1 The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. 2 The LORD looks down from heaven
on the sons of men
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God. 3 All have turned aside,
they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one. 4 Will evildoers never learn—
those who devour my people as men eat bread
and who do not call on the LORD ? 5 There they are, overwhelmed with dread,
for God is present in the company of the righteous. 6 You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor,
but the LORD is their refuge. 7 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people,
let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad! *** Warn you. This is a super long post.
Normally I would have expounded on this psalm about all of us falling short of the standards God has set, that the root of sin means we dont want to seek God, such that God has to send His Son as the saviour that comes from Zion, and so on, until I saw this article in TODAY's newspaper. 
Then verse 7 came to life for me.For those in my G12, I did share about the fact that we are living in the end-times, and in this season of sabbath, we should learn to go deep with God, so that our faith is strengthened in the "peace time". Because like it or not, there will not be much times of peace in the end-times, because there will be trouble and persecution for believers, even to the point of bloodshed. Will you stand firm till the end, if you have not built up your faith now?I am not a doomsday prophet, but it does not take much for us to recognise that we are living in a world that's getting more turmoils everyday. Just look at the earthquakes, the tsunamis, the terrorisms and militant religious movements, the bird flus and other viruses, the rocketing oil prices and energy crisis, the environmental damage, the wars and rumours of wars. ***
Matthew 24 3As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" 4Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. 6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains. 9"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. 15"So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. 18Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. 19How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. 22If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. 24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. 25See, I have told you ahead of time. 26"So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. 27For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. 29"Immediately after the distress of those days
" 'the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' 30"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. 32"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. 34I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. *** Let me expound on the historical facts on the verses I highlighted: 1) The gospel will be preached to ALL nations, then the end will come.If you are wise enough to trace the route that the gospel had travelled through the world, how nations are converted and revivals took place, you would have noticed this pattern:
It started out of Jerusalem and moved west, and is now spreading in Asia and heading back towards Jerusalem.It started out of Jerusalem and moved west - In Paul's missionary trip, he was kept from moving east and told to go west. Paul went on to evangelise to the whole of the Roman empire, while the Ethiopian eunuch that Philip converted went on to spread the gospel in Africa. Christianity went into dark ages with much paganistic practices creeping into Roman Catholicism, until Martin Luther and John Calvin brought about reformation and refocused people back to the authority of the Bible, and revival broke out in Europe. Subsequently when American is formed (when it was formerly colonized by settlers from Britain and Europe, and slaves from Africa), John Wesley and other founding fathers of the Christian denominations brought about revival in North America. As of now, we know that revival is breaking out South America and Pacific Islands(Argentina, Colombia etc... remember Ed Silvoso, Pastor Caeser? ). China is now considered the fastest growing Christian population. It is indeed the God's time for Asia. And slowly, if you hear of stories coming out from Israel, there is a small, but growing number of Jews who turned Christians. They are called the messianic Jews. Last year December, YouthNet brought up a team to Israel and visited some of them. Know this: God deliberately put the veil on the eyes of the Jews, until all of us (the Gentile nations) come to know Him. 2) Lesson from the fig tree.I never knew why this verse appeared in the passages about the end-times, until someone told me that fig tree, to the Jews, they know it represent their nation. A fig tree that was dead, but the twigs started to get tender and the leaves budded - signified the formation of the nation of Israel in 1948, after more than 2000 years being wiped off the map! "This generation will not pass away until all these things have happened...." In the bible, one generation (lifespan of a man), is determined to be 70 or 80 years. If it's true, then honestly, I think I may live to see the second coming of Christ...
When then is my response, after understanding all these?As in Psalm 14, 1) Will I continue to be a fool, and say in my heart "there's no God?" (verse 1,3)
2) Will I never learn, and not call on God and continue to do whatever I please? (verse 4)Jesus is coming back for us.
How will you live your life, in view of this?Labels: Journey Through Psalms
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1 The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. 2 The LORD looks down from heaven
on the sons of men
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God. 3 All have turned aside,
they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one. 4 Will evildoers never learn—
those who devour my people as men eat bread
and who do not call on the LORD ? 5 There they are, overwhelmed with dread,
for God is present in the company of the righteous. 6 You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor,
but the LORD is their refuge. 7 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people,
let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad! *** Warn you. This is a super long post.
Normally I would have expounded on this psalm about all of us falling short of the standards God has set, that the root of sin means we dont want to seek God, such that God has to send His Son as the saviour that comes from Zion, and so on, until I saw this article in TODAY's newspaper.
Then verse 7 came to life for me.For those in my G12, I did share about the fact that we are living in the end-times, and in this season of sabbath, we should learn to go deep with God, so that our faith is strengthened in the "peace time". Because like it or not, there will not be much times of peace in the end-times, because there will be trouble and persecution for believers, even to the point of bloodshed. Will you stand firm till the end, if you have not built up your faith now?I am not a doomsday prophet, but it does not take much for us to recognise that we are living in a world that's getting more turmoils everyday. Just look at the earthquakes, the tsunamis, the terrorisms and militant religious movements, the bird flus and other viruses, the rocketing oil prices and energy crisis, the environmental damage, the wars and rumours of wars. ***
Matthew 24 3As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" 4Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. 6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains. 9"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. 15"So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. 18Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. 19How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. 22If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. 24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. 25See, I have told you ahead of time. 26"So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. 27For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. 29"Immediately after the distress of those days
" 'the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' 30"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. 32"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. 34I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. *** Let me expound on the historical facts on the verses I highlighted: 1) The gospel will be preached to ALL nations, then the end will come.If you are wise enough to trace the route that the gospel had travelled through the world, how nations are converted and revivals took place, you would have noticed this pattern:
It started out of Jerusalem and moved west, and is now spreading in Asia and heading back towards Jerusalem.It started out of Jerusalem and moved west - In Paul's missionary trip, he was kept from moving east and told to go west. Paul went on to evangelise to the whole of the Roman empire, while the Ethiopian eunuch that Philip converted went on to spread the gospel in Africa. Christianity went into dark ages with much paganistic practices creeping into Roman Catholicism, until Martin Luther and John Calvin brought about reformation and refocused people back to the authority of the Bible, and revival broke out in Europe. Subsequently when American is formed (when it was formerly colonized by settlers from Britain and Europe, and slaves from Africa), John Wesley and other founding fathers of the Christian denominations brought about revival in North America. As of now, we know that revival is breaking out South America and Pacific Islands(Argentina, Colombia etc... remember Ed Silvoso, Pastor Caeser? ). China is now considered the fastest growing Christian population. It is indeed the God's time for Asia. And slowly, if you hear of stories coming out from Israel, there is a small, but growing number of Jews who turned Christians. They are called the messianic Jews. Last year December, YouthNet brought up a team to Israel and visited some of them. Know this: God deliberately put the veil on the eyes of the Jews, until all of us (the Gentile nations) come to know Him. 2) Lesson from the fig tree.I never knew why this verse appeared in the passages about the end-times, until someone told me that fig tree, to the Jews, they know it represent their nation. A fig tree that was dead, but the twigs started to get tender and the leaves budded - signified the formation of the nation of Israel in 1948, after more than 2000 years being wiped off the map! "This generation will not pass away until all these things have happened...." In the bible, one generation (lifespan of a man), is determined to be 70 or 80 years. If it's true, then honestly, I think I may live to see the second coming of Christ...
When then is my response, after understanding all these?As in Psalm 14, 1) Will I continue to be a fool, and say in my heart "there's no God?" (verse 1,3)
2) Will I never learn, and not call on God and continue to do whatever I please? (verse 4)Jesus is coming back for us.
How will you live your life, in view of this?Labels: Journey Through Psalms
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By post:
Psalm 13: Lift Me Up From Depression
Psalm 12: Outflow of the Heart, the Mouth Speaks
Psalm 11: Responding to Sneers
Psalm 10: 奸人当道?
Psalm 9
Psalm 8
Psalm 9: Give Thanks & Victory Is Yours To Keep
Psalm 8: Why me?
Psalm 7: 平时不做亏心事，半夜敲门也不惊
Psalm 6: Light At The End Of The Tunnel
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