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On Preparing for the Rapture
Or, Advice to the Christian About Attachments
to the World
"My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes
observe my ways"
(Proverbs 23:26).
by Tom Stewart
I read a compelling e-mail from a 15 year old girl,
who had such turmoil over her attachment to her unsaved boyfriend, in light of what
she understood to be the Pre-Tribulational Rapture of the Church. Perhaps this response
may be used by the Holy Spirit to benefit you, the reader, as well. The following
is my reply.
am 43 years old, and happily married
to a Godly wife-- Katie. "Whoso findeth
a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD"
(Proverbs 18:22).
When I was 18 years old, I, too, was in turmoil about someone for whom I deeply cared--
Katie. Our problem was that she felt that her salvation was in the Roman Catholic
Church, and I was in a quandary about whether this Baptist-bred, young man should
join the Roman Catholic Church to secure the heart of Katie. "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you
this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were
on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell:
but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD"
(Joshua 24:15).
To make this story a little shorter, I fought with myself until I was providentially
pointed to Scripture that persuaded me that no human organization could lay sole
claim to offering God's salvation. Only Jesus saves. "Neither
is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
For the first time in my short and inexperienced life, I made a decision based upon
nothing else than "what saith the Scripture?" (Romans 4:3). I now know that whether or not I had ever given my heart
to God before that-- I had "gone forward and made a profession of Christ"
and had been baptized as a young adolescent-- I certainly this time had given my
heart to God. "My son, give me thine heart" (Proverbs 23:26). Charles G. Finney, a well known American evangelist of
the 1800's, well said that willingness to obey Christ is to be a Christian. "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also
so to walk, even as he walked" (1John 2:6).
God demanded my unconditional surrender to Himself. "I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Romans 12:1-2). I was willing to not have Katie, if I had to turn to an
organization, which was insufficient to insure the salvation of my soul.
After I had made up my heart to do the right thing, God opened the Windows of Heaven.
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse,
that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the LORD of
hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,
that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Malachi
3:10). I gave Katie a booklet describing the insufficiency of the Roman Catholic
Church to insure her salvation. She read it, and turned away from generations of
her family's Catholicism. Her whole family turned away from entrenched Catholicism.
"And they said, Believe on the LORD Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts
16:31).
Will you see the same results? I know that Jesus Christ is still "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8). I also know that His promise is still true: "Them that honour Me I will honour, and they that despise
me shall be lightly esteemed" (1Samuel 2:30).
It is sinfully wrong for a Believer to choose an Unbeliever for a spouse. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:
for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath
light with darkness?" (2Corinthians 6:14). Wisdom cries
to us: "Friendship of the world is enmity [hatred or hostility] with God" (James 4:4). Do not
allow yourself to be deceived into thinking that you can have both the world and
the Pre-Tribulational Rapture. "No man
can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else
he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon [treasure or riches, i.e., an unsaved boyfriend]" (Matthew 6:24).
Now is the time to be on purpose for the LORD Jesus-- He is coming for His Church
VERY shortly-- May 31,1998 (Jerusalem time). "And
that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is
our salvation nearer than when we believed" (Romans 13:11).
Foolish action belongs only to the Foolish Virgins, who will miss the Pre-Tribulational
Rapture. "And the foolish said unto the
wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out"
(Matthew 25:8). The oil of the Holy Spirit is given only to those who obey Him. "And we are His witnesses of these things; and so is
also the Holy Ghost, Whom God hath given to them that obey Him" (Acts 5:32).
Take the advice of our Loving Father: "Be
wise, and make My heart glad" (Proverbs 27:11). Give the
LORD the unconditional surrender of your unsaved boyfriend. Take up your lamp, and
walk as a Wise Virgin. "The wise took
Oil in their vessels with their lamps" (Matthew 25:4).
Katie and I are both praying for you. "Bear
ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ"
(Galatians 6:2).
In Christian Love,
Tom and Katie Stewart
"Watch ye therefore, and pray always,
that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass,
and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:36).
.
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