What I think : About the popular Rapture theory.

I started to watch a video by John Hagee about the End Times.  I couldn't watch the whole thing.  I was having computer problems again, but I could hear the audio.  I worry so much about what I see as a false teaching about a Rapture that is suppose to save us from any suffering of the Antichrist.  

LINK to the one I started watching: https://youtu.be/j8-Cj5bMGYk?si=Ijy1at1R1y42AVwS

I understand all the believers will be gone, but my understanding of this time in history and prophecy is that we will be killed by the Antichrist when we refuse to take the Mark of the Beast.

The reason I chose this graphic for today's post is the theme ::  TEST GOD. Trust God.    

I have never understood why this belief became so popular.  Since I have been aware of information sources being altered, I have wondered if that has been part of the problem.  It would have to be very manipulated, but people with money (who hate GOD and all He stands for) might be able to accomplish it.  It's hard to think about.

One time I noticed that a major Christian Bible source was sold to a non-Christian company.  Later I discovered it belonged to a different company.  The issue is that all the details we depend on for our faith could have been changed without us knowing it.  With so many different versions now, who would know the difference?  Not many people know every word of the Bible, and they would only know their one chosen version.

It took years for me to study what I did.  I chose the King James Version, which is not the easiest to understand.  I used other Bible versions to compare the way they had been translated.  

I have noticed that most Bible references are missing now.  I don't know if that is because of so many translations, or to avoid having a specific verse to check.  We live in an age of Bible hate.  The powers we have to deal with would rather confuse everyone then share a theology that differs with their own... or that conflicts with their own.

When the opposition becomes the only power that exists, these issues may be fully controlled by them.  No one will even know there is a Bible, GOD, or anything that says there is sin and judgment for it.  

I have said the only "Rapture" in the Bible is way at the end of our existence, when fire destroys us.  It is only the people who are alive when that happens that get taken to heaven in the form of what we call a rapture.  Other than that time, and the two who were taken to heaven alive, the requirement is to die.  "It is given unto man once to die and then the judgment." - my paraphrase, unless I remembered the KJV well.  The two who went to heaven without dying are expected to be the two witnesses in the End Times. 

I have wondered why GOD would have to take men early like that.  I imagine it is because they lived their FAITH different in their time.  We would never be witnesses like that.

I try to tell everyone that they MUST read the Bible for themselves and make a decision for themselves.  Every denomination has their own interpretations about the controversial things in the Bible.  Once they have a specific definition, you can't really go against it.  This is why we are not ONE Body of Christ.  We need to fix this problem.  I had hoped to try.  

Study this topic.  Pray for GOD to show you His Truth.  You have to find your own answers.  NO ONE WILL BE WITH YOU AT JUDGMENT DAY!!

I hope we will be ready when the Antichrist shows up.\\

Any day can be the last one...

I was thinking about what to write today and the idea of how unknown our lives are is really big with me these days.  Not just my personal humanity, but the unknown nature of all the things we are "prepping" for.  

The election year and daily politics.  

The grid going down.  

Food issues.  

War.

Terrorists.

Economic threats and inflation.

I guess there are a lot of dangers in our lives right now, and we have no idea when they will happen.

I want to create designs with thoughts about GOD and salvation and heaven and hell and life and unborn children and more, so I am always thinking about statements that would work for prompting people to think about their everyday choices, especially salvation.  The reality of our temporary place in this life is always coming into my thoughts.

I am concerned for a number of public people.  I think about them and know they are not yet saved but hate the thought of them spending eternity in hell and the Lake of Fire.  There is nothing I can do to reach them.  I wonder if GOD has tried.  I wonder about their children... and other loved ones.  I wonder if anyone is in their lives that might show them the way to a better life here and in eternity.

We only have this life to decide.  Once we are gone, there are no second chances.  The Bible tells us this is the only life we have, and we have to decide before we die.  

Public people face so many pressures I would never want to deal with.  The things and people they are surrounded by affect the directions they would choose.  Their incomes, their jobs, their daily lives are affected.  It is hard to be different.  If we work in a very ungodly place, it affects our faith.  

The price that is paid by public people can be very heavy.  I don't know that many can deal with the issues they face and stay faithful to GOD.

Then I think of other classes of people.  In truth, we all face the pressures of our peers, the hard burdens of our jobs, our families, our incomes, and our environment.  The choices of someone living on the street may seem worse than someone living in a penthouse or mansion, but it is just a different location.  We all face the same issues in different locations in life.

I have been wondering how I will end this life.  Will I stay true to my faith?  Will I stand firm, trust GOD for all the daily needs I have as an older person, or will I grumble in my heart and feel abandoned.  It isn't easy to keep believing when GOD does not provide things you assume He will.

What will happen to those I love and want to find in heaven someday?

I am beginning to understand "One day at a time" in a new way.  Any day might be my last day.

I wonder if my life has made a difference for anyone.

I have been changed, but nothing happened the way I thought it would.

What purpose has GOD used me for?  

It's really difficult to know.

I hope GOD helps me to see why some of the things that have happened in my life were necessary to make me who I am.  Why I didn't achieve what I thought His purpose for me was.

Can any of us really know how GOD works in our lives to accomplish HIS will for us?  I don't think so.  That may have to wait until we get to heaven.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

At 70, I wonder what my future will be like.

It is really a challenge to make plans as a Senior Citizen, especially a low-income one.

I just finished my post for this week at my Working Together blog, on the pending economic issues we face as a nation and as a world  (Working Together Inc: Can America really survive a big disaster? (working-together-inc.blogspot.com) so my thoughts are not very hopeful for my own life.  I depend on the government for my survival.  I have been homeless too many times already.  I am wondering if I will have to face homelessness again, and what kind of health I will be in if that happens.

I have been working on my goal statements this month.  It is a strange process for me.  I am not to the point of repeating them over and over again throughout the day.  I am currently working on writing them once a day, trying for the first thing in the morning, and noticing what the process does to my actions.

It is interesting.

It is a battle every day.

I am wondering why that is so.

Because of Working Together's mission in this life, I have discovered spiritual warfare.  I don't know how to do battle like great saints, but I have felt and seen the effects of spiritual warfare in my life.  The battles I went through moved me into a space of leaving it all to GOD.  I can't fight, and we are told that GOD does battle for us.

And there is the idea of His Will.

If we push our way through, is it GOD's Will or ours?  

That is quite a technical issue.  Once we know we are in GOD's Will, pushing through may be the only way.  It took me awhile to get to that realization... was it my idea or GOD's... and then do my best to make it through all the struggles.

I'm not young anymore.  I don't have the energy and stamina I had when I was young.  But, I am still willing to do whatever I can.  If GOD provides, I will keep doing whatever I can.

So, in the aging process, my goals have had to change.

I am beginning to wonder what other seniors do.  How do they see their future when death could happen at any moment?  How do they prepare to travel?  How much money do we really need when we are older?

I never planned to be so poor in my life.  My efforts just didn't work out the way I planned.  

I think the pandemic seriously damaged a lot of lives.  I don't know if we will really recover from it.  I hope we do.

In the Christian perspective, the details are very different.  We are watching for the Antichrist, and what the Bible tells us will happen when he gets here.

All these global problems, economic problems, government actions, and more, show us the Antichrist is very near.  

I was listening again to the video speech I love, by Paul Harvey, called FREEDOM TO CHAINS, at the Natalie Sims channel,  https://youtu.be/VPlQ-ANUCuc , and one statement stood out to me again as a description of the Antichrist we expect ::

"Some believe that the need is for a vigorous strong man to arise on the scene to regulate and regiment the affairs of men."

Paul Harvey made this speech in 1965, according to the video.  It's almost 60 years ago and we are on the brink of seeing that kind of person being asked to save the world.

GOD moves slowly because He wants to save as many souls as He can, but the day of His Prophecy will arrive.

I have heard some sources claim that digital currency and other technological "resources" will be in our lives by 2025.  I am wondering if that means the Antichrist.

I guess the only thing I can do is just meet every day with the best I have.  To keep trying.  To reach for the goals I have.  To be content with what the day brings.  (That reminds me of a verse in the Bible... haha)

I still hope to have some fun before I die, but I am not sure that will happen.  I remain one foot from life on the streets again... or death.  

I suppose GOD knows why my life has gone the way it has, and what my future will allow me to do.

As long as I remain faithful to the end, and make it to heaven, I will be happy.

How do you plan your future life?

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us

Thursday is here...

I am moving into giant print for my writing...  I hope it helps in the reading.

There is so much I am doing, mostly getting caught up in research linking, I am not sure what to share today.

I found a small note I took from watching a sermon about the virus lockdown and all the issues related to it... It was said to be a well-established, historical theory about how change happens.  It was paraphrased to say ::

(Create)  PROBLEM
(Watch)  REACTION
(-missing word-)  SOLUTION
(I think it was about making your own solution for the problem so you can change the pattern of society...)

The speaker said he thought it was what the virus was created to do... If you think about how much has happened in such a short time, for what seems like our annual flu season, with possibly orchestrated events, the effects are astounding... and they are still with us.  Poor people can't do much... they can't fight back... which is why people who want to control large populations keep them poor and afraid.

I don't know what we will do to survive this... I am poor so I can't do anything. (Theory validation.)

My life has boundaries forced on me.

If I could....   this is my theme.

It might have killed me getting a heavy flu at my age... I never had a problem with it before.  But now I have age and a compromised body... the things that happen with aging.  

I am sorry for anyone who lost loved ones.  I am not trying to make light of their pain.  I just wonder if we will ever know the "TRUTH" about what happened.



Other than the virus issues, life has been online mostly.  I have a lot of things to read, been checking on new links, looked at some amazing land parcels the other day... so I am praying even harder for GOD's blessings... :-)

I have been "distracted" from my primary focus and need to get back on track.  That's the plan for the next week.

I shared a free desktop wallpaper with my Patreon Challenge tier... I'm working on my benefits for supporters.  Only $5 to get your own copy and support my CHALLENGE...  

https://patreon.com/DebsRetirementPlan

You can also get any or all of my designs so far at my ETSY shop... I changed my MAY discount to a DIGITAL SALE so all of the digital items can be purchased for $2 each.

https://etsy.com/shop/work2gather


What all those distractions accomplished was not getting new designs listed at ETSY.  I'm not sure how to do digital sales at EBAY yet.  Once I figure that out, I will list them at EBAY also.

I have been trying to survive on my stored foods, not going to the store all month, since shopping last month about mid-April.  It is really getting to be a challenge now.  I find when I don'thave a regular diet, my body rebels when I start eating all my old foods.  I may try to eat too much too fast as well... I am hoping to avoid that this time.

If all you have is dried foods (beans, grains, onion bits, etc.) the menu gets pretty tight.  I watched a Prepsteaders video on eating soup made with hard tack, pemican, and survival dried broth... and foraged "veggies" like dandelions and clover and other things I don't know about.  When you are hungry you get very "creative" for food.

I remember movies of plane crashes and survivors trying to make it through the wilderness to civilization of some kind.  A movie with a teen had him eating bugs.  A movie with adults had them trying to catch fish by hand.  I don't remember all the survival scenes/movies I have seen, but it is always an interest of mine because of WT and the goals of surviving as Christians... to be self-sufficient in life needs, food, water, shelter, etc.

Prepsteaders.com is on YouTube, at Patreon, and has the website that it uses as its name.  I decided to see what she did at Patreon so I am supporting her at the minimal level... $2 per video.  I devoted $10 a month to Patreon creators to find out more about the system.  She is the only per video person I signed up with, but I didn't know it was per video until I saw the billing.  It's a learning experience.  I have seen some of her videos, but not all of them.

The realities of a life of faith are always big in my life... it has been very hard and you wonder what GOD is doing.  It makes you try to see how GOD deals with the problems in our lives, how He judges those people who hurt us in their sins.  When you think a long time about the familiar stories we hear all the time... the hidden details begin to show up.

We pray for our needs, but GOD never promised to give us all the things we think we need, what we pray for.  What GOD promises, He does.  GOD never promises something He isn't going to do.  So GOD NEVER PROMISES THINGS HE WON'T DO.  It changes our ideas about what we pray for and what GOD will provide...  Who is the One in charge of our lives... How GOD judges sin.

I have been thinking lately that the worst judgment GOD can do is take your life before you are saved.  It doesn't matter how old you are, if you die before you are saved, you have only one destination.  I have thought of the rich man  who wanted his Lazarus to comfort him with water to ease his pain and torment... and to warn his brothers.  The reply was that the time was too late... the rich man and his brothers had their whole lives to do what they knew was right, but they walked by Lazarus every day.

It's very significant. We all do it at some point. Some of us don't have the ability to help people like Lazarus, but a rich man could, with ease.

I wish the realities of GOD were not so definite.  We don't like to see them, we don't like to talk about them, we pretend they don't exist.  When we get to judgment, when we die, it will be too late to change.

I studied in Revelations once and noticed that one of the final acts of GOD in judgment was a similar judgment of suffering in eternity... the time when there is no death and the scorpions sting inflicts pain over and over again.  I realized it is like the torment promised in the Lake of Fire... forever in pain, no death, no escape.

In my sufferings, I see the boundaries of GOD, how He can help and how He cannot.  I see the results of my sin, the sins of others hurting me, the long ripple of consequences that make our world what it is, our lives what they are.

I wish I could have made it different, but there's never a guarantee it would have been better.  GOD has a plan for each of us.  I have discovered important things in my sufferings, and now I wonder if they will ever help me... if GOD will use them to build WT, or if there was another purpose, something I don't know about.

This VIRUS CRISIS has changed a lot of things... and it may cause more devastation before it is over... many people don't have enough money to make through months and months of no income, reduced income, and no jobs to find.  

I keep saying, What is GOD trying to show us?
Think deeply about these things.  They may help you change the next several months or years of your life.


In Christ,
Deborah Martin

work2gather.us
and more...

Billy Graham has died

I have been wondering when this day would come.  We all will die, but some of us impact more people than others.  GOD chose to use him in a long and winding way through more than one generation.

I have felt it would be a turning point for the church when Billy Graham finally left us.  We have preachers, but no one has come up that is like him.  Since we are in the final days of our existence as the Christian community, it is significant.  I have wondered if GOD created Working Together as the next step in our walk toward Heaven.  I don't know, but our times are very different than any time in the past.  We are heading toward the Mark of the Beast... that will mean survival on a day-to-day basis and increased persecution will reign in our world.  Evangelism will look different... the needs of the church will be different... we will be different.

I have been deeply impacted by Billy Graham in my life, too.  When you search for answers about GOD and the Bible, you can't avoid getting to know Billy Graham.  He kind of stands in-between all the denominations we have created.  Maybe that is why GOD chose him.  When you are not raised in the church, your faith is different than what you find in them.

It scares me to think of what lies ahead for us as Christians.  Billy Graham leaving us is like the turning point I see in 9/11... America and GOD are becoming more distant... GOD is no longer responsible to protect us as a nation.

Pray that we, as a nation, are able to discover GOD's next steps for us, and for our world... to protect the ones we love and want to find in heaven one day.

Thursday, 14 December 2017

I'm a bit late with this post, but we will all survive!  :-)

I heard that RC Sproul died on Thursday.  Later I heard he had cancer for many years. 

Then I happened on a TBN program on TV with James and Betty Robison as guests of the program... what I remember was the story of the death of their daughter several years prior to the program (I don't know if it was a repeat). 

When people die, we have strange perspectives about it.  RC Sproul was elderly, had lived a long life and accomplished a lot in terms of Christian service.  The Robison's daughter was a mother and wife and dedicated Christian, but she was relatively young.  This made it seem more devastating.

Really, we are all going to die.
GOD decides our time.

I think the sorrow is because we love someone, we wanted them to be with us longer.  Our loss is painful.  It is always hard to bear the sufferings of our children.

I have not known the loss of someone close to me yet... but it may come before my own death. I don't know.

I have been preparing for my own death.

It is a natural part of this life... from the moment of conception we are destined to die.

It's a morbid thought... but it is something we have to deal with eventually.

I also saw a news report on fathers that lost their children to gun violence... and were trying to make it into a meaningful event... to make their memories live on.

I also viewed a news report from another country's program... maybe the BBC's news, or Germany's (DW).  Little starving babies, large starving children, no money for medical help, or medicine.  Parents were doing the best they could for their children in the midst of violence and suffering.

We don't live in a very nice world.
We all do the best we can.
And then we die.

It doesn't matter what the world says will happen when I die.
I know that my final resting place will be in heaven.

I weep for the people I love who are not yet saved.
I won't be able to see them in heaven.

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May GOD reach the hearts of those we love and bring them into His Kingdom.
May we find the words to share salvation with others.
May we rest. May we speak. May we find the way to reach the lost.
Amen.

Until next time...
Deborah Martin