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Don’t You Dare Give Up

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)

Stage Being Set for the Antichrist

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.***

In Seasons of Weeping or When the Tunnel is Dark

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)

True Accomplishment

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.

– Shelli Prindle

Healing for Our Guilt

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

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)

Out of Control?

It may be out of your control, but it’s not out of God’s control, my friend. He has a plan, and He has the power to make all things work for His glory and your good.

For today, rely on His strength. Leaning on God does not deplete Him in any way, but depending on your own strength will sap the life out of you.

Trust in the God who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving towards you.

– Shelli Prindle

“Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.” (Psalm 135:6)

“Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.” (Psalm 147:5)

Jesus Himself tells us of a very wealthy man who made sure that he had the best of everything in life. He wore the finest designer clothes and ate excellent foods. He got out to all the best restaurants, if you will. He had a huge house with a three-car garage. In fact, Jesus uses a word in the Greek that tells us that this rich man lived magnificently every day; he had it made! In regards to vacations, status, and material things, this man had everything of which the heart can dream.

Contrast the poor man of which Jesus tells us, who was degraded to the point of being laid at the front gate of the rich man, hoping for some crumbs of discarded food. Not only that, this destitute man was covered with sores. In fact, the wild dogs of the first century (dogs back then were not pets treated with human luxuries) would come and lick the poor man’s sores. Can you imagine the horror? This man lay crumpled at a gate hoping for food from a rich man’s garbage and covered with oozing sores all over his body that the neighborhood dogs came and licked at!

In our backwards world where thinking processes are inside-out, we might imagine that this poor man is rejected by God and lacks the kind of faith that makes life prosperous and worth living. We have it all wrong. Socioeconomic status and health status do not demonstrate in any way the position of a man’s soul in regard to God. The moment this poverty-stricken, unhealthy man died, we see how the tables turn and what the poor man’s relationship with God truly is.

You see, the penniless man could certainly never afford a car, or a taxi, or even a bus ride. But when he died, wow! Did he get the escort of his life! You talk about limousines! How about this? How about when the poor man’s heart ceased to beat, angels came and ushered him to Heaven! He rode with an angelic escort – past the earth’s atmosphere, past the demonic powers of the air, past the stars and moon – right to Heaven.

Immediately upon death, the view is clear. The poor man had a heart right with God. God loved him dearly. He was rejected, neglected, and mocked in this world, but this world was not worthy of him. Now the tables turn.

In contrast, the reality of the wealthy man’s spiritual problem comes to light the second he dies. Jesus tells us that he is immediately in torment. He is begging for relief. He is asking that Father Abraham (the father of our faith, who is with the poor man in Heaven) would please allow the poor man, Lazarus, to dip the end of his finger in water and come to cool his tongue. The wealthy man cries out that he is in constant anguish in Hell.

Now, I present to you the words of Father Abraham (who is speaking for God concerning the afterlife), “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.” (Luke 16:25) Do you see what happens? For the godly, the worst of this life is the worst that we will ever face; this is our Hell, so to speak. For the ungodly, the best of this life is the best that they will ever have; this is their Heaven, so to speak. How devastating for the ungodly. This transient life is the greatest they will ever see and, after that, eternal torment. How wonderful beyond words for the godly. These temporary difficulties and pains in our heart will soon pass, and eternal, unhindered joy will be ours!

The most ironic part is yet to come. Abraham next tells the rich man that there is a chasm between Heaven and Hell, so that none can cross from one side to the other. (How important this is to know, for our decision for or against Christ can only be made while we breathe. At death, it is far too late.) Upon learning that Lazarus cannot cross from Heaven to bring any relief to those in Hell, the rich man says, “Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house – for I have five brothers – so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” (Luke 16:27-28)

What a commendable request! The rich man, who ignored God and His offer of salvation throughout his carefree life, is now wanting to be – from the pit of Hell – an evangelist! If ever God would let a human come back from death to speak to the living, this would be the time! The rich man just wants Lazarus to be able to go back to the earth and warn his brothers not to end up in Hell. Maybe God would allow this? No. He does not. Even for the sake of post-death evangelism, God does not allow the dead to return to the living. And there is more to the story; God knows that a visit from a dead person would not help.

Hear this sobering truth. (I am going to insert the words “the Bible” for “Moses and the Prophets,” because at the time of Jesus saying these words, the New Testament was not written, and “Moses and the Prophets” was the Bible.) To the request for Lazarus to go from Heaven and return to earth to proclaim the truth to the rich man’s brothers, Abraham replies, “’They have [the Bible]; let them hear [it]. And he said, ‘No father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear [the Bible], neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” (Luke 16:29-31)

Do you realize what God has declared? The revealed Word of God as found in Jesus Christ and His Word is ALL a person needs to be saved. A person who will not heed the Bible will not heed someone who resurrects from the dead! You say, “Really?” Think about it. Jesus rose from the dead in the first century, and very few people followed responded! If a person will not listen to the Bible, then a person does not want to listen to God; her heart is already hard.

Moreover, evangelists from Hell are completely ineffective. The rich man realized the truth of the Gospel TOO LATE. The very Gospel that he ignored and then rejected in this earthly life suddenly became the most important thing (as it should be for all of us). But there was no hope for him at that point, and there is no hope for him to share the truth with others at that point. At the gates of Hell, hope dies. Maybe that’s why 1 Peter 1:3 declares that when we are saved, we are “born again to a living hope.” When we are unsaved, hope dies at death.

Will you allow this account told by our Savior Himself to motivate you to do as much evangelizing as you can while you are still alive and people are still able to respond?

Will you treasure your Bible and not be ashamed to carry it and share it wherever you are?

Will you recognize that the poorest and the sickest among us may be the strongest in spiritual and eternal things?

Will you refuse to let blessings and riches be the focus of your life, but rather make Jesus and His Gospel the main thing?

Will you remember in everyday decisions that this life is temporary and the next life is forever?

– Shelli Prindle

I fight my disease (Juvenile, Type 1 Diabetes). I push hard against it, and I have for 34 years. I do many blood tests throughout the day and night. I give multiple insulin injections per day, adjusting doses to combat irregular and dangerous blood sugar levels. I count every carb that goes into my body. I ride my stationary bike and lift weights. I struggle, but I fight!

Should we not also fight sin and the enemy of our soul with such vigor? Stay diligent! Be attentive in e…ach moment of the day to your spiritual walk. Stay in prayer, adjusting your attitude according to God’s Word as necessary. Listen to the Holy Spirit, as He works in you supernaturally – giving you the power to fight well!

I am all too aware of the potential and life-threatening complications of Diabetes Mellitus; therefore, I go head to head with my disease. Infinitely more threatening are the wages of sin and the potential eternal losses if we don’t fight for our spiritual life and the effect of it on others.

Not all diseases can be fought daily by the sufferer as mine can, and I understand that. I use mine as an example to set our hearts on fire for Jesus and the serious battle we are in. Be encouraged to fight! Fight hard, fight long, and rest when we finally see His face!

“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus…” (2 Timothy 2