If not
for God’s word, I would be in despair over the changes that are so quickly
transforming our country from a nation founded on the principles of the Word of
God to a nation that is more readily identified as the devil’s playground. More and more often, professing Christians
are going to have to choose whether to “obey God rather than men.” Their choices will reveal those who are truly
committed to serving the Lord
Acts 5:29 “…We ought to obey God
rather than men.”
Jesus
very clearly identified the commandments by which we are to live.
Mark 10:18–19 “And Jesus said…Thou
knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do
not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.”
As we
look at each command recorded in the above verses, one can very easily see that
our nation as a whole is characterized as having no respect for God.
·
Adultery is commonplace and no longer carries the stigma
it did just a few decades ago.
·
Over 57,000,000 babies have been killed since the passage
of Roe vs. Wade in 1973.
·
Though theft is still recognized as a crime, it has
become part and parcel of the way we do business using the mantra, “The ends
justify the means.” Our own government
is stealing our freedoms one by one by choosing to pass bills that haven’t even
read and have been crafted in secret as they move forward hidden agendas and
seek to establish a new world order.
·
A man’s word is no longer recognized as trustworthy. Witnesses can be bought and reputations
destroyed if the price is right—just look at all the gossip tabloids that
dominate the checkout lines at the grocery stores and Walmart.
·
To defraud someone is to deceive them in order to
swindle, cheat, or embezzle from them.
It falls right into the same category as stealing.
·
All you have to do is spend a little time out and about
to find that many children have no respect for their parents. Parents are often to blame for this behavior because
of overindulgence, lack of consistent discipline and/or setting a bad example.
I think
that the government-mandated destruction of the nuclear family as established
by God is the death knell for our nation and that judgment will soon follow
(and I believe has already begun).
Mark 10:6–8 “But from the beginning
of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one
flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.”
With its
recent decision legalizing same sex marriage, the Supreme Court has once again
basically “spit in the face of God.” In
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbons listed
eight main reasons for its fall; but first on the list was a decline in its
morals and values. It is only through
recognizing God as our Creator and the One with authority over His creation
that one can establish a true basis for morality and truth. Without that foundational belief there is no
true standard for determining what is right and wrong. Every man would have the right to determine
his own moral values and his own truth.
It basically recognizes the “law of the jungle” and survival of the strongest
and most powerful.
God gave
us two commands that if followed would certainly result in worldwide peace.
Mark 12:30–31 “And thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength: this
is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely
this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment
greater than these.”
To love
“the Lord thy God” with all of one’s heart, soul, mind and strength is to
acknowledge God as the ruling authority in one’s life. He has given us His word to provide a
foundation upon which we can determine right from wrong and know how to show
our love to Him through obedience.
To “love thy neighbor as thyself”
is to act toward others in the same way we would want others to act toward
us.
God has
also commanded us to “believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ” and “love
one another as He gave us commandment.”
1 John 3:23 “And this is his
commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and
love one another, as he gave us commandment.”
John 13:34 “A new commandment I give
unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one
another.”
To
believe on the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is to accept the gift of
salvation provided for us through His death, burial and resurrection. It is to acknowledge that Jesus is the very
Son of God and is the only way through which one can expect to enjoy eternal
life in the presence of God.
John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I
am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Acts 4:10–12 “Be it known unto you all,
and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead….for there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
To love
one another as Jesus commanded is to love one another with the same type of
unconditional, sacrificial love that He demonstrated for us when He laid down
His life as the sacrifice for our sin.
Scripture
is clear in revealing that there is a time coming in which Satan will be acknowledged
as the God of this world. That is why I
am not in despair as it appears that he is gaining the upper hand. Scripture also reveals that though he will be
allowed his time of ultimate control so to speak, but it will only last for 3.5
years. At the end of that time, the Lord
Jesus will return in all His glory to destroy Satan and his armies. He will establish His kingdom and rule from
the throne of David with absolute authority over the whole world for 1,000
years. Satan will then be allowed one
more opportunity to gather an army of followers in an attempt to overthrow
Jesus—and much to my amazement, after 1,000 years of righteous rule, he will be
able to gather a great army. God will
destroy this army with fire from heaven and cast Satan into hell. After this, the Lord will declare judgment
regarding the eternal future of all the dead, every individual that has
rejected Jesus as Lord and Savior.
This is
just a short summary of what I believe is biblical truth. If you want to know more, feel free to check
out my journal on Revelation at www.momsbiblejournal.com.
I truly
hope and believe that the return of the Lord to take His saints home will
happen soon. Until that time, no matter
how difficult times become, I choose to echo the words of Paul in his letter to
the Corinthians and pray for God’s empowerment to live it out.
2 Corinthians 4:8–10 “We are troubled on every side, yet
not distressed; we are
perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not
destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”
