MannyVelarde

Jesus never intended for us to be a hermit from the world, because how would we tell them about Him? We should not take on the world - - to live as the world lives. To accept what the world teaches. In first John 4:1 - - we are told to test the spirits....we should measure all we do and say against the word of God - - sometimes it is not a comfortable position to be in. We should not condemn the world, but we should lovingly point to what is sin and what is tru for God. We are aliens of this world and the world is commanded right now by Satan. We need to be Holy - - set apart from the world

These folks are saints that seemed to have suffered the worst of the worst and have stood firm in their faith - - they were overcomers - - although the text says blameless, I believe that the made mistakes, but repented of them after confession and grow closer to God each time. They brought each error to God in confession and asked God to forgive them, they did not had behind masks, they were truthful and honest, without guile. They were pure and were walking the walk of their talk. They leaved what they preached. It was all for God. We should emulate their lifestyle in making glorifying of God first in our lives. The text also emplies they were unmarried and did not defile women. This could mean that they were Nazarites as was the sect back then that did not marry. It doesn't mean that marriage is bad, but that if you vow todo something then stick to it. Just as we should stick to any promise we make for God. Their example is for us to know how to walk and when we promise God, stick to it and live it! - - to glorify God in all we do on this earth.

This verse is a great verse it covers the heavenly defeat of satan and we have overcome him by the Power of the Blood of Jesus (the Lamb) the witness of believers and the martyrdom of some of the saints, dying for the faith. - - dying in the flesh. In the end we are redeemed and God's kingdom will be restored. Glory to God!

The battle has been waging since Satan was kicked out of Heaven because he wanted to be above God - or equal to God as detailed in Ezekial 28. Satan knows his end, but he wants to take as many as he can with him. We are the targets of his war because we walk with God and will have eternity in His new kingdom. It has always been spritual war in the heavens and since Satan tempted Eve and Adam and they sucumbed to their will, we have caught in a spiritual fighting. You see I believe Satan wages war against us because if we are removed or become weary in the battle, we will not witness and tell others of God's love and sacrifice for all people. If we are quieted then, Satan thinks he is winning. But the comfort is that God will shorten the days and in the end we win. Jesus has already won the war by the shedding of His atoning blood. Physical death to us is meaningless to the point that we have the hope of eternal life and a new heaven. Glory to our Lord!

I think the characteristic that I would emulate is their humility to the point of their strict obedience to God and dependence on God's power. Their reward - they were brought back to life and received eternal life as we will in the end - - WE WIN! Thought on the two witness identity - - today in Jewish homes everywhere during Passover, a place is set at the Seder table for Elijah, one of the traditions is at the end of the Seder is for the children to run to the door and look to see if Elijah has come. You see they believe that Elijah will come before Messianic age comes and the promise of a world returned and healed. "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Mal. 4:5-6.) As believers we know that the Elijah was John the Baptist, but perhaps it was a two-fold prhophecy - - Just a thought! Blessings to all

God intended for all to be saved and it is so sad that God's way is so very easy and there will be those that do not accept. Losing one life is a sad thing, when they could have chosen life. It is hard to understand, but this will begin the time of our reign with Jesus and our sorrow and mounring will flee away. We will come with singing unto Zion! Our job on earth today should have be to tell all we meet with a passion as if Jesus will come today! Shalom

I concur these are the saints that have been saved and is a picture of what we will be doing in the heavenlies. Are they tribulation saints, it is not clear, but the fact that there are angels at the cry of those redeemed begin to fall down and worship God. It seems to me that God is showing the angels that this is the end of the story I have been showing you of these human beings. In the end - they win. It is convicting and humbling to realize what we receive at the end as believers versus what we really deserve. We are extremely blessed that God has led us to our belief in Jesus the Messiah and how on this earth we should be telling everyone we meet that they can have this precious gift. We do fall short and should commit to working more fervently for His kingdom, our desire is that all should be there. To His glory and for His kingdom Manny

These letters to the churches shows us what we should seek in churches, what we should and should not do. Back then the Bible was not printed and I can imagine that the false doctrines could easily creep in. As in 1 John he was encouraging them to get back to the truth of what that had heard from the Apostles, to flee from these false doctrines, just like Eprhesus with the Nicolatians. The criticisms were that they had allowed in comproimise of truth. We should beware of this in our churches today. We should measure everything and every doctrine against the Word of God. We cannot compromise the truth so our churches can grow, we like the churches back then must stand firm for the truth. Another problem is that they had lost their focus -- Jesus. I heard a pastor recently speak the church today and how we are so worried about the annointing that we forget who the Annointer is. If we think about it, sometimes we do just that. Like Ephesus many times we abandoned earlier love. The blessings are that they were enduring persecution and standing firm and they had deeds and their love and faith in service. There was hope because of the saints that remained true. The biggest problem then and today is compromise and as more and more churches are springing up and compromising truth to get larger numbers. Getting back to basics, studying the word, prayer and serving the hurting ae what we should do. To borrow the over used phrase, asking what would Jesus do? in every situation. Because if we persevere in the end We Win! by the victory and mystery of Jesus in us. Shalom

We have become a lazy generation of people. We want to be spoon fed and we do not take time to get into the precious Word of God. We are not serving for God and our own agenda is before God's. i.e. see my answer question 3. Maybe also we are weary of the battle. We have a "Life Chain" for one hour of prayer against abortion, a very quite and solemn expereice here in Texas once per year and I have seen the folks that turn out reduce drastically each year. Churches have retooled to become social clubs and not houses of God. We are putting God neatly on a shelf and using Him as we see fit. Maybe we just don't fear God anymore......by fear I mean the awe inspired reverence when we go before His throne... Another thought is that we are driven by emotions not obedience. I think of the Israelites in the desert complaining about the manna. They had everything even God with them and it still wasn't enough. They wanted to satisfy the cravings of their flesh. As it says in 1 John 2: 15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the **** of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. [17] The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.We are all out to satisfy the cravings of sinful man, **** of his eyes, boastings, etc. The Good News is yes, we are human but we are blessed because the Holy Spirit always gets us back on track! Praise be to God for that. We should pray daily Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Shalom!

Please hear my heart on this issue, but we have to get back to our roots of our Fathers to get back to proper perspective. I don't mean the reformist fathers of Luther, Calvin, Knox, etc, I mean the founding fathers of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We are quick to look at the obvious idol/pagan practices and see the wrong, but we are blinded when we let a little bit of that world into our lives and into our churches. Our entire church system as we know it today is steeped in traditions that come out of the church as it was in the 200-300's from a blend of pagan cult beliefs with religious overtones. Even our church altar is based on a system of a Greek arena. I agree with others that we do make sure we get to kid's soccer games, football games on Sunday, but move about uneasily if the Pastor is taking too long or goes over during a sermon. I was invited to hear a Messianic Rabbi speak at a church and he stated that churches today would see more miracles IF the Pastors and leadership would be more open to do "God's will" rather than their own interpretation of God's will. I believe most churches' focus is correct, but let us look truthfully at how we are doing it. Many have compromised original beliefs to "bring in the masses". We are concerned with numbers; thereby we have soft-soaped the truth. Sin and repentance is no longer preached. A loving Jesus is preached to accept Him, which is the key, but we forget the repent portion, the portion where we have to surrender all. We pride ourselves on having 100 ministries in our church, but we are missing the mark when reaching the community and evangelism. We don't have time for that, because we are supporting 100 ministries. Then our church becomes our idol or even sometimes our pastor. As in the world sin is not dealt with honestly in churches, we overlook some sins because they are done by "heavy contributors." We don't want to put stumbling blocks for people to come in. Our Gods become ourselves, our own agenda's and almost profit. We are losing the absolutes that God has placed before us. When Jesus walked the earth, he was Jewish and practiced Jewish customs, traditions and was obedient to the Torah. I am suggesting searching for the truth through the powerful word of God. Listen to His counsel in the entire Word of God and be obedient to that only. We must learn the Word of God for ourselves, giving that God time as our first fruits, not as the left over portion of the day. Salvation is through the blood of Jesus and the resurrection is a powerful hope for us. Accepting Jesus as Lord is crucial, but God's instruction must be taught and sought after that fact. Let's get back to basics and get into the truth of God's word. Yes it may be uncomfortable and we will be set apart, but we will be aliens in this world, but children in God's kingdom.......Praise be to God for His truth and promise in Jesus. To me the real compromise is that we have compromised the church for the traditions of man. We must be Holy (set-apart) because God is Holy - - getting back to basics. We have become lazy, we don't know the word any longer, and we know what the Pastor says about the word with very little measurement of his words. In 1 John the problem was that Gnostic beliefs had filtered into the Church and people began denying that Jesus was God, that knowledge is power and that is salvation, etc. The same is going on today. Most churches have lost their absolutes and compromised God's truth. There are many great churches out here and we must support them without fail so we can be the earthly extension of thie glorious God we serve. We must daily put our priorities back in order. We all get side tracked by the detours that Satan puts on our straight path that God has for us. Getting back to basics. 2 Peter 1:3 says "seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence." He has given us everything we need to DO IT!

Our church recently suffered the loss of our Pastor because of sin in his life. He stepped down and when the church had the time of reflection we realized that we had lost our first love. We took more joy in inviting people to church to see ou Pastor and to see our loving congregation, which were truths, but not what we should be seeking. We should have told folks about Jesus. We were too busy with ministries, but he problem was they were for man's purpose and agenda. It is hard in this world to stay focused. Most churches have "their plan" in mind. If we honestly search our hearts, we will probably have to admit truth to that statement. I believe the reason we don't see more miracles as the early church did is because our churches are out for their purpose and not God's. We have to HUMBLY seek His will and focus on God's plan not ours. I guess it is getting back to basics. Sometimes we worship God a little bit too lightly and fail to see His glory and how mighty He is to us. We should show much more respect. But our God is merciful and guides us in our growth ever closer to His image. Priaise to Him!

Jesus is the light of our church. We walk with the light when we walk with Him. He is our guiding force in the church walking among the people. He is the eternal lamp, just like the menorah of the synagogue, the eternal light, never extinguished. As long as we walk in Jesus light, as He walks among us, we will know what truth is, but walking in the darkness we will always stumble and lose our way. Shalom, Manny