Get Close To God

Hi Everybody!

As I begin this month, I am reminded that we all need to fast from wrong thinking and get our minds renewed with God’s word. This world is out of control. The things that are happening now are spoken of in II Timothy 3:1-5 “But realize this: that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.”

We are living in those times. We have all observed the signs of the times with the gas prices, energy crisis, home foreclosures, wars, homosexuality, abortions, destruction of crops by floods, tornados, earthquakes and a government totally out of control. We see deaths totaling in the thousands from some of these things. We see rising prices everywhere, even in our food markets. We need to have our minds renewed with the word of God in order to be able to have peace and trust in Him to see us through.

So what do we do when we see our world falling apart? Where can we turn for help? I can tell you right now, the government isn’t the place to turn to. And, by the way, why is all this happening? Is God doing it?

The only sure word for us is found in the pages of our Bibles. It is there that we find the truth that will set us free to live without worry or fear for the things that are happening here on earth. I don’t believe God is doing this to us. I believe the sin that is prevalent on this earth has brought its own punishment. We have literally tied the hands of God to work in our behalf. He cannot tolerate sin; and He has given this earth to mankind to care for. Man has brought this all upon himself. Instead of going to God in prayer about things, mankind has gone after their own lusts. Sin produces death. It is just that simple. Man has chosen to turn His back on God and is suffering the consequences. Judgment is falling, but it is falling to bring us back to God and His ways.

Yes, the devil is involved. He has fed us with lies contrary to God’s word and we have acted upon them. He has no power except the power we give him. Jesus defeated him at the cross and returned the earth back to us again. And, look what we have done with it! We believe everything but the word of God. We not only have the choice to accept Jesus as our Savior; but we also need to choose to make Him the Lord of our lives. He has given us words of wisdom and knowledge in the Bible that will defeat the enemy every time. He gave us laws to live by…not to make it hard to enjoy life…but to save us from the devil and ourselves.

God created us. He knows what will help us and what will hurt us. His ways are not our ways. His ways are the road to peace, health, happiness and eternal life. The longer we stay in the world, the more corrupt we become. Our minds get conditioned to the horrible things that are going on around us. I would venture a guess that those of you behind bars are there because of the influence of the way you grew up or of those you associated. We all begin as innocent babies. It is what happens to us from birth on that determines our destinies.

I really believe we are living in the last of the last days here on earth. We need to know where to turn and how to live in the grace that God has given us. We need to keep our minds and our eyes on His word to us. After all, Psalm 103:20 tells us that the angels of God perform His word and obey the voice of His word only. We need the supernatural power and might of God and His angels to see us through the things coming upon us.

In fact, just this week I read that Israel carried out a war game mission to practice attacking Iran. We didn’t hear about this on the news. I am signed up for a site on the internet that tells what is going on in Israel. They sent over 100 planes, refueling tankers and helicopters for pilot rescue up over the Mediterranean Sea on a mock mission to take out Iran’s nuclear plants. Iran has promised to wipe Israel off the map as soon as they can get their nuclear weapons ready, and they are working on it non-stop. They claim it is being done for energy purposes, but that is a lie! They plan to attack Israel then America after that.

Also, Israel agreed to a truce and cease-fire with the Palestinians. It lasted all of 2 days and the Palestinians are once again sending rockets into Israel. There will be no peace in Israel until Jesus returns and settles it once and for all.

I have heard quite of bit of preaching and teaching from several different pastors and prophets (including my own pastor) telling us to get close to God. Time is of the essence! We need to get into the word of God and have an intimate relationship with Him before it is too late. There is coming a day when it will be too late to catch up with what God is trying to tell us.

That day is spoken of in Matthew 25: 1-13. Notice in verse 5 it says “They all got drowsy and began to sleep.” That is us today. We must wake up to what is going on around us. You may say, “What can I do? I am behind bars! I can’t do anything about what is going on outside.” Yes you can! You can pray! You can stand everyday for Jesus; and pray for righteousness to prevail in our land, in the upcoming elections, in our government, in our homes and in our schools.

There is more to being born again than just living here on earth and going to heaven when we leave here. We are each to work out our own salvation (Philippians 2:12). We are each to be an overcomer in a dark world (Revelation 1:7, 11, 17, 26; & Revelation 2:12 and 21). There are rewards that we are given once we enter heaven. (James 1:12) We earn them while here on earth. We will all stand before Jesus one day and give an account for what we said and did here on earth. (Revelation 22:12)

God has made it so clear to me that we must get close to Him. We must spend time in His word and get our minds renewed to the way He looks at things. In return, we will be saved from the wrath that is to come. Psalm 37: 18-20a: “The Lord knows the days of the blameless; and their inheritance will be forever. They will not be ashamed in the time of evil; and in the days of famine, they will have abundance. But the wicked will perish.”

Another part of Psalm 37 that I like is verses 3 & 4: “Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” The only way we can trust Him and do good is to get into His word and into His presence. We need to delight in Him, worship Him and seek His face every day. To cultivate is to dig up the soil and make it soft and smooth for planting. So, we need to dig up the old thinking and make it soft and smooth for His word to penetrate our minds and take root there. We are to cultivate faithfulness. That means we are to cultivate the soil of our minds faithfully every day.

Look at Psalm 37:27-28. “Depart from evil, and do good; so you will abide forever. For the Lord loves justice and does not forsake His godly ones. They are preserved forever; but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.” Then Psalms 37: 38-40: “But transgressors will be altogether destroyed. The posterity of the wicked will be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their strength in time of trouble. And the Lord helps them, and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked, and saves them because they take refuge in Him.” (As you can probably tell by now, Psalm 37 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. I rely on it a lot.)

I didn’t plan on writing all of this. I had another plan for this Newsletter. However, when I sat down to write, this is what came out. This is clearly a warning from God. I don’t usually write on end time events; but I believe God wants us to wake up and let Him rule and reign in our everyday lives. So please take these words to heart! Get close to God. That will loose the angels to go to work on your behalf to bring about the answers to prayers you have prayed. They obey the voice of His word as we speak it from our mouths.

We need to turn our attention to what really happened when Jesus went to the cross for us. He went to set us free and to give us the way to live in Him while on this earth. He set us free to lead others to Him. He died for every person born. His heart is so full of love for His children and He wants to bless us; but He can’t tolerate sin and He can’t move in our behalf contrary to the words He has given us in the Bible.

Psalm 40:1-5 is so fitting here: “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord. How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust; and has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood. Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts toward us. There is none to compare with Thee. If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count.”

When we meditate on His word and get our minds renewed to it, we find such peace. Things just seem to work out better each day. That is because He is blessing us. As we encounter things that come against us and things we don’t understand, we only need to search His word for the answers and let it minister to us.

Every word written in the Bible is for our use. As we read and study it, we find the way to true peace and freedom even behind bars. We find His plan for our life here and we see a glimpse of the future when we leave earth and go to be with Him forever. The Bible is truly an ageless book. His words will stand forever and His love for those who will draw near to Him is beyond measure. There is nothing like the peace of God.

In closing, I want to share a poem the Lord gave me a couple of days ago as I was getting ready for work. It has brought me a lot of comfort and I pray it will bring you a lot of comfort too.