After You Have Suffered A Little While… 1 Peter 5

By LaVrai, 4 November, 2009, 1 Comment

1 Peter 5:6-111 Peter 5:6-11
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: ⁷ Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. ⁸ Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: ⁹ Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. ¹⁰ But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. ¹¹ To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

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6Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. … 10And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

This passage reminds me of the misconception some have about Christianity in general and Salvation in particular (and I myself am sometimes guilty of forgetting) — the idea that once we commit our lives to Jesus the Christ all our cares and troubles will just melt away. According to the Scriptures (and personal experience), when we commit to Christ that is when we can expect the trouble to start.

LaVrai Going Through A Period Of Transition

By LaVrai, 10 October, 2009, 4 Comments

For those of you who are regular readers, my apologies for not updating as often as I usually do. I have been a bit busy with other projects (personal and otherwise) so I haven’t been able to pay this blog as much attention as I’d like to.

Also, I believe it’s time to do a site overhaul and refocus the area of coverage. I’d like to focus more on Bible studies than on news and current events as I’ve been doing here quite a bit.

There won’t be any more updates here from me, and by next month or so the site will look completely different. I’ll still be updating my Twitter feed, so feel free to follow along there, and I’ll likely have a Facebook account set up for the new site.

GOD bless.

–LaVrai.

Bible Notes: The LORD Our GOD Truly Is A Merciful GOD

By LaVrai, 4 September, 2009, 4 Comments

Case in point: King Manasseh of Judah

I was reading Isaiah 35 (which prophecies about the healing ministry of our LORD and SAVIOR Jesus Christ, (as David Guzik explains here) and the next chapter involved King Hezekiah, the faithful king of Judah who turned the people back to the true worship of the LORD and away from idolatry. King Hezekiah fell deathly ill in the “prime of his life,” as the king himself put it (Isaiah 38) and the LORD granted him mercy and added 15 years to his life. According to the commentary in my study Bible, King Hezekiah was mostly mourning his death because he had no heir, no son to take his throne and carry on his name. Which makes sense since we don’t hear of the king having any other children in the accounts found in Isaiah 38, 2Isaiah 38, 2
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,

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Now the accounts in 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33 both open with the fact that King Manasseh “reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem,” which I thought was an indicator of how well he must have ruled, that he had kept his father’s standard of holiness unto the LORD. But alas, the next verses reveal a very disgusting king unworthy of the throne.

2 But he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he raised up altars for the Baals, and made wooden images; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 He also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem shall My name be forever.”

5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. 6 Also he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger. 7 He even set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; …

In addition to sacrificing his children in fire and worshiping creation instead of the CREATOR and honoring all kinds of demons and setting up idols in the LORD’s temple and practicing black magic — King Manasseh also “shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another… (2 Kings 21:162 Kings 21:16
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
16 Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. from...: Heb. from mouth to mouth

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Evangelist Claims Police Threatened Arrest For Preaching ‘Homophobia’ From The Bible

By LaVrai, 24 August, 2009, No Comment

mouth_gagged I hope Christians in America are keeping a close eye on Britain, where there is a Hate Crimes law that essentially prohibits people from publicly criticizing homosexuality. If I’m reading the information correctly, recent amendment to the legislation extends hate crime legislation to now cover “hatred against a group of persons defined by reference to sexual orientation (whether towards persons of the same sex, the opposite sex or both).” The amendment reportedly also aimed to protect free speech in regard to this change, but it appears the rule of law is basically — you can’t read passages from the Holy Bible that shows GOD’s condemnation of homosexuality out loud in public. If you do, then you are inciting hatred by expressing homophobic views.

According to the document found here (dated June 22, 2009ne 22, 2009
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja!

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Inciting hatred on grounds of sexual orientation

The new offence – The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008

Under Parts III and IIIA of the Public Order Act 1986 it is an offence to incite hatred against persons on the grounds of race, religion or sexual orientation. The offence of inciting hatred on the ground of religion was added to the 1986 Act by the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, and that on the ground of sexual orientation was added by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. The proposal to add the new offence in Committee was announced by Jack Straw during Second Reading of the then Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill (the CJI Bill).1

You can get a better explanation at The Christian Institute’s Web Site (text and video).

In relation to that new amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act of 2008, is another story about police supposedly “enforcing” this law — wrongly, according to the Christian Legal Centre. Here is a story about a man and his father preaching the word — just reading from the Holy Bible — and handing out tracts on the street… Also, at the end I share a YouTube clip of Mr. Hayworth doing some rather “fiery” preaching and being told off by a foul-mouthed youth.

End Time Alert: Gerald Celente Predicts Obamageddon In 2012

By LaVrai, 21 August, 2009, 1 Comment

Gerald Celente, a self-styled trends forecaster, discussed recently about what he sees happening to the United States’ economy based on the programs being implemented by the government. Mr. Celente doesn’t color his predictions with religious tones, just with numbers and what he sees as straight facts. People simply paying attention can also see what appears to be the deliberate dismantling of America (and perhaps the world’s) economy. Based on what I read in the Holy Bible, the world will be brought to its knees when the Anti-Christ’s religious and economic agent, the Anti-Christ implements a mark for everyone on the planet to do any kind of business. When will this be? Who knows, but as the LORD has spoken it, surely it will come to pass.

Vee at Living Journey has a related posted you can check out here.

Also, you can test some “forecasting” from the religious end here.

Revelation 13:11Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. 13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.

15And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. 16Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18 This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. (ESV)