FROM THE HEART OF DR. REXELLA VAN IMPE

WHO ARE YOU? – part 2

God walks with us in life

Have you ever needed to know that you were not walking life’s road all alone? Did you ever need the strong shoulder of the Lord to lean on in life’s hard places?

Thank God, the Word says, For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee (Deuteronomy 23:14).

I believe all of us have plenty of occasions when we need to be delivered. The longer I serve the Lord, the more times I recognize His presence in my camp, walking close beside me to deliver me from all harm and danger.

I remember getting up to sing one night to an audience of eight thousand people. As I looked over the crowd, I saw four men in the fifth row with stockings over their heads. God gave me peace so I was not afraid to go ahead and minister although it was obvious the men were there to try and disrupt the service or intimidate Jack and me. We later learned there was great turmoil in that city because a number of drug dealers had been converted, and the drug bosses wanted to threaten our lives. But God protected us from violence.

Another time in South America, we were on our way to the airport when a huge riot broke out. We were trapped in the middle of the violence, but God’s hand kept us safe.

Over the years we’ve received threats in the mail and over the phone, but Jack and I never were afraid, knowing that: There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways (Psalm 91:10-11).

More recently, I was not afraid when Jack was attacked by a serious, life-threatening physical illness. Somehow the Holy Spirit reminded me that God was in control and that my husband would be delivered. And he was!

How sad when people-even believers-lose contact with the presence of the Lord who is always with us. How tragic when they can no longer see the hand of God at work in their lives and are overwhelmed by despair. Thinking that nobody cares for them or is looking out for them, they try walking alone through the dark valleys of this world and are overwhelmed. The sad statistics reveal that more and more people are committing suicide, taking matters into their own hands.

Recently our long-time friend and team member, Chuck Ohman, told us of a friend of his who committed suicide. Some time ago, a pastor friend of our family in Detroit, took his own life. Another Detroit pastor we knew well had lunch with his daughter, kissed her and sent her on her way, then went into his office bathroom and hanged himself.

How sad to see these precious souls reach such a state of futility that they ended it all. Oh, if we had known their need! It hurts so much to see people destroy themselves in despair. Oh, if they had just come to us-or some other believer-for encouragement and help. Perhaps someone could have helped them find the answer to the question, Who are you? The answer for them-and for all of us-is: “I am the beloved child of my Father, God almighty!” If we know who we are, then we know there is help for the helpless and hope for the hopeless in Jesus. Nothing or no one is more powerful than God, and no one cares more than the Lord.

God remembers us in death

Several years ago I was in Israel interviewing some of the more influential members of the Israeli government, including members of the Knesset and various other leaders. One person I was to interview was the heroic military leader, General Moshe Dayan.

He was standing on a staircase, in uniform, complete with his trademark eye patch, ready to begin. As I greeted him, he suddenly said brusquely, “I am not going to do this interview!”

I was stunned because I had worked hard to make all the necessary arrangements, and politely inquired what had happened to change his mind. “Oh, it’s nothing you have done,” he said. “I’ve just realized that this is pointless because no one will remember me when I am dead anyway!” And he walked away.

I believe General Dayan was wrong. A great many people knew and cared about him. They appreciated his patriotism, and his heroic efforts to preserve the nation of Israel in the face of overwhelming odds. To this day, his name is remembered and revered as a great soldier and leader.

But even if no one on earth remembered Dayan after his career and his life were ended, there is Someone who will not-who cannot-forget who you are in birth, in life, and in death. This friend is aware of even the most minute details of our lives-He is the Lord!

The Bible says, But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered (Luke 12:7).

I have interviewed some 250 outstanding leaders and world figures, and I made it a practice to try, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to share something uplifting with them as well as seeking information and comments from them. I wish I’d had the opportunity to witness to General Dayan. I’d love to have been able to tell him that, indeed, someone would remember him-and walk with him-after death. Someone would remember, and walk with him through the valley of the shadow of death. He is God almighty!

Perhaps you think your life has been less distinguished and noteworthy than someone like General Dayan. But you are not less important to God. He has been with you before birth, and throughout life. And He will not desert you when you come to the end of life in this world. Who are you? You are God’s child…and one of His favorite traveling companions!

The time will come for all of us when it is time to cross over from this world to the next. And the Lord will walk with us, faithful to the end, until the shadows of life are illuminated by the light of heaven. So we can make that final walk in confidence.

The Bible says, We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). My husband, Jack, says that the phrases “absent from the body, present with the Lord” in the Greek are both instantaneous and simultaneous! When the time comes, just as you close your eyes-you’re there!

And He will have been with you all the way!

A CLASSIC MESSAGE OF HOPE FROM DR. JACK VAN IMPE

Beginning this week, we want to do a series of studies taken from booklets that Dr. Van Impe wrote, starting with God! I’m Suffering, are You Listening?

The age-old Question that everyone asks

“Why?” Just three letters and a question mark. But it’s the age-old question that everyone asks at one time or another and some people ask quite often. We are baffled by life’s seeming inequities and scream out our protest, or we quietly move our lips and ask, “Why?”

Oh, how it hurts to see our loved ones leave this world. How it tears at our hearts to see them suffering. Even though we might pray for them to be released from pain, we are never quite prepared enough for that final parting. Death is so final.

Or is it?

We ponder what appears to be senseless suffering – that emotional, psychological, physical, or spiritual affliction that comes in many forms. We wonder about death, especially the death of the very young. We feel they have not lived long enough. We speak of the “waste” of so much human potential. The “whys” escape from our lips – even from the lips of those who should have all the answers. We do not like to see suffering, much less encounter it ourselves.

We shove thoughts of death from our thinking. When we do have to confront death, we find ourselves at a loss for words to express our deepest feelings.

Confronting the Eternal Question: Why?

Is there an answer to the eternal question, “Why?” Clergymen and men and women in ministries such as ours are often confronted with that question. Sometimes we have answers. More often we have no pat answers. And pat answers are usually what the one asking the question wants.

The longer I live, the more I observe the human scene, and the more I study the Word of God, the more I am convinced that these difficult experiences we all encounter in some form or another are unique opportunities God has given us to help us grow in faith. There are no pat answers. That may seem too simplistic for some, but it’s true.

Because of your own experiences with pain, are you not much more sensitive to the pain of others?

Because of your own encounter with tragedy, are you not much more understanding of the trauma others are enduring?

Because of your walk through the valley of the shadow of death, can you not enter into the grief of others with more compassion (see 2 Corinthians 1:4)?

Whatever your personal experience with human suffering has been, have you not found it to be a faith-stretching exercise? You had to use your faith because there was nothing else you could do. There was no one who could fill the void left by the death of a loved one. There were no medical procedures that could alter the situation for that one (or yourself) who heard the dread word “cancer” or some other irreversible condition. At those times you found yourself reaching out and crying, “Oh, God, I need Your help!” And can you honestly say it did not come?

That help is there, always near at hand and always made adequate. Sometimes it appears slow at easing the heartaches, but even then, it is there. If you question that, ponder these truths:

The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:27).

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1).

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee (Isaiah 43:2) .

. . . I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee (Hebrews 13:5).

Pain, suffering, and death do not cancel out the truths of God’s Word.

Rabbi Harold S. Cushner caught the attention of the reading public with his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. When bad things happen to otherwise seemingly “good people,” the first thought that comes to mind is, “If there is a God, then what kind of a God is He to allow this to happen? Isn’t God big enough to do something about the ‘bad things’?”

My wife and I have known sorrow and weeping. We stood clinging to each other outside the door of the Intensive Care Ward as the time for her father’s death drew near. We, too, are so very human, and we long to hold onto those who have meant so much to us. We’ve been through the same kinds of things you have. So what I am saying to you in these pages is not without personal feeling and experience.

Yet, I know that God is a good God. Bad things do happen – not because He is an uncaring and an unfeeling “Vast Imbecility,” as Thomas Hardy suggested in his pessimistic poem, “Nature’s Questioning.” We have found Him to be a compassionate Heavenly Father. He is a God who loves and cares and feels for us when we are hurting or sorrowing.

Jesus Also Asked “Why?”

Jesus himself uttered an anguished, “Why?” Both gospel writers Matthew and Mark record His question, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (see Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34).

With these words He was expressing His loneliness. It was an emotion with which we can all identify. All of us, at some time and possibly at many times, feel lonely and wonder about the “why” of things.

Jesus was hanging on a cross when He cried out His “Why?” Is there any death more cruel and violent than crucifixion? In one sense, I believe Jesus was expressing grief because He was so very human as the God-man. He was showing us that grief is a very natural reaction to death. Remember, Jesus also wept at Lazarus’ grave (see John 11:35). This shows us that we need to express our feelings, ask our questions, and get our thoughts out into the open. Doing so is healthier than putting on a pious pretense and holding back one’s tears and grief.

Even while Jesus was experiencing grief through agony, however, He was showing His concern and love. It was directed toward His mother and her immediate needs. As He hung there dying, He asked John, one of His disciples, to care for her. In a much broader sense, Jesus’ cry of “Why?” was one brief word in a statement that was overshadowed by His love for all mankind.

I heard the story of an angry young man who cried out at a memorial service, “Where was God when this happened?” It seemed there had been a tragic mid-air plane collision and some of his friends had been killed. The minister in charge of that service repeated the young man’s question and then answered it. “God was in the same place He was when cruel men took His only Son and crucified Him on a cross.”

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

There is no place on the face of this earth where we can get away from the realities of suffering and death. We live in a fallen universe. It is the old, old story which took place in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and listened instead to the voice of the tempter. Because of that, the effects of the Fall of man are felt in every area of life. It is the conflict of the ages. We may not like it. Some may protest that God is an unfair God, and they may even shake their fists at heaven. But that will never alter the fact that because of our original parents’ disobedience, the whole world forevermore will suffer. The apostle Paul explains it like this:

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many . . .)

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous . . . But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:12-15,19,20,21).

So while there is conflict here on planet earth – and there always has been – with persecution, affliction, and death ever present, God has provided a “gift of grace” in Christ. We can go through these hard times, these “battles,” and the many devastating things that come our way. Through it all we can trust God, and we can help each other to trust Him more and more. We can be overcomers. Revelation 12:11 shows us how that can be accomplished:

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death (Revelation 12:11).

“Why?”

We will never know the answers to all the whys that are asked and that have been asked through the ages. But one thing we do know – we, too, can overcome. We are reminded daily that we have not been promised immunity from suffering and death. However, God has promised that we can abound (exist, survive) and be overflowing with hope, joy, and peace. How? By faith believing and trusting that what God says in His Word is true.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore 1 take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong (2 Corinthians 12:9,10).

God has promised to provide strength for us in our times of weakness – His strength through the “blood of the Lamb.” His Son.

CHANGED LIVES-one at a time

A marvelous newsletter today Rexella. I enjoy everyone.

As you stared at the painting and asked, Who are you?

You would ask that about me, Who are you?

I met you and Bro Jack at Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville Florida in 1972/73 and your ministry has touched my life for these 50 odd years.

May you continue to be faithful and available to our Lord Jesus until he comes or until we come.

Joe T. M.

Thank You, for keeping Dr. Jack Van Impe and Rexella’s emails going.  I watched and listened since the late 80’s.  Times have sure changed, and so much of Jack’s prophecies have already come to pass.  

Reyna

HIGHLIGHTED MINISTRY OFFERS

The Bear, The Beast, and the Lion

“THIS IS JUST A ‘SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION'”

 

Even as Russian troops amassed on the Ukrainian border, Putin assured the nations it wasn’t a war.  Yet in February 2022, a full-scale invasion began.

Now, years later, this war has cost both nations greatly, in terms of war dollars and, sadly, lives.  And despite their own horrible losses in, Russia hasn’t relented.

What could possibly be driving Russia’s commitment to this prolonged and devastating war?

This is yet another rung in Russia’s ascent to world domination.  The Scriptures forewarn us of even greater aggression from this obstinate nation in the future.

In this booklet, Dr. Rexella Van Impe discusses the major players involved in that future war: a Bear, a Beast, and a Lion.

As we better understand biblical prophecy, we can take encouragement from knowing that God has already foreseen these world events.  And He remains firmly in control.

One day soon, the Lord Jesus will come again.  And when He does, He will bring an end to ALL war.

The Eclipse of God

“By design this volume comes as a direct hit…Erwin Lutzer aims right at the center of our cultural crisis.  At heart, it is a theological crisis.”
R. ALBERT MOHLER JR.

Is God More Tolerant that He Used to Be?

Just as the moon obscures the sun’s light during an eclipse, today’s radical secularism has obscured the light of God.  But God’s light still shines — and He is calling us to shine His light in the growing darkness.

In The Eclipse of God, bestselling author Erwin Lutzer exposes our nation’s disastrous efforts to redefine God in its own image.  The resulting damage has been so great that confusion about God has even crept into the church.  This bold exposition will help you

• understand society’s attempts to make God inclusive and sin-friendly by exploring the intellectual roots of the present darkness.
• renew your faith in God by replacing worldly misperceptions of Him with the biblical truths about His unchanging character.
• resist cultural conformity by counting the cost of faith as you shine the gospel’s light with accuracy and grace

Timely and practical, The Eclipse of God will deepen your love for the sovereign God of the Bible and empower you to live and speak as a light for Him in a culture of darkness.