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Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Pastoral Pings ~ When Killing God's Children is 'Service to God'?

When Killing God's Children is 'Service to God'?
“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you" (John 16:1-4).
          The fact that people today think that killing Christians is "offering service to God," is not reason to turn from following Jesus in these last days, but one more evidence that Jesus' brothers can live “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
          Of course, Jesus spoke many words about the heavenly prize that he promises to all who follow him. He told us:
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going” (John 14:1-4).
          Jesus is preparing the home we have always wanted. We have "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you" (I Peter 1:4). In other words, the people who kill Jesus' brothers, believing that such murderous actions are service to their God, can never deny us our inheritance. It is waiting in heaven, where the red dragon cannot touch it.
          The same Jesus who said that he would die and rise again (Luke 9:22), whose death and resurrection have been confirmed by many witnesses, promises that He will come again and take his brothers to himself, so that we can be where he is with his Father. He died at the hands of those who believed they were doing service to God in his murder, and he lives to receive all his brothers who also die at the hands of such evil men.
          Sight of another wicked beheading does not tell me that Jesus' church is being destroyed, but that the red dragon is filled with wrath because he knows that his time is short (Revelation 12:12). Since Jesus has already suffered to save his brothers from the wrath of God against our sin (Romans 5:9), even the wrath of the red dragon against our righteousness by faith is not big enough to snatch us out of our Savior’s hands (John 10:28-29).
          The people who think that killing God’s children is doing service to God are still under the wrath of God. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).
          All who believe in Jesus with the faith that gives new life (John 3:3), have eternal life. The wrath of God against our sin has already been poured out on our Lord Jesus Christ (I John 2:2). The grace of God that gives faith in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8-9) will enable us to continue standing firm even while the red dragon pours out his wrath against our growing likeness to Jesus Christ our Lord, and Brother (II Corinthians 3:18).
          “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)


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