Our Only Hope is in the Lord
Hebrews 3:7-8a - "So, as the Holy Spirit says: 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts......'"
Ezekiel 33 : 10 - 11 - "Son of man, say to the house of Israel, 'This is what you are saying: "Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?" ' Say to them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'"
Updated 4/30/11
You may not think that you need to repent and humble yourself before your God, but if you ask Him to open your eyes to the Truth then you'll see just how far you've fallen from His Standards of Righteousness and have not even known it. 2Thessalonians 2 : 9 - 12 - "The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." Ask God to open up your eyes and the eyes of His People to break the delusion of the false reality that the devil has artfully crafted before us. Although you may not even know it, your foundations of reality, morality, and Truth have been slowly eroded by a lifetime of the false words, the false signs, the false miracles, and the false wonders of TV, Movies, Media, Music, and now Computer Games and the "every sort of evil" that is splashed all over the Internet.
It's ironic that they're called TV programs because show after show, year after year, the devil's programing to sculpt our moral standards and our understanding of the Truth is exactly what we've received. What's right and what's wrong, what's cool and what's uncool, who's the hero and who's the villain, who's innocent and who's guilty, what's funny and what's offensive, what's important and what's unimportant, what's possible and what's impossible, what's Truth and what's fable, when should we keep our calm and when we should be angry, who should we listen to and who do we disregard, who is pure and noble and who has an evil agenda, what's true science and what's false science, what's excusable and what is inexcusable, as well as how we should look, how we should act, what we should say, what we should eat, how we should think, and what we should buy are all being actively downloaded into our passive minds everyday and if we do decide to examine what we're receiving it's usually only to verify the most outrageous claims.
It's no accident that the first generation to grow up, cradle to grave, with the combination of Progressive Movies, TV Shows and Media; Rock Music, Free Sex, Recreational Drugs, and more recently Computer Games and the X-Rated Internet, is now the generation who has been spiritually blinded and guided to the moral abyss by the evil Pied Piper who leads the rebellion against our God. We are the most entertained society in human history and what do we have to show for it? A total disconnection from the Righteous Heart of our God and moral standards that have sunken so low, even among God's Children, that God will most likely have to put a terrible hurt on us for our own good. How much punishment will it take to convince you of your need to actively filter everything that you see, hear, and think, and that you need to reject and forsake the devil's pleasure filled crafty programing that's leading you to destruction? It won't be easy. Most of us can't even walk into a room without turning on the TV, and once it's on, few actively filter what we're receiving to compare it to the Word of God. Then even as we try to filter what we see, hear, and think, so much of how we live and how we relate to others has been tied to the common experiences that we all share because of our common entertainment experiences. How many things in our lives now somehow relate back to a show we've watched or a song we sang? How many times have you heard a song that took your mind back to a place, a time, a feeling, or a relationship? How many times have you looked at your circumstances and said, "This is just like this movie or that show."?
Our entertainment programing has been ingrained deep deep deep within us and it's being controlled by the evil deceiver who's using it to slowly and quietly turn our tastes as individuals, as generations, and as societies first to tolerate, then to accept, then to enjoy, then to embrace, and ultimately to love immorality. Compare the music, movies, and later TV shows from the 1940's and 50's with today. Can you see the progression? Can you see the programming? Can you see that what is "normal" today would never have been tolerated in years past? Have you even noticed that today's entertainment, that we honestly love to watch, continually portrays casual unmarried sex as the norm as actors and actresses move from partner to partner with little to no concern as to whether these portrayals honor God or not? And there's nothing in the history of Christian Society to compare to the recent universal easy availability of the most evil pornography imaginable; that always seems to find it's way to the curious eyes and ears of the weak, the young, and the most vulnerable. Luke 11 : 34 - "Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light."
For centuries Christians knew the benefits and virtue of guarding their thoughts and guarding what they would allow to be set before their eyes, but at some point those with these virtues were effectively labeled by the rest of society, with the help of the new mass media, as being old fashioned, squares, prudes, uncool, narrow minded, small minded, and or closed minded. Then when someone played the "You're just closed minded" card against Christians we often reacted as if it was then our duty to open up our bodies and our minds to almost anything just to prove that we were not inferior people. Although the ones who were said to be open minded were always portrayed as being the most noble, kindest, and most inclusive of people, they rarely seemed to be very open minded when it came to considering the claims of Christianity. Why is that? Why does it seem like the "broad minded" only have a problem with Christianity and that anything else that anyone else wants to think or believe is fine? Why is it that only Christianity is defined as narrow? Let's look at Matthew 7 : 13 - 14 - "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Could it be that there are some on the broad path who just don't like it that there are those who are trying to follow the narrow path? We have to narrow our minds to focus on what we will accept as good, pleasing to God, and True and to decide what we will reject as evil, displeasing to God, and error in order to enter through the narrow gate; and it's important for us to focus our lives on obeying our Lord Jesus even if we are called names by some who are on the broad minded path to destruction.
Today, since few can stomach being labeled as closed minded and since almost everyone wants to experience as much as we can out of life, many Christians now freely open up our hearts and minds to experience as many of the devil's pleasures, thoughts, ideas, escapes, and fantasies as we can without even considering that the deceiver may be using them to eat up our time and to distract our hearts, minds, and efforts away from our God and His Missions for us in the real world. Isaiah 26 : 18 - "We were with child, we writhed in pain, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth; we have not given birth to people of the world." Instead of focusing our thoughts on Jesus, on building up the Body of Christ, and on our Matthew 28 mission to go and make disciples of all the nations, we've embraced the ever increasing wickedness of our entertainment pop culture, and the wickedness acted out by the Body of Christ has followed. Sadly, the ultimate effect of people loving evil more and more is not just that it distracts us from serving our God, but that it also leads our hearts further and further away from the Heart of our Heavenly Father. It's like we were being fed pleasurable drugs that we didn't even know we were taking, and now that we're opened up our minds and become completely addicted to being entertained we're trapped in an ever more polluted pit of evil slime that we totally enjoy, see as normal, and that we would never want to leave.
From our youngest days the TV has been used to babysit us, and many of the youth of today strive to have some form of electronic entertainment constantly engaging them, even at Church. How can anyone hear the Lord's Whisper in the midst of all the noise? Who has a use for a God if He isn't entertaining? What chance does a child have to learn to love, respect, and obey God when all he hears from his entertainment is God's Name being used as a curse word? Sadly, even when God is mentioned or portrayed "positively" in a TV show or a movie it almost always leaves us with a false impression of our God, a false sense of security over how God feels about mankind, and the false representation that God just excuses everyone's sin.
People say that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are different, but He's not, He's the same. The God who destroyed the world because of mankind's sin, in the days of Noah, still hates sin just as much, and He will act just as Righteously, Forcefully and Decisively against the wicked of our day as He's acted towards all of the rebellious since the day He first breathed life into man. Christ, who taught us to love one another and to love our enemies in the hopes that they too will come to repentance, will one day come back on a white horse with the Armies of Heaven, as described in Revelation 19, to righteously punish all who have received the mark of the beast, which allowed them to buy or sell, because it's in receiving the mark and worshipping the beast that they will have made their final choice between submitting to God or joining the devil's evil rebellion against Him.
God, the One who gives us life and all good things, is a kind and loving Father to all who love Him, but throughout all time, to those who joined the devil's rebellion and who lived like they would be much happier if their Creator just went away; by following other gods of their own design, by reveling in their wicked lifestyles, by rejecting God's Way of Salvation, and by rejecting God's Authority over their lives; the sad truth is that at the moment that they die as God's Enemies, Hell will then forever be their very worst nightmare, and that's why we beg everyone to consider this, turn away from the rebellion, and seek to know our Lord now before it's to late. Hebrews 10 : 31 - "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Revelation 14 : 9b - 11 - "'..... If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.'"
It's not God who's changed, God's Children have changed! God's Children, inspired and emboldened by the devil's pleasurable programming, have lost all of their fear of God. Believing that the Kindness and Goodness of God gives them freedom to enjoy evil without consequence, they partake in all of the wickedness that they want whenever they want; and then in their hearts they relegate God's Desire for our obedience to an annoying afterthought, and that makes our God furious. 2Timothy 3 : 1 - 4 - "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-"
That's the peril. That's the delusion. Even now there are multitudes of people who believe that they're safe in their relationships with God who risk being punished by our Lord because they've been taught, along with the rest of society, to love wickedness through the outreach of worldly entertainment. Sadly, many today who claim the name of Christ for their salvation love their wicked entertainment and worldly pleasures much more then they love their God which puts them in serious peril, and they don't even know it. God tells us in Philippians 2:12 to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Truly, it's not our words or our warm feelings towards God, but our obedience to God's Commands in reverent fear that proves whether Jesus truly became the Lord to us that we once confessed Him to be. 2Corinthians 13 : 5 - "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test" Colossians 3 : 5 - 8 - "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves as all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips." For years society laughed at the Amish for shunning the modern world, but in the end the Amish may get the last laugh if people today now choose the wickedness in our modern pop culture over obedience to our Heavenly Father. Psalm 145 : 20 - "The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy."
With entertainment leading the way, the devil has also quietly and slowly led us down the path to social conformity with his rebellion against God's Very Nature through the false prophets of Celebrity, Academic Institutions, Public Schools, what's called Social Justice, Political Correctness, and Moral Relativism. Though at the time we could see some of it happening, instead of purposing in our hearts to stand up against the tide of lies in solidarity with God's Word, we caved into them choosing to stand with the world instead of the Truth so that we wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings and so that people would not think of us as intolerant.
Sadly, only some of us now take our last stand and say that abortion and homosexuality are wrong and that marriage should be just between a man and a woman, but how do we feel about divorce? We see divorce as an acceptable normal thing, and even some Pastors of the Church are on their second and third wives; even though it hurts their children and the Bible says that they're causing themselves the women that they've divorced to commit adultery. Some Christians have all varieties of sex whenever we want, and instead of feeling shame and remorse for our sin, we don't feel anything at all. Christian teens are now expected and pressured by society to be sexually active at younger and younger ages so that precious few make it to their marriage beds as virgins, and those who try are ridiculed.
Though God says that men and women are different, political correctness demands that they be called the same. Though God says that He doesn't like it when men dress like women and women like men, cross dressing, especially among women, is now common. Though God calls homosexuality an abomination, to their shame, some churches instead of trying to help people to resist their sinful nature support, encourage, and strongly endorse the abomination by naming openly unrepentantly gay people as leaders over the repentant. Though the Bible says that God's Churches must always be led by men, some denominations ordain women to have spiritual authority over men. Though the Bible says that when God's Children come together for prayer and worship that the women's heads should be covered and the men's heads uncovered, guys now wear hats to church and women don't. Though God says wives obey your husbands and husbands love your wives like Jesus loves His Church, Christian divorce has become completely common, accepted, and now sadly almost expected as we all seek to find our own individual happiness, demand our equal rights, and expect the reward for our emotional investment that we all feel we're entitled to; even though we once stood there before our God and vowed our undying love, commitment, and support to one another. Malachi 2 : 15 - 16a - "Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. 'I hate divorce,' says the Lord God of Israel, ......."
Though God wants us to seek Him and stay connected to Him in our daily lives, some Christians spend hours indulging in news, sports, computer games, social networking, texting, romance novels, and all varieties of entertainment escapes everyday, and rarely find time to spend with our Lord. Though God says to take one day a week to rest and remember Him, many Christian's lives are in constant motion and rarely slow down to rest, to think, or to pray.
Isaiah 58 : 13 - 14 - "'If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.' The mouth of the Lord has spoken."
Though God says that we are to be lights to the world, most Christians don't even know their neighbors let alone share the Gospel with them. Though God commands us to be strong and courageous and to go and make disciples of all of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey Jesus' Commands; few Christians these days are even willing to say that the world's false religions are false let alone that they're leading millions and millions of deceived lost souls to Hell. Can you imagine the prophet Elijah telling everyone that we must be careful not to upset the sensitive feelings of the worshippers of Baal by warning them that they're being deceived?
Though God says to not let any unwholesome words come from our mouths, words that would have scandalized our great grandparents are now spoken freely throughout Christendom, even sometimes from the pulpit, and few care. Though the Bible tells us that the devil is the father of lies, those whom we elect to be our leaders make promise after promise and then the television news personalities can only laugh as they affirm that no one actually expected these elected leaders to keep their fantastic campaign promises. Sadly, with a few honorable exceptions, through the power of the modern mass media, the free world has become captive to be governed by each election cycle's most convincing liars and amazingly, each election cycle, Christians are just as gullible to believe these lies, even as those whom we elect enact laws and give rulings that offend the very Honor of our God.
Though God says that we should discipline our children with the rod, out of our love for them, political correctness says that that's child abuse, and we wonder why our youth run wild. There was a time when there was corporal punishment in our schools for misbehavior, but now that it's rare and our children know that they can't be touched, we argue and debate over why the teachers have lost control of their classrooms and why our schools are failing. Where children use to play, gangs now roam the neighborhoods selling drugs and sometimes killing people just because of the color of their skin or the color of their shirt.
Drugs, alcohol, gambling and porn snare Christians into prisons of addiction, destroying our very lives, while the devil laughs. Our beloved entertainment industry provides us with an audiovisual stream of sex, violence, and death and we wonder why nothing seems to shock us anymore. Not content with serving God in the real world, Believers of all ages now escape to the devil's virtual godless science fiction fantasy worlds where we can murder, rape, steal, destroy, and pillage, just for fun, while many more secretly defile and debase ourselves by viewing the vile images that infest the Internet. There was once a time when Christians knew that an out of wedlock pregnancy meant that something was wrong that needed to be made right, but now they are accepted, sought after, and even celebrated; while those who choose to abort their babies are little different from those in the Old Testament who threw their babies into the fire to sacrifice them to false gods. How did we get to this place where people can think that if an unborn baby is wanted that they're real a person, who's even protected under the law, but if they're unwanted then they're just trash to be thrown to the dogs? How did we get to this place where our culture embraces, supports, and even shamelessly trumpets seemingly most every form of sexual immorality as celebrated sexual freedom while God's Designs for morality, family, and society are condemned as bigoted? Isaiah 3 : 9 - "The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves." Isaiah 5 : 20 - "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
These examples offer us just a tiny glimpse into how far we've been lured, as Believers, away from the Righteous Heart of our God, and our proud selfish offenses are so numerous that they're beyond listing. It's almost like we're trying to do everything that we can to either ignore or test our Heavenly Father's Will without even considering His Perspective, Authority, or Feelings. Yes the Truth sets us free, but we're suppose to use our personal freedom in Christ for good. As Children of God, when we stumble or fall into sin, we're suppose to hear the guilt brought on by the Spirit of God, quickly get back up, immediately turn away from our wicked ways by seeking God's Forgiveness and with a humble heart draw near again to Him. Then we are to humbly confess our sins to one another, and seek the forgiveness of those who we've sinned against so that we can then have peace with each other and truly serve one another in love. We're not suppose to sear our consciences, willfully embrace a lifestyle of unrepentant wickedness, denounce those who call sin - sin, and then use our freedom in Christ to shove God's Kindness right back in His Face. Galatians 5 : 13 - "You my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather serve one another in love."
As Christians we are no longer under the Law but under God's Grace, but if we know what's pleasing to the Lord wouldn't we want to try to do the things that please Him and not do the things that displease Him just because we want to be pleasing to our God? Is there anything that God wants us to do or don't do that we don't somehow neglect or rebel against? It's like if God said that we were not allowed to eat cheese on Tuesdays then there would be multitudes of people defiantly reveling lustfully in Tuesday cheese eating. It's gotten so bad that if anyone does stand up for the Truth to say that we're sinning against our God they're hated, dismissed, or disdained by everyone around them, even in the Family of God. Sadly, just like it was predicted in 2Thessalonians 2 for the last days, the rebellious Children of God now delight in wickedness and the only one left who seems to notice or care is God.
Yes Jesus died on the cross for our sins, but God is not pleased by our open rebellion, and our standing in Christ will not stop the Father from disciplining us. As a matter of fact it's God's Deep Love for us that demands that our repentance be accomplished, and that our relationships to Him be restored. 1Corinthians 11 : 32 - "When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world." Our Holy God passionately hates our wicked rebellion, and many of the rebellious things that we do we've been doing for so long that we no longer even consider whether they may be offensive to our Father or not; so as our downwardly spiraling moral standards keep pace with the devil's immoral pop culture, that we are trying so hard to prove our tolerance towards, God, who calls us to reach always upwards towards His Standard of Moral Perfection, has become righteously enraged at us.
As our private lives and social lives have become wicked and corrupt, so as members of the Body of Christ we have also been patiently taught, over time, to believe the devil's lies that now disconnect us from completing the mission of taking God's Salvation to the ends of the earth. Lies like; since everyone sins those who are less sinful somehow deserve to go to Heaven, that many spiritual paths lead to Heaven, that hiding God's Revealed Hatred towards mankind's sinful rebellion somehow equals tolerant love while offending others with the revealed Truth of their precarious coming judgement equals intolerant hate, that God is like a kindly old grandfather who is only always pleased with us and who never gets offended or angry, that Hell is offensive so it must not be a real place, that the Bible needs to continually conform to the secular culture in order to maintain it's relevance, and that the abundant Christian life means living for God's Blessings and His Financial Increase and not so much for our sacrificial service to His Kingdom.
These are some of the dirtiest lies that the devil has ever told. The lost are on the road to Hell, dead in their sins, but many of us really don't care because to us our relationships with God are now based much much more on what God can give to us; on being financially blessed or on being intellectually fed or on being socially connected or on being spiritually entertained or on being emotionally pumped up or on finding that special someone then on what we can do together with Jesus in service to His Kingdom. How many Christian books can we read that tell us that it's good to read our Bibles and do what God says, before we will read our Bibles, and do what God says? Sadly, I think that we believe the devil's lies because we want to. We want to believe that everyone else is just going to be OK, because if people are really going to Hell then that would require some effort on our part to try to help them; and we would have to somehow unplug from our fast paced, fully engaged, fully entertaining lives, that consume all of our time, energy, and emotional strength, to somehow be able to care beyond ourselves and our own comfortable relationships.
To many Christians outreach has become about giving someone a sandwich and a blanket, but if there's little or no effort to reach people with the Message of the Gospel then we're truly only keeping the lost warm and fed on their way to Hell. It's a tragedy how so few Christians are even willing to tell someone outside of the Church that they're on the wrong road. Atheists have no trouble telling us that we're wrong. Humanists have no trouble telling us that we're wrong. Hollywood has no trouble portraying us as wrong. The media has no trouble reporting that we're wrong. Ironically, people who are involved in every form of wickedness have no trouble denouncing Christians, with rage in their eyes and anger spewing from their lips, as being the people who hate just because we compassionately warn them about where a life lived in rebellion against our God will lead. People from every false religion have no problem with telling us that we're wrong. Come to think of it, even we as Christians don't seem to have any trouble saying that other Christians are wrong.
Like Jesus and His Early Disciples, we face a world that's hostile towards the Message of Christ. Jesus talking to His Brothers said, John 7 : 7 - " The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil." And later talking to His Disciples He said, John 15 : 20 b - " ...... 'No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also'. ......" In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said to the people, Matthew 5 : 11 - 12 - "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." History teaches that Jesus and all of His Disciples, except for the Apostle John, were all murdered for delivering the Message of God's Love and His Salvation to the lost world, and history records that the Apostle John was dipped in boiling oil and lived to be used by God to write the Book of Revelation.
Since God first made man, countless men and women throughout the ages have been beaten, tortured, robbed, and murdered for delivering God's Messages or for refusing to renounce their faith in our God; and even now, in other parts of the world, becoming a Christian is a death sentence for those who find the Savior. How does that fit in with our, this is my life and I want to squeeze all the pleasure out of it that I can - so God bless me right now and give me the increase, Christianity? Christians in Muslim or Hindu countries share their faith and are killed for it, while Christians in the West are free to share their faith with everyone, and most of us can't even stomach the thought of just the possibility that we might have a potentially uncomfortable conversation with someone. Where does the possibility of being hated, and mocked, and persecuted, and beaten, and killed because of our testimony for Christ fit into our feel good faith? 2Timothy 3 : 12 - "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." We are soldiers of Christ engaged in the greatest spiritual battle in all human history where we're struggling for the eternal lives of the lost souls of all mankind, and in the midst of the battle we're so programmed by the deceiver, and so hard wired to our entertainment distractions that when we get right down to it, most of us honestly care more about what's on TV, at the movies, happening online, or how our sports teams are doing, at any given moment, then we do about what's on the Heart of our God.
With so few Christians reaching out to the lost, many church leaders have changed the focus of our churches from winning the lost, building up disciples, and reaching the world to entertaining and pampering people in the hopes that they will keep coming back. No longer are sermons judged based on the merits of the Truth that they share, but now people judge their church experience based on how good it makes them feel; while many pastors cleverly put their own personal spin on the Scriptures claiming that they teach the politically correct lessons of our modern pop culture. 2Timothy 4 : 3 - "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." We say, "Hey, let's make our church more like the world around us so that more people will come." We say, "Lets not mention sin or judgement or Hell very often to all of the new people coming to our church or they might think that we're judgmental and they won't come back." We say, "Let's call those of other religions," (who are by definition spiritually dead in their sins) "our spiritual brothers and sisters so that we will sound inclusive." We say, "Our God is an all loving God so we can focus on what helps us to stay positive and feel good and the larger the crowd we draw, the more proof that we'll have that the Lord is blessing the work of our hands."
Sadly, in the process of making our churches more like the world and our message less offensive to the masses, that we honestly want to help, we disrespect and diminish our Lord by distorting and diminishing His Truth. Isaiah 42 : 21 - "It pleased the Lord for the sake of his righteousness to make his Law great and glorious." God wants His Whole Glorious Truth to spread throughout the world and to out shout and out shine the lies that are guiding men's souls to Hell. When we speak God's Truth from His Love in our hearts we're not speaking to win friends for ourselves, but to win souls for our God, although those who receive Christ will become our brothers and sisters as well. However, if we share the Truth without love or the love without ever sharing the Truth we misrepresent our God. Also, God does not want His Truth to simply become some tentative friendly comment shared within a "larger global conversation". God wants His Whole Truth to loudly sound forth from multitudes of hearts who are filled with His Love in order to bring His Salvation to the very ends of the earth.
Can't you see that we distort and diminish God's Truth if we proclaim His Nature as all Loving and Giving and then say little of God's Righteousness, His Standards, His Anger towards mankind's rebellion, His Judgements, or His Wrath. Psalm 90 : 11 - "Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you." Do we really trust God's Leadership? If God says for us to do something that honors Him but brings us no obvious earthly church growth, or if it might even make others think that we are different from the strong current of modern pop culture, do we do what honors God or do we do what we think is best for God's Kingdom? God doesn't just leave it up to us to decide what His Will is based on our own personal preferences as to what we think His Will should be. It's God who gives and God who takes away both for His Greater Purposes. How can mankind truly submit to a Holy God without submitting by faith to His Love, His Justice, His Judgement, His Plan of Salvation, His Standards, His Wisdom, His Holiness, His Truth, His Wrath, and His Will? When God calls a person to repent He's calling us to reject our sinful will, to submit to His Righteous Will, and then to purpose in our hearts to be more and more like Him in our love, in our righteousness, and in our judgements as to what is good and pleasing to Him and what is not.
To those who may say that all we need is to stay positive and focus on Christ's Love remember that it was Jesus in Luke 13 : 5 - who said " ..... But unless you repent, you too will all perish.", In Luke 12 : 5 - Jesus said, "But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after killing the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." In describing a lost soul's eternal existence in Hell, Jesus in Mark 9 : 48 describes Hell as a very real place where, "their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." Previously in this same Passage Jesus says that Hell is such a bad place to spend eternity that if an eye or a hand were the cause of someone's sin that they would be better off to painfully cut off that part of their body then to keep it and be thrown into Hell. Further, Jesus told several of those He touched to, "go and sin no more". If sin wasn't that big of an issue to Jesus then why did He bother to tell people to repent and to sin no more?
Yes it's by Christ's Love that we are born spiritually into the Family of God, but being born again is just the beginning. Jesus is the Solid Rock on which our salvation is based, but it's when we build on that Rock with the gold and silver of fearing God and obeying Jesus that we're then pleasing to our Savior, and it's by obeying our Savior that we will someday receive our eternal reward. Hebrews 5 : 8 - 9 - "Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him." God is not pleased when His Children build their lives with passing wicked pleasures and selfish ambitions, and when we focus our message mainly on what people want to hear, receiving earthly blessings from God, and then say little of mankind's obligation to forsake sinful worldly pleasures and to obey and submit our lives to God's Will; we end up trying to sell the image of the Jesus that everyone wants and not the Jesus who truly is, and in the process the only One that we seem to have the courage to provoke and offend is Jesus. Yes Jesus loves us, but He also wants us to greatly fear God so that no one will surrender to the empty wicked pleasures of the enemy's deception and be condemned as one who loved the lie and never truly surrendered to Christ. God hates all evil and for us to fear God means that we are to hate all of the evil that the enemy is employing to try to encourage the rebellion that's corrupting souls to their doom. Proverbs 8 : 13 - "To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech."
God loudly calls mankind to rally to Jesus and to choose sides between darkness and Light, and there's a big difference between merely believing that Jesus once walked the earth and having the faith to obey Jesus as your God in reverent fear. Jesus is the Rock of our salvation but if we never build anything on that Rock it's as if we looked at the Rock, admired It, and then just walked away. As people we can say anything, and we can even lie to ourselves, but it's what we build on the Rock that will show what we truly believe. We are not saved by doing good things to try to earn God's Love, but it's when we come to understand that God doesn't just excuse our sins, we truly submit our lives to God, and we freely receive Christ's Payment, Forgiveness, Leadership, and Love; that the good things that build on the Rock will just come flowing out of us. These good works are then being accomplished through of the work of the Holy Spirit who was, at the moment of our honest true confession and commitment to Jesus as our risen Lord, sealed inside of us as a down payment guaranteeing our eternal salvation. Romans 10 : 9 - "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." We are not to hate the people who are stained by evil, but we are to hate the evil that stains the people, and we are to hate the evil that will continually try to distract and ensnare us.
For just a moment try viewing the world from God's Prospective. God doesn't owe us Heaven. God doesn't owe anyone anything. God, the One who gives life to every living thing, in His Mercy and at His Own Extreme Personal Sacrifice, provided a very specific way for sinful man to be cleansed and made acceptable to be in His Holy Presence and sinful man says that God's Way is just not good enough? Can't you see that if there was any other way, then or now, that a man could be cleansed of his sins and forgiven by God other then through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, then Christ's Death on the cross was not only absolutely pointless; but if there was another way, then the Father played His Beloved Son for a fool. Jesus, in the garden, begged for another way to be provided by the Father to satisfy His Law and His Justice, and none could be found. Any other way that was acceptable to God, then or now, would have saved our Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God Himself wrapped in human flesh, from a horribly painful humiliating death at the hands of His Very Own Creation. Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, trying to be a good person, and all of the other paths that man tries to take to reach God on his own merit can never cleanse a man of his sins and make him acceptable to our Heavenly Father. How arrogant is man to reject God's Way that cost Him so much and then demand that his own ways be considered just as righteous? Jesus said in John 14 :6 - "..... "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Although God's Plan of Salvation is offensive to those who are proudly trying to earn their standing with God and also to those who believe that they are already good enough without it, and we've been made to feel that this somehow makes God unfair; the Bible is very clear that there's just one Road and one Gate, Jesus, and that all other roads, then and now, lead to destruction.
Humanity is truly blessed that God gave His Son to die the death that our sins deserve. Who is man that the Awesome, Holy, Righteous, Almighty Creator of the Universe should care that much about us, and who are we to treat so flippantly the excruciatingly painful execution of our best friend the King? As Christians do we really believe that any other road leads to a relationship with God, or have we just become to intimidated, selfish, or pacified to stand up for and to speak the Truth? What hope does the lost world have if we as God's Ambassadors, God's Lights to the world, are self absorbed, image conscious, cowardly silent, or listlessly content to watch the rest of humanity walk down the path that leads to Hell; or even worse, if we give them false assurance of their salvation along the way? Can you see how God might be displeased with us? Months ago I heard on the radio that a ministry sent a shipment of Bibles to Afghanistan for the Afghan people, and then our army ordered it burned. The Word of God was burned by our "Christian Army" so that we would not offend those who want to keep their people ignorant of the Truth, and no one sees the problem here? As Ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven, honestly, how useful are we?
By God's Grace I am not writing this to condemn us, but to help us to see the distance that we've been lured away from the Righteous Heart of our God. We are all weak vessels and we are all going to make mistakes, and we will all need to seek the Lord continually to know how to speak the Truth in love to our generation. I don't know if you are as challenged by this Message as I am, but if you are please take it to the Lord in prayer. Clearly, we are all to love one another and to help one another to seek the Truth, and we must not sit in condemnation of one another because we all need to seek God's Love, Forgiveness, Guidance, and Perspective; that's the point. Everyone should ask the Lord to deeply examine their hearts and shine the Light of His Truth into every dark corner of their lives, leaving nothing untouched. Then everyone who's heart is open and soft to our Father will know, in all humility, that they should be the examples of love, forgiveness, and kindness to us all. What we have done under the delusion is done and if we open our eyes to the Truth, turn away from our sins, and turn to the Lord, He will lead us on. Men, the wife you have now is your wife so love her as unto the Lord. We are suppose to be God's Ambassadors to the whole world of His Kingdom, His Love, and His Righteousness, but if we do not immediately repent we will speak for Him no more.
Again, God writing to His Children of our generation: Revelation 3: 15-20 - "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so that you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so that you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."
It takes faith to read this Passage and to then ask God to tell you how it applies to you. God says, "you are blind", do you believe Him? How would you know if you are spiritually blind or not, if you are blind? You may think, "Oh this can't be true because it sounds to much like a movie I've seen.", and in thinking that you show yourself just how well you've been programed. This warning by God's Foreknowledge of our end times spiritual condition has been around a lot longer then the entertainment shows that now spiritually dull you, and the secret power of lawlessness, mentioned in 2Thessalonians 2, is much more powerful then you've been made to believe. It's no mistake that threads of spiritual truth have been artfully woven into multiple story plots to give you that been there, done that, this can't be real cause in the movie the hero did this, feeling. It's also no mistake that most all of these threads have then been twisted with spiritual lies to quietly whisper to you thoughts that make you want to doubt, dislike, and even rebel against God's Revealed Will. The question to our whole generation really is; where are we going to find the Truth, in the Bible or in the devil's well crafted pop culture collective group think? Truly, where you seek for Truth will soon effect how you will spend your eternity.
God says that though you see yourself as well off, He sees you as wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Do you believe that? Once again how would you know, if you are blind? "You say that you do not need a thing", is that true? When you get right down to it, do you give much thought in your day to day life to your need for God? If you still say grace before a meal are you truly thankful to God for the abundance that He's given you? In an average day how much thought do you give to pleasing God compared to how much you give to being informed and entertained? God says change or His Terrible Painful Discipline and Rebuke are coming, but what can you change if you are blind to what needs to be changed? 1John 2 : 15 - "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." God tells us to not love the things of this world, but if we took a moment of honest reflection most of us could write a long list of the modern worldly thoughts, attitudes, and things that we have learned to love that distract us or turn us from obeying God. Please, by faith, turn off your programing and take an hour of quiet reflection and ask God for the eye salve, listen for the Lord to knock, be earnest to know what you lack and then when you find it, repent and be broken before the Lord. Remember, our Lord holds us accountable not only for the things that we've done, but also for the things that we knew to do but have left undone.
God says that He's right here, right now, right at the door, and if you've seen His Healing Miracles then you know that this verse is true. God wants to restore a right relationship with everyone who will be earnest and repent and who will open up their hearts to Him. Ezekiel 18 : 31 - 32 -"'Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone,' declares the Sovereign Lord, 'Repent and live!'"
Pastors of the flock be warned. The sword of discipline is hanging over your church and it is about to strike with terrible fury, or you may be spared if you call your church as a community to humility, confession, obedience to God's Ways, repentance, and Truth. Ezekiel 34: 9 - 10 - says that God is against the Pastors and that soon when He comes He is going to call them into account for every lamb. I don't know of anything that should drive you to your knees quicker, earnestly seeking God's Face, then for God to threaten to bring a horrible discipline on your entire congregation knowing that He's going to hold you personally responsible for why it had to come. Ezekiel 34 : 15 - 16 - "I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice." This verse is very encouraging for the weak, injured, lost and stray, but it's disastrous to the strong and the sleek whose only hope for becoming a laborer in the end times harvest is to repent, humble themselves, and become weak before their God.
Although I am holding out hope that there will be at least a few church leaders who will seek the eye salve, discern the times, become weak before their God, and call their church to humility, repentance, confession, obedience to God's Ways, and Truth; I think that this verse in Isaiah indicates that most will not hear the call even after we have been struck by a portion of God's Fearful Rebuke. Isaiah 9 : 13 - 16 - "But the people have not returned to him who struck them, nor have they sought the Lord Almighty. So the Lord will cut off from Israel both head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day; the elders and prominent men are the head, the prophets who teach lies are the tail. Those who guide this people mislead them, and those who are guided are led astray." Clearly, after hundreds of years of the Body of Christ battling itself and others to try to precisely define what every verse in the Bible is meant to communicate, many church leaders across the board are now so locked into their understandings and defensive positions on the meanings of the Scriptures that few if any are even open to the idea that anyone could be designated by God to receive the True Last Days Revelation that is mentioned in Habakkuk 2 : 2 - 3 - "Then the Lord replied: 'Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.'". Further, I would think that this defensive posture against any new Revelation would be especially true since many church leaders, as mentioned in Revelation 3, most likely feel rich in the Eyes of the Lord.
Throughout time the leaders of God's People have had a bad track record when it comes to listening to the words of a prophet let alone embracing them and following the prophet's lead. Acts 7 : 51 - 52 - "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him - " Besides the resistance to any new Revelation, many leaders are fully expecting to be raptured and gone before the end times even begin, and in the battle for the Truth almost every church leader universally will say that no matter what side you take on any issue of doctrine, in order to limit the boundaries of the debate, "the Bible, as written, is complete".
Since God's Actual Plan is going to be different from what everyone is expecting, since it will be revealed first to God's Servant at the time of the end, it will likely be very difficult for the strong and sleek sheep to stop and listen to see if they can hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit's Voice above the shouts of their own understandings; even though God told us about His Servant, His Last Days Revelation, and God has also told us that He sometimes does things that are completely unexpected. Habakkuk 1 : 5 - "Look at the nations and watch - and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." Isaiah 43 : 19a - "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 44 : 24b - 26 - "...... 'I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers,'" (Note: Thoughts on a few verses that are commonly used to declare the Bible as complete: "The Perfection" in 1Corinthians 13 : 10 is the coming of Christ and the verse 12 poor reflection are the Scriptures. Honestly will you know Christ better by reading about Him or by speaking with Him face to face? 1Corinthians 13 : 8 says that prophecies will cease, but this has not happened yet since the two future witnesses described in Revelation 11 are said to prophesy. The Revelation 22 consequences of penning the last days Revelation does not mean that God does not have a Revelation to give, but that God's Servant who is used to pen it must do so by faith.)
The good news is that although the oppressor has his plans for our total destruction, and they are already in motion, they won't fully succeed. After we have turned back to the Father and He comes to our aid, it's harvest time. Matthew 24 : 14 - "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." God has a lot of people all around the world that He wants us to reach with His Love and His Truth, in a very short time, so we should purpose in our hearts to follow Him and keep spreading the Gospel to whatever end. Then when God decides that our personal missions have been accomplished we should, by faith, let Him choose the time, place, and method by which we, and everyone who we love, are called home to Heaven in order to receive His Glad Welcome into Glory. Revelation 7 : 9 - 10 - "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'"
I believe that the coming years will test our faith in, and our understandings of God's Love and His Goodness because many of the days to come will likely be extremely difficult for us as God accomplishes the purposes of His Grand Design. Jeremiah 30 : 24 - "The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart. In days to come you will understand this." Although we have an outline of what's to come, within that outline, the times will not be completely predictable and we will need to walk by faith through the setbacks, sufferings, surprises, persecutions, twists, turns, and often through the valley of the shadow of death. The destruction, devastation, and ruin of the face of the earth is described in the book Revelation and God will be taking many Christians home to Heaven throughout the end times process leaving fewer and fewer behind on earth to continue on in His Mission until they themselves either go home to Heaven or remain alive to be a part of the meek end times remnant who will see Christ return on a white horse as described in Revelation 19. Isaiah 16 : 4b - 5 - "..... The oppressor will come to an end, and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land. In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it- one from the house of David- one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness."
Also remember that we must always test the spirits. No matter how evil the world gets or how much pressure you're under, always remember that it's incomparably better to die as a follower of Christ then it is to take the mark of the beast or to in any way worship the evil ones. Anyone who takes the mark of the beast or worships the beast is declaring themselves to be the enemy of God. Revelation 12:11 - "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." The Soldiers of the Army of God will contest for the final lost souls of men before Christ comes to live among us as our King.
We are all asleep, but we can be like the wise virgins who wake up ready with repentant humble hearts of faith, or we could suddenly wake up to the reality that we fall way far short of where we thought we were. God gives grace to the humble. Ask Him to open your eyes with the salve that only He can provide. If God shows us His Near Presence, the first of the healing miracles should begin soon, and then the first of the end times battles should begin shortly after that. As the Body of Christ we have the chance to wake up and get this right where other generations have failed, and I pray that everyone who calls on the name of Jesus Christ as their Lord will be found as one united community that is good and pleasing to our Father. The antichrist will soon be coming after us all no matter what Christian Tradition we hold to. His name says it all, he is the anti-Christ.
I'm asking God to turn His Heart to you to heal you, and I'm asking you to turn your heart to God to be healed. 2Chronicles 7: 13 - 14 - "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." Will you please take some time of personal reflection and ask the Lord to open your eyes to the Truth. Then when your eyes are opened tell everyone you know, and e-mail this link to everyone you can and ask them to ask God if it's true, and He will open up their eyes as well. The Whole House of God, all around the world, needs to earnestly repent once they realize that we are being or are being disciplined by our God.
Personal Note: Please be patient with each other and kind to one another. In the short time since I first wrote this entry I've been convicted time and time again of just how far short I fall in being salt and light. Now that I'm trying to pay closer attention to everything I do and say, I'm humbled by the stupid worldly things that I've said and how many worldly encouragements that I've given and from time to time still give to people. In practice I tend to want to just get along with everyone, and I don't want to upset anyone or to hurt anyone's feelings.
In order to have more controlled thoughts I'm trying to limit how much and what I watch on TV, but just recently, after I wrote about the devil's programming, I told a guy in a conversation that he should watch a certain movie because it was, as I told him, "a classic." Instantly, I felt convicted. Truly, a life time of relating to others by the means of our entertainment programming will be hard to walk away from so please be patient with one another as we try to break free from the evil influences that are being used to try to destroy us.
(A thought on Christian hypocrisy: Although righteous perfection was attainable for Christ, so far, Jesus is the only One who has attained it. That means that all of Christ's Followers now and for all times past have been proven to be imperfect in our representation of our Perfect God, and by not being perfect when calling others to God's Perfect Standards we are all to some degree, hypocrites. Although all who follow Jesus are at some level hypocrites, those who do not follow Jesus are all hopelessly lost in slimy pits of filthy sin and they need to hear the Truth. When a Christian, who is trying to crawl out and live free from his slime pit of sin, calls out a warning of the spiritual deadliness of the evil slime to someone who is content to live in their own slime pit, the one who is content to wallow in slime often emotionally calls the Christian judgmental or a hypocrite in an attempt to push away the Truth of slime's danger, and to not feel so guilty about loving filthy slime. It is fair to call Christians who are all imperfect, imperfect, so as Christians if we are sincerely trying to follow Jesus in reverent fear, we must not let the accusation of being judgmental or the label of hypocrite keep us from lovingly sharing the Truth to anyone, especially to those who love their pits of slime. Only Jesus can cleanse away a man's sin, and we must never feel somehow proudly superior to those who are still covered in slime just because Jesus is in the process of cleansing us of ours. Then when we humbly share the Truth of God's Cleansing Plan of Salvation to those who are covered in slime, we are not being judgmental, but kind. Psalm 40 : 2 - "He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand."
If a Christian stumbles back into his slime pit of sin, it's important for him to again turn away from the evil and turn back to Jesus as quickly as possible to be cleansed and renewed to a right relationship with God. As Christians we should be very careful to not throw around the charge of another Christian being a hypocrite since it truly applies to us all. Matthew 7 : 3 - "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" Those who publicly charge another of "Christian hypocrisy" are almost always themselves lovers of filthy slime who are proud, steeped in their own sins, and who are using this charge against another for their own selfish purposes. While those who are walking closely with Jesus understand that we are all imperfect and they will show grace to one another and want to privately help restore a freshly fallen Brother or Sister back to a right standing with Christ so as to cover over a multitude of sins. The exception to this rule was Jesus who was, like the Father, perfect, so He could righteously call those who thought that they were perfect, imperfect. Since the very first step to becoming a Christian is to understand and acknowledge our own imperfection and our need for Jesus, there is really no need for us to charge one another with ongoing imperfection, it should already be understood. We all fall very short of perfection, but sadly, it's so predictable that those who want to find fault with our God will trumpet our imperfection as if it were God who was somehow imperfect. Even those who enjoy wallowing around in wicked filthy slimy sin will acknowledge that nobody's perfect, and that's exactly why we all need Jesus. The Sacrifice of Christ will make all who sincerely follow Jesus as their Lord sin free on the Day of Salvation, and thus perfect in the Father's Eyes. As the Family of God we are not meant to be divided by condemning one another's sins, but by the Spirit's Power, God wants us to forgive, restore, help, and encourage one another to be united as one in our love for one another and as one in our obedience to our Lord. John 17 : 20 - 21 - "'My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.'")
Lord please teach us all how to speak the Truth boldly in love and how to live our lives as unto You. Lord please help us to realize that it's more loving to lovingly tell someone the Truth then it is to leave them to the devil's lies no matter how much the Truth may hurt, enrage, or sadden them. Lord please help us to number our days and open our eyes to the harvest. Lord please help us to guard our hearts and to break free from the evil influences that have for so long influenced our lives. Lord please fill us with holy resolve, make us all salt and light to the lost world, and please help us to truly love and forgive one another. Lord please help us to truly be examples of what You said in John 13 : 35 - "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Amen.
