Genny, Issy and Chrissy
(He has a plan indeed )
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord,
thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope
Jeremiah 29:11
God always has a plan, a glorious plan to those WHO ARE HIS
COVENANT PEOPLE. The promise above is not for ALL people.
It is given to those who have entered into a covenant with Him. The
promise above is for the nation Israel. And it
will be fulfilled in the future in the second Advent of the Lord
Jesus.
Israel rejected their king, the Lord Jesus in His first advent,
they crucified Him. God then set Israel aside and punished them for
hundreds of years now. Now, there is no spiritual Israel, the
Israel right now is an apostate Israel. It is an Israel that has no
covenant with God. They have no right relationship with God.
So what is God doing after they [Israel] rejected Jesus? God set
them aside out of His favor. God is now calling all people in all
nations. He is now building His Church, a people distinct from
Israel [Romans 11]. When the number of people is completed to
constitute the Church, He will take the Church to Himself [1 Thes.
4:13-18], then the end of the age will usher in and He will rebuild
Israel again in His second coming and reign on earth for 1000 years
[Revelation 20:1-7) then eternity will ensue.
The Church Age is the Christian Age. The word church is from the
Greek word ekklesia or called out. It is derived from two words
in Greek kaleo meaning to call and ek
meaning out. Thus, it means the called out
ones. He is now calling all sinners
out of the life of sin all over the world through
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ [ 2 Thes. 2:14].
His plan for all who repent and trust in the good news is that they
will be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. [Romans
8:29-30]. His desire for those who have not yet heard the gospel is
for them to be evangelized and hear His salvation in Christ. This
age is the age of grace, the Church age or the Christian Age.
Thats why all over the world many, many churches and Christian
groups abound. But the time will come when this age will end and
the Great Tribulation [Revelation chapters 4-19] will come in, it
is a period of seven years when Gods anger will be poured out to
those who did not respond positively to His offer of salvation and
forgiveness of sins in Christ. By then the Church will have been
taken from the earth [1 Thes. 4:13-18].
Today God classed people into three different groups: a)the
Jew or the Israelite, [whom God has set aside for now but
will be in Gods favor again as predicted in numerous prophecies in
the Old Testament] b)the Church of God or the
Christians whatever denomination or group they are in as
long as they repent and trust on the work of Jesus on Calvary for
salvation and c)the Gentile [non-Israelite and
non-Christian people all over the world including Singaporeans who
have not repented and trusted in the saving work of the Lord Jesus
Christ].
Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the
Greeks [meaning Gentiles, they call the Gentiles
as Greeks because most Gentiles in the first century spoke Greek]
or to the church of God [His new covenant people,
Christians] 1 Corinthians 10:32
You are obviously not an Israelite, so two choices only remain for
you, either you are a Gentile in the eyes of God or a member of the
Church of God. Which are you?
To be a member of the church of God and avail of His glorious plan,
one must repent and trust in the saving work of the Lord Jesus
Christ alone, then and only then can you be assured that God indeed
has a plan for you, a glorious plan that is, which He will fulfill
in His time and in His way.
The Age of the Church is fast going to its end, the time to repent
and trust in the saving work of the Lord Jesus for salvation is
NOW.