“There’s Nothing in It for You”–It Is All for God, Who Is Love

There was an old saying at the mission that rings true now some 40 years later.  “There’s nothing in it for you.”

I didn’t really understand then just how profound that simple statement was.  But Time is a faithful teacher.  And as I look now in the mirror and see a much more wrinkled image with a head laden with a heavy hoary frost, I take more time to contemplate the increasing fragility of my physical state.  It seems that the reality of my own mortality crowds daily into my thoughts.

In that mirror I also see in my own eyes how the years have neutralized the piss and vinegar that I was so full of back then in my 20’s and 30’s.

As my earthly frame grows weaker, that old saying–how that there’s nothing in this walk with God for you–rings truer.  It is making so much more sense now as I am staring down the time when I just may have to depart this old earthly body before Christ returns to this earth to set up His kingdom.

For, you see, in those younger years I thought that surely I would be alive when the LORD would come back.  Christ did say that “whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11: 26).  And, that “there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Mt. 16: 28).  Those destined not to taste death would have to be the generation of believers alive when He returned to earth.  Anyway, I always thought that I would be one of them.

But now, as the years tick on, and my body creaks with age more every day, I must take this into real consideration–this “falling asleep,” this “shuffling off of this mortal coil.”

And, yet, I now realize that God has this death of the physical body hanging over us for a reason.  We know that He gives life and He takes life.  Our very breath is in His hand.  And it is this impending destiny with dust that helps us understand the futility of living for one’s self.  The self just cannot see us through, for our earthly bodies must betray us, for that is the very nature  of the physical body formed of the dust of this planet.  The house of dirt was made for us by God on purpose not to last.  It is temporary housing.

God fashioned our bodies to be as ephemeral as butterfly wings.  He deliberately formed them to be fragile in hope that we might sense someday our own vanity before death came knocking.  As we see our bodies decay and crumble with age, He hopes that we will see the futility of living for the self.

Our fragility betrays our pretentious egos that always seem to shout, “Hey, everybody, seriously, I really am something!”  But that self-centered imagination breeds the ultimate deception, for “when a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Gal. 6: 3).

And we have all been guilty of that thought; it is in the spiritual genes of old man Adam and his offspring.  Yes, we are initially made that way by the Creator in hopes that we would see the purposelessness of selfish thinking and be humbled so that we could all realize one truth: Every man is created for only one thing, and it is not for self-glorification; it is for God-glorification.

And if we are blessed to be chosen by Him to reveal this truth to, then we are coming much closer to where we need to be in our walk on earth before our Creator.

There’s nothing in it for you.  For everything in the vastness of the universe and here on earth is for God and His pleasure.  This is the great sticking point with natural-minded man, who earnestly believes that he is the center of the cosmos.  Secular humanism is the new many-headed false god.  “Thou shalt not have any other gods before Me.”  Especially our self.

“For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things” (Rom. 11: 36).  Breaking it down, all things are of Him; they came from Him, and through His creative power all things (including us) exist.  And in the end, all things are created by Him for His pleasure and glory.

For instance, Him delivering us from utter degradation and destruction, and us returning and thanking Him and telling others about His saving love and power–He loves that and gets glory out of it.

“All things were created by Him, and for Him” (Col. 1: 16).  But God does not become a pompous little jerk like natural man when he gets power.  No.  God is LOVE.  He created us so that He could bring us to a place spiritually, where His essence and nature (which is Love) could be multiplied–eventually to fill the whole universe with LOVE!  Our gratitude toward Him for our deliverance from sin is the fertile soil where the seed of Love can grow.

And God-in-human-form is our example and showed us the way.  Jesus (Yahshua) tasted death for us all so that we would not be banished to the dusty tombs of oblivion.  “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory” (Hebr. 2: 9-10).

That’s the plan.  It is all for Him, so that He may glorify those who realize that it is all for Him.  He will share Himself and all His glory with the overcomers, even to the point of sharing His throne with them (Rev. 3: 21).

It is all for the Creator.  When we turn that page in the book of our minds, then joy and serenity will overtake us, for we will have embraced the heart of God with arms of humility, born of His true nature, Love.

{For more on this subject, check out this article:  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/gods-endgame-where-this-life-on-earth-is-leading-us/ }

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

“Whoever Commits Sin Is a Slave of Sin”–Who Shall Deliver Us?

You hear Christ’s words quoted all the time: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  But free from what exactly?  People rarely go on and finish the quote.  Christ did not stop expounding after that thought in John 8: 32.

The Pharisees retorted, We have never been in bondage to any man.

Then Christ spelled it out which bondage the truth would free a man from.  “Whover commits sin is a slave of sin” (v. 34 NKJV).  A slave of sin.  If a man is committing sin, he is sin’s slave.  He is bound to do sin’s bidding.  These are heavy words.

Sin is a harsh slavemaster to the natural unregenerated man, which is old man Adam, the nature we inherited when we were born into our earthly existence.  Without Christ’s Spirit coming into our hearts, mankind is prey to every whim of sin that the devil, the prince of the air, wants us to do.

Sin Is the Transgression of the Law

So just who is this slavemaster that Christ called Sin?  Sin is a spiritual state of a human being that breaks the ten commandment law of God.  And it is these ten laws that the evil one entices lost man to break.  Lying, stealing and cheating, committing adultery, murder, having other gods before the One True God, idolizing anything or anyone–these are just some of the sins that man not only does but is in slavery to.

Sin enslaves people; it has them to a point that the sinner can’t fight it.  The little demonic voice says, Take it, and the body obeys as the hand snatches something just that fast.  The voice whispers, Go ahead and take her; your wife won’t find out.

Paul the apsotle described this bondage to sin.  Describing that time in the past when he was a slave to sin, he wrote, “For when we were controlled by the sinful nature…” (Rom. 7: 5 NIV).  The rest of the chapter describes how sin enslaves a person.  Paul makes this experience immediate for his readers by shifting it into the present tense.  This is a literary technique used by writers for centuries.

Yet, sadly, most preachers erroneously teach that Paul was a sinner and was a slave to sin.  How utterly preposterous and ignorant these preachers are!  Do they really know what they are saying?  They are saying that Paul raised the dead and healed the sick one day and then lusted after another man’s wife the next; That he “spoke with the tongues of men and angels” and preached the everlasting gospel, and was transported to the third heaven one day, and then was capable of having other gods before Him the next?  Please.  It is impossible, for Christ settled the issue with this statement: “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit…By their fruits you shall know them” (Matt. 7: 18, 20).  Trust me.  Paul was a good tree.

I pray that God will be merciful to these ignorant teachers, for I know that He has intense grief and misery in store for them that do not repent: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness…” (Isa. 5: 20).

In Romans 7 Paul was making it immediate for his readers.  “When we were in the flesh (the sinful nature)”–the “flesh” here in the KJV being the old sinful nature, not Paul’s earthly body.

When he had the old nature before his incredible conversion on the road to Damascus, he was a slave to sinning, doing things that broke the ten commandment law.  In fact, he said that the bad things that he did not want to do, he did, and the good things he wanted to do, he could not do (Rom. 7: 19).

Who Will Deliver Me?

Recreating this lost state, Paul finally cries out to God.  “O wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (7: 24).  Thus Paul completes the scene of this misery in a lost man’s life and gives the answer.  It is the Lord through His sacrifice of Himself and His Resurrection.

We are freed from this slavery to sin when we submit to our own crucifixion of our sinful self.  “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with [Him], that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” (Rom. 6: 6).  The crucifixion with Christ, “who was made to be sin for us,” puts an end to the slavery to commit sin!  We are free!  “For he that is dead is freed from sin” (6: 7).

How do you actually do this?  What’s the secret in walking in this?  How do you conquer sin in your life?  You’ve got to “reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6: 11).  Reckon it so.  Reckon it done.  Count it as such.  We might as well do it, for God has already done this.  He has reckoned it done in our lives.  He is just waiting with great patience for us to come on board.  He is waiting on us to “get it.”

This is the truth!  And you shall know this truth about getting rid of the old sinful nature, and it shall make you free from sin in your life!

What’s next?  What comes after our deliverance from sin and sinning?  “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (6: 18).  We are enslaved now to another Master; we are now “slaves of God.”

“But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”

[Some are saying to me right now, You keep talking about this sin question all the time.  Yes, and I will continue until we all come to the unity of the faith, until His elect reach full maturity.  For I know that we cannot come to spiritual maturity (perfection) until we get this foundation right: repentance of sin that brings physical death and faith toward God who delivers us from sin.  I would like your thought and comments on this.  KWH]

“What’s It All About–Algae?”–Energy and the “Power of Darkness”

I’ve been seriously thinking about the energy problem, but the President’s got me singing that song (with apologies to Bacharach/David).  He really does.

We’ve got crippling gasoline prices, but algae?  Really?  Is that what it’s really all about.  Hey, Mr. President.  We need relief now–not ten to twenty years from now.

The President’s reluctance to open up federal lands and offshore waters for oil drilling confounds me.  Many experts say that it would quiet the speculators and show the world we mean business in getting hold of our energy crisis.  It would bring down crude prices much faster than all the alternative energy sources combined.

“Is it just for the moment we live?”  Not drilling–is it just to appease your base, Mr. President, for this moment of re-election?  Or should it be a government “of the people, by the people, and FOR THE PEOPLE” and their well-being?  Because people are hurting.

I mean–don’t make me go out and buy a Suzuki 250 to ride to work on.  Or worse yet, a Chinese 150cc scooter–although 83 miles per gallon is very enticing.

“What’s it all about when you sort it out, Mr. President?  Wait a minute.  That really is the question that needs answering.  What is it all about, anyway–concerning this big picture stuggle I find myself in?  For I am wrestling in my mind with members of both political parties over the future of our world.

And then a “wrestling” scripture comes to mind, and I am grateful for a word of truthful sanity because what both sides are saying just does not make any sense whatsoever.  For we are not wrestling “against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6: 12 NLT).

Wow.  You want to whip out a can of political incorrectness?  Here is a taste.  Our political and economic leaders are being led by “rulers of the darkness of this world,” as it says in the KJV.  The apostle Paul called those entities that motivated political leaders “the rulers of the darkness of this world.”

But Paul is not talking about the physical men in political power.  He is talking about the spirit in them that works through them.  He calls these spiritual powers “the wiles of the devil,” reflected in the earthly face of our world leaders (v. 11).

Some would say that Paul the apostle was too harsh.  But he was just following his example, Jesus Christ (Yahshua the Messiah).  For He said the same thing.

An example of this spiritual power of Satan working through the leaders of this world system is in the gospel of Luke.  The “chief priests and captains of the temple, and the elders” came out to arrest Jesus/Yahshua, and then they took Him to “the high priest’s house.”  And these same quasi-political leaders “mocked Him, and blindfolded Him,” struck Him, and then demanded of Him, “Prophesy, who is it that smote you?”

Remember.  These are the leaders of the people.  Christ said that what they were doing to Him is “the power of darkness” (22: 52-53).  Paul in the KJV said that our struggle is not against human beings but against spiritual “powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world.”  Their statements are almost identical–truth established in the mouth of two witnesses.

So, what’s it all about?  Certainly not algae, although algae, like an evil spirit, does fly under the radar most of the time.  It is about the spirit of the Wicked One working through world rulers to hinder the people and harm their immediate pocketbooks, and that same spirit working to thwart the Kingdom of God by establishing their one world government.  That is what it is all about. KWH

Don’t Depend on the Rapture–All Christians Going through Great Tribulation

We saw last time that The Great Tribulation Period is the “Day of the LORD,” spoken of by many of the prophets in scripture.  We referenced a few of them who wrote about this disastrous time on the earth–Daniel, Zephaniah,  the apostle John, to name just a few.

Many who read about all this destruction will say, What difference does it make?  It doesn’t pertain to us.  We Christians will be raptured out before the Tribulation starts anyway.

Many will not take this time of wrath to heart because they do not believe that it applies to them.  They believe in a rapture/reward for being good little children of God.  They do not believe that God could be that “cruel” to them and their families–to treat them just like the ungodly in that He would  make them go through the end time calamities.  God speaks about these foolish “followers” of Christ.

The Parable of the Five Wise and the Five Foolish Virgins

Christ was asked by His disciples what the sign would be for three things:  the total destruction of Jerusalem where one stone would not be found on another, the sign of His return to earth,  and the end of the world (Matt. 24: 1).  He answers these three questions in the next two chapters.  Everything in Matthew 24 and 25 is in answer to these three questions concerning “the end of the world.”  And this also reveals that some lukewarm Christians will be around during the tribulation.

Christ uses two parables to convey the secret answers to the mysteries of when the end will come.  In the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25: 1-13), five were wise and took oil in their lamps and had eyes to see, but five were foolish and had no oil for their lamps.  They were virgins; they were little children of God, but they were lacking in the Spirit of God, the oil, within themselves.  They had not studied and prayed and were told by the wise virgins to go buy their own oil from the same place where one may “buy the gold tried in the fire…and the white raiment…and the eye salve” (Rev. 3: 18).  It was too late to pray and study for those little children, the five foolish virgins.  For the bridegroom came while they were out and they missed  the wrap up, the great marriage supper.  And they cried to Him to open the door, but He told them, “I don’t know you” for this honor.

The Parable of the Five Talents

Another example of spiritual unproductivity is this parable in the very next verse (Matt. 25: 14-30).  Three servants were given talents by their master, “according to his own ability”–five to one servant, two to another, and one to another.  They all three were servants of the same master.  Those with five and two gained the same and were praised upon the master’s return as “good and faithful servants.”  The other servant was “afraid and …hid it in the earth.”  “You wicked and slothful servant,” said his master.  “Cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Then the master took the talent from him and gave it to the one with ten talents.

What went wrong with the unprofitable servant?  He had no faith; he was disobedient and did not gain anything for his master with His goods.  Of course, this parable reveals a mystery “kept secret from the foundations of the world.”  The spiritual application shows us three levels of  fruit production as in the Parable of Sower in Matt. 13–30, 60, and 100 fold.  Christ has told all of His followers to study, pray, prove all things, and carry the good news of His kingdom into all the world.  He has told us all to dig deep and build our house upon the rock, and call out others to this great kingdom soon to fill the whole earth.

Laodecean Church Age–The Condition of the Church at Christ’s Return

But do most children of God do this, really?   I don’t think so.  In this last church age of Laodecea (laity deceived) painted for us in Rev. 3: 16-17, we see that today’s average church goer is lukewarm  in the spiritual works of God and is about to be “spued out of His mouth.”  Why?  Because they  say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.’  And they do not know that they are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”  Pride in one’s denomination [‘our church is a Bible church, rich in the word of God], a particular church father, one’s pastor, priest, saint, pride period–all these lead one to say, ‘I am rich [in faith] and have need of nothing.’  Many denominations actually say that they are the only ones who have the truth.

In their heart they will say, Hey, we’ve got the rapture.  God will take care of us.  He wants us to prosper, to be materially well off while we are waiting for His return.  He’ll take us out of the hellishness of the tribulation period.  We don’t need these doctrines (teachings).  Mom and dad didn’t believe this new stuff.  Besides, all we need is Jesus.  And they go one as  sheep to the slaughter never realizing that “whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God” (2 John 1: 9).

And they will go on their shallow ways, having never proven the “rapture theory” from the scriptures–having never seen that they base it on 1/2 of one verse, never even quoting the other half of the verse: “and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”  They never realize that Christ is coming back HERE–not ‘up in heaven somewhere”!  In our new spiritual bodies, we will rise up into the “air” [look it up in the Greek and see that it is where the birds fly] but we won’t get too far, for He’s descending to earth, touching His feet on the Mt. Olivet, cleaving it, and we will be with Him in that wonderful moment!  “And so shall we ever be with the Lord!”  [I Thess. 4: 16-17].

And so I have to ask the rapture believers: Since Christ is coming back bodily to earth at the time of the “catching away,” who will you be with when your imagination carries you away?  Most have never considered what the scriptures really say in this one verse that they use to base the rapture on.

The Bridegroom comes here!  If this rapture illusion is not straightened out in a person’s heart and mind, if they are counting on something erroneous that is not happening, do you think He may cast them “into outer darkness where “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”?

And why will all of this misery land on so many people?  It is because of their unbelief.  Christ said it with a broken heart as He looked on the people of His pasture.  “O ye of little faith.”

Unbelief–Just Like with Moses and the Children of Israel

But there’s nothing new here.  The children of Israel just would not believe the word of Yahweh. “So we see that they could not enter in [to the Promised Land] because of unbelief.”

So, whose voice were the children of Israel listening to?  They listened to Aaron,  a voice from a false god, who led in the worship of the golden calf while Moses was up on Mt. Sinai.  They murmured and complained and said, God would not put all this deprivation and sacrifice on us.  We are God’s people.  Out of 2-3 million people, only two, Joshua and Caleb, made it into the Promised Land.  And what happened to all of those millions of unbelievers?  Their “carcases fell” in the desert outside of Canaan land.  They had a false conception about how that era would end.  And they paid the price.  They died never glimpsing God’s glory.  And the things that happened to the children of Israel “are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come” [3].

The consequences of their unbelief admonishes those living at the “end of the world”!  That’s us.  And we should take the warning to heart.  To be one of the few to get into the promised land of His presence when He returns, we must throw away “every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” [4].

The little children of God are mostly alive for what they can get from the Father.  That’s why they are children and not spiritual adults in the Lord.  They have consequently believed that the Father will miraculously deliver them in a supernatural “rapture” before tribulation breaks out.

The rapture is based on wishful thinking.  It is an imagination and a lie  that will not only disillusion millions of professing Christians, it will also alienate them from God.  When they are not “raptured out” before the tribulation, many will turn against God and will be part of those who “gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores” (Rev. 16: 10-11).  They will blame God for the wrath that He is wreaking, and not the liars that told them they would escape all of the bad things.

But even as just two people, Joshua and Caleb, entered the Promised Land, even so very few will denounce the rapture theory, one of the most addictive sugar stick false doctrines out there.  Most will not believe.  Consequently, they will not prepare, both physically and spiritually, for the tribulation period.  And the sad part is, they are the ones who will be most disillusioned and upset at God.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1.  See https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/no-pre-tribulation-rapture-gods-elect-on-earth-during-tribulation/

2.  Hebrews 3: 13-18

3.  I Cor. 10: 11

4. II Cor. 10: 5

The Great Tribulation Period Is “The Day of the LORD”

Many Christians are longing for the Day of the LORD to  come, but few, it seems, know exactly what that day entails.

Many long for it to come thinking that the “rapture” will take them out of the end time troubles to come, seeing the day of the LORD as an escape hatch for God’s children.  But the rapture theory is just that–a theory, an erroneous imagination that is disproved upon closer inspection and study of the word of God [for more on this, see https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/?s=parachute ].

Others see “the day of the LORD” as a metaphor for “going to heaven, or going to be with Christ.

But few realize what they are wishing on themselves and this world. Why?  Because of the utter destruction that the  Day of the LORD will bring on this earth.  It is a time of God’s wrath, not mercy.  It is not an apple pie in the sky event.  It is a time of utter calamity and devastation.

Many prophets spoke of this day of the LORD.  It is a day of vengeance taken by God on the evil Satanic  system and those who have given their hearts to it.  It is when He takes revenge, not us.  Remember when we were taught from the Bible not to hold grudges and be vengeful?  “Vengeance is mine, saith the LORD, I will repay.”

And so shall it be during the wrap up of this present age. God will be dealing directly with wickedness, as only He can.  His body, His church will not be taking vengeance on anyone.  Christ in His first advent was the Lamb; He’ll be a devouring Lion in His second.  The “day of the LORD” is not a gloriously bright sunshiny day.  It is a time of gloom and despair and darkness, much like the day the death angel passed through Egypt.  It will be a day of mourning as that day during the original Passover–a day of wailing and crying aloud in the streets, a day of heart-rending loss of loved ones and cherished belongings.

So, no.  This day is not something to wish for.  Although it has to come on the earth before Christ establishes His kingdom, we would not wish this misery on anyone.

Spoken about by many prophets

We are talking about one of the most important events in the history of the world.  It is the end of an age;  it is a cosmic event of universal proportions.  Most of the prophets spoke of this event–this day of the LORD.  Think about it.  What greater prophecy could they have uttered and written down for us than the end of the evil empire of Satan and his human cohorts?

The prophet Daniel and the “Stone Kingdom”

It is what the prophet Daniel was shown in so many passages.  “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed…” (Dan. 2: 44).  Christ’s Kingdom is coming to earth, but before it makes its full arrival, the smashing of Nebuchadnezzar’s image with the stone kingdom not cut out by man’s hands must first take place.  “The Day of the LORD” is that time in history when man’s world system is coming down!  I’m not going to bring it down; my Christian brethren are not going to smash it; God is, I believe, with a literal “stone” [read “heavenly body”] from  heaven.  Call it a large meteorite, a comet, an asteroid, a hailstone, a star–the name is immaterial what man calls it.  The point is that there are innumerable examples in the Bible citing heavenly bodies falling into earth [that is another topic which space does not permit here].

So many prophets speak of this dark day for the inhabitants of the earth and the lovers of this world.

The prophet Zephaniah’s vision of the ‘day of the LORD’

For example, the entire book of Zephaniah is about this very “day of the LORD.”  The LORD [Yahweh in the Hebrew] is railing and warning through Zephaniah about how He “will utterly consume all things from off the land” (1: 2).  Those “things” include fowls, fishes, stumbling blocks (idols) with the wicked, and finally, man (v. 3).  Then He tells which men: those worshipping other gods.  He says, “The day of Yahweh is at hand” (v. 7).

Who exactly are these people who are about to be destroyed by God?  They are people who actually “swear by the LORD.”  They invoke His name, and yet, they  “have not sought…nor inquired for Him” (1: 5-6).  Ironically, these are professing Christians.

Consequently, Yahweh at this time “has prepared a sacrifice.”  2,000 years ago, it was the Lamb of God sacrificed through God’s great grace and mercy.  This time the tables are turned.  The evil doers this time will be sacrificed.  This will be through “acts of God,” not his elect. For He “will punish the princes [those in power] and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel” [not dressed in white, the symbolic clothing of the righteous] (1: 7-8).

Zephanaiah’s description of the day the world system collapses

“The great day of the LORD is near…The mighty man shall cry there bitterly.      That day is  day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day clouds and thick darkness..and I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung” (1: 14-17).

This is the time that God will execute wrath upon the world.  Compare this passage with Joel 2 and Revelation 16 when the “vials of wrath” are poured out on the earth.  Same time in history.  Same day of the LORD.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock    [To be continued]