"Be Still, And Know That I Am God"Written by Stephen Kingery
I was recently asked to give devotions at our annual family reunion. The Bible text I used as basis for my remarks was, "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among nations, I will be exalted in earth!" (Psalm 46:10) In my family were several preachers (my grandfather was one of great stature), singers, piano players, church leaders, and good Christian men and women. I talked about Christian heritage of our family and that through lives of those who have gone on to their reward, God has given us that remain a message: "Be still, and know that I am God." As I reflect on this passage, I realize that God has given us this message in many different ways. In this article I would like to share with you just a few that come to mind.The Nature of Christians: If you are a Christian and have been faithful to fellowship of church, I am sure that you know many people who are devout Christians. Have you ever stopped to think about nature of these fine people. The fruit of Spirit as given in Galatians 5:22,23 is evident in their lives. We can see a love for Lord which is boundless as well as a deep love for their fellow Christians and all who are outside of Christ. As old song says, "There is joy unspeakable" in their lives. Through good times and bad, joy of being a Christian is ever present in their daily Christian walk. We see peace, patience and kindness at every turn. Their goodness, gentleness and self-control is a part of everything that they do. And their faithfulness to Christ and church are foremost in their lives. As we look at example that these people have set for us, that message from God rings out, "Be still, and know that I am God." The Beauty of Nature: Unfortunately I am not able to get out into country and enjoy beauty of all things God has created. I long for day that I can retire from my job and spend time in nature. But as I look and behold beauty of God's creation, I truly stand in awe. To see beauty of trees, flowers, shrubs and all many varieties of plants is wonderful. To gaze into a beautiful blue sky with white fluffy clouds brings back memories of childhood. To watch uniqueness and gracefulness of many animals of creation is also a sight to behold. To see majesty of Rocky Mountains or vastness of Atlantic Ocean we realize how small we really are. When we see these things, reach down to pick a dainty flower or feel warm summer breeze we are reminded, "Be still, and know that I am God." The Bible: Are you a student of Bible? I certainly hope so. If you read and study it you will soon see what a wonderful book it is. It is Word of God. In its pages you will discover over and over again love God has for His creation, man. You will see awesomeness of creation, gentleness of Christ and boldness of apostles as they establish church. You will learn how to overcome sin, how to praise God and how to become a Christian. In its sixty-six books you will learn how God has dealt with man. You will read of faithful and unfaithful. You will find books of law, history, poetry, prophecy and instruction in how to live a good Christian life. You will see Christ evident in it from Geneses through Revelation. All of Bible is about this one glorious message, "Be still, and know that I am God." The Universe: One of my favorite songs has these words: "Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all worlds Thy hands have made. I see stars, I hear rolling thunder; Thy power throughout universe displayed." To sing "How Great Thou Art" and truly consider awesome creation of God will bring a tear to your eye. To think how vast universe is and to know that God spoke it all into existence is to know how great He is. On a clear night go outside and behold moon and stars. You too will hear that message, "Be still, and know that I am God."
| | The Conclusion to the RaptureWritten by Michael Bradley
Conclusion If there is going to be a Rapture, I believe that God will rapture His believers off of this earth sometime before start of 7 year Tribulation. I don’t think He will wait to midpoint of Tribulation where Antichrist seats himself in Temple proclaiming himself to be God and then starts all persecution. I feel Antichrist will be fully revealed to world at beginning of 7 year Tribulation when he enters into a peace treaty and covenant with Israel, and then allows them to start rebuilding their Temple so that he can eventually get into it at midpoint of Tribulation to proclaim himself to be God. And remember very first verse above, that Antichrist cannot be revealed until "He" is taken out of way. And when "He" is taken out of way, then Antichrist can be fully revealed to rest of world. And "He" in my opinion may be Church or Body of Believers that are living at time of these events. The other reason I think Rapture will occur sometime before start of 7 year Tribulation is that Antichrist is going to need some time to set things up. Once Church is taken out, he will be free to start operating at full scale. The first thing he is going to do is convince and persuade rest of world to follow him and I feel he will do that by trickery and deception. If he starts persecution too early on those who will not take his mark, he will risk not being able to gain full control of everything. I feel he will first suck everyone in by peace and diplomacy and promise of a better world. Then once he has enough of nations on his side and Jewish Temple is once more rebuilt, that will be time that He will then go for all of marbles. He will seat himself in temple at midpoint of Tribulation, proclaim himself to be God, kill anyone who will not accept his mark, and will then seek total world domination and control. Think about this. This one man, through power of Satan, will get a chance to have more power and control over entire world than any other man has ever had during entire course of our human history. This will be ultimate ego trip for a power hungry human being. I think that last three and half years of Tribulation is going to be last and final history lesson from God to us. With Church being taken out of way so Satan and Antichrist can operate at full force, I feel that God is going to show all of us how much terror, death and destruction humans and demons are capable of committing if given half chance without God directly intervening. In three and half years, Satan and Antichrist are going to cause so much death and destruction on this earth, that Jesus Himself says that had these days not been shortened by God Father Himself - that no flesh would have been saved! I really feel that Satan, if he knew he had chance, would set up entire scenario with Antichrist to destroy entire world through nuclear weaponry.
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