We Are One Day Closer

Israel-Hamas War

No doubt, you’ve seen the awful headlines, but does the Israel-Hamas war signal that our generation is living in the End Times?

The disturbing images and reports on the news are horrific, including the mass murder of women, children, and the elderly.

We are witnessing blatant evil and depravity.

Reading the words of our Savior, we learn that Jesus taught His disciples about birth pains and the end times events to come.

It’s hard to miss the fact that countries are lining up against Israel, as prophesied.

But, there’s a big problem when people engage in date-setting and, in some cases, write books about specific dates.

Jesus said to His followers in Mark 13:

³²But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

³³“Watch out, stay alert; for you do not know when the appointed time is. – Mark 13:32-33, (NASB).¹

“No one knows” means exactly that – “no one knows!”

No book author, Christian preacher, false teacher, or church knows exactly when the glorious return of Jesus Christ (His Second Coming) will happen.

If God wanted us as His creation to know, He would have told us.

The Rapture hasn’t even happened yet.

The Church is still here.

Here’s what we do know for sure about God’s timing . . . we are 100% guaranteed, no question, absolutely sure that we are one day closer.

That’s it.

We are one day closer, and Jesus’ return is near – er.

Until His return, the horrific events we are witnessing in the headlines (and more to come) are the result of living in a fallen world.

The world needs Jesus!

Photo by Elianna Gill on Unsplash

One Day Closer, But Why Don’t We Know the Date?

Why didn’t God tell us the date?

God is sovereign.

Only He knows the big picture of events – the beginning and the end.

Since we don’t know the time or date, we should always be ready.

The verse quoted above from Mark 13 is clear – in essence, “stay alert.”

On the one hand, it serves as a vivid reminder that the things of this world are temporary (cf. 2 Peter 3:11–13; 1 John 2:15–17; 3:2–3), and that the redeemed are citizens of an eternal kingdom that is yet to be revealed on earth when the Lord comes in glory (Phil. 3:20–21; Heb. 11:16). On the other hand, it provides a compelling motivation for believers to proclaim the glorious gospel of Christ to those who are perishing, so that they might be saved from the impending judgment of God (cf. 2 Cor. 5:20–21; 2 Peter 3:14–15). – as quoted in preceptaustin.org.²

In the meantime, please pray for the release of the hostages in this brutal war.

We should also continue to pray for God’s will to be done, and that what we’re seeing on the world stage will bring the unsaved around the world to Christ.

It’s only through Jesus Christ, as His Elect, we will have eternal security and safety.

³⁵Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶Just as it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:35-39, (NASB).³

Come, Lord Jesus.

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²Precept Austin quotation is from the Mark 13 Commentary, [2023] Courtesy of Precept Austin, Subheading, “Watch For Him” Web. Accessed 21 October, 2023.

Our Exceptional God

Are You Too Stressed To Feel Blessed?

Do you remember those pop quizzes we used to have in high school?

You know the ones.

too stressed to feel blessed We would sit in class ready for a lesson and then the teacher would tell us to close our books and get ready for a pop quiz.

Those quizzes weren’t “open book” either.

Yikes.

We could see the stress levels rising on each other’s faces.

Considering the way things are going in today’s world, on a national and global level, you’d think everything is a pop quiz.

What are the answers? How are we to respond?

Disturbing situations we’d never think would happen . . . are happening.

Stress levels are high, and depression rates are soaring.¹

Are we too stressed to feel blessed?

All the more reason to bend our knees.

God has a sovereign plan for all of history. He is working all times and epochs, as well as our times, after the counsel of His will, for our ultimate good (Eph. 1:11; Rom. 8:28). We can know that when tragedy hits us, God was not asleep or on vacation. His sovereignty is a great comfort in a time of trial. We can know that He has designed our distressing situation to teach us more about what it means to take refuge in Him. – Stephen J. Cole, author and theologian.²

Too Stressed to Feel Blessed? Pray!

Prayer is our opportunity to fellowship with God.

He hears you and me.

In fact, Proverbs 15:29 reminds us, “The Lord is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.³

If you are alive, (and obviously you are because you’re reading this), God has a purpose for your life.

Our reason for living . . . is to glorify Him with our hearts, minds, and actions, even as the world around us is seemingly falling apart.

He wants to bless us.

When stressful times come into your life, trust Him to give you the strength that you need to withstand the challenge.

He loves you that much!

¹⁴For this reason I bend my knees before the Father, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, ¹⁶that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God. – Ephesians 3:14-19, (NASB).⁴

God is the God of our past, present, and future.

We honor God by trusting Him through all of it – no matter what the stresses are that we face.

To sum up, this is great food for thought from the late Christian missionary, Hudson Taylor:

I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize that He is able to carry out His will for me. It does not matter where He places me, or how. That is for Him to consider, not me, for in the easiest positions He will give me grace, and in the most difficult ones His grace is sufficient. – Hudson Taylor, Christian missionary to China.⁵

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¹Source Credit, [2023] Courtesy of news.gallup.com. By Dan Witters, from “U.S Depression rates Reach New Highs. ” Web. Accessed 13 October, 2023.

^{2 Steven J. Cole quotation is courtesy of bible.org. from “Psalm 31: The Remedy For Stress.” April 18, 2013. Web. Accessed October 15, 2023. Retrieved from https://bible.org/seriespage/psalm-31-remedy-stress}

⁵ Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) quotation. From AZquotes.com. Accessed October 13, 2023. Web. Retrieved October 14, 2023.

Our Exceptional God

The Majesty of God’s Creative Power

October 10, 2023 Gracie

Appreciating The Majesty of God’s Creative Power

God spoke creation into existence

Have you seen it yet?

The International Space Station (or ISS), that is.

It’s a blast to search for it if you know when to look up.

Depending on your location, the time of day, and some other deciding factors, you can see this technological wonder pass overhead in the darkened sky.

Fun fact: Did you know that the ISS travels at a speed of approximately 17,500 miles per hour? – as quoted on the nasa.gov website.¹

That’s slightly faster than the average speed limit on some of our Texas highways. 😉

The ISS is amazing, but it’s just one of many other out-of-this-world technological advancements that we can appreciate.

As a nation, we’ve come a long way since 1969.

I remember watching that pivotal moment in history when astronaut Neil Armstrong announced after his moon walk, “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Can you imagine the maximum operating power it takes in our modern day to operate the International Space Station?

The interconnecting systems are so complex that it’s hard for even an engineering genius to fully comprehend.

We are blessed with “even greater” than that.

The God of the Bible is the God of all power.

All power and all glory belong to Him.

Job tried, but even His description of God’s power doesn’t come close.

Behold, these are the fringes of His ways;
And how faint a word we hear of Him!
But His mighty thunder, who can understand?”– Job 26:14, (NASB).²

The Majesty of God’s Creative Power – Delight in God

The majesty of God’s creative power is on display every day in the world around us.

No human mind can conceive what it took to design our universe.

God spoke the whole creation into being!

The majesty of God's creative power

The concept of God as the Creator encompasses not only the role of a Designer and Engineer responsible for the intelligibility of the universe but also that of a skilled Artist. Nature can be amazing, almost to the point of incomprehensibility. The splendor of a sunset, the radiance of the stars, and the variety of animals are all evidence of a Creator and Designer. – Dr. Jonathan K. Corrado, PH.D., P.E., Christian theologian, and systems engineer.³

Heavenly Father, by the power of Your Word You made the heavens and the earth.

Thank You for who You are, and for sending us Your Son, Jesus.

# # #

¹Nasa quotation [2020] Courtesy of Nasa.gov, “Science takes time, even in a lab moving 17,500 miles per hour ” Web. Accessed 30 September, 2023.

³Quotation courtesy of The Institute For Creation Research. By Dr. Jonathan K. Corrado, PH.D., P.E. From “The Beauty of Creation: Created for God’s Own Glory”, September 7, 2023. para. 7. Web. Accessed 27th September, 2023. Retrieved from https://www.icr.org/article/beauty-of-creation

Our Exceptional God

The Joy Of Early Morning Prayer

October 3, 2023 Gracie

Starting Your Day Off Right With Early Morning Prayer

What better way to start the day off right than with early morning prayer.

Rise and shine!

It’s a new day to praise the Lord. 🙂

early morning prayer

How can a person really enjoy a beautiful sunrise or a sunset, a beautiful spring day or even a beautiful winter day, if he can’t thank the One who creates these things? – Warren Wiersbe, Moody Bible Church.²

Early Morning Prayer – Does Lengthy Equal Better?

Many times, I wake up as early as 4:30 in the morning.

That would have sounded awful to younger me, but I look forward to the early morning hours now.

I relish the peace and the quiet at the start of each new day.

And, as a bonus, in a few hours I get to watch that magnificent sun rise!

For me, it’s the perfect time for praying and seeking God’s wisdom.

Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth! – Psalm 46:10, (ESV).³

Do you know who else engaged in early morning prayer?

Jesus!

Mark 1:35 tells us that, “in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and prayed there for a time.”⁴

How long do our early morning prayers have to be?

That’s between you and God.

Not only does He hear our longer prayers, He also hears our short praises, even a simple, “Thank You Jesus.”

When I first became a Christian, I got a little caught up in that.

I would hear a friend pray a lengthy prayer and it would sound so eloquent.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that it’s not the length of our prayers that matter.

Long or short, eloquent or simple, He hears us!

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²Warren Wiersbe quotation from the Psalm 113 Commentary, [2021] Courtesy of Precept Austin. Subheading, “The Responsibility of Praise” Web. Accessed 2 October, 2023.

Our Exceptional God

When Suffering Comes

September 26, 2023 Gracie

When Suffering Comes Knocking at Your Door

Have you ever heard someone say, “If this is a test, I’d rather take the written”?

Yes, that was me (and too many others to count).

Every once in awhile, life can throw you a curveball.

Something really surreal or challenging is thrown in your direction (like a curveball) and you wonder if God is watching and will respond.

Child of God – He is and He will.

We may not like what’s going on, but God’s timing is always perfect.

Trust God when life (or even people) let you down.

Satan will use “people” to do his dirty work here on earth.

Look at how far our country has fallen in a matter of a few years.

Even with that heartbreak, as Christians, we know that ultimately, the Adversary . . . doesn’t . . . win.

Stand firm in the truths that God gives us in His Word.

One thing that’s helpful is to look back and remember every time God has carried you through past challenges.

Remember how happy you felt when a particular problem was resolved, or how your faith grew even stronger?

We are never promised tomorrow, but when tomorrow comes, it is a new day to strengthen your trust in the Lord.

I’ve been there – from dealing with a frustration(s) to having complete joy in God’s timing.

You and I can remember who we are in Christ and these obstacles are only temporary.

Joy

¹³In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, ¹⁴who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. – Ephesians 1:13-14, (NASB).¹

How beautiful is that passage from God’s Word!

The Apostle Paul assured the Ephesians of their inheritance as believers.

An “inheritance” is a guarantee.

Likewise, as believers today, we inherit God’s promises as well.

It’s through the gift of Jesus Christ that our Sovereign God has given us the final victory.

To Him be the glory!

When Suffering Comes, Pray!

In the midst of life’s challenges, we can be so wrapped up in our suffering, we can forget to pray.

Turning to God’s Word, what does the Bible say about this?

For one thing . . .

Suffering produces endurance

Endurance means you have “staying power.”

Pray for staying power!

God will carry you through.

when suffering comes

When suffering comes, and it will, perspective is everything. The question is, how will we respond?

We may suffer briefly, or all our lives. But let us not give up hope or engage in self-pity or bitterness. The end-result is what we all look forward to. Being with the Lord in heaven will put all things into perspective! – Bible.org.²

Seeing Beyond Your Suffering

When suffering comes of any kind, our weaknesses and doubts may resurface.

Never doubt God’s love for you!

A long, long time ago, God sent His Son Jesus to earth – as a baby born in a manger so that, at the appointed time, He would grow up to save us from our sins.

In the meantime, keep your eyes on Him, no matter what happens.

Trust

Until I learned to trust,
I did not learn to pray,
And I did not learn to fully trust
Till sorrows came my way.

Until I felt my weakness,
His strength I never knew,
Nor dreamed till I was stricken
That He would see me through.

Who deepest drinks of sorrow
Drinks deepest too of grace,
He sends the storm so He himself,
Can be our hiding place.

His heart that seeks our highest good
Knows well when things annoy,
We would not long for heaven
If earth held only joy.

Author unknown

²Bible.org quotation is from “Reasons for Human Suffering” February 2, 2009. Web. Accessed September 14, 2023. Retrieved from https://bible.org/illustration/reasons-human-suffering

Our Exceptional God

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