Category: Uncategorized (Page 3 of 109)

I’m mostly a failure at writing pleasing exhortations. I realize I am as sand on a picnic, a grinding noise during a philharmonic concert, or the smell of sulfur in a flower garden.

A frequent question is, “Why don’t you just be diplomatic and gentle?”

They seldom ask the same about the individual that scream warnings to save people’s lives. Warnings of imminent danger will irritate people, and many people will ignore them. We are in a very precarious situation in this nation. Concerning the Great War between light and darkness, millions of professing Christians have left Gideon to follow Saul. Saul had the charisma and the profile—Gideon had the message and the faith. The darkest hour is just before dawn. Continue reading

It’s here. Dark clouds. Rumbling in the heavens. Extreme cold. Little bits of white ice falling on my windshield. Trash cans lying on their sides, mouths gaping. The windchill will fall to -4 to -7 degrees before day’s end. The moisture from rain will flash freeze into tributaries of black ice. Power may go out. It is likely the worst storm since we moved to North Carolina, Christmas season 1988.

And yet I hear and read people asking, “What storm?” There was a time that people could sense urgency. They knew something big was going to occur and asked questions. Now they wander about in a cloud single-mindedly attempting to get from here to there. There is little concern about the danger that lies between those two points. That is why they drive into floodwater and drown. It is the reason they drive onto black ice and crash. More importantly, it is why they are completely unprepared for the great and brutal spiritual storm that will settle on this earth.

The truth is that people currently ignore or reject warnings. They fantasize that our sin-soaked nation with leaders that have despotic inclinations will be great again, i.e., Christian-friendly. They focus on secular news, talking heads, and professing Christian hirelings. They are fighting for an earthly utopia when God’s word declares the earth will be melted with a fervent heat.

The indisputable fact is that an unprecedented winter storm is here or coming to most of our nation. Just as certain, this wicked nation cannot escape the consequences of its secular wickedness and religious apostasy. Apathy will provide a cozy blanket to block out the warnings, but one day it will come suddenly on the entire earth.

The prominent sign that one has apostasy is when ears and hearts are closed to truth and eyes are blind to the signs. There will be no one around to say, “I warned you!” When it comes it will be an overwhelming and crushing satanic storm that weak professing Christian’s will be immediately crushed by.

I take no pleasure in spoiling people’s Christmas cheer, but there is no season when we can lower our guard and lose our focus on the essentials.

I get prayer requests to pray for someone to be healed that I don’t know. I always try to discover something about the individual’s spiritual life before I pray. Sometimes I find the individual has been long in rebellion against God. Now, and in a possibly terminal condition, he or she still had not repented. In other cases, it is a professing Christian that promotes heresy.

Should we ask God to heal such a person or deliver them from serious troubles? Or should we concentrate our praying for His Word and the Holy Spirit to convict them? Or both?

First, healing is one of God’s benefits that is promised to His people only. We should never tell people that if they surrender to God, He will heal them. He does not make such a bargain. That does not mean God will never heal a rebellious individual. His ways are past finding out. I do not pray for unregenerate people to be healed unless I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to do so. Most of the time I pray they will come to a deep and piercing knowledge of Christ and God, repent, and then be healed. Sometimes, they were saved and healed. In other cases, they remained rebellious until it was obvious they would not recover. I have been with a few that repented practically in their last breath. Continue reading