Bible Prophecy and Inspiration

Only those who want everything done for them are bored.
Billy Graham

Have you ever heard anyone say this? 

This individual is not looking around to see what they can do for God or anybody else.  They are looking for someone or something to entertain them.

Children are notorious for this quote.  Makes sense as most children have the attitude that life revolves around me or worse there’s no guardian around to pay attention to them and off to trouble they go.

Produce fruit for the Lord.  This requires study and reaching out to the others.  This will keep you as busy as you want to be.

You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.
C. S. Lewis

You’re not a body!  You live forever! 

We are eternal beings and will be spending it somewhere.

This life is short and if you read the Bible, which is God’s Word, you realize we need to die to ourselves and seek Him.

One mega short earthly lifetime serving oneself will be the biggest mistake many will make for eternity.

We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God.
Dwight L. Moody

One of the most asked questions from non-believers as well as some believers:

Why do bad things happen to good people? 

First of all no one is good.

Romans 3:10-12 – ¹⁰As it is written:  “There is no one righteous, not even one; ¹¹there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.  ¹²All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Luke 18:19 –  ¹⁹ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.

Not only is no one good, but just as DL Moody quoted, people tend to seek God when they have been brought to their knees.

People are confused.  God didn’t create us to be individuals with no need for Him.  He created us for relationship, to worship Him, and to love Him.  ALL THE TIME!

If we had more hell in the pulpit, we would have less hell in the pew.
Billy Graham

Amazing quote and definitely true.  This country for the last fifty years has preached that all you need is grace and then go on your merry way and do whatever you want from there.

However, that has led to what seems to be a popular last day spirit in the church.  

Revelation 3:15-18 – ¹⁵I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. ¹⁸I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

The church of Laodicea does have a message for those who wish to break out of this rut.

Revelation 3:19-21 –¹⁹Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. ²⁰Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. ²¹To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.

Be an overcomer and choose the side of God, because being vomited out of His mouth isn’t where you want to be.

Side note here:  He’s talking to the Church, not to unbelievers in the above-referenced scriptures.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
C. S. Lewis

I have told many people that if it weren’t for the Word of God, I’d be confused about what’s going on around me.

Seriously, if one pays attention to anything that’s going on around them, it’s mystifying. 

However, when one learns about the spiritual fall of man, he begins to understand himself and those around him.  Also in this day we live in, we get to see God’s prophecies unfolding.

What an exciting time if you’re looking for Jesus.  What a squandered time if you’re not.  Start looking, loving, and longing for His appearing.  There is a crown for those who do.  Do you think if you’re living your life as if he’s coming today, that you will disappoint Him?  Obviously not or you wouldn’t be getting a crown for it.

An unschooled man who knows how to meditate upon the Lord has learned far more than the man with the highest education who does not know how to meditate.
Charles Stanley

Why is that?

Because man is not more intelligent than God.  However, this world is full of men who think they are.

Question:  How smart is man to observe everything around him and still declare there is not a Creator?

This is not an intellectual thing, it’s a spiritual thing.  The same people who have high intellectual ability are not missing the obvious based on intellect.  Satan will play on anyone’s weakness.  If intellectual pride exists, he will play on that.

We’re God’s creation.  If you had two children and one was humble, loving, obedient, giving, and the other selfish, arrogant, and too smart for you, who are you going to be pleased with?

God has given us many of these scenarios in the structures of our own lives.  Some humans are just too smart to observe them.

“The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”
~Dwight L. Moody

This is why it is so important to stay in the Word of God.  The Word is what continues to feed you Light!  Light and darkness quarrel.  Jesus is the Light and Satan is the most notorious character of darkness. 

Just point out to a Christian brother or sister that what they are doing isn’t healthy for them spiritually. You will have a very defensive upset individual.  Why?  Because that part of the spirit which isn’t in the Light isn’t going to go down without a fight. 

We need to be in the Word, because the Word is the flashlight which illuminates the dark places we put ourselves.  You start reading the Word and that light starts shining on things which you didn’t even realize were there.  Wisdom comes from hearing the Word of God.  Fill your day with it.

“It’s not our job to raise doctors, dentists, schoolteachers, homemakers, mechanics, entertainers, and so forth.  It is our job to raise children who give their lives to God and commit their lives in service to Him.” ~ Billy Graham

Billy Graham, Living a Legacy (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2007), 6.

I couldn’t agree more.  You can raise a doctor that finds a cure for AIDS or ALS, but if that child dies in their sins and doesn’t serve God, how is that going to fare with the Most High?

The report card of eternal life isn’t going score well based on worldly accomplishments without God as the focus.

Mark 9:41-42 – ⁴¹I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.

 ⁴²“And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.

Christ first, worldly plans second.  Not a bad way for all of us to start from this day forward.