Refuge Audio Podcast

We hope you’re encouraged by this edition of Strengthened by Grace with Pastor Dominic Dinger of Calvary Chapel Saint Cloud. Learn more and find downloads of messages at CalvaryChapelSaintCloud.org

“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

–Matthew 6:10

These were some of the things Jesus told His disciples to pray for when they asked Him how to pray. We experience a portion of that prayer on a daily basis, but there will come a day when that promise is fully realized. The kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, and deliverance from evil.

As we continued our study of Revelation this past Sunday, we see that God will one day answer this prayer. In Revelation 20, we read about the future reign of Christ on earth and the imprisonment of the devil during the same time.

We hope you’re encouraged by this edition of Strengthened by Grace with Pastor Dominic Dinger of Calvary Chapel Saint Cloud. Learn more and find downloads of messages at CalvaryChapelSaintCloud.org

Our study of prophecy should always lead to a deeper walk with Jesus and help us grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus—for prophecy is all about Him! Since the goal of prophecy is to worship God, we must beware of turning prophecy into a search for special knowledge that no one else has or to find a demon behind every bush. If anything else becomes the focus of our study of prophecy, something’s wrong.

So as we continue our study this book of prophecy, our understanding of Jesus deepens as we receive the full counsel of God’s word concerning Christ’s character. Remember—Jesus is not only the Suffering Servant; He will return as the Avenger of Blood. His first coming was the Lamb slain; His second coming will be the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

We hope you’re encouraged by this edition of Strengthened by Grace with Pastor Dominic Dinger of Calvary Chapel Saint Cloud. Learn more and find downloads of messages at CalvaryChapelSaintCloud.org

Think of the few times in the Gospels when Jesus was truly angry. You know, those times when He flipped over tables and swung a whip around.

Jesus never got angry in response to a personal insult. No, His righteous anger was aroused when He saw corrupt religious leadership profiting from religious roadblocks that prevented people from worshipping God. Roadblocks that were never commanded by God, but enforced by the religious rulers to extort loyalty and money from people who just wanted to worship.

And Jesus hated this! He got angry—angry enough to call out the religious leadership of the day (see Matthew 23:15 and Luke 11:46). Angry enough to do something about it (see Mark 11:15-17).

It still angers Jesus when religious corruption takes advantage of people and keeps them from worshipping God. And, as we read in Revelation 18, it will continue to anger Jesus in the future. He will someday flip over more than tables—He’ll flip over Mystery Babylon and put an end to this wicked religious system once and for all.

We hope you’re encouraged by this edition of Strengthened by Grace with Pastor Dominic Dinger of Calvary Chapel Saint Cloud. Learn more and find downloads of messages at CalvaryChapelSaintCloud.org

We often think of the compassionate kindness, gracious gentleness, and everlasting love of God as our Heavenly Father. But like any good Father, He gets extremely upset when His kids or those He loves are harmed or harassed.

Just consider what you might do if someone attempted to harm the people you love. Or how you’d respond if someone was deliberately deceiving your loved ones—tricking them in to believing you didn’t love them, or making them think they were in right relationship with you when they really weren’t.

Because of your great love for them, you would feel strong feelings and take righteous action against those bent on destruction and deception. Just like our Heavenly Father. In these (hopefully) hypothetical scenarios, we identify just a bit with what God experiences.

We hope you’re encouraged by this edition of Strengthened by Grace with Pastor Dominic Dinger of Calvary Chapel Saint Cloud. Learn more and find downloads of messages at CalvaryChapelSaintCloud.org

People can be stubborn. Perhaps you have noticed. Sometimes stubborn people need incentive to turn away from their sin, to repent, and to turn towards the Lord. And sometimes, the Lord (in His grace and His mercy) gives people this incentive.

One day, God will give humanity all the incentive we could ever ask for. He will pull out all the stops and pour out all of His wrath for the purpose of producing repentance so that humanity might receive the greatest gift of all: eternal salvation.

This time is described in great detail in Revelation 16. It is the final opportunity God gives people to repent from sin and to receive salvation. And we shouldn’t be surprised to read how intense this time will be when it happens. God, in His great mercy, endeavors to produce repentance because He loves those who will be left at the end of the tribulation. He doesn’t want any of them to perish, but all of them to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).