Wednesday, December 11, 2013

OSAS and the Full Number.

Tom's Journal. http://tomschuckmanjournal.blogspot.com/

tschuckman@aol.com

Dear Friends,
This little piece here along with scriptures is a holy, balm/ salve to my heart and soul !!   OSAS --- means: "Once Saved --Always Saved." I always knew that after I finally found the Lord and RE-studied the good KJV Bible, I figure, about 1995.   But in most cases, you don't just go to sleep and know everything in the Bible when you awake the next morning, folks.... LOL !! The old adage: 'You have got to put money IN THE BANK BEFORE YOU CAN DRAW MONEY OUT OF THE BANK.'   You have to put the knowledge IN YOUR BRAIN [AND HEART] if you expect to summon it back up and use it again..... obviously.   So... when some wise guy tells you that they will jump on over to Jesus' side at the last minute before the rapture, etc.... you really got to being scratching y our head.....duh.   And then, again, coming to serve Lord Jesus is not just intellectual, but a thing of the HEART too!!

If my peers say that I am a smart man who knows the Bible well.... and I tell all my friends that I am still LEARNING, what does that tell you all ??   We will NEVER stop learning, and our human brains were made to last FOREVER !!   It just amazes me how God is so merciful so as to snatch us out of the fire even as we are sinners, and GIVE US undeserved kindness... GRACE, and Save us !   I never want to take that for granted.   We can say, "Look how far we have come..." ---- and wonder how far we will go, because the "Church Class" will serve as kings and priests after the New Heavens and the New Earth are finished, and the world is re-populated again, for 1000 years, according to the book of Revelation.

Today I sent a 'gift' in the snail mail to my Mom, in Burlington, WI., where I used to work at Nestle Co., after I got home from RVN, making chocolate, back in 1970.   My Mother is NOT a Believer, but scriptures say that we ought treat our parents with love and respect, and I do care for her, and have preached to her many times. At this stage of the game, it is not for me to judge or say who is Saved, but actions speak louder than words.... and there is only so much a son can do and say to share the Gospel.    Some times the most effective thing we can do for our relatives is to pray for them and set a good, proper example. She is legally blind, but there are many ways to learn the truth of the Bible, like audio tapes and word of mouth...   just like the Ethiopian man [in the book of Acts] who rode in a chariot until Philip the Evangelizer taught him the truth too, from the scrolls of Isaiah, and then he got Saved, and baptized too.   There will be a day of accounting up in heaven at the Bema Seat, and also when we will see the people going to hell.... and perhaps we might understand better our duties of sharing the truth of the Gospel then.    There is something called, "BLOOD GUILT."    It might do us all well to just look back and think about all the times we heard the Gospel of Salvation in our lives, but passed up many chances, until our minds and hearts were ready to accept Christ. And remember that there is definitely a LIMIT to God's mercy and kindness.   When Father God has His number of those in the Universal Christian Community FILLED, the proverbial 'doors of the Ark' will be closed, and things will start to happen!!   Pastor Kevin Sullivan told me yesterday that the Church will be raptured up BEFORE the Anti-Christ comes on the scene !!   Wow!   That means that he is alive now, and waiting in the wings. He will be Mr. Fix- it guy, with a silver tongue, smooth, smart and a great peace maker, etc.   People say that he will probably be from Europe, or the old Holy Roman Empire, or what ever.... and he will effect an accord between Israel and the Nations that will "SEEM TO WORK" -- for at least the first 3 and one half years, only to be broken.   This is all exciting for me, and millions of other REAL, Saved, Spirit-anointed Believers in the world. Israel, in the meantime, will win 2 wars between her and her mortal enemies, all according to the Book.... but actually God will win them FOR her.
      But now, Satan, who controls the world Governments is misleading the entire inhabited world, blowing smoke in the majority of peoples' eyes, of course, and they would much rather believe Satan the devil, than read the truth from the Bible.   Who will YOU follow ??

More latter.....

Are we "waiting to get perfect" before we begin to tell people about Salvation by Grace thru Jesus' ransom blood sacrifice?? Time is fleeting.
    You will never hear me predicting a day, but we do know the SEASON, and things could start to pop anytime now.

For many, many years, my main prayers were to achieve a BALANCE of things within me.   Not too slow -- not too fast. Not lazy -- and not wanting to burn out with a heart attack.   I will never be rich --- but I surely don't want to be poor either !   I am so stinking tired of being FAT... but I don't want to be skinny either!   Lord, Just let me lose 100 pounds before Spring, PLEASE !   I don't want much , huh? I probably sound greedy by now, right?

Tonight will get down to about   --7 degrees below zero, and then maybe a slight warm up where we live. Happy to be blessed with a nice, warm home, full of love.

Tom Schuckman

OSAS And The Full Number

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

Once Saved Always Saved

Q. Until just yesterday, I struggled with believing we could not lose, nor walk away from, our salvation. I was sitting at work and it dawned on me that we have a number that has to be fulfilled prior to the rapture. If OSAS isn’t true, that number could never possibly be hit as I see more and more people walking away from true Christianity due to apostate churches. Am I in-line in my thoughts? I know other countries are having success with evangelizing, but in our own nation, the numbers would be dwindling rapidly, possibly enough to balance out new people coming to Christ, making the number incredibly difficult to achieve. I feel like this may be the “proof” I needed of OSAS. Thoughts?

A. Your premise is accurate. If true believers could lose their salvation because of sinful behavior, or simply surrender it, we would at least have a much more difficult time achieving our full number, and it could even become impossible.
But because of OSAS we know that those who are walking away for good never were “true Christians” to begin with, so they can’t cause a decline in our total.
John wrote, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” (1 John 2:19).
It is possible for true Christians to lose their way temporarily, but God has anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come (2 Cor. 1:21-22) so we can never be completely lost. When the time is right our Lord will retrieve us, as a shepherd retrieves his sheep, for it’s His Father’s will that He will not lose any of us (John 6:39-40).

Christians being Martyred Every Day!

Tom's Journal. http://tomschuckmanjournal.blogspot.com/

tschuckman@aol.com

The Bible doesn't speak kindly of the "FEARFUL" and 'COWARDS' @ Revelation 21: 8 !   It takes courage to stand up and fight against Satan and his earthly henchmen, but we real Christians have the Holy Spirit, that puts the RIGHT words in our mouths and hearts, after we are Saved.   Just like the First Century Christians that scattered when Jesus was first taken from them.... Jesus told them to stay in the Jerusalem area because he was going to 'send a helper'... a "Comforter."   Living a few more years in this painful, corrupt world is nothing I would want to hold on for, or sacrifice my good name and character for !! Better to die a martyr's death with a crown waiting for me in Heaven, than linger in a messed up, sinful world, if it comes to that.

The sooner we adapt our minds to the accurate thoughts of being a SOLDIER FOR CHRIST -- the better ! And how do we train?? With our new: UCMJ-- Uniform Code of Military Justice --- the KJV Bible !   I will tell you folks one thing for sure.... if I knew that i was going into battle/ warfare, I would want to know every scrap of info that i could to be victorious and stand a chance of accomplishing my mission and coming home alive, if possible.   Soldiers learn these fighting skills by paying attention, taking notes, knowing their jobs and team work.

My wife and I are truly blessed to be members of a fine Christian church in the U.P. that teaches nothing but the true Word of God, the KJV Bible, along with a lot of close fellowship, prayers, and helping out fellow members who are sick, injured, needy, and broken in spirit. We have a very loving congregation, and perhaps the FINEST I've ever been in !!! PTL !   May the Lord bless and care for the good pastor  Kevin Sullivan and his wife!

Warm Regards,
Tom Schuckman

Christians Are Being Burned Alive, Beheaded, Crucified, Tortured To Death & Imprisoned

Michael Snyder
American Dream
December 10, 2013
The “coming persecution of Christians” has already begun. It is already here. So why is the mainstream media in the United States almost totally silent about this phenomenon? When some politician somewhere around the globe inadvertently offends homosexuals or Muslims, it instantly makes headline news.

Image: Christian Cross (Wikimedia Commons).

But very few Americans are even aware that it has been estimated that 100 million Christians are currently facing persecution and thatapproximately 100,000 Christians die for their faith each year. As you are about to see, Christians all over the world are being burned alive, beheaded, crucified, tortured to death and imprisoned in metal shipping containers just because of what they believe. This persecution goes on year after year and it is steadily intensifying. But the governments of the western world and the mainstream media are almost entirely ignoring what is happening.
The information shared below is extremely graphic. Some of the websites that normally run my articles may want to think twice before posting this one. The reason why I have included such graphic information is because I believe that it is very important to accurately communicate what is truly going on out there. People need to know the reality of the holocaust that is happening. The following are short excerpts from news stories about incidents of Christian persecution that took place in 12 different countries around the planet. Sadly, the vast majority of Americans have never even heard about any of these stories…
#1 Christian Taxi Driver Pulled Out Of His Cab And Beheaded In Egypt: One attack involved taxi driver Rafaat Aziz Mina, who was slaughtered in an Alexandria street just because he was Christian. In his early twenties, he was killed on 16 August by a mob of Islamists who took to the streets after news reached them about the military’s action against their camps in Cairo.
An amateur video shot by a resident shows a mob blocking cars, checking the passengers inside. When Aziz’s taxi was stopped, one of the protesters noted a cross hanging from the rear view mirror. Quickly, the young man was dragged out and kicked, punched and beaten to death. For several minutes, the extremists defiled the lifeless body kicking and spitting on it, concluding their performance by cutting off his head, which they left on the sidewalk.
#2 Tortured To Death By U.S.-Backed Al-Qaeda Rebels In Syria: In late October, the U.S-supported “opposition” invaded and occupied Sadad for over a week, till ousted by the nation’s military. Among other atrocities, 45 Christians—including women and children—were killed, several tortured to death; Sadad’s 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for “subhuman” Christians).
#3 “Slaughtering Us Like Chickens” In The Central African Republic: Thousands of Christian civilians sought refuge at an airport guarded by French soldiers Friday, fleeing from the mostly Muslim ex-rebels with machetes and guns who rule the country a day after the worst violence to hit the chaotic capital in nine months.
When several French helicopters landed at the airport, people sang with joy as they banged on plastic buckets and waved rags into the air in celebration.
Outside the barbed wire fences of the airport, bodies lay decomposing along the roads in a capital too dangerous for many to collect the corpses. Thursday’s clashes left at least 280 dead, according to national radio, and have raised fears that waves of retaliatory attacks could soon follow.
“They are slaughtering us like chickens,” said Appolinaire Donoboy, a Christian whose family remained in hiding.
#4 Shot For Refusing To Convert To Islam In Libya: A group of Muslims robbed two Egyptian Christians living in Libya, then tied up and shot them to death after the two Copts refused their demand to convert to Islam, relatives said.
On a rural road in Derna District in northeastern Libya on Wednesday (Sept. 25), a group of Muslims surrounded Waleed Saad Shaker, 25, and Nash’at Shenouda Ishaq, 27, demanded their belongings and started beating them. During the strong-arm robbery, the relatives said, the Muslims demanded that Shaker and Ishaq recite the shahada, the declaration of conversion to Islam. When the two Orthodox Coptic Christians refused, the group of Muslims tied them up and shot them.
#5 Head Cut Off In Front Of A Camera For Converting To Christianity In Tunisia: A young man appears held down by masked men. His head is pulled back, with a knife to his throat. He does not struggle and appears resigned to his fate. Speaking in Arabic, the background speaker, or “narrator,” chants a number of Muslim prayers and supplications, mostly condemning Christianity, which, because of the Trinity, is referred to as a polytheistic faith: “Let Allah be avenged on the polytheist apostate”; “Allah empower your religion, make it victorious against the polytheists”; “Allah, defeat the infidels at the hands of the Muslims,” and “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.”
Then, to cries of “Allahu Akbar!”— Allah is greater!”—the masked man holding the knife to the apostate’s throat begins to slice away, severing the head completely after approximately one minute of graphic knife-carving, as the victim drowns in blood. Finally, the severed head is held aloft to more Islamic slogans of victory.
#6 50 Christians Burned To Death In Their Pastor’s Home In Nigeria: Fifty members of a northern Nigerian church were burned to death in their pastor’s house.
The attack by armed gunmen was only the first in a 12-village spree of violence that left over 100 dead in northern Nigeria’s Plateau State, a region that had previously been outside Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram’s operational area and is the largely Muslim Fulani tribesmen’s homeland.
Yet Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks and threatened even more violence.
#7 Two Brothers Crucified For Their Faith In Ivory Coast: Two peasant brothers were brutally crucified on “the example of Christ” as forces loyal to Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara continue to target perceived supporters of his ousted Christian predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo.
Raphael Aka Kouame died of his injuries; incredibly his younger brother, Kouassi Privat Kacou, survived the ordeal. The pair were badly beaten and tortured before being crudely nailed to cross-shaped planks by their hands and feet with steel spikes on 29 May.

#8 Angry Mob Of About 1,000 People Destroys A Church And Beats Christians In India: Shouting religious slogans, a mob estimated at 1,000 people has destroyed a Christian church under construction in northern India, according to a report received from church leaders in the region. The attack occurred Sunday.

With the building demolished, the mob began to beat the pastor, his mother and church members, who were able to flee and went into hiding for the night. The extent of their injuries is not known.
#9 Suicide Bombers Kill 81 At A Church In Pakistan: A pair of suicide bombers killed 81 people outside a church in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday in the deadliest attack yet on the country’s Christian minority, reviving fears that the newly installed government is powerless to stop the resurgent Taliban’s reign of terror.
The attack on the 19th-century All Saints Church in Peshawar took place as hundreds of worshippers were streaming out of the church, police chief Mohammad Ali Babakhel told the newspaper Dawn.
“The suicide bomber tried to attack the people, but when he was stopped by the police, he detonated the bomb,” he said. “The second blast was carried out inside the church.”
#10 80 Lashes For Drinking Communion Wine In Iran: An Iranian court sentenced four Iranian men to 80 whiplashes for drinking wine during communion and possession of a satellite antenna.
The court issued the sentence in the city of Rasht on October 6. Christian Solidarity Worldwide, an advocacy organization for religious freedom, reported on the punishment last week on its website.
#11 Imprisoned In Metal Shipping Containers In Eritrea: A representative of Open Doors, a charity that works with Christians under pressure for their faith, said that many Christian men and women are being held in underground dungeons, metal shipping containers and military detention centers.
“They face exposure, hard labor and insufficient food, water and hygiene. They are regularly denied medical treatment for malaria and pneumonia contracted while in prison or diseases like diabetes, hypertension or cancer that they may have arrived with,” said the representative.
#12 Publicly Executed For Owning A Bible In North Korea: Eight people — their heads covered with white bags — were tied to stakes at a local stadium in the city of Wonsan, before authorities shot them with a machine gun, according to the source.
Wonsan authorities gathered a crowd of 10,000 people, including children, at Shinpoong Stadium and forced them to watch the killings.
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For the moment, things like this are not happening in the United States. But you would have to be extremely naive to think that it never could happen here.
Animosity toward Christians is rapidly rising in this country. Anyone that spends much time cruising around the Internet can see that very clearly. In fact, some bloggers recently suggested the castration and murder of Christians here in the United States.
It might seem easy to dismiss those remarks as the ramblings of a few deranged individuals, but the truth is that our own government is now labeling Christians as “extremists” and “potential terrorists“. For a large number of examples of this phenomenon, please see my previous article entitled “72 Types Of Americans That Are Considered ‘Potential Terrorists’ In Official Government Documents“.
All over the planet, the persecution of Christians is growing. And our own government is now demonizing us and characterizing us as a “threat”.
The years ahead are going to be very challenging for those who choose to be Christians. If you are a Christian, I hope that you are getting emotionally and spiritually prepared for that.

This article was posted: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 5:22 am

Tags: foreign affairs

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This is such good medicine to my bones and well being..... PTL !!

OSAS And The Full Number

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

Once Saved Always Saved

Helping Other Disabled Combat Veterans

One of the Best ways to help another human being is to show and share them the "Gospel of Jesus Christ," Mathew, Mark, Luke and John... plus the important book of Romans. After pouring a great concrete foundation, we can all move on and fill in the other parts, also deal with our private, insecurities, problems and disabilities. As we get older, we suffer more, sometimes. Let us all come together and share our private or general opinions and points of interest. "Jesus is Lord." -- "God cannot lie." --Titus 1: 2. -- "Iron sharpens Iron." --Proverbs 27: 17. Tom Schuckman Email: tschuckman@aol.com

Wednesday, December 11, 2013