Could today be the last day of your life? In the last couple of months my life has drastically changed. I've always known about the Rapture. I've seen the frightening 70's film Thief in the Night and Left Behind, and more recently Jerusalem Countdown. I've seen the Rapture scenes and I have believed all my life that I would most certainly "go" in the Rapture. But lately I have started seeing things differently. I no longer am thinking of myself. I have a burden for others.
If I ask all my friends if they know what the Rapture is they all say yes. Most of them were alive in the 80s when many believed it was upon us. Most of you reading this might have even grown weary or leery of even thinking about the Rapture. Like the boy who cried wolf. At one time you were jumping every time you heard "wolf" but now you've learned better. Now you will not fall for those taunts anymore. You know better.
Did you know that before Israel became a nation again and before they gained control of Jerusalem that predictions or excitement about the Rapture being near was premature. So in around 2012 years not until around 50 years ago could people actually start seeing how near the Rapture might be. Is 50 years too long for you to hold out? Time to just throw in the towel and forget about it?
I get excited about stuff. I saw Titanic with Husband TEN times in the theatre! When I find something I like I talk about it. I love Aussie hairspray, Excedrin actually is THE headache medicine in my opinion, everyone should adopt a child, and pink is the greatest color in the world, even though Victoria's Secret has tried to claim it and trash it up. Guess what? There is NOTHING more exciting and worthy of hype then the day that Jesus descends to the clouds and yanks His Bride up out of this world and into His Presence forever. So why aren't we excited about it? Why aren't we passing our excitement onto the younger generations?
There aren't many times in my life I have ever said that I actually feel like the Lord gave me a word. Even though I know I hear from the Holy Spirit and that I am surrendered to His leading, I still stray from using those words because of their overuse in certain circles. But the other day I feel I got a word from God. My heart was so sad because I feel like Christians are not looking to the Rapture and to Eternity. I have found some don't even want to talk about it. Worse, some have quit believing. And God revealed to me that many of His believers love their lives here on earth more than they love His Presence. That we put so much into our lives here on earth...money, time, dreams, goals, children, cars, homes, vacations, jobs, hobbies, status...that we aren't excited about the idea of it all being over in a twinkling of an eye. And that this is one of the main reasons Christians don't think about and prepare for the Rapture.
That hard scripture about anyone coming to Jesus who doesn't hate his father and mother and, gasp, CHILDREN...what does that mean anyway?! Who does that these days? Weirdos? Nuns? Hate their children?!
It's meaning in comparison. Compared to the depth and intimacy that we love Christ. Compared to the devotion we have to Christ. Compared to the DESIRE just to BE in the little smidgen of Presence we can feel down here on Earth of Christ.... Compared to all of that, everything else seems so far away! That's from Jesus' mouth. The same compassionate Person that we all seem to so much more easily identify with of the Trinity. The One who became like us. He said that if we want to be His disciples then we must hate everyone else by comparison. Even our own lives.
Are you looking for the Rapture? Do you believe it's a real event that will happen? Do you have any criteria to base your reason why or why not you feel it could happen soon on?
Do you love your life more than you love the idea of leaving it all behind without a second's notice? Are you ok with that?
My heart aches for the lost. Not until in recent years did I really understand what it meant to have a burden for the lost. Everyday I feel it stronger. I've got something on the inside of me that the lost don't have. And it has changed me and freed me! My heart is torn between wanting to be with Him right now and the Rapture being delayed because of the mercy of God. But I don't believe the reason why people aren't desiring the Rapture is because they are so burdened by the lost. But it's more about their love for their lives.
We cannot change God's plan for the future. He did however give us a guide to it and ample time to prepare. His desire is to make the Heavens and the Earth right again. Forever. The time left for Satan to rule the air is almost up. He can feel it and is fighting hard. What are we fighting for?
The Mayans predicted 12-21-12 would be the end of an era. If you read your Bible you know that it won't be the end of the world because we know that because of the Millennial Reign of Christ, we have at least 1007 years left, counting the Tribulation. So of course I do not believe that the world will end today. But could the Rapture happen today? YES! It could happen ANY day. The Biblical prophecies of Israel becoming a nation, the Jewish people returning to their land, the desert blooming and the wild animals returning...they are all happening. And for those of you whose interest has been sparked, the current hatred towards Israel and the apocalyptic theology of Iran's leaders to fulfill the goal of ushering in their 12th Imam by creating global chaos is pushing us closer a closer to the Biblical timeline of the Rapture, Tribulation, and Millennial Reign of Christ!
I can barely sleep at night! It's a countdown in my eyes! My time on this Earth is almost done. God has laid out a plan for His people and His creation and the book of Revelation is our map. Things are beginning to happen. Will you be a scoffer or will you humble yourself before God on this exciting date in history and see if it's time a new era in your life begin. A new ear that is not about you, but about God's purposes for your life in this day and age.
Are you ready? Or do you still battle with unforgiveness, habitual sin, gossip, insecurity, self-pity? Yes, we will always have things to overcome! But those things, even poor health, are not to be our focus while we are here on Earth! There are many hurting people that need to feel, see, and hear the undeniable LOVE OF CHRIST right now. If we really believe that our time is short here, then are we living like it?
What are we waiting for?
What regrets would you have if the Rapture happened now?
Are you sure your heart is in a right place to meet Christ face to face?
Who goes in the Rapture? People who say they are Christians and go to church occasionally? People who have an intimate relationship with Jesus? Anyone who has ever made a decision at any point in their life to follow God? All the nice people? These are things that we should all think about.
The thought of Christ scooping me up to be part of His spotless Bride, and sitting down at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, keeps me up at night!!! Y'all, it's REAL! It's going to happen! Whether you believe it or not! Whether you are looking for it or not! Whether you are ready or not!
12-21-12. A new era! No more life as usual. I'm never going back to the way I was! I am going to live whole-heartedly to make my time on this Earth matter. Loving people. Helping people. Bringing others to Christ! And I'll gladly give it up the second I see the clouds part for me! I'm ready! Today, Come Lord Jesus! But if you give me another day, I'll thank You for having mercy one more day as more people come to know you, Lord!
Revelation 22 (The Message)
12-13 “Yes, I’m on my way! I’ll be there soon! I’m bringing my payroll with me. I’ll pay all people in full for their life’s work. I’m A to Z, the First and the Final, Beginning and Conclusion.
14-15 “How blessed are those who wash their robes! The Tree of Life is theirs for good, and they’ll walk through the gates to the City. But outside for good are the filthy curs: sorcerers, fornicators, murderers, idolaters—all who love and live lies.
16 “I, Jesus, sent my Angel to testify to these things for the churches. I’m the Root and Branch of David, the Bright Morning Star.”
17 “Come!” say the Spirit and the Bride.
Whoever hears, echo, “Come!”
Is anyone thirsty? Come!
All who will, come and drink,
Drink freely of the Water of Life!
18-19 I give fair warning to all who hear the words of the prophecy of this book: If you add to the words of this prophecy, God will add to your life the disasters written in this book; if you subtract from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will subtract your part from the Tree of Life and the Holy City that are written in this book.
20 He who testifies to all these things says it again: “I’m on my way! I’ll be there soon!”
Yes! Come, Master Jesus!
21 The grace of the Master Jesus be with all of you. Oh, Yes!
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Fighting with the Choir
I recently read this article by Kristen Howerton about how women can fight with each other about so many things that are unnecesary, but yet we should all be instead waging a war to fight for children's safety and futures! It's like women have to pick apart every other thing that other women around them are doing. I can remember when I had my first baby this one friend of mine went on and on about babywise. How her perfect child slept through the night and how perfect her life is. Me, having a child who gagged in the hospital and continued to act like she was choking to death the first year of her life AND developed excema at 4 months and scratched her head until she bled, I was doing ALL I COULD to hold it together and not pull a Marie Osmond and take off driving up the coast without telling anyone for four days!
The next child that same friend had, guess what? Babywise didn't work on this child. Same schedule, same procedures. But it didn't work. I can remember my friend saying how wrong she was to tell everyone that it would work on anyone. I appreciated her humility. It just frustrates me so much how women can tear each other down. It starts young.
But I see this same thing happening in the Body of Christ. Howerton's article was entitled The Only Mommy War Worth Waging. There is an only Christian war worth waging. Winning the lost. For so many Americans when you are a life-long Christian after you learn all about God and the Bible and you get to know everyone in your church then you sometimes can get bored. And when you get bored you have to either rebel to have fun, or you start critiquing the people around you...who are Christians...because you've been a Christian for so long. So then you can get caught up in this horrible game of judging everyone around you. How they raise their children, what foods they eat, what church they go to church, when they go to church, if they speak in tongues, if they play baseball on Sundays, if they eat at All-You-Can-Eat buffets at casinos, if they bring their Bible to church or use the Bible app on their iPhone. Get the picture. Gee, the possible discussions and disagreements are endless! Certainly able to keep us busy and totally NON-BORED until Jesus comes back!
Our good friend Aaron Stern, pastor of Mill City Church (www.millcitychurch.org) in Fort Collins, Colorado, helped me understand something I had been struggling with. He said that when someone gives their life to Christ, we figuratively give people two bags. He would first give them a little bag. In the little bag would be all the non-negotiables of Christianity. Things like salvation only through Jesus, the infallibility of God's Word, the triune nature of God, etc. You get the picture. In the second and much bigger bag would be other things that the person wouldn't need to concern themselves with immediately as they just got born again. This big bag contains things that differ between denominations and churches. Things like healing, tongues, predestination, etc. The second bag is full of subjects that can have more than one conclusion. Even though there may be differing conclusions, they come from a responsible handling of Scripture. The things in the small bag are worth fighting over and the things in the big bag are not worth losing your Christianity or friends and family over! The size of each bag is important, because if we fill the non-negotiable bag with things that belong in the second bag we can end up fighting over things that are discussible with the same passion for those that aren't.
This makes SO MUCH SENSE TO ME!!!! It helped me so much. Most of my family and friends from my childhood attend Baptist churches or other denominational churches. After I went to ORU most of my friends went to non-denominational churches. But in those non-denominational churches there are SO many different churches with different styles and mission statements and...big bags.
I'm sure the world must just laugh and make fun of the Body of Christ the way we bicker with each other. We can certainly see it in the way they make fun of us in Hollywood and the music industry. I know that when Jesus returns for His bride that we have GOT to look different than we look right now. And it sometimes scares me to remember that the times that people have come together and worked in like mind and heart is greatest during great tragedies. I wonder if that's what will happen to the Body of Christ. Will it take something devastating to draw us closer?
I've made a decision that I'm not going to get caught up in the game of fighting with other Christians! Done. I'm over it and have wasted time in my life concerned about what others have in their big bag. The only Christian war worth fighting is winning the lost.
The other day as I was driving to my sister's house and reflecting on tragic circumstances of some dear Christians I know and how bad things happen to good people who love God, I had a revelation. I imagined God in Heaven looking down on every person ever made. He saw me. He put a check by my name. Amy Renee Bass, check! And He kept looking at the rest of His children. None loved more than any other, but all loved to the greatest measure. And I thought about the parable of the lost sheep. It's not that He loved me any less than the stray sheep, but that His eye is on that one to bring him back into the flock. Jesus came for this reason. To seek and save the lost. And it was almost as if I could hear my Heavenly Father saying- You get it! You are mine and I am yours. You love me. You serve me. You get it! Eternal salvation is yours! As if in response to my thoughts about why horrible tragedies happen to firm believers. (No matter how much I believe, and do not doubt God, every time a great tragedy occurs, a young person dies, I always find myself a bit shocked that it couldn't have been prevented by God.) And so I just had this thought, Why can't we as Christians just be grateful for our eternal salvation. Isn't that enough? What an incredible gift we have been given. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus! But yet it's so hard not to continually ask God for MORE MORE MORE. More protection, more love, more money, more clothes, more houses, more cars, more grace, more healing, more chances, more breath. We cannot forget that we have already been given MORE than we could ever ask for. Eternal salvation.
And since I am so grateful that my name is written in His precious book, then my heart wants to help Him with His mission. Winning the lost. Winning the lost. Winning the lost. Not fighting over churches and mini-skirts and Lady Gaga. Winning the Lost. I have to be honest and say that I have found myself in such frustrated states that I have asked Husband for YEARS now to move our family overseas. China, Africa, just for starters. I've begged him and told him that I just want to get away from the way the Body of Christ looks in America. And I just want to help bring people to God through Christ. I think about Mother Teresa. What an honorable life! I've asked him to just move us to India and let me help the people there as she did. To raise our children in a drastically different atmosphere than American popular culture today. But Husband reminds me that to go overseas because I want to get away from America is not a good reason to go. And he is right. I don't want to run from America or the American church. I want to be able to love and live here without getting into discussions about Katy Perry or the Gospel of Grace and getting upset.
Nothing will matter when we step into Eternity except our decision to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and the people in our lives that we touched. And maybe my problem is I don't have enough lost friends. My life is so busy with school and kids and church that I will have to make a concerted effort to change this. But I'm all in. For life. Winning the lost. Being a light for His good news to spread. LOVE. Love. Love.
Winning the lost. The only Christian war worth waging.
The next child that same friend had, guess what? Babywise didn't work on this child. Same schedule, same procedures. But it didn't work. I can remember my friend saying how wrong she was to tell everyone that it would work on anyone. I appreciated her humility. It just frustrates me so much how women can tear each other down. It starts young.
But I see this same thing happening in the Body of Christ. Howerton's article was entitled The Only Mommy War Worth Waging. There is an only Christian war worth waging. Winning the lost. For so many Americans when you are a life-long Christian after you learn all about God and the Bible and you get to know everyone in your church then you sometimes can get bored. And when you get bored you have to either rebel to have fun, or you start critiquing the people around you...who are Christians...because you've been a Christian for so long. So then you can get caught up in this horrible game of judging everyone around you. How they raise their children, what foods they eat, what church they go to church, when they go to church, if they speak in tongues, if they play baseball on Sundays, if they eat at All-You-Can-Eat buffets at casinos, if they bring their Bible to church or use the Bible app on their iPhone. Get the picture. Gee, the possible discussions and disagreements are endless! Certainly able to keep us busy and totally NON-BORED until Jesus comes back!
Our good friend Aaron Stern, pastor of Mill City Church (www.millcitychurch.org) in Fort Collins, Colorado, helped me understand something I had been struggling with. He said that when someone gives their life to Christ, we figuratively give people two bags. He would first give them a little bag. In the little bag would be all the non-negotiables of Christianity. Things like salvation only through Jesus, the infallibility of God's Word, the triune nature of God, etc. You get the picture. In the second and much bigger bag would be other things that the person wouldn't need to concern themselves with immediately as they just got born again. This big bag contains things that differ between denominations and churches. Things like healing, tongues, predestination, etc. The second bag is full of subjects that can have more than one conclusion. Even though there may be differing conclusions, they come from a responsible handling of Scripture. The things in the small bag are worth fighting over and the things in the big bag are not worth losing your Christianity or friends and family over! The size of each bag is important, because if we fill the non-negotiable bag with things that belong in the second bag we can end up fighting over things that are discussible with the same passion for those that aren't.
This makes SO MUCH SENSE TO ME!!!! It helped me so much. Most of my family and friends from my childhood attend Baptist churches or other denominational churches. After I went to ORU most of my friends went to non-denominational churches. But in those non-denominational churches there are SO many different churches with different styles and mission statements and...big bags.
I'm sure the world must just laugh and make fun of the Body of Christ the way we bicker with each other. We can certainly see it in the way they make fun of us in Hollywood and the music industry. I know that when Jesus returns for His bride that we have GOT to look different than we look right now. And it sometimes scares me to remember that the times that people have come together and worked in like mind and heart is greatest during great tragedies. I wonder if that's what will happen to the Body of Christ. Will it take something devastating to draw us closer?
I've made a decision that I'm not going to get caught up in the game of fighting with other Christians! Done. I'm over it and have wasted time in my life concerned about what others have in their big bag. The only Christian war worth fighting is winning the lost.
The other day as I was driving to my sister's house and reflecting on tragic circumstances of some dear Christians I know and how bad things happen to good people who love God, I had a revelation. I imagined God in Heaven looking down on every person ever made. He saw me. He put a check by my name. Amy Renee Bass, check! And He kept looking at the rest of His children. None loved more than any other, but all loved to the greatest measure. And I thought about the parable of the lost sheep. It's not that He loved me any less than the stray sheep, but that His eye is on that one to bring him back into the flock. Jesus came for this reason. To seek and save the lost. And it was almost as if I could hear my Heavenly Father saying- You get it! You are mine and I am yours. You love me. You serve me. You get it! Eternal salvation is yours! As if in response to my thoughts about why horrible tragedies happen to firm believers. (No matter how much I believe, and do not doubt God, every time a great tragedy occurs, a young person dies, I always find myself a bit shocked that it couldn't have been prevented by God.) And so I just had this thought, Why can't we as Christians just be grateful for our eternal salvation. Isn't that enough? What an incredible gift we have been given. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus! But yet it's so hard not to continually ask God for MORE MORE MORE. More protection, more love, more money, more clothes, more houses, more cars, more grace, more healing, more chances, more breath. We cannot forget that we have already been given MORE than we could ever ask for. Eternal salvation.
And since I am so grateful that my name is written in His precious book, then my heart wants to help Him with His mission. Winning the lost. Winning the lost. Winning the lost. Not fighting over churches and mini-skirts and Lady Gaga. Winning the Lost. I have to be honest and say that I have found myself in such frustrated states that I have asked Husband for YEARS now to move our family overseas. China, Africa, just for starters. I've begged him and told him that I just want to get away from the way the Body of Christ looks in America. And I just want to help bring people to God through Christ. I think about Mother Teresa. What an honorable life! I've asked him to just move us to India and let me help the people there as she did. To raise our children in a drastically different atmosphere than American popular culture today. But Husband reminds me that to go overseas because I want to get away from America is not a good reason to go. And he is right. I don't want to run from America or the American church. I want to be able to love and live here without getting into discussions about Katy Perry or the Gospel of Grace and getting upset.
Nothing will matter when we step into Eternity except our decision to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and the people in our lives that we touched. And maybe my problem is I don't have enough lost friends. My life is so busy with school and kids and church that I will have to make a concerted effort to change this. But I'm all in. For life. Winning the lost. Being a light for His good news to spread. LOVE. Love. Love.
Winning the lost. The only Christian war worth waging.
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