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| Denisegilmore Registered user Username: Denisegilmore Post Number: 4 Registered: 10-2000 |
This is from: http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1926.cfm TIMES OF UNPARALLELED TROUBLES -- "INTOLERABLE ANGUISH" Today, we are passing through the time of "intolerable anguish" of which the Jesus foretold that would occur at the End of the Age [Mark 13:8]. On every side and every day, we hearing of Wars, Rumors of Wars, Nation Against Nation, Kingdom Against Kingdom [Matthew 24:6-8]. Every day, we hear of warnings about terrorism that are designed to send terror into the heart of every citizen. We hear of natural calamities on every side. We hear unbelievers crying out in fear about economic collapse, war, rumors of war, and disaster on every side. All this news can throw doubt and fear into the heart of even the mature believer. Further, the continuously bad news of the day can begin to heavily weigh upon the heart, soul, and mind of even the spiritually strong. I know what you are going through. I have been daily studying the deepest, darkest recesses of Satanism since 1988. Every day, I studied the occult plan to produce Antichrist, and to deceive the vast majority of people throughout the world -- including Christians! In order to better understand this satanic plan, God led me into a study of White and Black Magic Witchcraft. After a short while, I felt as though my heart would break. Day after day, I had been studying the most heart wrenching subject possible; day after day, I could see our beloved country slip into the practice of the most hedonistic practices imaginable all the while priding itself on being "liberated" and "free". Churches were going deeply into apostasy, and Liberal Bible-denying doctrines were the order of the day. In daily news, in the Arts and Entertainment, and on TV, I could see anti-christian values not only increasing, but being glorified and extolled as normal, and right. I could see the country in whose armed forces I had served during the Vietnam War deliberately taking action that would one day subvert and destroy the very freedoms for which I and tens of millions of others had fought to protect. My heart was breaking, and there seemed no end in sight, no hope for the morrow, and no lightness to break the spiritual darkness. How can a person keep up hope when all around them he can see the moral decay that will one day bring Godís Judgments crashing down? To preserve my soul, I decided upon a daily regimen of Bible Study that would counteract the terrible news of the day and the even more terrible line of study into which the Holy Spirit was driving me. I began to read uplifting Scripture at the same time I was continuing my study of the New World Order. Every day I made a point of studying selected Psalms, or studying Philippians, Colossians, Galatians, or some other wonderful New Testament Epistle. Another refreshing tool I discovered to aid me was devotional literature from pastors and teachers of the Word. This combination of uplifting Scripture and devotional material on the one hand, and a continuation of the study of the gradually encroaching Kingdom of Antichrist on the other hand, worked greatly to keep my soul refreshed even as I studied the encroaching Kingdom of Antichrist, the New World Order. Today, Christians throughout the world are at a time in which we can hardly keep our spirits up. Today, sinful men are becoming more and more sinful; our national moral fabric is torn and shredded, without the average person even realizing it! Today, true Fundamental Christians are being castigated as the enemy of our nation, even to the point where a bill has now been introduced in Congress which will make preaching against homosexuality based upon Biblical principles a "Hate Crime" ["U.S. Hate Crime Bill Could Criminalize Biblical Truth, Pro-Family Spokesman Fears", AgapePress News, May 27, 2004] Today, more than ever, we need to be uplifted by Scripture. Today, we need more than ever to seek protection in Godís Precious Promises. We need to revel in Psalm 91, seeking to "dwell in the secret place of the Most High" and praying Godís mighty protection in our lives. Today, we need to be praying the Job 1:10 Hedge of Protection around our lives, our family, and our spiritual leaders. Today, we need to be soaking up precious devotional materials whenever we can find a preacher and teacher true to the Word and able to richly express Godís insights. Today, I would like to introduce you to just one such man, Brother Ed Miller, a Bible teacher and preacher, and all-around wonderful Christian to whom God has given much insight into His Word and blessed him with His providence. Today, I would like to share some gems from one of Brother Millerís devotional books, for your enrichment. Grace Sufficient For Every Trial Let us examine relevant portions from Brother Millerís book, "Godís Dawn For Every Darkness: Morning-Fresh Glimpses Into His Gracious Heart". Let us now peruse this rich material. In his chapter, "When I Am Afraid", Brother Miller begins with a short segment on Godís Grace, entitled, "Sufficient Grace for the Perfect Time". Since we are always concerned about how we will hold up when the time comes for our persecution and trial, Brother Miller offers us some pertinent and reassuring insights. "If you fear failing the Lord in the day of severe testing, your fear is groundless, for you are reasoning from the wrong side of grace. To suffering people, God gives grace to suffer; to dying people, He gives grace to die. It is because you are neither suffering nor dying that you do not yet have the grace that you would need if you were. Be assured that the Lord will support you in the very hour you need Him. We must not give glory to the martyrs who died courageously and honored God with their parting sighs. They were simple Christians who were supplied from the Lord in their hour of testing. All our springs are in the Lord, and He will meet our need when the time is perfect." What reassurance! Brother Miller is speaking Godís Truth when he says that God will provide exactly the right amount of Grace to see us successfully through the trial, but will provide this Grace only at that instant when we need it! Not before! Brother Miller then looked to the Apostle Paul for enlightenment. "Every time he required more grace, more grace was supplied. If you would have candidly spoken with Paul in his prison cell as he waited for the word of his possible execution, I believe he would have said something like this: ëI am naturally as chicken-hearted as you are when it comes to suffering for Jesus. I cannot imagine that I will do well when that time comes. But I donít live by what I imagine; I live by what I know. Although I do not have what it takes, I do have, living in my heart, Who it takes. He can create in me all I need to support me in that hour. I fully expect He will provide all-sufficient grace to enable me to bear all things victoriously. The only thing I have for the present moment is expectation and hope. Suitable grace to honor Jesus will surely be granted when it is needed, and not before. We must not reason on the wrong side of grace. The Lord does not portion grace to us before it is needed. The greater the need, the greater the Grace will be." [p. 95-6] We sing a wonderful hymn in this vein, do we not? "Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold, Threaten the soul with infinite loss; Grace that is greater, yes grace untold, Points to the refuge, the mighty cross." And, the lovely refrain: "Grace, grace, Godís grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within! Grace, grace, Godís grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin." Now, we realize how foolish we are to worry that we do not have this grace right now, before the time of testing begins. Once our testing begins, we shall have all the grace, and all the power, from the Holy Spirit to be able to go through the trial in a manner that would glorify our beloved Jesus! Battling Doubt Another area in which I struggle sometimes is Doubt. Brother Ed must struggle there, too, for he devotes a section to this subject, entitled, "When I Have Doubts". Listen to him as he discusses the subject, "The Godly Sometimes Doubt". "A righteous person is not one who never falls, but one who, after falling, rises up again. Seven times, says the writer to the Proverbs, will the righteous fall. The number seven undoubtedly indicates that there will never be a time, short of heaven, when the Christian will be sanctified beyond the possibility of falling. But the believer differs from the unbeliever in that, by the grace of God, the righteous will rise after every fall; the ungodly fall and stay down." Brother Miller than looks to John the Baptist who doubted that Jesus was the Messiah, even after proclaiming Him to be so by the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, even after baptizing Him and seeing the Dove alight on His shoulder, and even after seeing Jesus perform all the miracles foretold of Messiah. Still, in the time of testing, in prison, John the Baptist doubted, and sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah, or whether they should look for someone else. Brother Miller observes: "But what did John do with his doubts? He sent his doubts to Jesus Ö It is true, the godly sometimes fall; it is also true that the godly sometimes doubt. When they fall, by grace, they rise again; when they doubt, they send their doubts to Jesus Ö Do not despair, my friend, because you have entertained doubts, even after you have seen so much of the Lord in your life. Send your doubts in haste to Jesus. He will satisfy your heart. His answer Ö will be a healing balm for you. Doubts sent to Jesus are a great part of faith. May the Lord make a heaven of your prison. You have all the marks of a godly man. Do what the godly do ń send those doubts to Jesus." [p. 111-113; Emphasis added] Brother Miller then speaks of Jesusí Lovingkindness. "We are not always aware of the Lordís providential dealings in our lives. He delivers us daily, and we do not realize it Ö It is good to pause now and then and look back over our lives, with an eye on the Lord and reflect how faithful He has been. Let me call your attention to Psalm 136. It begins and ends with thanksgiving and throughout, this phrase is repeated twenty-six times: ëThe lovingkindness of the Lord is everlastingí. "I must be more awake to read between the lines of my own history. Already, I can see that His lovingkindness laces the events of my life Ö Perhaps it will take the light of eternity to fully illumine how His love undergirds the whole of my life, but I am challenged to be more God-centered and to read His heart between the lines. Life is too short to pass through it oblivious to the One Who governs behind the scene. Day by day since I have paused to consider Him, I have grown in my awareness of His love and presence, and my vision of Him is increasing Ö ëThe lovingkindness of the Lord is everlastingí Ö a day is soon coming when only that which has been written between the lines will endure." [p. 60-1] This last line really struck a chord with my heart, for I remember well standing in front of my beloved Motherís grave marker for the first time since she passed away. On that simple marker, she had wanted only her name and the years of her life. As I looked at those years, 1921-1974, I startlingly realized that all of Momaís life was between those cold, impersonal dashes. All the times Mom laughed, and loved, and lived, were now gone from record, replaced only by that cold dash! All Momís dreams, aspirations, disappointments, and triumphs, were now gone, replaced by that cold dash. All Momís service to Jesus Christ was gone, hidden between the dash. But, Brother Miller is saying that, in our Saviorís beloved accounting, in Heaven, the memory, the record, of Momís service to Him is NOT gone, but is wonderfully recorded for eternity. At that moment in Glory, "only that which has been written between the lines will endure". Thank you, Brother Ed! Burdens Placed Upon Your Soul Now, our dear Brother turns his attention to Prayer, in a segment entitled, "Godís Burdens Are Prophecies". " ëI have never been so burdened to prayí, you may at times say, ëyet nothing is happening!í I assure you that, if you are burdened by God to pray, then something wonderful is happening! The Lord never prompts His children to pray in vain. He would not mock us with burdens that He was not intending to lift. It is probable that the more intense the burden Ö the greater will be the miracle when God fully answers the prayer. Continue to pray in the spirit, and may the Lord make you keenly sensitive to His faithful working. Unless He opens our eyes, we would never detect the finger of God Ö" "Take comfort in the fact that God has been pleased to burden you to pray; believe that the burden is, in a sense, a prophecy. You have learned to watch and pray; now pray and watch with thanksgiving. Be alert to the smallest hint that God is active. Do not allow physical sight to hinder you from spiritual expectancy. Keep looking until you have looked seven times, for in the fullness of time, you will behold the seemingly insignificant cloud the size of the manís hand [as with the prophet Elijah, 1 Kings 18:44] Ö It may be only a surprising word, an unexpected gesture, a momentary openness, some faint response to the Lord, but pray on! It is for you as it was when the Lord reminded the prophet Habakkuk: ëObserve! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days ń you would not believe it if you were toldí. [1:5] "We need to be numbered among those who search for the cloud. Let others conclude that God is doing nothing even though we pray. Our burden to pray is our reason to sing. Do not conclude by six futile trips to look toward the sea that the Lord is withholding rain. It will surely come! Your spirit will hear the sound of the shower before your eye sees the cloud." [p. 72-3] As I read this last sentence, I could only remember what Job exclaimed after he had seen the full spiritual lesson God intended him to learn. Job humbly said: "I had heard of you only by the hearing of the ear, but now my spiritual eye sees you". [Job 42:5; Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified Bible Commentary] What did Brother Ed entitle this section? "Godís Burdens Are Prophecies". When God burdens you to pray for someone or some situation, He is creating the situation where He will be glorified when He answers your prayer. You may not live to see the full answer, but God will receive the glory when your prayer is finally answered! And, just as God ensures that all prophecies are fulfilled, so will He ensure that He will lift every burden He has placed on every heart! Receiving Light Through Darkness - Sweetness Through Bitterness How many times have you begun to pray, only to have matters get instantly worse? Listen now to Brother Miller discuss the subject, "We Pray For Light; God Sends Darkness". "Recently my son-in-law shared a paradox from the life of Moses Ö Moses longed to know the Lord intimately and he prayed, ëI pray Thee, show me Thy glory! Godís answer to that prayer has instructed hungry Christians through the centuries Ö Moses had to be hidden in the cleft of a rock and be sheltered by Godís hand Ö these facts illustrate how holy God is and how feeble manís capacity is to behold Him in full view. The paradox that struck me so profoundly in this passage was that God revealed His glory through darkness Ö When the Lord answered Mosesí prayer, He actually brought much darkness into Mosesí life. It must have been dark in the cave already, but when Godís great hand covered the entrance of the cleft, how dark it must have become! "Now I am beginning to understand how God shows His glory. When I pray for light, He often sends darkness. I seek earnestly to be enlightened through His Word, to know Him better, and I find myself in a narrow place, and darkness sweeps like a great shadow over my soul Ö We pray for light, God sends darkness and shortly afterward we experience His wonder goodness pass by. Our prayer is answered. We have seen the glory of the Lord. The light we sought came in the form of darkness, and by it, we behold His glory. Oh, how wonderful are His ways! "Ö I now view darkness as the precursor to His goodness. It is delightful to see the glory of God from the security of our union with Jesus." [P. 55-6] Our nation, and the entire world, is about to pass through the deepest darkness in all of manís recorded history. After rejecting the true Lord Jesus Christ and His immutable Bible, man is about to embrace Antichrist and his thorough deceit. Man has cast away the Son of Light and is about to experience the deepest darkness imaginable. Mankind has sown the wind, and is about to reap the whirlwind. During this time, millions of ordinary Christians are going to pass through the final birth pangs of Matthew 24:8 that will produce Antichrist, and believe me, these trials will feel like the judgments of Revelation. At this greatest moment of disaster and darkness, we will receive Jesusí unparalleled Grace that will enable us to go through these trials in such a way that will bring glory and honor to Jesus Christ, and will bring us to the greatest light possible, the Light of Glory! As that beloved song says: "He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater; He sendeth more strength when the labors increase. To added affliction, He addeth His mercy; To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, When our strength has failed, ere the day is half done, When we reach the end of our hoarded resources, `Our Fatherís full giving is only begun." And, oh, how I love that refrain: "His love has no limit; His grace has no measure. His power has no boundary known unto men. For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth and giveth, and giveth again." Brother Ed seemed to sense the difficulty I was having ingesting all the terrible events about to break upon manís heads. Perhaps he could sense the spiritual difficulty I was going through in studying witchcraft continuously, even as the Holy Spirit was driving me through such study. Listen to Brother Miller: "Imagine the situation the prophet Ezekiel found himself when a scroll was handed to him from the Lord, written on both sides with bad news: lamentations, mournings, and woes. Then Ezekiel was given a strange command. He was told to eat the scroll ÖIt was a report that was all negative and gloomy. No matter which way Ezekiel turned the scroll Ö there were only bitter things written. ëEat the scrollí was thus an impossible command to obey apart from divine assistance Ö Ezekiel was enabled, by Godís grace, to consume the bitter scroll Ö God, by grace, fed it to him [Ezekiel 3:2]. "Since it is as unnatural for us today, as it was for Ezekiel then, to embrace and devour a message so devastating, it is comforting to know that the Lord Himself will enable us to open our mouths and swallow His seemingly bitter truth. "It was not only Ezekiel who was naturally weak, but all the great men and women of God whose lives are recorded for us Ö The Bible saints were as weak in themselves as we are Ö At last, by the grace of God, Ezekiel was enabled to swallow the scroll God had instructed him to eat, and when he swallowed it, the bitter scroll was transformed into the sweetest thing Ezekiel had ever eaten. Godís will for Ezekiel became sweet as he appropriated it. That which was difficult to swallow at first, became sweetness itself." "If difficult things are facing you in the days and weeks ahead, have no doubt that the Lord will be as faithful to you as He was to Ezekiel. Eating the scroll will honor the Lord Who has ordained it for you. You will discover that there is sweetness in bringing honor to Him. Eating the scroll God has handed to you will crowd you more closely to Jesus, and the experience will conform you more to His likeness. No matter how bitter it seems to the flesh, there is sweetness in being conformed to Jesus." "We should not fear the Will of God. It is only to our mortality that the scroll seems bitter. Godís purposes are as wise as they are loving, and His name and reputation are advanced as we consume the scroll that He hands down to us, whatever may be written on it. If you fear the things that have been decreed to you, you fear needlessly. Eat the scroll, and in eating, may you discover the sweetness of His will as you acquiesce to His purposes for and through you!" My heart and soul can only say, "Amen!" to Brother Millerís Christlike Wisdom! When I saw the direction the Lord was taking me in 1988, I felt like I was being asked to eat a bitter scroll, for I was studying the demise of this great nation, and the kingdom of Antichrist, the Kingdom of the Enemy of our Souls. The scroll was not only bitter, it was continuously ń daily ń bitter. But, I have persevered through the years with this ministry, and now stand in awe of the sweet spiritual fruit God is realizing. Now, we are seeing over 12 people per hour reading a Salvation Page, as they were convicted by what they read and immediately sought the saving face of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! We are seeing nearly 3,000 people read a Salvation Page from our Portuguese language site, great numbers from our Spanish site, and from our Finnish site. Truly, Brother Miller is correct when he states that, if the Born Again believer appropriates to himself the Will of Jesus, he or she will discover that the scroll is sweet to the stomach, not bitter. While we preach, teach, and warn of the impending doom, and of the soon appearance of Antichrist, we shall ultimately know the sweetness of Jesus in Heaven and that sweetness shall only increase as we go through eternity. But, our hearts break for the people who have rejected Jesus Christ and are now walking down the path to Godís judgment, oblivious to the peril into which they are striding. These people will drink of Godís judgment, "undiluted" as Jesus warns in the Book of Revelation. It is to these people we reach out with strong warnings, with tears and with pleadings that come straight from our soul, and from the pages of Holy Scripture! Heed the warnings! Recognize the dangers! You are playing on railroad tracks with the train bearing down upon you with full speed! Turn to Jesus Christ while the "Day is still called Today", before the Mercy Seat is closed and time shall be no more. As we have strongly warned through this ministry, and have seen the glorious Gospel Seed being so widely distributed throughout the world at such a glorious rate, our anxieties to escape the trials and tribulations of this world by going to Heaven have been muted by another prayer: "Lord, if you are spreading your glorious Gospel at such a rate, extend the days available so we can see even more souls won." Will you thus pray with us? Truly, the time of the coming storm draws ever near! |
