To post or not to post...

...that is the question.
Whether ’tis worthwhile to write, (hoping someone will read)
Or leave things unsaid that no one will see.

There are times when I have time, and times that I don’t;
I just wish that when I have the time, I had something to say;
Instead of thinking of something to say when I have no time.

My dad always said, “The dullest pencil is better than the sharpest mind.”
I know he was right, as I cannot remember what to say if I don’t write right away.

So the purpose of this post is only to say,
“I have the time, but cannot think of something someone else has not said.”

Stay tuned.  Exams are coming up at school and I’ll have plenty of time to write after that.

(My apologies to the Shakespeare lovers out there.)

Corrie Ten Boom on the Pretribulation Rapture

A friend sent this in an email.  Enjoy! (For the original post, click the title and go to “Files from Toni” blog.) 

Corrie ten Boom Warns Against Pre-Tribulation Rapture False Doctrine.

Many Christians are unaware of the warning written in a letter by Corrie ten Boom where Miss ten Boom warns against a pre-tribulation rapture false doctrine. A  Dutch Christian and a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust concentration camps. Corrie spearheaded a rescue operation in Holland that helped hundreds of Jews escape the Nazi extermination camps, and travelled all over the world as an ambassador for Christ telling her story. In her worldwide travels Miss ten Boom met with many Christians abroad. Many in the Suffering Church were enduring persecution just as she had. She met with Church leaders of the underground church in China. There she became aware of what had happened to the Chinese church in 1949. At that time Mao Tse Tung was bringing China into communism. The American missionaries had left the country. Chinese Christians entered into a time of intense persecution. 

During that period the Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine had been the accepted teaching. But there was a problem. And it turned out to be a serious one. This Biblically unfounded doctrine had not prepared the Chinese Church for witness under trial. Christian believers were interrogated and brutalized under the Red Guard. Many fell away from the faith in those times.

Corrie ten Boom’s story is told through her book The Hiding Place, and the motion picture released by the same name in the 1970s. 

Corrie ten Boom went home to be with her Lord April 15, 1983, but her inspiring testimony for Christ will endure.

Following is the letter Corrie left warning against a pre-tribulation rapture false doctrine that Christians all over the world, and especially in America need to take very seriously.  In this capacity Corrie ten Boom has earned the right to be heard. She is eminently qualified to present this special word of warning to the Western Church.

~~~~~

The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers. 

Christians are ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world. And because of our presence here, things will change. 

My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room. 

We may have been the Lord’s only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” We too, are to be overcomers – bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate. 

Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages. I can now come to shouting “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” for I have found where it is written that Jesus said, 

“He that overcometh shall inherit all things
and I will be His God, 
and he shall be My son.”
This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive – but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world. 

Betsy and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick.

“Yes, the Lord will heal me,” Betsy said with confidence. 

She died the next day and I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that day. 

It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy’s death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus. 

There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation that the Christians will be able to escape all this.  These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days.  Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution.

In China, the Christians were told, “Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated- raptured.”  Then came a terrible persecution.  Millions of Christians were tortured to death.  Later, I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly:

“We have failed..
We should have made the people strong for persecution,
rather than telling them Jesus would come first.
Tell the people to be strong in times of persecution,
how to stand when the tribulation comes,
to stand and not faint.”

I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ.  We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation.  There is no way to escape it.  We are next.

Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus’ sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think, “Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation.” Then I write it down and learn it by heart. 

When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying, “Nothing could be any worse than today.” But we would find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy. 

“If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye;
for the spirit of the glory and of God resteth upon you;
on their part evil is spoken of,
but on your part He is glorified.”
I Peter 4:14

I found myself saying, “Hallelujah! Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!” 

In America, the churches sing, “Let the congregation escape tribulation”, but in China and Africa the tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone, more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation. 

Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were commanded to come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the Christians in the district were being systematically murdered. 

The fourth day I was to speak in a little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, “Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?” 

The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story out of my childhood. 

When I was a little girl, I went to my father and said, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.”
“Tell me,” said Father, “when you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket?  Three weeks before?”
“No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.”
“That’s is right,” my father said, “and so it is with God’s strength.  Our Father in heaven knows when you need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.  He will supply all you need just in time.”

My African friends were nodding and smiling. Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began singing, 

“In the sweet, by and by, 

we shall meet on that beautiful shore.” 

Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed. 

I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago. 

But I must tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life. 

How can we get ready for the persecution? 

First we need to feed on the Word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives. 

Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive and sitting at the right hand of God. 

We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it.  In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other.

But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting. 
The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian’s life. 
Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too, am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including the horrible Nazi concentration camp, that I might have to go through the tribulation also. 
But then I read the Bible and I am glad. 

When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we got power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down. 

“Though He shall slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Job 13:15
for I know that to all who overcome, 
He shall give the crown of life. 
Hallelujah!

- Corrie Ten Boom - 1974 

H.T.: Christine D.

Sensual Worship

I received this the other day as a daily devotional from Mack Tomlinson.  I think it is a good to remember that in worship, we are to please God and not man.  Keep that in mind as you peruse this post. 

~PL

When interest in the churches begins to centre round the visual and the sensual, it is commonly a sign of impending apostasy. By ‘sensual’ I mean that which appeals to the senses of man (sight, smell, hearing), as opposed to ‘spirit’, that is, the capacity that belongs to those born of the Spirit of God. Hence the antithesis, ‘sensual, having not the Spirit’ (Jude 19). ‘Sensual’ is also translated ‘natural’ or ‘worldly’; the meaning is the same. It does not take regeneration to give the sensual or the aesthetic a religious appeal to the natural man or woman.

In the Old Testament the people of God were, in measure, taught by their senses as God imposed the form of worship. As a check against any misuse of that means of teaching, no additions to or subtractions from it were allowed. But with the finished work of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit, a momentous change took place. The church was raised to the higher privilege of worship in ‘spirit and truth’ (John 4:24). She belongs to the ‘Jerusalem which is above’ (Gal.4:26).

In the words of John Owen, ‘the naked simplicity of gospel institutions’ was established in the place of ‘the old, glorious worship of the temple’; Levitical choirs, incense, vestments, etc. — all were gone. 

In the words of Richard Bennett, long a Roman priest, ‘The ritual, symbolical richness of the sacramental life of the Church, to a great extent, meets the human need for transcendence.’ It does no more than that.

The observation of W. H. Griffith Thomas, writing on ‘Spiritual Worship’, is true:

"It is the universal experience of Christian people that the more the senses are attracted, fascinated, and occupied, the less room there is for the action of the soul. The teaching of Christian history points very clearly to the fact that simplicity of outward ceremonial has been usually unaccompanied by the reality of the inward spirit of worship."

This is where the neglect of church history and Scripture has serious consequences for many contemporary evangelical churches. In the 1960s, at a time when the churches were losing their hold on young people, it was believed that a new way of renewing contact with them was to be learned from the contemporary culture. Music appeals to all, and why not make use of the new style of music and accompaniments which had become so popular? After all, music has to be neutral, so why not make it an ally?

Some put it more strongly. James Ryle ‘prophesied’ that ‘God is getting ready to anoint Christian musicians with the same anointing that was given to the Beatles’, and he attributed to God the words, ‘I had a purpose, and the purpose was to usher in the charismatic renewal with music revival around the world.’

Few warning voices were to be heard. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was almost alone in the 1960s in England when he warned against ‘the increasing tendency at the present time’ to use music to produce emotion; the justification being that music can make people happy, and when people feel happy they will find Christianity more acceptable. When an older generation sometimes expressed misgivings at the change this thinking had brought into public worship, they were told not to put their wishes before those of the outsiders whom the church needed to win.

Few saw the danger pinpointed by Lloyd-Jones: the impression of music on natural feelings was being confused with spiritual truth: ‘Because it [music] is performed in connection with a religious service or by Christians, people imagine and persuade themselves that they are feeling the truth. But they are not. This feeling has no direct connection with what they have believed.'

With this new departure came a flood of musical innovations into evangelical churches worldwide. The instruments of the old temple worship, as well as others, were restored, and with ‘music teams’, ‘music directors’, public worship has undergone a transformation.

It would be a mistake to say the change has come simply from the initiative of evangelicals. The Roman Catholic Church is no less involved, and in her case the new thinking was not new at all. It was under the Papacy, in the later Middle Ages, that the Church first commonly took up the use of instrumental music. At the time of the Reformation, Erasmus complained of the Roman Church:

"We have brought into our churches a certain operose and theatrical music . . . as I think was ever heard in any of the Grecian or Roman theatres. The Church rings with the noise of trumpets, pipes and dulcimers; and human voices strive to bear their part with them . . . Men run to church as to a theatre, to have their ears tickled."

The Reformers rejected the paraphernalia of musical accompaniments, not because they did not appreciate the place of congregational song in the worship of God but, on the contrary, because they wanted its restoration to New Testament simplicity. In the words of Calvin: ‘In gospel times we must not have recourse to these, unless we wish to destroy the evangelical perfection, and to obscure the meridian light which we enjoy in Christ.’ Far from having any right to claim the support of Scripture for what Rome had introduced, he further says: ‘Now that Christ has appeared, and the church has reached full age, it were only to bury the light of the gospel, should we introduce the shadows of a departed dispensation.’

The Church of Rome, in her apostasy, has long exhibited the full outworking of the danger which evangelicalism has been ignoring. But sometimes protest coming from an unexpected quarter broke the silence. Richard Bennett, after finishing his education at the Angelicum University of Rome, served as a priest in Trinidad. After all his years there, he writes,

"Protestant Christians from overseas sometimes came to services, saw our sacred oils, holy water, medals, statues, vestments, rituals, and never said a word! The marvellous style, symbolism, music, and artistic taste of the Roman Church were all very captivating. Incense not only smells pungent, but to the mind it spells mystery. One day, a woman challenged me (the only Christian ever to challenge me in all my twenty-two years as a priest), 'You Roman Catholics have a form of godliness, but you deny its power.' Those words bothered me for some time because the lights, banners, folk music, guitars and drums were dear to me. Clearly I was unable to apply the Scripture to my life where it mattered most."

The change in public worship in evangelical churches is not the harmless thing it is thought to be. ‘So long as there is good preaching’, it is said, ‘we need not be overly concerned.’ We ought to be concerned! An appetite is being fed which in the past has led to the very abandonment of the gospel. When satisfying the ‘natural’ becomes acceptable in churches, the spiritual will not long remain. As the long-time Catholic, and later Protestant martyr, Hugh Latimer, warned, ‘When candles go up, preaching comes down.’

That music has great prominence in modern society is not in doubt. Nor is it the first time that such attention has been given to music in periods of decadence. Horatius Bonar noted:

"In connection with the 'decline and fall' of the Roman Empire, a singular fact has been recorded. — When the arts were declining, — poetry, sculpture, painting, deteriorating, — religion and patriotism decaying, — music was cultivated to an extraordinary extent. Old Romans died music-mad."

Accommodating the churches to contemporary culture may increase numbers (for a time); it has never led to a spiritual awakening. Unless there is a God-given change, it is to be feared that we will see in evangelicalism a developing apostasy.

-- Iain Murray

We would take Mr. Murray's statement further--we see before our eyes apostasy already in evangelicalism; yet the true remnant of the followers of Jesus Christ will continue to seek the Lord based upon the Bible alone, by the life of the Holy Spirit, according to one thing--the pure gospel of Christ.

-- Mack Tomlinson

Aftermath of “Snowpocalypse”

Here are a couple of pics of what the L household has now that the snow has stopped and the sun is shining (and we can see the river again!).   The temperature is 16° with a slight wind, so it is still rather cold.  But we let the dog out of the basement she has called home since Monday night.  On the porch, it feels warmer because of the sunshine and lack of wind.  She'll go back to the basement tonight, since it is supposed to drop to -10°.

Niña enjoying the sunshine after a day and a half in the basement.

The view from the garage.  Since I had to walk through knee deep snow to get to the shovel,  I am calling this the “Frog snow”, since to me it sounds like a frog’s croak is “kneedeep”.

Snow day!

I am home for the next two days due to a blizzard, the big Blizzard 2011!  Here are a few pictures we took this morning, since we really didn’t have much else to do.

So how’s the weather where you live?

A woodpecker outside our kitchen.  You can see how fast the snow is flying.

There are houses which you can normally see through the trees about 1/8 mile away.

The river is usually in view beyond the trees about 1/4 mile away.

Is this degree worth two years of your life?

While driving to work today, I heard a news story that made me wonder. It was the story of Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy, a Canandian woman who is the first graduate from a graduate program in studying the Beatles.  Don’t believe me? Read about it here.  We’re not talking about a semester class on a rock group, but an actual college major!

So, I got to thinking of what kind of career a person with an MA in “Beatleology” might pursue.  All I could come up with was museum curator or college prof teaching more young people useless info.  I mean, all the problems in the world today and this woman (she’s my age!) wasted two years studying a rock group?  And people wonder why the world is in such a mess!

I am reminded of an A. W. Tozer sermon about:

... a certain British peer who had died just a few days short of his eighty-ninth birthday.

Having been a man of means and position, it had presumably not been necessary for him to work for a living like the rest of us, so at the time of his death he had had about seventy adult years in which he was free to do whatever he wanted to do, to pursue any calling he wished or to work at anything he felt worthy of his considerable abilities.

And what had he chosen to do? Well, according to the story, he had "devoted his life to trying to breed the perfect spotted mouse."

Read the whole sermon.  You’ll see that Ms. Zahalan-Kennedy is not the first to study something useless.

Seasonal humor

I found this cartoon interesting, considering all the back and forth about the “reason for the season”.

 

From World Magazine

November Life and Thoughts

As I wrote here three years ago, I usually think of death in November.  But this year is different.  Life is abounding!  Above is a miniature rose that i discovered blooming on our rose bush last week when I went out to do the pre-winter trimming.  In November!  Maybe that is common in warmer climates, but around here, November is the first of several drab months.  The leaves have all fallen off the trees or are a dull, brown color, hanging onto the tree as long as possible.  The grass is brown or yellow.  Even the weeds stop growing.   But we have flowers this year.  Not only the roses, but violets and daisies.


Another thought: In the Epistle to the Hebrews, we read of Jesus being our High Priest, yet He was of the tribe of Judah.  The tribe of Levi was the priestly tribe, so the Jews would not accept Jesus as a priest.  The other day, I was reading Luke 1, about Elizabeth and Mary.  Luke tells us that Elizabeth was a relative of Mary's, and that she was a descendant of Aaron, the first priest.  So, by extension, Jesus was a relative of Elizabeth, so He part Levite and of Aaron's family, so He could indeed claim a priestly position.

Are people really so stupid?

I haven't verified this, but it is funny. We got this in a recent email. 

UNKILLED  HAMBURGER MEAT 

Note To All Hunters: This is from a  San Francisco   newspaper:

To all you hunters who kill animals for food, shame on you; you ought to go to the store and buy the meat that was made there, where no animals we harmed.

I'm still here

I’m still here, just not as active on this blog as I thought I would be.  Life is busy, time seems short, but all is well.


Some tidbits:

• Our granddaughter will be a big sister in June.
• I like the fact that the World Series has two teams that are not from New York or Los Angeles.  Of course, I don’t really care who wins it this year.  
• I am glad that election day is this week.  Not that I am that excited about voting, but the ads will finally cease!  Every year they get worse.  With all the politicians seeming not to like the negative ads, you would think they could tell their supporters not to air them.
• School this year is going fast.  Not that I am complaining, mind you.

Since I really do not have much to say, I might as well end this.  Thank you for taking a few seconds to stop by.  Please leave a message so I know you were here.