Seeing "Prewrath" Everywhere...

It was sure fun to see that on September 22, prewrathrapture.com featured Karin's testimony.  Alan Kurschner titled the entry - "Prewrath Story - Prewrath Twins."  (Thanks Alan, now I know why my counter got so dizzy!)

I remember when the "light bulb" came on for me like it did for Karin.  I too began seeing "prewrath" everywhere in scripture.  The switch that triggered the light was an understanding of the day of the Lord.  The truth that God's wrath, the Lord's coming, and the gathering of the saints are all tied to the day of the Lord.

The truth of God's word shows that the day of the Lord occurs after the man of lawlessness is revealed...2 Th. 2:1-4

The truth of God's word shows that believers are not destined for God's day of the Lord wrath but we are headed towards the greatest persecution yet to come upon God's elect...1 Th. 5:9, Matthew 24:21,21

The truth of God's word shows that the end of the age refers to the beginning of the day of the Lord...Matthew 24:29, Joel:2:31

The truth of God's word shows that the resurrection and rapture occur at the end of the age, at the Lord's coming...Matthew 24:31,1 Th. 4:16,17, John 6:40, 1 Cor. 15:22,23  

When I come across words such as "wrath", "revealing", "last day", and "coming" in scripture, all these thoughts flash before my mind as the word "wrath" did for Karin when she saw it in Proverbs.  (See comments section of her testimony.)  Scripture is abundant with "prewrath references", or references that point to the return of Christ as having to do with the day of the Lord.  And just like Karin, when the light bulb came on it lit a fire under me.  That is what happens when a truth of scripture grips your mind and heart.

The marvelous result is that the Living and Abiding Word becomes incredibly rich and you experience what David experienced...the word of God is more desirable than the purest gold and is sweeter than the sweetest thing David could think of to eat...honey from the honey comb. 

Ben is here as you can see...

...and he's hit the ground running.  He's never been one to sit still.  He's already split a pile of wood for me...pulled up my toilet so I could replace the floor...and drilled a hole in my wall so he could have internet from the computer room/guest bedroom to the living room.  Hmm...not so sure about that last one, but he's worth a hole in my wall.

Today is another work day.  I will finish installing the new bathroom floor, not sure what Ben has planned.  Annie (my daughter, Daniel's mom) is coming over to use my computer to upload some images she shot while she and my son-in-law were hiking earlier in the week.  She'll also be picking huckleberries from our three loaded bushes to make dessert for her husband's birthday party which we are having tonight.  I'm sure Ben will spend some more time with his nephew and his niece Daisy.  I'll feed them all lunch.

Family is wonderful, isn't it?  Your children grow up so fast.  Hug them lots.  Pray for them often.  And give thanks for how your Heavenly Father uses them in your life to conform you into the image of His Son.

Daniel Meets Uncle Ben...

Just a little excited!

Well, I have two reasons this morning to be excited.  The first one is because my husband is on the way to the airport to pick up our son Benjamin.  He's been in Alaska all summer, supervising the work crews that kept the Denali Park tour buses clean.  So, if you were in Alaska this summer and you took a bus into Denali National Park, your bus was probably cleaned by my son and one of his work crews!  He will be with us for a week and I will enjoy every second that he is here.  He is the life of the party, the one who keeps everyone in stitches...I just love him to death, he is so much fun to have around!

The other reason I am excited is because I am teaching Psalm 18 this morning to my ladies Bible study.  I will begin by giving the gals a couple of observations that John Piper makes regarding the Psalms.  The first one is  that the Psalms are meant to instruct us about God, man, and life.  They were written as songs and poetry so of course they stir up and carry the affections of the heart.  (That was observation number two by the way...)  But in that stirring up of our hearts we learn things about God, human nature, and how life is to be lived.

In this Psalm we learn that God is our Rock.  David composed this psalm after the Lord had given him deliverance from all his enemies, including Saul.  David's life was tumultuous, one in which he was pursued by enemies and one in which he took on the offensive and conquered his enemies.  David was able to look back over his life, at the times he dwelled among the crags to escape Saul and he compares God to such a place of concealment and security.  God is our firmness.

I visited Yosemite Valley this summer and as you drive into the Park, you come around a corner and all of a sudden the skyline is filled with El Capitan.  It is a HUGE slab of granite.  When I was preparing this lesson, my thoughts kept going back to El Capitan.  It is massive.  It is huge.  It is towering.  It is firm.  Such is our God. 



Praise Him for that today, won't you, like David did?

Karin's Prewrath Testimony

By now you know I have a twin.  She wrote her prewrath testimony down and sent it to her pastor who is a preterist.  She also sent it to me.  I asked permission to post it on my blog and she said yes.  Here it is...

"Three years ago I was visiting my sister in Washington and she told me about a view of eschatology that I had never heard of before. It was taught as an elective at her church. It's called the pre-wrath rapture view. If you take Scripture at face value it beautifully puts all things into place regarding end time prophecy. There are absolutely no discrepancies whatsoever. Once you see it - it's interwoven all throughout Scripture in the Old Testament and the New Testament.


It's not a pre-trib view or a post-trib view or even a mid-trib view. There is a literal rapture where believers are caught up to meet the Lord in the air at His second coming on the same day that God's wrath begins. This event is called The Day of the Lord and it happens at the opening of the 6th seal. Believers will be persecuted by the Anti-Christ, but are removed before God's wrath is poured out when the 7th seal is broken. One thing I learned in my study is that the Great Tribulation doesn't start until the Beast sets himself up in the temple. Never does it say that the tribulation starts when the first seal is broken. The seven churches in Revelation are all told to be over-comers. Taking Scripture at face value they are being told of the persecution that is to come and they are given instructions on what they need to do to over-come and endure till His return. The day that He comes will be like a thief in the night, but those who are prepared will know the signs (in the sun, moon, and stars) for His coming and they will look up for their redemption is near. Those who are not ready will shrink away in terrible fear.


Over the last several months I have done an in depth study looking all end time passages at face value recognizing there are some figures of speech, but I'm convinced that what I've learned is the truth of Scripture. I can read Revelation and it makes sense now, and it's beautiful. Once you realize the truth there is no doubt of what is going to occur, no fear whatsoever."

Karin is planting seeds like crazy now.  I think it is great!

"O woman, great is your faith!"

My son's fiance is a brand new believer.  What delights me is that she is devouring the Word.  She is also keeping me in the Word by asking me lots of questions!  Today she sent me an email and wanted to know why Jesus told a Gentile woman that He was sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  The account is in Matthew 15.  I'm sure to Mai Huong it seemed like Jesus was not very compassionate to this woman at first.  When she cried out to the Lord for mercy because her daughter was severely demon-possessed the Lord ignored her request.  He did not answer her a word.  His disciples were annoyed by her crying out after them and came to Jesus and urged Him to send her away.  He answers by saying that He was sent except to the lost sheep of Israel.  This time the woman ignored what the Lord said and came close to Him and bowed down and worshiped Him saying, "Lord, help me!"  This time He answers her but again with words that do not seem to show a lot of compassion.  He tells her that is is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the family's pet dog.  In essence He was calling her a dog and she knew it.  Jesus was saying that the lost sheep of Israel must be fed first, must be given spiritual food first.  The Lord is testing her faith at this point.  He was drawing it out.

It was God's plan from the very beginning to include Gentiles as His sheep (see John 10:16), but His plan was to send the Savior to Israel and then through Israel the world would be reached.  (Mt. 28:19, 20)  Obviously in His plan some Gentiles would come to faith as He was preaching to Israel.  After Jesus tells the woman that it is not normal to feed the family pet before feeding the children, she agrees with the Lord, she continues in her persistence and says basically that she is willing to settle for the crumbs that fall when the children are fed.  She demonstrated great faith and the Lord rewards it by healing her daughter.

Jesus priority was to the lost sheep of Israel, but the crumbs of the gospel did fall from His table and fed this humble woman who hungered for the Bread of Life.

Now I get to write Mai Huong and explain to her why Jesus said to Peter, "Get thee behind me Satan!"  And I'm so thankful she is one of His sheep...

Just for fun!

This post is for all you moms, grammas, and wanna-be-grammas!  My sister Betty Ann, the creative genius in my family, took the album of Daniel and created another, smaller album with music and captions.  This new album is a little story of Daniel going on an adventure.  The first thing you'll need to do is click on this link to get the music started, open a new window in your web browser, come back to Overcomer and this post, and then click on this link and then hit slideshow.  You will want to slow the slide show down to probably about seven seconds for each image so you have plenty of time to read the captions.  I hope it works for you!

Daniel

Can't believe he'll be three months old on Saturday!  Precious boy!
To view the entire album click here.

"The heavens are telling of the glory of God...

...and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.  Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge."  Psalm 19:1,2

Check out these AMAZING images the updated Hubble Space Telescope recently shot!

The Lord's Bonus...

"Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights..."

James 1:17

Someone who "gets" it...

This arrived in my email inbox today...

"I read Matt. 24 again. I get it. I finally get it and it's amazing and my soul is burning.

I see why we have to be sober and alert until Christ comes again. This is what pastors all over the world should be preaching.

The rapture is NOT the next thing to happen. Today Pastors all over the world should be preaching from their pulpits that a persecution against God's people is coming that is far greater than any other that has taken place since the beginning of time. This will be a time when God will sift out who are really His followers. And then right before He sends His wrath to destroy the wicked He removes those who are truly His. Those who are truly His will know what to do to prepare. They should know that they can prepare like Noah. Some will be protected from the Antichrist's persecution, but some will be killed on account of His name...BUT...those of us who know Jesus will look up when our redemption draws nigh because once again God will use His nature to get everyone's attention. He gathers His elect and then ALL HELL IS GOING TO BREAK LOOSE!!!!!"

Needless to say this was a "made me smile" email. I did reply and told them that I was thrilled for them.  I encouraged them to take that passion and begin being a "seed planter" also. Initially, many may reject it, but a seed will have been planted...

I did correct one part...it is ALL HEAVEN THAT BREAKS LOOSE!!!!!...

A Spurgeon Nugget to Make You Smile...

I've been putting together lesson plans to teach Psalm 20 and 21 to my ladies Bible study.  These two psalms have been called twin warfare events.  The king is about to go to war in Psalm 20 and most commentators agree that in Psalm 21 we find the celebration after the king returns victorious from battle.  Spurgeon's "Treasury of David" never ceases to delight.  I looked at his notes on Psalm 21:12.  At this point in the psalm we are in the midst of a Messianic reference to the Lord devouring His enemies.

Here's the first part of the verse..."For Thou wilt make them turn their back..."

Here are Spurgeon's thoughts..."For a time the foes of God may make bold advances, and threaten to overthrow everything, but a few ticks of the clock will alter the face of their affairs.  At first they advance impudently enough, but Jehovah meets them to their teeth, and a taste of the sharp judgment of God speedily makes them flee in dismay.  The original has in it the thought of the wicked being set as a butt for God to shoot at, a target for his wrath to aim at.  What a dreadful situation!"

Psalm 119:92

"If Thy law and not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction."

A couple of observations regarding the psalmist... 

The psalmist had undergone tremendous pain and misery.  The psalmist took great pleasure and joy in God's instruction. 

That delight, that taking great pleasure and joy in God's instruction served as a life preserver.

God's word is powerful and God's word is sufficient.  It has great sustaining power for the pressures and pains that come to us in this life.

Happy Birthday Karin!

In case you didn't know, I have a twin...she's the one on the right...

"Dying is not the worst thing that could happen to us...

...being unfaithful is."

I just listened to an excellent message by Charles Cooper.  You can hear it too by clicking on this link. 

In the message he talks about how intensely lawless it is going to be during the great tribulation.  Injustice will be the order of the day and Christians will have no remedy.  This message will quickly sober you up to the time that is going to be coming upon the world.  How soon?  We don't know, but we need to develop the mindset now that to die for Christ would be an honor.  It is not the worst thing that could happen to us...but being unfaithful is.   

A DELIGHTFUL SPURGEON NUGGET

"He who looks up at the firmament and then writes himself down as an atheist, brands himself at the same moment as an idiot or a liar."

(This is definitely in my top five favorite Spurgeon quotes!)

New Front Steps

I thought it would be fun to post my latest handy-girl project.  What makes it challenging is to work while the yellow-jackets are dive-bombing...  Thursday, rest and study time.  Friday, new back door!  Having fun and staying really busy Orange! 

PERSONAL HOLINESS

A friend asked me today if I thought there was a lack of personal holiness. My answer was yes. After we ended our conversation I asked myself the question why? I think it's because much of the church no longer has a high view of Scripture. God's Word is the means by which God does His work. By it people are saved, sanctified, equipped, trained, motivated, and given hope. When God's people do not spend time in God's Word, motivation for personal holiness will begin to wane. God does His work of making people more like Christ when His people are in His Word. The Spirit uses the Word, and when rightly understood and applied, we become more and more like Christ.

Make it your priority to get back into the Word if this spiritual discipline has been neglected. It is the only source of truth that convicts of sin, warns of judgment, matures the believer, and purifies and cleanses. And once it becomes a habit again, what may seem at first like a duty will be transformed into great, great joy!

Lamentations 3:22-25- "The LORD's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease. For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion says my soul, therefore I have hope in Him. The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him."