Because

Christ died for you. Because this is coming: "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." - Revelation 21:8

The 'cowardly' keep losing their moral nerve,

'unbelieving' reject God-given faith,

'the vile' are repulsive in moral character,

'murderers' kill or hate without justification,

'the sexually immoral' sell their purity away,

'those who practice magic' sell illusions,

'idolaters' rent out worship for money,

and 'all liars' knowingly keep misrepresenting.

Academic curiosity takes a back seat when the real Holy Spirit of God starts directly revealing things of God when we individually take it to heart that Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ, really did die on that cross for us. Then sin gets relegated in favour of the righteous sinlessness revealed to be in God and in His Son and in His Holy Spirit. Then the words of Jesus need to be taken on board "Stop sinning". If you want academic confirmation there is the fact there were scrolls around in Jesus of Nazareth's time like the Dead Sea Scrolls among which were passages of ancient Apocalytic scripture such as this translated not too long ago from the Book of Enoch (ch 89:34ff) "... presence, who was one of the seven white ones, saying, Take those seventy shepherds, to whom I delivered up the sheep, and who receiving them killed more of them than I commanded. Behold, I saw them all bound, and all standing before him. First came on the trial of the stars, which, being judged, and found guilty, went to the place of punishment. They thrust them into a place, deep, and full of flaming fire, and full of pillars of fire. Then the seventy shepherds were judged, and being found guilty, were thrust into the flaming abyss. At that time likewise I perceived, that one abyss was thus opened in the midst of the earth, which was full of fire. And to this were brought the blind sheep; which being judged, and found guilty, were all thrust into that abyss of fire on the earth, and burnt. The abyss was on the right of that house. And I saw the sheep burning, and their bones consuming. ..."But these warnings only reach a few and those reached might not have time to escape. Escape if you can. You can seek to put an end to your sin since Christ has provided His body and blood as sacrifice for you.
Revelation is a precious book indeed because it is a testimony of the risen Jesus about the most holy revelation God His Father gave to Him. I have tried to quote it faithfully as it represents God better than any representation coming as it does from the very Son of God with God since before all the creation was created (a very long time) who truly knows God. I said too that Christ died for you and others too. This represents God by the very work God gave to Jesus the Christ His Son to do in dying for our sins we stop doing. This is therefore the representation God has given of Himself as it shows what He is and shows what His Son is, the Lamb of God.

A Great Prayer of Praise to God

"Blessed art thou, O Lord, the King, great and powerful in thy greatness, Lord of all the creatures of heaven, King of kings, God of the whole world, whose reign, whose kingdom, and whose majesty endure for ever and ever.

From generation to generation shall thy dominion exist. All the heavens are thy throne for ever, and all the earth thy footstool for ever and for ever.

For thou hast made them, and over all thou reignest. No act whatsoever exceeds thy power. With thee wisdom is unchangeable; nor from thy throne and from thy presence is it ever averted. Thou knowest all things, seest and hearest them; nor is anything concealed from thee; for thou perceivest all things."

     -- The Book of Enoch, chapter 83 verses 2-4

The Meaning of Life the Universe and Everything

I suggest there is no more meaning in our lives with God than without but I do have a reservation on that. Maybe Solomon didn't mean this when he famously proclaimed "Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless!" but life on earth does have a curious mysterious meaning to it as the Spirit who inspires some and inspired Enoch in ancient times reveals. The Enoch passage that shows the meaning that life embodies, I think, is this: "They consider how the trees, when they put forth their green leaves, become covered, and produce fruit; understanding everything, and knowing that He who lives for ever does all these things for you: That the works at the beginning of every existing year, that all his works, are subservient to him, and invariable; yet as God has appointed, so are all things brought to pass." -- Enoch ch 6:1-2
I would say the meaning in life is in how living things show a constancy in submitting to the authority that God puts over them and later Enoch describes revelation given him of what gets translated The Oath which seems to embody that authority and both then and today the Spirit seems to say this is the Name of the Son of Man. This might equate to Laws of Nature and might be what Pythagoras believed he discerned in the logic of the universe describable using maths. The Logos is maybe somehow a discernment of an almost human quality in the Laws of Nature such as in the unexpected reality that they can be discovered by human experiments and expressed by human thought. Hence the person embodying that logic is called The Son of Man and is maybe the reason God has made us in His image, so that this Son of Man could become flesh and blood as the Messiah or Christ. So here if ever is meaning in life itself and all things and that meaning is a rebuke to us that we do not constantly obey and submit to the wisdom of the commands of God and love this Son of Man whom God placed in authority over all things including us.

Why I Speak Out

I was once working in an office during a run up the a bank holiday when most would be leaving early and onto my desk came a card to sign. It was a wedding card for a dear colleague, a great gifted guy, and the card was in a circulation envelope that said the card had to back with a certain person by 4pm sharp. I guess if it was late they might not get it to the recipient in time before everyone would be away and the card would miss their wedding. It was 4pm. This taught me we are not islands but things need to circulate and be taken notice of and that includes things from God too like commands and prophecies from Him that people need on time. The time is short. When God showed all this to me and told me "Israel has sinned and the sign is the eagle over the house" meaning all His people and the eagle of surveillance, I realised the people need to remember His commands and the important one most of all so I was given resoonsibility to shout it from the mountain top. I realised later this eagle sign would not stop with surveillance but without any repentance would follow to worse and worse things worldwide, wherever the people of God are sinning and not stopping. That message came before me and like the card I must pass it on because the time is short and God is speaking. Jesus Christ is alive and is ever the answer and the Holy Spirit God sends in Jesus' name to reveal the things of Jesus which are the things of God.

Who Will Perish

Revelation 21:8  is translated "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
The 'cowardly' keep losing their moral nerve,
'unbelieving' reject God-given faith,
'the vile' are repulsive in moral character,
'murderers' kill or hate without justification,
'the sexually immoral' sell their purity away,
'those who practice magic' sell illusions,
'idolaters' rent out their worship for money,
and 'all liars' knowingly keep misrepresenting.

Reality

The reality of God requires a reality in our love towards Him. The reality of The Lord, Jesus, who came as a human two thousand years ago and lives today and forever, this real man Jesus, died for you, this Jesus who is the Christ who God showed is His Son by raising Him from the dead two thousand years ago.

Covetousness and Greed

Covetousness and Greed: In my understanding covetousness is wanting what is not rightfully ours and giving that want free reign whereas greed is giving free reign to a want of whatever we can get that we feel is rightfully ours so greed is even harder to reign in and guard against because we feel we have a right to what it can gain us. This is where leaders can fall because they feel they have a right to their fair share of the income of those they lead. If they wanted what was not their right that would be covetting and the command of God forbids that. Yet against greed there is no commandment among the ten commandments so it takes devotion to Christ and the word of prophecy to counter it. "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" said Jesus when asked to tell a man's brother to divide an inheritance with him. Leaders beware. Nobody can impose a law upon us telling us to guard against greed and serve reasonably with pure minded reason: That is a yoke of Christ we take upon ourselves as we choose willingly (bond service) to keep and guard His teachings and let the truth that comes from them flow out into our actions and lifestyles. With this yoke we find it is light because there is a teaching of faith too that nothing is impossible to those who believe in God to make good what is asked of Him. This is a victorious yoke.

Unity Truth and Truthfulness

Do not sacrifice honesty for the sake of unity. A lie is a lie, whether you or I or the whole church tells it. The light of Jesus and life of God dispel lies but not necessarily with all people all at once so some have His light in them more than others. We who commit to this gradual dispelling of darkness are committing at the same time to a unity with each other as each is tied to the same Spirit of truth who brings this light. As with marriage, unity is based on commitment and covenant. We commit to God's covenant in Christ. This unites us. If any denominational position prevents repentance from lying this kills unity too because unity depends on keeping united with Christ and Christ commands first of all that followers stop lying (John 8, Ephesians 4-5). If a church forces attenders to lie you cannot attend it and stop lying too. Unity starts with The Door into which all must enter to be in Christ and united with the true Body of Christ.

I just missed a bus today because it was already pulling away and did not stop for me. Church leaders are mostly, probably like that bus driver who probably was not being mean but merely had to weight my need against the need of other passengers. That driver lost a customer because I walked and spent the money on a morning coffee. Churches cannot afford to lose members of Christ though. God wants nobody lost. So a leader cannot force one disciple to lie and stop them entering into life through Christ The Door just to please the rest of the congregation. If you force someone to affirm what they believe is false or do not believe is true then you force them to lie and hinder their unity with Christ for the sake of unity with you.

Why is love towards God put last?

What is most striking in the message of Jesus is that love of neighbours is not top of His command of God priority list; love towards God is. This should be a test of whether we have been listening to God's word or merely our own thoughts. If we listen to Jesus we will find love towards God tops His agenda and if we love Jesus we will love God the Father too. God is not just about love of each other but wants love towards Him to be top priority. We might want to spend all our time finding ways to please each other and friends and family and work colleagues and country but Jesus said love towards God is the first commandment. We have to set aside time, even occassionally perhaps for a little while apart from closest family, to set our compass how best pleases God and to prioritise our love for Him. This leads to life. Then love towards others will be better because it will come from a pure heart and sincere faith and clear conscience.
I so love this God: "Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.’" (Deuteronomy 32:35)
The same God in scriptures of old and new testaments: "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord." (Romans 12:19).
When He does act it is so decisive and incisive and wise and perfect, you just have to love Him, in awe of Him. 'Love you LORD'. I wait for that day to come around again. Well worth the wait. As Psalm 18 starts: "I will love You, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies."
Acts 13:8-12 "The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun. Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord."
I personally do have very real enemies living near by and the prayer I pray to God when they triumph over me is that God my Saviour will judge them. God is judge. Enemies of the message God gives me that I pass on as faithfully as I can are for God to judge too. I will love this God when He rescues me and even when He delays. This God commands all to love Him who know that He is God and He commands all to know this: 'He says, "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."' (Psalm 46 verse 10). As for judgment of believers: 1 Corinthians 5:10-12 (New American Standard Bible)
"... I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?"
I am reminded that love for God means 'guarding His commands'. That is a great translation: 'guard His commands' of a tricky phrase of scripture to translate, where the translation 'keep His commands' is a bit ambiguous. Love towards God does indeed compel us to do some serious guarding, inwardly and outwardly. Inwardly our sinful ways trick us into downplaying what God has commanded, perhaps when we are too lazy to want to change those ways if it takes a long period of concentrated self-adjustment. We can love God such that we overcome this laziness by reasserting to ourselves those commands and seeking understanding of them. Outwardly the commands and guarding of them results in backlash from believers and unbelievers who either have forgotten them or been overcome in their own battle and object when we still persist in guarding things of God. We have to be ready for this and overcome it too by persistence in our faith.

Key Questions

Have you ever believed? Ever been baptised? Ever received baptism in the Spirit? Ever devoted your life to God? Ever repented? Ever prayed? Ever spoken in tongues or prophesied? Ever sought to build others up?

How I Personally Follow Jesus

Someone asked me: Do I bother looking things up as I try to always follow Jesus? All I 'bother' doing is trying to keep in memory the teachings of Jesus taught me since my mother taught me 'on her knee' as it were and try to obey all the commands within my power and lean on all the promises that seem to apply. I rarely look things up because I think few today do the same who write articles online so online definitions are often unreliable or worldly. I prove the reliability of what I have been taught in church and reading scriptures like interlinear translations over the years because in response God and Lord Jesus keep up their side of the promises such as those in the Gospel of John and Revelation. God one or two times spoke to me in visions and a couple of times the Spirit spoke to me and once even Jesus Himself spoke to me from heaven. They can keep pointing me in the right direction and helping me point others too.

The Anguish on the Cross

"About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)." Matthew 27:46

When a baby looks for his/her mother and cannot find her usual comforting presense, the baby cries. A righteous adult instead of crying like a baby can use words of the holy psalms to express those same feelings toward God as a baby has towards a mother sometimes even of dismay mingled with love. Jesus is the most righteous adult of all and God gives Him as an example to all (even an example to angels) of how to stay holy and stay right with God even when under extreme stress when that relationship gets pushed to the limit. Like Job, Jesus did not accuse the Father of wrong doing and trusted Him still but did not deny the anguish of the absence of God's usually present comfort and salvation in trouble. Sometimes God has to withold it but always for a righteous reason in love for us all. Jesus has been there and can sympathise now with us. He also shows how the scriptures can be a comfort to us even when other comforts are taken away because there was a sense of someone else having been through the same turmoil giving a sense of company and fellowship that Jesus needed and we need at times, and the scripture He quoted kept Him encouraged not to sin, which it can do for us too.

Vice is Vice

The Book of Revelation (The Apocalypse) teaching of the lake of fire has reasons people will be judged with it and they include things we call 'vice' (porn and drugs, lies, theft, murder and the like) but notice that God made no mention of legal or illegal. Laws of the world do not come into it. (ref Revelation 9:21, 21:8, original Koine Greek or interlinear translation recommended here). Some of these vices are tough stains on our clothes not easily removed. The stain remover is truth we get to know by holding to these teachings in Revelation and other such teachings of Jesus. (ref Gospel of John 8:31-34).

Do Not Rush the Truth

God through Christ and the Spirit teaches us at the pace we can handle if we let Him and do not rush ahead of Him. As Jesus said it to His disciples (John 16:12-15) “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

Resurrection

The caterpillar does not know what it will become and nor do we but unlike the caterpillar we can have hope by what Jesus has become.

The Son of God

Acts 17:18 -
'And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,” - because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.'   The Word was divine but the Word became flesh.
We only belong to the truth if what we live out is the real truth so the real truth gets seen in us. We need to be of good courage to admit to ourselves and to others what the real truth is - that the Word was divine, the Son of Man and Son of God from before all things were created, but the Word became flesh, Jesus, still the Son of God but now flesh and blood and resurrected in the love and power of God the Father. Such He is still. He who is seen and heard and looked upon and touched by humans such as He has become. Luke did not see it appropriate to call Him a deity because deities were thought of as above such human interaction and neither flesh nor blood but spirit only. Jesus still has flesh and blood. We need to live out this truth. He became like us so we can now live like Him and if we hold to this truth we must live as He lived. "If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth." John's first epistle chapter 1 verse 6.
Once upon a time the followers of Jesus were deemed a cult. I guess it changed when Catholicism became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Personally I take up the cross of the disgrace of being deemed part of a cult and outside of the official religion of the equivalent today of that Roman Empire if it comes with following Jesus. The alternative is to deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, which is the spirit of antichrist falsehood.
Jesus ceased to be a deity when He was incarnated. He truly became a human like all humans - a sinless one - yet still Son of God loved by God. That is how it is we can copy Him. That is how it is He died when crucified. That is what a marvel it is that He became the resurected firstborn from the dead and lives forever as Great High Priest over God's House and sits on David's Throne.
This Jesus Christ Himself taught a monotheism where only the Father is to be worshipped as God. This Father is the One Jesus proclaimed as indeed His own God and Father and also His disciples' God and Father.
Luke in writing the passage I quoted in Acts did not think regarding Jesus as a deity was correct - I can tell that by his description of the comments of Epicurians and Stoics who he writes 'thought they were preaching a new deity' when they preached Jesus. Clearly he is denying that it would be correct thinking to regard the preaching by the Apostles as preaching Jesus as a new deity. So clearly he too knew that Jesus becoming flesh at His incarnation was leaving behind the divinity to fully become a child and grow to be a genuine flesh and blood man with DNA and the like. They think they might have a bone fragment of Jesus' cousin John the Baptist and if they sequenced it they would see something close to Jesus' DNA sequence being so closely related. That is how human He is. So He can be the way that we too can come to God His Father. Now He is Lord too.
Not everyone is philosophically inclined to split hairs. The truth is for all though that Jesus is the Word made flesh and that before He was made flesh He was divine and known as the Son of Man and this identity He made clear He retained by identifying Himself as the Son of Man repeatedly before His crucifixion and then God raised Him which God did because Jesus is the Son of God. To say He is a deity is to miss or confuse of obscure the truth that He has become flesh and blood. Luke in 'Acts' (Acts 17:18) pointed out that this mistake was being voiced by Stoics and Epicureans after hearing the Apostle Paul preach.
As Christians many perpetuate a lie that Jesus has not fully become a human setting aside His former deity yet remaining The Son of Man. As Muslims many perpetuate a lie that Jesus is not the Son of God. Both know the teaching that liars will perish at the Judgment in the Lake of Fire.
So a third of the world might hate me for turning from other gods to serve One true God and a third might hate me for confessing truth that Jesus is this one God's beloved Son and is alive from the dead having died on the cross and now a third might hate me for confessing truth that Jesus is man and has become fully man though before this He was the divine Word of God and was together with God in the beginning. It is not being shunned by anyone I should fear but the God who can put me in that Lake of Fire on Judgment Day.

Promises Fulfilled

Whenever you experience a promise of Christ fulfilled you can rejoice because you are proving this corrupt world wrong and thus escaping its influence.

Sign: Huge Scale Earthquake Darkened Sun Then Pause And Then Middle East War Spreading Destruction

Signs of the impending Apocalypse: Huge Scale Earthquake Darkened Sun Then Pause And Then Global Grass and Tree Burning and Huge Middle East War Spreading Destruction. Revelation chapters 6 to 9. Then the Empire you MUST shun will arise. Revelation chapters 11 and 13.

Gospel Truth

Gospel Truth: It is normal to recoil from being told we are enslaved to sin but the words of Jesus Christ ring true about lying and hating. (See 'The Gospel of John' chapter 8.) As I believe in and seek to follow Jesus I find the Spirit making me stop and meditate on the sacrifice Jesus became on the cross and leading me to renounce what the Spirit of Truth showed me is contrary to God and know that the blood of Jesus means I can leave that sin and stop doing it. God provided the Lamb sacrifice of His Son. God being father and God wants us to wash our own clothes in that blood. He might do the first bit for you when you believe but He wants you to do the rest. And the words of God the Father? The Father points out sin ("Israel has sinned" He says) and teaches "In repentance and rest will be your salvation; in quietness and confidence will be your strength". The Father points to Jesus of whom He said "This is My beloved Son; listen to Him." The Father shows Jesus and Jesus leads to the Father.

Apocalypse Now?

We could be seeing democratic US plus Kurds plus Iraq starting a new empire. The leopard might be a democratic force since democracy started with ancient Greece. We might see an alliance with Iran too as time goes on. The sign of it being the beginning of The Beast would be firstly a big apocalyptic catastrophic event including an earthquake darkening the sun with say dust or the like then a pause then an apocalyptic burning of trees and grass by another huge event then a huge scourge from the Iraq and Iran area spreading worldwide killing a third of the world's population including perhaps the Armageddon of prophecy against Israel but failing and leaving Israel intact and hugely encouraged and everyone left in fear of God. The Beast would appear out of this as Satan gives an alliance of western forces plus Iraq and Iran his full power.

Believe the Truth

Lord Jesus the Christ did not come to make it not matter what we do; He came to make us do what matters. The way Lord Jesus (and now the Spirit sent from God) makes us do what matters (and it so matters what we do) is to first get us believing in this Jesus who is same yesterday and today and forever. The belief has to go on always. The next stage as He makes us do what matters is to tell us or show us what is evil and sinful and command that we stop doing that. The next stage is to tell us we might find we are serving sin and therefore need freeing from doing this and He tells us the way to Him freeing us is by our becoming disciples of Him by holding always forever to His teachings and so finding knowledge of truth that sets us free. The teachings then make us into children of God who are always free from being servants of sin. This is forever as we always hold to His teachings and to the things of Jesus now given by the Spirit sent from God in Jesus' name. The freedom and teachings lead us to truth and doing what the truth requires and this is what matters as the truth is God is love.

Do not believe the lie

Lord Jesus the Christ did not come to make it not matter what we do; He came to make us do what matters.
Jesus never lies. I believe that. The lie is when people think and teach that Jesus came so that it does not matter what we do. The truth is that He came so that we do what matters. What matters is to do what accords with the truth: The truth is that God is love.

Lake of Fire and Fear of God

Lord Jesus the Christ said the future existence and purpose of the lake of fire should make us fear God and the Spirit says we are protected by God if we fear Him. The details are for God to explain since this is His word and it is for Jesus to explain because it is His testimony and for the Spirit to explain because He takes from what is Jesus' and makes it known to us who live by the testimony.