RAPTURE READY

SHEPHERD TO SHEEP

RAPTURE READY

(1 Thess 4:16-18) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. {17} Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. {18} Therefore comfort one another with these words.

A lot of people wonder about when the Lord is coming back. Will we go through the Tribulation? Or will Jesus rescue us before that happens? There is a lot of debate over this issue but I personally believe the Lord will take us up in the Rapture before the seven year Tribulation judgment. (Rev 6-18)

First of all we have to explain the word rapture. Rapture is taken from the word "caught up" in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. It's from the Greek work harpazo but translated in the Latin Bible as raptus, from which comes the term “rapture.” It means “to seize, carry off by force, to snatch away.” So the word rapture is not mentioned in the Bible but neither is the word trinity. But both terms describe a truth that is taught in the Bible. The word rapture has really caught on so it remains the main word to describe the Lord coming back before the Tribulation. I guess it sounds better than saying the Lord is coming back in the Harpazo!

Are there other scriptures that describe the Rapture? (1 Cor 15:51-53) Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— {52} in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. {53} For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (John 14:3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

The teaching of the Lord's coming brings hope to the believer: (Titus 2:13) looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. We can bring comfort to each other when we remind each other that the Lord is coming soon! Would we have much hope if we thought we'd have to suffer God's wrath during the seven-year Tribulation? (1 Thess 5:9) For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The teaching of the Rapture also encourages being ready! (1 John 3:3) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (Mat 24:44-51) Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. {45} “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? {46} Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. {47} Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. {48} But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ {49} and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, {50} the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, {51} and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

There's something exciting about anticipating something that will happen suddenly and unexpected. Just to think that the Lord will come for His Bride at any moment! Keep oil in your lamps and be alert for when He comes. (Mat 22:1-13) You want to go up when the Lord comes down!

Jesus is coming back soon. Are you rapture ready?

Louie

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911

A good friend told me one time that when you get into trouble call 911. That's Psalms 91:1...He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Read the rest of the Psalm and you will be encouraged by Gods protection over our lives when we put our trust in Him. God Bless America!

"THE FIRST WEBSITE TO GIVE ME CHILLS"

A sister in the Lord sent me this today:

"The first website that ever gave me chills. Do you think Christians could ( or would be allowed ) to do something like this? Unbelievable":

Washington, September 25th there will be a national prayer gathering of Muslims on the west front of the U.S. Capitol Building. They are expecting at least 50,000 to attend from mosques all across America. They will gather to pray from 4:00 AM until 7:00 PM. The gathering will take place by the site where U.S. Presidents have been inaugurated since 1981.

They have a website set up for this event. If you never look at another website look at this one, especially the final words: islamoncapitolhill.com

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WHAT IS WORSHIP?

SHEPHERD TO SHEEP

WHAT IS WORSHIP?

(Rev 4:11) “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.”

It is common for people to think of worship as the singing part of a church service. You follow along with the song leader and then the pastor comes up to preach. But there is so much more to the definition and experience of worship that we need to take time to study it more closely.
The primary Hebrew Old Testament word for worship is shachah and it means "to bow down." (Psa 95:6) Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. The primary Greek New Testament word is proskuneo and it means "to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence." (Luke 7:38) and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Both words express deep reverence and adoration.

Worship is from the Middle English word worshipe and it means worthiness, respect, and reverence paid to a divine being. It actually comes from an Old English word weorthscipe and is broken down as weorth which means "worthy", and shipe which means "shape" or "quality." Think of words like friendship and sportsmanship which means the quality of being a friend or the quality of being a good sport. So when we worship God we are attributing worth to Him by declaring how good and great He is. Like the twenty-four elders in Revelation 4 we recognize God's worthiness and give him that worthiness through worship.

Psalm 150 is a great psalm to study when we ask, "What is worship?": (Psa 150) WHAT?: {1} Praise the LORD! WHERE? Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! WHY? {2} Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! HOW? {3} Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! {4} Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! {5} Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals! WHO? {6} Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. YOU! Praise the LORD!

We worship the Lord for who He is and what He has done: (Psa 106:1) Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. We can worship the Lord with our LIPS: (Heb 13:15) Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. We can worship the Lord by our LIFE: (Rom 12:) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

In the Old Testament worship was centered around the Temple with sacrifices and singing. In the New Testament we see that we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit giving personal praise to God. We can also praise God corporately...(1 Pet 2:5) you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

What is worship? Worship is our responding to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father. (R. Foster)

(Psa 147:1) Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful.

Louie

PRAISE IN THE PARK - Saturday October 3rd, 3-7pm

This is going to be an awesome event. We're just going to get together and praise the Lord in song. Any church praise band that wants to participate can contact me at (951) 272-9673. Everyone is invited. It's not entertainment...it's participation! He is worthy to be praise!!

Psalms 34:3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.

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HAPPY LABOR DAY

SHEPHERD TO SHEEP

LABOR DAY

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. Over the years, it has developed from a purely labor union celebration into a general "last fling of summer" festival. School is starting and fall is around the corner. Everyone loves the day off enjoying BBQ, beach, or baseball and in a general sense feels honored for their hard work.

But is your labor feeling more like toil and drudgery? Do you feel more like a slave than a happy worker? Do you work hard and feel no one appreciates what you do? Then take heart because God sees how hard you are working and values your labor of love! Be encouraged through these words of scripture:

(Heb 6:10) For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love . . .

(1 Cor 15:58) Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

How can we find new energies and fresh inspiration for life’s tasks?

(Psa 127:1) Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it . . .

(Col 1:29) To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

(Mat 11:28-30) "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. {29} "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. {30} "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

And remember that the work of salvation is free and you don’t have to work for it!

(John 19:30) . . . Jesus . . . said, "It is finished!" (The work has been done on the cross)

(Eph 2:8-9) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, {9} not of works, lest anyone should boast.

So work hard but at the same time rest in the Lord and enjoy the work of your hands!

(Eccl 2:24) Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.

Louie

TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN

SHEPHERD TO SHEEP

TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN

(Job 2:7) So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

Lately I've been asked a certain question by unrelated people. And when they ask it they are dead serious as well as perplexed in their inquiry. The question posed is this, "When something bad happens to me is it the Lord allowing it or is it Satan just attacking me?" This question is usually born out of a fresh painful experience they went through. At this point believers are grappling for answers to help them in their puzzled minds. You can't blame them because it's a question that we all ask when the going gets rougher than usual. So what do you say to someone when they ask is it the devil or the Lord?

Job had it bad. He went from being so blessed to being entirely stressed. In rapid succession he lost his livelihood, his children and his health. He ends up on an ash heap scraping his sores while his wife's words are ringing in his ears..."Curse God and die!" Behind the scenes Satan appears before God with the angels and the subject of Job's righteous character comes up. Satan challenged God that he could get Job to curse God to His face if he could afflict him good. With God's permission the challenge was on! Satan put Job through the wash machine. Though tried and strained, Job held onto his faith, was doubly blessed in the end, and Satan lost the game!

Do you begin to get the picture? Our problem as Christians is we usually think in terms of "either/or." It has to be one way or the other. When afflictions occur it has to be Satan or the Lord because their purposes are in direct contrast to each other as well as (we surmise) evil and good can never cooperate. Our finite minds like to put things into tidy categories and in our pain we cannot reconcile evil with the loving hand of God. When things are going good we tend to "feel" God. When things go wrong we sense our adversary the devil riding shotgun with us.

Might it be easier if we just thought of two sides of the same coin? This does not compromise the truth but brings two separate realities back to back to each other in one unit. It would be absurd to say a coin is not a coin because it has heads and tails. But does a coin work? Sure it does. It buys things as well as decides things. It can buy you a football as well as decide who is going to kick off first. You never throw change away because it is two-in-one. Instead its value causes you to pick it up off a dirty street.

Satan's purposes are to destroy you. God's purposes are to bless you. Paul had this worked out in his mind when he suffered with his "thorn in the flesh." (2 Cor 12:7) And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. He asked the Lord for this "thorn" to be removed but the Lord denied his request. Instead Paul received a gift of sufficient grace in his weakness so the power of Christ could be evident in his life and ministry.

God's discipline is not punitive in nature. It is corrective. Though cloven hooves leave their prints all around you be assured that God is working all things for good. And when He does, go back to that coin that landed devil side up and turn it over. You will find Romans 8:28 written all over it. Then the next time you are afflicted you'll be more likely to flip that coin over even sooner. Why? Because...we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Louie