The particular Verse I have in mind has surfaced several times lately in my Bible Study. Especially when preparing for our “Evening Meditation” Bible Study Videos (Watch one of them … uploaded every other night on our YouTube Channel).

Our above-mentioned Verse is found in Zechariah, an Old Testament apocalyptic Book, loaded with prophecy! The divinely inspired Sentence in its context “fits” (“occurs”) the Moment of the Second Coming of Jesus to this earth. A time of Judgment, indeed!

“And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” Zechariah 14:12

As the Lord returns, He interrupts the Battle of Armageddon and … Revelation 19 best describes the awful Event. “And I saw the beast (anti-Christ), and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him (Jesus our Lord) that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant (whole armies) were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.” (Revelation 19:19-21)

It is at this Moment that our Zechariah Judgment occurs! Read it again with me please. “And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.”

The Wrath of the Lamb of God is so severe, so very HOT, that He melts (a word I have chosen) the very flesh of these enemies of Israel! He liquifies their eyes! And neutralizes their tongues! (Never again will they curse God’s Chosen People, the Jews! Never again will they look disdainfully upon the “Apple of God’s Eye,” again that’s Israel! Never again will any of them march against the Holy Land, Jerusalem!)

Wow!

If I were unsaved, very frightening!

Yet no one of necessity has to experience that type judgment, damnation. He or she can be “saved” by the Grace of God today and avoid such a horrendous future!

How to be saved?

Let Jesus answer that for us. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24, that simple!

What a choice!

Incineration or Salvation!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Paul the Apostle, while in a Roman prison, wrote to Timothy his young protegee: “The cloke (coat) that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.” (2 Timothy 4:13)

Paul, a student of the well-known Gamaliel, was quite accustomed to books. See Acts 22:3, specifically naming Paul’s Tutor. However, in time … Paul the reader, became Paul the writer! And as such (consequently) never quit being Paul the student! The student of the Old Testament Scriptures.

I guess books are on my mind because this week we have been moving more of my library from its years-long resting place in a climate-controlled storage unit … to its new home in a little city near our house.

A little slogan I picked up years ago, “READERS ARE LEADERS,” still holds true. But also … readers are workers! It’s hard to concentrate for hours on a single Text! (As in preparing a Sermon God has laid on one’s heart.)

In some ways Solomon certainly was right. “Much study is a weariness of the flesh,” he wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:12. (But in other ways much study is a delight, especially analyzing God’s Word!)

I am wondering today, my Preacher friends or my Sunday School teacher friends … have you studied for this week’s Sermon(s) or Lesson(s)?

Studied diligently?

Studied the right kind of books?

There are wrong kinds you know!

Kind worth nothing but burning!

Like the new Christians at Ephesus (a wicked, demon-possessed city) did! “Many of them also which used curious arts (magic) brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.” (Acts 19:19)

All I am asking today …

Let’s be readers to the Glory of God! Careful students of His Word!

And while we are at it … let’s get familiar with some of the great Christian writers of the past!

Paul to Timothy again … “Till I come, give attendance to reading.” (1 Timothy 4:13)

But, and here’s another “warning” … do not let books take the place of THE BOOK in your life, the Word of God! Major on the Bible!

In reading the good Books of yesterday’s spiritual heroes … you are obeying in spirit Solomon’s advice in Proverbs 13:20. “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.”

Read a Sermon tonight from one of the giants of the past!

You will spiritually grow thereby …

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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If you are a true Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, having been saved by His indescribable Mercy … GOD LIVES INSIDE YOU! (Titus 3:5 … “According to his mercy he saved us.”)

This of course does not mean that you have become a “god,” and certainly not the “Deity” Himself. We are still ex-sinners, saved by Grace! But still, God inhabits your body!

No one is disagreeing so far, no one who accepts the Bible as Truth. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:19

Yes, the Holy Spirit indwells us Christians!

But my Lesson Title goes further, I think.

GOD LIVES WITHIN US!

Of course, doctrinally the Holy Spirit IS God! (So, there it is, God living within us!)

But today (in a motel room preaching a Revival in a nearby sweet Bible-believing Church) I am enjoying a Verse that may say even more!

Paul is here interceding before the Lord, advancing one of his high-level spiritual prayers. Read this, listen to him: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Quoting Ephesians 3:17-19.

Christ (Jesus) dwelling in our hearts?

Yes!

(Jesus did promise … “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5)

But (from Ephesians 3:17-19 above) a fuller description of that “Indwelling” follows … that we be filled with all the “FULNESS OF GOD!” This must mean the Godhead! The Father and the Son and dear Holy Spirit!

Filling us!

Living within us!

No wonder we are admonished again and again to pursue holy lives.

Never to grieve the Holy Spirit!

Never to offend the Lord Jesus!

Never to neglect God the Father!

Like I said in the Title … “GOD WITHIN!”

And I have Scripture to support my thought.

Better yet, Scripture has given me that thought!

What an honor!

Yet, what responsibility!

“Filled with all the Fulness of God!”

Think about that for a while!

I’ll join you …

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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The “seed” for the thought I am sharing with you comes from the little Epistle of James. Precisely, James 4:4. Part of the Verse states: “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

The wrong kind of friend, looks like to me, can arouse the righteous “ire” of Almighty God! The noun “enmity” in the verse literally means “hatred!” It actually looks like God reserves the right to “choose” my friends! After all, we do belong to Him! “Ye are not your own.” (1 Corinthians 6:19) And the next Verse boldly proclaims: “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Wow!

Here’s another thought about friends, a God Thought. “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go.” Proverbs 22:24

Why?

“Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.” Proverbs 22:25

Obviously, wrong friends can be dangerous to our spiritual growth!

Godly people need godly friends!

The Book of Proverbs lists at least two dozen (more really) of the kinds of people we need to avoid!

Look … “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” (Proverbs 1:10) In other words, “Learn to say NO!”

The best view of friendship I know is this: “Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.” (Daniel 1:9) God gave Daniel this “friend!” And this man (whose name is unknown) helped Daniel navigate through one of the most dangerous events of his life!

Drop the bad so-called “friends.”

Ask the Lord to send you also the right kind of friends!

And the result?

You will help each other, encourage each other in the Lord! “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” Proverbs 27:17

I must close. It’s nearly Church time. I am preaching a Revival this week and (by the way) ask for your sincere prayers. Two more Verses …

“There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24, and clearly that Friend is Jesus our Saviour!)

He is my Friend!

Now, just one more Verse, with Jesus talking: “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends.” John 15:15

Now, I am His Freind!

Glory to God!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Yes, recently in our Revival Meetings the Lord has had the False Prophet Balaam on my mind. He is indeed one of the most enigmatic (puzzling) characters in the Bible.

I can show you numerous places where he “says” the right thing! For example, “And Balaam said unto Balak (the heathen king of Moab), Lo, I am come unto thee: have I now any power at all to say any thing? The word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak.” Numbers 22:38

Balaam even “says” this: “And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do less or more.” Numbers 22:18

Wow!

But sadly, Balaam is evaluated as a “soothsayer” by the Lord God Himself! A practitioner of witchcraft! “Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them.” Joshua 13:22

And in 2 Peter Chapter 2 Balaam is characterized as a “prophet for sale!” Look: “Following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.”

And Jude links Balaam (who knows how to “talk” right) with Cain (the murderer) and Korah (the rebel) in Verse 11 of his Epistle of warning! “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.”

Balaam’s reputation (character) is shown in ever more vile colors in Revelation Chapter 2! There Jesus has written a Letter to one of His Churches. “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.” (Verse 14)

Now he is an idolater!

And a fornicator!

But still … he knows how to “talk” the vocabulary of a man of God!

Folks, it’s not always what we say, but how we live. What’s in our hearts!

Listen to Jesus: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matthew 5:22-23

Let’s all take warning!

Be sure you are saved!

How?

Jesus speaks again: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24

Trust and obey!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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