Paul warns Timothy with these words:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron (1 Timothy 4:1-2).

Are we there yet? Absolutely. Let’s review the cesspool in which we live. Are we part of the problem, or doing our best to be part of the solution?

I am troubled that we who claim to be Christians have allowed our brains to become calloused, instead of our knees. We read of 40,000 deaths from an earthquake in Turkey, then go to bed and sleep like a baby. A tsunami hits, 200,000 die, millions are homeless, and we say, “Sure am glad I don’t live there. What’s that football score?”

A young lady goes to the market and doesn’t come home, her defiled body is found days later. Terrorists around the world are killing themselves along with thousands. But all we care about is what we are having for lunch.

A young couple that I love dearly just now broke up. He still loves his wife, but she was seeing a “pastor,” who for the second time left his longsuffering wife. When this wayward wife was asked why she was doing this, she answered a common answer from us sinners/rationalizers: “My God wants me to be happy.”

I agree that God wants us to be happy, but that is not His first priority. His first priority is that we be saved! If His first priority were earthly happiness, then there would never be any martyrs. God wants us to be obedient, even unto death. Jesus did not go to the cross with a smile on His face. Are we better than our Saviour?

“And knowledge shall be increased” 

The devil uses the Internet in many ways, but the most insidious method is the pornography. Lives are being destroyed in the privacy of our homes. If Jesus doesn’t come soon, we will lose all our children, but not only our children. I read a heartwarming letter from a pastor who was pleading for help to break free from his addiction. The only cure is calluses on his knees.

Jesus said in Matthew 24:6-8, “ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars...but the end is not yet.” He then mentions famines, pestilences and earthquakes. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Are we there yet? Yes, however these events once told us to be ready for Jesus to come, but no longer, because they are so common. That is why I am concentrating on the little things, and not the earthquakes and famines.

Once upon a time I believed that the time of trouble would come like a herd of elephants. Not true. It has come like a herd of termites, gnawing away at the moral fiber of society and the Church. Fornication and adultery are occurring at about the same rate in and out of the Church. It has become a way of life today, tolerated.

Allow me to talk about prayer. I am dumbfounded at the prayer life of those who claim to be ready to meet the coming Jesus. As we chat among ourselves, I find that there is no time for worship for the family, but plenty of time for TV.

A once-a-week sermon will not prepare you!

Jon Paulien, in the book Understanding Scriptures, has insightfully said, “Increasing, prophetic preaching is left to the evangelists, while the weekly sermons focus more on social scientific insights and story telling.”

When did you last hear a balanced sermon of Jesus’ love and judgment to come? We appreciate hearing of Jesus’ love, but speaking of the judgment calls for a lifestyle change, and that can wait, “The pleasures of sin for a season.”

I fear that the words of EGW are relevant:

They have so long served their lust that it is natural for their thoughts to be impure and their imaginations corrupt. It is as impossible to cause their minds to dwell upon pure and holy things as it would be to turn the courses of Niagara, and send its waters pouring up the falls (2 T, 346).

And she is talking to the Church!

One need not turn to a religious writer to find the time in which we live. I recommend the book by Robert Bork, Slouching Towards Gomorrah. Let me quote one sentence to give the essence of the whole book and reflects Bork’s thoughts. “The upshot is that American culture is in a free fall, with the bottom not yet in sight.” Bork speaks the truth and the immorality of which he speaks is a pervasive and ubiquitous sickness!

So what can we do?
1. Establish a significant prayer life. If you do not understand what that is, there are many great books on prayer. Get them and read. The Complete Works by E. M. Bounds would be a good place to start.

2. Set aside some time each day to contemplate the value of this life versus the life promised in the new earth. Really think about it. You must come to realize that you have a hell to shun, and a heaven to gain. Make a covenant with God to give Him your life. We all want to hold on to just a little autonomy, but the Holy Spirit wants no 50/50 deal. It must be 100% or nothing at all.

As you contemplate the cross, let me share some words written in 1909 by P. T. Forsyth, in a small book entitled The Cruciality of the Cross:

The holiness of God is what gives His love divine value. And it is meaningless without judgment. The one thing He could not do was simply to wipe the slate and write off the loss. He must either inflict punishment, or assume it. And He chose the latter course as honoring the law while saving the guilty. He took His own judgment. Expiation, therefore, is the very opposite of exacting punishment, it is assuming it.

As God reaches down into this cesspool, how can we refuse to let Him grasp our hand?