During this season of COVID-19, fear has become rampant throughout the earth. People are isolated and scared, and Satan is feasting, creating havoc in hearts, minds, homes, families, and nations worldwide. As Christians, we must take back our rightful authority that Jesus died to give us.
We trample snakes by rebuking fear and standing firm on faith. When the temptation to fear is all around us, we must remember that fear literally gives the Serpent authority in our lives. The Bible says that the way to “stand firm against him” is to “be strong in your faith” 1 Peter 5:9 (NLT). Faith gives us back the keys of authority when the world around us is festering with fear.
Standing strong in faith during these scary times can be difficult, but there are 10 ways we can safeguard our choice of faith. We become motivated to claim faith rather than fear because it is our faith that pleases God: “And without faith, it is impossible to please God…” Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
Guard your heart. (Proverbs 4:23) Your heart is the tender soil for thoughts of good or evil to grow. When the enemy tries to plant seeds of fear, worry, anxiety, etc., we rebuke them instantly. Only allow God’s seeds of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control to take root. (Galatians 5:22-23)
Stand firm in faith. (1 Corinthians 16:13) Faith protects us from the enemy’s schemes and places us in the center of God’s perfect peace. Our faith demonstrates to God and the world that we trust His provision, plan and power. When the circumstances around us swirl with disorder and animosity, we have every right to claim God’s peace. (1 Corinthians 14:33)
Listen to the prophets. (2 Chronicles 20:20) God does nothing without revealing His plan to the prophets first. No prophet knows everything, but God gives them each a partial view of His Kingdom Plan. We seek prophets who have an excellent track record of speaking God’s heart in order to calm our fears.
Capture your thoughts. (2 Corinthians 10:5) We must play an active role in standing firm in faith by capturing thoughts of fear that are not of God. This habit may take a few weeks or even months to form, but the complete peace we gain is worth the effort.
Rejoice, pray, and give thanks. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) We can move from fear to faith simply by praising and thanking God through prayer. The enemy can’t attack worship, so our thanksgiving is the key to rising above the negative waves in life.
Read your Bible. (Joshua 1:8) The Bible is a living source of God’s encouragement and strength. (Hebrews 4:12) During times of stress, reading verses from the Book of Psalms can be particularly reassuring.
Stay in community. (Hebrews 10:25) When we are bombarded by fear, we need to purposely surround ourselves with faith-filled Believers. Just knowing we aren’t alone is enough to fill us with a peaceful confidence that will sustain our faith.
Pray in tongues. (1 Corinthians 14:2) (If you’ve been given this Spiritual Gift – 1 Corinthians 12)Many times we don’t know what to pray, but the Holy Spirit does. Speaking in tongues may feel strange at first, but it can be done in secret, allowing the powerful presence of God to disperses all fears.
Speak the name of Jesus. (Philippians 2:10-11) The name of Jesus spoken in complete faith of its authority will rebuke ugly thoughts of fear. Remembering that Jesus overcame death on the Cross gives us a hope and confidence that we are on the winning side. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)
Remain in God’s love. (Jude 1:21) Love disperses all fear. (1 John 4:18) God loves us so much that He gave His Son as a sacrifice for our sins, so He can have a relationship with us. (John 3:16) When we immerse ourselves in His love, our worries, anxieties, and fears have no chance to survive.
God has made it possible for you to know Him and experience an amazing change in your own life. Discover how you can find peace with God. You can also send us your prayer requests.
Medical Science has rushed to develop a Covid-19 vaccine to safeguard people against getting this dread disease that has created a world-wide pandemic.
Currently there are 2 varieties of vaccines in the U.S. that are authorized and recommended, but a 3rd one is being developed.
These Covid-19 vaccinations are supposed to provide immunity from the disease.
Because not enough vaccine is available for everybody yet, the Center for Disease Control is vaccinating front-line workers like Doctors, Nurses, para-medics, and, also, people 75 and older.
Vaccinations will be available to the rest of society as quickly as they can be developed.
The plan is to have all 7.5 billion people in the world inoculated with this serum.
Bill Gates and others of his caliber want to make it so everyone receives a certificate after being vaccinated. Anyone without a certificate will not be able to buy or sell, to travel, and a bunch of other restrictions.
People are coming by the hoards to get this inoculation.
Sounds pretty close to what is described in Revelation 13 and 14. I don’t think this is the Mark of the Beast, but I think it’s the forerunner to the mark.
It’ll get people used to the idea of complying with Governmental regulations and make them less suspicious to cooperate.
However, when the genuine Mark of the Beast arrives, people will know they’re making a commitment to comply to the government and the Anti-Christ.
IT WILL NOT BE SOMETHING THAT CAN BE TAKEN BY ACCIDENT OR TRICKERY!
With all this push for a vaccination to combat the Covid-19 virus it brought back memories of my childhood when I was forced to get various kinds of vaccinations.
I remember as a little boy being taken to the Walla Walla Clinic to get my vaccinations.
– I’d kick and scream all the way.
They told me this vaccination was good for me and it would help me stay well, I still didn’t appreciate the opportunity to be vaccinated.
– I hate getting shots!
– As a boy, I’d often lay in my bed at night and cringe because many of my relatives had
Diabetes and had to give themselves a shot every day.
– How could they do that!
I was afraid it might happen to me too!
My biggest fear became reality – I now have to administer my own shots twice a day—since 1984!
– Yikes! 37 years! I’ve shot myself over 27,010 times!
– Not to mention the gallons of blood I’ve shed piercing my fingers to test my blood sugar.
There’s a difference between an insulin shot and a vaccination.
.- My insulin injection is a smaller sharp needle that’s clean and sterile and is administered by someone who loves and cares for me very much – THAT WOULD BE ME!
– Marty threatens from time to time to file the points if I act up….. German Bloodline!…….
I seem to remember from my childhood how a vaccination required a big square long, dull needle and was administered by a big hairy, ugly nurse smelling of body odor and trained in a Nazi Prison Camp with no thought of tenderness and compassion.
Nurses would say, “Billy, be a big boy — this won’t hurt and it’ll soon be over and I’ll give you a lollipop! It’s going to pinch.” — Liar! LIAR! It didn’t pinch it stabbed and it hurt!
– Look Lady! Keep your lollipop–stay away from my arm! And other target areas on my body.
I suspicioned this Amazonian nurse was in cahoots with the dentist and the lollipop was designed to give me the opportunity to kick and scream all the way to the dentist’s office.
– Poor Mom was so gullible that she bought into these wicked schemes.
– You’d think she’d eventually come around because she was the poor soul that had to drag her sweet little boy to those horrible places.
– Then, much to my horror, I learned she was paying these sadistic people to hurt me! MYOWN MOTHER!!!!
I couldn’t believe after suffering the horrors of vaccinations, I’d have to put my two beautiful daughters through the exact same thing.
Seriously, in medicine a vaccination is good because it places a small dose of the disease in your body so you can build immunity against the real thing.
– Hopefully you won’t have to contend with a full-fledged disease.
Most churches have people who seem to be vaccinated Christians.
– They’ve gotten a small dose of religion that’s keeping them from getting the real thing.
– In medicine that’s good – in Christianity that’s not good at all!
Jesus said – Matthew 7:21-23: 21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
Just being vaccinated isn’t enough — we need to be fully exposed to genuine Christianity.
1.CHILDREN GROWING UP IN THE CHURCH OFTEN BECOME VACCINATED.
– They’ve been around the church and have the attitude they have special privileges.
– They think they can get away with sin and are allowed certain leniencies others don’t have because their parents hold certain positions in the Church — the rules don’t apply to them.
Eli’s sons Hophni and Phineas fell victim to these ideas.
– Their dad was the High Priest of Israel.
– His boys naturally became priests, but felt the rules were for someone else.
1 Samuel 2:12-17 12 Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels who had no respect for the LORD 13 or for their duties as priests. Whenever anyone offered a sacrifice, Eli’s sons would send over a servant with a three-pronged fork. While the meat of the sacrificed animal was still boiling, 14 the servant would stick the fork into the pot and demand that whatever it brought up be given to Eli’s sons. All the Israelites who came to worship at Shiloh were treated this way. 15 Sometimes the servant would come even before the animal’s fat had been burned on the altar. He would demand raw meat before it had been boiled so that it could be used for roasting. 16 The man offering the sacrifice might reply, “Take as much as you want, but the fat must be burned first.” Then the servant would demand, “No, give it to me now, or I’ll take it by force.” 17 So the sin of these young men was very serious in the LORD’s sight, for they treated the LORD’s offerings with contempt.
To make matters worse, Eli knew what was happening and didn’t correct his boys.
– He probably thought he loved them too much to discipline them — if he truly loved them he would’ve tried to correct them.
1 Samuel 2:22-25 22 Now Eli was very old, but he was aware of what his sons were doing to the people of Israel. He knew, for instance, that his sons were seducing the young women who assisted at the entrance of the Tabernacle. 23 Eli said to them, “I have been hearing reports from all the people about the wicked things you are doing. Why do you keep sinning? 24 You must stop, my sons! The reports I hear among the LORD’s people are not good. 25 If someone sins against another person, God can mediate for the guilty party. But if someone sins against the LORD, who can intercede?” But Eli’s sons wouldn’t listen to their father, for the LORD was already planning to put them to death.
Kristin — “My Dad’s the Sunday school Superintendent!”
Often kids don’t even hear the message because they’re “special” and the rules apply to everyone else but not to them.
– They’ve been entertained for so long they don’t know they’re expected to listen.
– Parents and grandparents don’t seem to be aware of the danger their children are in!
– Parents don’t try to make the children listen because “It’s so hard to understand!”
Listen! God’s very serious that we serve Him and we train our families to serve Him!
1 Samuel 2:27-31 27 One day a man of God came to Eli and gave him this message from the LORD: “I revealed myself to your ancestors when the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt. 28 I chose your ancestor Aaron from among all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer sacrifices on my altar, to burn incense, and to wear the priestly vest as he served me. And I assigned the sacrificial offerings to you priests. 29 So why do you scorn my sacrifices and offerings? Why do you give your sons more honor than you give me—for you and they have become fat from the best offerings of my people Israel! 30 “Therefore, the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I promised that your branch of the tribe of Levi would always be my priests. But I will honor those who honor me, and I will despise those who think lightly of me. 31 The time is coming when I will put an end to your family, so it will no longer serve as my priests. All the members of your family will die before their time. None will reach old age.
The interesting thing is that even with this warning, Eli did nothing to fix the problem.
– We are warned — what will we do?
1 Samuel 3:11-14 11 Then the LORD said to Samuel, “I am about to do a shocking thing in Israel. 12 I am going to carry out all my threats against Eli and his family, from beginning to end. 13 I have warned him that judgment is coming upon his family forever, because his sons are blaspheming God and he hasn’t disciplined them.
I read about a man who worked in an acid factory.
– He said the only reason anyone gets hurt is because they don’t want to follow the rules.
– The new workers respect the rules, but the “seasoned” workers think they can take short cuts and ignore their safety training and still get by.
– That’s when they get hurt!
WE’VE NONE TO LOSE!
– Many of those children grow up taking the same attitude with them into adulthood.
“I’m a 3rd generation Nazarene……….”
– Being around the church isn’t the same as knowing Jesus Christ…..
– Standing in a garage doesn’t make me a car….. Or sitting at McDonald’s doesn’t make me a
Hamburger or French fry.
If your kids don’t know Jesus – you’re doing them no favors by sheltering and covering for them!
– We excuse them as being “a little independent, etc.”
– Actually they’re pagans on their way to Hell!
– We think their antics are cute now, but in 10 or 15 years they’ll be our major headaches.
If you’re faithful to the Church, but don’t belong to Jesus, you’re not going to Heaven either!
– Years ago a fellow got mad at me and began to tell everyone you can’t get to Heaven from his Church.
– RIGHT! NO CHURCH WILL GET YOU TO HEAVEN! ONLY CHRIST DOES!
2. PEOPLE WHO GET TOO COMFORTABLE WITH THE WORLD BECOME VACCINATED.
– The problem is their Christian Walk has lost its vitality and has become routine, boring and dead.
– 2 Corinthians 6:17 Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the LORD. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.
We lose our sensitivity to Christ and the things God has for us and become calloused.
– Coarse humor, filth on TV or the internet, gossip, take God’s Name in vain, and etc.
– “Its okay, were all Christians and we understand.”
– Does God understand how special you are and how you’re exempt from His rules?
We lose the tenderness we once had towards God and others…..
– We get offended easily and become critical and combative.
– We lose the resilience we once had.
Satan loves to stir up dissension in God’s Church in an effort to stop any spiritual progress that’s being made.
Psalm 119:165 (KJV) — “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
We don’t pray or read our Bible and if we do, we approach God in a flippant, irreverent manner.
Yes! The Middle Partition is down and yes, we’re invited to approach God’s Throne, but He’s still Holy, Awesome, and Majestic!
– HE STILL DEMANDS HOLINESS!
1 Peter 1:13-16 13 So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
Hebrews 12:14 — “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.”
We must learn reverence and respect.
God and our worship of God are serious matters.
– When we won’t heed God’s Spirit we harden our hearts….
– God has some very definite ideas about worship.
Look at what happened to Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu
Leviticus 10:1-3 1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the LORD by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded. 2 So fire blazed forth from the LORD’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the LORD. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD meant when he said, ‘I will display my holiness through those who come near me. I will display my glory before all the people.’” And Aaron was silent.
– Aaron’s sons thought they were special and didn’t have to follow the rules…..
Someone will say, “Well that’s Old Testament –– God isn’t like that in the New Testament.”
Oh No! Try reading Acts 5:1–11 1 But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. 2 He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest. 3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. 4 The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!” 5 As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified. 6 Then some young men got up, wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him. 7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Was this the price you and your husband received for your land?” “Yes,” she replied, “that was the price.” 9 And Peter said, “How could the two of you even think of conspiring to test the Spirit of the Lord like this? The young men who buried your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you out, too.” 10 Instantly, she fell to the floor and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened.
I get uncomfortable when people get flippant about God, “God’s Kids,” “the Big Guy,” etc.
I’m telling you this because I love you and don’t want to see you error!
We need a revival of genuine worship to a Holy God.
Satan would dearly love to make us too casual, too familiar, too disrespectful.
– He wants to steal this last generation – our kids and adults (you and your family) – from God.
WE HAVE NONE TO LOSE!
Vaccinated Christians are just kept from having a full walk with Christ.
– They’re not immune from going to Hell.
Don’t settle for a religious vaccination – – GET THE REAL THING!!!
We have ‘to live the truth that Jesus Christ has revealed to us.’
Tue Dec 29, 2020
December 29, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Bishop Joseph Strickland has once again spoken out against abortion-tainted vaccines in this week’s episode of The Bishop Strickland Show.
Besides highlighting the immorality and anti-Catholicism of vaccines linked to aborted baby cells, Bishop Strickland also addressed other concerns regarding the coronavirus, including mandatory vaccine laws.
“I would encourage people to resist any forcing of receiving these vaccines,” Bishop Strickland said. “We need to look at all the sides of the issue and make a well-informed conscience decision” according to what Church doctrine teaches.
Strickland and co-host Terry Barber also spoke about the possibility that vaccine mandates will be specifically targeted from the government towards the Catholic Church, and that they will lead to persecution. He noted that “probably most of the time through history, some[where] in the world, the Church has been persecuted.”
“We have to be willing to do what we have to,” he continued.
Strickland courageously states that even if speaking the truth may lead to persecution, “in justice we need to speak against that and…resist any diminishing of the freedom of religion and the freedom of living our faith in every aspect of society.”
As our nation wrestles with challenging issues, anti-religious rioters and officeholders are forgetting that successful social movements don’t attack religion. Rather, they are usually rooted in it.
In the chaotic year of 2020, anti-religious activists have learned that the best place to hide is in a crowd. With news cycles crowded by COVID-19, nationwide protests and riots, a contentious election, and much more, such activists were given perfect cover to vandalize houses of worship across America while drawing little criticism from secular media or public officials. These tragic acts of vandalism matter, however, and the motives behind them deserve examination.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently reported at least 39 incidents of vandalism on Catholic Church property since June 22. This alarming number makes sense given the Catholic Church’s history of statuary and the frequent targeting of statues in this year’s riots.
In addition to incidents such as satanic graffiti on a church in Connecticut, and a Florida man driving his van into a church before lighting the vehicle on fire, numerous church statues of Jesus, Mary, saints, and even a monument for children killed by abortion have been toppled, beheaded, and graffitied. That’s not all. The many incidents on church property detailed by the Conference of Catholic Bishops don’t account for the numerous statues of Catholic saints on public property that have been vandalized, too.
In St. Louis, large groups of sometimes-violent protesters graffitied the prominent public statue of St. Louis (King Louis IX), the city’s namesake, who frequently shared meals with beggars and ministered to other outcasts such as lepers, the blind, and even prostitutes.
The violence went further in California. Protesters destroyed a statue of St. Junipero Serra, a Spanish missionary who founded many historic churches (one of which was largely burned down in July) and evangelized thousands of Native Americans. Additionally, as Pope Francis noted when he canonized Serra in 2015, “Junipero sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it.”
Certain elements of the race-related protests this year have surely been honest, well-intentioned efforts, but that cannot be said of this violence that has treated St. Junipero and St. Louis the same way it has treated Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Instead, a subgroup of radical secularists among the rioters has used the recent lawlessness as an opportunity to advance their own agenda — one that opposes Judeo-Christian religion in its entirety.
While Catholic statues have been a convenient target, these radicals haven’t chosen to destroy religious figures at random. Their animosity toward faith traditions is intended. As you might recall, rioters set fire to the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., this past May. In Kenosha, Wisconsin, rioters graffitied “Free Palestine” at a Jewish synagogue. Further examples abound.
Even more tragically, many people of faith have watched this vandalism while being prohibited from stepping inside their own houses of worship, sometimes due to anti-religious discrimination from government officials. One prime example is Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s COVID-19 order, currently being challenged in court, which allowed casinos to open at half capacity while limiting churches to just 50 people.
As Archbishop Charles Chaput and Alliance Defending Freedom CEO Michael Farris pointed out, some officials implementing discriminatory restrictions have also been slow to protect the church property from rioters. As our nation wrestles with challenging issues, officials such as Sisolak and anti-religious rioters are forgetting that successful social movements — including the civil rights movement for racial equality in the law — don’t attack religion. Rather, they are usually rooted in it.
The American Revolution and the French Revolution provide a relevant history lesson. These two movements shared some noble goals, both seeking freedom from national theocracy and monarchy — but those ends were pursued in two very different ways.
The French Revolution was outright hostile toward religion. Church property was vandalized. Priests were arrested just for conducting their normal ministry. Religious statues were removed from the public eye and sometimes demolished because religious devotion threatened the aims of the revolution.
Our Founding Fathers chose a better path. They cared deeply about religion and forged a new nation where people of various faiths could live peacefully without coercion from an all-powerful central government. The founders’ success in winning independence, reforming our governance, and improving American life was rooted in a commitment to free speech and Judeo-Christian principles that fostered a true tolerance.
Whether it be responding to COVID-19, police brutality, or political unrest, the solution to our nation’s present problems will not be found in throwing out those principles of liberty and civility. The answer lies in recommitting to them and working to live them out more fully, more consistently, and more devotedly than ever before.
Ryan Everson is a communication integrity specialist and writer for Alliance Defending Freedom (@Alliance Defends).
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