Do YOU Know What Time It Is?*

Reminder: Beginning in July, Google will stop sending automatic notifications of new postings for blogs such as this one that are published under "blogspot.com". If you have been receiving notifications, or would like to receive them, please enter your email address in the box in the upper right corner of this blog page before July. Your email addresses will be retrieved hopefully, and you will be sent a notification directly when there is a new post available. Your email addresses will not be used for any other purpose. You will receive the "new blog post" notifications from "the disciple". If you choose not to enter your email address, it is recommend that after June 2021, you should check the blog regularly for new posts. Thank you for your patience and faithful readership. Given recent and current events, something is wrong when we don't understand the signs of the times. We are seeing them unfold around us. Not only is the church as a whole ignoring the signs, but the question for today's message, "Do YOU Know What Time It Is?", is a personal and individual question posed to you. We have to understand that the events occurring today have been prophesied in God's Word. We have to understand that God's prophetic Word is true, and its fulfillment is assured. The prophetic Word of God is directly connected with the Person of Jesus Christ: "...worship God: for the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy." (Rev. 19:10). God has said that He does nothing except that He reveals His secret first to His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). Regarding His prophetic revelation, the LORD said to Habakkuk: "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it tarry (mahahh-delay), wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry (ahar- be late)." (Hab. 2:3). The prophet Ezekiel was given a prophetic word to speak over nations that, in his time, would seem to have little to do with a threat to the safety of Israel. However, in our time, we see these nations, and their threatening stand against Israel in the news every day. The prophetic word given to Ezekiel was against a spiritual prince named Gog, who was over the region identified today as Russia (Magog, Meschech, Tubal). Russia, in this prophesied attack against Israel, is joined by the nations of Persia (Iran/Iraq), Ethiopia, Libya, and others. In this prophecy, Israel is described as a land that has been brought back from the sword, and as having been brought forth out of the nations, which is Israel today. The LORD says of Russia, and the spiritual prince over that land: "...It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought." (Ezek. 38:1-10). We have indeed seen the aggressive, interfering and intrusive activities of Russia here in America, and throughout the world in these last few years. The nations mentioned with Russia have expressed their enmity of Israel. When asked about the signs of the end of the age, and of His return, Jesus prophesied of conditions that sound like they come out of today's headlines: "And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation (ethnos) shall rise against nation (ethnos), and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places." (Mt. 24:6-7). Not only have we seen an increase in wars around the globe, but also outbreaks of violence and hatred between different racial and ethnic groups (the word "ethnos" used in these verses). We are experiencing pestilences and earthquakes. Famines have resulted as economic systems have been impacted by these other conditions. These are the rapidly increasing events that Jesus prophesied as "signs" for us to know, and watch for. Both of the prophets Ezekiel and Obadiah connected the day of the LORD with the proliferation of the "heathen": "For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen." (Ezek. 30:3, Obadiah 1:15). We are seeing today the prevalence of the "heathen", who don't know God, and seek their own interests above all else. As this nation is torn apart with racial animosity and violence, Paul wrote of the importance of loving our neighbor as we see the return of Christ drawing near: "...love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law...Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the filfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed...let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." (Rom. 13:8-12). All of the commandments are summed up in the commandment to love our neighbor. Paul included this principle in our "armour of light". Jesus and the apostles describe His coming as "sudden", and "like a thief in the night" (Rev. 16:15, 1 Thess. 5:1-3, 2 Peter 3:10-11). Because of this, Jesus warned the church of Sardis: "Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." (Rev. 3:3). We are expected to know the nearness of His return, and to act upon that knowledge, as those who are waiting and watching for the return of Christ. Do YOU know what time it is? *Based on Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson's 5/30.21 message to the church. To contact: PO Box 154221, Waco, TX, 76705 OR Everlastingcovenant@ymail.com