![]() ![]() ![]() PORTERVILLE, CA -- I remember sitting in a high school classroom with a black man as my teacher, a man that I recall respecting, and he said this: “If we all woke up one morning and shared the same skin color—by the end of the day we would find another reason to be prejudice.” Think of that—where would new prejudices come from? Eye color? Height? Hair color? Education, political affiliation, type of career, some perceived class of people? Religious beliefs? A difference of opinion? What kind of car we drive? That teacher’s statement made an impact on me at the age of 16 that was eye-opening and helpful. ![]() PORTERVILLE, CA -- Do you like mind-teasers? Today’s discussion is one that if you like to be challenged in your mind you will probably spend some considerable time mulling over what you will hear today. What I will be talking about will involve you and me and everyone else on the planet, including the spiritual beings that are busy on the earth, those for good purposes and those others for evil. See if what you read here isn’t going to be a little mind-boggling/warping/twisting experience for you courtesy of the Word of God. The Bible makes it clear something very unusual and strange to us is going to happen in these last days and that Jesus also said something else that must be considered with it when He declared “the Scriptures cannot be broken”. ![]() PORTERVILLE, CA -- I have little doubt that in this regard you have been like I have been from time-to-time: When we do not do what we were supposed to or we did something that we should not have done, and in either case we are legitimately confronted about it—we often are quick to make excuses. In some cases, we might be forgiven (although warned) but in other cases of our wrong-doing there will be consequences, ranging from unpleasant to seriously negative and in some way maybe painful—perhaps even long-lasting. Do you know what I mean from personal experience? The Holy Spirit put that one word on my heart: Excuses! ![]() PORTERVILLE, CA -- Before moving into the last analysis of what we can learn from what Paul wrote in this passage, I want to point out as an important review two things that we discovered in this passage that have been mentioned so far. From part one, we learned that the word "sufficient" used by the Holy Spirit infers a two-fold participation that is to happen between God and the believer. What He gives us as grace in our trials is to be recognized by definition as enough for the need and our benefit, it is just the right amount of help by God's wisdom, it will suffice and is just the correct dose of help for the purposes of God in our life regarding that problem area. ![]() PORTERVILLE, CA -- What I shared with you in part one of this short series on the subject of God’s grace was an important first step in walking in the benefits of that grace. There is no question that you and I have been given His grace or we would not be able to consider ourselves ones born again from Heaven. To put a finer point on what you heard in part 1, you might want to consider grace this way: There is every day grace that you and I are not even aware of and there is what we might consider as emergency grace or the favor and help of God’s grace needed when unexpected and serious things arise in our lives. ![]() PORTERVILLE, CA -- Dear friends in Christ, On the heels of talking to you under the title How Can We Know, an important 3-part look at one’s genuine faith in God as a Person, including what His Word says, and about one’s love for God, today I want to tag onto what you should have taken to heart this subject today. It falls nicely in place as both a review for some of what we should know and live by, and for others, it will be instruction and an encouragement on how to live having strong faith in God and what His Word teaches us, as well as for one that loves God passionately and knows that He loves us even more than that! ![]() PORTERVILLE, CA -- As my wife and I were watching a Christian movie recently one of the main characters in it asked someone that claimed to be a Christian a great question that went something like this: “Regarding your life and Jesus—is it by addition or submission?” That’s what I am addressing today about your life and our God and Savior Jesus Christ. What does that question mean? Is your relationship with Jesus one of addition or one of submission? Straight to the point it means ... ![]() PORTERVILLE, CA -- As Christians we are children of light and of the day—living in an ever-more-darkening world—but if we walk about with our eyes closed, light does us no good at all. Our country has not seen war on its lands since the terrible Civil War in the mid-1800s. There were reports of a Japanese submarine spotted off the Los Angeles County, San Pedro coastline during the WWII timeframe, and supposedly sunk, but we have not had foreign military invaders on U.S. soil since the British were expelled during the Revolutionary War. But this is soon to change—you need to know that, believe it as true, and make plans and preparations to live through it as a Christian. ![]() PORTERVILLE, CA -- The topics that I bring weekly are usually developed from the title that the Lord drops into my heart. A few weeks back the term “Tribulation Wealth” just popped up in my mind and I immediately understood what it was to be about—it is this: The world, our country, and our households are sliding more swiftly by the week toward what the Bible calls “great tribulation.” It will be a time of civil chaos, the collapse of our financial systems (to include both our income sources and nearly all commerce in our land), an extreme scarcity of the needed things of life, (sadly) the physical destruction and the death of multiplied millions by natural calamities and by wars, and eventually the imposition of the antichrist system of buying, selling, and the demanded worship of false gods. ![]() PORTERVILLE, CA -- In recent months there have been news reports to the effect that as a result of the conflict going on between Russia and Ukraine several countries have gone from a peacetime, “life is normal” mode, to a declared and almost frenzied “war footing”. A few have openly publicized it while others by their actions have implied that that is the state of their defensive mood. Specifically—Russia is preparing for a war with NATO and the U.S. and China is preparing to invade Taiwan with a resulting war with the U.S. and perhaps 3 or 4 of its neighbors (including nuclear India) when it moves against Taiwan. For more Information - editor@portervillepost.com All Right Reserved ![]()
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