The Times of the Gentiles

The apostle Paul wrote, in Romans 11: 25-29, about the people of Israel having been set aside for a period of time so that the Gospel might be spread among the Gentiles.
The people of Israel are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and were (are) the subject of God's great love story with a people who over and over turned their backs on Him.  Though they thumbed their proverbial noses at God (see the four chapters of Malachi), He is the immutable God who, when He makes a promise, absolutely cannot go back on that promise.
The Gentiles make-up the balance of all humanity.  The term Gentile is an English translation of the Hebrew word goyim (“people, nations”) and the Greek word ethne (“nations, people groups, people”). The Latin Vulgate translated these words as gentilis, and this word was then carried over into English as “Gentile.” The term refers to a person who is not a Jew.1

Take a close look at this passage in Romans 11 (Today's Living Translation) -
"²⁵ I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ. ²⁶ And so all Israel will be saved. As the Scriptures say,
“The one who rescues will come from Jerusalem,
    and he will turn Israel away from ungodliness.
²⁷ And this is my covenant with them,
    that I will take away their sins.”

²⁸ Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the Good News, and this benefits you Gentiles. Yet they are still the people he loves because he chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ²⁹ For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn."2

Now, notice that Paul warns the Christians in Rome, and all who follow Christ, not to become haughty, even as the Jews had become.  They were "the Chosen Seed"..."the Special People of God"..."the People of the Promise."  And, they had become proud...even so much that they thought of themselves that they could make up their own belief system...and God set them aside for a period of time so that He might graft in others (the Gentiles) that we might become children of God too.  This is a work of "grace" and "mercy" and we Gentiles must recognize that God has provided a way for us to become His children as well.  Therefore, we must not be proud in any way thinking that we have done something to earn God's favor.  Rather, out of His heart of perfect love, He has provided us a way of redemption for us through the life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus.
So, how is God going to work out this "special promise" for the Jews and when will this take place?  Look again at the last part of verse 25: "...until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ."  There will come an end of this "Gentile Age" or "Church Age" when every last Gentile who will place their trust in Christ as Savior will have done so.  When that time comes, and God alone knows that time, the "Church" will be removed, or taken up to be with Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:12-18)3
Take special notice in verse 17 in 1 Thessalonians 4, the words "caught up."  We who believe in Christ Jesus and trust Him as Lord and Savior will be taken up into the clouds...not the fluffy water droplets in the sky but rather the "cloud of witnesses" those whom the writer of Hebrews refers in chapter 12.  This miracle will be the culminating and fulfilling event to which our passage speaks in Romans 11:25.  This will be the fulfillment of the times of the Gentiles.
Following the "catching up" event, there will be a period of time like which history has never seen wherein God will cleanse the earth (mankind) with "Great Tribulation" and He will purify for Himself those Jews (144,000 in number) who will become the citizens of Christ's 1,000 year reign on the earth, in Jerusalem, on the throne of David.  The nation of Israel will be the nation God intended her to be when he promised Abraham and Isaac and Jacob that they and their descendants would be a special people unto God.  No more secular, no more unbelievers...rather all will worship and serve God through their Lord and King, the Messiah, Jesus.
In Paul's letter to the Romans, we see his words of encouragement for both Gentiles and for his own people the Jews.  God has a plan and it will be fulfilled.  There is no one who can interrupt or delay that plan.  It will come to fruition at just the right time.  For those who have trusted in Jesus both Jews and Gentiles, for all who are in Him, we shall ever be with the Lord!
May I add, if you are reading this and you are not sure that you will be in heaven with Christ, or if you have never given your heart to God through Jesus, right now is the time to do this.  If you want to place your trust in Him, you need to pray and ask to give you eternal life with Him.  Just read this prayer, or pray to God what is on your heart...just do it right now, for today is the day of Salvation.
Pray: Dear God, I know that I am a sinner and that I do not measure up to your perfect life.  I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me and that He has paid the price for my sins...the price which I could not pay.  I trust Him as my Lord and Savior and I ask you to give me eternal life with You.  Come into my heart and cleanse me and make me whole.  In the name of Jesus, Amen!

1 http://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-a-Gentile.html#ixzz3c9TEuhFy
2 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+11%3A25-29&version=NLT
3 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Thessalonians+4%3A13-18&version=NLT

Spiritual Warfare

In 1967, I entered the U.S. Army and was transported to Fort Polk in Louisiana.  Basic training was the first order of business to get each of the young recruits prepared for the inevitable warfare going on in Viet Nam.  To send us into battle without training would have been so very wrong.

The Bible tells us that we are in a spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:10ff) where we are instructed to put on God's armor.  Notice that it is His armor, not mine or yours. Putting on my own armor, which is weak at best, would be devastating.  Therefore, we are to follow God's directions and use His tested and proven armor. The Apostle Paul instructed his young protégé, Timothy, to get ready for the work of God (which includes "spiritual warfare") by studying God's Word.  He told Timothy to do more than just read the Word...he said, "...dissect it..." (2 Timothy 2:15).

James, the pastor of the Jerusalem church and half-brother of Jesus, knew that this process of spiritual warfare would be next to impossible for us, so his solution was for each of us to "Submit to God (in doing so, we then would be able to) resist the devil and he will flee from you."  (James 4:7)  This might seem a bit simplistic unless we understand the depth of the process of "submitting."  In verse 8, James continues the instruction by telling us that we (he is talking to believers here) are to be contrite concerning our sins...cleansing our hands and purifying our hearts and devoting ourselves to being single-minded (focused on God alone).  In this way, we can "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you (us)."  John wrote in his first letter, "If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness." (1 John 1:9).

A clear understanding of James' teaching reveals that the church in Jerusalem had factions that were at odds over various issues.  What he is trying to tell them (and what we can learn for ourselves) is that the only way to live the Christian life, and to have victory over Satan's evil intentions, is to confess our sins daily and focus on God alone.  He is the "Captain of heaven's armies" (Joshua 5:14).  In the U.S. Army, we were taught to focus on the orders of our commanders and in doing so, we would be victorious.  In the spiritual realm, we must do the same thing...focus on Jesus who has already given us the victory (1 Corinthians 15:57).

One of my favorite Bible study resources, as many already know, is GotQuestions.org.  They have a number of topics for us as answers that speak to the issue of spiritual warfare. If I have piqued your interest, a perusal of these topics might be very helpful for you. The link is: 
http://www.gotquestions.org/search.php?zoom_query=What+can+I+do+when+I+am+under+spiritual+attack&search.x=59&search.y=21

May God guide each of us as we face the very obvious spiritual warfare issues against the powers of darkness which surround us at this very hour.  Those evil powers will not give up easily, however we just need to remember that, in Christ Jesus, we are already victors.

You've Gotta Be Kidding!

Of the prophets of God in the Old Testament, Malachi is the last.  The chronological order of the prophets is not necessarily the order we find them in our Bibles, however Malachi happens to be the last one in both cases.  Coming some 60 or so years after Haggai and Zechariah, his message is presented as a dialogue between God and the people of Israel, with Malachi taking the role of a mediator between them.
I can never come to a reading of Malachi with chuckling a bit thinking back to a young man in our church in Fort Morgan, Colorado, who called him Ma-la-chi.  No matter what he is called, the study of Malachi (Mal-a-cai) is a study in understanding how the Jews were treating the God who had proved Himself as the One who cared for them by setting them up to have a personal relationship with Himself.  He did this for no one else before Jesus came to earth.
Still these people became so complacent with that relationship that they began to elevate themselves to a place of self-aggrandizement.  When presented with their attitude by God, their response was, "Really! You've gotta be kidding.  What have we done to ... (whatever the charge might be against them).
Two hundred years earlier, their ancestors were thumbing their noses at God as if to dare Him to bring any judgment upon them until He finally was forced, by their attitude and refusal to repent, to punish them by means of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians.  When they confessed their failure (70 years later), God brought them back to their home ... Jerusalem. 
Now, here we are again...they are once more thumbing their noses at God.  By grace, He is trying to give them another chance, but they keep on rejecting His overtures of love.  Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?
This is where America is today.  Once a humble nation, Christian in her origin, we are thumbing our noses at God and daring Him to do anything about it.  As a pastor friend just recently pointed out, the Apostle John wrote about this in his first letter.  1 John 2:15-17, "Do not love the world or 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 desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."
We have become complacent in our blessed status having been protected by God for so much of our nation's existence.  But we, like the Jews of old, are thumbing our self-righteous noses at Him.  In His grace, God is challenging America while we are saying, "Really!  What have we done wrong?"
America, we are way overdue for God's correction.  We are way past our time to turn back to Him and plead for His forgiveness.  What America needs is a changed heart and God is the only one who can force that change.  Our leaders have failed us and we have failed our leaders not holding them accountable.  We cannot expect God to stay His judgment forever.  2 Chronicles 7:14, an oft quoted passage, needs to be repeated again and again, "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, I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
This message was to the Jews of King Solomon's day but the principle applies to us today.  Turn back to God America before God sends judgment.  We are way overdue!