Dwell On These Things

There is a time to remain silent and a time to speak up.  Let me encourage you to seek wisdom from the Holy Spirit as to when it’s time for each response.  And when you’re given opportunity to testify to who Jesus is, don’t hesitate to honor Him with your words and your testimony.  Even if you’re treated in a similar manner to the treatment He endured, honor Him with your lips, your lifestyle, and the lasting impression you leave upon those you interact with in this world.

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Please visit https://www.biblestudyheadquarters.com/ for more tools and resources to help you grow in faith.

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If you enjoy the show and want to buy John a coffee, please click here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/johnstange

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The "Desire Jesus One Year Devotional" can be found here:  https://amzn.to/41v1DKh

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Following the Passover meal, Jesus took His disciples to Gethsemane where there was a garden.  Already, this had been an eventful night for the group.  They had been told that there was a betrayer among them.  They were also told that they were about to scatter and leave Jesus.  Jesus had also repeatedly made it clear to these men that the time was coming when He was going to be arrested and killed before rising from death.  This was a lot of information to process, and I imagine that the heightened emotional state of the disciples, the walking they had just done, and the lateness of the hour contributed to them feeling very tired.

Jesus knew the hour had come for Him to be betrayed, arrested, tortured, and crucified.  The long-promised atonement for the sin of humanity was about to be completed by Him at the cross, but His soul was filled with sorrow at the horrifying thought of what He was about to experience.

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Making unhealthy comparisons between your life and the life of others is a common mistake we as people seem to often make, and those comparisons can lead you to end up in one of two different places depending on the nature of your comparison.  You will either end up in a state of pride or a state of despair when you compare yourself to others. 

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 It's one of my primary life priorities to encourage others to trust in Christ and follow Him.  Every Sunday, I stand up in front of our church family and try to persuade people to give their lives to Christ.  I write books about this.  I record podcasts about this.  I post on social media with regularity with this as the chief aim of my posts.  Many of you do the very same things and even more.  But how persuasive can a messenger of God be if they don't personally fear the Lord?  What about their life would persuade another person to consider following Christ if that's not the dominant pattern of the messenger?

 Paul wanted the Corinthians and all people to know Christ deeply, but he also knew that Christ's ambassadors need to carry themselves in this world in such a way that the fear of the Lord is a dominant motivation behind their perspectives and actions.

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If you enjoy the show and want to buy John a coffee, please click here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/johnstange

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The "Desire Jesus One Year Devotional" can be found here:  https://amzn.to/41v1DKh

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Jesus is both a leader and a friend to those who trust in Him, but would we have been willing to trust Him at all if we didn’t believe what He said?  If we weren’t absolutely convinced that He will do what He said He will do, would we be willing to entrust our hope and eternal aspirations to His care and protection?  Jesus can be trusted, and in Mark 14:12-25, He demonstrated that His words are true and that He has done or will do everything He said He would.

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Please visit https://www.biblestudyheadquarters.com/ for more tools and resources to help you grow in faith.

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If you enjoy the show and want to buy John a coffee, please click here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/johnstange

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The "Desire Jesus One Year Devotional" can be found here:  https://amzn.to/41v1DKh

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When Christ redeems us, the Holy Spirit transforms the way we think (Romans 12:2).  Jesus is inviting us to realize that He is better than anything this world can offer.  Don’t waste your life chasing after things you can’t keep.  You can’t keep money.  You can’t keep influence.  You can’t keep power.  But you can be kept by Jesus, and He has promised to hold you in His grip regardless of which direction this fallen world attempts to pull you.

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Please visit https://www.biblestudyheadquarters.com/ for more tools and resources to help you grow in faith.

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If you enjoy the show and want to buy John a coffee, please click here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/johnstange

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The "Desire Jesus One Year Devotional" can be found here:  https://amzn.to/41v1DKh

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When Jesus informed Peter, James, John, and Andrew about His future return, he shared many details with them about what to expect.  He told them about future conflicts and a severe season of tribulation unlike the world has ever experienced.  Ultimately, it was His desire that they pass this information along to others as well, which they certainly did.  

God is not a haphazard being.  He has a perfect plan and the timing of when He chooses to do what He’s doing in this world is ideal.  He planned when we would be born.  He has ordained the exact number of days we will walk this earth.  God the Father sent Jesus the Son into this world at the exact right time to atone for the sins of humanity and provide redemption for His people.  He has also foreordained the day when Jesus will return.

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Please visit https://www.biblestudyheadquarters.com/ for more tools and resources to help you grow in faith.

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If you enjoy the show and want to buy John a coffee, please click here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/johnstange

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The "Desire Jesus One Year Devotional" can be found here:  https://amzn.to/41v1DKh

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To email John Stange directly, please send your message to [email protected].

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Please visit https://www.biblestudyheadquarters.com/ for more tools and resources to help you grow in faith.

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If you enjoy the show and want to buy John a coffee, please click here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/johnstange

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The "Desire Jesus One Year Devotional" can be found here:  https://amzn.to/41v1DKh

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Jesus speaks of a day to come when the earth will experience a time of tribulation that is more severe than it has ever experienced since the beginning of creation.  The book of Revelation shares many of the details regarding the wars, plagues, and persecutions that will take place during that era.

There are several views regarding this time of tribulation, but the view that has always made the most sense to me and seems to lend itself to the most plain reading of Scripture teaches that the tribulation will take place over the course of seven years.  It will be a time of God’s judgment on this unbelieving world, and a time of wrath shown toward Israel in connection to their historical idolatry and rejection of the Messiah.  (see Daniel 9 and Revelation 13)

I believe the church will be “raptured” or carried away to heaven prior to this seven-year period of judgment taking place.  I believe this will be the case for several reasons.  First of all, the church is not mentioned in the book of Revelation once the book begins speaking of the wrath that is to come.  Secondly, Scripture tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 that believers are not destined for wrath.  Third, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 describes additional details of this rapturous event.

“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”  (1 Thes. 4:16-17)

I also believe that Scripture teaches that during the seven-year tribulation period, people will come to know Jesus and experience the blessing of His gift of salvation.  Jesus even says that for the sake of the elect, those days will be divinely cut short.

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Please visit https://www.biblestudyheadquarters.com/ for more tools and resources to help you grow in faith.

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If you enjoy the show and want to buy John a coffee, please click here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/johnstange

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The "Desire Jesus One Year Devotional" can be found here:  https://amzn.to/41v1DKh

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To email John Stange directly, please send your message to [email protected].

 There are many places in Scripture where God’s plans for the future are described.  Some of the passages seem very clear while others may strike us as being somewhat mysterious in nature.  For centuries, people have attempted to understand and explain what the Bible teaches about the future.  Admittedly, there are various interpretations of the prophetic passages that speak about future events, so I do advise a high degree of humility as we approach them because there isn’t universal agreement on what these portions of Scripture are teaching.  Some passages, in fact, appear to have multiple applications.

 One such passage is found in Mark 13.  That chapter records a conversation Jesus had with His disciples just a few short days before His crucifixion.  The disciples were leaving the temple area, and one of them made a comment about the temple that prompted Jesus to reveal important details about what they could expect to see in both the near and distant future.

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