It’s no secret that we live in a day and age that Christianity is culturally vexing. There are so many delusional ideas about life, what’s right and what’s wrong, and where humanity is headed it will make your head swim. I have to say, this is a good thing for me. On the one hand, I have found if I try understand it all I will just get depressed; but on the other hand, the cultural, religious, and political confusion has taught me that I must rely upon God…always. His word has never changed and neither has His power to change situations or to reach the most hardened soul.

One of many biblical promises goes like this, “One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the LORD your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you” (Joshua 23:10). Although a promise to Israel, it is still characteristic of God to fight for the one who will put his/her trust in Him.

So if we allow too much focus on the world and its downward spiral, the passage becomes meaningless to us. Christians must never allow the ills of the world to bog us down. God is able to overcome all obstacles we face. Now is the time to pray and to focus on God, and like Paul, redeem the time for the days are evil (Eph 5:16).
Written by Pastor Mike Henderson, Springfield Illinois First Baptist Church

VERSE: “Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15b-16).

EQUATION: Teachings of the New Testament from Apostle Paul = Authentic Scriptures from God.

ACTION: For the first time in the Bible, the great Apostle Peter, tells us as plain as day, that the letters from the brilliant Apostle Paul are not only full of truth but are as much Scriptures as the Words of the Torah (first five books of the Bible) or the Prophets. Jesus Himself revealed them to His servant Paul when He trained him for three years in the Arabian desert. The required action for those who have not yet done so, is to start with reading the Book of Romans, this year and then read all the way through the Book of James – very slowly, very methodically, while praying for the Holy Spirit to make the embedded truths here, easy to comprehend. Scripture immersion is required, at in this current age.

PRAYER: Our Heavenly Father and great God of Heaven Who has revealed Himself to sinful mankind, first through Moses and the Prophets and in these last days, through Your great Son the Savior Jesus, we praise Thee, worship Thee and bless Your Holy Name for giving us the Word of Truth – the Bible. Through this, Father, we cannot be deceived by those on earth who twist Your words to suit their own personal ends and misrepresent You, misleading others and making them just as much a candidate for destruction as they are. Father, give us, through Your revealed word- the Rhema of God and the Powerful Spirit of the Living God, the discernment to immediately recognize false teaching and error so that we may alert the unsuspecting and teach those who need to know You better. Grant us the courage to stand for revealed Truth so that we may proclaim it righteously, with humility and love, but with uncompromising accuracy, so that we may stand before You, holy and blameless, in the Presence of the Angels and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, to whom all praise is due, in His Name, the Name above ALL the other names, we ask all these things, amen and amen.