"There will be terrible times in the last days..."

The news these days is quite instructive. If I were a baby Christian, I would have said “depressing”, but it is worthwhile to read the news in context of the Word of God.  Wordwide, there is great disappointment with political leaders, there is state-sponsored terror, and impunity. For the story about persecution of Christians in the picture, click on it.

People and governments are increasingly not just immoral, but amoral, without any sense of right or wrong. Even in churches, many pastors believe righteousness is a means to financial gain – to the extent that I cannot even bear the sight of so many on TV – posturing and being so theatrical, having the form, but lacking the power.

However, we have confidence and foreknowledge in that Paul warned us of what would occur in the last days, as in these words in 2 Timothy 3;

” 1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”

As we see the evil become more evil, the insatiable greed of corporations and their managers; and the growing secularity of nations, it should encourage us that Christ is coming soon. It should also inspire us towards good works which He has prepared in advance for us to do. The time is short.

God is not impressed by the nations that rage and the people who plot in vain. In fact He laughs and scoffs at them (Psalm 2) and soon will rule them with an iron scepter, dashing them to pieces like pottery.

I’ve been focusing too much on the world these days, terrorism, wickedness, impunity, corruption, greed, and too little on what God is doing. That must change. I will instead, focus on what God is doing and what He is calling me too. I will fix my heart and thoughts on things above, where Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand. That is the wisest course. When the dust settles over His creation, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Then we will see that it was the best decision to serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling and take refuge in Him. May you be similarly encouraged in Jesus. Amen.

Worship and Truth: We often think that worship is something we only do in church, but sometimes when worship is mentioned in the Bible, it’s not in reference to an organized church service at all. It is personal worship. Here are some examples:

Genesis 24:26 – Then the man bowed down and worshiped the LORD,
Exodus 34:8 – Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped.
John 9:8 – Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

The common trait with worship is that it is done in the presence of the One being worshiped, that is, God. It is grim to worship in a setting where the Spirit of God is not present. Worship has little meaning if it’s not in God’s presence. Jesus further said in John 4:22:

“…true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is (a) spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

He said we must worship “in Spirit and in Truth”. What does that mean?  Worshiping in truth means being real before God – he knows our motives anyway, so why try to hide? It also means HIS truth, not ours. The fashion these days is folks making up a gospel of their own and following it.

Some lifestyles are now accepted by churches that have made up their own ‘gospel’, because “God loves everyone”. What poison for those who believe that “truth”! They and their version of truth will be rejected by the Truth.

Folks are just hilarious sometimes. Like the golden calf, they will create their own religion, throw the Name of Christ into it and think God will bless it. I think sometimes that many who pass the gates of hell are as completely shocked as they were completely deceived.

How is your personal worship life? Do you have one? Do you spend time worshiping Him in the “beauty of His holiness”? Our public worship should be an outflow from our personal life of worship.

Is your worship in Spirit or based on ritual, form and function? The driest churches are those whose service formats are fixed in stone. God couldn’t break in even if He wanted to. Don’t believe it? Read where; “…they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.”. (Psalm 78:41).  I have nothing against structure and certainly I love services that start on time.  However, we must remain open to the Spirit. We must be led by Him and not by formats or schedules.

Love: Paul, in 1 Peter 1:22, says;

“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.”

The final “evidence” is love. This facilitates the entire Christian life and allows our faith to work—faith works through love. We love with His love. I think if we had to love with our love, it would be a rougher world than it already is. Remember how we gossip about people because we are ‘concerned’ and want to “pray for them”? Or how we advise people in certain directions because their actions will benefit us? Or how folks seek to control others in order to gratify a controlling spirit? Our love must be sincere, not selfishly motivated.

Power: How much power is in your life and ministry? I love the fruits of the Spirit as much as the next Christian, but why do pastors avoid the topic of power so much? Even in the most loving, polite, “help-old-ladies-cross-the-road” churches, they’ll preach on kindness and humility and general niceness week after week. No matter how many blind, deaf or diseased ones sit in the pews suffering week in and week out. Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 2:4:

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,

The world cries out for a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, we respond with niceness. That’ll get you run out of town in Islamic or animist parts of Africa. Go there with power or stay home. Even in developed countries where so many have chronic diseases, there is a great hunger for power. I call this issue the elephant in our living room.

I recall the story of a young man in my old high school. After preaching the gospel to a skeptical friend for a while, becoming frustrated, he says to his friend, “see that streetlight in the distance?” The friend answers “yes, I do”. “OK”, he says, “In Jesus’ Name, I command that streetlight to go out” and it flickers and dies. The friend’s jaw drops. Emboldened, he goes on “In Jesus Name, I command the streetlights to come back on!” and they dutifully comply. The friend kneels and promptly gets saved. Come with power or go home. We must move in power.

Money: Is God reflected in your checkbook? Would I know you were a Christian if I went through your checkbook? The way we handle money determines our priorities in life. And no, I’m not talking about the concept of tithing, which has no relation to the church age. Why folks are still teaching tithing, which a very cursory read of the Bible by a one-eyed boy with half sense would reveal is not a New Covenant doctrine, is beyond me (sorry for the long run-on sentence…) Then again, in the modern non-denominational church, probably a third of what we preach and teach is myth. So the Mosaic law of tithing being taught does not surprise me. I only wish they would obey the other 600 ordinances while they’re at it… Why pick just one? For us under the NT, here’s the rule – give generously and cheerfully, for God loves a cheerful giver. I would also add (my suggestions): give thoughtfully, systematically, and consistently.

Prayer: The last evidence I’ll discuss today is prayer. I’m preaching to myself here as my prayer life has suffered in the last few months as I’ve gotten very busy. As an unnamed pastor once said: “if you are too busy for God, you are busier than He intended you to be!” We’ve got to get away from the “Good morning”, “Good night” prayer life. For the Christian who read the words “be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18), the way we pray today is dangerous and leaves too many believers “exposed.” Think on the meaning of that for it is true. May you have deep and productive Spirit-filled times of prayer with our great God who has called you to His service. Amen.

(To Be Concluded…)

What are these evidences? They are important issues that will resonate in the lives of some who will read them. They are ‘markers’, if you like, that can be used to measure Christian character and maturity. I personally don’t gravitate to “lists” normally, as some of my friends know, but when they are given, I’ll write. That’s the way it should be: when God says “Jump!” the correct answer is not “How high?” the correct answer is to jump with all your might.

Some of the great men of faith amuse me. Read Moses’ burning bush account in Exodus 3 again and you’ll be incredulous. God says, “I’m sending you to get my people released”… Moses says, “They won’t believe me”…God says, “Here’s a stick that turns into a snake and your hand will turn leprous when you put it into your cloak”…Moses responds: “I can’t speak well”…God replies: “Aaron will go with you and speak…” Know what Moses eventually says? “I just don’t wanna go!” Hmmm… that’s not a shining example of obedience, just in case you were wondering. Moses eventually went and did great things in God, but the burning bush episode was not a high point in his life.

OK, what are these “Nine Evidences”?

• The Tongue: It has the power of life and death (Proverbs 18:21). James declares that fresh and salt water cannot come from the same spring (James 3:11). Today, more than ever, we are too loose with our words, we are coarse, we are obscene, we say things that we don’t mean, we think lying is just being “nuanced”. Words conquer thoughts, don’t you know? What do I mean? I mean, if you have bad thoughts, the way to deal with them is to begin to speak faith-filled words. You cannot think certain thoughts while speaking different words. You remember paper-rock-scissors? Well, thoughts are paper and words are scissors. Who is the Rock? Jesus, of course… Just remember, the solution to ‘uncontrollable’ thoughts is words – His Words.
• Thought Life: This follows from the first evidence. Paul says if anything is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy, think on it (Philippians 4:8). If not, don’t. A mature believer has his/her thought life more under control than an immature one. The way to achieve this is to control what you see and hear. I don’t mean just avoiding stuff—that’s only half the battle. The other, more important half is filling your mind with the Word. That includes the Bible and good, faith-filled Bible teaching. Doing one without the other is no real use.
• Relationships: are they real, genuine, or disposable? You don’t need a million Christian relationships, but you need at least a few genuine ones. And yes, it could be your wife, husband, children, parents, cousins and of course, friends. You need people to be accountable to and people who will sharpen you. Proverbs 27:7 states that “Iron sharpens iron”. Healing is also a lonely endeavor – you need people around you who will encourage you to forge on through the good times and challenging times.

OK, these are just the first three of the nine – I shall continue in my next post…