and shattered as I see the coming of the Lord and the hearts of
man seeking the beauty of the world and all its desires and pleasures and not
our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now is the time more than ever to turn back to our
first love. Now is the time to seek the face of God his way and not our own. The
Lord said that when He comes, would He find faith. He will come for a pure and a
spotless bride. Now is the time to seek the Lord with all our hearts, our minds
and our souls. He does not want a lukewarm people, but a people that will serve
Him as unto death and in all righteousness and holiness.
We need to examine our hearts, examine the motives of our actions, examine
the motives of what comes from our lips and examine the way we live. Be sure to
know that if the Lord wants you to sleep, then sleep you must. If He wants you
to be out in the garden, then you'd better be out in the garden. If the Lord
wants you to pray, then pray and do not stop. If He wants you to be fasting,
then fast with everything that is within you, even if it is to the last breath
you take.
How many of us have been blessed by the Word of the Lord after service and
then gone straight to the coffee house with friends to drink coffee and talk
about everything except that which the Lord has given and spoken? How many of
us, with our own ears, hear the Word of the Lord spoken and then let that Word
go straight out the other ear? How many of us are all talk and no action? How
quick we are to volunteer ourselves for the job, yet in a heartbeat, fail to do
what we said we would do? We need to examine our hearts; let our yes be yes and
our nose be nos. We need to get out of the warm water and make the choice today
to be red hot and on fire for Christ and filled with the zeal of the Lord. We
need to be ready to fight the battles the Lord allows us to go through. Jesus is
coming sooner than you and I think. Now is the time to let the Lord light the
fire under our feet! It is a time for refining. The testing of our faith is
under trial.
The battle is fiercer than ever before. If you think you have gotten over
your besetting sin then think again. The besetting sin that we have all
struggled with since we were saved will seem stronger and even tougher to
overcome than before. We need to cling to Christ with everything within us.
When all is going well, we seem to automatically forget our first love. The
Lord gives us a house, a car and financial wealth. In the midst of all this, do
we still hold on to Him? Do we give Him thanks? Do we give Him the glory? Sadly,
many of us have fallen short of His grace and glory. Many of us let go of His
hand. But what happens when the finances go down, the house payment cannot be
paid and the car is repossessed? The first question is always, "Why?" We get
angry, stressed and our hearts start to harden. We start to feel as though the
Lord has left us.
My dear brothers and sisters, He did not leave us. We leave Him often. The
Lord gives and takes away. In both cases, we never seem to thank Him and we are
still never satisfied. In the midst of the trials and the tests, I encourage you
all in the Lord not to be downcast, but to give God the glory. Daniel always
gave God the glory in every situation the Lord placed him in. Even in captivity,
he gave God the glory. In the lions den he gave God the glory. Every time his
life was on the line, he gave God the glory. We all need to look in the word and
read about Daniel. It is not a fairy tale story. It is real. It really did
happen.
In every situation we are in, we need to give thanks to the Lord. Even if we
find ourselves walking to work, eating rice and beans everyday, have no clothing
on our backs or shoes on our feet. The greatest thing we could ever do before we
hit the rock at the bottom of the cliff is give God the glory. Let our hearts be
filled with worship and our minds set on praising the Lord. If you are sick and
you know of a friend who is sick also, pray for them. You will find so much joy
in seeing your prayer answered, as you believe when you pray and see your friend
regaining strength and health to his body. If you see someone struggling to make
ends meet, maybe that extra loaf of bread in your freezer is the key they need
to see that the Lord is still looking out and providing for them.
Dear brothers and sisters, go to your prayer closet where it is just you and
God. Pray and stay in prayer until you have found the Lord. Seek His face while
there is still time. Darkness is upon the earth and the enemy is looking and
hunting down the weak vessels. Seek the Lord while he can still be found! Do not
wait until it is too late. Before the Lord can come for all He has appointed and
chosen, repentance must come. I cannot help but tell you enough times to examine
your hearts and seek the Lord. Through examination will come conviction. Through
conviction will come repentance. Through true repentance will come forgiveness,
which will lead to an everlasting life with Christ.
Revelation 3:19-21 – As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous
therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear
my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and
he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
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