Smoke and Fire, the Signs of the Times

“And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.  Joel 2:30

Each year we see a day in August that reminds us of autumn's imminent arrival. This year it procrastinated until the final day of the month, but it has come here at last. My thermometer outside even has a '4' at the start where there was a '9' just yesterday evening. There is also that smoke in the air still. Signs! Search the scriptures! While it is good to search the scriptures at every opportunity, I must admit that at times I am guilty of chasing sign phantoms. So much do I want the return of our Lord Jesus that almost any sign-ish thing will do for a hopeful search of the prophecies. However, our Lord did warn us that a number of significant seeming events would occur prior to the Tribulation period. Heat and smoke in August here usually just tells of summer and wildfires to the west of us; normal August activities without eternal significance. 

Normal daily or seasonal activities do not disappoint us though as each day winding its way by brings us one day closer to our reunion with the Lord Jesus. Whether we are in that group that Paul says have gone to sleep in Christ, or in that group that remains to be caught up to meet the Lord in the clouds, we will go at the proper time. And each day, wonders and pillars of smoke or the usual blue skies, goes by as we wait on the Lord. 

Have patience Saints, the Lord has not gone off schedule,

Bucky

No Reverse On God's Work

Indeed before the day was, I am He;
And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand;
I work, and who will reverse it?”  Isaiah 43:13

Lose our salvation? We have found that salvation is God's work, and we must believe it for our sake since, 

"I, even I, am the LORD,And besides Me there is no savior." (v11)

God's work is salvation and none can reverse it. Therefore, comfort ye my people! (40:1) I hope ye feel comforted this morning! 

In Christ the Lord,

Bucky

Rising Up To The Prayer Challenge

For You, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, have revealed this to Your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.' Therefore Your servant has found it in his heart to pray this prayer to You. 2 Samuel 7:27

You may have run into this once or twice in your prayer journey, a bit of the bad news that can get a person down or cause that person to rise up in response to the prayer challenge. As I watched a fall weather forecast yesterday, I saw that in our area, and much of California where the wildfires lurk, the man predicted a below average rainfall. Suddenly, I didn't want to stand for that! No, I wanted to go into my prayer closet and kneel for that in prayer to the Father our God, requesting that He overrule this prediction. 

We don't have to stand for all the world and its prince want to dish out to us. We have the power of prayer to God to use in this fight. We have the Word of God and we have an open communication plan with Him. There is no limit to the amount of voice and data we can upload to the Lord, and no restrictions on the hours this prayer service is available to us. And the Lord our God has the perfect answer for us every time. So, rise up and kneel down to any prayer challenge you may face today. The Lord is ready to hear from you and me! 

Life in Christ and in prayer,

Bucky

Ask Him Yourself!

 “Please inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all His wonderful works, that the king may go away from us.”  Jeremiah 21:2

Hey, Jerry, you're in good with the Lord, put in for our favor, won't you, and see if the Lord won't make that bad guy go away? Have you been asked by one who refuses to believe in our Lord Jesus to request a favor of Him when things go poorly for that unbeliever? Our first response might be to tell that person, "Ask Him yourself!" The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective according to James, the brother of our Lord. We can be of use to others in their distress, and we can in prayer ask for the Lord's favor. That first response we had though might well be the best one in this case. Our Lord Jesus is just a prayer away from anyone at any moment. And, we read in the old prophets that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Just His name is a great place for anyone to start who needs the Lord's favor. What happens if they still refuse to believe though? 

Well, the old time Israelites in Jerusalem could tell them what happens then. Jeremiah asked, and the Lord gave a response appropriate to sin and unbelief: the Lord promised an assembly of the enemy right in the midst of the city! The Lord does not grant favor to unbelief, so as the saying goes... ask Him yourself! 

Love in Christ,

Bucky

Roasted and Smoked, Please Comfort

For I have become like a wineskin in smoke,
Yet I do not forget Your statutes. Psalm 119:83

We have been roasted with high temperatures lately, plus we have been smoked from distant wildfires. It is not a comfortable time to live and breathe in these here parts. And the weather forecasters say there will be a couple more days yet before relief from the heat arrives. 

The psalmist in that longest of psalms felt much like we do, like a wineskin in smoke. Yet, he or she wanted to assure the Lord that His statutes were not forgotten. The troubles of the times were upon the servant of the Lord, and the hope of salvation seemed afar off. We can relate quite easily to this in our day. And yet, in both cases, the Lord was only a prayer away and constantly watching over us. In Philippians Paul wrote, "The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing."  Our Lord Jesus sent the first disciples out with words of comfort, "And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age." The times may not be comfortable, but we are comforted! 

To God be the glory forevermore!

Bucky

Be Wary of Your Dreams

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the LORD.  Jeremiah 29:8-9

Did you know the Lord sent a letter through Jeremiah, His prophet, to the captives in Babylon? In this letter are some words of warning and a couple of things to watch out for: false prophets and self-caused dreams. I have met with little success in causing dreams for myself and reading these words from Jeremiah, I am glad that I did not become proficient at self-causing dreams. The Lord told the captives that their dreams, those they caused themselves to dream, were not of the Lord and He did not send them. As the false prophets they liked told them things the captives wanted to hear, so did they learn to send themselves some wishful dreams too. Be wary of your dreams!

There is a thing in these latter days where a person attempts to control his dreams. As we can see from Jeremiah, such a thing is of ancient times. The terms we read may be new, but the practice is quite old. If we learn from Joseph in Matthew of how important dreams can be as communications from God, then perhaps we should not try to control that and get in the way of the messages God may have for us in a dream. 

Rejoice in the Lord always...

Bucky

Need Some Criticism?

Open your mouth, judge righteously,
And plead the cause of the poor and needy.  Proverbs 31:9

Do you need some criticism this morning? Is your tank of insults, derogatory speech, and harsh opinions a little low? Criticism these days is most often not about, "Here, that was a tough way to do it. Will you let me help by showing you a better way?" No, criticism today seems to be about questioning the means and methods of your childhood, applying crude names, and making sure that you personally know the shortcomings of your intellect in the worst possible terms. If you are missing that sort of criticism, just post a video of yourself attempting something new or making a little mistake in something you know well and like magic your tank of derogatory criticism will soon be full and overflowing. As we know, comments on social media these days are often harsh. 

In our verse for today the proverb speaks to pleading the cause of the poor and needy. That happens often on all sides of the political debates, but we seem to be caught up in a race to see how many government checks can be handed out; a race in how quickly and how large someone can make them. When a person stands up to ask, "Where will this money come from?" He or she will get a swift reminder of what we discussed in paragraph 1 up there. King David famously said that he would give no sacrifice that cost him nothing. When I set out to relieve the circumstance of the poor and needy by first stealing your wallet, you might do well to protest. The next time a person stands before us to tell of how much money he or she will give away to help out the poor and needy, you too might ask, "Hey! Where is that money you are promising to give away coming from?"  

Yes, we do have a research question hanging out there from yesterday, but I have not forgotten. 

Love in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

Seven, Seven, and Seven

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Revelation 21:9

The judgments are completed and one of the last seven angels comes to John to make an introduction, the bride. This is not just any bride such as we will see getting married here on Earth in the last days and right up to the end, but the bride, the wife of the Lamb. Did this angel volunteer or obey an assignment? Perhaps the angel simply saw a need and responded, but what an honor! "I will show you..." the angel says to John. And the disciple of the Lord Jesus is shown a city. Wait, not a church? No, the city, the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God. Can this mean exactly what it says? I have been taught many a time that the church is the bride of Christ, but is it biblical? I feel the urge of the Berean to seek out those scriptures for which the identification of the Bride has been told to me these many years. With the completion of the times appearing near by the signs I am to watch for, I want to know this thing, and if needed, apply a correction! That is too big to make an attempt to show just this moment. But for this morning, I am happy for this angel, who goes unnamed but does get an important moment and mission in the Revelation of our Lord. This, dear John, is the bride of our Lord's dear Son, this is Jerusalem. 

May God grant us understanding in this,

Bucky

If You're Ready, So Am I

But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.  1 Peter 4:7

If you are ready for the end of meteorological summer, then so am I. Does not look like it will happen this week though. Hot, hot, hot is our forecast weather for this week and beyond. If we cannot wait patiently for a high pressure dome to pass, then how well will we perform when patient waiting might last from when Peter wrote our verse for today and the time we live in now? My waiting cannot make it for almost 2,000 years because my poor little mind cannot perceive that much, and we can thank the Lord for that! The day to day waiting for uncomfortable weather to change though can be burdensome when I keep looking days ahead of this one. Do you suppose that could be the key to waiting on the Lord? 

The sky brightens with the coming of this day, and this day is the gift we have been given for today. Prophecy tells us what will come, but not what day. Therefore, looking just to this one day's journey with our Lord Jesus, we can make it through to the end of it. Each of us can be serious and watchful in our prayers today with Jesus. We'll worry about tomorrow with Him when that gets here. 

Thank You, dear Lord, for this one new day,

Bucky

Believe It

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.  Genesis 1:31

If we cannot believe that God created all things in six days and saw that all of it was very good, then we are going to have trouble believing that Jesus will return here to judge the nations. If a person cannot believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1), then that person is going to have trouble seeing that Jesus will one day end the earth and the heavens, and then make them brand new. But wait, the Jews believe those two first parts, does their unbelief of the second parts not disprove my statements? The stumbling block comes when a person cannot believe that Jesus and God are one. That is where those rock-chucking Jews start reaching for their stones. We saw it with Jesus, and with Stephen, and even Paul. 

So, how is it that we can believe when God's chosen people will not? Easy, we live in that time where Jesus sent His good news out to the Gentile nations in order to make His people jealous and cause them, in time, to welcome Him as Savior and God. It is a great time in history to be a Gentile and have the good news of Christ Jesus preached to us and from us. Does it look like things are coming to a close and that events in the world are ready to produce the first beast of Revelation 13? Yes indeed! Soon, the Lord Jesus comes to gather us to His pastures! 

Bucky

Ships Of The Like-minded Line

Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Romans 15:5-6

Fuses are screwed onto the shells before they are rammed home in the barrels of the weapons of war. Powder is measured according to the data from fire control and the gun barrels are elevated and pointed in the desired direction after the breech is closed. Finally, a small cartridge is inserted into a primer hole in that same breech block to await the command to fire. All up and down the like-minded line the ships await the coming battle. Each convinced of its own righteousness, those ships have full charges of the word of God ready to fire. 

The salvos begin from a wooden ship with the marking, KJV, on the side and its first shot is not from scripture but about it, "Ye must useth the authorized version lest ye falleth into heresy!" The larger and newer ships of steel and electronics mostly ignore this first shot in the war to come. Though still divisive, the rounds from these guns have become less effective in the later years. Another ship begins to fire, "Those who worship on Sunday bear the mark of the Beast!" the latter day Judaizers thunder from their vessel, Seventh Day. "No, sink 'em fully in the drink!" the SS Full Immersion bellows, "Baptize 'em right!" "Rejoice with electric bass and booming drum set!" a shiny newer ship sends its missiles trailing smoke into the fog of war. "We must one and all be calm and sober in worship," a traditional old battleship belches flame and smoke from its large-calibre gun turrets. Then the scripture shells are loaded and fired all around. 

Jesus and the Devil had it out with scriptural six-shooters in the desert, and perhaps this is where the religions and denominations acquired the urge to engage in this sort of thing. However, how does an unbeliever looking at the battle from the shore know which weapons are holy and which are heresy? It seems to me that in the Christian wars the warriors all agree that when that other guy becomes right-minded like 'us' then we can be like-minded and worship the Lord with one voice. Does like-minded mean you must have a mind like mine? I think Paul added an important set of words in our verse today, "according to Christ Jesus". 

When I am ready to bellow fire at those other guys, is my mind 'according to Christ Jesus'? 

Have some deep thoughts of Christ the Lord today,

Bucky

Word From The Throne

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”  Revelation 21:5

One will have no difficulty seeing the need to make all things new even now, but we also know from prophecy that it is going to get worse near the end. John received two marching orders in this one verse - behold and write. He who sat on the throne makes all things new and establishes His word as true and faithful. At first, we think that making all things new would be the greater task, but in an age when so many words are anything but true or faithful, perhaps not! 

Behold, the Lord speaks, and we will one day see His making in action as all things, not just the born-again, but all things He makes bright and shiny new. August in these parts with its dried out fields and brown grass is a good time to look around and try to imagine all of it as brand new. Tough thing to do. Perhaps something man-made, easier to imagine. Look at a car or a couch or something that you received not that long ago, maybe 20 years, and try to imagine it as when you got it new. Still not that easy? Guess we better just behold when the time comes and enjoy writing the good news that His day will come! 

Have a great day in Christ the Lord!

Bucky

Submit To Him

As soon as they hear of me they obey me;
The foreigners submit to me.  Psalm 18:44

King David rejoiced in the Lord and all that the Lord had done for his reign. We also see here what Jesus would see coming when the Jews rejected His message of hope and salvation, the foreigners or Gentiles running to obey and believe in the Lord. As a born Gentile, I am glad that we have the privilege of submitting to Jesus our Lord and Savior! He didn't have to do it that way.

Imagine for just a brief moment that Jesus had said that no one gets into the kingdom until the firstborn, Israel, is ready to believe. Suddenly the Great Tribulation becomes much more ominous as we all wait for Israel to come to Jesus in faith. Don't imagine that for very long, it becomes quite oppressive real quick. No chance of the Rapture, no hope for those who have gone to sleep before us, just a hopeless pagan life until the Jews come to Him. Yikes, we're still imagining what isn't! Praise God for sending His good news out to the Gentiles in order to make His nation of Israel jealous of our salvation in Christ. We believe in the Lord Jesus and we have our great hope in Him! 

Have a hopeful day in Christ the Lord!

Bucky

In the Dark

“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops."  Matthew 10:27

The second weekend of August has just passed, and this is that time of the year when even the sleepiest among us notices that the daylight of the day is shrinking toward that darker time of December. I of course arise at 0400 and study the Bible diligently until 0530 or so. Um, hmm, and we are to believe this because of what? As the daylight of my years declines toward a certain December of this life, I have noticed that there are those days when the alarm must awaken me as I no longer anticipate it quite so well. There are also days like today when I start the coffee, sit down either at the computer or in front of my Bible, and snooze. The light may be on inside, but it is dark outside and these days are harder to wake up to at such an early hour. 

So, according to this verse, do I hear a voice speaking to me in the dark? No, that would be cause for some small adjustment to my level of alertness, like say 6" up from the seat of my chair. It is more difficult to snooze with all my remaining hairs standing on end, but that is not the gentle way of my Lord Jesus. I find that my Lord only tells me when I am alert and in prayer or Bible study with Him. I don't get to sleep in my chair and receive the Word at the same time. And so, apologies to my Lord Jesus, and a prayer for strength to sleep on time tonight and arise ready to hear His word in the morning. 

Awaken, the Light comes swiftly to us,

Bucky

He's So Different!

And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; Acts 17:26-27

The Lord is near to each one of us, and yet each one of us is somewhat the same and somewhat quite different one from another. How can all of us be saved when we are so different? Who said salvation was based on your image or mine? If all of us looked the same, talked the same, acted the same, and so on, God would not need to be near to each one of us but only the master copy. How the Lord is going to make us all into one harmonious church and His bride is beyond me, but we do have that promise from Him. 

Great is the Lord in harmonizing the myriad of different parts of His church that each of us calls 'me'. Amen.

Bucky

The Thirteenth Verse

And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. Mark 13:13

At rare moments in the past six years or so, a landlord will call me and pass on a tale of woe. By way of warning other landlords, he or she will tell me of the thousands of dollars in woe accumulated by a tenant before escaping in the dark of night. The landlords are not usually quite so literary, but I like to add my personal touch to the picture. Now these tenants who do this sort of thing will be shunned by the other landlords and will eventually have to move away from the area or, and I have not heard of this yet, change their ways! Even these persons have their supporters though and are not hated by all. In this age of growing lawlessness, some will even cheer them on as they move somewhere else to continue their lawless ways. What sort of a person must it take to be hated by all? 

Our Lord tells us in the thirteenth verse of the thirteenth chapter of Mark. For the sake of the name of Jesus, anyone can join this excluded group of hated people. What a chance to be hated by all! Believe in Jesus, follow our Lord, and become a hated person? Our Lord Jesus did tell each and every person to count the cost of following Him, and as we can see this cost might seem steep. Are you shunned by anyone yet? Have a former friend who does not want to talk about that one particular subject who goes by the name of Jesus? Have you been excluded from a social media group for daring to mention the name of the Lord in a loving way and not in the deluge of vain repetitions? The hatred of this world grows by the day, and it only waits for the removal or pulling back of the restrainer God has put in place. 

Rejoice! You will soon be hated by all for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! 

Bucky

I Was There

When He prepared the heavens, I was there,
When He drew a circle on the face of the deep,  Proverbs 8:27

A city by the name of Beirut made the news in a terrible way yesterday, and some few among us can say, "I was there." My presence was decades in the past, but I did recognize the place right away. Our stately accommodations (!) were about 6 miles to the south of the incident yesterday, we would have said 10 clicks back in those days, and our brother Marines had just suffered a similar incident. It may be some days before those with experience and knowledge can determine whether this one was an act of war or terror, or simply a terrible accident. As we wait for further news, we can pray with God and study His word. 

God sends word through a king and a prophet that trumps my little 'I was there' all to pieces. First, Solomon has this proverb about Wisdom, and how she was there when He prepared the heavens. And then Isaiah has another one: 

“Come near to Me, hear this:
I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
From the time that it was, I was there.
And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit
Have sent Me.”  Isaiah 48:16

This one is about the third member of the Holy Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord our God has some stunning 'I was there's', and I'll gladly give place to Him. Of course, He has another one that trumps them all. He was there at the cross to save us. 

Have a grateful and prayerful day in Christ the Lord,

Bucky

We've Seen This Before

And Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman, and said to her, “Please pretend to be a mourner, and put on mourning apparel; do not anoint yourself with oil, but act like a woman who has been mourning a long time for the dead.  2 Samuel 14:2

Pretend, put on, act like... a show is to be performed, but probably not for entertainment. In the next verse a script was provided. In the midst of a story from the Old Testament is this story about telling a story. An actress is hired, the part is outlined, and a script is given to what is called a wise woman, one sent away for and brought from a named place. One would need to spend an extended stay under a rock not to see that something improper or even immoral might be going on here. However, the rest of the story might change even the view of the sub-rock dweller. 

It turns out that had Joab gone straight to the king with his request, it might not have gone so well. However, as the show plays out before the king, David, he is not fooled for long and in verse 19 asks this wise woman after Joab. It's true, she says, he wrote the script for this play. By the method and the story, and perhaps owing a bit to the woman acting out this thing, Absalom is in time forgiven by the king and there is reconciliation. The story may not have ended there as David lived out his family life under some tough consequences for a severe sin. (You may recall a certain Bathsheba incident that took place in Jerusalem.) 

We live under the consequences from one sin, but we also have new life from the resolution God provided for His judgment required on all sin. Without that Savior, we would be lost. 

Have a great new week as the sun peeks under the clouds this morning. 

Bucky