The Lord is With You
“But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.”
(1Peter 3:14-16)
The time in which we live is becoming more and more uncertain and confusing, but as we have been saying in many articles lately, this should not be a surprise to us who are watchmen. Although it is not a surprise, we must realize the depth of the darkness that permeates our lands. We must not allow this darkness to take away from our faith, rather it should be drawing us closer and closer to our faith in Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him. When we confess our faith in Jesus Christ the power of God’s love shines through us because we are children of God. 1John 3:1-3 are amazing verses and should strengthen our faith through these troubling times. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” From what I understand, the words Behold at the beginning of verse one is not a statement but more a cry of astonishment. In other words, a big deal! The comments for verses 2 and 3 in my Bible say that, in vs 2, “At Jesus’ coming (2:28) we shall be somehow transformed into His likeness. This process has already begun in the believer’s life. (2Cor. 3:18) In vs 3, “At Christ’s coming His followers will be transformed, but in the meantime, they need to be diligent in growth in holiness-he is pure, and it is the “pure in heart” who shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).
The above verses reflect much of the sermon at my church on Sunday. The power of God’s love for us is hard for us to accept and understand how this love is our strength in these times of darkness. He is always with us and guiding us and we must realize it so that we do not fall into any traps that the Devil may set for us. In this age of sinful, self-focused and rebellious people in our Israel lands and around the world we Christians are the light, and we must trust in His love for us more and more every day to lead us through what is to come. I was thinking of our Israel lands while writing this article and remembering how when the Prodigal son came home, he felt that he had to do something to earn back his father’s love and trust, but his father opened his arms to him right away. If those in our Israel lands would just turn their backs on the world today and come running back to the Father and cry out to Jesus Christ to forgive them, he would open His arms and accept them back immediately. We must pray for this to happen soon. I think the words to this song “Is He Worthy “are very good for the time we are in. You can find this song on the internet. Here is the first verse with the chorus.
Do you feel the world is broken? (We do)
Do you feel the shadows deepen? (We do)
But do you know that all the dark won’t stop the light from getting through? (We do)
Do you wish that you could see it all made new? (We do)
Is all creation groaning? (It is)
Is a new creation coming? (It is)
Is the glory of the Lord to be the light within our midst? (It is)
Is it good that we remind ourselves of this? (It is)
Is anyone worthy? Is anyone whole?
Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll?
The Lion of Judah who conquered the grave
He is David’s root and the Lamb who died to ransom the slave
Is He worthy? Is He worthy?
Of all blessing and honor and glory
Is He worthy of this?
He is.
