Are you worshiping an Idol?

Buckingham Palace

Imagine, if you are invited to the Buckingham Palace by an exclusive invite from the queen. When the special day arrived, you dressed up in your best attire and brought a special expensive gift for the queen. The butler welcomes you into the palace. You are delighted to meet the butler as he is very helpful in the new place. You started talking to the butler for a long time, and you liked him. But then, the butler announced to you that her majesty would be anticipating him any moment. You tell the butler I am not interested in meeting the queen as we are having a good time looking around the palace and having a pleasant conversation. You say to the butler I will give you the gift I brought for the queen and in a short while I will take leave. After reading this, you are thinking; I would never do such a thing. It is a great honor to be the guest of the queen.

As a Christian, if you believe truly that Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of Lords, you would consider spending time with Him a great honor. You will take delight in the Lord. "Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass (Psalms 37:4-5)." The great King of kings said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28)."

Unfortunately, we are busy with our little world. We are busy with the things that will perish. The things you can touch and feel. Jesus said, "Don't collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don't break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:19-21). For some, it may be their job, car, house, boat, bank account, stock market, games, and even ministry. These things can become an idol when we worship them more than the King, who provided these. You may say I am not worshiping any of these. The word worship means that you are evaluating the worth of a person or a thing. If you value anybody or anything more than our Lord and Savior Jesus, you are not worshiping Jesus. You may say, I worship Jesus also, I consider him of some value to me. Jesus said, "No one can be a slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot be slaves of God and of money (Matthew 6:24)" Some are devoted to building their "own" ministry or church and forgot to worship Jesus in a real sense.

How is your prayer life? How much you love God and His Word? "If you love Me, you will keep My commands" (John 14:15) You cannot keep His commands if you do not spend time with Him. You may have to make some hard decisions to remove your "idols" in your life, even if it cost you much. "Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned (John (15:4-6)" As we see the day approaching, let us cling to our Lord and Savior more and more.

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The coming of the LORD JESUS

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““Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 
Jesus answered: "...You will hear of wars and rumors of wars,.. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of birth pains." ” [Matthew 24:3, 6-8]

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"The coming of the LORD"

The manifestation of Christ’s coming is His return to earth in power and great glory to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. The Rapture will not be seen by the world; it takes place in a split second. But every eye will see Christ when He comes to reign. Therefore it is called the manifestation of His presence (parousia).
During the first half of the Tribulation, many false messiahs will appear who will succeed in deceiving multitudes. The current rise of many false cults may be a prelude to this, but it is not a fulfillment. These false religious leaders will be Jews claiming to be the Christ.
There will be wars and rumors of wars. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. It would be easy to think that we are seeing this fulfilled today, but what we see is mild compared to what will be. Actually the next event in God’s time schedule is the Rapture of the church. There is no prophesy to be fulfilled before then. After the church is removed, God’s prophetic clock will begin and these conditions will quickly manifest themselves.  Famines, pestilences, and earthquakes will occur in various parts of earth. Even today world leaders are alarmed by the specter of famine due to the population explosion. But this will be accentuated by the shortages caused by wars.
Earthquakes and Tsunamis are attracting increasing attention—not only those now occurring but also those that are expected. Once again, these are straws in the wind, and not the actual fulfillment of our Savior’s words.
Verse 8 clearly identifies this period as the beginning of sorrows—the onset of birth-pangs.  Naturally, the birth-pangs will increase in intensity and also in frequency.
The Parable of the Fig Tree
Again our Lord draws a spiritual lesson from nature. When the branches of the fig tree become green and tender, you know that summer is near.  We have seen that the fig tree pictures the nation of Israel. For hundreds of years Israel has been dormant, with no government of its own, no land, no temple, no priesthood—no sign of national life.  The people have been scattered throughout the world.
Then, in 1948, Israel became a nation with its own land, governments, currency, stamps, etc.  Spiritually, the nation is still barren and cold; there is no fruit for God. But nationally, we might say that its branches are green and tender.
“So you also, when you see all these things, know that is near, at the very doors!” Israel’s emergence as a nation means not only that the beginning of the Tribulation is near, but that the Lord Himself is near, at the very doors!
If Christ’s coming to reign is so near, how much more imminent is the Rapture of the church? If we already see shadows of events that must precede His appearing in glory, how much closer are we to the Rapture?

"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore encourage one another with these words. " 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18







"...Even so, come, Lord Jesus"

“In just a little while,  he who is coming will come  and will not delay.”  [Hebrews 10:37]









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 “The heavens declare the glory of God;
   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
   night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
   no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
   their words to the ends of the world.”  [Psalm 19:1-4]

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"The heavens declare the glory of God"

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament (the expanse of the heavens) shows His handiwork.” And what a story they tell!  Think, first of all, what they tell about the immensity of the universe. If we traveled at the speed of light—186,000 miles a second or roughly six trillion miles a year—it would take us ten billion years to reach the farthest point we can see with a telescope. But this would still be far from the outermost limits of space. Now astronomers think that space may have no bounds at all! Our earth is nothing but a tiny speck in a limitless expanse!

Think too of the number of stars and other heavenly bodies. With the naked eye we can see about five thousand stars. With a small telescope we can see about two million. But with the Palomar telescope we can see billions of galaxies, to say nothing of individual stars.

[NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array]

Then think about the distances of the heavenly bodies from the earth and from each other. Someone has pictured the distances as follows: if it cost a penny to ride 1000 miles, a trip to the moon would cost $2.38, a trip to the sun would cost $930, but a trip to the nearest star would cost $260 million.

It takes light from the most remote stars which can be seen with telescopes ten billions years to reach the earth. So when we look out into space, we are really looking backward in time. For example, we do not see the Andromeda galaxy where it is now but where it was two million years ago!

Although the stars may appear to be crowded in the firmament, the distances between them are so great that they have been likened to lonely lightships a million miles apart, floating in an empty sea.

If creation is so great, how much greater is the Creator! Day and night the heavens are telling the greatness of His power and wisdom. The firmament unceasingly proclaims the marvels of His handiwork.

The terrifying dimensions and complexity of the universe confirm that "if you think strongly enough, you will be forced by science to believe in God."

Yet, “The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."" (Psalm 14:1)

   "How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God" 






"Where can I flee from your presence?"

 “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there;   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me   and the light become night around me,”  even the darkness will not be dark to you;  the night will shine like the day,  for darkness is as light to you.  [Psalm 139:7-12]  

    




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 “On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived. Jesus Presented in the Temple  When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord  (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”  [ Luke 2:21-24]

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"I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them..."

At least three different rituals are described in this passage: First there was the circumcision of Jesus. This took place when He was eight days old. It was a token of the covenant that God made with Abraham. On this same day, the Child was named, according to Jewish custom. The angel had previously instructed Mary and Joseph to call Him Jesus.

The second ceremony was concerned with the purification of Mary. It took place forty days after the birth of Jesus. Ordinarily parents were supposed to bring a lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering. But in the case of the poor, they were permitted to bring “ a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons”. The fact that Mary brought no lamb, but only two young pigeons is a reflection of the poverty into which Jesus was born.

The third ritual was the presentation of Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem. Originally, God had decreed that the firstborn sons belonged to Him; they were to form the priestly class. Later, He set aside the tribe of Levi to serve as priests.  Then the parents were permitted to “buy back” or “redeem” their firstborn son by the payment of five shekels. This they did when they dedicated him to the Lord.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. [Matthew 5:17]

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. [2 Corinthians 8:9]




"...for my eyes have seen your salvation"

 “Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,    according to your word;  for my eyes have seen your salvation”  [Luke 2:25-30]