All Our Idols Go To Heaven

The beatification had begun. A maudlin media mush-fest was in full swing. Worshipful crowds were gathering all over the country to wallow in grief stricken adulation for their fallen idol. Michael Jackson’s body had barely enough time to assume room temperature when the internet rumors began to appear on the Christian blogs and websites.:

Wonderful News! Michael Jackson prayed to receive Christ only three weeks before his death!

Someone who knew someone who knew someone reported that gospel recording artists Sandra and Andrae Crouch had prayed with Michael to receive Jesus shortly before he died.

"Last night we received some good news from Terri McFaddin-Solomon who is good friends with Sandra Crouch. Three weeks ago Sandra and Andre' spent some time with their close friend, Michael Jackson. Michael asked Andre` to play, "It Won't Be Long And We'll Be Leaving Here." Michael then prayed with Sandra and Andre and accepted Christ into his heart. Now he's singing in the heavenly choir.! Our hearts rejoice!"

Later, the real story emerged from Crouch’s Facebook page

UPDATE - 06/28/09
"There was NO actual “sinners prayer” however, but they did talk and pray about Jesus and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. They also told him, “Michael, we consider you as our son”, and he said, “Yes, yes, yes”, and he gave him his latest music on a CD, and he told him, “Andrae’ I trust you with this”, and gave him CD’s of 2 songs, unpublished, …beautiful music. ……..

He definitely had an “encounter” with them, Andrae’ says, “he did NOT reject Jesus or the prayer when they prayed, and gladly joined in prayer.” He usually doesn’t touch anybody, but he touched them, and held their hands in a circle as they sang and prayed... so Andrae' and Sandra explained to him about the "anointing" and about Jesus. He wanted to know what makes your hands go up, and makes you “come out of yourself”, and what gives a "spirituality" to the music?...

According to Andrae’, who was relaying to Verdine to tell me over the phone just now, Andrae' and Sandra did in fact visit with MJ 2 times, once at the recording studio, and once at his home in the last 2 months, as recently as 3 weeks ago, asking for prayer concerning the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and how he could make his music more "spiritual."...


If you can read the above account without your spirit colored glasses it is clear that the reality is a far cry from the myth. There is no evidence Michael Jackson received Christ. There isn’t even any evidence that he heard the gospel. His good friends Sandra and Andrae Crouch apparently never told him that he was a sinner in need of a savior. There was no call to repentance, no call to discipleship, only some sappy sweet platitudes about spirituality, the “anointing”, and a non judgmental Jesus that’s easy for a worldly man like MJ to embrace. Mr. Jackson had no problem talking and praying about a Jesus who could help him sell more records.

How tragic for all involved that this sort of thing passes for evangelism today.

When I first heard the story of Jackson coming to the Lord I was immediately reminded of several previous stories, tall tales, and urban myths about other well known celebrities who God supposedly rescued at the last minute


Kim Clement claims Anna Nicole Smith cried out to God and is in heaven today

Rock Hudson prayed to receive the Lord on his deathbed

John Wayne received Christ three weeks before he died because of a note from Robert Schullers daughter.

President John F. Kennedy prayed with Billy Graham to receive Christ only days before his assassination


I suppose at this point I should add the obligatory disclaimer. God is sovereign and can save anyone he chooses. The thief on the cross is a biblical example of a last minute conversion so it is certainly possible and consistent with Gods mercy and love. To be fair though, I should also remind you that there were two thieves crucified with Jesus. One of them repented and was received into paradise, the other did not.

Singers, actors, politicians, celebrities, all our idols go to heaven. It doesn’t matter how they lived their lives. They can lie and steal. They can commit adultery and fornication. They can live debauched lives of drunkenness, drug addiction and revelry. They can reject the God of the bible and promote damnable lies as the truth all the while engaging in good deeds designed to make you think they are really deep down ‘good’ persons. In the end none of that matters.

They are our substitute saviors.

We buy their albums, go to their movies, and vote for them. We love them and give our hearts to them. While they live, we look to them for comfort, happiness, security, and love. We invest our emotional well being in these fallible sinful men. And when they die as all men do, we cannot bear to think of them tormented in the pit of hell for all eternity. In their death we come face to face with our own mortality and that requires us to maintain the illusion of God likeness with which we cloaked their lives. They brought salvation to us in this life, surely they will be with us in the next.

With our deceased idols safely in heaven we can relax. Their place in eternity serves as a surety to us that like them, we can enjoy all the world has to offer and still attain paradise. There’s really no need to serve God in this life. If God offered them a last minute reprieve surely we’ll get the same chance. We’ve finally found a way to have our cake and eat it too.

Now would you like the truth? Can you handle the truth?

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
James 4:4

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1John 2:15

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
1Cor 6:9-10

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
Rev 21:8

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:18-32

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Steve Lumbley 2009 www.apostasywatch.com
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Back, Then Forward

Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. (Ezekiel 16:60)

Notwithstanding our sins, the Lord is still faithful in His love to us. He looks back. See how He remembers those early days of ours when He took us into covenant with Himself, and we gave ourselves over to Him. Happy days those! The Lord does not mock us with them and charge us with being insincere. No, He looks rather to His covenant with us than to our covenant with Him. There was no hypocrisy in that sacred compact, on His part, at any rate. How gracious is the Lord thus to look back in love!

He looks forward also. He is resolved that the covenant shall not fail. If we do not stand to it, He does. He solemnly declares, "I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant." He has no mind to draw back from His promises. Blessed be His name, He sees the sacred seal, "the blood of the everlasting covenant," and He remembers our Surety, in whom He ratified that covenant, even His own dear Son; and therefore He rests in His covenant engagements. "He abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself."

O Lord, lay this precious word upon my heart and help me to feed upon it all this day!

Invitation to Pray

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. (Jeremiah 33:3)

God encourages us to pray. They tell us that prayer is a pious exercise which has no influence except upon the mind engaged in it. We know better. Our experience gives the lie a thousand times over to this infidel assertion. Here Jehovah, the living God, distinctly promises to answer the prayer of His servant. Let us call upon Him again and admit no doubt upon the question of His hearing us and answering us. He that made the ear, shall He not hear? He that gave parents a love to their children, will He not listen to the cries of His own sons and daughters!

God will answer His pleading people in their anguish. He has wonders in store for them. What they have never seen, heard of, or dreamed of, He will do for them. He will invent new blessings if needful. He will ransack sea and land to feed them: He will send every angel out of heaven to run to rescue them if their distress requires it. He will astound us with His grace and make us feel that it was never before done in this fashion. All He asks of us is that we will call upon Him. He cannot ask less of us. Let us cheerfully render Him our prayers at once.

Untimely Death

The people of the world morn what they call the “untimely death” of Michael Jackson. What they don’t realize is that death is always on time. It is the Lord who gives us life and it is He alone who decides when we will die. Hebrews 9:27 says: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”

The real tragedy here is not that Michael Jackson died. He was destined to die. The question is, where is he now. Wherever he is, he will be there for all eternity. Try and count each individual sand pebble at the seashore. Eternity will go on longer than the sands at the beach.

Over 2,000 years ago Jesus was born and lived among us. He came to teach us about Eternal Life and the Kingdom of God. He gave His life and was crucified and bore the punishment for our sins so that we may inherit that life. He taught us what repentance is and how to gain eternal life by dying to self and losing our lives in this world. He has many other wonderful things to say about this new life in His word.

Just as Jesus predicted, there are many, many false prophets in the world today. You can hear their voices coming from the pulpits of many churches in America today. They are on TV and the internet. They live in our neighborhoods. They preach a false gospel. They preach a man-made gospel of greed and self. They will tell you how to live your best life now. They will tickle your ears with words that are pleasing.

Listen to what Jesus said: “And he said to [them] all, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9:23)

And when he had called the people [unto him] with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Mark 8:34)

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16:24)

The “CROSS” is an instrument of death. If you want the life that Jesus talks about this is what you must do. The cross is a daily laying down of your life. You must lay down your life every day and do the will of the Father, just as Jesus did. This sounds impossible! Well, it is. You cannot do this yourself, by your own flesh, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. It is by grace. God will give you the grace that you need to do what he calls you to do.

But Jesus beheld [them], and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26) Jesus said this to his disciples right after a rich young ruler asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life.

So there you have it right from the lips of the Savior.

This life is available to anyone who seeks it. It’s free but it will cost you something. It will cost you your life in this world. It’s a life that is short as we measure time. As the people of the world measure time Michael Jackson’s time on this earth was short. So teach [us] to number our days, that we may apply [our] hearts unto wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

Creeky

A Staircase to Heaven

And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. (John 1:51)

Yes, to our faith this sight is plain even at this day. We do see heaven opened. Jesus Himself has opened that kingdom to all believers. We gaze into the place of mystery and glory, for He has revealed it to us. We shall enter it soon, for He is the way.

Now we see the explanation of Jacob's ladder. Between earth and heaven there is a holy commerce; prayer ascends, and answers come down by the way of Jesus, the Mediator. We see this ladder when we see our Lord. In Him a stairway of light now furnishes a clear passage to the throne of the Most High. Let us use it and send up by it the messengers of our prayers. We shall live the angelic life ourselves if we run up to heaven in intercession, lay hold upon the blessings of the covenant, and then descend again to scatter those gifts among the sons of men.

This choice sight which Jacob only saw in a dream will turn into a bright reality. This very day we will be up and down the ladder each hour: climbing in communion and coming down in labor to save our fellowmen. This is Thy promise, O Lord Jesus; let us joyfully see it fulfilled.

Jesus made it possible to enter the Kingdom of God right here and now. We don't have to wait until we die to get there. Are you walking in the Kingdom? Are you truly born again? Have you come to the realization that your sins have been forgiven?

Special Prayer Request for Defender of Faith Ingrid Schleuter

Please pray for Ingrid Schleuter, director of the Slice of Laodicea blog and radio host for the Crosstalk program at VCY America. Ingrid has been on the front lines for many years in defending the faith and speaking up against spiritual deception. She is nearing the end of a high-risk pregnancy, and we ask you to pray for her and her soon-to-be-born baby daughter.

God Himself Shall Work

Now will I rise, saith the Lord; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself. (Isaiah 33:10)

When the spoilers had made the land as waste as if devoured by locusts, and the warriors who had defended the country sat down and wept like women, then the Lord came to the rescue. When travelers ceased from the roads to Zion, and Bashan and Carmel were as vineyards from which the fruit has failed, then the Lord arose. God is exalted in the midst of an afflicted people, for they seek His face and trust Him. He is still more exalted when in answer to their cries He lifts up Himself to deliver them and overthrow their enemies.

Is it a day of sorrow with us? Let us expect to see the Lord glorified in our deliverance. Are we drawn out in fervent prayer? Do we cry day and night unto Him? Then the set time for His grace is near. God will lift up Himself at the right season. He will arise when it will be most for the display of His glory. We wish for His glory more than we long for our own deliverance. Let the Lord be exalted, and our chief desire is obtained.

Lord, help us in such a way that we may see that Thou Thyself art working. May we magnify Thee in our inmost souls. Make all around us to see how good and great a God Thou art.

(For an in-depth teaching on this subject, please go to: http://www.apostasywatch.com
and click on "What's New". The title of the audio is: He is Faithful Who Promised.)
There are more free audio teachings listed under "Free Audio".

Divine Cultivation

I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. (Isaiah 27:3)

When the Lord Himself speaks in His own proper person rather than through a prophet, the word has a peculiar weight to believing minds. It is Jehovah Himself who is the keeper of His own vineyard; He does not trust it to any other, but He makes it His own personal care. Are they not well kept whom God Himself keeps?

We are to receive gracious watering, not only every day and every hour "but every moment." How we ought to grow! How fresh and fruitful every plant should be! What rich clusters the vines should bear!

But disturbers come; little foxes and the boar. Therefore, the Lord Himself is our Guardian, and that at all hours, both "night and day." What, then, can harm us? Why are we afraid! He tends, He waters, He guards; what more do we need?

Twice in this verse the Lord says, "I will." What truth, what power, what love, what immutability we find in the great "I will" of Jehovah! Who can resist His will? If He says "I will," what room is there for doubt? With an "I will" of God we can face all the hosts of sin, death, and hell. O Lord, since Thou sayest, "I will keep thee," I reply, "I will praise Thee!"

My Song Is Love Unknown

The Cup of Christ

A Shepherd Secures Them

They shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. (Zephaniah 3:13)

Yesterday we thought of the afflicted and poor people whom the Lord left to be a living seed in a dead world. The prophet says of such that they shall not work iniquity nor speak lies. So that while they had neither rank nor riches to guard them, they were also quite unable to use those weapons in which the wicked place so much reliance: they could neither defend themselves by sin nor by subtlety.

What then? Would they be destroyed? By no means! They should both feed and rest and be not merely free from danger but even quiet from fear of evil. Sheep are very feeble creatures, and wolves are terrible enemies; yet at this hour sheep are more numerous than wolves, and the cause of the sheep is always winning, while the cause of the wolves is always declining. One day flocks of sheep will cover the plains, and not a wolf will be left. The fact is that sheep have a Shepherd, and this gives them provender, protection, and peace. "None"--which means not one, whether in human or diabolical form--"shall make them afraid." Who shall terrify the Lord's Rock when He is near? We lie down in green pastures, for Jesus Himself is food and rest to our souls.

A Trustworthy Name

I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. (Zephaniah 3:12)

When true religion is ready to die out among the wealthy it finds a home among the poor of this world, rich in faith. The Lord has even now His faithful remnant. Am I one of them?
Perhaps it is because men are afflicted and poor that they learn to trust in the name of the Lord. He that hath no money must try what he can do on trust. He whose own name is good for nothing in his own esteem, acts wisely to rest in another name, even that best of names, the name of Jehovah. God wilt always have a trusting people, and these will be an afflicted and poor people. Little as the world thinks of them, their being left in the midst of a nation is the channel of untold blessings to it. Here we have the conserving salt which keeps in check the corruption which is in the world through lust.

Again the question comes home to each one of us. Am I one of them? Am I afflicted by the sin within me and around me? Am I poor in spirit, poor spiritually in my own judgment? Do I trust in the Lord? This is the main business. Jesus reveals the name, the character, the person of God; am I trusting in Him? If so, I am left in this world for a purpose. Lord, help me to fulfill it.

The Safest Place

And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:28)

We believe in the eternal security of the saints. First, because they are Christ's, and He will never lose the sheep which He has bought with His blood and received of His Father.
Next, because He gives them eternal life, and if it be eternal, well then, it is eternal, and there can be no end to hell, and heaven, and God. If spiritual life can die out, it is manifestly not eternal life, and that effectually shuts out the possibility of an end.

Observe, further, that the Lord expressly says, "They shall never perish." As long as words have a meaning, this secures believers from perishing. The most obstinate unbelief cannot force this meaning out of this sentence.

Then, to make the matter complete, He declares that His people are in His hand, and He defies all their enemies to pluck them out of it. Surely it is a thing impossible even for the fiend of hell. We must be safe in the grasp of an almighty Savior. Be it ours to dismiss carnal fear as well as carnal confidence and rest peacefully in the hollow of the Redeemer's hand.

NASA Photo

Exceedingly Precious

They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; (Malachi 3:17)

A day is coming in which the crown jewels of our great King shall be counted, that it may be seen whether they answer to the inventory which His Father gave Him. My soul, wilt thou be among the precious things of Jesus? Thou art precious to Him if He is precious to thee, and thou shalt be His "in that day," if He is thine in this day.

In the days of Malachi, the chosen of the Lord were accustomed so to converse with each other that their God Himself listened to their talk. He liked it so well that He took notes of it; yes, and made a book of it, which He lodged in His record office. Pleased with their conversation, He was also pleased with them. Pause, my soul, and ask thyself: If Jesus were to listen to thy talk would He be pleased with it? Is it to His glory and to the edification of the brotherhood? Say, my soul, and be sure thou sayest the truth.

But what will the honor be for us poor creatures to be reckoned by the Lord to be His crown jewels! This honor have all the saints. Jesus not only says, "They are mine," but, "They shall be mine." He bought us, sought us, brought us in, and has so far wrought us to His image that we shall be fought for by Him with all His might.

Prepared for the Coming Tribulation

Written By Corrie Ten Boom in 1974.

The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers.

Christians are ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world. And because of our presence here, things will change.
My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room.

We may have been the Lord’s only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” We too, are to be overcomers – bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.

Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages. I can now come to shouting “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” for I have found where it is written that Jesus said, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things: and I will be His God, and he shall be My son.” This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive – but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world.

Betsy and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick. “Yes, the Lord will heal me,”, Betsy said with confidence. She died the next day and I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that day.

It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy’s death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus.

"There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution. In China, the Christians were told, “Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured.” Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly, “We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes – to stand and not faint.”

I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are next.

Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus’ sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think, “Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation.” Then I write it down and learn it by heart.

When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying, “Nothing could be any worse than today.” But we would find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy. “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you; on their part evil is spoken of, but on your part He is glorified.” (I Peter 3:14) I found myself saying, “Hallelujah! Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!”

In America, the churches sing, “Let the congregation escape tribulation”, but in China and Africa the tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation.

Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were commanded to come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the

Christians in the district were being systematically murdered.
The fourth day I was to speak in a little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, “Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?”

The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story out of my childhood.

“When I was a little girl, ” I said, “I went to my father and said, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a marty for Jesus Christ.” “Tell me,” said Father, “When you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?” “No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.” “That is right,” my father said, “and so it is with God’s strength. Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need – just in time…”

My African friends were nodding and smiling. Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began singing, ” In the sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.” Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed. I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago.

But I must tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.
How can we get ready for the persecution? First we need to feed on the word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives.

Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive and sitting at the right hand of God.

We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it.
In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other. But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting. The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian’s life.

Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too, am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including the horrible nazi concentration camp, that I might have to go through the tribulation also. But then I read the Bible and I am glad.

When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we got power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him, for I know that to all who overcome, He shall give the crown of life. Hallelujah!