Our Assurance
Here is a thought provoking Poem that I got on a Free Bookmark, recently; so let me share it with you.
“Christ died to loose the bands of evil. He died to set the captives free. He died to make a way to heaven, But most of all, He died for Me. Christ lived to show His great compassion. To demonstrate his Father’s Love, Who gladly gave his only begotten, to leave His glorious home above. Christ came to draw the sinner to him. To make each broken person whole. If we would only hear God pleading, and catch a glimpse of Heaven’s goal. Christ’s promises are sure and certain. He will be with me to the end, promising to guide and lead Me, Never leave me – be My Friend. Christ returns in all his Glory. He comes in clouds to claim his own. He comes to end all Death and Sorrow. He comes to take me home. O Friend will You be there to greet him? To see his arms outstretched in Love? To rise with loved ones there to meet him? To reign a thousand years above? Christ comes once more in his Holy City, to re-create this earth again. In Peace and Love through all Eternity, My Lord, My King will ever Reign!” Anonymous.
This writer has caught a glimpse or concept of where we really are and where we all really actually want to be. There was a song that circulated about just a few years back that had a line that ran like this. “This world is not my home, I’m just a passin through, my treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue, the angels beckon me from Heavn’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”
We have all been here way too long in this ole world of sin and sorrow, sickness and death. Jesus Christ really wants us away from all this terrible nasty stuff and personally with him where life is lived as it was always planned to be, and that is Heavenly. So the question we need to address is this, “Why have we dug in and settled in this World/Existence when we were never designed to live it in this way?”
Quote: “Watch ye therefore, and pray always. Luke 21:36. The days in which we live are solemn and important. The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth. . . . The condition of things in the world shows that troublous times are right upon us. The daily papers are full of indications of a terrible conflict in the near future. Bold robberies are of frequent occurrence. Strikes are common. Thefts and murders are committed on every hand. Men possessed of demons are taking the lives of men, women, and little children. Men have become infatuated with vice, and every species of evil prevails. Everything in the world is in agitation. The signs of the times are ominous. Coming events cast their shadows before. The Spirit of God is withdrawing from the earth, and calamity follows calamity by sea and by land. There are tempests, earthquakes, fires, floods, murders of every grade. . . . Rapidly are men ranging themselves under the banner they have chosen. Restlessly are they waiting and watching the movements of their leaders. There are those who are waiting and watching and working for our Lord’s appearing. Another class are falling into line under the generalship of the first great apostate. Few believe with heart and soul that we have a hell to shun and a heaven to win.
The crisis is stealing gradually upon us. The sun shines in the heavens, passing over its usual round. . . . Men are still eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying, and giving in marriage. Merchants are still buying and selling. Men are jostling one against another, contending for the highest place. Pleasure lovers are still crowding to theatres, horse races, gambling hells. The highest excitement prevails, yet probation’s hour is fast closing, and every case is about to be eternally decided. . . .Solemnly there come to us down through the centuries the warning words of our Lord from the Mount of Olives: “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” {Mar 35}
We can no more stop these coming events as much as we can stop the sun rising or setting, but we can make the necessary preparation. If we have to walk the dog and it is pouring with rain, we take a coat or something, so with these coming events, we take Jesus Christ and leave sin and sinful habits behind.
Hebrews 13:5 “[Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Paul reminds us of the unwavering watchfulness of our Saviour, and his promise to be with us. Like the Disciples in the Lake Storm, how oft we get so caught up in the cares of life and forget that we can never drown as God is with us in Christ Jesus, but like the Disciples, how oft we forget to turn to him right there beside us, for he is experiencing the same conditions, but he is at peace, so why do we fear and panic, turn to the Lord and cast our cares upon him who careth for you.
To take something without their permission is “Theft,” so Jesus Christ will never take your burdens or cares, you must freely give them to him, and then not turn and take them back, for if you do, the Jesus is then obliged to hand them back over because he will never take what is not his or what is not freely and legally given to him. You cannot give to Jesus that which is not yours in the first place, family yes, because you own them – connected, but unless given permission first (see how Jesus always asked permission before healing or demon deliverance) your ability to petition for somebody else is limited to a polite asking for Heaven’s intervention to the level the recipient permits.
Dear Reader: let us each resolve “that we do actually have a hell to shun and a heaven to win.”
