Daily and Weekly Christian Inspiration
‘”The devil can cite the Scripture for his purpose .
An evil soul producing Holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek
A goodly apple rotten at the heart
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath.”
William Shakespeare/ The Merchant of Venice
Luke 11:39 And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness
Yes, we are all in the blame game ever since the Garden of Eden.
And the snake is still the great accuser of the brethren. But praise God we have an advocate with the Father, our Great High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us because He took our place and paid the price for our guilt. He became our scapegoat, we no longer need to play the blame game looking for a scapegoat for we already have one.
And so you see the snake still doesn’t have a leg to stand on!
Revelation 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ:for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
Standing on the Mount of Olives today overlooking the Old City wall I am amazed to gaze upon the Eastern gate which is currently blocked according to prophecy. I was determined to dig further for the why and when the gate was blocked.
When Christ returns His feet will touch down on the Mount of Olives, on the very place from which He ascended, and thus fulfill a prophecy made almost 2,000 years by two angels on the Mount of Olives: He will enter Jerusalem through this exact Eastern Gate I am actually looking at! In so doing, He will fulfill not only the prophecy of these two angels, but innumerable prophecies recorded by God’s prophets.
The fact that the Lord Jesus Christ will once again walk through that Eastern Gate is confirmed in
Ezekiel 44:1-2
Then the man brought me back to the east gateway in the outer wall of the Temple area, but it was closed. And the Lord said to me, “This gate must remain closed; it will never again be opened. No one will ever open it and pass through, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered here. Therefore, it must always remain shut”
Not only does this passage confirm certain details of the Lord’s Glorious Appearing, but it offers substantial evidence to the unbeliever that the Bible is the Word of God.
Why? Because Ezekiel 44 demonstrates the astounding accuracy of Bible prophecy, providing evidence that can be verified firsthand by anyone who doubts.
Over 2,600 years ago, the Lord declared the Eastern Gate would be shut and would remain closed until the Messiah arrived to open it. For hundreds of years, the Eastern Gate had offered convenient, unfettered access to the Temple courtyard. Yet, for almost five hundred years now, it’s been closed. I believe it could be in this generation, the Messiah will open it.
The Eastern Gate is one of eight gates built into the walls which surround the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Eastern Gate provides the only entrance from the East, and it faces the Mount of Olives.
The Eastern Gate was destroyed during the Roman conquest of Jerusalem, and the subsequent destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, thus fulfilling Christ’s prophecy that “not one stone will be left on top of another” Matthew 24:2. Prior to this, the Eastern Gate had never been sealed.
Sometime in the sixth century, the Byzantines rebuilt that Eastern Gate. However, for our purposes, what happened after it was rebuilt is of much greater importance. In the year 1541, the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I sealed the Eastern Gate learning of the prophecies which predicted the Messiah’s entrance through the Eastern Gate. The Sultan tried his best to make sure that wouldn’t happen during his reign. And just in case a sealed entrance didn’t thwart the Messiah’s coming, the Muslim Sultan built a cemetery directly in front of the gate – conventional wisdom being that a Jewish Holy man would never defile himself by walking through a Muslim cemetery. That cemetery still remains to this very day right in front of the closed Eastern gate.
It’s been over 475 years since Sultan Suleiman sealed the Eastern Gate, and despite numerous well-documented attempts to open it, the gate has remained sealed just as the Lord proclaimed to Ezekiel over 2,600 years ago.
The fact that the Eastern Gate remains closed to this day is God’s testimony to doubters throughout the world. How amazing is that!
On October 31,1517, a German monk named Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Church. These 95 Theses expressed his concerns over corruption found in the Catholic church. One of his primary concerns was the church selling “indulgences” to people in order to release them from having to serve penitence for their sins. An act which he considered to be people trying to buy their way into heaven. He held that salvation came by grace through faith alone, not by good works or payment.
This act opened up a debate with religious scholars of the time that eventually lead to the Protestant Reformation. On the 500th anniversary of his act of conscientious defiance, it is important to review how that moment changed the world religiously, economically, politically, socially, and intellectually. The upheaval stretched into every fabric of society, exceeding anything Martin Luther could anticipate. So widespread of an effect proclaims God’s hand was involved.
Although the Reformation of Christianity began a half-millennium ago, it has not completed its destiny.
Although the Reformation of Christianity began a half-millennium ago, it has not completed its destiny.
The Five Solae of The Reformation
which are
The Solid Foundation Of Our Faith
1 Sola Scriptura “Scripture alone”
The Bible alone is our highest authority.
2 Sola Fide “Faith alone”
We are saved through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
3 Sola Gratia “Grace alone”
We are saved by the grace of God alone.
4 Solus Christus “Christ alone”
Jesus Christ alone is our Lord, Savior, and King.
5 Soli Deo Gloria “To the glory of God alone”
We live for the glory of God alone.
We are a people who have forgotten our roots, and in many cases, we really don’t seem to care.
Numerous polls indicate widespread biblical and theological illiteracy. Many professing Christians do not grasp the contents of Scripture. Even those who have read the Bible very often have no idea what it means and how the various parts go together.
We are not in a good place, but we are not the first to be in such a position. The people of Israel forgot the past with disastrous consequences. The medieval church forgot the past with disastrous consequences. But what do we do when we realize we’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere along our journey? We go back and seek to find the correct path. We should not view the past as something that is gone and therefore useless. We should look at the past more like the way someone on the second floor of a building looks at the foundation. The foundation was built before the remaining structure. It was built in the past. But the foundation is not something that can be discarded without catastrophic results.
“We all have spiritual historical roots as well as physical historical roots. God is not pleased when we belittle the orthodoxy of the past and the saints who went before us. Without them we wouldn’t have the faith we have today. We are building on the foundation of their faith with Jesus as the chief cornerstone. Do not tread upon those roots because in doing so we are blasting away our foundation.”
An excerpt from my book “Developing A Secret History With God” Page 210
Book available on Amazon/ Barnes&Noble/ Walmart/Lulu/ itunes/ Kindle/ Nook/http wwwclfrance.com/ W.H. Smith UK/or a bookstore near you.
Languages: English/ French
When the Israelites found the miraculous food lying on the ground, “they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. (Exodus 16:15). The word ‘manna’ means ‘what is it?’ Likewise as we look at the Word, we ask: ‘what is it?’And question: ‘what does this mean?’ The natural man does not know, only through spiritual eyes can we understand the spirit of the Word. The natural man can only see the cold letter of the Word.
As I spend time alone with the Lord, He takes the husk off the heavenly corn, that I might be able to digest the manna and appropriate it to my life. He feeds me nourishment for my soul. The natural man only feeds on the dry husk, the membranous outer covering, which is the dry cold letter of the Word.
If we only hunger after knowledge we will be merely feeding on the barren husks of the corn, which contain no spiritual life because the husk has no seeds of life. God programmed seed to produce life, and just as husks cannot produce life, even so the cold letter of the Word cannot produce spiritual life.
Page 132 “Developing a Secret History with God”
Book available on Amazon/ Barnes&Noble/ Walmart/Lulu/ itunes/ Kindle/ Nook/http wwwclfrance.com/ W.H. Smith UK/or a bookstore near you.
Languages: English/ French