Dwight E. Link - Last Days Heroes: Becoming a Hero of Faith for the End-Times

LAST DAYS
HEROES

Becoming a Hero of Faith
for the End-Times

Dwight E. Link

Copyright 2020 Dwight E. Link.

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Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-8262-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-8263-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-8261-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019920894

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/16/2020

Contents

For my wife Delena. Thank you for sharing that big, beautiful, God-given heart with me and for not giving up on me when I gave you every reason to. You are the one God created just for me, and I couldnt have made it without your love and support. I love you.

To my mom and dad. Thank you for bringing me up in the ways of righteousness and teaching me the value of Gods word and the power of prayer. I love you both.

What are the last days? Theres no shortage of books to read and study concerning what many Christians refer to as the last days. The Bible should be your go-to manual when it comes to the last days though. When I think of last days, what comes to my mind is someone who has been diagnosed with a terminal disease and given a certain amount of time to live. Theyve basically been given a death sentence. As time goes by, this person begins to exhibit warning signs that the end days are approaching and their time on this earth is almost done. What they do with the time remaining is completely up to them. Many choose to live out their last days in different ways. Some will spend their remaining time with loved ones, while some want to go out with a bang, as the world puts it. Some will even use that time to try to right their wrongs and make a last-ditch effort to please God in hopes of having their death sentence overturned. Either way, when we know that our time on this earth is coming to an end, most of us will behave much differently than we normally would.

The Bible gives us a description of what God calls the last days for this earth, and according to the signs we are seeing now, many believe that those days are approaching fast. After growing up in church, Ive heard for years that the last days are at hand and many have questioned this. Some have even abandoned their faith because they havent seen it yet, which in itself is a sign of the last days.

According to scripture (2 Timothy 3:15 NIV; Matthew 24 NIV), and Im paraphrasing here, what we can expect as the last days approach is that people will become lovers of themselves. Right will be determined to be wrong and what is wrong and evil will be celebrated as good and right. False teachings will flood the church, and wars will increase as earthquakes are felt more frequently and in more places. Men and women will prop themselves up on high pedestals at the cost of the poor and nave, and some will even declare themselves to be a type of messiah, if not the one and only. If youre not aware of the signs, I suggest you research them. I could give you the scripture word for word, but Im not going to rob you of the thrill of seeking it and learning it on your own. Be a student and follower of the word, not a follower of me or any other author, teacher, or preacher. Im simply bringing to your attention what God has placed on my heart to share, but its up to you to discover the truth on your own through the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Trust me: theres no greater teacher than him.

The Bible refers to many of these signs as birth pains (Matthew 24:8 NIV). Like when your wife becomes pregnant and youre all full of excitement and as time goes on the signs of pregnancy become more obvious until the day arrives to give birth. Her water breaks, and the pain increases to the point to where the joy of becoming pregnant fades into the background of the screams and the pain until finally theres a new life bringing back the joy again. Like the pregnant mother, we can see the signs approaching and will even get to the point of some pain and suffering as we wait for the Second Coming of our Messiah. But we know that the pain and suffering are only temporary, and when that day comes, we will have new life and the pain and sorrow will be replaced with joy.

The important thing to remember is that God is very patient and is holding off the final days in hopes that some will be saved (2 Peter 3:9 NIV). Its in the Bible. Look it up. But as we wait and watch as evil abounds, while the murder of innocent babies is worshiped, sexual immorality in all forms is celebrated, and thieves and liars are hailed as great leaders, what type of person are we to be? Second Peter 3 (NIV) is a great place to start when trying to answer this question. It gives us many guidelines and commandments of who we are to be as we wait for his coming. If you havent already, I highly suggest that you make it a regular part of your study. Gods word is very clear in the fact that if we dont follow his word and guidelines that he has set forth, then we will not enter his kingdom (Matthew 7:21 NIV). Please look it up and study it. Not only does your eternity depend on your understanding the truth, but so do others who will depend on you sharing that knowledge & freedom that youve come to know.

The way that Ive come to understand what type of person to be in these last days is to sum everything up into one word: hero. Not your typical type of hero as the world uses the label, but a hero of faith. The kind of hero who will face the giants when no one else will or lead others out of a situation that appears to be hopeless and give them hope. A hero of faith who hasnt fallen for the normalization or humanization of Christianity and compromised their faith to the point of being useless. Following Christ should not be normal and certainly should not be boring. We are to die to ourselves daily to become the heroes that the world needs for these last days.

What Is a Hero?

A hero is defined as a person who is admired or idolized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. So who qualifies to be called a hero, and who makes that decision? Basically, anyone can consider anyone else a hero, depending on how they see that person. If you ask a child who their hero is, youll get some pretty entertaining answers. When I was a kid, my hero was the creepy dude who drove the ice cream truck around the neighborhood and always seemed to arrive at just the right timewhen I was broke.