Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever. Psalm 9:5.
Now Satan prepares for a last mighty struggle for the supremacy…. As the wicked dead are raised, and he sees the vast multitudes upon his side, his hopes revive, and he determines not to yield the great controversy…. He represents himself to his deluded subjects as a redeemer, assuring them that his power has brought them forth from their graves…. At last the order to advance is given, and the countless host moves on…. The armies of Satan surround the city, and make ready for the onset.
Fire comes down from God out of heaven. The earth is broken up. The weapons concealed in its depths are drawn forth. Devouring flames burst from every yawning chasm. The very rocks are on fire. The day has come that shall burn as an oven. The elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein are burned up. The earth’s surface seems one molten mass—a vast, seething lake of fire.
Satan and all who have joined him in rebellion will be cut off. Sin and sinners will perish, root and branch (Malachi 4:1)—Satan the root, and his followers the branches…. “They shall be as though they had not been.” Obadiah 16.
It will be seen that Satan’s rebellion against God has resulted in ruin to himself, and to all that chose to become his subjects. He has represented that great good would result from transgression; but it will be seen that “the wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23…. An end will be made of sin, with all the woe and ruin that have resulted from it. Says the psalmist, “Thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever. O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end.” Psalm 9:5, 6.
He [Satan] had hoped to break up the plan of salvation; but it was laid too deep…. He himself must finally die, and his kingdom be given to Jesus.
The Faith I Live By p. 357
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for us. It is urgent. Please also pray for God to give me wisdom and strength to know what to do about my situation because my life is not good. Only God knows what I have to go through. Connie
—-My great niece that is 14 years old and became very ill with Hodgins Lymphoma. She went thru the chemo works, was deemed in remission and 4 months later, BAM. it’s back. Please pray that she will be healed. M
—-Please pray for a little baby who has Sturge-Webbers syndrome and is having seizures. If they can’t get the seizures to stop they will have to do a hemispherectomy. She’s just a baby. Pray also for Amara who has infantile spasm seizures. Esther
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Friends,
Uncle Lloyd and Auntie Bessie were not able to have any children; but when my mother and aunt would come to visit them when they were children, he kept them laughing and happy. My mother fondly remembered him and the good times she had there. Uncle Lloyd was a bit eccentric, however. He could not bring himself to part with anything that had come into his possession. In his basement he had rows of file cabinets full of every letter, every circular, every note that he had ever received. Each was neatly filed and labeled. He would spend hours every evening in his basement going through all of his belongings and rereading many of his favorite correspondences, then filing them neatly away again.
How often we are like Uncle Lloyd. Our whole life is wrapped up in the things that we possess. All of our energies, all of our focus is upon living comfortably, acquiring wealth. Yet, “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” Luke 12:15 Our Dear Saviour “spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Luke 12:16-21; Mat 6:19-33
In the parable of the sower, our Loving Saviour explains the danger of having the wrong focus and becoming “choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring(ing) no fruit to perfection.” Luke 8:14 Unless we turn away from these things and keep our eyes upon our Great Redeemer, we will one day utter those awful words, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Jer 8:20
Let us never “trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, Who supplies all of our needs.” 1 Tim 6:17 “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Heb 12:1,2
Rose