Living a Rapture-Ready Life: First Steps, a Place to Start

By David Silva

This book is going to ask you to assess where you are with respect to your relationship with God. There are a lot of people out there who havent accepted Jesus as their personal Savior. Every day that goes by brings them one day closer to death. When your life here on earth ends you will stand before God and your eternal address will be determined, and without Jesus, hell awaits. Remember, you choose your eternal address by the choices you make. It really is your decision where you spend eternity, heaven or hell. Make certain you make the right choice.

This book will explain what heaven, hell, and eternity are. If one understands what heaven, hell, and eternity are I cant see how anyone would choose anything else other than to follow Jesus.This book will also explain where we are in time as it relates to Bible prophecy. It is the authors hope that knowing what the future holds will help to wake up the hearts of the nonbelievers and stir the hearts of believers.

Jesus Christ is coming to rapture His church.Be ready, be prepared, and live a rapture-ready life!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512784473

David Silva

David Scott Silva is a science-fiction novelist and poet. Born and raised in Los Angeles, David spent twenty years before creative fiction writing as an award-winning newspaper and magazine reporter, editor and columnist for the Los Angeles Times and Southland Publishing Co. David lives in Riverside California with his wife, University of California, Riverside Adjunct Professor Sharon Burton, and their animals: Australian shepherd, Gus, and Italian cat, Marley. He is currently marketing his first science fiction novel, After the Starman Falling, part one of a planned trilogy.

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Copyright © 2014, 2017 David Silva.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

All scripture quoted in this work is from the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8446-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8448-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8447-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017906395

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/02/2017

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 Heaven Or Hell, It Is Our Choice

Chapter 2 Can You Believe In

God And The Bible?

Chapter 3 Why You Need To Believe

Chapter 4 A Time Line Of Events

Chapter 5 Signs Of The Times

Chapter 6 The Rapture

Chapter 7 The Peace Treaty (Covenant)

Chapter 8 The Tribulation

Chapter 9 Midtribulation Events

Chapter 10 The Mark Of The Beast (666)

Chapter 11 So What Is God Doing For Those Left Behind?

Chapter 12 The Glorious Appearing Of Jesus Christ

Chapter 13 It Is Time To Come To Christ

One Last Thought

For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:2)

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51–52)

For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. (Matthew 24:27)

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

(1 Thessalonians 4:16–17)

FOREWORD

I never knew you … How do these four words make you feel?

Do they stir feelings of sadness, loneliness, depression, or even rejection? Every time I read them, it scares me to know that many people will hear these words spoken to them. These words will no doubt pierce their souls and shake them to their knees when they find themselves at the foot of His throne. Their hearts will surely race as their minds once more work to convince themselves that they are worthy, that they are just moments away from entering into eternity to a place we call heaven. In their heads they will begin counting all the good things they have done. Surely they have done everything necessary to enter into the kingdom. Their good works are many! They healed and cared for the sick. They fed the hungry. They clothed the poor. They put a few dollars in a collection plate or wrote a check and sent it to their favorite ministry. They were baptized. They adopted an orphan, raised their grandchildren, and even served in church. Yes they will have done many glorious, kindhearted things, and still on their final day, they will hear the Master say, "Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness! I … never … knew you."

These words are found in the first book of the New Testament in Matthew 7:23. My question to you is this: Have you ever paused long enough to really understand the impact they will have on your life? There is no other verse in the Bible that should frighten you more or motivate you more. The key to your eternal destiny lies within this verse, and the key is very simple. Does He know you?

It is my hope and my prayer that if you do not have a relationship with Jesus, the following pages will help you to understand exactly what He requires of you, and if you do know the Savior, that your relationship with Him will be strengthened.

May your days be blessed and your life fulfilled, and may these four words—I never knew you—simply be four words that you left behind right here, in the foreword of this book.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, and in the holy name of my Lord Jesus, I will be praying for all of you who read this work. Amen.

—This foreword was written by a soul that loves Jesus Christ. His name is Peter.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First, I’d like to apologize to anyone I have forgotten to mention. I would like to thank the following people. Without each and every one of them, this book would never have made it to fruition.

I would like to thank my editing team. Thank you to Gail Silva, Diana Miller, Suzanne Finch, Gary Larkin, Benjamin Walker, Cal Hobson, Peter Hagan, and Norm John. All of you were an answer to prayer and played a significant role in getting this book completed.

I would like to give Gary and Lesa Larkin a special thank you for all their support, and thank you to all the people who prayed for me through this process.

I would also like to give my wife, Gail, a heartfelt thank-you for her never-ending support and encouragement.

And above all, thank You, God!

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this book is to get you to evaluate your walk with God and, if need be, give you an opportunity to put your life in line with God’s will before it is too late. This book is going to ask you to evaluate where you are with respect to your relationship with God and how that relationship matches up to how His Word says it should be. Is your relationship with God on His terms or on yours? Meaning, are you living your life God’s way or your way? The Bible is not a buffet where you take what you want and leave what you don’t like behind. However, in my experience, the things we do not like about what the Bible tells us are usually the convicting parts, and we need to take a closer look at ourselves to determine why we do not like what it is saying.

This book will also explain where we are in time as it relates to Bible prophecy and give you some information about the current era and future events. It will lay out the rapture and the tribulation period and the devastation and chaos these two events will generate. It is the author’s hope that knowing what the future holds will help to wake up the hearts of the nonbelievers and stir the