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I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes.

Away from me, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard my weeping. The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer. All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed; they will turn back in sudden disgrace.

Some believers, often with the “help” of well-meaning friends, equate illness or infirmity with discipline. They’re encouraged to believe that the Lord caused their illness.  Either some sin of theirs displeased Him and He’s punishing them, or He’s made them sick to teach them some “godly” lesson. I guess they think that even though He loved us enough to die for us while we still hated Him, once we come to Him in love He’ll make us suffer.

There are simple explanations for our sickness.  Some are ill as a consequence of their unhealthy lifestyle.  Attributing their sickness to God helps them avoid having to accept responsibility for their own behavior. They tried to beat the cause and effect rule and they failed.  Others subconsciously enjoy the attention their illness brings. They’re afraid if they weren’t ill, people would ignore them altogether, and that’s worse than being sick.  But for most it’s just because illness came into the world with sin and is therefore a part of our existence. It strikes both the faithful and the unfaithful

This randomness is Satan’s way of making people blame God for the bad things that happen in their lives.  Like Job we cry out to God, “Why me?”    We don’t realize that this world is a dark and evil place, currently under the control of God’s sworn enemy. (1 John 5:19) When we align ourselves with God we become aliens behind enemy lines. It’s only by His grace that we aren’t all stricken with devastating illness immediately.

The Bible never says we’ll be immune from sickness and disease.  Instead it commands us to pray for each other for healing (James 5:14-16).   The Lord describes Himself as “The God Who Heals You” (Exodus 15:26) and Isaiah 53:4-5 says that by His stripes we are healed.

As our Lord explained to His disciples, “In this world you will have tribulation, but take heart for I have overcome the world.” ( John 16:33) For some believers that promise comes true with immediate healing from illness. For others it comes true in the grace to endure until the healing comes.

A missionary friend of ours had suffered silently for several months with a pain in her shoulder.  Pain killers helped but only temporarily.  Finally she asked for prayer to be healed.  After the prayer her arm felt better but wasn’t quite 100%.  Instead of complaining that she hadn’t been healed she prayed, “Lord, Your word says that the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well (James 5:15).  Therefore I choose to believe I’m healed.  If I have to experience this pain for a little while longer until my healing is complete, that’s something I’m happy to do for You.  After all look how You suffered for me.”   Within a few days all the pain was gone for good.  The Lord had heard her cry for mercy and accepted her prayer.  Her faith had healed her.

A. Not by a long shot. We all do it. And for those of us who derive our self esteem from our performance, it’s especially hard to forgive ourselves. We know better, and yet we still sin. I have to constantly remind myself that it’s part of my nature. It’s a built in flaw I have, a self-defeating mechanism. If I didn’t have it I wouldn’t need a savior. But Satan uses it to work me over, trying to discourage and defeat me.

Like God does with all his children, I have to separate my behavior from who I am in Christ. And who am I? A new creation, as righteous as God Himself (2 Cor 5:17,21) As Paul said, “It’s not I who sins, it’s the sin nature that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:20)

I can’t rescue myself, but I have a Savior, and He has rescued me. Therefore there is now no condemnation from God, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2).

A. Let’s put the whole thing in perspective.  In Matt. 7:7-8 Jesus said that whoever asks for salvation will receive it.  No one is ever refused.  Paul confirmed that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13).  In Ephes. 2:8-9 Paul said the faith to be saved is a gift from God, and is not of ourselves.  And finally, Romans 8:30 says that everyone He calls is justified.  In other words no one refuses His call.

Since all these statements have to be true, God must have known in advance who was going to ask and when, otherwise some who ask might not receive, and some who are called might not respond. Sure enough Romans 8:29 says that those God foreknew, He predestined.  That means God knew in advance who would ask for salvation and reserved a place for them in Heaven.  Then at the proper time in their lives He calls them by investing them with the faith to ask, already knowing that they will.  When they do He cleanses them from all their sins (justifies them) and at the appointed time, either the resurrection or the rapture, He will glorify them. (Romans 8:30)  Once we understand that God is not limited by the constraints of time, all this makes perfect sense.

A. There are no specific requirements to go in the rapture other than being part of the Church.  Since you must be born again in order to be part of the Church, the same requirement qualifies you for the Rapture.  Besides, by definition born again believers are walking with God.  We are the sheep of His pasture. Some may have strayed off the path or even wandered away, but as our Shepherd the Lord is bound to bring us back. If we’re truly born again, God has put His seal of ownership on us and has accepted responsibility for us. (2 Cor. 1:21-22)  He has promised not to lose even one of us. (John 6:39)

A. I too have seen this term bandied about, and like you I don’t understand it.  For the most part I’ve found that people who use it believe we’re saved by grace through faith alone. I guess they look at others and if they don’t see the life changes they think a believer should be demonstrating they doubt his or her sincerity and accuse them of “easy believism”.

The fact is, believing in Jesus should change a person’s life.  But we’re all changed in different ways and we all still sin every day.  I’m very careful about accusing another of insincerity because I know what the Bible says about judging others. (Matt. 7:1-2) And I know from experience how difficult it can be to break a bad habit or be cured of an addiction.  While I can’t help being skeptical about some who claim to be saved but then engage in open and blatant sin, I also know that I don’t have any idea what kind of struggles they’re going through.  I wouldn’t want to be the one who causes them to lose hope.

I think John had some very good advice for all of us.  When we see a brother or sister sinning, our response should be to ask the Lord to forgive him or her (1 John 5:16-17).  How are we to know we won’t fall into sin tomorrow and need a prayer like that for ourselves?

He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the Day of Judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish.

The Bible promises a long, prosperous and healthy life for those who follow the ways of the Lord. There’s an intrinsic value in doing this from which even non-believers benefit. But believers tend to gravitate toward one of two extremes where God’s Law is concerned, and both are wrong.

The first is the legalist, who thinks that by being “righteous” he’s earning favor with God, and the second sees God’s grace as a license that relieves him of the consequences of his behavior no matter how sinful.

The Legalist misses out on the joy of his salvation, grinding through a life of “have-tos” and “don’ts”. He doesn’t enjoy the freedom purchased for him at the cross, his behavior constrained by a narrow set of rules he himself has devised, never realizing that he dwells in a prison of his own making.

His counterpart, we’ll call him the permissive, spends most of the time out of fellowship with God, not understanding that his un-confessed sins are a source of guilt that drives a wedge between the Lord and him.  This failure to acknowledge his behavior as sin and confess makes him fair game for an enemy who delights in tormenting him, and his life becomes an example to be avoided in the eyes of those around him.

One is focused only on what he must do to earn God’s favor, and the other only on what God should do for him. Neither understands that our behavior good or evil cannot affect God. Our sins only hurt us and those around us just as our good deeds only benefit us and them. (Job 35:6-8)

But our relationship with God is vastly enriched when we voluntarily act in a manner pleasing to Him, not out of an effort to earn a blessing we hope to get, but as a way of saying thanks for the blessings we’ve already received. And like everything else where the Lord’s concerned, we’re judged on motive not result. He doesn’t expect perfection; He’s just looking for an attitude of gratitude.

Prayer.  Lord, please help me express my gratitude for all you’ve done for me by living my life in a manner more pleasing to you.  Open my eyes to the opportunities to say thanks by the way I live and the things I do. Amen.

A. Speaking of a time near the end of the Great Tribulation, Zechariah wrote,

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.” (Zech. 12:10)

I believe this prophecy tells of the time when God will remove the blinders from Israel’s eyes and soften their hardened hearts.  This will give them a supernatural understanding that Jesus is their Messiah, and always has been.

Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds. May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all his saints. Praise the LORD.

Hallelujah is an un-translated word that comes to us straight from the Hebrew. It means, “Praise the Lord.” The English meaning is used often enough, and has been the central theme of these last Psalms. But the word Hallelujah appears only four times in the New Testament, all of them in Revelation 19 when Babylon lies in smoking ruins and the armies of Heaven are poised to invade and re-capture Planet Earth.

The Lord Himself will lead them, with a sharp sword to strike down the nations. (Rev. 19:15) The fact that John portrays this sword as issuing forth from out of His mouth tells us that it symbolizes His Word. This symbolism originated in Hebrews 4:12, which describes His Word as sharper than a double-edged sword exposing the thoughts and attitudes of man’s heart. In the final battle men will die because of the thoughts and attitudes of their hearts. His Word will slay them.

He won’t bother with making them surrender and then trying to rehabilitate them. He knows that with enough power you can get people to do almost anything. But not even God can make men believe something they refuse to believe.

That’s always been the problem with any system of salvation that depends on behavior. In his book “Man’s Search For Meaning” Viennese psychiatrist Victor Frankl demonstrated what I mean. During his time in the Nazi concentration camps, he observed how he and his fellow inmates could be systematically deprived of every freedom and dignity except one. While their captors could demand and receive absolute obedience in every action, they could not control the thoughts and attitudes of their prisoners’ hearts.

It’s the same with religion. “These people,” the Lord said of His Chosen, “Come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Isaiah 29:13) With one of the most detailed religious systems ever devised, and with power He regularly demonstrated, He could demand and receive outward obedience to His Law, but He couldn’t prevent them from sinning in their minds. Even when their actions were faultless, their hearts were evil. (Jeremiah 17:9)

Of course He knew all of this from the beginning. But He also knew we needed to learn the futility of thinking we can earn our salvation. (That’s the great lesson of the Old Testament.) Then He gave us the greatest gift of love ever. Knowing we can’t help sinning, He prepaid all the penalties we’re racking up by agreeing to die in our place. And that swayed our hearts. It’s His kindness that leads us to repentance after all. (Romans 2:4) Now we try to behave to please Him.  We know that we can never succeed, but that He likes it when we try and blesses us for doing so. And when we fail, His grace is sufficient, and there’s peace between us.  Praise the LORD.

My Dad passed away in May.  He had heard the truth and I do know that because of many, many prayers on his behalf, he could have called on the Lord with is dying breath……..”thief on the cross”.

Sorry for taking so much of your time before getting to my questions. First: if we are to live by faith and not by our feelings, then what is joy? Second: in ICor. 6:9 it list those who will not inherit the kingdom. What if those people are born again Christians?

A. In Galatians 5:22 Paul listed joy as the fruit of the Spirit, along with love , peace, etc.  It means to be in a state of gladness.  He said there’s no law against feelings like this.  When good things happen we express joy that the Lord has blessed us.  When bad things happen we express joy that one day soon there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain in our lives. (Rev. 21:4)

If your son accepted the Lord’s death as payment for his sins, then he’s with the Lord now no matter what his life was like at the time of his death.   It’s what we believe that saves us, not how we behave.  That’s what grace is all about.  Same with your dad.

1 Cor. 6:9 says the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom.  Paul said our righteousness is imputed to us by faith. (Rom. 3:22)  Because of our faith in the death of His Son, God considers us as righteous as He is (2 Cor. 5:21)  Therefore we cannot be listed among the unrighteous.