Is history repeating itself in America?

It seems that it is all right for one to curse the name of Jesus in public, but for one to speak His name in honor is forbidden.

But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name." Acts 4:17 (NIV)

Is history repeating itself in America?

In our society now there is such fear of hearing or seeing the word of God expressed that they are going to great lengths to try to stop it from happening. They want to silence Christians and throw out the Bible that we live by if they can.

Many in our society no longer love God or fear the wrath of God, but they do fear hearing His gospel message or reading His Holy word. It seems that what they fear the most is reference to the name of Jesus.

But try they might it will never happen, not even in America it has been tried in centuries past to silence the voice of God’s Holy spirit in the world, the Bible and Christians have been under attack in many generations, in many countries and are so now persecuted in the heathen countries, still they have never been silenced and never will be as long as God lives it is not possible for the creator of all that is, was or ever will be to die.

So now Satan is hard at work in America trying to stop the the name of Jesus and the written word of God from being posted or spoken in public areas.

It seems that it is all right for one to curse the name of Jesus in public, but for one to speak His name in honor is forbidden.

Freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press is something that has been done in America since it fought and won its freedom and independence from Great Britain.

If we allow this action to continue, will we be able to still call this nation a free republic?

Or by our inaction will we give in and give over our rights to a dictator government?

How much longer now in our beloved America will it be before one will be arrested, imprisoned or even killed for their faith and their willingness and obedience to obey the command of the word of God in witnessing Jesus.

Our freedom of speech and our freedom of the press guarantees every American citizen the right to express their views both in speech and in writing whether they are a private citizen, serve in the military or in some other governmental office or function.

That constitutional freedom is not limited to homes or church buildings. As Christians we have the command to live and express our faith and way of life in every place that our bodies are present.

How can we be the light of the world if we don’t shine in every dark place?

 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16 (NIV)

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/03/11/air-force-academy-removes-bible-verse-from-cadet-whiteboard/

Do not quench the Spirit

You hear your phone ring, you pick up the phone and answer the call, on the other end is a voice of the person who called you.

That caller has a reason for calling you, there are three things you can do with that call,

You can listen to what the person has to say to you, you can converse back with the caller, or you can reject the caller and hang up on them.

But regardless of what you choose to do with the call, you were called and there was a reason for your call.

Every one of us has experienced phone calls, we have conversed with the person on the other end of the line.

Sometimes it is someone wanting to give us good advice and many times we reject that advice, most of the time we hang up on the advice giver, because we just think that we don’t need any advice.

Even though advice is given free from the giver and it costs the hearer nothing, most people don’t like advice.

We like to think that we are smart enough not to need any advice from any one else.

Likewise we all receive a call from our creator whom we call Almighty God at certain times in our life experiences.

Many times we have refused to accept His call, we have refused to receive His message and we have hung up on Him, most don’t even want to talk with him.

But throughout our lives God keeps ringing our number, hoping to communicate with us, some of us finally do hear His voice, we stop to hear His message, we accept His message, obey the call and begin a life of communicating with the Father of our creation.

When we begin a fellowship with the Lord God, all that belongs to the heavenly Father becomes our inheritance as His sons and daughters we have been grafted into the kingdom of God by and through the Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God.

This doesn’t mean that we will live in this world without problems or trouble free, sometimes we may be scraping our pennies to get by, and maybe we will feel the pain of heartache, loneliness or sickness.

We most certainly will experience the attacks of Satan and his little imps of hell or maybe even from family, friends or others who do not understand the closeness we have to our Father, because they hate the Father, his Son and His children.

But know this our Father has prepared our way through this world and this life even before He sent us into it through the birth canal of our earthly mother’s womb.

He has made a way through the communication of His Holy Spirit and through our calling upon Him in prayer that our hearts can be confident that He will never leave us alone, He will never forsake us, He will always work things out in our lives for our benefit and good.

He has proven Himself closer to us than any person on earth, He has shown us His love greater than the love of any human and He promises us that if we will call upon Him in the time of trouble or need, that He will always answer and supply us that need.

He has reserved for His children deliverance in the time of trouble, help in solving our problems, healing for our sicknesses and protection from our enemies.

But we must first answer His call, heed His call and follow His advice spoken to us through his Holy Spirit.

Even as He is certain to call us, we must answer His voice and not hang up on Him.

Because the fate of those who continually reject the prompting of God’s Holy spirit will one day lead to the hardening of their hearts so that the lines of communication will be broken down and they will no longer hear the voice of God and will leave this world and move into the next completely and totally separated from God for all eternity.

They will have heard that last call from God, they will have hung up on Him for that last time and all hope of communicating with God and having a loving relationship with Him for all eternity will be forever lost.

In the beginning of the first man Adam, he had a closer relationship with God than any other human since the Garden of Eden.

But there was a day when Adam created a break in his relationship with God by straying from the path of righteousness into sin, (sin simply meaning disobedience to the law of God concerning his diet).

Adam ate of the forbidden tree and immediately his eyes were opened and his conscience told him that he had sinned and he was ashamed and so he ran and tried to hide from the voice of God, but God continued to call him until Adam stopped and answered the voice of God.

God reminded him that because of his sin, he was now a dead man and if he continued to sin, sin would destroy his life on earth and put his body in the grave of death.

Adam paid a heavy price for his sin, God moved him out of the beautiful garden of Eden and Adam would live out the remainder of his days in a cruel hard world.

By the sweat of his brow he would struggle to survive until death finally over took him.

But even with that God did not forsake him, when Adam called unto the Lord God, He was always near to help Adam through his life.

And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?  Genesis 3:9 (KJV)

So then what is the first call we will receive from God?

The call to repent of sin, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9  (KJV)

 

The second call to be born again in His Holy Spirit, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again”. John 3:7  (KJV)  

 

The third call to follow Jesus, “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me”. Matthew 16:24  (KJV)

 

The fourth call to be His witnesses, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth”. Acts 1:8

The fifth call to serve him, “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned”. Mark 16:15-16  (KJV)

 

I suggest that if you hear God’s voice again if he rings your number please don’t harden your heart, please pick up listen to him, talk to Him, hear his message it is a matter of life and death for you.

If you reject His call, if you close your heart from hearing His message to you, if you push His voice out of your conscience you could be cutting your line of communication from him for the last time and in so doing seal your fate forever in separation from the Father who loves you with greater love than any human.

 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16  (NIV)

Even as we humans tire of calling someone and having them not answer our call or answer and hang up on us, we at some point will cut them loose and stop calling them.

So it is with God after you hang up on Him, after you reject His call a certain number of times, He will give you over to a reprobate mind and you will stop hearing His voice and He will stop calling you.

 

Romans 1:28 - And even as they did not like to retain God in [their] knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

 

Do not quench the Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 (NIV)

While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. Hebrews 3:15

Can America be saved? Or is it too late?

 Jeremiah 18:8  (KJV)  If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

Can a nation such as America who has turned their back to God and rejected His laws, can its cities, its states, its citizens, its families that have strayed so far from God’s moral standards come back to God and be spared God’s pronounced wrath upon the ungodly and the wicked?

The answer is yes. But then the question becomes will America do what it will take to save it?

The first step back to God must be made by His called messengers.

The people of God, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ must return to living by and proclaiming the full word of God, which includes both God’s blessings and His warning of judgment and wrath.

I know that there are living in America a few faithful pastors, evangelists and church members that are living by the commandments of God obeying the voice of God as He directs their lives.

But all one has to do is look around at all the pastors, Evangelists and teachers heading the multitudes of churches in this country to see that there is some repenting needing to be done among them.

In most of them the word repent of sin is hardly mentioned anymore, because they have become so used to sinning they think God now condones it.

Things that once were called sin and wickedness and the church warned people not to do them is now accepted as ok and most do them without any feeling of guilt.

It seems that the fear of God has left most preachers and Christian churches in today’s world.

They don’t see any need to preach repentance and the wrath of God upon those who don’t.

Our society has become so comfortable in living their sins, and not many messengers of God are preaching the warning of sins terrible cost.

Revival fires must be started in the church houses of America’s Christians and it must spread into the streets, cities and states across all America.

It must be the roaring consuming fire of the Holy Spirit in every true and faithful Christian going out to touch every individual, every family and every home with the message of God’s love and the warning of His soon coming judgment upon all sin and His wrath poured out upon all who refuse to repent.

Three young men  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, of a time long ago were denied by the king’s law and forbidden to worship and pray to the Lord God of their creation whom they served daily.

They chose to accept the consequences of their refusal to obey the king’s law and was thrown into a burning hot furnace of fire.

But by the grace of God they endured their torturous ordeal and walked out of that hot furnace with not even the smell of smoke on their clothing.

And by the faithfulness of these young men choosing to serve Almighty God, instead of the king’s handmade god.

They started revival fires that spread throughout Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom changed the hearts and lives of the people and saved a rebellious, sinful, wicked nation. Read Daniel 3:16-28 (KJV)

In generations past God called and sent his messenger with his message of warning to the people in the great city of Nineveh.

But Jonah, turned his back to God and ran from the task that God gave him to do.

Because of the merciful, loving God that He is, He gave Jonah a second chance to complete his task. 

Jonah 3  (NIV)  Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:  “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Look what happened when Jonah came back to God and finished his mission.

 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. ⁷ This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. ⁸ But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. ⁹ Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

It is not too late for America’s salvation and our God is known for miracles among his people.

But it will not happen until the people of God who have not already done it, do this one thing that will start the brush fires burning in the hearts of America’s Christian homes, and church houses.

2 Chronicles 7:14  (KJV)

¹⁴ If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

2 Peter 3:9  (KJV)  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.