Any person who has to wear a big cross, have a cross in their pocket, or have a cross tattoo, to “prove” they are a Christian, very likely doesn’t know the One who died on that cross to take away our sins.
“For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Philippians 3:3
Having “the fruit of the Spirit” is the proof one is born again in Christ (John 3:3, 7; Galatians 5:19-24).
The Savior never instructed anyone with this understanding: the idea of needing or using a physical object of any kind in worshipping Him. He in fact forbids such.
It simply does not matter what graven image, what physical idol is depicted – God will not be worshipped via any physical object. It’s only the religious who are not born again, who attempt such.
Those who have a personal relationship with the risen Savior need no physical reminder. He’s their hope, dwells in them by His Holy Spirit, the love of God, and they hear His voice (John 10; Romans 5:5; 8:9; 1 John 4:24, etc.).
There is no power in a cross – including the actual literal pieces of wood Jesus died upon 2,000 years ago, much less in some trinket you carry around like a good luck charm. Jesus told us that “ALL power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matthew 28:18).
Anyone can carry a physical good-luck-charm idol around. Most don’t want to die to self though as Jesus requires in order to follow Him (John 3:19-21). Jesus conquered death, sin, and Satan by dying, and we must also as we are “crucified with Christ” (Hebrews 2:14; Luke 9:23-24; Galatians 2:20; Romans 6).
Jesus Christ didn’t come die on a cross and rise again from the dead so that His people could remember Him by a little piece of wood, a good luck charm they carried. Such is condemned in Holy Scripture.
To say someone should carry around a physical object to remember Christ would be like saying one should wear a shirt with a picture of his dad on it while he’s away from his dad in order to remember his dad. Ludicrous. One might say “But Jesus died and He’s away for now…..” 1. Jesus never told you to carry a wooden cross around your neck or in your pocket to remember Him. 2. He told you to repent…… deny self and take up the cross to follow Him – and this begins with surrendering your life to Him, confessing you are a guilty sinner and receiving Christ as the LORD of your life (Luke 9:23-24; John 1:12; Acts 17:30; Romans 10:9-10, 13). 3. Jesus is alive – always has been and always will be. He rose from the dead after being buried for 3 days. He’s reigning as the Great Intercessor at the right hand of His Father in Heaven (Hebrews 7:24-26).
The love of God in Christ is shed abroad in the hearts of God’s people. They need no reminder of such because they are known of Him – born again into Christ the LORD.
“And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Romans 5:5
To those who truly know the risen Savior, their hearts are daily fueled by His Word, by His Holy Spirit in them and not any physical object, token, idol or icon (1 John 3:24).
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Romans 8:9
Wow, hundreds of people liked “The Cross in my Pocket” poem and well over a 100 shared it!
This is clear proof that most people who claim to be Christians, have no clue of the original Gospel. They simply are not saved.
So we are now blessed because we carry a little piece of wood in our pockets and not because of the finished work of the nail-scarred risen Savior who died on the cross once, we buried, and raised again from the dead? Isn’t THAT the Gospel? (Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.) That cross was a one-time altar upon which the Son of God offered that one, final, perfect sacrifice. “It is finished” means the sin debt is “paid in full” by the only One who qualified to do such (John 19:30). The one perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ on that cross on Calvary’s hill perfectly satisfied the claims of the Father’s justice to justify fallen men. He’s no longer on that cross beloved. He is risen from the dead, is seated at the right hand of His Father in Heaven, making intercession for us and dwells in the heart of each and every person who is His.
Wearing a cross around your neck or carrying a cross- shaped icon in your pocket or purse has nothing to do with following Jesus Christ. In fact it’s a violation of His Word.
If we need a piece of wood in our pocket to “remind” us of Christ who died on that cross, we need to be saved. “Ye must be born again” Jesus says. There is no Scripture or New Testament example of Jesus or His holy apostles or the earliest followers of Jesus using a physical object to supposedly “remember” Christ. If we are born of God we are new creatures in Christ, old things are passed away, and all things are of God (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). So, He has given us the miracle of regeneration and we are consumed with the Holy Spirit and the love of Christ (Romans 5:5).
“For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Philippians 3:3
There is no power in a piece of wood, even though Jesus died “once” on a wooden cross. The power is in Christ, not anything physical.
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:” 1 Peter 3:18
“Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.” Hebrews 7:27
“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Hebrews 9:12
“For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Hebrews 9:26
“By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10
Notice what Jesus says about “all power” and how it’s in HIM. He says nothing here or anywhere about carrying some physical object to remind you of Him. Such idolatry is only for those who do not know Him.
“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Matthew 28:18
There’s no power in a piece of wood, even if it’s in the shape of a cross. “ALL power” is in the risen Savior Himself – Christ the LORD.
When Jesus spoke through His apostle Paul of remembering Him, He spoke of the cross He “once” – “one time” died upon for our sins (1 Corinthians 11).
Carrying an icon is a cheap counterfeit of knowing the Lamb of God. The cross Jesus commanded we take up is not carrying a little icon in our pockets (Luke 9:23-24). The cross itself has no value. It was merely the altar upon which the Son of God died for the sins of the world. This would be like saying we need to get a tattoo with the name or image of a now dead relative as if their memory in our hearts and mind wasn’t enough, we need to put their image on our body to remind us. This is all idolatry friends which God forbids in the very first two commandments. Pagan Catholics wear scapulas as if they are good luck charms. But those who are truly born again worship the living LORD “in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24). Jesus says:
“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24
Instead of having to be reminded of the cross as your hand goes into your pocket, memorize and meditate upon the many Scriptures of the cross of Christ and the one He commanded you to take up in following Him (Colossians 1:20; Galatians 2:20; Luke 9:23-24, etc.).
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” Exodus 20:3-5
It doesn’t matter how much you use mere human reasoning to justify this idolatry. God simply forbids being “worshipped” via idols. He will not be and anyone seeking to do such will be excluded from His eternal kingdom as an idolater (Galatians 5:19-21; Revelation 21:8, etc.).
“But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Romans 8:11-17
Conclusion:
Personally, I do not have any imagery at all but rather have chosen to worship the LORD “in spirit and in truth” according to Jesus’ directive which He makes an essential “MUST” (John 4:23-24). This means to worship Him out of our spirit and by His Spirit and according to His truth, which is His written Word. See John 4:23-24; 17:17.
God Himself etches the image of who He is upon the heart of those who are His and thoroughly pour over His Precepts, His words.
Every image or picture, painting of “Jesus” comes from mere sinful mankind who cannot possibly begin to depict the image of an infinite Almighty God. Jesus walked the earth for 3.5 years but we no longer know Him according to the flesh.
“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” 2 Corinthians 5:16
Satan has so corrupted the image of the Son of God, his arch enemy. We can only trust God’s Word to inform and reveal to us who HE is. So we get every single iota of our image of God straight from His own mouth, His Word. That’s the way the LORD has chosen to reveal Himself and every other way will inevitably mislead and corrupt His holy image.
His words and pouring over them, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating upon and obeying them is how we are moved by and walk with Jesus and not some false image, painting done by a finite sinner.
Jesus tells us that the Scriptures are what He gave us to reveal Himself to us as we come to Him John 5:39.
“Search the scriptures … they are they which testify of me.” John 5:39
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Abiding
America’s Path to Destruction According to Holy Scripture [podcast]
Sadly, so many today, who claim to be Christians, spend more time, money, and energy seeking to save the sinking ship called America (a corporation under which they are slaves) than they do obeying Christ’s Great Commission command to teach His Word and preach the Gospel to the lost (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-20). They have chosen America over the LORD (Matthew 6:24; 12:30). So very man “church” members and yet Jesus Christ is not their “first love.” (Revelation 2:4-5) Patriotism is their idol, vainly believing they can vote away divine judgment. Most of their time, money, and energy is wasted on the futility of the temporal. Nothing will save America – no campaign, political party, voting block, or otherwise. God is judging America. It’s over as we once knew it.
God judges nations and has a timing, a frame of time, an “instant” including a beginning and ending point, where He judges nations (Jeremiah 18:7). And America is under His judgment, and it going to get much worse (Jeremiah 18).
America is under Divine Judgment
“This is exactly where we are! Things are about to wax worse and worse in this country! Jesus warned us a greater tribulation is coming (Mat 24:21). This world is becoming darker and darker. It will be a challenge to all who put their faith in Christ. Will our faith stand in the midst of severe persecution (1 Peter 1:6-9)? God will try it in the fire, subjecting it to intense heat. The ultimate goal is to purge out all unbelief and impurities. The genuineness of our faith can only be proved in the fire. During hard times of tribulations the lukewarm will drift away, but genuine faith will endure! And the reward will be final salvation (Mat 24:13).” Karen Cochran
The ultimate reason America is being destroyed is not, as some imagine, due to “bad leadership.” No. America is being destroy from within and without due to the rebellion of its people – the sin against God and refusal to repent. Read Jeremiah 18 and Isaiah 1.
Destruction Comes when leaders are allowed to pervert justice!
“The heads (leaders) thereof judge for reward (take bribes), and the priests (religious leaders) thereof teach for hire, and the prophets (religious leaders) thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us. 12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.” Micah 3:11-12
Government Servants and Bribes
“The king by judgment establisheth the land: but he that receiveth gifts (bribes) overthroweth it.” Proverbs 29:4
Inflation Revelation 6
“And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” Revelation 6:6
Excessive Inflation is judgment.
“They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.” Ezekiel 7:19
Timeline of Impending Doom
Someone is saying “But brother I’ve been listening to dreams and prophecies people are getting about our nation.”
Our hearts can deceive us (Proverbs 28:26; Jeremiah 17:9). We can only be fully “sure” by reading, studying, and knowing the “MORE SURE WORD of prophecy” which is the Holy Scriptures (2 Peter 1:19-21).
“God’s judgment is upon America. We have become Sodom’s sister (Ezekiel 16:46). It’s pride that has rooted itself in the hearts of the American people. And what brings destruction upon nations? Pride! Those who love Him will be looking for a new heaven and a new earth. This world is not our home.” Karen Cochran
THE DISCIPLE OF JESUS SHOULD VIEW HISTORY, INCLUDING WHERE A NATION STANDS THIS DAY, BY “THE MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY” WHICH IS THE HOLY SCRIPTURES (Isaiah 46:9-10; 57:15; Romans 15:4; 2 Peter 1:19-21).
Looking at the USA through the lens of Scripture is what is important. We have murdered over 60 million precious innocent babies and called it “choice” but God calls it murder and commands us “Thou not kill.” (Exodus 20:13). The US is over and has been for a long time, as we once knew it. Military men: This isn’t the same USA you and I both signed up to serve. This isn’t the same USA we were born and raised in.
This list of sins in the above passage begins with these 3:
PFA = Pride, Fulness of Bread, and Abundance of idleness.
The Sins of Sodom:
Sins Jerusalem cited for in Ezekiel 16:49-51:
- Pride (arrogance),
- Fulness of Bread (gluttony, hoarding),
- Abundance of Idleness (idle, lazy),
- did not help those in need due to preoccupation with self-worship (not generous in spreading God’s wealth to His people and work)
- haughty
- committed abomination (rampant fornication – just as in the days leading up to the Noahic flood. See Genesis 6)
In the bulleted sins listed above from this revealing Ezekiel 16 passage, did you notice the progression?
Though it culminated in sodomy, yet not one sex sin is even specifically mentioned in this list of Sodom’s sins in Ezekiel 16. Does this not align perfectly with the judgment we see in Romans 1, how “when they knew God, they glorified him not as God” and were unthankful, further enriching themselves while they ignored others?
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful (they were ungrateful); but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” Romans 1:21
A fresh reading of Romans 1 reveals the root sins that preceded the sexual sins which immediately go before divine judgment. See Romans 1:18-32.
The sins that darken the hearts of those who once “knew God” and lead to the ultimate abomination of sodomy/homosexuality are pride, gluttony, idleness, and refusing to be generous givers to believers in need, etc.
Let’s Look Again at the Root, the Gateway Sins of the People of Sodom and Gomorrah:
PFA listed in Ezekiel 16:49-51:
- Pride (arrogance),
- Fulness of Bread (gluttony),
- Abundance of Idleness (idle, lazy),
- Like the fake religionists priest and Levite of Jesus’ Good Samaritan teaching, they did not help those in need due to preoccupation with self-worship (not generous in spreading God’s wealth to His people and work)
“The deceptions are growing stronger and becoming greater in number, leading us to the ultimate deception which is the antichrist! Beware, that if possible even the elect will be deceived (Mat 24:24). See 1 Corinthians 10:12.
“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
“America’s root sin is pride. They call us the greatest country on earth. We celebrate gay pride. American’s trust in their pride. We have pushed God out of every part of society, yet still believe in our pride, He is blessing us, because after all, we are the greatest country on earth! We are arrogant and boastful in the power of our own might. Trump has recently built a golden alter to himself and I have seen some pastor’s bowing down. We no longer fear God! God’s judgment is falling, from heaven, upon us! He will spare a remnant just as he always promised in the OT! Faithful believer’s who only bow to Him, seeking His face, keeping themselves unspotted from the world, and remaining pure and clean. Those are His true remnant will be given the fountain of life and never thirst again (Rev 21:6).” Karen Cochran
HERE’S WHAT BEING FULFILLED, WHAT’S COMING TO PASS RIGHT NOW
“And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:10-14
In the midst of the prophesied great apostasy we are in, Christ’s Remnant are…
- Waxing hotter in their love for God v12
- Enduring to the end v13
- Preaching Christ’s kingdom Gospel to the lost v14
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Articles
Famous Last Words of Atheists [podcast]
“Wow! That should put the fear of God in anyone who listens to this podcast! I know it did me! Powerful!” Karen
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” Psalms 14:1
I saw where a brother in Christ asks the so-called “atheists” he meets “Don’t you miss Him?” In a gentle loving voice he asks them if they miss God. This rings true because we know at some point in their past, God was showing them His kindness, drawing them (John 12:32). He is still showing them kindness in that they are still alive (Romans 2:4).
Think about that. God informed us that all men, with no exception, know inside that He exists. This is why He said that “they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).
I’ve seen several testimonies lately of people who previously called themselves “atheist” and are now saved by the blood of Jesus Christ! Keep preaching His glorious saving Gospel beloved saints. He’s coming soon.
Fearful Last Words:
CAESAR BORGIA – Italian nobleman, politician, and cardinal:
“While I lived, I provided for everything but death; now I must die, and am unprepared to die.”
THOMAS HOBBS – Political philosopher:
“I say again, if I had the whole world at my disposal, I would give it to live one day. I am about to take a leap into the dark.”
THOMAS PAYNE – Leading atheistic writer in American colonies:
“Stay with me, for God’s sake; I cannot bear to be left alone, O Lord, help me! O God, what have I done to suffer so much? What will become of me hereafter? I would give worlds if I had them, that ‘The Age of Reason’ had never been published. O Lord, help me! Christ, help me! No, don’t leave; stay with me! Send even a child to stay with me; for I am on the edge of hell here alone. If ever the Devil had an agent, I have been that one.”
SIR THOMAS SCOTT – Chancellor of England:
“Until this moment I thought there was neither a God nor a hell. Now I know and feel that there are both, and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty.”
VOLTAIRE – Famous anti-Christian atheist:
“…’I am abandoned by God and man.’ He said to his physician, Dr. Fochin: ‘I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months of life.’ When he was told this was impossible, he said, ‘Then I shall die and go to hell!’ His nurse said: ‘For all the money in Europe I wouldn’t want to see another unbeliever die! All night long he cried for forgiveness.’
ROBERT INGERSOLL – American writer and orator of the book, Golden Age of Free Thought:
“O God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul from hell!”
DAVID HUME – Atheist philosopher famous for his religious skepticism … He cried aloud on his death bed:
“I am in flames!”
Witnessed said his desperation was a horrible scene.
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE – French emperor who … brought death to millions to satisfy his … selfish ambitions for world conquest:
“I die before my time, and my body will be given back to the earth. Such is the fate of him who has been called the great Napoleon. What an abyss between my deep misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ!”
SIR FRANCIS NEWPORT – Head of an English Atheist club, to those gathered around his deathbed:
“You need not tell me there is no God, for I know there is one, and that I am in his presence! You need not tell me there is no hell. I feel myself already slipping. Wretches, cease your idle talk about there being hope for me! I know I am lost forever! Oh, that fire! Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell! Oh, that I could lie for a thousand years upon the fire that is never quenched, to purchase the favor of God and be united to Him again. But it is a fruitless wish. Millions and millions of years will bring me no nearer the end of my torments than one poor hour. Oh, eternity, eternity forever and forever! Oh, the insufferable pangs of Hell!”
CHARLES IX – French king. Urged on by his mother, he gave the order for the massacre of the French Huguenots, in which 15,000 souls were slaughtered in Paris alone and 100,000 in other sections of France, for no other reason than that they loved Christ. … He finally died, bathed in blood bursting from his veins. To his physicians, he said in his last hours:
“Asleep or awake, I see the mangled forms of the Huguenots passing before me. They drop with blood. They point at their open wounds. Oh! That I had spared at least the little infants at the bosom! What blood! I know not where I am. How will all this end? What shall I do? I am lost forever! Oh, I have done wrong…”
DAVID STRAUSS – Leading representative of German rationalism who spent a lifetime erasing belief in God:
“My philosophy leaves me utterly forlorn! I feel like one caught in the merciless jaws of an automatic machine, not knowing at what time one of its great hammers may crush me!”
JOSEF STALIN – Soviet revolutionary and politician. In a Newsweek interview with Svetlana, his daughter, she told of his death:
“My father died a difficult and terrible death … God grants an easy death only to the just. At what seemed the very last moment, he suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room. It was a terrible glance, insane or perhaps angry. His left hand was raised, as though he were pointing to something above and bringing down a curse on us all. The gesture was full of menace…the next morning he was dead.”
ANTON LEVEY – Satanic Bible author and high priest of the Satanic worship religion. … His dying words were:
“Oh my, oh my, what have I done, there is something very wrong.” – newzsteam. wordpress.com. December 19, 2017, by Brian Butler
ELIZABETH THE FIRST:
“All my possessions for one moment of time.”
KURT COBAIN (suicide note):
“Frances and Courtney, I’ll be at your altar. Please keep going Courtney, for Frances. For her life will be so much happier without me. I love you. I love you.”
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN:
“Too bad, too bad! It’s too late!”
ANNE BOLEYN:
“O God, have pity on my soul. O God, have pity on my soul.”
PRINCE HENRY OF WALES:
“Tie a rope round my body, pull me out of bed, and lay me in ashes, that I may die with repentant prayers to an offended God. O! I in vain wish for that time I lost with you and others in vain recreations.”
SOCRATES:
“All of the wisdom of this world is but a tiny raft upon which we must set sail when we leave this earth. If only there was a firmer foundation upon which to sail, perhaps some divine word.”
SIGMUND FREUD:
“The meager satisfaction that man can extract from reality leaves him starving.”
TONY HANCOCK (British comedian):
“Nobody will ever know I existed. Nothing to leave behind me. Nothing to pass on. Nobody to mourn me. That’s the bitterest blow of all.”
PHILLIP III, King of France:
“What an account I shall have to give to God! How I should like to live otherwise than I have lived.”
LUTHER BURBANK:
“I don’t feel good.”
Philosophical Last Words:
Aldous Huxley (humanist):
“It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‘Try and be a little kinder.’”
Karl Marx:
“Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough!”
Leonardo da Vinci:
“I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.”
Tolstoy:
“Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six.”
Benjamin Franklin:
“A dying man can do nothing easy.”
Grotius:
“I have lived my life in a laborious doing of nothing.”
In Stark Contrast to the Wicked, the Righteous Die with Great Hope
“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” 1 Corinthians 15:19
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:” 1 Peter 3:18
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
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Articles
The Persecution Podcast [podcast]
“Think it not strange” in 1 Peter 4 simply means to not be surprised. If you love the LORD you will want to hear all He says in His Word, including the reality of persecutions for Christ’s sake (John 8:47). Any man posing as a leader among God’s people and isn’t preaching regularly on the reality of Christian persecution, is absolutely an ear-tickling wolf! Run!
Sounds like our LORD is saying that WHATEVER, WHOEVER we lose in this life due to following Jesus, God is going to multiply back to us…
“And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. 28 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. 29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, 30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. 31 But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.” Mark 10:27-31
“He shall receive a hundred fold, houses, &c. – Not in the same kind: for it will generally be with persecutions: but in value: a hundred fold more happiness than any or all of these did or could afford. But let it be observed, none is entitled to this happiness, but he that will accept it with persecutions.” John Wesley
William MacDonald, the Believer’s Bible Commentary:
“10:28-30 Peter caught the drift of the Savior’s teaching. He realized that Jesus was saying, “Forsake all and follow Me.” Jesus confirmed this by promising present and eternal reward to those who forsake all for His sake and the gospel’s.
1. The present reward is 10,000 per cent return, not in money, but in:
a. houses—homes of other people where he is given accommodations as a servant of the Lord.
b. brothers and sisters and mothers and children—Christian friends whose fellowship enriches all of life.
c. lands—countries of the world which he has claimed for the King.
d. persecutions—these are a part of the present reward. It is a cause of rejoicing when one is found worthy to suffer for Jesus’ sake.
2. The future reward is eternal life. This does not mean that we earn eternal life through forsaking all. Eternal life is a gift. Here the thought is that those who forsake all are rewarded with a greater capacity for enjoying eternal life in heaven. All believers will have that life but not all will enjoy it to the same extent.”
FB Meyer writes:
“Mark 10:23-52
TRUE RICHES AND REAL GREATNESS
Wealth brings many temptations. It is not said that rich men cannot get through the gate, but they will have to stoop very low and be stripped of the love of wealth, though not necessarily of wealth itself. In Christ’s kingdom to give all is to get all. The surrendered life needs no pity, for what it loses on the material side is more than compensated by its enormous spiritual gains, Mar_10:30-31. Perhaps the request of the two brethren was dictated rather by the desire to be near the Master than by ambition; but in any case there is only one price to be paid. We must know the fellowship of His sufferings, if we are to share His glory, 2Ti_2:11, etc.”
“The strongest swords are forged in the hottest fires.” unknown
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