UPDATE: Easter was greatly improved and had far less pain in response to lots of prayer but a few weeks later I found her dead in her stall. She appeared to have died peacefully in her sleep. Her troubles had to be more than the symptoms in her leg and even in this, God is faithful and relieved her of the struggles of life. According to Romans 8:19-21 "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Between medical costs and an endless flow of expenses, I cried out to God, "Lord, I need your blessing!" God promised Israel that He would bless their harvest, their health, their finances, their dealings with neighboring peoples and generally every aspect of life. We've been having a lot of rain lately and our grass was quickly turning to a jungle. We have a large zero turn mower but the engine blew up after "only 10 years of mowing ten acres." It's earned it's keep but needs a new motor and a face lift. I bought a used rider mower to hold us over until finances could meet the need but a few weeks ago, that motor blew up too. I'm about 1/2 way through repairing the zero turn mower but may need a machete to get to the mailbox. Yesterday I got a call from a man at our church. He said he had stopped by to drop off some things for our benefit yard sale and saw my mower on blocks and a yard in sad shape. He told me he was on the way over to mow my lawn for me and make it look good for the yard sale this weekend. It was as if God was assuring me of His hand, AND BLESSING.

The three references for the phrase "come up hither" are: 1) regarding the church Rev 4:1 2) regarding the two witnesses Rev 11:12, and, 3) regarding the child of the woman (Christ) Rev 12:5

In the city of Philadelphia, Asia Minor, it was a custom to honor one by dedicating a pillar of the temple in their name. As time went on, pillars might have their namesake changed several times (go out). Jesus' promise to believers was that they would remain AS PILLARS in the temple of God and never be replaced or named by another. It is a message of enduring reward.

You've got prayer cover on this end. Glad everything went well.

Well, when you let hens hatch out their own, half will turn out to be roosters. We pen up the extra roosters and invite them to the freezer when they're plump enough.

Celina, that is an excellent message on the trinity. Thanks !

Not a long post at all. Well put and eloquently said. I am comfortable knowing that my God exists as trinity even though I cannot fully comprehend it. Much like gravity, eternity, and time, I accept that it is without needing to understand how it works. Thanks for posting.

Time is like a book with God. He can show us future events as though they were in His past. For us who are tied to time and place, it's a stretch to comprehend.

In Colossians, Paul states "in him dwelleth the fullness of the godhead, bodily." To have any part of God is to have all of God. This explains various expressions such as: having the Spirit of God, Christ in you, and God in you. It isn't referring to having 3 separate indwelling's but having the complete presence of God no matter how it's stated. Any part is fullness of His presence. Not easy to comprehend but great peace to know.

The trinity is beyond our comprehension and will make our head hurt if we try too hard to understand it. That said, your scripture examples are one half of our confusion. Especially at the baptism of Jesus, God's voice is heard from heaven, the Holy Spirit descends "like a dove" and rests upon Jesus, and Jesus is the focus of all this. Clearly, the godhead consists of three separate persons. THEN we have what would appear to be contradictory scriptures that were God restricted to human limits of time and place, would be impossible. Genesis 1 states that God created heaven and earth but the gospel of John states that Jesus... the Word... "All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." Colossians states that "all things were made by him and for him." Again, John records the words of Jesus "I am my father are one." and when Philip asked "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." (Jn 14:8-9) In the next verse, Jesus states "the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." but in the next two verses Jesus states that he will do works in response to our prayers. This same (seemingly) contradiction appears in Jn 14:16-18 where Jesus will send the Comforter (who is the Holy Spirit) to indwell believers, yet in verse 18 he states that he will be that comforter. (Makes your head hurt, doesn't it.) God is triune, you cannot have one of the persons of the trinity without having all. This is the error of many cult groups that deny Christ's deity or the indwelling Spirit. It isn't easy to understand but not difficult to accept when you realize that God is neither limited by time or place.

Great message in this. Thanks for sharing it.

You would be hard pressed to find ANY Bible commentary on either Daniel's end time prophesy or the book of Revelation. They were a closed book that none understood. Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit would come and indwell believers for three purposes. Sealing our salvation as the earnest, producing good works as fruit of His presence, and enlightenment to understand the Word of God. The last purpose is found in John 16:12-13 "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. The takeaway here is that some things are not bearable for us to understand, and some things are not revealed to everyone or until the Spirit chooses to disclose them. I Corinthians 2:14-16 "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ." Anything we believers understand of the Word of God is due to the Holy Spirit giving us illumination. If God has for some reason reserved certain understanding for a future time, illumination for that is withheld. Such is exactly the case for Daniel's end time prophesy, and he records his instructions for us in Daniel chapter 12. Vs4 - "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end:" Vs9 - "And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." It can hardly be said that the Bible does not contain the teaching of the catching away of saints, but it is evident that theologians have not understood this teaching until recent. The outpouring of commentary, correlation between Daniel's prophesy and Revelation, and our world quickly descending into likeness of end time descriptions, is nothing short of amazing. I believe we can all agree, the end times are very near. The unsealing of these things in this day, is telling.

It is interesting that with each "rapture" timing opinion, there are very positive elements to take away. There are also difficulties with each. The one thing we must conclude is that none of us "knows for sure" BUT we will as soon as it happens.

UPDATE: That last point "escape breaks" is more important than I originally realized. Terry is my "canary." In early coal mining, miners brought a caged canary with them down into the mines. Mining can be hazardous as outgassing creates pockets of odorless but harmful gas that affects small birds quicker than men. If the miners paid attention to their bird, they would notice the effects of the gas on the bird before they were overcome and have time to escape. I tend to be a work-a-holic and will suffer from over exertion, leg cramps, and exhaustion. Being over-attentive on my goals causes me to overlook Terry's need for frequent breaks and we become irritable, cranky, and discouraged with whatever project is at hand. Keeping my attention to how she is doing, not only communicates how important she is to me but also causes me to address my own neglected need for a break.

The support and prayers of this faith family mean a lot and are more helpful than can be told.

The value of hand written letters and notes is important. Like most, we've converted to well over 99% of personal communitation to the digital world. Last year we began receiving hand written communication from a friend who became interested in a buck we were selling. The amazing personal level attached to hand written letters is huge. Count me in for whatever the others want.

Tyler here. I've served as senior pastor of three churches and have been "retired" from the pulpit after 40 years (but not from ministry) for the past several years. My wife Terry and I have been married for 46 years, we have four children and six grandchildren. We live on a farm in south Texas on the Gulf Coast and have a dairy goat herd, chickens, ducks, four dogs and a barn cat. Life stays busy down here.

It's not a good idea to post our mailing address on any public forum... including this one. What we did on my channel was to have people email me (since my email was listed as site contact) and if they gave permission, I would share their email address only with those who also asked their email be shared. That idea could be expanded to include mailing addresses but we need a trusted moderator of that mailing list who has the time to devote to it.