DONATE Tuesday, October 31, 2023 Will We Be Ready? LISTEN   “For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded. ” —1 Thessalonians 5:5–6  God can see the future with complete certainty. He knows it as well as we might know our past. God looks at the future, the past, and the present as one. He can see them all. Therefore, it is no reach for God to say that something will happen exactly as He predicted it would, because He lives in the supernatural realm. In my understanding of Bible prophecy, Jesus could come back at any time. I do not see any piece in the prophetic puzzle that needs to be put in place before He could come for His church. This means that Christ could come for us today. Hebrews 9:28 tells us, “He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him” (NLT). The question is, will we be ready? The Rapture will be an instantaneous event. That is why, in speaking of Christ’s return, the Bible tells us to be ready. It tells us to be alert. Be watching. Pay attention. We must be ready now. Writing about the return of Christ, Paul warned, “So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded. Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk. But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:6–8 NLT). The Bible tells Christians to wake up. Don’t be asleep in the light. That’s because a lot of us can simply lie around enjoying a prolonged nap while the rest of the world faces an imminent judgment. Yet God is saying, “You need to wake up. Be alert and live in the light. Put on the armor of faith and love.” We are living in the last days, and it will get tough at times. We had better have our spiritual weapons ready and close by. We had better realize the devil will try to trip us up and bring us down. Tragically, one of the signs of the last days is that some will fall away from the faith (see 1 Timothy 4:1). Don’t let that cause you to worry, because God will keep you if you want to be kept. He will protect you. But you have to take practical steps to be protected. So, stay close to Him. Avoid the pitfalls and the things that can drag you down, and be alert. Be awake. Be on guard. And be available to serve the Lord and share the life-changing message of the gospel with others. Jesus said, “We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:4–5 NLT). Wake up from spiritual lethargy, laziness, and apathy. Wake up to the urgency of the hour. We must seize the opportunities God gives us, because they won’t be around forever. Share this today:

Fame: Fortunes, Failure and Faith Give Now » In a culture that says happiness comes from reaching the top, Pastor Greg Laurie uncovers the truth about fame. With exclusive interviews from baseball legend Darryl Strawberry and rock star Alice Cooper, his newest book, Fame: Fortunes, Failure, and Faith, offers relevant insights into the dangers of pursuing fame, and has been made into a compelling documentary film called Fame that is premiering this month through Harvest. This new book will be sent to you in thanks for your gift to Harvest Ministries this month. Copyright © 2023 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved. Harvest Ministries exists with your support to Know God and Make Him Known. If you would like, you can update your preferences. This email may be considered an advertising or promotional email. Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie P.O. Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514-4000 Phone: 1-800-821-3300

 

DAILY DEVOTIONAL – October 31, 2023 God Never Gives Up By David Wilkerson

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?" (Luke 15:4, NKJV).  Jesus is speaking here of a sheep that had been in the fold. Clearly, this represents a member of Christ’s flock, one who has been well fed and led by a loving shepherd. Nevertheless, this sheep has gotten lost, so the shepherd has gone out looking for it. Note what Jesus says about the shepherd here: “He goes after the one that is lost until he finds it.” God never gives up on anyone who belongs to him and has gone astray. Instead, he goes out to find that sheep, embraces it and brings it back into the fold. Simply put, you can go so far into sin that you come to very brink of hell, and he will still pursue you. David testified, “If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there” (Psalm 139:8). We have all heard the expression “hell on earth.” That is what life is like for those who run from God. Their bed in hell is an awful condition. It means to be captivated by sin, drifting so far from the Lord that you eventually fall into a lifeless slumber. This slumber is accompanied by a nagging fear that whispers, “You are going deeper and deeper into hell. You may not ever get back to God.” Christ’s message to us is “You may have made your bed in hell, but you are not too deep in sin for me to reach you.” We are told specifically by Christ in the parable of the lost sheep, “When the shepherd finds the lost, injured sheep, he carries the wounded creature into his house. when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:6-7). Read and Listen OnlineForward to a Friend

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Tuesday, Oct 31, 2023

Luther’s Quest For God

“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’”

— Romans 1:17

While our culture sets this day aside as Halloween, I think a much more fitting event to celebrate happened on this day in 1517—the Reformation of the Church, when Martin Luther, a humble monk, made public ninety-five reasons the Church needed to reform. Luther knew how desperately the world and the Church needed to know we could gain grace only through faith. He dedicated his life to discovering and preaching this truth.

Luther was born November 10, 1483, into a poor family of German woodcutters. Realizing that their son was gifted, Luther’s parents scrimped and saved to send him to the university, where he studied law. Returning home from school on foot, he and a friend were caught in a thunderstorm and his friend was struck by lightning and killed. This terrified Luther and he vowed to enter a monastery so he could search for God. One question plagued him without ceasing: How could he, a sinful man, ever become pure enough to stand in the awesome presence of a holy God who was an all-consuming fire? Luther spent years trying every way he knew to purify his soul. He spent hours each day confessing his sins. He beat himself with a whip until he became bloody and unconscious. He prayed for six weeks, fasted, and slept very little. He stayed out all night long, naked, in the deep snows of Germany.

But one day the Lord spoke to him through the Scriptures, specifically Romans 1:17: “The just shall live by faith.” 

Suddenly Luther saw the Gospel. He discovered God’s grace. He realized that only those justified by faith in Christ’s blood will live and those who seek to justify themselves in any other way shall not live. Luther spent the rest of his life promoting and defending this truth. Even when he was on trial, faced with being burned at the stake, he clung fiercely to it. Justification by faith is still our great hope and joy.

D. James Kennedy Ministries

“Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me! Amen!”
Martin Luther

WHAT THE PERFECT CHURCH MIGHT LOOK LIKE

• Signs of the Kingdom, Part XXVII
  Rick Joyner

         As we continue considering what the perfect church might look like, we should expect a vision for the perfect church to be as varied as the people who are in it—that’s how it should be. We may wonder how anything could be built with everyone having different ideas about what it should be, yet this is still far better than what we call churches today. We know this because God’s plan for building His house is much like He created the universe.

         It is only when we begin to acquire the mentality of “unity by conformity” that ours and God’s visions tend to clash. When we realize God’s unity is a unity of diversity, we start seeing how different visions can complement and not contradict each other. We may think this is far too complicated for man to do, but He doesn’t want man to do it. He wants to build His church, and with Him nothing is impossible.

         Having a pastoral and evangelistic church, for example, should not be contradictory but complementary. Those who come to the Lord through evangelism need pastoral care to mature and become established. Then all the other gifts and ministries He has given for the building of His church can be implemented at the right time, complementing one another.

         When the Lord builds the house, we can trust that all the people He has brought together will be the right ones. God has made us all unique, therefore we can expect each person to have a unique vision of what the church should be. Since God’s unity is a unity of diversity, we should expect all the unique visions each member brings to fit together in remarkable unity that is infinitely diverse, living, growing, and changing in good ways. It is when we cannot change that we become old wineskins.

         In our limited minds, we think this cannot work but will instead be chaotic. That is understandable until we see how the Lord made an incredibly diverse and chaotic creation fit and work together as one. How much more should we, His body, fit and work together like this? How much more do our own bodies with their many parts and functions work together as one body? Should this not be a model of how His body, the church, should function?

         The apostle Paul did not say he had the mind of Christ; he said, “we have the mind of Christ” (see I Corinthians 2:16) plural. 

No one person can have the mind of Christ, but each of us has been given a part, and when we come together, the different parts can be joined together to have His mind. Some may have bigger parts than others, but we all have parts. This makes us realize the true importance of each member. 

         We may give more weight to those the Lord has sent to be in leadership, but we cannot reject any member. As Paul also wrote the Lord likes us to give the weak, simple, foolish, and uncomely members more honor and attention (see I Corinthians 12:22-25). This keeps us all in places of humility, knowing that God resists the proud but gives His grace to the humble. Humility should be something to which we are all devoted. 

         That being said, we must not fall into the trap of thinking God will always speak to us through the least likely members. However, we must stay open to this. Unless God is dealing with some pride issue, we should expect Him to mostly provide leadership through those He has raised up as leaders. The key is not to seek to hear from any one person, but to seek to hear the Lord through whomever He chooses. It is not hearing the words of the Lord but hearing the Word Himself that we must seek. Our goal should be if He chooses to speak through a donkey, we will know His voice well enough to know it’s the Lord.

        Knowing the Lord can speak through anyone at any time brings excitement to the life of God’s people. This requires us to know His voice. Until we recognize that God brings unity through diversity and not conformity, we aren’t really building churches but franchises that are so boringly uniform, not many people want to go to them, much less our Creator.

© 2023 Rick Joyner. All Rights Reserved 

We Don't Understand What "Ballot Harvesting" is...

 

 

Oregon Faith and Freedom

We Don't Understand What "Ballot Harvesting" is...

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Play our video explaining the unique Oregon Political Action Tax Credit that allows almost every Oregonian an easy and potentially free way to fund PAC's like Oregon Faith and Freedom:  play

There’s nothing that makes a candidate feel better about their campaign than having a bunch of yard signs placed in yards in their district. 

You have probably had many yard signs in your yard.  

But does this really assist much in winning a race?  Doesn't it seem that if you were to observe the number of signs for conservative/Republicans, prior to an election, you would think that Oregon was a "Red" Republican state and that statewide races would ALL be won by conservative/Republicans?  

But you would be dead-wrong!  All the seats would go to progressive Democrats.  

It has appeared that way for years.  So what has been going on?  

Why does the outward signage appear one way and yet the reality is something else?

In older models of running races it was often name identification that people wanted to build, hoping that people would vote for the name on the ballot that they recognized the most. 

But in today’s elections things seem to revolve more around your identity. 

Who are you as a voter? What tribe do you belong to?  

This is often called "Identity Politics".  

That "identity" can most easily be established by your registration in states where they have registration by party.  

There are states without registration by party, and some states don't even have Democrat and Republican primaries anymore and have gone to a top two vote finishers, that end up in the General Election, regardless of party.  

Why would anyone want to dispense with party labels and go to a top two?  

Why would anyone want to remove party registration altogether?  

Recall our recent discussions on the progressives efforts to continually identify voters and create lists of their "tribe" members?  

Progressives know they already have a list of their "tribe" and are continuing to make one.  

They also realize that conservatives are not involved in this process, and without voter registration by party, they won't have one.  

Progressives can continue to talk to and motivate their list to vote, even including going to their house to collect a ballot.  Conservatives won't have a list, placing them at great disadvantage.

That is why Oregon Faith and Freedom has been advocating for a change to election approaches, one that moves from "Spray and Pray" marketing to "Direct Voter Contact", like the progressives do (go here to catch up on these topics).  

Oregon Faith and Freedom has a list of 55,000 deliverable emails.  

What should we be doing with these?  

Emailing them and trying to motivate them to act by registering their dissent with bad laws coming from our Legislature (we need your donations to do this).  

Organizing them into county chapters for action.  

Getting people to file for school board and vote in those elections!  

An approach that uses lists such as the 668,000 mobile phone ID's we have of potential Christian Voters or the list of 300,000+ signers of the several recall efforts for Kate Brown to turn out more voters (and new voters).   

That is why Oregon Faith and Freedom has written and published a manual on a conservative/Republican approach to "Ballot Harvesting", because we must match the progressives approach in order to win.  

Please email Jeffk@oregonfaithandfreedom.org if you would like to receive a copy!  Now we add to that offer a copy of a plan to change Oregon.  Ask for it using the same jeffk@oregonfaithandfreedom.org.

As we seek to stem the gap in getting out the conservative vote, you can help us with your Tax Credit donation!  Give today (and remember your Political Action Tax Credit - a $ for $ reduction comes back to you up to $50 per individual)! 
When you donate to Oregon Faith and Freedom Coalition PAC our PAC ID# is:15823


For more information:  visit www.OregonFaithandFreedom.org  or info@oregonfaithandfreedom.org.