The Devotional - A Look at the Book #663

by Jesse Abel

Meditate on this!

Reading a friend’s blog this morning I was struck with this thought. Spiritual wisdom includes how we communicate the love of God and how the Holy Spirit demonstrates this wisdom. The fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. These are the acts of mercy that glorify God. 1 Corinthians 2:9 and Galatians 5:22-23.

So, have you given much thought to the word “rapture” lately? That Merriam-Webster Dictionary on my desk has this for a definition. Spiritual or emotional ecstasy; well alright from a secular point of view, but the Holy Bible has another definition. In fact; the definition is given rather than the word and the definition is “shall be caught up” 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and if you really want to push the defining envelope, we could say that biblical rapture is what all believers of the LORD Jesus Christ are waiting for and in that twinkling of the eye (stint in time) there will be a spiritual and emotional gathering of the church of Jesus Christ. Yes, I know that there are theology bents to this future event in biblical history and revelation, but I also know this: “If you do not have this hope of instant response to the revelation of Christ as taught in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 then you may be suffering from a; “a lack of comfort in your relationship with God”.

s 5

James 5:1-6 – You would think that the half-brother of James wrote this epistle in January 2012. What with the money scams currently in the news; with the daily emails of scammers claiming those large sums of money that are waiting for someone by the click of a button on the keyboard. Also; I wonder about all of the credit card commercials we are bombarded with daily. Even those commercials reveal the scam, corrupted riches and moth eaten clothing of some barbarian. Sadly, we buy into this with EYES WIDE OPEN!

That is the witness is it not! The gold and silver we flaunt in the faces of our future generation is corroded and soon will be a witness against all. Ever notice the health issues of the day? These consume large sums of money. Personal money and public money perish in the fire place of life right in front of our eyes. Instead of burning wood by making people to work a solid days work. We feed the dollars to the well fare line and call that a days work. The fraud of this style of living reaches the ears of the LORD of Sabaoth. We do need a day of peace and rest from all this nonsense.

Yes here in James who wrote around AD 45-50 knew the condition of the current world around him and the current conditions of the world around us TODAY. The fat of our hearts is enlarged for the day of slaughter. The indulgence of the corrupted mind is visible on every television screen, every newspaper and every source of media that one can conceive. But HEY! The day of slaughter is at HAND, not your hand and not in the LORD’s hand; since one WORD from His mouth will be sufficient. Revelation 19:11-16.