SEEK THE LORD WHILE HE IS STILL NEAR

Dear friend, drawing from the subject of today's post, I would love for us to consider this Scripture passage in Isaiah 55:6-7, "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."

I need you to read this Scripture again and meditate on it.

In case you are not aware, we live at a time when the end of the Church age is imminent - when our Lord, Saviour and Messiah Jesus Christ is coming to take His bride, the Church or Body of Christ in Rapture.

Again, in case you do not understand, the Rapture is imminent event when the Lord Jesus Christ will take away Christians from the face of this earth to be with Him in Heaven.

By Christians I mean those who have repented of evil, obtained Salvation by believing that Jesus died on the Cross of Calvary for their sins and have given their lives to Him, Jesus Christ and have obeyed Jesus' commands by living a holy life by the power of God's Holy Spirit.

Again, I repeat that it is only Christians as defined in the preceding paragraph that the Lord Jesus Christ will take away in Rapture, not those who verbally profess Christ as their Lord but their very conduct and lifestyle go contrary to what Jesus has commanded as contained in His Word, the Holy Bible.

When the Rapture takes place, the presence of God will depart the earth completely and immediately, satan or lucifer or devil or azazel as he is variously known will take over the earth, subdue and torment everyone left behind, including those who claimed Christianity but did not make it in the Rapture.

Demons would be let loose and will deal with those who once had close relationship with Jesus Christ and tormented demons with their prayers but because of sin missed the Rapture. Such people will have to pay with their blood after excruciating torture at the hands of satan.

This situation will last for 7 whole years when chaos, disaster, sin and wickedness would take place upon the entire earth at a magnitude never witnessed before. Nations will destroy themselves and as the Holy Bible tells us, a third of the earth's population would be destroyed in war!

This 7-year period is known in Christendom as the Great Tribulation while the war I just referred to in the preceding paragraph is called the Battle of Armageddon.

Since we all know that a number of countries now have nuclear power, it is not difficult to imagine how this tragic event would happen.

Dear friend, just try and imagine the scenario I have painted above. It sounds very unrealistic and untrue, doesn't it? Yes it does, but I can assure you that these things I have just stated are not from my imagination but from God's Word, the Holy Bible and I will refer you there to read for yourself.

I will also remind you at this point that just like in the time of Noah when God asked him to build an ark, take his family and a pair (male and female) of every kind of animal into the ark in preparation for the destruction of the world, the people then never beleived Noah when God sent him to warn them.

Instead the people mocked Noah, continued with sinful behaviour and lived their lives normally until God sent the rain that fell non-stop for 40 days and 40 nights and destroyed every living thing on earth except Noah, his family and the animals he took into the ark (Genesis 6 - 7).

That is exactly how it is today. The Lord Jesus Christ, despite having shed His precious blood for our sins continues to invite us to repent of sin and turn to Him.

He continues to take people of different nations and races to show the realities of heaven and hell with a warning to those on earth to repent of sin and turn to Him that He will coming NOW.

Unfortunately, it does appear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ is not loud enough because not only are people mocking those He has sent to warn mankind, these same people are still living in sin and commiting all sorts of attrocities.

What is very sad and most unfortunate is that even in the Church, the Body of Christ, where adherents to the Christian faith should lead exemplary lives for unbelievers outside the Church to follow, we find these same people living lives that cannot in anyway differentiate them as children of the Light of Christ Jesus.

We find church members living double lives, telling lies, defrauding fellow church members and outsiders, committing fornication and adultery, stealing even the offerings and tithes, refusing to pay tithes from their income to support the Gospel work as Christ has commanded.

We find women who dress half naked to church, wearing trousers, wearing articles of satan like hair attachments (weave ons, wigs,etc), jewelleries, make up, anklets, false nails, false eye lashes, and engaged in other disgusting behaviour.

We find young men and ladies engaged in fornication, cheating in school examinations, reducing their ages to obtain favour, playing with their mobile phones while in Church when prayer, worship and teaching on God's Word is ongoing, chasing themselves immorally, hugging themselves in public even when they know they are not married.

We find even church leaders stealing from their congregation, diverting church funds to personal use, obtaining money for prayers, committing fornication and adultery with members.

We find churches inviting worldly people to entertain them either in comedy or music with disgusting lyrics that offend God Almighty. Some Churches now play worldly music at their activities and not only dance to such music but also dance erotic, seductive and disgusting dance styles that could only have emanated from satan in hell, his home.

We find so called Christian parents who buy yet to be taken school examination papers for their children and even boast about it to others. Parents don't teach their children to pray and leave that to the Church.

Christian parents break road traffic rules most times  and even when going to Church to worship God. They tell lies in their places of work trying to earn a living to cater for their kids and when you ask them about spiritual things including the spiritual well being of their children they get offended and are only concerned about their children's material well being.

Christian parents go to commit murder in the name of abortion for a so called unwanted pregnancy because they have enough children and believe they cannot cater for this new one.

We find so called Christians refusing to go to Church to thank the Lord and Owner of all creation including their lives, refusing to go worship Him and listen to His Word all because of a football game!

These things are happening in the Church and the people do not see or even realize it and satan is happy because that is exactly what he wants to achieve - distraction of God's people from the kingdom to end up in hell forever with him (satan).

Dear friend I can go on and on and on about these things but at this juncture I invite you once again to go to the Scripture reference at the top of this post, read and meditate on it again.

The time to repent of sin, turn to God through the Lord Jesus Christ is NOW, not tomorrow or later for it may be too late.

There is nothing in this world that should distract one from God because God is the Ultimate and whoever must live well in this life and spend eternity in heaven with God after departing this world in death or when Jesus comes in Rapture MUST obey God as He commanded.

Find the Lord now when He is still near because nothing can stop His plan from coming to pass and He will soon take His people, Christians, away and leave others at the mercy of satan and his demons.

Dear friend, Jesus loves you and that is why He left His Throne in Heaven to come to earth, take a human form, suffer such excrutiating torture at the hands of humans He Himself created, shed His precious blood for our sins to destroy when satan did at the beginning and to open heaven for us to enter and be with Him, Jesus, forever.

Don't allow satan deceive you to throw all that away because the regret is eternal and there is no second chance in hell fire.

May God bless you as you heed His Word today, act on it and share with others in Jesus' Mighty Name, Amen.

Gabriel Ama.

P.S. Please find below Scripture passages to confirm that Rapture is real and imminent once you read it and compare to what is happening in today's world:

1 Thessalonians 4:17 - Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Revelation 1:7 - Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they [also] which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 - For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

John 14:3 - And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also.

Matthew 24:31 - And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Matthew 24:27 - For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.

Revelation 20:4 - And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither His image, neither had received [His] mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

1 Corinthians 15:52 - In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Luke 21:34-36 - And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and [so] that day come upon you unawares.  

Matthew 24:42 - Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

Matthew 24:30 - And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Matthew 24:36 - But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

Revelation 22:12 - And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward [is] with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

Revelation 19:11-16 - And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him [was] called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war.  

Revelation 3:10 - Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-2 - But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.  

Matthew 24:21 - For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Matthew 16:27 - For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works.

Daniel 9:27 - And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Revelation 14:12 - Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Revelation 11:15 - And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become [the kingdoms] of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.

Revelation 7:14 - And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 4:1 - After this I looked, and, behold, a door [was] opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard [was] as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

Jude 1:14 - And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

Hebrews 9:27 - And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

2 Thessalonians 2:8 - And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming:

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 - Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and [by] our gathering together unto him,  

1 Thessalonians 5:9 - For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

1 Thessalonians 5:3 - For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 - For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

1 Corinthians 14:33 - For God is not [the author] of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

1 Corinthians 4:5 - Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

John 14:1-3 - Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.  

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Amos 3:7 - Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.

Daniel 12:7 - And I heard the man clothed in linen, which [was] upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that [it shall be] for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these [things] shall be finished.

Daniel 9:24-27 - Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.   (Read More...)

Revelation 20:2-5 - And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,   (Read More...)

Revelation 19:7 - Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.

Revelation 19:6-9 - And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.   (Read More...)

Revelation 17:8 - The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Revelation 17:1-18 - And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:   (Read More...)

Revelation 16:15 - Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed [is] he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

Revelation 16:1-21 - And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.   (Read More...)

Revelation 15:8 - And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Revelation 15:2 - And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, [and] over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

Revelation 13:8 - And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Revelation 11:3 - And I will give [power] unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Revelation 11:2 - But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty [and] two months.

Revelation 9:5 - And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment [was] as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

Revelation 7:13 - And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

Revelation 7:3 - Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

Revelation 7:1-17 - And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.   (Read More...)

Revelation 6:16 - And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

1 John 3:2 - Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see Him as He is.

2 Peter 3:10 - But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

1 Peter 1:13 - Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

James 1:12 - Blessed [is] the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.

Hebrews 9:28 - So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Hebrews 2:14 - Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

1 Thessalonians 4:1-18 - Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort [you] by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, [so] ye would abound more and more.   (Read More...)

1 Thessalonians 1:10 - And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, [even] Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

Colossians 3:4 - When Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.

1 Corinthians 15:51-55 - Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,   (Read More...)

Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Acts 1:9-11 - And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.   (Read More...)

John 14:2 - In my Father's house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

Luke 21:36 - Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

Luke 21:16 - And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and [some] of you shall they cause to be put to death.

Luke 17:30 - Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

Luke 17:26-37 - And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.   (Read More...)

Luke 12:40 - Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

Mark 13:26-27 - And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 

Mark 13:9 - But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.

Matthew 25:1-13 - Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.   (Read More...)

Matthew 24:40 - Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

Matthew 24:22 - And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Matthew 13:39 - The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

Matthew 13:30 - Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Zechariah 14:4 - And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which [is] before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, [and there shall be] a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.