The keys of death: Who holds them

I was in the church today, and the preacher started his preaching from Revelation 1:12-20. There, starting from verse 10 we read:

Revelation 14:12-20
"I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I’m the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last," and, "what you see write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: To Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea." Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in his right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I’m the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. AND I HAVE THE KEYS OF HADES AND OF DEATH. Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are and the things which will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches."

What drew much my attention here, together with the glorious appearance of our Lord, is verse 18 where the Lord says: "AND I HAVE THE KEYS OF HADES AND DEATH". Jesus has the keys of Death! He is the "who lives, and was dead, and behold He (Jesus) is alive forever". Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us:

Hebrews 2:14-15
"Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He himself like wise shared in the same, THAT THROUGH DEATH HE MIGHT DESTROY HIM WHO HAS THE POWER OF DEATH, THAT IS, THE DEVIL, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage"

Jesus Christ came to destroy the one that has the power of death, the devil, and He did this through his death. Jesus holds the keys of Death and Hades. A day will come that the dead will hear the voice of the Son of man and will be raised! The voice of Jesus Christ, the one that keeps the keys of death, will raise them all, great and small, Christians and none (independent of time I speak here), ALL! Jesus holds the keys of death and therefore, He is able to release those who through the fear of death were subject to bondage all their lifetime. We are no longer under the bondage of death. We are no longer captive by death. If you believe in the Captain of life, in Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior, "if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved" (Romans 10:9) and have eternal life!!! Even if you taste death still Jesus holds the keys to death. The day will come that you will hear His voice. The day will come that you will get a body like His body. A day will come that you will sit in His right hand side. A day will come that you will see Him as He is. A day will come that you will be with Him eternally. A day will come that you will go to the place He has prepared for us in the Father’s house (John 14:2-3). Jesus Christ the prince of life, the Son of God, the Lord and Savior loves you my friend. Nothing can separate you from His love. You are His wonderful bride! You are the one He is engaged with. Yes YOU! II Corinthians 4:18 tell us that those things that are seen are temporary but those who are not seen are eternal. Which realities do we see? Which realities do we follow? Temporary or eternal? Far too many go after what they see, the temporary. Far too many are under the bondage of death. But not we Christians. Not we, the sons of the Eternal God. We have as much life as our Father has: ETERNAL. All of us we have lost or we will probably lose a loved person. All of us we need to keep in our hearts and minds what the Lord said to Martha who had very recently lost her brother: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die" (John 11:25-26). Jesus is coming and nobody can stop Him. He will open and who will close? He is coming and the dead will hear His voice. And your loved ones, if they are brothers and sisters, are going to appear with Him. Nothing is going to hold them. Nothing is going to stop them. Nothing is going to keep them. Look here what the Spirit says in I Thessalonians 4:13-18

I Thessalonians 4:13-18
"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descent from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."

"Lest you sorrow as others who have no hope"… There are others that have no hope. There are others that look at the temporary, have fixed their eyes on the temporary and have no hope. But not we. Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the Lord and the Savior and the Captain of Life IS COMING. And the dead in Christ shall rise first! Then all those who are alive will be caught in the air to meet the Lord there. What a wonderful meeting this is going to be! We will ALL, ALL those who believe in Him, be there! This is our hope and this is our comfort.

Revelation 21:4
"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, not sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."

Anastasios Kioulachoglou

               Please check out Anastasios's book 

               "The Warnings of the New Testament". 

               Purchase at Kindle and Amazon or 

               download for FREE at: http://www.jba.gr/

               Articles/pdf/the-warnings-of-the-New-

               Testament.pdf

Christian Believers. The Four Steps That Most of us Did Not Take

The Biblical way to the Holy Spirit as seen in Acts 8 and 19.

Repent of your sins toward God.

Believe in the Lord Jesus.

Be baptized in water.

Receive the Holy Spirit. 

What does God say about sexual sin?

Transfer into the internet.

www.evangelicaloutreach.org/audio/adultery.mp3

Christian - What to do "if your brother sins against you" (Luke 17:3-4)

We find this passage in Luke 17:3-4. There we read:

"If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you saying, "I repent", you shall forgive him"

There are some "ifs" in this passage. Being in the computer industry I know very well what an if statement means in a program. It means that what follows the if statement applies only if what is included in the "if statement" is fulfilled. In the first sentence of the above precious words of our Lord, we have two if statements.

IF your brother sin against you

THEN you rebuke him

IF (after you rebuke him) he repents

THEN you forgive him

This is the turn the Lord has set. Many people desire to be forgiven without repenting. Many others yet, do not forgive somebody for a sin for which however they have never rebuked him! Thus they break the above simple order THE LORD HAS SET. Many still rebuke others for things that are not sins, thus sinning themselves against them! There are many with big mouths that can be critical about everything and everyone and if you fall into their mouth… poor you. They pretend to rebuke the others but there is no SIN!! I was rebuked more than once by some people because I was writing articles!! Should I repent? NO. This is what GOD has told me to do! Instead I need to rebuke the person that "rebuked" me or better "criticize" me and not be silent, and see then whether he will repent and ask for forgiveness. If I don’t rebuke what I know FROM THE WORD that is sin then the other will not get a chance to repent and then I will not have a chance to forgive him. Keeping it like this, will create me big problems the next time I meet this person, for my relationship with him will be affected by hurt, intimidation and unforgiveness. Many people think that they have to forgive the other without rebuking him and without him repenting and asking for forgiveness. This is not what the Lord commanded. It is much more difficult to forgive somebody when you have never told him the wrong and he has never repented and asked for forgiveness than to follow the simple order the Lord had set: rebuke, the other side repents, you forgive!

And what happens you will ask if I rebuke the other person for something that is clearly a sin against me, and the other one does not repent and never asks for forgiveness? This case may unfortunately happen. Many people have so much pride that will never say a "sorry" to anybody. I have seen cases where people are very clearly rebuked, it is evident that they err, yet they bypass what they did like nothing happened, without saying "sorry for what happened"! Watchman Nee said somewhere "the humbler a person is the more often will say "sorry". Tell sorry to anybody even for the slightest thing that you THINK that you may have done wrongly. This is to be humble. This is to be Christian! Anything else is plain hypocrisy. It is having the words but to deny them when it is time to live them. Not asking for forgiveness will not harm only the person against whom the sin was committed but also the person that committed the sin. If for example a person has big critical mouth causing intimidation to others and if this is not confronted then he will certainly harm many but he himself will also be denied practically by the others! How to be open to a person that intimidates and has not repented for this? No wonder that this person will at the end be alone. But again the others as brothers and sisters, the church herself, what do they do? Have they confronted this person? The Word does not ask you to forgive somebody that has not repented! What He asks you and the church to do is TO REBUKE HIM!!! Have you done it? Has the church as the body of believers done it? And again here we don’t speak for whatever YOU may have in your mind as sin, but for what the WORD defines as sin.

Here is what our Lord and captain of our faith said in Matthew 18:15-17

Matthew 18:15-17
"Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that "by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector"

THIS IS THE ORDER OF GOD!!! THIS IS WHAT THE CAPTAIN OF OUR FAITH HAS SAID. THIS IS WHAT JESUS THE LORD, THE CHRIST, THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH HAS SET. Why do we try to do it differently? Why do we think that it is better that we are silent to the evil, the abuse, the sin that is done before our very eyes!! In our very churches! When will we hear the voice of the Lord instead of the voices of the world that says "everybody can do whatever he wants". For this is what our Lord has said (in the form of "program" language, for it is so precise!):

IF your brother sins

Rebuke him, tell him his fault

If he repents OK.

ELSE

Take with you two or three witness

IF he does not hear them THEN

Tell it to the church

IF he does not hear the church THEN

Let him be to you as a heathen and tax collector

What we in our modern western churches do is the following:

IF your brother sins against you

Don’t tell him anything!

Or

If you are so brave (!!) to tell him, and he does not hear you

There is no problem… just behave as nothing happens!

Excuse me who has said this?? Please show me the page of the Bible where the Lord or his apostles commanded something like this? This may be what YOU think or what your pastor or society may have told you BUT certainly is NOT what God has said in the Bible. See here what Paul says:

I Corinthians 5:1-2
"It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles – that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be TAKEN AWAY from among you."

"Taken away? Come on Paul. I’m so nice on my sit. Why should I do something? I’m paying my teethes. I’m coming on Sundays to my church. I’m doing my prayers. I’m ok. Why should I bother for this fellow? This is his business." And Paul, and God through Paul replies to you: "YOU ARE PUFFED UP! You had to MOURN instead of sitting coldly on your sit! This unrepented person should be taken away". And Paul continues:

I Corinthians 5:9-13
"I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexual immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexual immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you NOT TO KEEP COMPANY WITH ANYONE NAMED A BROTHER, WHO IS SEXUALLY IMMORAL, OR COVETOUS, OR AN IDOLATER, OR A REVILER, OR A DRUNKARD, OR AN EXTORTIONER – not even to eat with such person. For what I have to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. THEREFORE "PUT AWAY FROM YOURSELVES THE EVIL PERSON"

There is judgment that must be done. Again I don’t speak about those big mouth folks that they THINK they are rebuking and the only they do is criticizing innocence. THEY HAVE TO BE REBUKED for this. Here the whole church knows that a named as brother is covetous, or sexual immoral or a reviler etc. This person has not repented. Then it falls to the last category of the Lord’s statement:

IF he does not hear the church THEN

Let him be to you as a heathen and tax collector

Or as Paul says "Put him away". For by doing this you have one more chance to make him repent. But by accepting him you tell him "there is no problem. We don’t care enough about you anyway! Do as you wish!" God judges the outside. We are to judge the inside. "Do you not judge those who are inside?"

And again:

II Thessalonians 3:14-15
"IF ANYONE DOES NOT OBEY OUR WORD IN THIS EPISTLE, NOTE THAT PERSON AND DO NOT KEEP COMPANY WITH HIM THAT HE MAY BE ASHAMED. YET DO NOT COUNT HIM AS AN ENEMY, BUT ADMONISH HIM AS A BROTHER"

"Note this person and do not keep company with him". The purpose is NOT to reject that person but that he may be ashamed and thus repent! Instead in our modern churches WE are ashamed to tell this person to repent! He must be avoided so that HE may be ashamed and repent. Avoided does not mean rejected. The Word says in James 5:19-20

James 5:19-20
"Brethren if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover multitude of sins"

and again:

Ezekiel 18:23
"Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord God, "and not that he should turn his ways and live"

God does not desire the rejection BUT THE REPENTANCE of the person that sins. For without repentance the sin will NOT be forgiven. Now, for the repentance to occur, REBUKE is needed and if the person does not hear anybody then he should be taken away, noted and avoided. Yet he should still be advised so that he may return. The gates should always be open IF THE PERSON REPENTS. God does not desire the person to stay in his present state. He wants him to repent!

Closing let’s return to the words of our Lord in Matthew 18:18

Matthew 18:18
"Assurently, I say to you whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven"

The above means responsibility, choice. It is in our hands to rebuke. It is in our hands to repent. It is in our hands to forgive. Will we follow the teaching of Word? It is absolutely clear and precise. And let me repeat it again:

IF your brother sins

Rebuke him, tell him his fault

If he repents OK.

ELSE

Take with you two or three witness

IF he does not hear them THEN

Tell it to the church

IF he does not hear the church THEN

Let him be to you as a heathen and tax collector

Jesus went to the heathen and to the tax collectors too! Once the person repents the sin is forgiven and the person is back to fellowship with God and the others. The doors should never be closed to a repented sinner and should never be open to somebody that has been rebuked in the way the Lord has set and yet he does not repent.

Anastasios Kioulachoglou

               Please check out Anastasios's book 

               "The Warnings of the New Testament". 

               Purchase at Kindle and Amazon or 

               download for FREE at: http://www.jba.gr/

               Articles/pdf/the-warnings-of-the-New-

               Testament.pdf

Christian, This is critical! Attack in Ziglag: Lessons from David’s reaction.

We will be looking mainly to the 30th chapter of I Samuel. As an introduction, David and his men, to avoid Saul’s persecution, went to Achish the king of the Philistines who accepted them and gave them the city of Ziklag. In the 29th chapter of I Samuel we find the Philistines gathering together all their armies in Jesreel to fight against Israel. It was this fight that cost the life to Saul and Jonathan. In order to avoid any plot by David and his men, the Philistines denied to them to be a part of their army and sent them back to Ziklag. I Samuel 30:1-6 tells us what they found there:

I Samuel 30:1-6
"Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God."

I was in a church some weeks ago and God showed me this passage. It is a period where I think a lot about the subject of losing and recovering and I believe God wants us to hear the message of I Samuel 30. Many of us can relate to the situation described in I Samuel. We don’t inhabit Ziklag nor we live in the days of Saul and David. But we may have something in common with David and his men: the enemy may have invaded our territory, at the time that we were out or "sleeping" and he may have stolen things very valuable to us. Whatever this may be at the end may be translated to disappointment, loss of hope and orientation, loss of vision and enthusiasm. Brothers believe me: if the devil does not steal your hope and enthusiasm HE IS DEFEATED. He does not aim to simply steal something. His end purpose is to steal your hope, your enthusiasm, your HEART. The aim of the devil is your heart and your hope. For he knows that only hopeful hearts are alive hearts. Our problem is not that we haven’t seen God. We have seen Him. The problem is that we have also seen the devil. We expected that our Ziklag (whatever this may be) would never be stolen. We hoped that God would somehow protect it from any destruction. But things may have turned differently. Stuff may have happened in our lives that we never expected and we suddenly discovered that bad things may also happen to good people. "Cities" of good people may be invaded by the enemy of our souls. To face these arrows, many of us have chosen to anesthetize our hearts so that it does not feel pain any longer and we carry on to what we call "the road of faith". It may be a road full of service and works, WITHOUT however the enthusiasm and the warmness our relationship with God used to have. Many feel OK with this situation and we deny to admit that there are things that have been lost and need to be recovered. Many feel OK to just survive, without hope and dreams, and call this "faith", instead of pursuing again for the lively relationship they once had with the Lord. I have discovered that God may leave us in this stage till we DECIDE WE WANT to change. Till we no longer compromise with the defeat nor we accept and hide the loss but we make the decision to pursue and recover all that was stolen. And let me remind you that what is stolen is mainly THE HOPE, THE ENTHUSIASM, THE HEART. Once we made this decision, God immediately becomes also very near to us. The message today is not that there will be no stealing. I don’t intend to give you the 10 steps that will ensure the devil will never touch you. I don’t have them! As long as there is a thief there will be stealing! BUT we can overcome it. The message today is ATTACK to recover all that the enemy has stolen from us: enthusiasm, faith, hope, joy and others. We can cry for as long as we want. We can say that life is tough. And it is! However, as David and his men did, so we have to make a decision: either we will cry for the losses, hiding probably our frustration by anesthesia, apathy and religious activity or we will deny to compromise, we will ENCOURAGE OURSELVES IN THE LORD and we will stand up to recover everything. It is really a very critical decision, a decision of spiritual life or death. Either we will live as spiritually wounded, or as spiritual heroes. What I want to emphatically say today is that if you are wounded, your wound will not be healed by accepting the defeat and the loss and forgetting the alive fellowship you used to have with God with the false idea that "it is impossible to go that far again". The wounds will be healed only if you stop crying and instead stand up to recover everything, to return at least where you used to be! GOD HASN’T CHANGED MY BROTHER. He is exactly the same God as when you first met Him. We may be wounded but we will not find healing in resignation but in "encouraging ourselves in the Lord" and standing up to recover everything. Not with religious works that many use to cover the emptiness of their true relationship with God. Do you want to find the level of your relationship with God? Don’t look at your activities! They will show distorted results! Instead imagine yourself without any activity. Could you live with God without any activity or is your faith "activity maintained"? Is your relationship with God at least as alive as it used to be when you first believed? Again deny to use works and logic to hide the truth! You need the truth! Paul tells us to examine ourselves whether we are in the faith! You don’t need to cry for any loss you might have. What you need to do instead, is to STAND UP and encourage yourself in the Lord. STAND UP and you will recover everything. That’s what David chose to do:

I Samuel 30:6-8, 18
"Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God. Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, "Please bring the ephod here to me." And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. So David inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?" And He answered him, "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.…. So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away"

The people were crying. David also did the same. Nobody reacts to the pain with gladness. The pain is pain and it brings cry. However, after the first shock there were two reactions. All the others continued crying and they moved with anger against David. (Similarly, many being angry for their pain, pick up stones against the state, ministries, people, God and generally everybody they consider as responsible for what was stolen) but David encouraged himself in the Lord and asked Him what to do. The Lord then gave him the assurance that if he pursued after the Amalekites he would recover everything. See here the following:

Though there was a stealing, there was a way to recover everything. God didn’t obstruct the stealing. Also God didn’t tell David what to do before he stopped crying and turned to Him to ask Him.

Many of us spent our days, months and even years with the question "Why God?". Many, feel bitterness why God didn’t protect us since we know He could. I don’t know why He didn’t protect you or me but I know that when this goes further than a genuine expression of the heart as Job did, then it leads nowhere. My personal answer to life’s frustrations is that ALL things work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28)! ALL, what we think as evil and what we may think as good. Your life is NOT in the hands of the devil BUT IN THE HANDS OF GOD. Even if the devil has wounded you there is a way to recover! The question my brother is not why God didn’t protect you. The critical question is whether you will stand UP, encourage yourself in the Lord, not accept compromise with the loss, not accept anything less in your relationship with God than what at least you used to have. If you do this, if you stand up, THEN I KNOW 100% WHAT WILL HAPPEN: YOU WILL RECOVER. YOU WILL RECOVER EVERYTHING. That’s what happened also with David and his men. GOD HASN’T CHANGED. Remember the sweet times you had with Him, before the Ziklag was invaded. HE IS THE SAME. You can have the same relationship with Him, NOW. It is not a matter of eventual recovery. The recovery can be instant. If you only make the decision to not compromise and that you cannot live any longer with anything less in hope, faith and enthusiasm that what you used to have. The situation is turned upside down exactly at that moment. David and his men turned the situation upside down at the moment they decided not to accept an invaded Ziklag, with the enemy having their hopes, dreams and enthusiasm stolen, but they wanted a Ziklag as it used to be, a heart with the hope faith and enthusiasm that it once had. At that moment the enemy had lost the battle. For at that moment they stopped crying and they started fighting. And fighting, they recovered EVERYTHING!

Anastasios Kioulachoglou

               Please check out Anastasios's book 

               "The Warnings of the New Testament". 

               Purchase at Kindle and Amazon or 

               download for FREE at: http://www.jba.gr/

               Articles/pdf/the-warnings-of-the-New-

               Testament.pdf

Christian - Rest in the Lord!

It is easy to get distracted in our world. Busyness is a modern illness from which many of us suffer. Rest is its opposite and of the things the Lord came to offer. In Matthew 11:28-30 He said:

Matthew 11:28-30
"Come to Me all who labor and are heavy laden AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I’m gently and lowly in heart, AND YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light"

Jesus Christ is the only one that can give rest to our souls. If your soul is in turmoil, if your soul is tired, exhausted and heavy laden, then you are reading the right passage. JESUS came to give you rest! You will not get rest when your kids grow. Or when you get married. Or when your bank account becomes positive. YOU WILL GET REST ONLY IF YOU MEET JESUS. ONLY IF YOU PUT YOUR BURDENS IN HIS HANDS AND TAKE UPON YOU HIS EASY AND LIGHT YOKE, ONLY THEN YOU WILL FIND REST. As the Word says in Philippians:

Philippians 4:6-7
"BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING, BUT IN EVERYTHING BY PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION WITH THANKSGIVING, LET YOUR REQUESTS BE MADE KNOWN TO GOD; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus"

Be anxious for nothing!! YES for nothing!!! Your kids, your job, your health, your wounds, your finances, your other concerns are all here. There is NOTHING excluded from this statement. There is nothing that should make us anxious. And the verse goes one step further to tell us what to do instead of being anxious: "but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." PEACE!!! To get peace you don’t have to finish the so and so project or to receive the so and so blessing but to be anxious for nothing and cast everything to the Lord through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving! It is HIS job to CARE for you, while you rest in Him. And in resting in Him you have power! See what it says in Isaiah 30:15-18

Isaiah 30:15
"For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: IN RETURNING AND REST YOU SHALL BE SAVED; IN QUIETNESS AND CONFIDENCE SHALL BE YOUR STRENGTH."

Our strength is in RESTING in the Lord. In quietness and confidence! I call this the RRQC club: Return, Rest, be Quite and Confident to God. Taking quietness, for example we can see its importance in Jesus’ life: He would get up very early in the morning and go to the wilderness alone to pray (Mark 1:35)! He needed quite times with the Father. We need them too! We don’t need to fill our schedule with a hundred of activities to keep us going. We will not find strength in activities but only in quietness and confidence to God. It is at the times that our heart is quite and confident that the Lord can be heard by it.

Returning to Isaiah verse 16 gives us the answer of the people to the plea of God for return, rest, quietness and confidence, and the respective reply of the Lord:

Isaiah 30:16
"And you said, "No, for we will flee on horses" – Therefore you shall flee! And, "We will ride on swift horses" – Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift! One thousand shall flee at the threat of one, At the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain and as a banner on a hill"

Those people had their plans on how to do it. You may have your own. You too may say "No, for….". You may try hard and care all the day. Do you know the price? Weakness, fear, anxiety, defeat. The more you trust in your "horsepower", the more weaker and dry you will get. The only way for strength and life and rest is to rest in the Lord. To be quite and confident in Him. To be anxious for nothing and cast all your cares upon Him. This is the ONLY way!

Jeremiah 6:16-17

Moving further on our subject, let’s go now to Jeremiah 6:16-17. In a similar tone with Isaiah, Jeremiah 6:16-17 tells us:

Jeremiah 6:16-17
"Thus says the Lord: Stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where the good way is and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, "We will not walk in it." Also I set watchmen over you saying, "Listen to the sound of the trumpet!" But they said, "We will not listen"

"The old paths. Return to the OLD PATHS. Walk in the old straight paths and you will find rest, our God says. Return, Rest, Be quite and Confident in God. Get today into the RRQC club. Jesus is the leader and He will give you REST and peace. To register costs nothing except your cares! You have to cast them all upon God and peace will be given to you. What do you prefer: Busyness and distraction, or rest and peace? Dryness and weakness or fruitfulness and strength? Death or life? Really it is that critical. The matter of the rest in the Lord is indeed a spiritual fight! A battle between fruitfulness and unfruitfulness. As Psalms 37:7 again tell us:

Psalms 37:7
"REST IN THE LORD AND WAIT PATIENTLY FOR HIM"

Let’s wait patiently in the Lord and rest in Him! Let’s NEVER leave any foreign seed to spring in our garden and make our tree barren.

Anastasios Kioulachoglou

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Christian, Be zealeous and not lukewarm

Today was a very important day for me. For years I was suffering from shortsightedness. "It is only the right eye … 1.75. You can get lenses if you want to", the ophthalmologist told me some years ago. I could work, drive, do anything that I was doing but not everything was so clear as it used to be. But with the years you forget how it used to be anyway. You live in a dimmer than normal world, with less clearness in what you see and you get used to the idea that this normal. But I know it wasn’t. And I know, though shortsighted … I could still live like this. Nothing too urgent. "It will be done when I have time". Of course I never had time because I never made the time or because instead of time I was making excuses. So the shortsightedness was always there. But this Saturday I thought, "why not?"…. a friend of mine had told me that in Germany at optic shops they look at your eyes for free and they give you the necessary lenses or glasses. I had tried once in the past but no employee in the shop could speak English and since I didn’t speak any German nothing happened. But now, with my "ein bischen" (a little) German, I could make it. So I went there. They sent me to the first floor where an employee would measure my shortsightedness and would tell me what to do. I was waiting outside sitting on the sofa… she had another appointment. As I was waiting I thought "what am I doing here Saturday noon-time? Let’s dismiss this idea with the lenses and go out to the market. It is Saturday!" But I felt this time I needed to stay. So my turn arrived. The employee measured my shortsightedness, 2.25 now, and we booked an appointment for today, 16:40, to get the lenses. I was there on time and then we started… She would place the lens in my eye and then I would have to do it alone. Before she did it though, I asked her to give me a minute to have a look at the world outside without the lens so that to see then whether there was any difference. So I looked outside for some seconds and then she started. Initially my eye resisted to see her finger directed to it ("a finger in my eye!!!??") but at the end she succeeded. Then I turned and looked outside. My goodness! All that a little bit dim world was now very CLEAR. Everything seemed to be more alive. The labels I couldn’t read, now I could!! "Hey this is good! I like it!" I told her. "Ok. Now it is time to do it yourself", she told me. And after I tried for some minutes I did it, paid and left. First thing I saw was the Frankfurt’s skyscrapers in the city center. I had seen them hundreds of times but first time they were so CLEAR! The lights in them, the buildings around, the people everything was VERY CLEAR. How could I miss this for the last few years? I know how… Because instead of having what GOD had planned for my eyes, which was to see clearly, I preferred the compromise – for that is what is actually – of "survival". This goes like this: "Since I survive, since I live, since I see a little bit, I’m OK". The compromise of survival does not care whether you LIVE really, in the abundance and the life God has planned for you. Instead it says: "go.. just go.. survive… try to make it somehow… you make things perfect later".

And this is how we think many times with our spiritual sight too. The spiritual sight as the physical sight may also suffer from shortsightedness. It does not happen instantaneously. It is a long process. I didn’t get up one day and my sight was short. It took years. So also with the spiritual shortsightedness. It does not happen instantaneously. It develops. One compromise here, one compromise there and … you have it. "A little leaven leavens the whole lump" says the Word (I Corinthians 5:6). Suddenly one day you are before a challenge that some years ago you could very easily pass and now you are afraid. It seems your faith is not enough to get you over it! Or you compare yourself with what fellowship you used to have with the Lord and where you stand now and you find that something has been lost. You are not as alive as you used to be! You can see the short things, the blessings, your work, home, etc but the longer things those who pertain to the kingdom, you somehow see them only dim. They seem dim to YOU and this is because you suffer from spiritual shortsightedness. The first thing to do is to recognize it. I had shortsightedness long before I discover it. I discover it accidentally in the army when I once had to shoot in an exercise towards an aim 400 meters ahead and could hardly see it at all. But the shortsightedness didn’t start at that time. It was there since long time ago. I knew something was wrong with my eyes …. I couldn’t see as I used to when I was 20. So something was wrong. But at the time I had to shoot and could hardly see the target then I understood. So also with the spiritual shortsightedness. It may be there. You know that something is not right. You can’t determine it but something is really not as good as it used to be in your relationship with God. It is not the ALIVE fellowship you used to have. And one day or a period the Lord starts revealing to you that something is going wrong with the eyes of your heart. The heart can’t see as far as it could see. One day you go to where many young believers are, in a worship night for example and wonder how they jump and sing and are so zealous and at the same time you wonder why you are not like them now, though you were in the past. You are COOLER now. You can’t see as far as they see and as far as you used to see. You suffer from spiritual shortsightedness and you need to recognize it first! And then, as with the physical shortsightedness, you have two ways to go. One is the compromise of survival. According to this… "I don’t need to do anything. I don’t need to change. It is less than what it used to be but never mind. I will make it. I will survive. I’m still doing things for God. I go to the church and I pray, though it is very dry and much less than in the past". You compromise and you just go. You don’t care whether the life you live is less than what God had for you, less than what you yourself have experienced with God. You just go. You do … as all others… AS THE WORLD! You have compromised. You [I hope nobody falls in this "you" but I also hope that we all examine ourselves!] are a LAODICEAN! And to you the Lord speaks:

Revelation 3:14-19
"And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things says the Amen, the Faithful and the True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know your works, that you are neither cold not hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say, "I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing-and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, BLIND, and naked – I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; AND ANOINT YOUR EYES WITH EYE SALVE, THAT YOU MAY SEE. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten. Therefore BE ZEALOUS AND REPENT"

See the Lord does not say "you are fine. You can stay like this. You are lukewarm but never mind. Just go on". He says "BE ZEALOUS AND REPENT!" To be lukewarm is a SIN for which we need to repent! It is not an acceptable state by the Lord! The only acceptable state is to be ZEALOUS! That’s how He wants you. He wants you to boil for Him! The compromise of survival is a sin! If you are in the Laodicean church, and I know many of us are, the right way is NOT to go on. It is to RETURN. And …. I have good news for you. Jesus has the eye salve, the lenses your eyes need. Jesus has the garments, your body needs. Jesus has the gold that is refined by fire to make you, your heart, rich. JESUS IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. He has all that you need to make you alive again. But you need to return. To kneel down and repent. "Survival" is a lie. It is actually death. Only by repenting and return you will see again and you will LIVE again with the abundant life, the life of the HEART, that Jesus came to bring to you (John 10:10).

Revelation 3:20-22
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

Anastasios Kioulachoglou