Touching story about faith

A man’s daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her father. When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows. An empty chair sat beside his bed. The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit. “I guess you were expecting me," he said. “No, who are you?” asked the father. The minister told him his name and then remarked, “I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up.” “Oh yeah, the chair,” said the bedridden man. “Would you mind closing the door?” Puzzled, the minister shut the door. “I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter,” said the man. “But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head. I abandoned any attempt at prayer,” the old man continued, “until one day, four years ago; my best friend said to me, ‘Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest…‘Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It’s not spooky, because He promised, ‘I will be with you always.’ Then just speak to Him in the same way you’re doing with me right now.’ “So, I tried it and I’ve liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I’m careful though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she’d either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm.” The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil, and returned to the church. Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that her daddy had died that afternoon. “Did he die in peace?” the minister asked. “Yes. When I left the house about two o’clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead. But, there was something strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?” The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said, “I wish we could all go like that.”

Copyright © 2014 PAMELA SANTIAGO. All Rights Reserved.

Adapted from the book Journey of A Thousand Miles. To purchase the book, clickhere.

Why do we need faith

From the Scriptures we learn that we have all sinned (Romans 3:23). As a result of knowingly or unknowingly breaking the laws of God (the biblical definition of sin—1 John 3:4) we are subject to a penalty of death for all eternity. However, by putting our faith in the fact that Jesus gave His life as a sacrifice for our sins we can be forgiven of our sins. God loved us too much to leave us alone. God knew there was nothing we could do to pay the penalty for the wrong we have done. That is why Jesus Christ entered into the world. Jesus offered himself as a payment for the wrong that we have done. It is through Jesus Christ, that we find the forgiveness and mercy. A Christian must also live by faith. This means changing your life so that you begin to live by every word of God. You will start keeping the Sabbath and the Holy Days, to obey God and to follow the example of Jesus and the early church. As you step out on faith and begin to observe these commanded assemblies with other true Christians you will begin to understand God’s plan of salvation for mankind and the true purpose of life. When tragedy strikes very often we blame God and throw our faith in him. We call God cruel. We let go of our faith in God and throw him away. Did God in return do that to us? God sent his only son and humans nailed him to the cross and yet God didn’t blame us and because he loved us so much he watched in pain his son being tortured to death. If you prick your hand with a thorn it will be very painful and you will definitely try not to touch anything that has thorns in it. Jesus suffered and died on the cross and God watch silently. Has the pain in you overcome the pain that God went through to see his only begotten son suffer and die on the cross to pay the price for your sins?

What is faith

The word faith comes from a Latin word fidere, which means to trust, believe, or have faith. Faith has been defined as an “unquestioning belief” in God, religion, an idea, a person or organization. Faith generally means having a strong conviction, deep trust, reliance upon, or loyalty to something. Your faith can also refer to a religion or system of beliefs. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word for faith is emuwn which means to trust, or have faith. In the New Testament the Greek word for faith is pistis, which means to trust, believe, have faith or rely upon. Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see. Faith in God must be from the heart. It is not merely intellectual. It is spiritual. “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Faith causes you to know in your heart before you see with your eyes. For we walk by faith, not by sight. (2Cor 5.7)  Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” (Mk 11:24). Many times our faith is tested in times of trials and very often majority of people loose faith in God when tragedy strikes their life. You are not going to understand why God allows storms and heartache in your life but that should not make you doubt his love.  During those times when you are stopped by the furnace of affliction, the sea of trouble and the mountain of despair, remember that it is not a holding place but a resting place.  God is keeping you near to his heart and revealing more of him to you. Only there can you understand that at the end of your weakness is his limitless strength. All the pain and struggles you face are simply the elements God uses to mold you into greatness. Faith is a gift from God and is not something that can be produced by humans. Faith hears the word of God, the voice of God and acts in obedience with a trusting heart. God often speaks to us through our consciences by His Spirit, pressing us towards a particular kind of action which is based on God’s Word. Real faith yields to God’s suggestion and does it. Never doubt God because doubt is an enemy of faith. It is the evidence of lack of devotion to God’s Word. Find your faith in God because there are tiny miracles in each of them.

Faith in god or faith in life?

You never lost your faith because you had never had faith in God. You just had faith in Life. Confused? Let me make it clear with the example of our own life. You had good education, good job, beautiful wife/husband and children and your life was perfect and you thought because you believed in God all good things happened in your life. Actually you did not trust God but you trusted the kind of life you were living. Normally, when humans get used to certain life style, they tend to think that it will continue forever so you had faith in your life style and not in God. Back to you, when your life turned bad and God didn’t answer your prayers, you put the entire blame on him. You assumed you lost your faith not realizing that you have never placed your faith in God. There is no such thing as losing faith. The faith you had was because of your education, job, success, marriage life, richness and friends. You had faith in those objects but not in God. When you lost one of these objects, you tend to think that you lost your faith in God but actually you didn’t had any faith in him. True faith becomes stronger when life conditions move against you and not the other way round.

Copyright © 2014 PAMELA SANTIAGO. All Rights Reserved.

Adapted from the book Journey of A Thousand Miles. To purchase the book, clickhere.

Rapture of Christ

Rapture is a term in Christian eschatology which refers to the "being caught up" discussed in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet "the Lord in the air. The term "Rapture" is used in at least two senses, Pre-Tribulation rapture, Post-Tribulation rapture and Mid-Tribulation Rapture. The most popularly taught view among Christian faiths is known as the Pre-Tribulation Rapture.  According to this view, a group of people will be left behind on earth after another group literally leaves "to meet the Lord in the air. The post-Tribulation rapture believes that Christians will remain on the Earth as witnesses during the seven year tribulation period, until the very end of this age. The Mid-tribulation rapture is when those who accept this perspective believe that Christians will be taken from the Earth to be in Heaven with God at some point during the middle of the seven year period of tribulation.

Signs of the end times

Jesus said, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.” Luke 21:10-11.

The signs of the end times show us that the earth has reached the last days. We are the last generations of mankind. God said in the end He would destroy those who destroy the earth. Now just look at what is happening to this world. In times past, man could not do much damage to the earth. But today, the world is being "destroyed" through war, industry, chemical pollution, oil pollution, and depletion of forests and so on. We are living in a time like no other before us, and God is soon to visit His judgments up this world! We can’t simply put a date for the second coming of Jesus because no one knows except our God in Heaven. But we can know when the end is near by referring to the Bible. Let’s take a woman for example.

Blood Moon Prophecy

It has been stated in the bible in Joel 2:14 “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.” A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun, Earth and moon line up so the Earth’s shadow falls on the moon, darkening it. On April 15, 2014, there was a total lunar eclipse. It was the first of four consecutive total eclipses in a series; known as a tetrad (the remaining three eclipses will take place on October 8, 2014, April 4, 2015, and September 28, 2015). Blood moons are set to appear in April 2014, on Passover, and then again in September 2014 during the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot. The timing is the same for 2015 -- a total of four blood moons, all appearing on Jewish feast days. The bloody red colour the moon takes on during an eclipse is caused by refraction of sunlight by the Earth’s atmosphere.  It is the same effect that you see when the sun turns reddish-orange at sunset, only in this case the refracted sunlight projects all the way to the moon.

Blood Moon lunar eclipses have happened continuously throughout history, but a Blood Moon Tetrad is when 4 consecutive total lunar eclipses occur on a Jewish Holy Feast day.