Spiritual Warfare

Do you ever wonder why some people who profess to be Christians are so different from others? Some live holy, clean, dedicated lives from the day they are saved until they die, while it is hard to tell others from the common sinners of the world. The answer to that question is that one is real and the other is not. They are either deceived or they are just plain hypocrites. The difference is one has been regenerated by the Spirit of God and the other has not. Those who are not regenerated are not saved, and have no hope whatsoever of heaven as long as they remain in that state.

There is a fatal error in modern Christianity and it is the teaching a person that salvation is a get-out-of-hell-free card, and a free ticket to heaven, while leaving him in the bondage of sin while he lives on earth. Jesus did more for us than that! "Ye shall not surely die" when you disregard God and his Word has been the lie of the devil since the beginning. If the salvation that Jesus provided does not deliver us from living in continual, habitual sin, then we have no real hope for eternity, and nothing to offer the hopeless.

Am I really saved? Am I really a child of God? What am I basing my assurance on? We must make sure that we are not just living on imagination. Men and women are very prone to fall in love with the fictions of their imaginations and stumble right off into hell over them. Your trust in God, and what you expect Him to do for you, must be based on truth and not on imagination. And the only reliable and infallible source of truth is the written Word of God.

What a calamity it will be when all but a few of the people who have ever lived on earth face God and find themselves condemned and told to "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity, for I never knew you!" Multitudes go to church and have convinced themselves that their religion, or their empty profession of faith is their free pass into heaven, but they have never sought the face of God. It is a very personal responsibility and the most important matter of life. "Seek ye the Lord, while He may be found. Call upon him while He is near." If you miss God and end up in hell it will be because you did not seek him. You didn't try with an honest heart to find him out. James 4:8 "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you… "

Paul and Silas had a woman following them who was telling everyone that they were the servants of the most high God, and that they were showing the way of salvation. She would have been appreciated in about any church now, but she was possessed with a devil. Paul was grieved and put a stop to her talking on his behalf. It was damaging to the work of God and the souls of the people who heard her. We need Paul's discernment now, because the same kinds of things are going on everywhere. Not everyone who says, "Lord, Lord" is going to heaven, and so sometimes they should be stopped instead of encouraged. Jesus gave us some pretty clear instructions on how to recognize these kinds of people.

We cannot believe anything that we read or see anymore. Reality and fantasy are becoming indistinguishable. There is a quote that is attributed to a woman from Germany who lived in the 20th century that goes like this: "If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer." This is the snare that we find ourselves in now. Very few people believe anything anymore. This is why there is so much apathy, lack of commitment, and skepticism and cynicism among those who profess to be believers in Christ and his Word. Generally, modern professing Christians do no believe anything enough to die for. Their so-called faith will not even get them to church or deliver them from their sinful lifestyle. That is not the kind of faith that saves.

One of our biggest stumbling blocks is to look at our future according to the present circumstances. Many lose hope because things look so bad at the present time. But things always change. "…it came to pass" is mentioned 457 times in the Word of God. Everything "comes to pass." There is always a morning after a night, the sun always shines again after the storm and the rain, and there is always resurrection after death. "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, ..." - 2 Corinthians 2:14

Consider a few things that will help us to remedy the pride that grows in us so easily. Endeavor to see yourself as you are, your lowliness and utter helplessness, and to see God as He is in his glory and holiness and power. This is part of what church services are to be about: and why hymns that show forth the honor and majesty and glory of God are so important. At the same time be persuaded of the beauty and comeliness of humility. Seek it out and observe it in others, and note how much better it is to be humble than to be proud. It is the grace that is the very opposite of pride, which is abomination to God and men. Put it on like you put on your clothes. Then consider the examples of proud people in the Bible who were humbled and abased. And finally, simply remember that you have nothing to be proud of because we have nothing that we have not received - everything we have, and every ability we possess was given to us.

A man's pride shall bring him low – this is a promise of God, a statement of fact, and a sure prophecy for everyone who walk in pride. This can be accomplished at the cross of Christ for the few that will come and set their eyes upon Jesus and see themselves as they are in his sight. Otherwise, the most potent remedy for this sin of all sins is to be brought low, very low. It is the hope of everyone who has to endure the proud fool, and gives them great satisfaction and a feeling of justice served when it happens. "When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom." - Proverbs 11:2

We all hate pride in others, but fail to see it in ourselves. It is the original sin, and it is the cause of all strife and contention. It ruins everything. But we refuse to kill it in ourselves, and even count it as some kind of virtue. It even ruins the effect of the Word of God and the message of the Gospel. The Bible clearly teaches us to judge and discern between good and evil, and especially when it comes to people, because of the danger that evil people pose. But when our pride is involved it turns our testimony into a stumbling block and does more harm to the kingdom of God than good. No one has any right to be proud of the fact that they are saved, or of the church or creed they identify with. Pride is sin, no matter what form it manifests itself in.

Sin and evil are not the same thing. Sin is the transgression or trespass against God and other men. Evil is the environment created by sin. Evil is the effects of sin. The sin of man turns everyone against one another and causes strife, confusion, hatred, malice, along with all the grief, sorrow, loss, calamity, and pain that the world is full of. Since Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it is this environment in which the people of this world live and exist and carry on their lives. They spend most of their mental energy and strength fighting and striving against one another, and defending themselves from one another. To depart from evil means to come out from among them and cease to engage in the same hatred and paranoia and malice in which they live. To abandon our vices and bad habits and start going to church is not salvation or sanctification. To depart from evil is understanding. Jesus said to "resist not evil" and this is exactly what He meant, and showed us with his life.

The title is meant to get your attention. However, it is very true that only trusting Christ will not bring about the new birth. The devil has managed to water down the Gospel until most only believe half of it. It is repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that brings about salvation. Repentance alone will not save anyone, but neither will simply "trusting" Christ for a better life, and a home in heaven when you die. Multitudes, in fact, most of the human race is going to be lost for eternity because they did not turn from their sin to trust in Christ. There is no such thing as saving faith in Christ while you continue in sin; continue being the same person you have always been; continue in hatred and strife and bitterness.

Has anyone else noticed that the music is gone? Music used to make people happy and cheer tired, burdened, and discouraged hearts. The sound of music is gone, and what is now called music is nothing more than noise that speaks to the emotions of hatred, anger, rebellion, blasphemy, and profanity, as well as sexual immorality. Without a song in the heart, life is pretty much meaningless, and very bleak and sorrowful. The Lord is our song, and it is amazing what the power of a simple song, coming from a pure source, can do to make the devil flee, and peace and contentment fill the soul.

I have great assurance that I have that I am a child of God is when I look into my heart and find that it is so different from the world around me. I am so sick and tired of the envy and strife, the pushing and shoving, the blaming, the hating, the evil speaking, and evil imaginations that everyone has against everyone else. That is the world I am looking forward to leaving someday soon. What does it mean to have the peace of God if it doesn't mean that we are disengaged from the world's constant envy and strife and hating one another? How can a person even think for a moment that they are right with God when they are engaged in envy and strife of the world? If you cannot look into your heart, and be completely honest with yourself, and see the great difference between what you were and what you are now, you should be concerned about where you are headed for eternity. All the haters and evil thinkers and pushers and the shovers are going to be barred from heaven, and hell is their eternal abode, where they hate and fight and blame one another for eternity.

The root of most of the problems people have is their lack of forgiveness toward others. The root of unhappiness, as well as mental illness and addictions, is usually found in the bitterness of the soul because of some offense or trauma caused by some other person. Forgiveness is the ONLY way to escape the torture of the mind and heart, and the eventual destruction of the soul. Jesus died to make it possible for us to forgive others, not only to make it possible for God to forgive us. Forgiving others is as much a part of the Gospel as God forgiving us, but it is left out much of the time. "Freely ye have received, freely give."

Jesus teaches us here in Matthew 24:12 that the lack of true and godly love will be a sign of the last days. Love will have a different meaning in the last days than what the Bible teaches it to be, and what men have generally understood it to mean through the ages. Think about it! Isn't it obvious that in this generation people do not love one another deeply, fervently, and faithfully? This is true in marriages, families, churches, and every other relationship between people. The love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost will keep a true believer from falling into this snare of these last days.

To be faithful with what God has given us is the most important thing. In our dying moment, it is all that will matter to us. All God requires, and all of God's promises of reward are based upon faithfulness - not performance, and not great accomplishments. What God gives a person, as far as knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures, and the truths of the Word of God that make up God's ways, he must never water down or mix with false doctrine for any reason, if he expects to hear, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." How faithful have you been with what you once knew to be true?

Knowing truth is not the end goal of sanctification – holiness is. "Sanctify them through thy truth, they word is truth." John 17:17 Lack of knowledge is not the problem - lack of wisdom is the problem. Truth revealed by the Holy Spirit of God will cause a person to grow in grace and holiness. Truth in the hands of the devil turns people into arrogant bullies who stay focused on one or a few truths and use them to beat on other people. If the truth turns you into an ogre that hates and destroys other people, you got that truth from the devil, even if it is a truth of God. If God reveals a truth to you it will be manifested by the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, ... Beware! The devil can deceive you more easily with truth than he can with lies.

In all our conversations and encounters with other people we are touching them and they are touching us, even if we do not physically touch them. It is felt in both parties, and many times by those who are not in the conversation, but only looking on and listening. We touch one another with our words, our facial expressions, and our spirit. We always walk away from someone thinking about how they made us feel. We would be more like Jesus if we walked away thinking about how we made them feel. A smile, a kind word, an encouraging word, are ways of touching someone in a way that will leave a good feeling, and a blessing in their mind and heart. How much more good could we do, as Christians, if we understood this truth and put it into practice and made it the habit of our life.

Feelings are not something that we cannot control. We can control our feelings, if we can control our mind. Yet, most people are controlled by their feelings most of the time. Feelings are a result of what we think about, and we are more prone to let our minds be obsessed with our feelings than anything else. Consider Webster's definition of the word "obsession." "OBSESS'ION, n. The act of besieging; the first attack of Satan antecedent to possession." When we are obsessed with something in our mind, we are being besieged by the devil and we are one step from being possessed by him. Better gird up the lions of our minds, and we better let that mind be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus.

The Scripture here speaks of two spiritual influences at work in this world: the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. One is of God and the other is of the devil and reasons with you with the wisdom of this world, which is earthy, sensual, and devilish. One will lead you to God and eternal life – the other will lead you to the world, which ends in sin and death, and eternal punishment and separation from God. This message is about how to tell them apart, according to the Scpritures.

There is a difference between being deceived in our mind and in our heart. Feelings accompany a deceived heart, while confusion and instability are more likely to accompany a deceived mind. The mind can be changed by hearing and believing the truth– the heart, not so easily, because the feelings of the heart override truth and reason. So the most important thing is to keep your heart from being deceived, and that happens through feelings. If God is truly Lord of our heart, He will be Lord of our feelings, and they will be governed by love. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23

It seems that one of the hardest things for us to learn is that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We hear it, we believe it, and then we just immediately go back to our same old methods and habits of dealing with evil. Most professing Christians are not even engaged in the battle, but are "as one that beateth the air." Flesh is not the source of evil, as so many have been taught to believe. Satan hates God and all that is good and holy, and the flesh is man's weakness that he exploits to work evil and misery in this world. As long as a person remains ignorant of Satan's devices and strategy he will be in the devil's pocket. Once we know who our enemy is and what to do to defeat him, we can have victory in our life.

God created man in his own image and likeness. The things that all men know about God is that He is love, He is kind, He is merciful, and full of compassion. Jesus, the Son of God, came and showed us in the flesh what God is like. The Scripture says Jesus is not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." God made us to feel deeply about other people, and even other living creatures, because God feels deeply toward them. However, sin destroys that part of God's image and likeness in man. Instead of love and compassion for others, he has contempt and hatred and suspicion. Instead of good he only thinks evil and his heart is darkened. The lack of empathy and compassion for others is how depravity is manifested.

Feelings are how people naturally discern things. The first mention of feelings in the Bible is when Isaac discerned between his sons Jacob and Esau by feeling of Jacob's hands and neck. Isaac trusted in what he felt more than what he heard, and was deceived. The worldly advice to "follow your heart" is the road to hell for almost all of the human race. To overcome our feelings and not allow them to control us, to make our decisions for us, and to direct our lives requires the help of the Spirit of God. Only the person who has truly been born again, and learned to trust in the Lord at all times, is able to deny himself and do the will of God, instead of what he feels.

Feelings are the language of the soul, but there are some people who appear to have no feelings. Modern terminology describes these people as sociopaths, or psychopaths. Their identifying characteristic is their lack of feeling for others, and their lack of regard for the feelings of others. This is exactly the kind of people the Bible refers to in Ephesians 4:17-19. These people have serious spiritual problems. Feelings are the issues of life. What matters more to you about someone than how they feel about you? Which is a greater confirmation of love, the words you say, or the feelings you show? The closer we walk to God, the more sensitive we will be to the feelings of others. A person that never shows any sign of feelings, and is insensitive or indifferent to the feelings of others, is someone to keep your eye on. That is a road that leads to a bad end somewhere.

From God's perspective there are two groups of people in the world. There are the children of men and the children of God. There are the sons of men and the sons of God. It has been this way since sin entered into this world, with the sons of men always outnumbering the sons of God. These children we just dedicated to the Lord will either be the children of men or they will be the children of God. We must fight for their souls and not let the devil and the sons of men steal them from the fold. Here are some things that might help these young families in this battle.

No true spiritual awakening ever begins with murmuring, complaining, blaming, accusing, realizing you are a victim, or in any other way dishonoring other people, especially those who came before us. No real turning to God ever begins with contempt for other people. It is an evil spirit that is working in this generation, not only in the churches, but in the whole population. Being a "victim" is everyone's excuse for everything that is wrong with them, and for their low life way of living – that will not fly when they stand before God. It is poisoning the minds of this generation and neutralizing any hope of true revival. We will never see any kind of spiritual awakening or any kind of revival until we rise up and resist and cast out that spirit of contempt and condemnation for all that came before us. We have to view our situation like Nehemiah, like Ezra, like Daniel, WE, as a people, have sinned and departed from the ways of God, and WE, as a people, must return to the true and the right way, by opening the book and committing to obey what it says, and live according to God's precepts.

This is the day after the election. Trump won, now what? Here are just a few sober thoughts about what has just happened and what our situation is now. Many people are living in some kind of fantasy or delusion about what all this means. We still live in a pagan country and world, and our family members and neighbors are still lost. The whole world is still full of war and violence and misery. Assuming the best, God has granted us a small mercy to work a little longer before the night cometh. Let's not waste the next 4 years being lazy and stupid in the Lord's work. Let's do all we can, with all that we have, everywhere we can, to reach the lost in this dying and wicked world and hold our celebrations for something real and lasting.

Do you keep God's commandments? Better not answer that question too quickly with the "no" that you have heard so much from preachers and half-hearted professors of religion. Keeping God's commandments is connected with every blessing promised in the Word of God, and the Bible makes it very clear that it is the mark of a true born-again believer. It is not sinless perfection, or strictly obeying a list of rules like a Pharisee, but to order and arrange and conduct our life according to what we know God has designed, ordained, and commanded in his Word. It is to do it willingly, with a desire to do so, and to diligently seek to know and do the Will of God. Certainly, it is obvious that there are few people like this, and most are running from any knowledge of what God desires, knowing that it will conflict with their sin and their desires. Many will be in hell for eternity because they swallowed the devil's lie that keeping God's commandments is working for your salvation, but this is not works for salvation, it is the evidence of a new birth and a new man.

In these past several weeks we have tried to show and establish the fact that paganism is fast becoming the prevailing spiritual influence in the world and in our nation. We are moving in leaps and bounds back toward the darkness and violence that ruled the world until Jesus came 2000 years ago. Christians are about to lose their long-held protections that were purchased for us by our ancestors with their blood. Those who call themselves Christians in this country have never known what it is like to live under the evil, bloodthirsty, merciless, and godless rule of pagans, but we are about to find out. We need to be waking up to what we are facing, and we need to be preparing ourselves and our children. Elections and politicians will never save us, but this election will have much to do with how soon the darkness of this world will have complete control. In this message we are talking about some things every true believer in Jesus should be considering and preparing for.

When it comes to witnessing to the lost the situation has changed drastically in the past few decades. The prevailing concept concerning sin, salvation, and God seems to be that everyone is going to heaven no matter what they do with God or how they live their life here on earth. Sinners seem to be confident in the fact that God is a loving and forgiving God, but they know nothing about what the Word of God says about that matter or any other. Someone has made them believe that their sin does not matter and that God is going to take them to heaven to live with Him forever in the same state they are in now. They must repent of what they BELIEVE because that is what is going to damn their soul. Someone has to tell them they are wrong and call them to repentance! Jesus and the Apostles preached the Gospel to their pagan generation and the Great Commission was given so we would do the same in ours.

The first two men who came to God to make an offering and worship are examples of the two ways that men have always came to God. Abel 's offering was accepted and Cain's was rejected. Most worship is of the kind that Cain offered and it is no more acceptable to God now than it was then. Abel worshipped the LORD God that created the heavens. Cain's idea of God was much lower. Evidently, his concept of God was just a better version of himself. He that worships God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Contemporary worship is generally focused on self, not on God, and that is not acceptable to God.

That God created man male and female is the most important foundational thing to the divine order of Creation. This fact is repeated in the story of Creation and in the New Testament by Jesus himself. In order to destroy man Satan always begins by breaking down this pillar of the divine order and thereby destroying the image of God in which man was created. Both male and female have their strengths and weaknesses, and they have their roles in life precisely laid out in the Word of God. When confusion and disorder is introduced to the distinction and roles of men and women it leads to complete abandonment of God and a return to paganism. This is the spirit of Jezebel we read about in Revelation 2:20.

The slide into paganism, which is the total abandonment of the LORD God and the embracing of false gods, is much more than throwing out the moral law of God. The strategy of Satan is to change what we believe, and at the same time to change the very way we reason and think. The heart must be corrupted, and the mind must be corrupted, also. Good becomes evil and evil becomes good, but then rational thinking is abandoned and replaced with insanity on a national or even world-wide scale. All anyone has to do to know this is true is simply look around at what the world has become.

It seems our perception of the great falling away before Jesus comes has always been far too shallow. For whatever reason, most who should have had enough knowledge of history, Scripture, and human nature to have seen this "woke" generation coming, did not see it coming at all. We are farther into the darkness than we realize, and the hour is late. This message contains a lot of statistics and information that reveal in a pretty shocking way how fast this apostasy has progressed and where we really are now. God's people desperately need to be awakened to this matter and be informed about the situation as it really is in order to avoid the great deception that is coming very soon.

There is a delusion among many people that the world will soon be completely secular, and religion will be a thing of the past. The plan is to simply erase God from every aspect of life and then they think man will be free to do as he pleases without any condemnation or opposition. But they are in for a great disappointment because men simply cannot, and will not, continue to live as if there is no God and nothing greater than himself. Life is too full of pain and sorrow and hardship and grief for man to bear it all by himself, so he will seek some way to offload his burdens, and find help with his problems. He will seek God's help, but normally he does that without being reconciled to God by dealing with his sin, and God will not answer his prayer, and so he turns to idols. Secularism is only an interval between abandoning God and embracing the worship of devils. Secularism leads directly back to paganism.

How does the human race change its collective mind altogether? It happens very slowly as those who are called by God's name compromise little by little and give up ground to the devil. Evil gains control of the microphone and then it isn't long before the moral and intellectual changes begin to manifest themselves in the collapse of that civilization . It has happened in this country and our world in my lifetime. The danger to your soul and the souls of your children and grandchildren is that you will not be diligent to guard your heart, your mind, and your spirit in such an environment, and you will be sucked into the deception of this self-made religion, and this self-determined righteousness that is so prevalent in this pagan world now.

This modern generation that is wise in its own eyes would never admit it, but their views and ways of thinking are strikingly similar to the ancient pagans. Their eyes are on the skies as they look for their "gods" to come anytime now. They are not looking for Jesus, but for aliens from outer space. All humans of all ages that have rejected God and clung to their evil ways have done exactly the same thing. The "gods" they believed in were simply super-humans, or super-heros, who lived in the heavens somewhere. They did not concern themselves much with Creation and where everything began, but their "gods" and their religion was self-serving and about making their lives safer, more pleasurable, and successful in their endeavors. That should sound familiar as you look around at this modern world.

Man has invented machines to do most of his work for him, especially over the past 200 years. But now we have crossed a threshold where man is turning over his thinking to machines. First radio, then television, then the computers, smartphones, the Internet, social media have done to mankind what all the kings and conquerors of all the ages could not do, and that is to bring all of humanity under one authority and one entity. Now AI has been rolled out and is evolving into the dream of pagans through all the ages. It is the collective mind of all humanity, but it is already showing many signs of not being under the control of its designers. No wonder Jesus warned repeatedly about the last days, "Watch!" The great falling away is in full swing and the great deception is at hand.

What does paganism look like? It looks exactly like the marriage of religion, patriotism, and worldliness that we are seeing in our culture right now. Paganism is the worship of nature, the worship of animals, the empowerment of the feminine over the masculine, the removal of all moral absolutes, the extinguishing of all hope, and the eventual collapse of the civilization. It looks like darkness, because that is what it is, and it is taking over our world very quickly. If you do not understand, start watching.

Religion without holiness is the first step to paganism. ALL religions outside of true Bible-believing Christianity reject the moral law of God. When people turn their back on God and his church the issue is always practical righteousness, holiness, reverence, and separation from this ungodly world. Paganism is based upon the belief that nothing is absolute - nothing is absolutely wrong, nothing is absolutely right, and nothing is absolutely forbidden. You can have religion without holiness, but you cannot have God. You can call yourself a Christian, but if you live like the world you are deceiving yourself. There are only two choices and there will only be two groups standing before God at the judgment. Which one will you be in?

The descent into darkness described in the first chapter of Romans is primarily a description of mankind as a whole, or individual countries or cultures, because the slide into paganism happens corporately. Nations or peoples do it together, and that is a major reason that it has such power when it gains control. It starts with a knowledge of God. Man did not start out as pagan, he started out fellowshipping with God in the Garden of Eden. Then when Noah got off the ark, everyone who was alive on the earth was very familiar with God and his ways. Something happened since then, and this message is about the slide into paganism, and the fact that we are witnessing it in this generation.

The issue that drives everything on earth is the battle between good and evil. To fail to understand that there really only two sides engaged in this spiritual battle always leads to being deceived by the evil. The battle waged by evil is to confuse, compromise, mix the two up together, and eventually change places so that good is called evil, and evil is called good. All gods except Almighty God are devils, not just imaginations of men. All gods except the God who created all things are unholy, unclean, murderous, and destroyers. The Bible tells us clearly that they are all devils. So it is either love and serve God in truth, or you are submitting yourself to the devil.

There are really only two forms of religion in this world: the worship of the true and only God, or paganism. There is faith in Almighty God, who created the heavens and the earth and all that is therein, who has revealed himself to man through the written Word of God, and his only begotten Son, who came to earth and died for the sins of mankind and rose from the dead, and also by the Creation that we all can observe. The only other option for man is superstition based upon fear and the unknown. Satan is the master of that system, and it includes all other religions and philosophies of life. Not believing in any God or gods is not an option. Every man will be influenced by spiritual powers, and if he is not submitted to Almighty God he will be guided by evil spiritual beings, whether he is aware of it or not.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my savior. He is the theme of my life and my everything. When all is said and done, God is all there is. David gave God the honor, the glory, the credit for everything he ever accomplished, and every blessing he ever enjoyed. When we learn to live with God as the biggest thing in our life, our soul, our mind, and our heart, we will know what victory is like.

Sin divides a man against himself. He has violated his conscience and lost his innocence, and sees himself different than he ever did before. An inner conflict is set up from that moment on; there is an internal struggle with himself, good against evil. It is that enmity in Ephesians 2 that can only be abolished when we are born again and reconciled to God. The old man is crucified with Christ. The war between our members and the law of our mind is ended. The inner conflict is over and there is inner peace now in its place; the peace of God which passeth all understanding.

To be weary is to be exhausted physically, and/or mentally. It is when you think and say things like, "I am sick of this." "I have had it with this." "I'm tired of this." It can also be the result of being, or feeling defeated. It happens to all us, over and over through life; as long as we are living we will feel weary often, because life is a struggle. God does not tell us not to be weary, but not to be weary in well-doing; that is, doing what is right. Rest is the cure for physical and mental weariness, while faith and patience are the cure for weariness in well-doing.

Love is the diminishing of self. Love does not exist until we value someone else more than we do ourselves. Until we desire their good more than we desire our own. Until we count their life more important than our own. This is not just a higher type of love, this IS the Bible definition of what love is. This love is the very evidence of being born again, and the lack of it is the evidence of being unregenerate. 1 John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

I never envisioned a world like this, and I do not know anyone who did. We knew that "evil men and seducers would wax worse and worse" but we never imagined that it would be like this. We expected more of the same kind of sin we were seeing 40 years ago, and we expected it to be more and more widespread and common, but we did not expect the insanity and the madness that we are seeing now. We should have seen it coming, though. If we had been more knowledgeable of human history and the Word of God, we could have known this was coming. Moral degeneration and depravity always follow the same path and end up in the same place, and it is plain to see from all the examples that happened in times past that we are nearing the end. The hour is late, sin has become exceeding sinful, and a holy God will soon judge this wickedness, as He has always done before.

God views man and his history forward and backward by generations, not by the present only. We have a strong tendency to only look at the present; at our own generation, and our own experience. This makes our view, and therefore, our comprehension of everything that matters very small and narrow. Judging and discerning truth by our little life and our few short years of experience on this earth is certain to cause us to err from the truth. This generation of know-it-alls in the world and in the churches needs to hear this.