Thoughts on the Rapture

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

The rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ is the next great event on the horizon of time. Without going into great detail at this time, I want to give a few salient points as it pertains to this all important subject.

1] There are many signs of the times that point to the fact that we are living in the last of the last days.
+Restoration of Israel as a nation in 1948, fulfilling Bible Prophecy
+Wars and rumors of wars
+ Spiritual rebellion and outright apostasy
+ An emphasis on material prosperity and material and cultural influence
+ An increase of knowledge and fast paced travel
+ Many and various natural disasters
+ Perilous Times.
+ False Prophets will abound in the last days. For Example, the so called Kansas City Prophets that have fostered some of the worst false doctrine in the body of Christ. And now, we have Todd Bentley and his unbiblical angel craze, plus many more abberant doctrines.
+ Wickedness that beggars description
+ Demonic activity will continue to rise as we go deeper into the last days.
+Persecution of the saints will become more pronounced, even in the USA, as we get closer to the Lords return.
+ At the same time, the true Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ will be spread throughout the earth at a breathtaking rate.

2] Now lets look at the purpose of the Rapture.
+ To resurrect the dead in Christ, separating them from the wicked dead.
+ To take the Saints to heaven, where their works will be judged, they will receive rewards, and partake in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
+ At the rapture, we will receive our immortal glorified bodies.
+ we, the saints, will be presented before the Father.
+ We will be made whole in Spirit, Soul, And Body. The saints will.
+We, the saints, will escape the Great Tribulation.
+ The hinderer of lawlessness in the world, the church, will be removed.
+ The antichrist will then be revealed.

3] Who is worthy to escape?
Those who are in Christ. The Greek word for worthy is "Axios" meaning, "deserving to be fit, to be accepted." Meaning that our living, our walk with the Lord, our Faith, our lifestyle proves our relationship with Christ.

4] EXAMINE YOURSELVES.
2 Corinthians 13:5 admonishes us to " Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the Faith, prove yourselves...."
Examine means "to test, to try" ourselves to see whether Christ is truly living in our hearts. Paul is stating that there must be a true relationship between us and the Lord. Our actions are the actions of a true believer.
The great question of the hour for every believer is simply, "Are You READY?"
Those who are ready are listening for the trump of God.

we wish to thank Evangelist Donnie Swaggart for his insights on this topic.

READING DEVOTIONAL: CITIES OF REFUGE

REMEMBERING DAD

Yes, That is me on the tractor and my Dad making sure I did not fall off. Dad was always making sure that we kids were safe. It was a blessing to be raised in that era, as our parents taught us much about how to think and respect for others.

As Fathers day approaches, I remember many wonderful things about my own Dad, who passed away in 2006. It doesn't seem like it has been 2 years since I've seen and talked to Dad. I sure do miss those times. One thing I remember well and miss very much, were those times when we would sit at the kitchen table and have coffee together and just talk. We talked about everything. Those were great times.

Let me encourage those of you who still have your Dad with you, call him; spend time with him; someday, you will not see him again in this life and at times that can be a lonely feeling.
On this Fathers Day, why not do something extra special for your Dad.

Dad, I love you and miss you.

FROM ME TO YOU

Below you will find 3 excerpts of our telecast. You can view them in their entirety, as well as many others at www.acts2618.com As you view them here at Cross Focus, I believe you will want to watch the entire series.
I feel that these excerpts will be a blessing to your spiritual life. Please, when you have time, visit the www.acts2618.com site; as well as our You-Tube channel.
Thank you and God Bless.

UPDATE; JUNE 5 2008

Praise the Lord! A brand new month is now upon us and the Holy Spirit is moving on the hearts of people through this ministry. We give God all the praise and glory for it.

In the days ahead, I am going to be releasing a powerful, new word that God has given me for the days we are living in and I pray that all of you will check back with our blogs often.

The writings will be fewer in number in June, as we are moving to gain more room for our office. But do keep looking for these new releases that are to come.

At the bottom of this Cross Focus blog, I have added a You-Tube player with one of my videos and several by other men of God that I pray will be a blessing to you. If you click on the http adress on the bottom of the player, you will go to our You-Tube page and let me tell you, you will be blessed by the selections that we post there on You-Tube. God has opened this up to us as a brand new ministry venue. There will also be many personal videos posted there. We have also placed the same player at the bottom of our Cross Talk blog and two different players on Angies Spirit Led Corner blog. Please take full occasion to make use of this material. It will bless you, of that I am certain.

We have also received the results of the feedback on the books we sent out freely to several Christians, called "The Heavenly Man" by Brother Yun. Those who prayerfully took the time to read this free book that we gave them, all gave positive feedback and felt challenged by the book. That was the point. Those who did not take the time to read the book, for whatever reason, well , what can I say.American Christians really need to wake up.

Again, let me thank all of you for your continued use of the sites and may God richly bless each of you.

DRIVE OUT ALL UNBELIEF

The Lord has been speaking to my heart about the days we are living in. In the next few weeks, please be looking on our blogs for more on this subject.
Let me say for today, that in the months to come be prepared to have your faith tested. It is very important that you drive out, forcibly, all unbelief. You and I are going to need to fully depend on the Lord as never before. We will have to trust God to provide for us during some tough economic times ahead. Remember, His word promises His provision. If you and I will remove all idols of greed from our hearts and drive out all unbelief, we will live in Goshen during the upcoming hard times. There is some sensitive information that I am not sharing with you here at this time, and I will have to pray about just how and when I can share it. But I want you to trust the Lord and give no place to fear. God will take care of His children.

Fear and unbelief will rob you of much needed faith and focus that you are going to need in the coming days. Please, do not believe the soft, pillow prophets that are telling you that all is going well in our world. Folks, we are living in the last days. But truly, that is no cause for fear. Hard times ARE COMING, but God WILL PROVIDE for His children. You have got to know that. Many people, who truly love Jesus, panic in times of crisis. They worry and they fret. Listen, Jesus hears all cries, loud or soft and He invites us to come and dine with Him. In the coming days, you and I must walk closely with Jesus. Trust Him and believe His promises.

Do as David did when he was overwhelmed by circumstances: he encouraged himself in the Lord. Even your best friends or relatives cannot give you the comfort and direction that you need. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. Here is an eternal word for your encouragement; THE LORD WILL NEVER TURN YOU OVER TO THE POWER OF SATAN, our enemy. Read Psalm 31:8 and Psalm 31:24
Really, you and I should spend much time in the whole of Psalm 31.

" Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Hebrews 3:12

" And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not ? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." Hebrews 3:18,19

UPDATE- May 18th, 2008

I thought I would take the time to update you on happenings here at the ministry.

The Lord is so good and has opened up so many doors for us that it's hard to know where to begin. 

First, let me encourage you to take the time to check out the Telecast that we have on our pod-cast page at www.acts2618.com

At the time of this writing I believe we have 16 of the programs for you to watch online.

Of course, we plan to add to that number.

We have been on TCTV-2 in Traverse City, MI for a little over 6 years now and there are plans ahead to possibly start a Internet TV channel for new Telecasts. I will keep you posted on that.

But  the testimonys that we are receiving about the programs online are outstanding and we give the Lord all the praise and glory.

Also, at the direction of the Lord, we began Acts 26:18 Prayer Chapel Fellowship.

It is a group of believers dedicated to the harvest and to prayer for each other and our nation. The Chapel has its own blog-site-- prayerchapel.wordpress.com

Check it out sometime. It is also an audio and video site; with, for the most part, different material than what is on our other pod-casts.  We are offering classes at the Chapel, which will begin sometime this summer. Our first class will probably be on " Praying with purpose and power."  When it is time to enroll, I will post it.

Acts 26:18 Prayer Chapel Fellowship is a home church that will meet on Thursday Evenings at 6:30, and Sunday Evenings at 6:30.  Classes will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday Evenings. The times for the classes has not yet been determined.  

We are also going to New York City, Sept. 7th for Prayer in the Square which is put on by Times Square Church. Thousands of Pastors and other believers will gather to pray for New York and for America. I thank God for calling Angie and I to take part in that this year.  Let me just tell you how much that we love Times Square Church. The Pastors; Dave Wilkerson, Carter Conlon, and others, are true men of God.

Like I said, there is just so much that we could talk about; It is really mind boggling what God is doing. I am going to ask some of you to become partners with me by giving a financial gift to this ministry on a monthly basis. I know that the Lord would be pleased with that and I promise that we use every penny in this work to reach people with the message of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. We can not do this alone, and I really do need your help. Pray about supporting this worthwhile work for Jesus, today. If you desire, you can mail your offerings to: Acts 26:18 Ministries at PO Box 5714.  Traverse City, MI  49696  or you can give online at 

www.acts2618.com

Thank you in advance for all you do. Please check back to this Cross Focus blog, or any of our sites, for up-to-date info.

God bless you,

     Len Paxton