Ephesus - Moriel Ministries

Special Interest – Continued
life that block what God is wanting me to be nor
things in my life that are blocking me from really
doing what God is wanting me to do. Sometimes
I feel like I am being put to death when
I complain about my neck, when I complain
about being rejected by so much of the popular
church because I will not go along with what is
going on. Then I get a copy of a newsletter and
read of Christians living in almost sub-human
poverty, imprisoned, and their families unable
to support themselves. My kids have a roof over
their head so what do I have to complain about
Yes, my neck hurts but I have pills. There are
people whose necks hurt and they do not have
the money for a pill.
Why is it that ministries who teach the
truth are always struggling for money but the
ones who are corrupt rake it in Because they
struggle for money too only they are expanding
their corruption! Honest ministries are trying to
expand the truth; they have to struggle and trust
God. Death works in me.
Why, Lord, if I am teaching the truth I was
only upholding the Trinity yet people who were
part of Moriel began using my name at one time
to endorse people who denied it. When I took
the stand, they slandered me; they said I was
mentally unbalanced from my automobile accident.
(Maybe I am unbalanced, but not from my
automobile accident.) Who needs this What
those people did was wicked but the real question
is why did God allow it What is God saying
to me in this God will deal with them but
what is He saying to me
When my neck hurts the way it does today,
(I am going to have to take a pill pretty soon)
what is God saying to me What is God saying
to you when you are in the fish’s guts Remember
Jesus said He is like Jonah. It seems like
God himself banishes us from His presence. We
are behaving in a way we think is reasonable
and at least it is not irrational. We had reason on
our side but we are in this bad situation. Sometimes
it is lousy employment, sometimes no
employment, financial hardship, health problems,
problems in the church, problems in the
ministry, problems in the family, problems in
the marriage – problems, problems, problems.
It seems like the Lord has banished us from His
presence. He put us in a tomb, He left us in a
grave. Oh, not the Ninevites, not the Mormons
or the Muslims, not the yobbos or the prostitutes!
He puts us in the grave.
He has banished us from His sight, but
death could not contain Jesus and death cannot
contain you either. I have said a thousand times
the test of a true Christian is not that they do not
have trials. On the contrary, if you do not have
trials you are not a Christian. We have tribulation
in the world. The test of a Christian is not
that we do not go into the fish’s guts, the test of
the trial is what happens when we are inside of it.
There are direct parallels in the Psalms to
what happened to Jonah in that fish’s gut.
The cords of death encompassed me,
And the torrents of ungodliness terrified
me.The cords of Sheol surrounded me; The
snares of death confronted me. In my distress
I called upon the LORD, And cried
to my God for help; He heard my voice
out of His temple, And my cry for help before
Him came into His ears. (Ps. 18:4-6)
We may have been banished from his sight
but not from his ears.
Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your
waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your
waves have rolled over me. (Ps. 42:7)
Just like Jonah.
The cords of death encompassed me And
the terrors of Sheol came upon me; I
found distress and sorrow. Then I called
upon the name of the LORD: “O Lord, I
beseech You, save my life!” Gracious is
the LORD, and righteous; Yes, our God is
compassionate. The LORD preserves the
simple; I was brought low, and He saved
me. Return to your rest, O my soul, For
the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
For You have rescued my soul from death,
My eyes from tears, My feet from stumbling.
I shall walk before the LORD In the
land of the living. (Ps. 116:3-9)
Even if you die there is a resurrection, there
is a millennial kingdom.
Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the
death of his godly ones. (Ps. 116:15)
Even if we die we see him not in the land
of the dead but in the land of the living. What
does Job say
“As for me, I know that my Redeemer
lives, And at the last He will take His stand
on the earth. “Even after my skin is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall see God;
Whom I myself shall behold, And whom
my eyes will see and not another. My heart
faints within me! (Job 19:25-27)
Even if we die we will see the goodness of
the Lord in the land of the living.
“Out of the depths I have cried to You O
LORD”. (Ps. 130:1)
When we are in the depths we have been
banished from God’s own presence. Our arguments
are rational – at least to our own mind,
and certainly they are logical and even to a degree
biblical. There we are in the stomach of
the fish, the waves have overtaken us and we
are not only drowning but are perhaps drowned.
The bars of Sheol give us no way out and we
cannot even see the Lord; He has banished us
from His presence. But these Psalms don’t tell
us He looks upon us, they say he hears. Then
and only then did the fish regurgitate Jonah out
onto the beach. He must have looked a mess
and smelt even worse, but he was ready for action!
When we go through a mess like this we
might not look so good. †††
Copyright © 2008 by Moriel Ministries (www.MorielMinistries.org).
Permission for personal and/or notfor-profit
use freely granted, commercial use strictly
prohibited. Scripture taken from the NASB.
Quotes of the QUARTER !
For friends near and far, for friends we have
never seen or met, but are co-workers in
Christ.
“Friends always show their love. What
are brothers for if not to share troubles”
– Proverbs 17:17 –
The Dilemma of Laodicea
Description: The Dilemma of
Laodicea is the last of the seven
churches before Jesus returns.
Scripturally and logically the contemporary
church of the 21st century
is conspicuously in the character
of that church at the close of
the 1st century. Immediately after
His message to Laodica shifts
into it apocalyptic panorama of
events global, cosmic, and celestial
which unfold culminating
with the establishment messianic
kingdom following an unprecedented
spectrum of cataclysmic
events. The first problem Laodicea
had and has is its blindness
to its true spiritual state in the
eyes of God at the precipice of an
avalanche of prophetic events that
will constitute the final outcome
of the church of Israel and The
Jews and finally the human race.
It is a church from which Christ
has been excluded; indeed locked
out as he knocks, how many of
this church will let Him in before
it is too late. Laodicea faces a dilemma
as old as it is new, what is
that dilemma The dilemma ventures
beyond both its blindness
and luke warn state addressing
rather the very causes. It is only
those whom Christ corrects who
will be prepared for His coming.
Author Bio: Jacob Prasch is a
Hebrew-speaking evangelist to the
Jews and a Bible teacher elaborating
on the original Judeo-Christian
background and hermeneutics of
the New Testament. He has also
been a conservative voice for biblically
based discernment among
moderate Pentecostals and Charismatics
opposed to the seductions
prevalent in today’s church.
NEW !!
J
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14 Moriel Quarterly • December 2010