Facebook Question: How do we prepare for the Lord's return? Can we hasten His return?

Recently I have started asking some questions on facebook, partly because I want to know how my friends on Facebook think / feel about some things, and partly to see how much of the Word of God and the ministry gets into us and becomes part of our constitution. We read the Bible, we live a daily life under the divine dispensing, and we do our best to enjoy the Lord both personally and corporately. And from time to time, whether through people around us or in the church life, there are some of these questions being asked - how do we answer them? Here are some of the previous questions which were posted online:

1. What would be your prayer to the Lord for the new year 2012?
2. What do you love the most in the home meetings of the church?

And now, here's another question I asked my friends on Facebook: 

HOW do we prepare for the Lord's return? He wants to return, but He's waiting for us to be prepared - how do we / you prepare for the Lord's return? How do we hasten His return? 

And here are some of their answers :) 

• Brother, I would do my best to share the Gospel of Jesus... As much we do this, His return would be closer. Amen!
• I've just read something like this, "All of our hope rests in the coming of our Lord. When He comes, all problems will be solved. Instead of focusing on problems, we can turn our eyes upon Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). He has already taken care of the problem of sin and today we can receive Him as our Saviour and as our new life. To do so, simply open your heart to the Lord and pray: “Lord Jesus Christ, I need you to solve all my problems. Thank You for dying to save me. I open to receive You as my new life. Lord Jesus, come quickly!”
• The Lord is waiting for His Bride to be prepared. The Bride is a matter of love. We must love the Lord, our dear, lovely Bridegroom with all our heart, and all our mind, and all our soul and all our strength. We must tell Him a thousand times a day: Lord Jesus, I LOVE YOU! I still love You. I love You more today than yesterday and not as much as tomorrow. Lord keep me in this bridal love for You all the days of my life. When we love the Lord, His heart is duplicated in us, and we long and yearn for His coming, and our entire life becomes geared toward this. Eventually, we become the Shulamite and then the Bridegroom will return! (Also, check out hymn 1159.) 
• A very good question, brother. Our sister answered for us already: the preparing is our living. We are preparing for His return through many experiences, just as the bride prepares for her wedding day. The garment must be readied, stitch by stitch beautified. But likewise, we need to ourselves be matured, for the Lord will come back to a bride who is "ready." If we are immature, the Lord cannot come back. The practical way, as our sister wrote well, is to have a loving and turning heart toward Him, to seek after His heart continually and to even live unto His appearing. This means a continual kind of living, allowing His heart to be our heart, and allowing Him to work in the inward and outward ways to make us more ready. This also would involve our personal prayer for this regard: "Lord, make me ready."
• preaching the Gospel to all the nations....
• We prepare and hasten the Lord's return by lovingly being in the enjoyment of the Lord continually.
• We need to love Him and do things not for Him but with Him and through Him by telling to others about the One we love (Rev. 22:17 note 2) preaching the gospel requires also shepherding for His corporate expresion because He desires marry not a little girl but a Bride which will match Him.
• The 2 greatest prophecy in the Bible are in Matthew 16:18 which says "...I will build My Church, and Rev. 22:7...."behold I come quickly.." Untill the Church is built, the Lord will still tarry. The church is built directly by the Head Christ and indirectly thru the members of His Body. We are the members of His Body, and for us to build the Church as the Kingdom of God, the gates of hades must be shut. Three main gates of hades frustrating the building are: the self, the soul life and the mind. And if we shut these three gates by taking up the keys of denying the self, taking up the cross, and losing the soul life through exercising to always turn to the spirit, the church will be built and the coming of the Lord will be hastened
• Amen dear saints! Matthew 28:19-20
• That's right, we really don't know yet, because we need to depend on Him for He is the One who will make the way and make the preparation on His returned. We don't have the power to make our own plan for His coming back but He has! Praise Him...

It is so wonderful to have such friends on Facebook! We can pursue the Lord, remind one another about His Word and His life, speak His word and open up to Him, share songs and hymns, and even ask questions that remind us to turn to Him - even on Facebook! How Wonderful!

The Lord's desire is to return soon. When? We don't know - but He says, I am coming soon! Therefore, we need to be those faithful slaves who are giving food to others at the appointed time and manage things in God's house in faithfulness (while preparing for His return in the long-run) and at the same time we need to be the virgins who gain oil in their lamps, eagerly awaiting the return of their Bridegroom to enter with Him at the feast (see Matt. 25). ... 

This is NOT a comprehensive and all-inclusive answer, but the answers given by the above listing is quite good. What do YOU think? How can we prepare ourselves for the Lord's return? How can we hasten His coming? Leave a comment below...

Lord, prepare us! Lord, grow in us! Lord, gain us! Make us the overcomers You need that will bring You back! O, Lord, how we long to see You again and even hasten Your return! We give ourselves to You, dear Lord, that we may be prepared!

Me and the Lord Jesus on Facebook. Using Twitter one with Christ. Social networking, the Lord Jesus, and me

What does God have to do with the social networks? What does Jesus have to do with Facebook? Can you actually have God seen or expressed on twitter? In the world of free expression of everything that's going through your head, everything you see, everything you want to do, all your emotions, the things around you, etc - can you actually say something meaningful about the Lord Jesus? Can you find Jesus on twitter? Do you see Christ on facebook? Is the word of God on Google+? - these questions many Christians face and deal with in one way or another, mostly ignoring the Lord when it comes to social networking...

It's free to use the social networks, and this also means that you can literally say whatever you want, you can post pictures and videos and other media items - freely! The social networks allow you not only to connect with people you know, but with people you never met nor will ever meet, with all kinds of superstars and dignitaries, famous people or infamous persons, and you can "become best friends" with people you have no idea how they look like, what do they really do, what's their personality like, etc. Many times I am asked - probably TOO many times I am asked, Stefan, do you really know EACH and EVERY ONE of your over 2.8K friends on Facebook? Do you know each one of your over 1K followers on twitter? I stopped trying to answer this kind of questions, even though for a while people would start naming my friends and asking me "how did you meet them? Who are they?"

But what about expressing Christ on Facebook? How about speaking the Word of God on twitter? What if we +1 the articles and websites with spiritual and nourishing food? How is our being on the social networks - do we use these intensely personal and private websites (which happens in public...) together with the Lord? Have we ever asked the Lord to be with us as we browsed our friends' pictures on Facebook? Have we ever prayed for our followers or the ones we follow and chat with on twitter? Did we ever ask the Lord's advice and feeling as we use the social networks? Or do we just post how we feel ("I'm bored", "what is everyone doing - I'm dead bored", etc - the most popular status updates), what we think about (cool quotes from famous rappers, movies, world renown philosophers, inspirational quotes, etc), or where we're going / what we're doing... ?

No, we don't have to be super-spiritual while using Facebook or twitter, we can and should write things we are interested in, but what if we share with the ones we're friends with / the ones we follow something of our enjoyment of the Lord? Have you ever felt responsible for your friends on facebook? Has it ever crossed your mind that you owe the gospel to each and every friend you have on facebook? You may be among max. 100 people in school, but the average number of friends one has on facebook these days is close to 500, and on twitter is rising up to 100-200... We as Christians - no matter how we feel, what we had for breakfast, or what we are thinking of right now - owe all the people we interact with THE GOSPEL!

And the gospel is simply the Word of God! If we enjoy something in the Word, why not share a verse on Facebook as a status update? If we enjoyed a song or a hymn chorus, why not share it either on twitter, on facebook, in a facebook group or on a facebook page, on our google + stream, or even as our Skype status! All these means of communication and interacting are just helping us express how we really feel - we love the Lord Jesus! "I don't care now how I feel / I just know that this is real / And I know - O, Jesus, You're alive" in me! This is the reality! The Lord Jesus is living again IN ME, in YOU, wherever you are!

Are you on facebook? The Lord Jesus is right there with you on facebook. Are you tweeting away all kinds of random things going through your mind or some feelings you wish you had? The Lord Jesus is inside of you as you punch in the keys or gently touch the touch-screen keyboard of your smartphone! Our being on the social networks with our friends is so that we would bring our friends to the Lord, pray for them, and then "give them food"! We have the food - we have Jesus Christ as the tree of life, we eat Him every day, He is our constitution, and... we can minister food to others! A Tweet like, O Lord Jesus, I love You! - so real, so genuine, coming out of your inner being, is so much better and more helpful than your opinion on the recent football game!

... the question still remains. Am I one with the Lord Jesus as I am using Facebook? Do I express the Lord as I tweet, check into foursquare, +1 things away, or share links on the social networks I'm active on? ...

Photo From London :) Priceless Shoes store

[one of the many shops called, priceless shoes, with less expensive shoes, scattered all around the UK :) ]

[what do YOU think? What is Your experience related to using the social networks and also touching the Lord as we post stuff there? Did you touch the Lord in this aspect as you were "networking"? Share your experience / opinion below...] 

The gospel is always a battle, and there is much opposition! (1 picture + 1 experience with the Lord) 30-day challenge

As long as you are a believer in the Lord, one who has received the divine life, you are qualified to preach the gospel. You don't have to "go to a seminary" or "be ordained" as a priest to be qualified to preach the gospel. Actually, if you are one who loves the Lord, the gospel will be your living and it normal for you to speak of your Beloved Lord Jesus, of His Word which you enjoy daily, of the things He did for you, or of your experience and enjoyment of Him daily! It is normal for a believer to speak the gospel and to tell others about the Lord!

1 picture today - a Hotel on Seven Sisters Road

This is one of the many hotels on Seven Sisters Road as you walk from Finsbury Park towards Manor House. It's a long road along which there are several such hotels and motels. Some are more fancy while others aren't. I guess that for the many people working and visiting London, especially in the Finsbury Area, towards the Arsenal stadium / the Emirates, there's the need for hotels and short term stay motels... Guess what, they are building even more of these! There are several areas in London, close to large centres like Paddington, Finsbury Park, Stratford, Liverpool Street, Notting Hill Gate, etc - where these little or medium size hotels are booming!

1 Experience with the Lord today - The Gospel is a battle, and there's much opposition!

I think that this is our experience every day - there is a struggle within us to speak about the Lord, and there's a battle outside of us when we open our mouth to speak. We love the Lord and we really want our friends and the ones around us to know the Lord, love Him, taste Him, and see how amazing He is. So we pray for our friends, and sometimes we try to speak to them... Why do we feel so "awkward" when we speak the gospel? It should be normal for us to speak about the Lord, but there's a struggle within... And then, many times the response is either not so positive or we may even be ignored...

These days I've been reading the book of Acts, and I was impressed with this matter - even in the Apostle Paul's work and ministry there was a battle when he spoke the gospel. Let's just say that he overcame "the inward struggle", since he as a Jew went all around Asia and the Gentile world announcing the gospel(which is something quite unusual)... But in city after city, as he spoke, he had a lot of people who received the Lord! In some cities there were hundreds who received the gospel... And then some jealous Jews would stir up the whole city against him! They saw how many people received the gospel and they were jealous - so they would stir up a certain class of people and then persecute and oppose the apostle! Paul had to flee from one city to another - and sometimes the Jews would even follow after him to speak things against his ministry! How about that as an opposition!

Today we may speak to our friends about the Lord, and the hardest thing to do is to be together with all your friends and speak something - it's almost as if they are all "judging you" and "not on your side" as you tell them you're a Christian. When you speak to your friends one-on-one is easier - but even then, sometimes they speak not so nicely about you, or even criticise / undermine your speaking and your working... Sometimes people would even reject you openly and scream and shout at you. As you pass leaflets with "The Mystery of the Human Life", "A Thirsty Mankind", or some Rhema cards, people would reject you or sneer mockingly at you... You manage to overcome the "inward struggles" and speak the gospel, and people are rejecting you!

One thing I was very encouraged with is that the VERY FACT that we are rejected and opposed when we speak about the Lord Jesus to others shows us that we are on the right track! The Lord Jesus was rejected and He still is being rejected today! The apostles were rejected - and many times they had to be physically fleeing a certain city because the very people to whom the salvation has come first - the Jews - would stir up the whole city against them! Whenever we announce the Lord Jesus Christ as the gospel, Satan's kingdom is being shaken and exposed, and the enemy does not like it. But we have the Lord Jesus on our side, and He is the One who speaks in us and through us! The sons of peace will hear the gospel, and they will believe!

Another matter I was encouraged with is the fact that in spite of all the opposition and persecution, there are SOME who receive the Word and who believe into the Lord! It is not up to us to pick and choose WHO will receive the gospel, but it is up to us to speak the Word of God! The Lord will accompany our speaking and He will speak His word through us. The seeking ones, those ones who are "ripened", ready to receive the Word, will receive the Lord! We would love to save everyone to whom we speak, but God carefully selects some that He will save! So even though the apostles were persecuted and sometimes they had to flee a city, there were some disciples who continued in these things back in that city! Praise the Lord!

All we need to do is just to SPEAK! All God needs today is not a great work that is welcomed by every one but He needs that all His believers would be strengthened into their inner man to SPEAK Christ - preach the gospel! The more we speak the gospel, the more we announce the good news, the more there will be an opposition - but at the same time the Lord is with us! His presence accompanies us as we cooperate with Him to bring in His kingdom! Also, there will be SOME among those to whom we speak that the Lord has worked on and has prepared them to receive Him! These ones will receive the good news and will come into God's kingdom! I don't know about you, but I want to learn to speak! Yes, there's a battle, but the Victorious One is on our side, and His arrows are in the heart of His enemy! Praise the Lord!

We are Those Who Knock On Doors - One Meaningful Thing I did Today (30-day challenge)

Busy day, Monday. At work we have a huge backlog from the weekend, while at the same time the responsibilities increase with requests, emails, issues, payments, calls... In a large company, I suppose, there's lots of boring and regular / routine stuff happening, but not in a medium size or a small company... or in a company that's continually developing, evolving, and being revolutionized by the internet sales and internet development! Anyways, enough about work ;) what I really enjoyed today and what touched me was the fact that,

Realizing that We are Those who Knock on Doors - One Meaningful Thing I Did Today

We had the brothers' meeting tonight and we enjoyed the fact that the Triune God didn't "talk to us from the heavens, trying to get us all perfect and holy that we may join Him up there", but rather God came to "knock on our door". The Triune God is the First One who went door-knocking by becoming a man, becoming what we are, coming to our door... that He may come in! In incarnation He came to us, right where we are, to be with us and knock on the door of our heart - not by forcing us or threatening us, but by loving us!

Even now after we received the Lord, He is still knocking on our door - He's at the door of our heart, wanting to come into every part of our heart and take over, make His home there in our heart(Eph. 3:16-18). When the Lord comes in, He makes His home in our heart and makes our heart His home. And then He starts re-decorating, re-arranging, and re-modelling everything in us because He wants to feel at home in us! That's why we are going through a process of transformation - so that we may be a suitable and delightful home for our Lord Jesus!

The result of the Lord making His home in our heart, as we open the doors to every part of our inner being, is that He makes us the same as He is! He is the One who comes to knock on our door - and we are made the same as He is! We are those who go to knock on people's doors - sometimes we do it physically by going out door-knocking to seek out the hungry and thirsty sinners, and other times we go to visit the saints and the new ones to bring God to them! This is so wonderful - we become Christ's duplication and reproduction!

I have never seen this before - the fact that the Triune God comes to us "door-knocking" and we go to people "door-knocking"! When we approach people on the street to ask them if they know the Lord Jesus, we start knocking at the door of their hearts. Actually, it is the Triune God in us knocking on the door of others' hearts through us. That's why the Lord Jesus said that we shouldn't worry what to say, because the heavenly Father will speak in us! All we need to do is present ourselves and give ourselves to the Lord - make ourselves available to Him!

So today the Lord sends us out two by two to go and preach the gospel, and the way we want to take is by knocking on doors! I have done this before together with the saints in several cities and even several countries, and it is a challenging and exciting thing to do - going out with the saints on the gospel by knocking on doors! Hallelujah, we can go out one with the Lord and one with one another in the Body of Christ, having the Triune God going in us and through us to visit people in their homes! ... - this is what I was impressed with the most, and something I'm praying for to see more - see what's on God's heart about door-knocking...