We persist in many things that matter to us. If we truly care about accomplishing a goal, then we commit. Though obstacles and weariness come, we work to overcome in order to achieve that on which are minds are set.
Some people are good at staying the course, while others struggle with perseverance. Nonetheless, it is a tenacious heart that sees a purpose through to the end. We may persist in career milestones, health goals, financial objectives and many other areas.
Determination is a wonderful quality, but we must keep proper perspective. No goal is to even compare to the goal of knowing Christ more and more intimately, no matter the cost. Of all the things in which we persevere, we must stay the course in our walk with Jesus. In the end, that’s the one aim that matters most and matters forever.
– Shelli Prindle
“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Philippians 3:8)
“By your endurance you will gain your lives.” (Luke 21:19)
The Word of God is abundantly clear that the end times will be a season of grave difficulty and actual ferocity when it comes to living for Jesus. The spiritual corrosion that will happen even in the “Christian community” is the method by which Satan will attempt to lead people astray, and he will meet with some success. We will see the weeding out of those who are truly committed Christ followers, rather than those who are simply professed Christians.
The downgrade of the truthful and full proclamation of the Gospel is astounding. And as the frog is boiled slowly without realizing it, so many “Christians” are missing completely how the Gospel has been watered down to a mere shell of what is truly is.
As I walked through my living room and briefly listened to a doctor who had a near-death experience and supposedly “saw the light” and was asked by “saints” if she wanted to “choose to return as a baby” or go back to her former life, I paused and asked God to keep me from delusion – even from being very sincerely led astray. The lies of demons exist both in the culture and, sadly, in the church. When we fail to proclaim the entire truth of God’s Word, we open up places for Satan to fool around with people’s minds.
There is only one standard by which to measure reality, life, and morality, and that benchmark is the Bible. The Bible reveals Jesus to us. The Bible must be read and studied and applied to life. The Gospel in all its fullness must be taught and preached and understood.
“Light and fluffy and feel-good stuff” does not cut it. Not only that, but “light and fluffy and feel-good stuff” paves the way for lies to invade the churches. People are not nearly deep enough in their understanding of God, His triune nature, His holiness, His specific way of salvation, the working of His Holy Spirit, His plan of sanctification for every believer, His plan for the return of Christ, His soon making of the New Heavens and New Earth, and the reality of human everlasting existence – whether damned or saved.
My heart is breaking for the deception, and this moves me to press into my Savior and His calling on my life to teach and preach His eternal Word.
I will pray for you, if you are reading this, that the very Spirit of God will prompt you, enable you, and keep you. I ask you to pray as well. Pick up your Bible and study it. Seek the Lord now more than ever.
– Shelli Prindle
“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.” (2 Timothy 3:1)
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
Dear Christian, don’t give up. Don’t you dare give up. Your Savior is still on the throne. He is aware and working. He allowed this to happen, and He will bring you through it, or He will take you out of this world and bring you to Himself. Either way, He’s got you!
– Shelli Prindle
“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Philippians 1:6)
If you want to spot counterfeit cash, you have to know what real currency looks like. If you want to detect a lie, you must be very familiar with the truth. If you want to recognize the antichrist, then you must intimately know the true Christ.
I tell you, the stage is being set for the antichrist to gain his world platform. The signs are becoming more and more obvious, as the birth pains of the end times grow increasingly intense and more frequent.
I advise you, that if you are a Christian, you use this “down time” to get on your knees and get in your Bible as you never have before. If you are not a Christian, I beg you to consider the Gospel, or “Good News” of Jesus Christ. Get a Bible in a version that you can understand, and read the Gospel of John to start. Ask Jesus to show Himself to you, if your heart is willing.
Society will distract us to focus on fear, temporal pleasures, or just the expected regularity of life for which we now long. But, in fact, Jesus will quite unexpectedly break back into history to end this world and begin a new and righteous one. Only those who belong to Him will be a part of the New Heaven and New Earth. All others will get their desired separation from God in a final sense, in Hell, a place of torment, where all that is good and right is removed.
I am not an alarmist; I am a passionate follower of Jesus Christ and an avid, lifelong student of the Bible. I care for your soul, because I know that your soul is eternal, and I know that this world has an end. God will ultimately eradicate sin and separate sinners from Himself.
The Bible is abundantly clear and quite detailed on the progression of events leading up to the return of Christ. His second coming to earth will be preceded by a time of vicious globalism under the wicked tyranny of the antichrist. The pieces are moving swiftly into place for the coming of the “lawless one.”
Please, I urge you to dedicate yourself to seeking Jesus – either for the first time – or in a deeper way. I am praying for everyone who will read this post.
– Shelli Prindle
“And the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.” (Revelation 13:3)
“His power shall be great – but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and people who are the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many.” (Daniel 8:24-25)
What Does “Palm Sunday” Have to do with the Great Tribulation?
Yesterday was what is often referred to as Palm Sunday, or the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. We think of the palm branches that the crowds waved and placed on the road, along with their cloaks, to make way for Jesus, as they shouted, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Luke 19:38)
Sadly, much of this very same crowd would one week later shout for Jesus to be crucified. They did not get it. The crowds were willing to praise Him and follow Him as He performed miracles and raised Lazarus from the dead, but if dying was this King’s goal, the people did not want Him.
The crowds did not accept a Messiah who came to earth to die for our sins. They wanted Jesus, the Christ, to take over the world in His day and usher in an earthly kingdom. However, if Jesus would have done that before His crucifixion and death, not a single one of us could be saved from our sin. Not a single person would ever be made right with God and able to enter Heaven. Jesus had to take the difficult road, and crowds don’t like roads of hardship and suffering.
When we, however, have a right grasp of our fallen nature, we become desperate for the remedy for sin. We come to understand that we need the God-Man to stand in our place and die for us, and then in His perfection and power, raise up from the dead in victory. Because He carried the guilt of our sin on that cross, we can be free from sin’s power and punishment.
Ironically, the next time we encounter palm branches in the Bible is in the book of Revelation, chapter 7, verses 9-10, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'”
Do you know who these people are? “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:14)
These crowds in the book of Revelation are people who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, who trusted in His shed blood for their forgiveness, and endured the horror of the Great Tribulation under the tyranny and persecution of the Antichrist. They gave their lives for their faith, but they made it to Heaven.
In a wonderful conclusion to the Triumphal Entry, which demonstrated the spiritual blindness and shortsightedness of the crowds, these people of the Tribulation came to understand the vital nature of the blood of Jesus, and were able to rightfully wave palm branches and proclaim the salvation of God!
That salvation leads to an eternal existence in the presence of God, fully removed from sin and brokenness, forever to be comforted and thriving with the Lord and all the saints of God from the ages. As Revelation 7:17 declares, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Let us reflect on the deep meaning of Palm Sunday. Let us read the Scripture and pray over the truth of God’s Word.
My prayer is that we would recognize the conquering King for who He is, the One who saved us by His blood, that we might reign with Him in the future New Heaven and New Earth. For now, there may be suffering, but our Savior will deliver us by and by.
Who knows, but we may be rapidly approaching the days of the tribulation. The one thing that matters is your understanding of the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Know Him.
– Shelli Prindle
***P.S. The Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem two thousand years ago, ended the “69th week” of Daniel chapter nine, and ushered us into the church age, where we now await the rapture of the church, before the “70th week” of the tribulation begins.***
Whatever the devil is trying to use to discourage and destroy us, God is employing to bring people to salvation, or to bring us closer to Himself, if we are already saved. The coronavirus – from God’s perspective – is all about bringing people to salvation from sin by Jesus Christ, and strengthening the people of His kingdom in the eternal things that matter forever.
– Shelli Prindle
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.” (Jesus, in John 10:10)
No matter what great and noble things you accomplish in life, if you do not bring the reality of Jesus Christ to your sphere of influence, you have achieved nothing of eternal value. If, however, in the most humble circumstances and seemingly mundane tasks and challenging relationships, you are able to bring the reality of Jesus Christ to your world, then you have accomplished the most vital, lasting, and greatest of all enterprises.
– Shelli Prindle
“There are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.” (1 Corinthians 12:5-6)
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (James 4:10)
Why Did God Let This Happen? What Are We Still Missing?
During the days of this coronavirus pandemic, my main concern, as a teacher and preacher of the Gospel, is that there is some spiritual deception and spiritual neglect happening. The Bible is very clear that as the time of the antichrist comes closer and closer, people will be greatly given over to spiritual deception, to the point that God will allow people to be deceived because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10)
I think today, the problem is not that we don’t have the truth, it’s that we don’t love the truth. The problem is not that we don’t sometimes look at the Bible or do personal devotions or hear a sermon now and again; but the problem is that we don’t love the truth. The Bible is the written Word of God, the truth, but it reveals to us the living Word of God, who is Jesus. Unless He is our one true love, our passion, our desire; then we open ourselves up for deception.
We are definitely living in the last days, and we know that. I could share many things with you about how we see the birth pains of the end times coming to be, especially through the coronavirus, through global technology, through a move toward a one-world government, and through increased government control. There are so many things that are happening that fulfill Scripture, including pandemics and natural disasters. Nonetheless, spiritual deception is one of the biggest end times situations of which God warns through His Word.
What I want you to understand about spiritual deception is something that Jesus describes in Matthew chapter 24. He tells us clearly that during the second wave of the birth pains of the end times, one of things that will happen is that we will have false prophecy within the church. We won’t simply have false religions or false Messiahs, but we will have false preachers, false pastors, and false teachers within the church.
I’m telling you that it’s not so much what is being said, but what is being neglected to be said that has me disturbed. We are talking about wanting to comfort everyone and tell everyone that everything is going to be okay. We give the impression that we want people to live fearlessly, but that’s really not what the Bible prescribes. The Bible actually tells us that we have to have one, particular fear in order to be set free from all other anxieties. The Bible doesn’t tell us that we should live glibly or fearlessly, but rather that we should unite our hearts under one fear, and that one fear will set us free.
We shouldn’t give false comfort to people that do not know Christ Jesus as Lord. Jesus died on the cross two thousand years ago for our sins. He died, because I am a sinner. I am a sinner by nature and I commit sin on an ongoing basis; the blood of Jesus is the only thing that can set me free from that sin. People need saved. We should not give false comfort to people who have not come under alignment of a proper fear of God. We as Christians should be taking this opportunity and this time to share the breadth and depth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We begin with the fact that in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve became sinners. Redemption is necessary. The birth pains of the end times will lead to the return of Jesus Christ. Eventually, we will see that every single person will die once and then stand in judgment before God. (Hebrews 9:27) We need to preach the entire Gospel. You see, whatever the devil is trying to use to destroy us, God is using to bring people to salvation, or to bring us closer to Himself if we are already saved.
We need to have a proper fear of God. We should not fear the coronavirus, and we should not fear the economic disaster, but we must fear God. For those who do not call upon Him as Savior, there is much reason to be afraid, because the most vital thing in the universe is to be right with God.
I want to take you to a passage of Scripture, where Jesus is with His disciples. He had been teaching, and the Bible tells us that when evening came, Jesus said to His disciples, “Let us go across to the other side [of the sea].” (Mark 4:35) Let’s be clear that according to Scripture, it was Jesus’ idea to send Himself and His disciples out on the Sea of Galilee. The Word goes on to say, “And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.” (Mark 4:36-37)
Before we go any further, I want you to understand that Jesus is the one who told the disciples to get into the boat and go to the other side. Jesus is God. Jesus is omniscient; He knows everything. He knew that this storm would be whipping up. Yet He is the one who tells them to get into the boat and go to the other side. Jesus is the one who sailed the disciples into the storm.
Listen, we are in a storm. In America, and in the world, we are in a storm. God is sovereign. The Bible is clear that God is in control. He has allowed this to happen so that the outcome might be that those who are not saved would be saved, and that those of us who are Christians would be drawn closer to Christ.
As we go back to the text, we see that the windstorm had already come and the boat was filling with water, “But [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And [the disciples] woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’” (Mark 4:38) This was a real storm. On the Sea of Galilee storms can brew that are deadly. These guys were in genuine fear for their lives. I believe they shook Jesus by the shoulders and yelled, “Why don’t you care?” The Bible says that “He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’” (Mark 4:39-40)
Jesus calms the storm. The reason for the disciples’ fear is now gone. Jesus looks at them and asks them why they are afraid. The word in the Greek for “fear” here means timid. Jesus is essentially saying, “Why are you still timid or anxious? You’ve seen who I am. You know what I’m about, but you still don’t trust me.” But what I want to point out is that the reason for the disciples’ immediate fear is now gone. Their lives are no longer in danger, so you would think their fear would be gone. But, Mark 4:41 says, “And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’”
Do you hear this? The storm is over, but now they are filled with great fear! The word here for fear in the Greek means “to put to flight by terror,” so this is a much larger fear than the disciples had regarding the storm. They are more fearful now than they were when they thought they were dying in the boat, but it’s a different kind of fear. They are now standing and asking themselves, “Who is this, that the wind and sea obey Him?”
Jesus is trying to teach the disciples through the storm that He doesn’t want us to be afraid of circumstances, or what the world can do to us, but He wants us to fear God, who holds our destiny in His hands! Jesus is God, and He wants us to know that He is in control, whether there is a storm or whether it’s peaceful. We answer to Him!
At this point, the disciples are in awe of Jesus, which is what God desires for us. Psalm 33:8 proclaims, “Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!” You see, God doesn’t want you to be fearless; He wants you to have proper fear. He wants us to have honest reverence for Him, understanding that He holds the world in His hands. He desires that we know that without salvation through Jesus Christ, which God has clearly outlined in the Bible, we are eternally lost. There is something that is even greater than physical death, and that is spiritual death. In Matthew 10:28, Jesus is sending out his disciples, knowing that they will be persecuted and killed. Yet, Jesus declares, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” My friend, when the devil and all the people that he works through try to destroy you for preaching the Gospel, remember that Jesus said we should not fear the devil and his minions. They can only hurt the body, but they cannot kill the soul.
Notice, however, that Jesus does not call us to fearlessness. Rather, He says, “Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) Jesus is not talking about the devil here, because the devil is not in charge of Hell; He will be one of the first victims of the lake of fire! God, who created your body and created your soul, is in charge of your body and your soul. Disease, pandemic, death, trials, and tribulations – they can only work on our body and our emotions. God’s in charge of our soul. Jesus tells us not to fear those who can harm the body, but do fear God who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
We need to get things in order. We need to prioritize. God is to be number one in our lives. He is to be feared. We need to understand that what He said is true. Without the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross two thousand years ago, there is no hope for any of us. But I fear God, and I love His truth, and I believe what He said. While I’m not fearless, I have one fear – I’ve united my heart and my mind under one fear – that sets me free from all the other fears.
God is in control. He knew that this was going to happen. He let us come into this. The question is, “How will we respond?” Will we quote Bible verses that we don’t even understand? Will we glibly declare that everything is going to be alright because God loves us all? Or will we understand that Jesus sailed His disciples into the storm that they might know who He really is. Maybe, after all this pandemic is over, you will know Jesus in a way you never did before. Perhaps you will see Him for who He truly is.
I’m praying that you call on Him as Savior and Lord. If you’re a Christian, I’m praying that you will use this time to let God get you into the Word of God and get you down on your knees, that you might know Him as you have never known Him before. I pray that you can truly stand every day – in days of pandemic and in days of peace – and honestly say that you are in awe of God.
Let’s tell people the truth. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
We do not have to be crushed by the weight of our guilt and broken by our sinful past. Our mind need not race, being troubled by our inadequacy. We can have – this very day – the greatest and deepest healing that we require, a remaking of our sinful heart into a heart that is covered by the sacrifice of Jesus and made new in Him.
Our Savior suffered, bled, and died two thousand years ago under the weight of my sin – and yours. Dear Jesus stood in our place and took all the punishment we deserve. He suffered under the torment of separation from His Father, so that we would never have to be forsaken by God because of our sin. May you experience the healing you need for your broken heart and mind. Jesus stands ready. You must, by faith, take His work on the cross and apply it to your life. Walk in your spiritual healing, by the faith He gives.
– Shelli Prindle
“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)
When your sin screams out loudly that you are guilty and hopeless, the voice of Jesus cries infinitely louder and drowns out that damnation. By faith, you are truly clean. His last cry of agony, brought about your first shout of victory. Forgiven! Free! Forever His!
– Shelli Prindle
“And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.” (Mark 15:37)
