Hi John:

I always love to share Bible prophecy with Christians. I love to do this in order to encourage and motivate my brothers to the fact that Jesus can come at any time. Because this is true, we need to be ready for His second coming at any time. We need to draw near to Him and make sure we are in His will doing His will so that when He comes we are not found naked and in sin, but glad at His coming and Him pleased with us. That is the reason for Bible prophecy. James, the brother of Jesus, wrote:

"You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand." (James 5:8)

That is God’s reason for prophecy, to motivate us to draw near to Him, to seek Him and His will, and to walk in faith with Him and in His will.

Satan, however, as he does with all things of God, takes God’s purpose and seeks to pervert it. Prophecy can be intoxicating. I know because when I was young in the Lord I really got caught up in it, so much so I thought, "Jesus is coming soon. What is the point of making long range plans for my life. I will never be able to fulfill them anyway!" And so Satan perverts the purpose of prophecy by seducing us into actually not doing God’s will, but waiting on the roof top for the Lord’s return. Another way Satan uses it is by getting us to focus on and pursue our flesh. We reason, "Jesus is coming soon! If I don’t go out and grab the world, I am going to be raptured and miss it all!" Well the sobering fact is that is a real possibility, as far as this world is concerned, but that is also sin and if not repented of can lead to hell. Paul and John wrote:

"Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever." (1 John 2:15-17)

"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life." (Galatians 6:7-8)

John, I don’t know what it is that you are struggling with, what lies of Satan you may be buying about God and his goodness.

"And to the man Yehovah-Elohim commanded, saying, ‘From-every tree of the garden eating you-may-eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from-it you shall not eat, for in-the-day that you eat from-it dying, you-shall-die’. . . . And the woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, Elohim has said, "You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die."’ And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die! For Elohim knows that in-the-day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Elohim, knowing good and evil.’" (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:2-5)

What is evil? Anything we do or take that God has not initiated in our lives first. "‘Woe to the rebellious children,’ declares Yehovah, ‘who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin’" (Isaiah 30:1). "But He who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin" (Romans 14:23). John, we are walking in faith with God when we give our lives and desires to Him and trust Him, walk in faith, to fulfill them when it is right according to His will and plan for our lives, and thank and praise Him if He chooses not to fulfill what we desire. John, Jesus is good, He does love you and He wants what is best for you. This you must choose to accept by faith; faith meaning not a feeling, but a decision of the will. How do I know Jesus loves you? He loves you so much He died for you, He gave up all this world has to offer so that you could have eternal life and enjoy all he has for you forever!!!

"You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fulness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever." (Psalm 16:11)

Something happened to me yesterday which brought a sense of insecurity in me about my future. My temptation was to take my life into my own hands and go out and seek what I need instead of obeying God with my life and use of time and trust Him to work these things out. At first my prayers had anything but faith in them: "Jesus, You promised!!!. . . Jesus, why don’t you care about these needs?. . ." After a short time I realized I was not walking in faith, but being tempted by a spirit of unbelief, so I changed my prayers from that to this: "Jesus, thank you that this is happening in my life. Thank You that you love me and that You care about me. If you work this out, thank You, if you don’t work this out, Praise and worship You. Jesus, I trust You with my life. Jesus, what is Your will for me concerning this? What do You want me to do?" His answer this time was for me to give it to Him, that He would take care of it and to continue to focus on His will. So I did just that I gave it to Him and am focusing on and doing His will.

Now I am not saying I felt it. I felt fear and torment the rest of the day. That defines Satan to a "T": fear and torment. That is his game. That is how he seeks to bring us down, through fear and torment. But I chose to resist the fears and the torment and instead chose to believe what God’s Word says and have faith in the goodness of God, not in what I felt.

Whenever Satan put these thoughts of unbelief in my mind, I stopped and thanked the Lord for His will and purpose for my life, for what He has given me and what He had chosen to withhold; and told Him if He wasn’t in it, I didn’t want anything to do with it, to free me of my desire of it. I don’t want anything which would pull me away from God. Better to have a little with the righteous, than abundance with many who are wicked.

"In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thess 5:18)

"Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. Yehovah gave and Yehovah has taken away. Blessed be the name of Yehovah." (Job 1:21)

"Be careful, do not turn to evil; For you have preferred this to affliction." (Job 36:21)

"Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear Yehovah and turn away from evil." (Proverbs 3:7)

John, God allowed Satan to take everything Job had away from him: his children, destroyed all his crops and burned his barns down, everything! God even allowed Satan to touch his body for a time. What was Job’s answer in response? "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him" (Job 13:15). What was God’s response to Job’s faith in His goodness? In the end God blessed Job a hundred fold of what he lost and gave him a long life to boot! John, Satan is a liar, God is good; but it requires a decision of the will to have faith in God’s goodness. Anyone can believe in God when things are going well, but a person’s true faith in God are not shown when things are going well, but when things aren’t going well. What was Job’s witness to you and I in his faith in God when things weren’t going well? His message was that what this life has to offer pales in insignificance to what God has for us in heaven and for eternity. How do we know this about Job? Because even when Satan took all the world had to offer away from him, it didn’t waver Job’s faith in God’s goodness in the least. His faith stood. As a result this brought many to faith in God and his goodness, instead of their own selfish devices and ways.

John, is this your message to us? That walking with Jesus is a waste of time? Is this what you want us and the world to believe? Do you want us to believe God isn’t good? That He doesn’t care? John, I am here to tell you He does love you and he does care and I am willing to lose all this world has to offer to show this to you. John, I have: I lost my relatives, I have lost close brethren, my wife left me because I wouldn’t walk away from God and the ministry, I have lost jobs, I drive a beat up car that is 22 years old. I have no money to buy a new one. Since I was 19 I have slept on a couch. The only things I own are my computer and my books. I don’t own one suit. I can’t justify spending $400 for a suit that I could use to print books and tracts to spread the Gospel. I am spurned and hated by many, most of my brethren because I believe the Bible is true, that if I invest my free time and resources in the Gospel, that what God promised in His word is true, that he will give me a hundred times more in heaven than anything I could gain through my own devices on earth. John, I have been homeless and lived out of my car for months at a time. This is because I won’t compromise what I know is true for a buck, for a beautiful face, for anything! This is because Heaven is forever and Hell is too. Better I have nothing this life has to offer and hundreds of people be in heaven than I have the world and these people go to hell forever.

Is there something wrong with having things? Of course not. God created them and nothing is to be rejected if received with gratitude to the Lord. It isn’t whether you have things, but how you got those things.

John, 32 years ago I made a decision to make Jesus my source, not myself, to become like a little child before Him (Matt 18:3) and to trust Him for all that I need and desire. All that I have, He has provided and much more than I hoped for. If he takes it all away tomorrow I will praise and worship Him for doing so and thank Him for doing so because in order for Him to establish me in His will and purpose it was necessary. He is a good God and He does love you.

John, some where along the line you stopped thanking the Lord for what you do have and for what you don’t have and started focusing on what you don’t have, what you want. When you did that, you also stopped believing in God’s love and goodness toward you and also stopped loving your brothers who love you. Isn’t that what the world does to Christians? Don’t they hate them and spurn them? Why? Because they are trusting in themselves for what they want and need instead of in God, so they hate and spurn and avoid anyone who does. "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal spiritual-life abiding in him." (1 John 3:15)

John, my purpose here is not to condemn you or try and bring you down. God gave you a free will to choose to do with your life whatever you want. My purpose here is, hopefully, to shake you out of your unbelief and open your eyes to see the fruit of your walking in the flesh: unbelief and hatred toward your brethren who have done you no harm, who have only spent their free time praying for you and seeking your best. Is this the kind of person you want to be? Is this the message you want us to receive from you, don’t walk with God, He doesn’t love you, and avoid Christians who do? Is this what you want to present to God at the end of your life? I believe better of you. I believe you do want to walk in faith with God, otherwise I would not waste my time writing this letter. I believe you just need to know that God does love you and care. John, God does love you, he does care.

"‘As I live!’ declares Adonai-Yehovah, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’" (Ezekiel 33:11)

"And the Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will." (2 Timothy 2:24-26)

"The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

John, Jesus does love you, I love you, all the brethren love you. Please brother, come back to us and to the Lord. We are on your side. We need your fellowship and encouragement and support. Please be warriors with us and fight the good fight. If you do, Jesus promises a hundred times more in heaven than anything this life has to offer.

"Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life." (Mark 10:29-30)

Dale P. Kruse