Tag: Eye of Storm

 

It’s closer then you think

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Scripture Mt: 24:14: And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

 

STORY: Harley the Pit Bull,      

Anyone have a Dog? Anyone have a Pit-Bull?

 

Pit-Bulls are about the most loving Dogs in the world, they are just giving a Bad name by people who miss-use them. Well I have a Pit-Bull named Harley; she was dropped off on my door step by my Children and never picked up again, but she is a very loving dog so she stayed.

Now and then she will do some of the strangest things, like getting in my way under my legs so I can’t move with out knowing she is right there. Then all at once she will be gone, now where did that crazy dog go I would say. So I would look all over the house for her and can’t find her, what is going on I would think.

I would start looking under the beds and no Harley; well I would say I know she did not just disappear. So again I would start the search room by room and then at last I would check the Bathroom, and when I pulled the shower curtain there she is right in the bathtub. Oh I would say you want aBathbut then I would notice in her eyes something strange. As I reach down to pet her she would be trembling and her tale between her legs in fear.

What is wrong I would say but just about then I would hear it outside. Thunder out side, I would go and look and see dark clouds with thundering and lightning. Where did this come from it was Sunshine just a little while ago. Oh that’s it she could hear and feel that there was a storm coming and did her best to warn me to take shelter in the bathroom. When I would not go she had no choice but to leave me and go her self. I would think that is remarkable that Animals know when something like bad weather is about to happen long before we ever hear or see it.

 

Let us Pray!

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 Did you know that right before a Hurricane or an Earthquake Animals will start to act strange as if they somehow know something bad is coming!

 

Why is this, it is something left over from Noah days.

 

Let’s take a look at what happened back then in Noah’s time.

 

God told Noah that the End of everything was coming, to build a really big boat.

 

The question is why?

 

Genesis 6:

12: And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

  

The Earth was Corrupt with Sin and God told Noah to warned the people that the end is coming.  Noah preached for right at 120 years, and what happened no one believed him.

 

Only the Animals believed and when the time came they went into the Ark and were saved while the world outside perished.  

 

In the book of Matthew Jesus himself is telling us something very importance for the time we live in.

 

Matthew 24:

37: But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

38: For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

It is sad but the Bible is telling us that our World today is no different then it was back in Noah’s time

39: And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

 

Most of the signs about Jesus return have all been fulfilled except for a few. 

 

Matthew 24:

14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

 

What did Jesus mean by all this?

 

There is a time coming that people will not believe there eyes if it were told them, in fact it is told them and they still will not believe.

 

The end of Sin out of Gods kingdom is soon to be removed forever, never to rise again.

 

But listen to what Jesus is telling us about how people will feel about his coming.

 

2nd Peter 3:

3: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

4: And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

 

Are there scoffers in these last days?. There always has been scoffers but they are getting worse.

They are scoffing at everything including the nearness of the coming of Jesus Christ. You have seen scoffers. They are everywhere and complain about anything, listen to just a few

 

  • “Everything that can be invented has been invented. I recommend that we close the US Patent Office.”– this was the statement of the director of the US Patent Office to President of the United States in 1889.
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  • Thomas J. Watson Jr. of IBM predicted in 1958: “There is a world market for no more than about five computers. There’s no future in it.”
  •  
  • In 1896, one magazine author wrote: “The vast majority of people would prefer a smooth running, reliable steam engine . . . to the evil smelling dangerous, wasteful, and at best uncertain and unreliable gasoline engine.”
  •  
  • In 1900, a spokesman for the granddaddy of the Mercedes Benz Co. said: “There will probably be a mass market for about 1,000 automobiles, that’s about it. And after all, there is a limit to the number of Chauffeurs who could be found to drive them.” And during the next seven years Henry Ford sold millions of Model “T”s.
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  • In 1903, a preacher predicted, regarding air travel, “it’s good for God and angels and the birds…”. – -his name? Bishop Milton Wright, father of Orville and Wilbur Wright.
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  • In 1948, radio pioneer Mary Summerville predicted: “Television will not last. It is a flash in the pan.” Newspaper editor C.P. Scott agreed: “Television? No good will come of this devise. For one thing, the word itself is half Greek and half Latin. Is isn’t going to amount to a thing.”
  •  
  • In December of 1989, West German politicians confided to David Hasselhoff that the Berlin Wall would still be in place long after their children and grandchildren had died. Two weeks later it came down!

 

Scoffers! I tell you there are an abounding number of scoffers in our world today, scoffing, even in the Church, “you will hear people saying Jesus coming is a long way off. Don’t worry about it, just be cool we are all going to be raptured 

 

The last days are not far in the future my friend; and I believe the last days are here just around the corner.

 

Scoffers are saying: the ground under Los Angeles is solid. We aren’t expecting any earthquakes in our life-time. We still have time to eat, drink and be merry.

 

But God says in Luke 12:40, “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him.”

 

I think there are going to be many, many disasters in the last days, just before the coming of Jesus.

One type of disaster will be in bad weather. Look at Psalm 50:3 (NLT) Our God approaches with the noise of thunder and a great storm rages around Him..

Lighting and thunder.

  • When God came toMount Sinaithere was a storm. Remember?
  • When He appeared to Elijah there was a great storm.
  • And just before the second coming, I think we are going to have great storms.

“Natural disasters, Ellen G. White says in Counsels on Health, “will be more and more frequence and disastrous.”

Come over here to Revelation 7 in your Bible. The first verse talks about the wind.

Revelation 7:1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.

 

In the last 20 years or so we have seen some of most devastating hurricanes ever.

Do you remember names like Mitch, Frances, Andrew, Katrina, Rita, Lili, Charley, Ivan, Jeanne. Those aren’t names that people are very happy with.

Those are big named hurricanes. Some of them coming and splitting and turning around and coming back again. We have the weirdest stuff going on. I think that eventually the angels will let go of the four winds.

What do these winds represent? They represent trouble, strife, wars, and all kinds of problems in the last days.

 

  STORY:    . ****   Galveston Hurricane Report of 1900 ****,  

In Galveston on the rain-darkened and gusty morning of Saturday, September 8, 1900, newspaper readers saw, on page three of the local Daily News, an early-morning account of a tropical hurricane prowling the Gulf of Mexico.

 

 On the previous day Galveston had been placed under a storm warning by the central office of the Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) in Washington, D.C.a one-column headline announced, “Storm in the Gulf.” Under that, a small subhead proclaimed, “Great Damage Reported onMississippi and Louisiana Coasts-Wires Down-Details Meagre.” The story, only one paragraph long, had been sent out ofNew Orleans at 12:45 A.M. that same day, but it added nothing to the information presented in the headlines. Additional details were unavailable “owing to the prostration of the wires.” Beneath theNew Orleans report appeared a brief local story: “At midnight the moon was shining brightly and the sky was not as threatening as earlier in the night. The weather bureau had no late advice as to the storm’s movements and it may be that the tropical disturbance has changed its course or spent its force before reachingTexas.”

 

This hurricane had been first observed on August 30 in the vicinity of 15° north latitude and 63° west longitude, about 125 miles northwest of Martinique, proceeding westward. Galvestonians had been aware of the storm since September 4, when it was reported moving northward overCuba. From the first, however, details had been sketchy because of poor communications. Ships at sea, where oncoming hurricanes built strength, had no way of telegraphing weather observations ashore, and other nineteenth-century technical shortcomings interfered.

 

Except for the rain and wind, Saturday began in the city of 38,000 inhabitants much the same as any other weekday. People prepared for another stint in the routine of six-day workweeks then common; not even an encroaching tide disturbed them greatly. Galvestonians had become used to occasional “overflows,” when high water swept beachfronts. Houses and stores were elevated as a safeguard.

 

The tide kept crashing farther inland, and the wind steadily increased. The Weather Bureau official in charge locally, Isaac M. Cline, drove a horse-drawn cart around low areas warning people to leave. Comparatively few people had evacuated the city, before bridges fromGalvestonIslandto the mainland fell, many of the people along the beach waited until it was too late to seek shelter in buildings downtown, away from the Gulf.

 

Houses near the beach began falling first. The storm lifted debris from one row of buildings and hurled it against the next row until eventually two-thirds of the city, then the fourth largest city inTexas, had been destroyed. People striving to make their way through wind and water to refuge were struck by hurtling bricks and lumber and flying slate from roofs. The greatest wind velocity registered before the anemometer blew away at 5:15 P.M. was an average of eighty-four miles an hour for a five-minute period, but gusts of 100 miles an hour had been recorded, and weathermen’s estimates later reached more than 120 miles an hour. About 6:30 P.M. a storm wave, sweeping ashore in advance of the hurricane’s vortex, caused a sudden rise of four feet in water depth, and shortly afterward the entire city was underwater to a maximum depth of fifteen feet. This storm wave caused much of the damage. The lowest barometer reading was 28.44, recorded shortly after 7:00 P.M. Around 10:00 P.M. the tide began to fall slowly, and little damage occurred after that.

 

September 9 dawned on desolation. Most of the city lay in shambles. Between 6,000 and 8,000 people in the city ofGalvestonhad died, and estimated casualties for the entire island ranged from 10,000 to 12,000. Property damage was impossible to estimate by current standards, but contemporary figures ranged from twenty to thirty million dollars.

 

A high-water mark of 15.7 feet and high winds had destroyed a third of the city, including 2,636 houses and 300 feet or 1,500 acres of shoreline. The sixteen ships anchored in the harbor at the time of the storm also suffered extensive damage.

 

More violent and costlier hurricanes have struck coastal areas of the United States since 1900, but because of the death toll the Galveston storm that year was in the 1980s still called the worst recorded natural disaster ever to strike the North American continent.

 

 

They had signs, they had reports, but no one picked up on them.

The worse thing that can happen is when the warning is giving and no one pays attention until it is too late.

If hindsight was foresight our first parents would have never sinned

I think we will have great storms in these last days and I don’t mean just Hurricanes. The winds of strife are beginning to blow, and in the last days there will be great trouble raging all over this entire Planet.

 

Take care because there is hope in Jesus

 

Revelation 7:

2: And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

3: Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

 

God will take care of his people in these times, we have nothing to fear if we put our faith and trust in the hands of Jesus

 

 

Psalm: 91:

7: A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

8: Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

 

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What are you doing to warn people of this soon coming End?

 

Look at what the Bible is telling us, we are the Watchman on the Wall we must tell the people. It is not our job to force them to hear or believe, but it is our job to let them know that it is coming and that it is closer then many people think it is.

 

There are many who have not heard, many who have not been told, many who have not been warned, and it is our job to warn them of what is coming.

 

Ezekiel 33:

6: But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

7: So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house ofIsrael; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

8: When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

9: Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

 

We must tell the world that Jesus is coming back soon, and not just soon but very soon. .

 

We are the Watchman on the Wall; every little thing you do will find someone who is looking for the truth.

 

Look at what Jesus is telling us in the book of Isaiah:55:

11: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

 

We go not alone, Jesus is right there with us

Hope is in Jesus, we must tell the World that Jesus is coming

What are you doing oh Watchman?

 

 

Jesus said in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come.”

 

How can we sound the trumpet?      How can we let the people know?

There are many ways to share the Gospel, the good news about Jesus.

Everything thing we do will fall into one of three categories.

 

1. Direct Contact:

  1. a. Face to Face sharing the good news
  2. b. Visiting the needed
  3. c.  Bible studies
  4. d. Volunteering
  5. e. Missionary work
  6. f.  Your personal behavior, and that effects people more then you think.

 

2. Indirect Contact:

  1. a. Mailing; this can be anything from sending a card to say Thanks, Miss you, happy birthday, hope you get well soon.
  2. b. Leaving literature behind, tracks, free Bible studies cards, Health booklets, 
  3. c.  Finding people who are in need and directing them to help
  4. d. Sharing your resources, Time or Money

There are a lot of Christian’s right here in our Church that I know who minister, through Indirect Contact;    God bless you for what you do in His name.

 

3. Prayer:

  1. a. Just that on your knee interceding in someone behalf.
  2. b. Nothing will get you closer to Jesus then through Praying for someone else.

 

The gospel is going to the world. And, many Christian denominations are out there preaching about Jesus. We’re doing a lot, but we’ve got a lot more to do and we need to keep at it.

 

God has richly blessed the spread of His Gospel.

We need to keep something at heart, When the Gospel goes to the entire world, we go home!

Is it going to the world, I think it is and I think Jesus coming is a lot closer then you think

 

What are you doing personally to help other prepare for His coming?

Friends, the last days are an Opportunity.

It is the last opportunity for a dying world to know its creator, an opportunity for us to preach the gospel, an opportunity for you to give your heart to Jesus Christ

I wonder if there is anybody here today who needs a saving relationship with Jesus. Are you closer to Jesus today than you were last year?

Do you truly have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ?  If not would you like to receive Jesus as your Savior all you need to do is to invite Him in to your life?

 

If you want to know more details of last day events, I highly advise reading a very informative book called The Great Controversy, by EG White, especially the last chapters.

 

Friend:   It is closer then you think.

 

May the Lord our God guide and Bless you as you seek for His Truth

In the Eye of the Storm

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I met a man many years ago who in fact changed my life.

He turned my life from a Church back pew warmer to a Church Leader.

But the thing that amazed me most about him was his Faith.

No Matter what happen to this man, he always had a smile and always said thank you Jesus, whether good or bad…

Daniel 3:17 “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.”

STORY: Pastor Frank

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We must understand that the King of this world is Satan, and he has only one aim and that is toChoose your path keep you from Jesus, by letting little things get in your way and become an obstacle between you and salvation.

Don’t let the little troubles in life get you down. Jesus knows what you are going through, He knows your problems. He says “just put your truth in Me and I will take care of you.”

There are many Storms in life that we fight everyday, and if we try and fight them with our human strength we will fail, it is only as we depend on Jesus and put our trust in Him that he will enable us to meet the trial ahead and in His name be Victorious!

Let us Pray!

When thing are going bad for you, can you still hold up your head and say Praise you Jesus?

Bad things may happen, but if a bad thing happens at the right time is it still a bad thing?

Story: The Van in Florida:

When God has His hand over His people there is no need to worry, He is taking care of the little matters that we forget.

Have you ever been between a rock and a hard place?
Where no matter what decision you make it is going to be the wrong one…

Look at what happen to Jesus:

Some of the leading priest of his times, who he came to save; gave Him the hardest times and made His life very bitter.

Mark 12:14 “And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”

What a deception, if they knew that he was a true teacher, why did they keep on him with their malicious hate?

Continually they kept-up with their words of hate and drought. Beating upon God’s dear Son for no other reason then because He was different.

His holy life made there sinful life all the more revealing; In the presence of Jesus they could not hide or cover up there Sins.

15: Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it.

Jesus fully understood their motive and read into their malice therefore He said unto them

16: Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar’s.

17: And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him.

Even though Jesus was the Son of God, He did not use any of His Godley power to withstand the attacks of satin,

He just like us today must fully rely on the protection of the Father.

We too, need to learn this lesson; many times we try in our ‘Human way’ of thinking to do it our own way, and it never works…

Too late sometimes, when all we needed was to trust in Jesus!

When in time of trouble, don’t worry about what you are going to say, just rely on Jesus, He will give you the right words to say that will convict the hearts of people who are truly seeking.

Hardly any stories in the Bible matches the Faith of three Hebrew young Men.

Story: One day a King made a decree, All he was trying to do is to get every one on the same playing field.

There were problems in the kingdom and so he made a plan to resolve it.

This is about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.

All the King was asking for was a little compromise, a little helping out here, you scratch my back and I am going to scratch yours.

Was that too much to ask? He made this ‘decree,’ and it must be obeyed.

Everyone else was making a compromise, no one will care about you Hebrews, and you can go back to servicing your God tomorrow.

Daniel 3:16 “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
17: If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
18: But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

Many times in our life we become entangle in a storm that seam like there is no way out.

If we would only trust in God and not in Man we too would say “our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnaces of Life, and he will deliver us out of hands of the king’s of this world.

Jesus will take all who put their trust in him through the fire’s of Life.

 

Story: Fire at Sea….

Eye of the StormIt was just an ordinary winter day back in February 1976. The M/V Aleutian Island was loading up to make another run to an offshore rig that was a little over 100 miles out to Sea. She was loaded with Drill Mud and 48 inch Cashion and had a full load of Fuel, Water and other drill rig supplies.

The weather started out very nice but by the time the Aleutian Island made it out to the Field the weather started getting bad.

Little to the Knowledge the crew, it would be a night they would never forget.

It all started while in transit from one Platform to another the first of many problems started.

1. Port Main Engine Exploded and caught the Engine room on fire.
After the fire was put out, they continued to the rig on one engine.
2. The Starboard main engine exploded and it too caught the engine room on fire again.
3. All they had was the ship’s anchor while they waited on a rescue tug.
4. Weather was getting bad.

That night there was 70 mile an hour winds and 30 foot seas, the ships anchor was not designed to hold in weather like this!

The Anchor stopper plates were kicked out by the force of the waves, the electrical brake was burnt out, the manual brakes was all they had left and they were not holding. Little by little the chain was being pulled out.

But somehow with God’s help the anchor chain held until the storm passed and help arrived.

No one could believe that we made it through that storm on one little anchor.

God will keep you through the storms of your life if you will trust Him.

Story of Paul:

Paul was taken prisoner, but he did not fear. Why? Because he knew that sometimes, bad things happen to God’s good people. But he was not going to let it get in his way, or let Satan have the victory.

He was going to find a way to let the bad things praise God.

He was put on a ship to go to Rome where he was to answer to Caesar because of his faith in Jesus

Acts 28:3 “And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.
4: And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.
5: And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.
6: Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.”

Each and every one of us will have trials that come before us, there will be times when it will look like the whole world will be against you, and more then likely it will be.

Our Hope must be in Jesus

Look at Isaiah 54:13 “And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
14: In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.”

We have the promises of God that those who remain faithful that He will be their protector.

Psalms 91:5 “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6: Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
7: A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8: Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9: Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10: There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11: For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12: They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.”

There is not a Christian today who can say he is not without trials in life.  If you are having problems give Jesus praise for it.

Thank Him that you are counted as worthy to be tried

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

Satan is not seeking his own people to persecute, they are already in his bag, he my friend, is after God’s people. To try them and to make sure their life is as bitter as he can make it!

All he is asking for is a little compromise, you will not have to give up much and you can go right back serving your God tomorrow.

Look at what the Bible says:

Revelation 12:17 “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

God’s people will love him so much that they would rather die then to sin.

Revelation 17:14 “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

While we may drink of a bitter cup now; the daylight of Christ’ return is coming. A day of hope and gladness for all who have kept the faith and put their trust in Him.

We are told by the Prophet John in Rev 21:1 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2: And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3: And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4: And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5: And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6: And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
7: He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”

Daniel 3:17 “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.”

Our God whom we serve will save His people from the fiery trials that Satan puts us through, because greater is He that is in us then he that is in this world.

So if your life is in the midst of a storm just remember Jesus, and like Peter, cry out from the bottom of your heart, Jesus save me, and He will be there to take your hand and lead you out of the fire, but only through your faith.

 

God bless and keep you my friend

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