Endure to be saved – 2-3-22

“But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:13-14 NKJV

RELATIONSHIP:

Do you already have a relationship with a powerful God who cares about your every need because He loves you? Did you know my God can communicate with you and protect you – He has a plan for you to prosper if you just submit to His will and let His plan play out in your life!!! God wants a relationship with you and has already made a plan for your life. He loves you so much He sent His son to this world, to die as a sacrifice for your sins and rise from death with victory over sin and the ability to have a personal relationship with you.
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 NIV
Here is a prayer for you to pray:
Jesus, I believe you are the way, the truth, the life, and the only way to the Father. I believe you are the son of God, you came to Earth and lived. That you died on the cross as a sacrifice for my sins, and rose again so that I may be saved from my sins and be able to get to know you. I declare: Jesus, you are Lord!
Therefore, I confess that I am a sinner and I ask that you forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Help me to turn away from my sins and transform me into what you have lovingly created me to be. Help me through a real personal relationship grow and accept your will for my life – that I may live in your blessings. Please walk with me, and talk with me – I accept a relationship with you and with our Father God, through you. In the name of Jesus I pray ~ Amen

BIBLE READING:

Dear Heavenly Father – Please give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of who you are, who Jesus is, and who the Holy Spirit is. Open the eyes of our understanding, please, so we may know the hope of our calling and the vast sovereignty and power of the grace of the cross. Please do not let us miss out on what you want and need from us today. Lord, I pray that your word prepares us and not scares us! We forbid the works and influences of fear over your word and our sound mind. And please keep us and bless us and shine your face upon us and pour out grace over us and give us peace! Thank you! – In Jesus name we pray, Amen

Today’s reading is the Book of Matthew chapter 24 (embedded below for your convenience in the NKJV). 

Jesus Predicts the Destruction of the Temple

24 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. ² And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

The Signs of the Times and the End of the Age

³ Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

⁴ And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for ^[a]all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. ⁷ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, ^[b]pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of sorrows.

⁹ “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. ¹⁰ And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. ¹¹ Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. ¹² And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But he who endures to the end shall be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

The Great Tribulation

¹⁵ “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), ¹⁶ “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. ¹⁸ And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. ¹⁹ But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! ²⁰ And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. ²² And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the ^[c]elect’s sake those days will be shortened.

²³ “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. ²⁴ For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ See, I have told you beforehand.

²⁶ “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. ²⁷ For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. ²⁸ For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

The Coming of the Son of Man

²⁹ “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ³⁰ Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹ And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His ^[d]elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

The Parable of the Fig Tree

³² “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. ³³ So you also, when you see all these things, know that ^[e]it is near—at the doors! ³⁴ Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

No One Knows the Day or Hour

³⁶ “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of ^[f]heaven, but My Father only. ³⁷ But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. ³⁸ For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. ⁴⁰ Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. ⁴² Watch therefore, for you do not know what ^[g]hour your Lord is coming. ⁴³ But know this, that if the master of the house had known what ^[h]hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. ⁴⁴ Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

The Faithful Servant and the Evil Servant

⁴⁵ “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food ^[i]in due season? ⁴⁶ Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. ⁴⁷ Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. ⁴⁸ But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying ^[j]his coming,’ ⁴⁹ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, ⁵⁰ the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, ⁵¹ and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Footnotes

1. aMatthew 24:6 NU omits all
2. bMatthew 24:7 NU omits pestilences
3. cMatthew 24:22 chosen ones’
4. dMatthew 24:31 chosen ones
5. eMatthew 24:33 Or He
6. fMatthew 24:36 NU adds nor the Son
7. gMatthew 24:42 NU day
8. hMatthew 24:43 Lit. watch of the night
9. iMatthew 24:45 at the right time
10. jMatthew 24:48 NU omits his coming

MEMORY VERSE CHALLENGE:

Matthew 5:16 – “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

STUDY/DEVOTIONAL:

I admit – I flat out refuse to touch end time prophecy, especially when it comes to this blog. I will not get myself caught in that type of controversy nor will I set myself up for being wrong and having to deal with Jesus on that.  I have studied what man has said about it – although these very verses warn about listening to what man has to say on it.
I read these passages and always ask God to give me what I need from it today and help me tuck it in my heart so when it is time I can recall them.

Like us, the disciples were curious about these things. So they asked – and like with all prophecy, they have answers that span outside of time. Like when will the temple be destroyed? Well, when Jesus died it was shaken and ripped. Then about 70 ad Rome destroyed the temple… then the signs fluctuate throughout time and many are so vague I can safely say they happened before my birth – yet they seem very unfulfilled (so there must be more)?

The very first thing Jesus says is: “And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” (verses 4-5)

This is why I am so cautious.

Then Jesus starts with “wars and rumors of wars”. And you and I are aware, I hope, of the preparations happening with Russia, the middle east and China. We are overdue for a war to distract from the global financial situation and pandemic.  BUT verse 6 says: “the end is not yet.”

And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places… All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Verse 8)

The beginning? This is where we seem to be if the beginning is described as this! Look closely – Verse 10 “And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.” Many offended. Offended by gender, by their own gender, offended by race, offended by if I choose to vaccinate or not. And this is no ordinary spirit of offense like the one separating the church for centuries. Oh No! This one betrays one another and hates – this one divides families.  I watched one young lady get offended by her own name and change it on social media and then take the legal steps to change it. While publicly bashing her family because they offended her by giving her an offensive name. It is so ridiculous to watch. This is all of us – here at the beginning.
Still not sure? Well, there are false prophets, but that is common over the years. But what about “lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” (Verse 12)

We live in a time with more laws that ever before yet lawlessness abounds. The laws themselves are criminals.

Then Jesus jumps to the Great Tribulation. This is also known as Jacob’s sorrow a time of tribulation against the Jews. Now some have asked me wasn’t the holocaust Jacobs sorrow? Well, there must be another because the sun has not yet been darkened…
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Verses 29-31

Jesus tells us another parable and reminds us that no one knows the day or hour and we conclude with a tale of the Faithful Servant and the Evil Servant.

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Thank you for reading in 2022 – a Year of Wisdom and Salvation
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!