End Times Predicted

I read this and found it very interesting. For full and fair disclosure, this entire blog is being copied verbatim from the book, God’s Plan For Man, by Finis Dake. Keep in mind this book was copyrighted back in 1949.

Did you know that there must be at lease three more European wars before the Battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ? In Daniel 7:23-24 we have a prophecy that ten kingdoms must be formed inside the old Roman Empire territory in the last days. These ten kings referred to are the same one symbolized by the ten horns on the beast of Revelation 13 and 17:12-17 it is stated that they will give their kingdoms of the future Antichrist, and then will fight against Jesus Christ at His Second Coming. This proves that they all must be in existence when Christ comes. There are twenty-two states inside the territory now. Therefore, if these countries must be formed into ten kingdoms and be in existence when Christ comes, changes must be made sometime in the near future that will affect these states. It will take one world war to form these ten kingdoms before the Antichrist comes. This is the first was to which we refer. Then in Daniel 7:23-24 it states, “after them,” that is, after the ten kingdoms are formed, than the Antichrist will arise and subdue three of them. This is the second war. In Daniel 11:40-44; Revelation 17:12-17 it is revealed that the Antichrist will finally get power over the whole ten kingdoms. The third war will be fought between the ten kingdoms under Antichrist and the nations that are north and east of the ten kingdoms. In other words, Russia, Germany, and other countries north and east of the ten kingdoms inside the old Roman Empire territory will fight these ten kingdoms during the last 3½ years of this age. Antichrist will be the victor, and then he will lead the nations against Jerusalem and the Jews, but Christ will come and defend the Jews, destroy the Antichrist and set up his kingdom in the world forever (Zachariah 14:1-21; Ezekiel 38-99; Joel 3; Isaiah 63; Revelation 17:14; 19:11-21; 20:1-10).

I Struggle Too!

I am fully aware that literally thousands of religious teachers are constantly saying that no man can live free from sin, and that we sin every day. One can see that this teaching is entirely out of harmony with the bible by reading the above scriptures. If these men sin every day, than they are sinners every day and there is no time that they are not sinners. If they are sinners all the time, than there is no time when they are not under the death penalty of the broken law, and they will be sent to Hell as sinners to pay the death penalty. Christ means nothing to them and if they are sinners they cannot be saved.

It is time that you wake up and stop listening to such men and begin to read the bible and obey it. Naturally, a man that does not believe in salvation from sin can never be saved from it. If Christ came to save us from our sins and He cannot do it, than He failed in His mission. If the New Testament teaches freedom from sin, than it is either the truth of a lie. If it is a lie, than we might as well throw the whole bible away and have nothing to do religion. Christianity, in that case, is a mere sham and a false religion, teaching something that is not true. If salvation through Christ it true, however, than these modern teachers of religion are false and no man can safely believe them, or ever listen to them deny the truths of the bible.

Do not let men deceive you into thinking that there is no such thing as living a clean, holy, victorious life in Christ secure from sin, the flesh, the world, and the devil. If you are not saved from these things you are not saved from Hell, according to the scriptures above. There may not be such a life as far as these teachers are concerned and as far as they know. Either they do not know the bible and they do not have biblical experiences, or they are plain rebels against the truth refuse to get such blessings. In either case, you should not listen to them in concerning such an important thing as your eternal welfare. Why not listen to the scripture instead? It will not deceive you. It will always tell you the truth, as you can see from facts stated above.

The above 3 paragraphs came from the book God’s Plan for Man. I copied them verbatim. In these 3 paragraphs, Dake talks about the above scripture to support what he is saying. Here is the scripture for you to read for yourself. (John 8:31-36), (Romans 6:1-23), (Romans 8:1-4), (1 John 2:29, 3:7-10, 5:1-4, 18), (John 1:12), Galatians 5:24), (Acts 3:19), (1 Corinthians 6:9-11), (Revelation 1:5), (Acts 26:18), (Romans 1:16), (2 Thessalonians 2:13), (Ephesians 4:22-24), (Ephesians 1:7), (1 Peter 1:2-4), (Colossians 3:12), (2 Timothy 2:4, 19-22).

I read this 4 days ago, and I have been pondering this every since. I am having a really hard time with it. I don’t know how I feel about it. It basically means that I am not saved, and apparently nobody is for that matter. Matthew 7:13-14 reads, Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Kind of a, many will enter, few will win thing). I have read this verse many time but if you take the bible literally as I do, than this literally means that few will find Heaven, and that is really scary.

Yesterday I posted a blog entitled, “God’s Plan For Man,” recommending the book. I still do recommend the book very much, and I am going to continue to read it, even though I may not agree with everything. This is only one mans opinion right? But, than again, maybe it’s not. This is only a few paragraphs that I am struggling with, but in the long run, I can only come out deader in sin, and cleaner in Christ. But is it really possible to live a 100% sinless life once you are born into Christ.

This is my current struggle, and I will no doubt struggle with this one for a while, but I wanted to make sure that I shared my thoughts.

God's Plan For Man

A friend from church recommended the book God’s Plan For Man, by Finis Dake. This book is probably just as long as the bible itself. Finis Dake virtually memorized the bible after spending over 100,000 hours studying it. The original copy write is 1949. That is older than most of the people that I know which is really besides the point. The information in this book is equivalent to 3 years in seminary. There are 1008 pages in this book, and I am on page 65. All that I can say is wow, already this incredible book has changed the way that I read the bible. Friend, this book is an absolute mush read. You can find it at ChrisianBooks.com for $24.99, where regular retail value is $34.99, that is a 29% savings. Click this link to find out more.

This is not a book that you would borrow out to someone when you’re done, it is a book that once you read one time, you go back to it often as a reference. Only 65 pages into it, I already find myself going back to what I’ve already read. I strongly encourage you to add this book to your library. So far it has done a very nice job explaining the trinity, as well as who and what God is, and what he can and can’t do. Yes, I said what God can’t do! Not only is everything in this book is baked up with scripture, but lots of scripture. The bible really is out handbook for life.

In the Morning

I have been an early riser every since I can remember, and I have always been a morning person. Growing up I was always up by 5:30 or 6, regardless of what time I went to bed. My parents tell me the story of how on Friday nights before they went to bed, they would put a bowl of cereal on the kitchen table, with a glass of milk in the fridge, so when I woke up on Saturday morning, I could take the milk out of the fridge and pour it into my cereal, and then go into the living room to watch Saturday morning cartoons, allowing they to sleep in. I remember another story of a Saturday morning when my parents got out of bed and I was sitting in the living room watching cartoons with my grandparents eating donuts. Apparently, I got up early, picked up the phone, and called them over, and told them to bring donuts, and of course they did.

I remember always getting up with an alarm with no problem. Never in my life, have I used the snooze button, I didn’t even know what it was until I was well into high school. The alarm would go off, and I would jump out of bed, with a smile on my face, ready to greet the sunrise, and ready to start my day. I would usually get up early so I could watch cartoons before school.

After high school graduation, I started full time at Menards. I usually worked the opening shift which required my to be to work at 5:45am. No problem for me. Eventually I got a new job at the breakfast cook at the Marriott. I had to be to work at 4:30am, no biggie. Than I moved on to Caribou Coffee requiring a 5am start time, cool, I got to sleep in until 4:30. Than I moved to Bruegger’s Bagels where 3 days a week I started at 5am, 1 day a week I started at 4am, and 1 day a week I started at 3:30am, I will admit that the 3:30 and 4am start time was to early, even for me, but nonetheless, I got out of bed with my alarm with no problems. And that was my life up until about 2 years ago, when we found out that we were having out second kid, Japheth, who would turn out to be more like his old man than I would think.

It would be fair to say that I am a morning person, even though I am really pretty good at functioning at anytime day or night. Now with two kids, daycare is expensive, so I got a job at an undisclosed location working swing shift, 4-12:30. This would allow Jane and myself to work opposite shifts, so we didn’t have to pay for daycare. The last couple of years have been awesome, I don’t regret it one bit, and I just absolutely love staying home with my kids every day, what a blessing. But this working swing shift thing is not easy for a morning person like me.

I started this blog about 9 months ago, when I rededicated my life to Christ, and decided that MitchellBoxeth.com would not be about me, it would be about glorifying God. I have committed myself to getting up at 6am, 7 days a week and read out of my bible until the kids got up, what ever time that would be. I dedicated my breaks at work to reading a Christian book of some sort, and my drive home from work is dedicated to listening to the bible on audio. Considering I don’t leave work until 12:30 in the morning, and it’s a 30 minute drive home, I don’t get to bed until 1:15. Even after almost 2 years, it isn’t getting any easier. This gives me 4 hours and 45 minutes of sleep 5 nights a week.

So why am I sharing all of this? No I am not complaining because of my lack of sleep, in the long run, and the big scheme of things, that is all worth it. I am sharing all of this with you because the last month or so, Japheth has been getting up in the morning at 6am or earlier. Japheth is now 17 months old, if he wakes up, I can’t tell him to go back to bed for a while, or tell him to play quietly in his room until 7:00 like I can tell to Faith. When he wakes up, he chats with himself loudly for a while, and eventually the chatting turns into crying. My point is that when he is up, he is loud enough where I can’t do my bible reading in the morning. I am ADHD, so if it’s not quiet when I do my daily time with God, I can’t stay focused. In the last month, I have had maybe 3-5 morning where I have been able to read, and even then, only for about 15 minutes.

The lack of reading in the mornings is having a negative effect on me. It is just amazing how 45 minutes to an hour each morning with God can affect my attitude during the rest of the day. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t go around moping and cranky all day, but I can certainly see that my attitude, and my temperament are shortened.

I know this distraction is the Devil, trying to keep me away from God. But on the other hand, God is allowing it to happen, and this is all simply a test. I am not upset with Japheth by any means, it is obvious that like his dear old dad, he is going to be a morning person, just like I was, which I am actually happy about. Really, this is a turning point in my daily walk with God. I am going to have to work around it. I don’t find myself closer to God in the last month, but I don’t necessarily find myself drifting away either. So, what’s’ a guy to do, I am not going to do get up earlier that 6, and I don’t really have time during the day to read my bible, which is the reason that I got up and did it so early in the morning to begin with. I still have my breaks at work, and I listen to the audio bible on the way home from work, but that is only 5 days a week.

So now, you are all caught up on what’s been going on with God and me. There is more to tell, nothing bad, but that will be for another blog. Remember that God it good, all the time, and with God, all things are possible.

Sharing Jesus Without Fear

In the 4 gospels it is recorded that Jesus was in contact with people 132 times, 6 times were in the temple, 4 times were in the synagogue, and 122 times with the people out in the mainstream of life. The last thing that Jesus said before His ascension into Heaven is recorded in John 20:21. It reads, as my Father has sent me, I also send you.

Wow, what a mind boggling statement. It is saying that Jesus didn’t spend time with the religious people in the churches or in the synagogue, He spent His time with the people that He met in everyday life, and the last thing that He said before He ascended into Heaven was that we need to do the same thing. We need to be talking to people at our work and our schools, and the people that we meet at the mall, and at Walmart, we need to talk to our family and friends about Jesus. If you don’t lead your family and friends to Jesus, than who will?

Imagine for a moment that you just died and made it into Heaven. You look down into the darkness of Hell and you see your Mom, or Grandpa, or your best friend who died before you. They are yelling up at you, “Why didn’t you warn me, why didn’t you tell me that I needed to receive Jesus to make it into Heaven?” If we have not made a decision for Christ by the time we are dead, it’s to late, and that is a sad truth. "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters. Matthew 12:30.

I read a book called Sharing Jesus Without Fear, written by William Fay. William explains that the Bible tells us to share the Gospel with people. The average person has to hear the message of the gospel 7.6 times before they accept it. If we share the gospel with someone and they reject it, they are not rejecting us; they are rejecting the gospel. That being said, even though they rejected it, we were still successful because we were loyal to Christ by sharing His message. Wow, what a statement. We honor Christ by sharing the gospel, and we are always successful whether other accept Jesus or not.

I am not going to go into detail about what this book is about. The gist is that it gives you a fool proof way to share the gospel with others, in a non threatening and tactful way. All you need is a bible, preferably a pocket size new testament. The idea is that when you take out your bible to share it with someone in the middle of Starbucks, you don’t want to embarrass them by taking out the big huge honking study bible that ways 30 pounds, that can be seen from miles away. You want something small and non threatening keeping in mind that you are likely sharing the gospel with someone who doesn’t want the whole world to know about it, and that’s ok.

When I finished the book, I got my pocket new testament and I carry it with me everywhere I go, is always in my back pocket. I have not yet had an opportunity to share this with anyone since whenever I am out, my kids are with me. I love my kids to death, but kids are distracting. When you are trying to lead someone to Christ for the first time, you don’t want any distractions to keep them from making what will be the most important decision of there life. Even though I have not yet had an opportunity, I am always ready, and I will certainly share in a blog the first opportunity that I get. When ever I am at the checkout I always tell the person behind the cash register to have a blessed day. I also make sure that if I have to discipline my kids when I am out that I do it in a very calm, non threatening yet firm way. I am always trying to be mindful that someone is always watching, and they will know that we are Christians by our love, and by the way wait we live out our lives.

So in closing, I want to encourage you to get a copy of Sharing Jesus Without Fear. If you know me personally, feel free to contact me and you can borrow my copy. Also, I want to ask you one more time, if you don’t lead you family and friends to Christ, than who will? Don’t count on someone else to do it for you, or someday you might just be in Heaven looking down at them in Hell

The Screwtape Letters

Yes, I know, it has been a while since I have written a blog. I have not really had any wow moments lately worth blogging about. I just finished reading a book called, “Share Jesus Without Fear.” I will blog about this book and the impact that it had on my life at another time, as I have a few other projects that I am working on.

I did just listened to an audio book called “The Screwtape Letters.” The Screwtape Letters, written by C. S. Lewis, is a series of 31 letters written by uncle Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood. Screwtape is an experienced demon who has had plenty of education as well as experience coaxing Christians to his father (Satan) and against the enemy, in this case God, and the angles of Heaven. Wormwood is a young and inexperienced demon, just out of college, and he is being mentored by his beloved uncle to help turn his human patient, a man from England against God. This is an extremely unique twist, with a Christian book being written in the words if the demons who were there. It is an easy short and very fund read. I would like to recommend this book to anyone who wants a better understanding of how demons really do have a huge impact on our daily lives. Yes this is a fictitious book, but there is a lot of truth to it. For more information on this book visit http://www.screwtape.com.

I do have a few ideas for upcoming blogs, I am just looking for the time to write them as I have really been focusing on spending more time with my kids and less time on the computer. You can look forward to a brand new intro to MitchellBoxeth.com coming soon.

What are the idles in your life?

Note: before reading this blog, please read Ezekiel Chapter 8! Yes, the whole chapter!

That wasn’t so bad now, was it? Ok, so Jeremiah was Gods right hand prophet, before Israel went into Exile. Jeremiah predicted the exile just as it happened. When Israel was in Exile however, God rose up a new prophet, Ezekiel. As you read in your homework assignment in Ezekiel chapter 8, in a vision, God brings Ezekiel to the Lords Temple in Jerusalem to show him what the elders and high priests were doing behind closed doors. Ezekiel saw four visions. In his first vision, God represents to Ezekiel an image of an idle in the entrance of the inner court of the temple. It’s called, “the image of jealousy” because it provokes the Lord in jealousy. In his second vision, he saw the elders worshiping images of Egyptian gods, and burning incense to them in a secret room. Among these men were Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan. This is likely the same Shaphan who reads God’s work to Josiah (2 Kings 22:8-11). This gives you a concept of the depth of sin which the leaders had fallen. In Ezekiel’s third vision we see women weeping for the God Tammuz. Tammuz was beloved of Ishtar, the god of spring vegetation. Vegetation burned in the Summer, died in the Winter, and came to life in the Spring. The women mourned over the gods demise in July and longed for his revival. The fourth month of the Hebrew calendar still bears the name Tammuz. In Ezekiel’s fourth vision, he saw 25 men worshipping the sun. This happened in the most sacred inner court where only priests could go (Joel 2:17). Twenty-Five men were worshipping the sun as an idle. These 25 represent 24 orders of priests plus the high priest.

Pretty hardcore stuff. My initial reaction was wow, I sure am glad than my sins aren’t as bad as these guys. Seriously, who worships these things in the world today, well at lease here in America? Than it hit me, we are all guilty of these things, myself included. Anything that we put before God is an idle, period. In Ezekiel’s first vision, the god of Jealousy, it says that God is a jealous God, and you shall have no Gods before Him, that’s the first commandment (Exodus 20). What is that TV show that you just can’t wait to watch? When it’s on, you are glued to the TV, and during the week, you can’t stop thinking about it and long for it all week long. Or what about that new video game? You just can’t stop thinking about it. When you’re at work or at school, all you can do is think about that video game. There is a reason that I gave up TV and video games, they were gods to me. Maybe your god is sex, or drugs, or weight loss obsession, money, your job, or dare I say it, even your own family can become idles in your life (Matthew 10:37).

In Ezekiel’s second vision he sees people worshiping images. How often do we put up picture of our favorite movie star or rock star? We buy all of their paraphernalia, see all their movies, and go to all their shows. We stare at their pictures, follow them on Twitter and Facebook, and obsess over their lives.

In Ezekiel’s third vision, he sees women worshiping the different seasons, the god of vegetation. How often do we sit here in Minnesota and spend our time and energy during the long winter months complaining about the cold and wishing for Spring? We hibernate and go into hiding; some people even get depressed. This goes hand in hand with Ezekiel’s fourth vision, where he sees 25 men worshiping the sun. In the Winter we long for the sun, and the hot weather so much, that we have to go to the tanning salon to fake bake, we throw beach parties, and plan extended vacations to tropical locations.

Now maybe you are reading this blog and think that I am getting carried away and going over bored. Well lets read Ezekiel 8:18. Therefore I also will act in fury. My eyes will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.

I just finished reading a book called “Share Jesus without fear,” by William Fay. Great book; but more on that in a not so future blog. In the last chapter of the book, Bill, does a great job explaining our judgment before God.

“On our judgment day, it is not the liar, the murderer, the homosexual, or the fornicator who will stand before God in judgment first; it will be the household of faith. The person who rejected Christ will have to wait while we believers take our place in front. As they look on, we will have to look God in the eye and explain our every deed, done or undone, every word, spoken or unspoken (Matthew 12:36). I do not believe that God is going to force obedience on us, because that is not his way. Love never forces anything. But when we disobey by choosing to ignore God, He will allow us to experience spiritual dryness.”

Please understand that I am not saying that TV, and video games are bad. I’m not saying that you can’t enjoy a certain actor/actress movies, or plan a vacation in the middle of winter to get out of the cold, I am simply saying, what it your motive? Are you enjoying these things, or are you obsessing over them?

I am just as guilty of these things as anyone, so I will end with a prayer. Dear Heaven Father, You are the one true God in Heaven and on Earth. I have put so many things before you. I pray to you today that you will open my heart and my eyes to all of the idles in my life, so that I can put you first in everything I do. I pray this in Jesus holy name, amen.