Sunday morning, March 22, I preached from Daniel 8. As previously stated, I've been ministering through the book of Daniel, verse by verse now for several months. Many have been touched and encouraged; I praise the Lord for His working in lives. Yet, this past Sunday, I went through the whole 8th chapter of Daniel; (27 verses).

I preached from the subject, "The Position of Jesus; the Condition of the Antichrist; the Hope of the Believer." I drew my thought from Daniel 8:25, the latter part of this verse, "he (that is the Antichrist) shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; (Jesus Christ) but he (the Antichrist) shall be broken without hand. (that is defeated at the Battle of Armageddon.)

I approached the position of Jesus in three facets. His position when on earth; His position now in heaven and His position when he return at His Second Coming to do battle with the Antichrist and his armies in the valley of Jehoshaphat.

The condition of the Antichrist is that he will be elevated and exalted by his own means, of course, supported and strengthened by the work and power of Satan, but with his ability to deceive many, he will be worshipped as God. Yet, ultimately, his condition will not always be one of elevated praise and admiration; he will be defeated and that without any hand of man but by the "brightness of Christ's coming" (2 Thessalonians 2:8) and, according to the words of John in Revelation 19:20, the Antichrist will be "cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone."

The Hope of the Believer is that before the Antichrist can be revealed, though the mystery of iniquity is already at work, (2 Thessalonians 2:7) the hindrance to his revelation as the man of sin can't be until the church is removed. (2 Thessalonians 2:7). I believe, based on the Scripture, the next great event that will have world wide impact greater than any history has known will be the rapture of the church.

Sunday night, I preached from Philippians 2:12-13 on the subject, "God working in…Me working out." Paul encouraged the Philippians Christians to "work out (this is my responsibility in the process of spiritual growth and discipline) your own salvation with fear and trembling. (I must take my spiritual growth serious and not with a frivolous attitude.) For it is God which worketh in you…" (this is God's part in my spiritual growth and development.)

I shared three means God uses to help us grow and paralleled them with three ways we are to respond to God's means in order to grow.

Growth in Christ isn't automatic. It requires our submission to what God uses and employs in our live. Our part is necessary or what God desires to do "in us" can't be accomplished. Romans 6:13 is so very true, "yield yourselves unto God…" and Romans 6:16 is a fact, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?"

It was a great day in the Lord. During the time of our altar services, where we allow the congregation to seek the Lord in response to the ministry of His Word, the Spirit of the Lord was present in a powerful way.

Until my next blog confabulation….God bless!