June 2013

Part 1 How Can You Prepare for What Lies Ahead?

Why don't we have world peace?

Jeremiah 6:14 “They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly (superficially), saying ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.”

Isaiah 59:8 “The way of peace they have not known.”

Ezekiel 18:31 “A new heart and a new spirit.”

Isaiah 9:7 “The increase of His government and peace there will be no end.”

Isaiah 2:4 “Beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

Micah 4:4 “Everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid.”

Ephesians 6:15 “Gospel [good news] of peace.”

2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV) “The god of this age [Satan the devil] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel.”

Ephesians 2:2-3 “You once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”

Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Galatians 5:19-21 (NRSV) “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Romans 1:24-32 (NIV) “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another … even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

(continuing) “In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

(continuing) “Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.

(continuing) “They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

Jeremiah 17:9-10 (NRSV) “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse—who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.”

Proverbs 14:12; 16:25 “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”

Romans 8:5-8 (Holman Christian Standard Bible) “For those whose lives are according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those whose lives are according to the Spirit, about the things of the Spirit. For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind- set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God's law, for it is unable to do so. Those whose lives are in [that is, dominated by] the flesh are unable to please God”

Romans 8:13-14 “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

1 John 3:4 (KJV) “Sin is the transgression [breaking] of the law.”

Revelation 3:17 “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—when the reality, God says, is that spiritually we are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”

Leviticus 26:40-45 “But if they confess their iniquity [sin] and the iniquity of their fathers...then I will remember My covenant with Jacob... for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God.”

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Why is the Kingdom of God the solution?

Matthew 13:45-46 “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

:44 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it goes and sells all that he has and buys that field”

Luke 22:28-30 “But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

2 Timothy 4:8 “There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord [Jesus Christ], the righteous Judge, will give to me in that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

Revelation 11:15 “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’”

June 2013