If we as Christians truly understood the horrors of hell, Gehenna, would our witness to the lost radically change? If we as Christians saw hell as eternal everlasting separation from God and all that is good would it matter? If we saw hell as justified punishment for our sins, as total darkness without hope of escape would we pray without ceasing for those that are lost? Would we witness without fear or reservation or feel an urgency to share the gospel as a dying man speaking to dying men? Would we daily, moment by moment, give Him praise and glory for His goodness, His grace and His mercy toward us who have believed and are saved -  if we truly understood?

The misery and torment of hell point to the wickedness and seriousness of sin. One of the tragic facts revealed by Jesus is that the majority of the human race will spend eternity in hell.

~ “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

Hell will be the dwelling place of the garbage of humanity. Like Gehenna, hell is a place of perpetual fire...

“unquenchable fire, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched…” Mark 9:43

“… Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen, Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.” [Fanny Crosby]

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”  [Helen Keller]

...if we truly understood.

Reverend Robert Sheffey (1820-1902) was a powerful man of prayer who spread the gospel throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia. One day he met a family whose young son had been bitten by a rattlesnake. Spotting Brother Sheffey riding by, his father sent his youngest boy to bring him to the scene. Fearing his son would die, the father was counting on Sheffey's reputation for powerful and effective prayer. So he said, "Reverend Sheffey, call upon the Lord so my boy will live."

Brother Sheffey did not recognize the man or his family and inquired as to whether any of them, father, mother or children, had ever called upon the name of the LORD. "No, I guess not" was the father' reply.

So Brother Sheffey knelt on his sheepskin beside the wounded man and prayed:

"Oh Lord, please bring Thy healing to this young man, and Lord in the same breath I thank Thee for snakes and pray that there be many of them. It is because of a snake that this family calls upon Thy holy name today. One of the sons has been bitten, and they called upon Thee. Now, Lord, get the picture: except for the snake they would perhaps never in their lifetimes have turned to Thee. What a blessing this lowly, crawling thing has been! Lord, I want you to send lots of snakes. Send another one to bite the youngest boy here, and send still another to bite this woman who never had her boys kneel by her chair, that they might hear the prayers of their mother. And, Lord, above all things, send a great big rattler, a really large one, to bite the old man so that he may call upon Thy name fervently and much."

Except for the snakes in our life, some people would never call upon the name of the LORD.

God has the power to damn us to hell each and every time we sin.We are under His control. He can do with us as He pleases - He is the potter, we -- only the clay.

David Wilkerson reminds us:

'When we sin Satan comes in like a roaring lion. When we fall into some old habit or sin, guilt floods in, fear gripes our heart and a sense of total failure and helplessness begins to overwhelm our soul.'

But His Word is true - it tells us that

Satan taunts, but our LORD will teach. Satan condemns, our LORD consoles. Satan lies - our LORD loves.  Satan whispers in our ear; "You call yourself a christian? Ha.!!. You’ve reached your limit on forgiveness. You’ve done the same thing over and over and over -confessing the same sin time and time again - there is no way God will forgive you - again." 

C.S. Lewis wrote: "God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies. Some talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion. Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger--according the way you react to it. And we have reacted the wrong way."

Our LORD says;

"Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John  1:9

Keep standing on the promises of God, for He who has promised IS faithful - The Lamb of God.

Bill Wilson of the Daily Jot writes...

"The media covering the Occupant of the Oval Office's trip to Israel is prophetic symbolism, probably unbeknownst to them. Certainly, the news media is like most people and some pastors in that they do no know the Bible or what they know of it is steeped in error. Such is the case where the media missed the irony in one of the first stories emanating from the Holy Land. The Occupant's six ton armored Cadillac nicknamed "The Beast" sputtered to a stop between Ben Gurion Airport and Jerusalem. "The Beast" was totally disabled and had to be hauled away because it seems one of the entourage filled it with diesel fuel instead of unleaded. Most think it's a funny story, unless you know the rest of the story.

 

The Beast Empire rules the Middle East prior to the return of Jesus Christ. It is led by the Beast, also known as the antichrist. When Jesus returns, he meets the beast in the Jezreel Valley, where the final battle of Armageddon will see the defeat of the beast.

 

Revelation 19:19-20 says,

 

"And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse (Christ), and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone."

 

Another analysis written by AP discusses Israeli settlements as the core of the conflict between Israel and the surrounding Arab nations and their terrorist proxies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Fatah. Fatah is the military faction of the so-called moderate Palestinian Authority, formerly the terrorist group Palestinian Liberation Organization. The story points out that the settlements are on war-won land. Certainly, the land is a symptom of what is at the core of the Middle East strife. The truth, however, is found as early as Genesis 3:15 when YHVH God told the serpent (satan),

 

"I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

 

Years later, we see another prophecy in Genesis 16:12 of Ishmael,

 

"And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren."

 

Ishmael's seed grew into a great multitude, the Arabs and Islam. All the nations mentioned in the Bible as coming against Israel in the final Day of the Lord are Arab-Islamic. They are trying to drive Israel from the land God gave it, and destroy the seed of the woman. While the land is the physical core of modern strife in Israel, the spiritual reasons for the lack of peace are already written.

 

As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4,

 

"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world has blinded in the minds of them which believe not..."

 

And know you know the rest of the story."

"In case you missed it, March 10th was National Abortion Provider Appreciation Day, a special day to celebrate the work done by  abortionists.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), which enjoys official, unqualified endorsements from a collection of liberal Protestant, Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, and atheist/humanist groups, marked the holiday by e-mailing supporters a statement entitled “The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice Thanks and Blesses Abortion Providers.”

Endorsers include such old line Protestant denominations as the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Episcopal Church, and the United Church of Christ.

The vast majority of members of these denominations are unaware of the extremism or even existence of this “religious” group which claims to speak for them or their denominations affiliation with these organizations.

Since such ignorance is crucial in dulling momentum for denominations revisiting their affiliations, RCRC likes to keep things this way."

Institute on Religion and Democracy in News 

"For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life." Galatians 6:8

Easter is NOT the Christian' Passover.

"When the hour had come, He, [Jesus] reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him.  And He said to them: "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you I shall never again eat it, [the Passover] until it, [the [Passover] is fulfilled in the kingdom of God..." Luke 22:14-16

Although Christians celebrate it, [Easter Sunday] the Bible never suggests that Christians observe the resurrection.

 

"...do this [observe Passover] in remembrance of Me." vs. 19

 

Easter is neither a Biblical nor a Christian term.

 

Ishtar was both a fertility and a war goddess. Ishtar was seen as the personification of the planet Venus, and together with Shamash, the sun god, and Sin, the moon god, she formed an astral triad. Easter or Astarte is the worship of an old Babylonian sex cult instituted by Semiramis, a warrior queen who had a lust for blood.

 

Easter is not about Jesus.

 

A careful study of Scripture reveals that Jesus was in the tomb exactly three days and three nights as He promised He would be.  Jesus died on a Wednesday afternoon, [not on "Good" Friday] just before the "annual Sabbath" known as the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He was buried and then resurrected 72 hours later, just before the end of the weekly Sabbath (near the end of the day, Saturday).

 

Easter was NOT observed by early Christians, nor by those who felt they needed to obey the God of the Bible rather than men.

 

The first Christians celebrated the death of Jesus with a Pascha meal on the lunar date of the Jewish Passover to remember our Passover Lamb. 

 

"Get rid of the old yeast [sin] that you may be [become] a new batch without yeast [sin]--as you really are [delivered because of Him]. For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed." 1 Corinthians 5:7

 

Repent - Get rid of the sin [yeast] in your life as you remember the Passover Lamb and His sacrifice. "...do this in remembrance of Me"  Remember! The death angel has passed over, we have been delivered from the plagues and  are now covered by The Blood.

 

Easter was and remains a result of compromise with scripture and paganism, combined with fear of man and antisemitism.

 

"We must obey God rather than man..." Acts 5:29

 

[many thanks to many people for their research without which this post would not have been possible.]

“Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?" Luke 12:56

So we are to know and discern….

As watchman on the wall, we have a responsibility to watch and warn to the best of our ability, to be discerning and speak to the issues of our day in the world in which we temporarily dwell.

Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina has been chosen ‘vicar of Christ’ by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. Bergoglio born to Italian parents, chose the name Francis because of his admiration for St. Francis.  St. Francis is famous for his vision of a talking crucifix telling him, "Francis, rebuild my church."

 

"And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." Matthew 16:18

Ignatius Loyola formed the Jesuits as a military order with the stated purpose of overthrowing the reformation started by Martin Luther and restoring the temporal (political) and religious domination of the Vatican in all walks of life.

Globalists have many names and faces yet their agenda remains the same, total control of the planet.

“Popery anywhere is contrary to Christ’s gospel! And it is the Antichrist, and we ought to pray against it! It should be the daily prayer of every believer that Antichrist might be hurled like a millstone into the flood and sink to rise no more. If we can pray against error for Christ because it wounds Christ, because it robs Christ of His glory, because it puts sacramental efficacy in the place of His atonement and lifts a piece of bread into the place of the Savior, and a few drops of water into the place of the Holy Spirit, and puts a mere fallible man like ourselves up as the Vicar of Christ on earth—if we pray against it because it is against Him—we shall love the persons though we hate their errors! We shall love their souls though we loathe and detest their dogmas, and so the breath of our prayers will be sweetened because we turn our faces toward Christ when we pray.” Charles H. Spurgeon

With 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world, with a newly elected Jesuit pope seated on the throne and with the election of what many are calling the ‘final’ pope the time to pray is now.
　

To prove my point that everyone, great or small, bond or free, can be deceived; I posted the satirical article written by Jennifer Rubin.

In these troubling days, we MUST study to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that need not be ashamed.  We cannot afford to swallow and follow everything we read or hear. Whether from pastor or pulpit, teacher or televangelist,

the litmus test for truth must always be The Word of God.

What does it matter if our LORD was crucified on Tuesday or "Good" Friday? What does it matter if the church has Easter egg hunts on Easter Sunday calling the day Resurrection Sunday? What does it matter if our children are taught that Noah took his wife, his kids and his kids kids onto the ark with him? What does it matter that Noah believed God "when the rain fell?" What does it matter if pastors teach the woman in Revelation 12 who gave birth to a son is the church? What does it matter if pastors teach that Ezekiel 36 is a reference to the birth of the church?

What does it matter.??.

"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." I Peter 5:8

This would be laughable if it were not so stupid and truly very sad:

"A Washington Post columnist has called out the Catholic Church for alleged anti-Semitism in selecting its next pope.

Jennifer Rubin, a conservative columnist and blogger, questioned why no Jewish people were considered to replace retiring Pope Benedict XVI in an online column, “Catholic Chutzpah: Vatican Snubs Jewish Candidates.”

Rubin, who often writes about political and Israeli issues, claimed Jewish people were deliberately ignored for consideration of the most powerful position in the Catholic Church.

“I looked at the list of cardinals who are potential contenders to be the new pope,” Rubin wrote, “and was immediately struck by what I did not see: a single Jewish person, man or woman, being considered.

“It seems that anti-Semitic discrimination is alive and well in the Catholic Church if Jewish people have no chance of attaining this holy post,” Rubin wrote. “In fact, I can’t name a single Jewish person who holds any office – minor or significant – in the Catholic Church."

http://dailycurrant.com/2013/03/04/catholic-church-blasted-lack-jewish-popes/

As American citizens the state of the union can become most disconcerting. Reading articles, frequenting blogs in order to get another perspective or  opinion often bring with it distress and fear. Reading Internet news, watching Fox or MSNBC, listening to blog-talk radio often do not comfort but bring with each word of warning feelings of anxiety and fear. Reports of government takeover, loss of civil rights, deflation of the dollar, socialism, unemployment, the demise of the nation, global unrest and the rise of Islam leave many upset, troubled and overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problems.

We could join a Tea Party  or write a letter to our congressman, We could run for political office or perhaps become president. We could picket, protest, pace, ponder or move to paradise - but as a Christian we are first called to pray and...

“Follow Me” said our LORD, “Follow Me.”

Our boat must not rest on troubled waters.

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You: because he trusts in You“. Isaiah 26:3

Our LORD has promised peace to His people.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27

"God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

We do not know when, we do not know how, but we do know difficult times are ahead. Signs of the times tell us to wake up and strengthen what remains. Flashing warning signs scream at us; "get your spiritual house in order." It is the responsibility of every blood soaked, blood bought born again child of God to pray and be about the Father' business.

“But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.” Matthew 24:43

Follow Him.!!
　

The first program of the ten of the series 'The Bible' aired this weekend - viewed by millions.

To say reviews were mixed would be an understatement. If one realizes the producers of the series are devout catholics, AND if one also realizes the apostate Roman Catholic Church has been distorting, changing and twisting The Word of God since the early beginnings of the church, then there is only one way we can view this presentation;

with tear filled eyes and a broken heart. 

The following is from Charles H. Spurgeon ~

"Soon after apostolic times there came the old Roman rubbish, which in the end proved a worse hindrance to the gospel than all the errors which had preceded it.

This Popish rubbish was found in layers; first one doctrinal error, and then another, and then another, and then another, and then another, until at this time the errors of the Church of
Rome are as countless as the stars, as black as midnight, and as foul as hell.

Her abominations reek in the nostrils of all Christian men, or at least they should.  Her idolatries are the scorn of reason and the abhorrence of faith. The iniquities of her practice, and the atrociousness of her doctrine, almost surpass belief.

As the gospel is the masterpiece of God, “Popery” is the masterpiece of Satan! There can scarcely be imagined anything of devilish craftiness or Satanic wickedness which could be compared with her. She is the unparalleled queen of iniquity! Behold upon her forehead the name, Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.

The church of Rome and her teachings are a vast mountain of rubbish covering the truth."

The eagerly anticipated miniseries on the History Channel 'The Bible' premiered 3.3.13.  The ten weeks of programs began in the Book of Genesis and will conclude with the Book of the Revelation.

To ensure biblical 'accuracy', according to the series producers,  'biblical scholars' such as Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes and Rick Warren were consulted.

Tom Peterson author of Catholics Come Home was also consulted.In the three years since his book was published nearly 200 million viewers have witnessed the Catholics Come Home inspiring ads on network and cable television, helping 400,000 neighbors, relatives and coworkers to experience God’s love, and rediscover their Church [the RCC] family.

Examples of Biblical 'accuracy' are in evidence throughout the series:

Erin Benziger viewed an extended preview of the series [50 minutes] and writes:

"Was the Bible itself consulted, or was this written using vague memories from stories learned in Sunday School years ago...

...the scene of Jesus' call to Peter to be a disciple. Jesus asks Peter to "just give Me an hour, and I will give you a whole new life." Later, Jesus asks Peter to come with him so that He may make him a fisher of men, to which Peter asks, "What are we going to do?" Replies Jesus, "Change the world."

...the scene of Abraham as he prepares to sacrifice Isaac, yet stopped by God at the last moment, shows Abraham turning and  seeing a lamb standing next to a tree. All the while, Sarah is seen running and calling frantically for Isaac as though she knows what her husband is about to do."

Already books, studies, devotionals and other resources are available based upon this production. Rick Warren will have a new sermon series, History Makers, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Faith -

"History Makers: Living by Faith is a new series based on the epic 10 part miniseries. The Bible.....See history brought to life as you relive the dramatic stories of the scriptures. Learn how to leave an extraordinary legacy despite ordinary circumstances."

Untold millions are expected to view this series. Will these untold millions, many without biblical discernment, accept the erroneous teachings of this series.?. Will these 'dramatic stories from the scriptures' be accepted as truth.?.  Will the 'gospel' being presented by the apostate RCC church and celebrated pastor Rick Warren by their false teachings and misrepresentation of scripture condemn millions to hell.?.

"I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ." Galatians 1:6-7

Let us pray that what the enemy means for evil, our God will turn for good.  We must pray these untold millions will be as Bereans and check these things out to see if they be true. We must pray that the Tom Peterson ads fall on deaf ears.

We must pray... always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks us for a reason for the hope that is in us.

We must pray.!!.