One of my favorite passages in the Bible is in John Chapter 17.  Jesus is praying right before His arrest, He prays for Himself, then He prays for all believers.  One line in that prayer say’s it all.  “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

  Now that tells us something!  Jesus’s last wish, hope and prayer before He died was that all believers would be brought to complete unity, for what?  So that the world would know that God sent Him and God loves us just as He did Jesus.  Well, I think we got the love part down.  But what about the part “so that the world would know that God sent Him?”   We used to be as one.  The missionaries that were sent out bravely to the world to gather the lost sheep, worked wonders.  But I don’t see it anymore.  There are deep divisions in the church’s.  Erroneous doctrine abounds.  It seems like most of the church’s of today are all about me, me, me.  Let’s play music, sing and dance and show God how much we love Him.  And we’ll be blessed with rich’s beyond measure.  Well that’s not exactly right.  But that’s another story.

   Jesus taught us many things in the Bible, while He was on earth.  I heard many of them in Sunday School growing up, but really didn’t understand them.  With all the hatred that is in the world today, and all the blaming and name calling going on, it’s time to take a breath and review, what Jesus taught.  I am guilty at times of having the attitude that non-believers are evil and they deserve to die in their sin.  But that is very wrong!  All eyes are on the middle east right now, and they should be, as the clock is getting shorter and shorter.  Prophecies are unfolding at a rapid rate, and our redemption draws closer with each passing moment.  I will be the first to scream about false religions, and false teachings, but God loves them too, and if you’ve been keeping up, you’ll know that He is appearing to many non-believers in the middle east and Africa.  God doesn’t wish any to perish, but all to have everlasting life.  And to quote a song, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.”  Let’s look at what Jesus said in His parable of the Lost Sheep.  It’s in Luke chapter 15.  The pharisees had just given Jesus a hard time, and said “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

   Jesus told this parable:  Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.  Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?  And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.  Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep.  I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.  So this kind of answers the question, what should Christians do.  We think we don’t have to witness any more.  We should just worry about praise and worship services.  Ok but God will not hold you blameless for not trying to reach out to the lost. 

  Jesus is coming soon, is He going to find you asleep, or will you be out doing your work?  At the very least, we should all be praying fervently for those persecuted, and those that are lost and following Satan, and his false teaching.  We need to pray as never before, for there is much tribulation in the world, much corruption, and many still lost.  Someone gave me this prayer, it was a catholic friend of mine.  You say, oh goodness I couldn’t possibly say a prayer like that.  But friend, it’s right on, and I say it as often as I remember it.  I say it for sure every morning, right after my morning prayers.  It goes like this: “ Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, LEAD ALL SOULS TO HEAVEN, especially those in need of thy mercy.”  I apologize to my catholic friends if I have it wrong, but this is what I pray.  What an amazing prayer.  Not only does it ask for forgiveness of sins, it asks Jesus to lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of His mercy.  This is the way I pray for everyone, I also ask for protection of the Christians in the middle east and africa, and asia.  We can’t forget to pray for these things.  God is showing Himself to muslims, and others as never before.  All should be praying for this.  I do, will you answer the call?  Jesus is calling, calling today.  God Bless and guide you. 

Categories: Prophecy