A Word For Thought

Recent saturation of end times teaching—seems to force Christians to pick a position and follow a teacher (or ignore and forget it, and find a church that does).

Read Revelation.
Read Daniel.
Read Jesus.
Read for yourself.
Ask God for wisdom to apply what you understand.
Trust God and wait, for what you don’t understand.
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Everybody’s in a hurry, teaching on end times—why ?
Seems like they have to review and run through details quickly to make up for uncertainty in some of the details.
Since you can’t prove everything definitively, they have to state some things as given, and move on—or they’ll never get through their teaching lesson.
It takes too long to go back to the basics, back through the basics, only from the Bible.
So they have to assume the listener already understands the basics (as they understand the basics).
Then they have to add details to make their timeline fit.

Sometimes honest teachers at least say, “I think . . .” on certain points—so should I follow the rest of their teaching as ‘gospel truth’ ?
(Read PROMISES OR INFERENCES on this site.)
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What is the goal in teaching Bible prophecy on the end times ?
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What should be the goal in teaching Bible prophecy on the end times ?
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What should be the goal in teaching the Bible ?
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What should be our goal in reading the Bible ?
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— First, no hurry.
— First, salvation, the Gospel message for each person to receive Jesus.
— First, salvation, repent from my sin, accept Jesus who paid for my sin, to not go to hell but heaven.
— First things First, so end times teaching never overshadows making disciples—faithfulness—living for Jesus now.
— Don’t be afraid of end times, but be comforted as well as warned by what the Bible says.
— The coming hairy, scarey stuff described graphically, is all under God’s control, just like the hairy, scarey stuff we face now, that’s getting worse (birth pains), is under God’s control, and we are safe in His hand.
— All of it—now/future—present times/end times—can be turned over to Him, cast on Him, because He really cares for us.
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Surprises ?
— What surprises at THE END can one afford ?
— What surprises, what could I be wrong about and still be okay ?
— What surprises, what could I be wrong about and not be okay—totally lose it—lose faith—panic—give in to . . . just to survive—and go to hell ?

Surprise . . . ?

Surprise . . . ?
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So, after we study, and we dig, and we wonder, and we get scared out of our wits when growing evil hits home, and we pray—
What’s the bottom line ?
What’s the last word ?
What can we say to ourself, when others say it’ll all work out and the pendulum will swing back to normal—
What do we say when that doesn’t cut it ?

ONE—There will be THE MOMENT at THE END when we will see things happen, and we “lift up our eyes, for our Redemption (Jesus) draws near”.

TWO—Until then, I could give you Bible verse after Bible verse—and I do all over this site—but there is no substitute for you getting desperately deep in your own Bible every morning, every night, and in between.
Find verses that God gives you for wisdom, for comfort, for direction, for sharing—mark them in your Bible, date them with notes, write some down to take with you.
You’ll end up memorizing one that made a difference to you, and then another.
Leave your Bible open where you will pass it during the day and read again the verse you just highlighted, underlined, circled, and thanked God for.
NEVER STOP !

You’ll be safe through these troubled times, through the end times, to the end.

Remember . . .
Then, THE BEGINNING—WITH JESUS, IN PERSON !

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Ed Vitagliano, on American Family Radio, summarized my thoughts when he said,
“I don’t understand everything about the end times, but I know two things—He’s coming, and I’m going.”

If you’re worried about what’s going to happen, and what might happen to you . . .
or
If you somehow find hope and comfort saying things will work out and the pendulum always swings back to ‘normal’ . . .

Let me direct you to solid truth about things working out, with stipulations connected to a sweeping promise.

First, the conditions—no point in focusing on the promise without meeting the conditions.

ONE—“Love God“
Since this promise is in the Bible, it’s talking about the God of the Bible, which means it’s talking about Jesus.
Loving God, loving Jesus, means a relationship with Him, based on accepting His payment for our sins on the cross.

TWO—“Called“
God called.
We respond.
His doing.
His initiative.
Jesus came.
Jesus died for us.
We confess our sin.
We surrender our life to Jesus.

THREE—“According To His Purpose“
Why He saved us.
Why He called us.
Why we’re still here.
His purpose is—
“We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Now, the promise with the conditions—
“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
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Applying the title:
CONCERN FOR CONSEQUENCES
OR
CONSIDER THE CALL
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Results
or
Reward
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Fear
or
Faithfulness
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Survival
or
Sacrifice
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My Life
or
My Mission
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Mark
or
Martyrdom