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Weekly Reminder...
The Weekly Reminder is an informative tool to help people who read it consider what the man of God has said. This weekend’s articles are based on what was heard on April 25 & 26, 2009 in the Westbury assembly.written by Br. Samuel Damus
Jesus has appointed men to warn us of the present danger of this age. These men of God were placed in the body of Christ for this purpose. The Lord said, “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth” (Isaiah 62:6-7). Our pastor, Br. Antoine was placed in the Westbury assembly by God to warn us of the evil to come and to remind us to remain focus on our goal. That goal is to be ready for the imminent return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We are living in a time where men are living there lives to please themselves and have forsaken all that they know about God. Not only have they given themselves up to do abominable things before the Lord but they have also grown a following of people who take pleasure in their ungodly lust and find nothing wrong with it (Romans 1:21-32). Even judgment can be turned against you if you do not agree with their way of thinking. “Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey” (Isaiah 59:15). Jesus warned us that this will happen; He said, “Ye shall be hated of all nations for My name's sake. Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:9-12). We were told to beware and hold on to the promise of His coming because those that “endure unto the end, the same shall be saved”.
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3). While Jesus is working preparing a place for us, He has also given us the church to prepare us for His return. (1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11-13). We therefore must heed the instructions of those appointed over us for they watch over our souls and must give an account to the Lord when He comes (Hebrews 13:17). Jesus has given us the proper provision because He loves us so (Ephesians 5:25-27) we therefore have no excuses if we are not fully prepared when He returns (Matthew 25:1-12).
Have you notice a change in the conversations around you? The shows that you watch on T.V. and the programs that we hear on the radio that you take as your entertainment have all become perverse. Even the commercials for the products that we buy have changed for the worst. We therefore were warned that if we are not careful these abominable spirits that are manifested in the world that we live in will find its place in our homes and lives. If that happens it will cause us to lose sight of the “new heaven and a new earth” that we are striving to be a part of (Revelation 21:1).
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written by Br. Samuel Philogene
Jesus’ reproach to the Pharisees was that they were wise to discern the face of the sky but couldn’t discern the sign of the times (Matthew 16:1-3). God wants us to be aware of what is happening around us, nothing has to be a surprise for God’s people because “God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secrets unto His servants” (Amos 3:7). It was the same for God with Abraham when God was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do” (Genesis 18v17)? We have to know how to harmonize the events that are occurring in the world, good or bad, with the scriptures of the Holy Bible.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:6, “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet”. God wants us to be aware of everything so we will know where we are concerning the end of time prophecy and to make the necessary adjustments in our spiritual lives so we will get ready for the day of the lord (Romans 13:11).That is how Br. Antoine was teaching us last weekend, we have to look around so we can see how evil this world is; as the song says: “Looking Thru His Eyes”, and where we stand in God (Isaiah 49:17). The man of God was instructing us about laws that the leaders of this country are getting ready to pass; he said that they are against the church, against the Word of God, like the law allowing same sex marriage. We can say that we are at the end of this world. God will not take longer to destroy this world as He did in the days of Noah; God can’t stand abomination that is why He sent the flood (Genesis 6:5-7). It is now the time to get ready and not be like the five foolish virgins in Matthew 25 who were not ready before the time. Br. Antoine emphasized (a lot in the fact) that we have to get ready before the time where things will get worse. We are living in a time now where we can go to church, claiming to be Christian but there will be a time when iniquity shall abound (Matthew24:12); we will not have this freedom to serve God, it will be even worse cause the Bible says in Matthew 24:15 that we shall “see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place”.
Jesus gave a very strong statement in John 16:1-4, He said, “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service”. The Church today has a very big challenge, to keep herself clean, spotless like a young virgin waiting for Jesus, the bridegroom (Revelation 21:2). Jesus will not get married with a defiled woman but His bride has to be cleansed by the word of God before He returns (Revelation 14:4, Isaiah 62:5-6). Living for God among an unjust world is not impossible; we just have to be willing to please God instead of the world. Most of the time we fail to be faithful unto God and start acting like the world because we want to please the world, our friends, parents etc.., but we can’t do so if we want to be a sanctify people in this evil world. We have to be willing to please God regardless of what everybody else thinks. It was so for Noah when God gave him the mission to build the ark before the flood. Noah and his family wasn’t influenced by the sins of their time but had their focus on the ark. That is why we have a good testimony for Noah in Genesis 6:8; “he found grace in the eyes of God” even though that every imagination of the thoughts of men around him was evil continually.
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