It's one of my primary life priorities to encourage others to trust in Christ and follow Him.  Every Sunday, I stand up in front of our church family and try to persuade people to give their lives to Christ.  I write books about this.  I record podcasts about this.  I post on social media with regularity with this as the chief aim of my posts.  Many of you do the very same things and even more.  But how persuasive can a messenger of God be if they don't personally fear the Lord?  What about their life would persuade another person to consider following Christ if that's not the dominant pattern of the messenger?

 Paul wanted the Corinthians and all people to know Christ deeply, but he also knew that Christ's ambassadors need to carry themselves in this world in such a way that the fear of the Lord is a dominant motivation behind their perspectives and actions.

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Jesus is both a leader and a friend to those who trust in Him, but would we have been willing to trust Him at all if we didn’t believe what He said?  If we weren’t absolutely convinced that He will do what He said He will do, would we be willing to entrust our hope and eternal aspirations to His care and protection?  Jesus can be trusted, and in Mark 14:12-25, He demonstrated that His words are true and that He has done or will do everything He said He would.

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When Christ redeems us, the Holy Spirit transforms the way we think (Romans 12:2).  Jesus is inviting us to realize that He is better than anything this world can offer.  Don’t waste your life chasing after things you can’t keep.  You can’t keep money.  You can’t keep influence.  You can’t keep power.  But you can be kept by Jesus, and He has promised to hold you in His grip regardless of which direction this fallen world attempts to pull you.

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When Jesus informed Peter, James, John, and Andrew about His future return, he shared many details with them about what to expect.  He told them about future conflicts and a severe season of tribulation unlike the world has ever experienced.  Ultimately, it was His desire that they pass this information along to others as well, which they certainly did.  

God is not a haphazard being.  He has a perfect plan and the timing of when He chooses to do what He’s doing in this world is ideal.  He planned when we would be born.  He has ordained the exact number of days we will walk this earth.  God the Father sent Jesus the Son into this world at the exact right time to atone for the sins of humanity and provide redemption for His people.  He has also foreordained the day when Jesus will return.

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Jesus speaks of a day to come when the earth will experience a time of tribulation that is more severe than it has ever experienced since the beginning of creation.  The book of Revelation shares many of the details regarding the wars, plagues, and persecutions that will take place during that era.

There are several views regarding this time of tribulation, but the view that has always made the most sense to me and seems to lend itself to the most plain reading of Scripture teaches that the tribulation will take place over the course of seven years.  It will be a time of God’s judgment on this unbelieving world, and a time of wrath shown toward Israel in connection to their historical idolatry and rejection of the Messiah.  (see Daniel 9 and Revelation 13)

I believe the church will be “raptured” or carried away to heaven prior to this seven-year period of judgment taking place.  I believe this will be the case for several reasons.  First of all, the church is not mentioned in the book of Revelation once the book begins speaking of the wrath that is to come.  Secondly, Scripture tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 that believers are not destined for wrath.  Third, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 describes additional details of this rapturous event.

“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”  (1 Thes. 4:16-17)

I also believe that Scripture teaches that during the seven-year tribulation period, people will come to know Jesus and experience the blessing of His gift of salvation.  Jesus even says that for the sake of the elect, those days will be divinely cut short.

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 There are many places in Scripture where God’s plans for the future are described.  Some of the passages seem very clear while others may strike us as being somewhat mysterious in nature.  For centuries, people have attempted to understand and explain what the Bible teaches about the future.  Admittedly, there are various interpretations of the prophetic passages that speak about future events, so I do advise a high degree of humility as we approach them because there isn’t universal agreement on what these portions of Scripture are teaching.  Some passages, in fact, appear to have multiple applications.

 One such passage is found in Mark 13.  That chapter records a conversation Jesus had with His disciples just a few short days before His crucifixion.  The disciples were leaving the temple area, and one of them made a comment about the temple that prompted Jesus to reveal important details about what they could expect to see in both the near and distant future.

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If you enjoy the show and want to buy John a coffee, please click here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/johnstange

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Giving that’s done for the praise of other people will likely be acknowledged with their praise.  But giving that’s done in secret for God’s glory, not our own, will be divinely rewarded in ways that reverberate into eternity.

 In Mark 12, as Jesus watched various wealthy people give their gifts, He also observed someone else make a contribution.  Scripture tells us He saw a poor widow give a gift.  Her gift didn’t stand out to anyone but Jesus because all she contributed was two small copper coins that when added together equaled a penny.  In Christ’s estimation, why was her gift so much more significant than the large gifts the wealthy people had contributed?

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David reigned as king of Israel about a thousand years before Christ’s incarnation.  During the time of Christ’s earthly ministry, David was revered by the Jewish people.  He’s still revered today by Jews, Christians, and many others.  The biblical accounts of David’s early life, his willingness to trust the Lord in the midst of impossible odds, his divinely ordained rise to power, his musical and poetic gifts, and the fact that the Holy Spirit inspired David to write the majority of the Psalms are highly impressive.

 David was also a wise and powerful leader.  His leadership decisions and the victories he was blessed with remain legendary to this day.  Many Jews considered him the pinnacle of human leadership and they longed to be led by such a king again one day.

 At one point during David’s reign, the Lord revealed to Nathan the prophet that a descendent would come from David whose throne would be established forever.  This was a prophetic reference to the Messiah, and ever since the days when this prophecy was given, the Jewish people have looked forward to the Messiah’s appearing.

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To learn more about what Alan & Angie shared, please visit:  https://transformmyfuture.com/dwell

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Imagine you were a member of one of the prominent religious sects that operated during the time of Christ’s earthly ministry.  One of those sects in particular, the Pharisees, made a practice of reading the Old Testament Scriptures and creating lists of laws, regulations, and commandments they found in God’s word.  Eventually, they came up with a list of over 600 commandments, some of which were actually found in Scripture and many of which were derived from their own theological interpretations and leanings.

 As they developed this impossibly long list of commandments, they would also debate amongst themselves where these rules should be ranked and which commandments they considered more important than others.

 It was in the midst of this context that a scribe or teacher from the Pharisees (Matt. 22:34-35) approached Jesus to learn how He might answer the question as to which commandment was the most important.

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 If there is no resurrection, not even Jesus has been raised.  And if He didn’t rise from death, we’re doomed.  That would mean we are destined to be mastered by sin for the rest of our lives, held captive by the power of Satan, and have no hope beyond the moment when our lungs stop breathing.

 Thankfully, Jesus not only taught that resurrection was a biblical concept, He demonstrated it by personally rising from the grave.  Sin could not control Him.  The devil couldn’t hold Him down.  Death could not defeat Him.

 When we trust in Jesus, submitting control of our lives over to Him, we’re assured that we too will enjoy a resurrection like His.  The day is coming when the bodies of all who believed will be raised to life.  All believers will be given glorified bodies that are incapable of sinning or dying.  Our glorified bodies will be united with our souls, and we will live in the presence of the Lord forever.

 My heart rejoices when I contemplate that truth.  On your best days and on your lowest days, I hope the assurance of what Jesus has in store for all believers brings you joy as well.

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