“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV)
Born the last day of 1949, in the USA, I have lived on this
earth 75 years. In my lifetime I have seen a drastic decline in Christianity,
in the teachings of the gospel of our salvation, in morality, and in a desire
for “believers” in Jesus to follow him in walks of obedience to his commands in
holy living. I have watched as it appears that most of “the church” has been
turned into businesses of human origin to be marketed to the people of the
world, and the gospel message altered to not offend the people of the world who
they are drawing into their gatherings.
The church, overall, now mimics the world in so many ways,
and not many are teaching God’s requirements for death to sin and walks of
obedience to his commands for our faith to be biblical faith which results in
salvation from sin and eternal life with God. It is barely distinguishable
between the church and the world anymore; they are so blended together. And
sinful addiction is running rampant in so many church gatherings, for sinful practices
are now largely being accepted as normal, even for “followers” of Jesus Christ.
And so if you are someone who takes God and his word
seriously, who is putting the teachings of the Scriptures into practice in your
daily life, who is honoring the Lord with how you live, and who is sharing the
truth of the gospel with the worldly church and with the people of the world,
then you are considered odd. And you may face rejection even from others who
profess faith in Jesus Christ, even from some worldly pastors who are following
marketing schemes instead of the Lord’s instructions for us.
Not everyone is like what is described in this passage of
Scripture, thank the Lord, but I do believe we live in a culture, even within
the “Christian church,” which is promoting much of this as normal behavior,
even among pastors of churches. So, as the days go by, I believe we are seeing
more and more of these types of attitudes and behaviors, even among professing
Christians who may have an outward appearance of godliness, but who deny its
power in their lives, in daily practice. We’re not to fellowship with such
people.
“For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.” (2 Timothy 3:6-9 ESV)
Sexual immorality is especially running rampant in today’s
modern church gatherings since so many preachers now are not teaching the
necessity of death to sin and of walking in obedience to our Lord’s commands.
And I do believe that easy access to the internet and to a world of evil via
smart phones has just opened that door wide to so many people, mostly men, but
to some women, to become addicts to inappropriate viewing material and then to
acting out in some manner what they are viewing on the screen.
A few years ago my husband and I attended some type of a
meeting at a local Christian counseling facility to listen to a woman speaker
talk about addiction and how to overcome it, or at least I thought that was to
be the objective. A man in the room, who hinted at the fact that he was vegging
out on pornographic material, was told by the woman to just “claim who you are
in Christ,” in order to keep from feeling guilty. The goal these days seems to
be to remove the guilt, but not the sin causing the guilt feelings.
And many are using this “just claim who you are in Christ”
to erase guilt feelings, but while they continue in addictive sin. But we are
only “in Christ” by genuine faith in him, which results in us denying self,
dying to sin daily, and walking (in conduct) in obedience to our Lord and to
his commands. So we can only claim what is truth. And God’s promises to us all
have conditions that we must meet for us to be “in Christ” and for us to claim
we are “in Christ,” but “in Christ” should not be used as a coverup for
deliberate sin.
For, the Scriptures teach that if our faith is genuine that
it will result in us dying to sin and walking in obedience to our Lord, in
practice. This doesn’t mean we will be absolutely perfect in every respect, but
it does mean that we will no longer be making sin our practice, and not
obedience to our Lord. For if sin is what we practice, by habit, and not walks
of obedience to our Lord and to his New Covenant commands, then we will be
disqualified regarding the faith, and we will not inherit eternal life with
God.
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John
6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14;
Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians
4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; 1
Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
For Our Nation
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Bombs are bursting.
Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is
gently calling
You to follow Him in
all ways.
Trust Him with your
life today.
Make Him your Lord
and your Savior.
Turn from your sin.
Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you
of your sin;
Cleanse your heart,
made new within.
Men betraying: Our
trust fraying.
On our knees to God
we’re praying,
Seeking God to give
us answers
That are only found
in Him.
God is sovereign
over all things.
Nothing from His
mind escaping.
He has all things
under His command,
And will work all
for good.
Jesus Christ is gently
calling
You to follow Him in
all ways.
Men deceiving: We’re
believing
In our Lord, and
interceding
For our nation and
its people
To obey their God
today.
He is our hope for
our future.
For our wounds He
offers suture.
He is all we need
for this life.
Trust Him with your
life today.
In the Last Days
An Original Work / February 12,
2025
Christ’s Free
Servant, Sue J Love
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