Something Even More Wicked…

Last Saturday I blogged on Something Wicked that was coming our way: transgenderism, antisemitism and abortion are just three of the major trends in our society that will call for God’s judgment on the USA and much of the West that follows our lead.

Briefly, YHWH judged Israel (aka Ephraim; the ten tribes initially led by Jeroboam) and Judah (Judah and Benjamin), the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, for their repeated national idolatry and violence within the land.  The bloodshed of innocents cried out to God more than Abel’s blood had when he was murdered by his brother, Cain.

How much more will the worship of sexuality, the hatred of the descendants of Jacob and the abortion of millions of living humans invoke the anger of a just God?  Unbelievers do not like to hear that God will judge sin… until they have been offended!  Then they want God to act immediately to condemn whoever has hurt them or their cause, without considering His great mercy and love for humankind, and that His ways may have different priorities than they espouse.

How much longer can the USA proceed on its downward spiral until The God Who Is says, “ENOUGH!”  (See Habakkuk 2.)  Has there been enough idolatry?  Though we do not make giant statues of gold to worship (?), people in our nation adore many things more than the LORD who said, “You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

There has been enough bloodshed in America to overshadow the days of the Kings of Israel and their slaughter of children sacrificed to Molech and Ashtoreth; abortion killed in the USA more than 1,026,000 babies in 2023, compared to less than 19,000 deaths by gun violence or accidents.  Yet those were the headlines that grabbed attention; the confused girls who were pressured by a parent or a boyfriend or status to abort their babies did not attract the spotlight, even though they numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

• Cheers erupted in the New York state legislature in 2019 as they approved a law allowing for abortion up to the time of birth, which brought to mind the drums and noise made when children were placed in Molech’s arms to burn, so that the screams of the babies could not be heard.    
• In 2015, religious freedom seemed compromised when a Washington high school football coach was fired for praying with his team after a game.  Joe Kennedy waited roughly six years for the Supreme Court to hear the oral arguments for his case.  This was a notable case in 2022, and recent events have caused the issue to resurface.
• Earlier this year, Laura, an 11-year-old student of Creekside Elementary in Washington state, requested to start an interfaith prayer club at her school.  Her request was denied even though an LGBT club was approved about the same time as Laura’s request causing one commenter to note, “Sadly, the promotion of LGBT identities is held sacred while religion is sidelined and marginalized.”
• Toronto Police Service sent its “Progress Pride Flag-wrapped scout car” to drive around the streets of the city while crime remains at levels not seen for years.
• Pelosi says Democrats will codify a “right” to abortion if they win in November.  Such a devout Catholic?
• The legislative body of the United Methodist Church, the second-largest Protestant Christian denomination in the US, voted to repeal a 40-year ban on the ordination of gay clergy on May 1, 2024.
• This coming June, homosexual “pride masses” are scheduled to take place in hundreds of Catholic churches in the USA and Canada as a reaction to celebrations in traditional churches of The Sacred Heart of Jesus.

On the governmental front, the current administration may be waging a secretive war on Christian faith – prayer, churches, Bible studies in senior living centers, and even Christian kids in school are all under attack.  Joe Biden is empowering anti-Christian forces in the FBI and DOJ to severely deplete our religious liberty.  Agencies have been caught placing spies in churches, making your bank report when you purchase a Bible, targeting “radical traditionalist” Christians and banning Bible studies at senior living centers – and this is just the beginning.  The ACLJ is in court to protect teachers who were banned on April 18, 2024 from praying “where students could see them.”

The Department of Justice’s investigation into the FBI’s disturbing 2023 memo suggesting that Catholicism is a breeding ground for violent domestic terrorists – especially within Traditional Latin Mass circles – found that the memo “failed to adhere to FBI standards” but showed “no evidence of malicious intent,” absolving the agency of wrongdoing.

Toronto city officials have appealed to the Trudeau government to legalize ALL quantities of crack, cocaine, heroin, meth, and other hard drugs, despite warnings that it will bring increased chaos and violence to the city, already seeing the highest crime rates ever.

Northwestern University this month cut a deal with encampment protesters to establish full-ride scholarships for “palestinian” students, even though there is no such national nor biological identity.  This is to appease the angry mobs who storm buildings and threaten the safety of Jewish students and faculty.

A Bush era “presidential emergency action document” reveals sweeping and broad powers the executive branch can wield in the face of a “crisis,” real or imagined.  Ponder how these powers can be abused when “Christians” are viewed as a threat to public peace for adhering to the teachings of the Bible.  Consider how “hate speech” laws can be twisted to include any quotations from the Bible that condemn actions being normalized in our upside-down society.

While globally, America is still relatively safe, this can change in a heartbeat… or the lack of one from an elected official😳!  We still have groups that provide legal protections and take action against persecution of Christians (as well as mistreatment of Jews, Muslims, Hindus and other religiously justifiable activities; think Falun Gong or Chinese artists such as Shun Yun).  However, we may be like the proverbial frog in a slowly warming kettle.

Christ-follower, be aware that you may be required to love your enemy in ways you have not imagined: expressing concern for a jailer from a cell while you await trial; helping in a soup kitchen when you are not allowed to work; praying for people who spit at you and deride you as being “outdated,” narrow-minded, bigoted and hateful.  Love them as Jesus loved His Roman crucifiers and the Sanhedrin rulers who mocked Him while He was on the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

The USA has passed a “point of no return.”  I mourn, not only for the loss to the world of the “city on a hill,” but for my children and grandchildren who will live in a nation those of us over 45 will not recognize.

No matter who “wins” in our coming election, the infections of socialism, anti-Americanism, and selfish philosophy permeate our society too deeply to be cured by any one elected official.  The swamp that Donald Trump arrogantly thought he could clean up in his first term drowned him out, as much because of his supercilious attitude and self-importance as illegalities perpetrated by those who despised him.

We Christ-followers in the USA must prepare for coming persecution such as the Hebrews have suffered for so long.

“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” Jesus, John 17:14-15

Training Camp for Heaven

Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and for most things, these involve training.  Our spiritual performance is no different.  We must train ourselves for Heaven the same way we would train for a marathon or athletic performance.  It is not that we will “perform” in Heaven as we would at an Olympic competition, but how we live here on earth is preparation for our eternal life.

The transformation when we leave this world, either by Jesus’ second coming or by our “graduation” when we die, will be profound.  We will be changed, but only based on what we are now; we will not be changed from animals to angels; from created to uncreated; from finite to infinite; from air-breathing to carbon-monoxide-breathing; from free-willed individuals to slaves in the new world.  We will still have free will!

The idea of Heaven not having temptations because of the devil’s absence is inadequate to explain the purity we will enjoy there.  The two other sources of temptation will still be with us, the world and the flesh.  In fact, if the new Heaven and earth is as magnificent as Randy Alcorn teaches in his book called Heaven, I suspect there will be more temptation there than in this decrepit universe with all its ugliness and filth.  Add that we will still have bodies, and though “glorified” like Jesus’ resurrection body, it will still be flesh and bone.  Might we need to do some “remedial training” when we reach our Home or will we be ready to judge angels?  The Scripture teaches that we must be as disciplined as any athlete or soldier.

So what will be so different that we will not yield to temptation?  Actually, if we remember, temptation is NOT sin, it is likely we will still “feel” temptation.  The difference will be our history here, that we have been “trained in righteousness.”

Like children learning to walk, our resistance to temptation now on this earth should be training us that NOT yielding to whatever physical whim our “ids” promote is better and more rewarding than sinning.  So in the new age, on a new earth, with Jesus present with us, the main reason we will not yield to temptation will be the maturity of “walking as He walked,” as “in His steps,” in service to one another and the pleasure of knowing we are without sin.

Visiting with C.M. Ward once, he spoke of the delight of traveling all around the USA.  While he missed his family, the one thing he enjoyed was the crisp clean sheets every night in his hotel rooms.  This was before environmental warriors convinced us we could save the planet by foregoing this travel luxury.

He noted that there was only a little fun in getting dirty, but that the higher joy came from a hot cleansing shower and crisp clean sheets in which to sleep.  In the same way, once we have matured enough to enjoy CLEAN, why would we ever go back to the mud-pit of sin⁉️  The Bible even describes habitual sin as a dog eating its own vomit‼️ YUCCCK‼️ Maturing in Christ means growing up to a stature that besetting sins no longer attract us.

Are you really satisfied from the emptiness of lust and porn?  Does gluttony really satisfy the hunger of your heart for good health and spiritual food?  Do you enjoy eruptive anger at others; does your bitterness feed your soul or deplete it?  Will lazing around in bed when there are things that need our attention make us feel more accomplished?  Do we really think pilfering that extra money will make us content?  Will electing “our” candidate make us less anxious, as though he/she will bring peace to the Middle East, protect out lifestyle, ensure a prosperous America and protect the vulnerable?

Socrates said, “It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”  How much worse to grow old and not discover the beauty and power of God’s Holy Spirit in one’s life!  Christ-followers, it is time for us to grow up and live like Jesus.  Ghandi declared once that he loved Jesus, but Christians were another matter.  First called Christians in Antioch, the term was intended to be derisive of “goody-two-shoes” people that acted like “little Christs.”

Anita reminded me of when we visited some friends in Bulgaria and they were teaching Gypsy children basic life lessons: how to read time on a clock, why seasons change, how to multiply and divide.  But as they arrived at the house where the lesson was to be held, the children saw their teachers coming and started calling to others, “Jesus is coming, Jesus is here!”  Maybe if we could be accused of trying so hard to be like Jesus, the world would notice that we were overcoming temptations and becoming “little Christs.”

1 Timothy 3:16

Ahh, I remember it exactly; cemented memories.

“I remember it exactly.”  Words of unforgiveness.  Words of bitterness.  Words of unresolved anger.

Memories are tricky.  When my brother, two years older than me, and I were reminiscing about our childhood, I ‘remember’ him asking, “Were we even raised in the same house!?”  That is, if my memory serves me well?😉  But oftentimes our memories do NOT serve us well.  We enhance some details; we skip major influences of the event; we miss details others will recollect; our perspective changes what we recall over the days or years.  One of the problems with retrospection is we do not really remember time; we only relive moments in time.

And so the flow of memories’ seconds get set in stone as they become concreted and hard, impossible to remember any other way.  How sad when those moments are of pain, problems and perturbations.

“I remember it exactly.  It was ten years ago to this day!  She was wearing that skimpy purple top and tight black pants that showed off every curve and carrying that obnoxious tiny red(?) handbag.  She had on those tacky heels and that stupid pony tail(?) in her hair.  There were only nine(?) other people in the lobby including two(?) children and she was eating a box of popcorn(?) and she said  ‘x.y.z.‘‼️and it was exactly those words.”(?)

Jesus at times had harsh words for those who opposed Him without reason, but He seemed more interested in forgiving people who were “wrong” in one way or another: Mary Magdalene, the woman at the well, the rich young ruler, the woman taken in the act of adultery, the blind, the lame and the beggars, His crucifiers.

When we hold onto grudges and paste them into our memory, we need to read 1 Corinthians 13:5 in the NASB or NIV: “[Love] does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.“  Whenever someone wishes to tell of an offense, it is important to ask the reporter some questions:

• Is this something I need to know? 
• Is this something that is ongoing?
• Is this something about which you have spoken to the offender? 
• Is your intention to get help or to dishonor the offender?
• Is this something you really want welded in your memory?

There are offenses which cannot be forgotten in this life: abuse, cruelty, wounds and scars left behind.  For those I highly recommend a text from Lysa TerKeurst, Forgiving What You Can’t Forget.  However, even for those we cannot seem to forget, we need to be bring them to the Cross and to a Christ-honoring counselor to find healing and forgiveness for both the offender and ourselves for our difficulty in forgiving.  Those hurtful experiences are not for public consumption to be shared on Facebook or TikTok.  Remember Jesus stern words, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15)

A counselor I once knew advised his clients to write down every offense of the person who had wronged them in order to experience catharsis of the pain and anger.  However, it seems all this would do is firmly cement the misdeeds like stones in a sidewalk.  Another counselor advised the same, but added, “Then burn the page and forgive.”  This seemed more in line with what Jesus taught.  The counselor said, “Forgiveness is an act of your will whereby you cancel the debt another person owes you, and if thereafter you remember that debt in anger, it is your sin of fraud to confess.”

Forgiveness is at the same time the hardest and easiest thing for us to do; hardest because it requires we die to ourselves and to the memory, the moment, we were offended; easiest because, as Lewis Smeades wrote, “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions…

As Christ-followers, we are faced with decisions every day for which we are supposed to seek wisdom from The God Who Is.  This includes everything from who we are to marry, where we are to live, what we are to eat, and how to respond to that crazy driver who tailgates you until he has opportunity to pass and then zooms in as though to force you off the road.  Obviously, some decisions are greater than others and will have more impact on our lives.

When I stand before my God one day (probably sooner than most of my readers😏), do I want to have to confess to Him that I voted for a misogynistic playground bully who was blatantly selfish, viciously vindictive, thrived on personal insults and denigration of anyone who disagreed with him, and felt that he should have immunity from laws that apply to the rest of us?

Or do I want to confess that I voted for a lying Catholic who supported abortion up to the time of birth, was untruthful about whether God created man and woman as distinct genders, who lied about “freedom” while enabling the Department Of Justice to label Christians as “extremists” for quoting the Bible, and cared so little about law that he promoted illegal immigration of millions?

Decisions, decisions, decisions…

Perhaps, as a wiser friend once commented, the USA may have come to this point as the beginning of a compassionate and just God’s judgment on our nation.  A liberal friend of mine remarked that it is sad that we have this choice between these two old white guys.  He asked with a wistful voice, “Is this the best we can do?”

As a Christ-follower, not a “christian-nationalist,” I need to go back and read my Master’s three-chapter Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6 and 7.  I need to pray in the Holy Spirit as well as with my understanding (per 1 Corinthian 14:15) and ask Father, “What am I not applying in this sermon that I should be doing?”  I remember this world is not my Home; I am an alien living here.😎

You may be thinking, “If we can just get XYZ elected, everything will be all right!”  WRONG.

We will not get what God wants for us from any politician or elected official.  They will not teach us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.  They may even become the ones doing the persecution!  They will not instruct by word or example how to overcome unjust anger, control our lusts nor keep our promises.  As our political climate flourishes on fear, it is unlikely any of them will coach us how to avoid anxiety or to be content.  What politician (other than maybe Jimmy Carter?) even tried to live by the Golden Rule: “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.”? (Matthew 7:12)

Does The God Who Is really appoint world leaders such as the USA’s or Russia’s President or China’s Chairman or the UN’s Secretary General?  Who allowed Sinwar to rule Hamas and let a terrorist group take over the people living in Israel’s historic land?  Who will orchestrate the last global conflict that will be part of the scenario to welcome back the King of kings and Lord of lords?

So my decision is to be doing whatever Jesus wants me to be working on when He returns; loving my neighbor, praying for my persecutors (more coming on that in April), learning to lean on Him for His Holy Spirit’s wisdom, listening to His still, small voice instead of the clamor of popular music and movies.  I need to be learning to apply the lessons Jesus taught, asking for His mercy for how far short I so often fall, and trust that He will work out His plan for our lives and the world, even if it looks like Job’s trials.  God is good all the time and all the time, God is good.

For Your Eyes Only… A Covenant for Men

Idolatry is the worship of anything that is NOT the true and living God, the Creator, The God Who Is, whose “Name” is YHWH or Yahweh.  Sunday last our Living Word class looked at 1 Samuel 12-13, particularly, 12:21.  Samuel said to the people, “Indeed, you must not turn aside, for then you would go after useless things [idols] which cannot benefit or save, because they are useless.”

The guide for our class noted that in the West we do not worship physical idols like Chemosh, Asherah, Baal nor any statues of wood, silver or gold (?), but asked the class to identify modern Western “idols.”  Some were quick to note fame, wealth, and power as “gods” to which we devote ourselves.  With about 50% men in the class, I wondered if anyone, myself included, would venture to identify one of American men’s most common idols, pornography.  My suspicion is that it was not mentioned for fear that whoever brought it up would be suspected of being a porn users!

Pornography is a scourge on American men and how one deals with it as an ongoing addiction affects how a man views women, interacts with others and warrants attention if one is to be free from it.  There are various programs and online assistants (see list at the end of this blog) to help men become unfettered from porn’s chains.  Almost all of these projects address some level of accountability; finding a friend to share the struggle.  Some of us may be able to overcome sexual or pornography addiction without this, but most will find themselves repeating a cycle of lust, satisfaction, guilt, recommitment, lust… endlessly without someone to share the load.

Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, came under heavy political fire for admitting that he and his son were “accountability partners” using Covenant Eyes, a costly monitoring program that is designed to reveal to your partner any time you access “questionable content” on whatever devices you have logged with the system.  Whether you agree with Speaker Johnson’s politics or not, this was an admirable step to protect his then 17-year-old son from becoming addicted to porn.

Pornography is SOOO easy to get with the advent of computers and smartphones!  David Wilkerson, in his 1974 book, The Vision, prophesied accurately that R-rated movies would soon be available on television and that our nation would experience a flood of filth such as it had never seen, even in the Roaring 1920s.  Much of his vision has already come to pass, but there is more to it that is still in the future.  (Keep in mind, any time a “prophet” speaks, we who follow Jesus are to “weigh what is said,” (1 Corinthians 14:29) and anything Father says through a prophet will line up with what He has revealed in the Bible. (See Jeremiah 29.))

The rampant hyper-sexuality of our society mirrors the Roman culture to which Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7 with advice to married people.  The prevalence of temptation is why he commanded that married couples should satisfy each other’s sexual desires to help in overcoming temptation, but that by concession he affirms that he would rather the unmarried remain single if they are able to exercise this gift.  Many of us are not so gifted as was Paul.

For those of us men who have strong sexual desires, we must confront our sexual appetite with self-control, especially in the area of pornography.  Do not use excuses such as “Well, it’s not like I’m actually committing adultery.” (Matthew 5:28)  “No one is being hurt by my looking.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5; 2 Timothy 2:22)  “No one has to know.” (Numbers 32:23; Matthew 6:6)  “I can quit anytime.” (Proverbs 26:24-28)  These are probably the most common lies the devil will speak into a man to keep him bound in the sin of pornography, but there are others.  “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8)

Jesus is coming again soon, my brothers, and we must be ready!  Do whatever it takes to get free from “stronghold” sin.  “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.  We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.  Look at what is before your eyes.“ (2 Corinthian 10:4-7)

Very few of us could make the claims Job made, but it is worth considering that if God has forgiven us our sins, we need to live closer to what Job declared, and make a “covenant with our eyes.”   If there is no one in your circle whom you can trust to covenant with you and you need someone, reach out to me via my Contact on my Home Page.

JOB 31
“I have made a covenant with my eyes;
How then could I look at a virgin?
   And what is the portion of God from above,
Or the inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
   Is it not disaster to the criminal,
And misfortune to those who practice injustice?
   Does He not see my ways,
And count all my steps?

“If I have walked with deception,
And my foot has hurried after deceit,
   Let Him weigh me with accurate scales,
And let God know my integrity.
   If my step has turned from the way,
Or my heart followed my eyes,
Or if any spot has stuck to my hands,
   Let me sow and another eat,
And let my crops be uprooted.

“If my heart has been enticed by a woman,
Or I have lurked at my neighbor’s doorway,
   May my wife grind grain for another,
And let others kneel down over her.
   For that would be a lustful crime;
Moreover, it would be wrongdoing punishable by judges.
   For it would be fire that consumes to Abaddon,
And would uproot all my increase.

“If I have rejected the claim of my male or female slaves
When they filed a complaint against me,
   What then could I do when God arises?
And when He calls me to account, how am I to answer Him?
   Did He who made me in the womb not make him,
And the same one create us in the womb?

“If I have kept the poor from their desire,
Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
   Or have eaten my morsel alone,
And the orphan has not shared it
   (But from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,
And from my infancy I guided her),
   If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,
Or that the needy had no covering,
   If his waist has not thanked me,
And if he has not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep,
   If I have lifted up my hand against the orphan,
Because I saw I had support in the gate,
   May my shoulder fall from its socket,
And my arm be broken off at the elbow.
   For disaster from God is a terror to me,
And because of His majesty I can do nothing.

“If I have put my confidence in gold,
And called fine gold my trust,
   If I have gloated because my wealth was great,
And because my hand had obtained so much;
   If I have looked at the sun when it shone,
Or the moon going in splendor,
   And my heart was secretly enticed [to worship them],
And my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,
   That too would have been a guilty deed calling for judgment,
For I would have denied God above.

“Have I rejoiced at the misfortune of my enemy,
Or become excited when evil found him?
   No, I have not allowed my mouth to sin
By asking for his life in a curse.
   Have the people of my tent not said,
‘Who can find one who has not been satisfied with his meat’?
    The stranger has not spent the night outside,
For I have opened my doors to the traveler.
   Have I covered my wrongdoings like a man,
By hiding my guilt in my shirt pocket,
   Because I feared the great multitude
And the contempt of families terrified me,
And I kept silent and did not go out of doors?
   Oh that I had one to hear me!
Here is my signature;
Let the Almighty answer me!
And the indictment which my adversary has written,
   I would certainly carry it on my shoulder,
I would tie it to myself like a garland.
   I would declare to Him the number of my steps;
Like a prince, I would approach Him.

“If my land cries out against me,
And its furrows weep together;
   If I have eaten its fruit without money,
Or have caused its owners to lose their lives,
   May the thorn-bush grow instead of wheat,
And stinkweed instead of barley.”

The words of Job are ended.

Online helps for establishing accountability and overcoming pornography addiction:
Covenant Eyes
https://www.wikihow.com/Deal-With-Porn-Addiction
https://puredesires.org
https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/life-and-relationships/hardships/set-free-pornography-addiction.html
https://www.audible.com/podcast/Episode-108-Starting-The-Journey-to-Freedom-from-Porn-Addiction/B0CRFZVZPF
https://seekingintegrity.com/https://sexandrelationshiphealing.com
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fixing-families/202102/addicted-porn-how-get-back-in-control

Changing Your Thought Patterns

The Dechurching of America in 2024

I am not a prophet, but there are trends that anyone can see that can help us prognosticate.

“We are experiencing the largest religious shift in US history – greater than the Great Awakenings, but in the opposite direction.” The Great Dechurching by Jim Davis, Michael Graham, and Ryan Burge

First Alliance Church in Lexington, Kentucky is at a cusp of decision as the attendance is topping 1000 almost every Sunday.  Do we try to figure out how to stay in our location, add to the current three meeting times, expand with property across the street, move to a new location and new building?  Hmm, some say these are “good problems” to have.

However, this seems to be unique, even in Lexington.  Many legacy churches in town struggle with budgets, personnel and schedules.  Nationally, attendance at evangelical churches is down as some 40 million (40,000,000) former church-going adults no longer put in an appearance.  The pandemic that taught us we could “attend” online seems to have taken a toll on “in-person” attendance.  Yet, the overall continuing trend in America is toward less church attendance, even “online.” 

The “dechurched” grew gradually over the last few decades, but since the pandemic this shift has become a startling jolt!  If the trend continues to expand, as such trends tend to do, the number of “dechurched” may soon surpass the “unchurched” – those who never attended.

A greater concern addressed in The Great Dechurching is that too many alleged Christ-followers have come to depend on the “wow” appeal of churches to win people to Jesus.  The authors raise the question if we have forgotten what it means to be salt, light and yeast in the world? (Matthew 5:13-14; Matthew 13:33)  Have we succumbed to the succubus of contemporary rock worship performances or flashy sermons complete with videos or textured art presentations to the loss of personally feeling responsible for our next door neighbor’s salvation?

The result of “dechurching” means that for the first time in eighty years, more adults in the USA do not attend church than those that do.  This accelerating of the “dechurching” from the 1990s to now may have many factors, but probably the most influential sociological impact came from the rise of the internet.  While only 20% of American homes had internet service in the late 1990s, connectivity via the web has grown exponentially.  Since 2021 over 90% of homes have access.

Of course, this alone does not explain the “dechurching,” but is a major contributing factor.  Increasing secularization, promoted by the web, grows in the USA as our religious foundations continue to erode.  One of the most significant reverberations of 40,000,000 adding to the more than 100 million (100,000,000) who already do not attend means that less than half of the US population will be attending church services in 2024!

The predictions in the Bible (Zechariah 12:2-3, 14:2) that no nation will stand with Israel at the end of time means that even the USA will abandon our ally.  Christ-followers will continue to support the tiny nation, but “dechurching” will remove the influence of orthodox doctrine that churches teach, and leave the less than half of Americans who still attend church on the outside of the political trends that will eventually lead to our demise as a world leading nation and supporter of democracies such as Israel.

More so, the declining belief in the special status of the Hebrews being God’ chosen people will result in those of us who do believe being ostracized as hateful religious radicals, dangerous to society and a menace to the “acceptable” political order. While there is currently some push back against anti-Semitism, watch for the resistance to decrease and the hatred of Jews, globally, to increase.

Are we as Christ-followers really ready to embrace Paul’s view, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”?  How enamored are we of our McMansions, our worldly comforts and secular “values?”  How can we influence new adherents to commit themselves unreservedly to Jesus and His power to redeem?  How can we “shine as lights” in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation as the Philippian Christians did?

Maybe the “dechurching” of America is a good thing in one way.  As a black background is used by a jeweler to expose the brightness of a diamond, so the changing of America will make those of us who follow Jesus in every aspect of our lives look even more different than we have in the past few decades.  We may have to lose some of the trappings of contemporary society, but it is a society that is going to hell in a handbasket.  Do we really need better “production values” for our worship?  Should the cult of personality dictate who we select for pastors?  Maybe scale back on the investment in hi-tech sound boards and multiple LED screens and spend a little more in training and supporting evangelism and time in prayer?

What is there for us in a culture that worships Barbie, idolizes hypersexed icons, believes that we have to “learn to love ourselves,” and that humans can do anything we set our minds to do?  Is there anything there that we would really want to take to Heaven with us? Is there anyone you would like to see go to Heaven with you? Have you told them of your desire?

All I want in Heaven is to see Jesus and live with Him for eternity with others who will have loved His appearing (2 Timothy 4:7-8). Happy New Year. Maybe next year in Jerusalem⁉️

It’s Christmas

“Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)

There are at least 109 prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament of the Bible and Jesus fulfilled every one of them! A statistician estimated the probability of one person fulfilling just 20 of the prophecies. He came up with the odds of one in one-quadrillion, one hundred and twenty-five trillion (1/1,125,000,000,000,000)! (source: Tribulation Force by Tim Lahaye/Jerry Jenkins)

For comparison, consider that the odds for winning a major lottery is roughly one in 300 million (1/300,000,000). This is to say that as unlikely as it would be to win a lottery… unless you could control the power balls… it is even less likely that One Man could fulfill 109+ prophesies… unless He was the controlling Power that made them.

Consider that with eight billion plus people (8,000,000,000) in the world, one can put a postcard in the mail to you with only a few specifics on it and you will be the only person to receive it. You eliminate much of the world by specifying the country (there are only 193 on earth). When you specify a street in a unique province or state the potential recipients is reduced to a tiny fraction of the population of that country. Further determination is made by the house or apartment number, and then with your first and last name, you will have been singled out of eight billion people! This is what the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah do! They progressively eliminate any contenders who might have claimed divine assignment so that only one person could ever have fulfilled them.

Whatever our feelings about the date of the birth or the identity of the magi or the details about the star or the manger (wood or stone?), the fact that Jesus fulfilled so many prophesies given hundreds of years before He was born by as assortment of people over several thousand years, anyone with an open mind must conclude that Jesus IS the Messiah promised to Adam and Eve when they were being expelled from the Garden of Eden. “Of your [Satan’s] offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15 NASB) One simply has to look at the prophecies, a herculean task if you have never opened a Bible, but one many of us have accomplished by reading the Scriptures annually. (Just four chapters a day will take you from Genesis to Revelation in less than a year.)

So take some time these next two days, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, to listen to some music that celebrates the birth of Jesus (rather than holly jolly holidays and Santa). Watch some TV specials (TBN and Redeem TV are free!) that tell the truth about how Jesus came into the world or what His effect is on those who put their trust in Him. Gather with family and avoid the politics or social animosity and focus on Him! Forgive those who offend you. Give grace to drivers and shoppers whose only thought is for themselves and pray for them. Find someone in need of a friend and be that. Prepare the Way of the Lord.

Take a break for five minutes, eleven seconds and be blessed by the Star Sisters’ “A Christmas Hallelujah” (above).

Merry Christmas to everyone reading this, and many of you are in my daily prayers.
yours and His,
c.a. post
____________________________________
“If you are to love the “unlovables”, you must begin to grasp how unlovable you were when Christ chose to put His love on you, and how unlovable you remain today even as you are secure in His love.”  Jamie Dunlop, Love the Ones Who Drive You Crazy

The Fear of Isaac – Part 1

Genesis 31:42, 53  ^“If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed… ‘May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.’ So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac.”

Translations of complex texts are never perfect as every language has its strengths and weaknesses, and cultural and historical features often “color” meanings of words.  Thus, the best translations of the Bible (the NASB, ESV and KJV) all miss certain details of the original manuscripts and should be studied by comparing various translations to search out our best understanding of any particular passage.

One of the terms that often bothered me as a young person was “the fear of God” (or “the fear of the LORD”).  The fear of God was a big theme of sermons when I was growing up.  On the one hand, the term appears in most of the books of the Old Testament and in several of the New Testament biographies and letters.  When it is not specifically mentioned, this theme is still evident in several of these other books. (For a quick study on the Bible’s use of these terms, look them up in Biblegateway.com!😉) 

The first sermon I heard devoted strictly to the love of God was in college.  Since then the evangelical culture in America has shifted, so that one can hardly find teaching any more on God’s judgment, anger or the fear of God.  Everything is oriented to how much God loves us and His care and gentleness toward us poor sinners.  “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life!”

But if we are to understand the nature of The God Who Is, at least as fully as our tiny minds can, we must take in the full guidance of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, and it is clear that God expects to be feared!  More than just His expectation is the reality that He IS to be feared!  “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)

Someone will quote 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.”  Yet, this same John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” who penned these words, was so overcome with fear and dread when He saw Jesus in Revelation 1:17 that His friend and Lord had to revive him and say, “Do not be afraid.”

From the 1972 song by Tom Hall, Me and Jesus Got Our Own Thing Going, one would think we could be BFFs and just muddle along without any advice from anyone else.  Long before this, in 1855 Joseph Scriven composed a beautiful hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus.  I do not want anyone to leave this blog thinking we should only and always be afraid of God and not be lovingly devoted to Him who loves us recklessly.  But neither do I want anyone to leave this blog thinking we can skate along without a care in the world as though, since Jesus is our BFF we can pretty much do whatever we want, and He will forgive us if we keep messing up!

The closer one gets to the spectacular holiness and righteousness of The God Who Is, the more unworthy and fearful we become.  When we pray we enter into the Presence of the Mind who designed the quarks in our DNA and simultaneously spangled the universe with galaxies too far away for us to see.  Remember, when the angels in Isaiah and Revelation are bowing before Him they are not calling out, “Love, love, love!” 

So the apostle Paul instructs us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”  This is not simply “awe” as we would feel when we look over the Grand Canyon.  It is so much more than respect which we may experience in the presence of a monarch or world leader.  This is “fall dead at His feet” fear!

It is important that we not mince words and pretend God is not to be feared, when the Bible so clearly describes the benefits of fearing Him (just to name a few): 

• God has come… in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you will not sin. (Exodus 20:20)
• You shall fear the LORD your God; and He will save you from the hand of all your enemies. (2 Kings 17:39)
• The eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,… to rescue their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. (Psalm 33:18-19)
• The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who follow His commandments have a good understanding. (Psalm 111:10)
• The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. (Proverbs 1:7)
• The reward of humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, honor, and life. (Proverbs 22:4)
• Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways.
  ² When you eat the fruit of the labor of your hands, you will be happy and it will go well for you.
  ³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive plants around your table.
  ⁴ Behold, for so shall a man who fears the LORD be blessed. (Psalm 128)
• Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade people.  (2 Corinthians 5:11)

And finally, the words of Jesus, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) 

Next week, I’ll be back to explore why Jacob called God, The Fear of Isaac.

The Mid-Tribulation Letter from One Who Missed the Rapture – from “The Mark” by Tim LaHaye/Jerry Jenkins

To: The beloved tribulation saints scattered to the four corners of the earth, believers in the one true Yahweh God and His matchless Son, Jesus the Christ, our Savior and Lord.
From: Your servant, Tsion Ben-Judah, blessed by the Lord with the unspeakable privilege of teaching you, under the authority of His Holy Spirit, from the Bible, the very Word of God.
Re: The Dawn of the Great Tribulation

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
As is so often true when I sit to write to you, I come in both joy and sorrow, with delight but also with soberness of spirit…  And I always thank God for the miracle of technology that allows me to write to you all over the world.
Though I have met few of you personally and look forward to that one day, either in the Millennial Kingdom or in Heaven, I feel deeply that family bonds have been created by our regularly sharing the deep riches of Scriptures through this medium.  Thank you for your continued prayers that I will remain faithful and true to my calling and healthy enough to continue for as long as Father gives me breath.
I ask that all of you who have volunteered to translate these words into languages not supported by the built-in conversion programs begin that immediately…
Glory to God for news that we have long since passed the one-billion mark in readership.  We know that there are many more brothers and sisters in the faith who are without computers or the ability to read these words…  Hundreds of thousands join us every day, and we pray you will tell more and more about our family.
We have been through so much together, I say this without boasting but with glory to God Almighty: As I have endeavored to rightly divide the Word of Truth to you, God has proven Himself the author over and over.  For centuries scholars have puzzled over the mysterious prophetic passages in the Bible, and at one time I was one of those puzzled ones.  The language seemed obscure, the message deep and elusive, the meaning apparently figurative and symbolic.  Yet when I began an incisive and thorough examination of these passages with an open mind and heart, it was as if God revealed something to me that freed my intellect.
I have discovered, strictly from an academic approach that nearly 30% of the Bible (Old and New Testaments together) consists of prophetic passages.  I could not understand why God would include these if He intended them to be other than understandable to His children.

While the messianic prophecies were fairly straightforward and, indeed, led me to believe in Jesus as their unique fulfillment, I prayed earnestly that God would reveal to me the key to the rest of the predictive passages.  This He did in a most understated way.  He simply impressed on me to take the words as literally as I took any others from the Bible, unless the context and the wording itself indicated otherwise.
In other words I had always taken at its word a passage such as, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” or “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  Why then, could I not take just as straightforwardly a verse which said that John the Revelator saw a pale horse?
Yes, I understand that the horse stood for something.  And yet, the Bible said that John saw it.  I took that literally, along with other prophetic statements (unless they used phrases such as “like unto” or others that made it clear they were symbolic).
My dear friends, the Scriptures opened up to me in a way I never dreamed possible.  That is how I knew the great Seal Judgments (Revelation 6) and the Trumpet Judgments (Revelation 8–9) were coming, how I was able to interpret what form they might take, and even in what sequence they would occur.
That is how I know that the Bowl Judgments (Revelation 16) are yet to come, and that they will be exponentially worse than all those that came before.  That is how I knew that these plagues and trials were more than just judgments on an unholy and unbelieving world.  That is how I knew that this whole period of history is also one more evidence of the long-suffering, loving-kindness and mercy of God.
Believers, we have turned a corner.

Skeptics – and I know many of you drop in here now and then to see what we zealots are up to – we have passed the point of gentility.  Up to now, while I have been forthright about the Scriptures, I have been somewhat circumspect about the current rulers of this world.
No more.  As every prophecy in the Bible has so far come to pass, as the leader of this world has preached peace while wielding a sword, as he died by the sword and was resurrected as the Scriptures foretold, and as his right-hand man has been imbued with similar evil power, there can be no more doubt.
Nicolae Carpathia, the so-called Excellency and Supreme Potentate of the Global Community, is both anti-Christian and Antichrist himself.  And the Bible says the resurrected Antichrist is literally indwelt by Satan.  Leon Fortunato, who had an image of Antichrist erected and now forces one and all to worship it or face their own peril, is Antichrist’s false prophet.  As the Bible predicted, he has power to give utterance to the image and to call down fire from heaven to destroy those who refuse.

What is next?  Consider the clear prophetic passage in Revelation 13:11-18:
“Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down on the earth in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of man: his number is 666.”

It won’t be long before everyone will be forced to bow the knee to Carpathia or his image, to bear his name or number on their forehead or right hand, or face the consequences.
Those consequences?  Those of us without what the Bible calls the mark of the beast will not be allowed to legally buy or sell.  If we publicly refuse to accept the mark of the beast, we will be beheaded.  While it is the greatest desire of my life to live to see the Glorious Appearing of my Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, at the end of the Great Tribulation (a few days short of three and a half year from now), what greater cause could there ever be for which to give one’s life?
Many millions of us will be required to do just that.  While it conjures in us age-old self-preservation instincts and we worry that at that hour we will be found lacking courage, loyalty and faithfulness, let me reassure you.  The God who calls you to the ultimate sacrifice will also give you the power to endure it.  No one can receive the mark of the beast by accident.  It is a once-for-all decision that will forever condemn you to eternity without God.
While many will be called to live in secret, to support one another through private markets, some will find themselves caught, singled out, dragged into a public beheading, to which the only antidote is a rejection of Christ and a taking of the mark of the beast.
If you are already a believer, you will not be able to turn your back on Christ.  If you are undecided and don’t want to follow the crowd, what will you do when faced with the mark or the loss of your head?  I plead with you to believe, to receive Christ, to envelop yourself with protection from on high.
We are entering into the bloodiest season in the history of the world.  Those who take the mark of the beast will suffer affliction at the hand of God.  Those who refuse it will be martyred for His blessed cause.  Never has the choice been so stark, so plain.

God, Himself, gave a name to this three-and-a-half-year period.  Matthew 24:21-22 records Jesus saying, “For then there will be Great Tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved, but for the elect’s sake [that’s you and me, believer] those days will be shortened.”
In all God’s dealings with mankind, this is the shortest period on record, and yet more Scripture is devoted to it than any other period except the life of Christ.  While the Hebrew prophets referred to this as a time of “vengeance of our God” for the slaughter of the prophets and saints over the centuries, it is also a time of mercy.  God goes to extreme measures to compress the decision-making time for men and women before the coming of Christ to set up His earthly Kingdom.
Despite that this is clearly the most awful time in history, I still say it also a merciful act of God to give as many souls possible an opportunity to put their faith in Christ.  Oh, people, we are the army of God with a massive job to do in a short time.  May we do it with willingness and eagerness, and the courage that comes only from Him.  There are countless souls in need of saving, and we have the truth.
It may be hard to recognize God’s mercy when His wrath is also intensifying.  Woe to those who believe the lie that God is only “love.”  Yes, He is love, and His gift of Jesus as the Sacrifice for our sin is the greatest evidence of this.  But the Bible also says God is “holy, holy,…holy”  He is righteous and a God of justice, and it is not in His nature to allow sin to go unpunished or unpaid for.
We are engaged in a great worldwide battle with Satan himself, for the souls of men and women.  Do not think that I lightly advance to the front lines with this truth, nor understanding the power of the evil one.   But I have placed my faith and trust in the God who sits high above the heavens, in the God who is above all gods, and among whom there is none like Him.

Scripture is clear that you can test both prophet and prophecy.  I make no claim of being a prophet, but I believe the prophecies.  If they are not true and don’t come to pass, then I am a liar and the Bible is bogus, and we are without hope.  But if the Bible is true, next on the agenda is the ceremonial desecration of the temple in Jerusalem by Antichrist.  This a prediction made by Daniel, Jesus, Paul and John.
My brothers and sisters of Jewish blood, which I proudly share, will cringe to know that this desecration will include the sacrificing of a pig on the sacred altar.  It also includes blasphemy against God, profanity, derogatory statements about God and Messiah, and a denial of His resurrection.
If you are Jewish and have not yet been persuaded that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and you have been deceived by the lies of the Antichrist, perhaps your mind will change when he breaks his covenant with Israel and withdraws his guarantee of Israel’s safety.  But he shows no favoritism.  Besides reviling the Jews, he will slaughter believers in Jesus.  If this does not happen, label me a heretic or mad and look elsewhere than the Holy Bible for hope.

Thank you for your patience and for the blessed privilege of communicating with you again.  Let me leave you on a note of hope.  My next message will concern the difference between the Book of Life and the Lamb’s Book of Life, and what those mean to you and me.
Until then, may you rest assured that if you are a believer and have placed your hope and trust in the work of Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins and for life everlasting, your name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  And it can never be erased.
Until we meet again, I bless you in the Name of Jesus.  May He bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you, and give you peace.

Your servant, Tsion Ben-Judah

One Heartbeat Away – The Good News

Flatlining…

The Good News?  We’re all gonna die and there’s nothing we can do about it.  But there is more to this story!  After we die, what will happen? (Note: all unattributed quotes are from Mark Cahill.)

Yes, the Good News is that we will not live in this world with all its divisions, wars, hurricanes, landslides and wildfires forever.  There will come an end to gluttony, lust, greed, wrath, sloth, envy and pride, the seven deadly sins.  The despair and apathy of lives around us will either lead them to accept the free gift The God Who Is offers, to live eternally in love, light and holiness in a new world with Him, or carry them to a final separation from Him.

Chapter 7 in Mark’s book, One Heartbeat Away, introduces us to this Good News that we do not have to suffer endlessly in this life until we get out by dissolving our personalities into “the infinite.”  Nor do we have to work tirelessly to make sure we have enough good “stuff” on our résumé to outweigh the bad “stuff” that would result in condemnation.

No, as last week’s blog about the Bad News concluded, ““For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law who will be justified.” (Romans 2:12-13)  NONE of us will be good enough when we face God in the first five minutes after we die. But there is Good News! There is One who provided a way, and even said of Himself, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

“We cannot, and will never be able to change God’s perfect standard. Jesus is called the perfect sacrifice who paid the penalty for all sin once and for all... Buddha said at the end of his life, ‘I don’t even know if there is a God. I am still searching for truth.’… The Koran… quotes Mohammad as saying, ‘I am in need of forgiveness.’”  But Jesus claimed He was the Truth. He said He could forgive our sins. He claimed to be the gate to Heaven, the door to eternal life.

C.S. Lewis points out:

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Mere Christianity

Remember, the search for truth is always narrow. The sum of 2+2 is 4 and nothing else; there is only one person who is the president of a university and eight billion others who are not; a man or woman is determined by the XX or XY chromosomes of their genetic make-up and nothing else. “What is true is what reality says it is.”

Cahill presents an interesting illustration in a conversation of how we can get into Heaven and not be separated from the Source of every good thing at the end of our lives:

“‘If someone left the security tag on your jeans and you walked out of a department store, what would happen?’ He replied that the alarm would go off. I said, ‘Here is a word picture for you. Imagine that the gates of Heaven have sensors and as you walk through, only one thing will set them off. What would that be?’ His answer was, ‘My sin.’ I said, ‘Exactly. But if all your sins have been forgiven and washed away, can you enter those gates once you walk off planet earth forever?’ His eyes suddenly lit up and he said, ‘Yes!’”

Acts 4:11-12 says, “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” To Timothy, the apostle Paul wrote, “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all.” (1 Timothy 2:5-6)

John wrote in his biography of Jesus (which takes a little over an hour to read):

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

John 3:16-21

When Jesus was crucified, two thieves were executed beside Him. One criticized Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” The other admitted his guilt and asked Jesus just to remember him when Jesus would enter His Kingdom. Jesus told him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (See Luke 23:39-43) The point of this passage, Cahill says, is to show that we do not get into Heaven (paradise) by being good, but rather by putting our faith in Jesus, believing that He is the Son of God as He claimed to be.

In the chapter, ‘The Next Step,’ Cahill explains how we express our faith (trust) in Jesus for our eternal destiny.  It is at once the simplest and the hardest thing for us to do.  “We repent, we turn away from our sins and towards God, rethinking or reconsidering what we’ve been thinking and doing in the light of what He wants us to think and do.”

However, “Being sorry you got caught at something is not repentance… [It is] a change of heart and mind.  A change in what you want to do… When you repent there is a visible change in your life.”  But the change is not entirely up to us, as though now that we have expressed trust in Jesus, we have to be good in our own strength.  When we express genuine faith in the cleansing work of Jesus, He comes along side of us to help us stop behaviors that we loved doing before.  He helps us hate the sins we once enjoyed and shows us that His way of living is more satisfying than anything our sins offered.

The final step is the decision.  “Whether you are young or old is not determined by your age, but by when you die… If you are 18 and you are going to die a week from now, then relative to your lifespan, you are old… You don’t know if you are old or young, no matter what age you are.”

Keep in mind that receiving Jesus and following Him is not about “life-enhancement.”  You may sometimes fall to temptations; you will still face problems; you may even be persecuted.  Old friends will wonder what happened to their good buddy and ‘sensible’ neighbor.  “Remember, never accept Jesus just to improve your life in this world.  It is not about getting things in this life but about being right with the God we will stand in front of [within those first five minutes after we die]” .

“What you truly believe drives you to action.” 
What will you do with the evidence that we were created by Someone for a purpose? 
What will you do with the evidence that the Bible IS the revelation of God’s Word? 
What will you do with the evidence that good works will not be enough to clear our guilt? 
What will you do with the evidence that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world?

If you are inclined to make a decision to follow Jesus, or if you just want to discuss the evidence, feel free to go to my contact page and reach out to me, or you can email Mark Cahill at mydecision@markcahill.org.

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”  John Adams
“Truth is what reality says it is.”