God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton as he answers your questions. Oh, we're so excited about this particular time together, taking God's encouraging word and using that as our resource and source for answers to questions you have sent in to Dr. Don Wilton here on The Encouraging Word. Each and every day, The Encouraging Word features the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, seminary professor, and pastor, and today he takes your questions and helps us understand them with the perspective of God's Word. As we do so, know that we're available for you, love to pray with you and for you anytime at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 and you'll find ways to connect on our website as well.
T-E-W online.org. And now, Kristi Henderson and Dr. Don Wilton. The Encouraging Word. All right, well, Dr. Don, thank you so much for taking time out to answer some really great questions that we've gotten in. Well, it's a wonderful joy to be with you, Kristi, and to answer questions that make life meaningful. Yeah, a lot of people have questions and maybe they didn't get a chance to submit one.
You can talk or text. Feel free to submit your questions as well. Ready to dive right in?
Ready to go. All right, the first question is, sometimes it seems like it is really hard to be a Christian in today's culture. How should we respond when faced with cultural adversity? Well, a great question because there are two sides of our world. There's the Christian world, then there's the pagan world.
There's not a sort of in-between world because you're either for God or you're against God. So to answer the question personally, I have to see myself in two ways. I have to see myself as man in the flesh, and I have to see myself as man in Christ. I'm actually both.
You're looking at two people in a sense. I'm flesh man and I'm spiritual man. Yes, in my flesh, the world in which I live, all the desires, hopes, dreams, and challenges, the adversities that I face, I'm dealing with that in my flesh. So it brings out of me fleshly responses, anger, hostility, questions, queries, all those things. But guess what governs me is my spiritual man because I'm actually in Christ and I know that God has the answer. So in my adversity, I rely on my in Christness or my in the Spirit in order to make decisions and respond in a way that would be pleasing to the Lord. So it's your spiritual side that gives you the strength and the ability to respond in a Christian way.
Absolutely, because if I let my fleshly side do it, it's not always the best thing. No, it's not. So we have to be in the world but not of the world. That's exactly right. You couldn't have said it better.
In the world but not of the world. Okay. All right.
Well, how about this one? What is your strategy for consistent Bible reading and prayer? Well, a strategy for Bible reading and prayer has to be made in concert with your lifestyle. Now, I want our listeners to really get a hold of this. It's not reasonable to say, you know, if you want to be spiritual, you need to get up at five o'clock in the morning and meet with the Lord in the morning and you need to have an hour. That's not reasonable.
Try telling that to a young mother who has already not really slept very well and then she's got to get children off to school, help her husband make breakfast and all the family stuff. So to develop consistency, the starting point is your intention. I want to read God's Word.
I want to study God's Word and I want to pray and I want to have fellowship with the Lord. What does my life look like? Not what does your life look like.
What does Don's life look like? So I have to look at it. I'm out very often at night because I'm in the people business. That's the joy of my life. So the issue becomes that I need to be about the business of adapting and molding my spiritual disciplines and habits into the consistency of the reasonableness of my lifestyle. For me, that may be lunch times.
It may be early afternoon or it may be just before I go to bed at night. Just do it because when you do it, God develops a pattern for you in the context of your lifestyle. Don't punish your spiritual devotion because of the reasonableness of your lifestyle.
Celebrate your lifestyle and ask God to give you the right time and space and He'll do it. That's a good way to say that. So you don't necessarily have to stick to a definite routine per se.
You just need to, first of all, have the appetite to get into God's Word and then He'll help to supply the time. Absolutely, Christy. And yet, athletes, all of us, we know routines help us because routines help cultivate habits. We understand that. I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't try and get into a routine. But too many people punish themselves because of their work, their children, their responsibilities. And they struggle to develop a routine. Rise above the struggle and immerse yourself in the blessing.
Alright. What impact does our present culture have on the future of Christianity? There's a lot of things going on in our culture today, for sure. Well, culture does impact Christianity. It ought not to be that way because we know that in Christ we're strong. Every believer is indwelt by the Spirit of God and greater is He that is in us than he that's in the world. I have Christ living in me and so do you, so do I. Listen, every one of you that knows Jesus, you and I have the same Spirit dwelling in us, right? You're strong.
And God by His Spirit is the one who gives us the means and the ability. Now, having said that, let's come back to reality. This is a tough world. It's an ugly world. It's a challenging world. It's an anti-God world. It's a pagan world. So you have a war between two worlds.
So how do I respond to my place and my station between two worlds? Our kids get caught up in that, Christie. We, all of them, young people particularly, are getting caught up in this battlefield, not by might, nor by power, nor by the Spirit of man, but by the Spirit of God, says the Lord. You have to charge hell with a water pistol. That is a philosophical saying that not even the gates of hell will prevail against my church. By the way, who's the church? That's me. I'm the body of Christ because I'm the temple of the living God, and God says not even the gates of hell will prevail against you. I like that, don't you?
I do. That's an encouraging word for sure right there. Well, with everything going on in the world, and I know you must get this question all the time, but our next question is, are we living in the end times? Powerful question. Let me answer it in two ways.
Number one, personally. Personally, I'm looking for Jesus to come. Personally, there is something going on. There's an unsettling atmosphere. There's an anger.
There's a restlessness. It's just, it's like spiritually, I keep finding myself saying, is Jesus about to come back? And I'm so grateful that I belong to him because if he did, even though I want to enjoy this life, I know that I'm going to be with him right now. Let's answer it biblically. I don't know because the Bible says we don't know. Nobody knows. Only God the Father knows. Now, having said that, you're asking me a big question. Yeah, I know.
It's a huge question. The Bible is replete with prophecy, and do you know that the fulfillment of prophecy is fulfilled? So if we had time to do a Bible study, which of course we love studying the book of Revelation and Daniel and the prophecies, I'm just telling you, this world looks awfully ready for the coming of Jesus. And I can start one world currency, the sharing of the gospel around the world, world dominance. I mean, even the pandemic, this is the first time in the history of mankind that the entire world is on the same page negatively.
And that the one things that being said in one part of the world is applying to every part of the world. There are controls being introduced. Now people get into the number 666 and vaccines.
I don't know. But I'll tell you what, it's a preparation for the Antichrist. It's a preparation. Hey, but get this.
I've got to say this to somebody listening right now. If you're a believer, you're not going to be here. Because Christ is coming and he's going to take all of us out of the world before he pours out the tribulation upon this world.
So be cool, man. Be rejoicing. Yes, we're looking for Jesus to come, but don't be concerned about the world tribulation. Because the Bible says we're going to be rescued from that. We're being rescued from the wrath to come. Go and reread Revelation chapter four. It's as clear as anything. We're going to be taken out of this world.
So that doesn't mean to say I don't care. Number one, it means I thank the Lord that my heart belongs to Jesus. And number two, I really want you to give your heart to Jesus.
Did you hear that? I want you to give your life to Christ and you can do that right now. You can give your heart to Jesus.
Why? Because Jesus is coming back. And I want you to be in heaven with me and Jesus loves you and he died for you. We'll talk about that in a minute. Give your life to Christ right now. That's what End Times is all about. All right.
Well, we have another great question here. Someone asked, I hear people talking about the second coming of Jesus. I'm a believer, but for some reason I'm afraid. Does this mean that I'm not saved?
Absolutely not. Forgive the interruption. We'll be back with more of Dr. Wilton and Christy diving into your questions and God's answers, especially that truth about knowing that sometimes even as believers, we face fear. The great joy is through scripture. God reminds us that we will never be left or forsaken. God is here for you and we're here for you as well. We'd love to talk with you and pray with you at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 or meet us online at TEWONLINE.ORG.
That's TEWONLINE.ORG where you'll discover great resources like this. It all begins with God. Journey with Dr. Wilton as he takes you back to the beginning. Genesis Back to the Beginning message plus the bonus book, The Origin of Everything, will help you come face to face with some very foundational faith issues.
You will also find answers to foundational questions about who you are and why you are here. This is a must have gift to purchase for yourself, a friend or loved one, including your child or grandchildren to help them know truth when the enemy attacks. Call us at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 to request the life-changing message Genesis Back to the Beginning and the bonus book with your gift of $25 or more per set. Thank you for supporting the encouraging word as we continue to proclaim the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. Now back to today's question and answer series with Dr. Don Wilton.
Alright, well we have another great question here. Someone asked, I hear people talking about the second coming of Jesus. I'm a believer, but for some reason I'm afraid. Does this mean that I'm not saved?
Absolutely not. You know, fear is a very natural human thing. We've got, and I mentioned this a little while ago, Christy, all of us have got two sides. We've got our flesh and we've got the spirit. Listen, all of us get a little older.
I'm talking about myself here, alright? My hair's not quite the same color and my teeth fall out every now and again and you know, you bend down to pick something and forget why you've gone down, all these great stories and things we tell each other. Our flesh is constantly dying and in the dying of our enfleshment, the emotions of our flesh get caught up in that. We feel, we feel. You know, the Bible talks about giving your heart to Jesus.
Why? Because he wants to take control of the seat of our emotions. Things hurt, Christy. People lose loved ones. Children go astray. Marriages fall apart. We lose our jobs. People are unkind to us. People suffer racism and are ostracized.
There's bullying going on and abuse and I mean, there's a lot of really ugly things. For the Christian person, that hurts. Let me tell you, talking about the end times, talking about Jesus coming, the end of the world, talking about people being left behind, you better believe there's something fearful about that. That is not a sin. That does not affect your salvation. But turn that over because God says, be anxious for nothing and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.
That's in the book of Philippians. Alright. Next question, what is something you in your daily life that you feel you do differently than most people?
Wow. I probably yell differently when I go to ball games. We get excited about ball games for sure.
And we have a lot of fun with our teams together because every now and again I'll send them the results of rugby matches from my former days overseas and that, you know, because I've forgotten a lot of it now for all these years. What do I do differently? I don't really. What I do is not different. It's just unique. The word different, I'm not different. I'm just unique.
Alright? You're unique, Christy. There's nobody else other than Christy.
There's nobody other than Don. I have been made fearfully and wonderfully. Now you can go to mothers, fathers and they'll have two or three children. Go and ask every parent if their children are all the same. Now you can choose to say, no, they're very different.
Do you know what I choose to say? They're not different. They're unique. And we celebrate uniqueness. We criticize difference. If people would just stop criticizing the differences between people, we'd get along so much better instead of criticizing and pointing out all the differences. Why don't we celebrate the uniquenesses?
You know what's unique? I've got friends who've got a beautiful voice and can sing and I've got friends who don't. I've got friends who can speak in public and I have friends who don't. I've got friends who are good at math and friends who are not.
I've got friends who are good at English and syntax and all that sort of stuff and friends who are not. That's uniqueness. It's not difference. Differences elevate status. Uniqueness levels the playing field and serves as a constant reminder that God made us just like we are. And you, my friend, are very unique and you're special because God made you. That's important. Important words right there. Okay, we have one more question I want to remind people too.
If you want to talk or text, both numbers are on your screen. Just feel free to submit your questions as well because we want to get to as many as we can. All right, Dr. Don, knowing what you know now, what would you say to yourself when you first started ministry? You've had a long run at it. A lot of things. So now, how much time did we have?
Like three hours? I would say the first thing I'd say to myself is get a life. Just get a life.
So what do I mean by that? Take hold of the life you have when you have it at the moment you have it. And stop leaning so far backwards that you can't get your feet out of the mud of your past. And yet leaning so far forward that your moment in time never has any value because you're always dreaming about tomorrow. Get a life.
I would tell myself to do that. Two things affect people. Their past and what they think they're going to accomplish in the future. The past, you need a hand to God because Jesus Christ has forgiven us. And by the way, what's done is done. Somebody wrote a song, Yesterday is Dead and Gone. All right, great song, Yesterday is Dead and Gone.
Listen, you can swing the cat in the room. It won't bring back tomorrow. I promise you that hurt, pain, and especially the sin that you and I commit against God.
He forgives us and he cleanses us. Secondly, be ambitious. Be a visionary. Think about tomorrow. Prepare properly.
Pour your energy. Man, I tell our kids going to college, get in there, man. Get those A's or whatever it is in the uniqueness of who you are. Uniqueness means some may be B's and that's an A for them.
And some may be C's and that's an A for them. Getting back to the uniqueness thing, but what I am telling you is prepare, study, look forward to plan. Save your money.
Get a good system going. Don't be frivolous, but at the same time. You're living right now.
Make up your mind right now. So what I would do, I think a much better job of, is trying to wake up every morning back then and saying, You know what? I'm going to be really happy today.
I didn't do that enough. When I was younger, there were too many times I woke up in the morning and said, Man, I'm telling you, that thing that happened to me back there, I just don't know. Or I'll be sitting there saying, Oh, I'm telling you, when I'm 30 years old, I'm going to marry the most beautiful woman in the world and I'm going to have a boat to go fishing and I'm going to do all of this. And I'm so much there that I forget about now. And I miss the blessing. I'm telling you, God's blessing you now. That's what I would say to myself.
Number two, I've got to get this in. And some of you again, my friends would really say, Amen to that. And this is serious because Dr. Billy Graham taught me this.
So many people have taught me this. I think that I wish that I had been a lot more humble. And I just, I think in my early days, I just don't think I was humble like God would want me to be.
I think I did too much strutting. And I think I was too many times arrogant. And, you know, I've come to appreciate 1 Peter 5 and verse 5. By the way, write that verse down.
It's a life verse. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I still battle with that because you know what, Christy, between you and me, I think I'm really fabulous.
Well, you know, we all think you're fabulous, Dr. Don. You know what I'm trying to say? It's so hard, you know. And we get, you know, be a leader, be leaders, stand up, take a stand, but just be humble before the Lord. Because what God will do with a humble attitude, He'll give you grace. So what is God's grace? Kindness.
That's God's grace. Mercy. There's no mercy. Every day there's mercy. Mercy. Understanding.
How about the word empathy? You know, when God gives grace to the humble, He helps you to walk in somebody else's shoes. People who are proud, that's their problem. Look what they did.
They're getting their just desserts. A humble person says, I'm so sorry, man. I wish I could help them. It's just like a whole different way. That's what I'd try and do, if I could wind the clock back.
Yeah, I know. Well, and we look back and we look forward. You say to live in the present. What would you want people to do today?
I would want people today, Christy, to really take hold of the truth that Christ is in us. Look, there's a lot of, our world is a beautiful world. You know, we have this pandemic, but there are a lot of challenges, Christy. There are challenges in our world, politically, socially, whether it be economically.
Yeah, I'm not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We live in such a beautiful land. America, the beautiful, you know. I feel just so honored and, you know, from sea to shining sea.
But reality, there's a lot of people that are worried and concerned. Let's just take a deep breath and let's go back to basics. Christ in me. Let's look at our world through the eyes of the Lord Jesus. Let's go back to the basics of loving one another as Christ loved the church, of serving in the name of the Lord Jesus, with our wherewithal, with our giving and finding. Give to the Lord, man. You know what, we more and more, we just hold on to everything.
And then when we give, we do it with strings attached. Just let it go. Let go. Just let God, let God have his way. And above all, in ourselves, many of our believers today are bottled up. They bottled up. Do we understand that? Yes, we do.
Absolutely. Tension. All the things that God causes that. But Christ is in us. The fullness of Christ.
And I would encourage people today to take hold of the joy of knowing the Lord Jesus. Trust him, even when you have deep concerns in your heart. Trust God.
He is going to help work that out. God is in control. And I would, you know, on a human level, I beg fellow believers to let go and let God have his way. What about for someone that might be watching right now that is kind of puzzled by all this talk about Jesus, and they really want that peace because there's so much going on. Well, Christy, you asked that question, and I want to ask that of everyone worshipping with us, because I think that's very important. You see, this is about Jesus. Do you know the Lord Jesus?
You know, I've had such a great time talking with Christy and exploring a couple of questions, and I know for every question that we talk about, you've got a lot more. Give your life to Christ. Why don't you do that? Would you pray this prayer with me today? Just pray. Dear God, I know that you love me, and I know that Jesus died on a cross for me. Today I repent of my sin, and by faith I receive you, Jesus, into my heart, and I pray this prayer in Jesus' name. My friend, you are my brother, my sister in Christ. God bless you, my friend. With Jesus in your heart, you've got the rock, the rock of your salvation. Your foundation is sick, and God loves you.
Amen. Perhaps you were praying with Dr. Wilton moments ago to give your life to Jesus Christ or rededicate your life. We would love to walk with you in the next steps. Dr. Wilton wants to pray for you and wants to put in your hands some free resources to help you grow. If you'll call us at 866-899-WORD, we'll send these materials out to you right away. 866-899-9673 is the phone number, or meet us online at www.tewonline.org.
That's www.tewonline.org. We would love to connect with you. And before we get away, closing thoughts from Dr. Don. Okay, just before you go today, I just want you to know how much I love you. You mean so much to me, and I just want you to know that with all of the things that we've talked about and the way in which God is speaking to your heart right now, we are the encouraging word, and we are available to you 24-7, morning, noon, night, or day. You can call a friend, one of my friends, right now, and they will encourage you, pray with you, listen to you.
Isn't it great to have people around us who really care about us? You are not alone. God bless you, and be encouraged. No, you're not alone, and we're here 24 hours a day to pray with you at 866-899-9673, or on our website, www.tewonline.org. And as we're still launching this brand new year together, consider getting some of the wonderful resources, whether it be the Leatherbound Devotional, or sign up for Dr. Wilton's daily email on our website. Just click Devotion at www.tewonline.org. We'll meet you online today.
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