\u201cTherefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.\u201d \u2013 Matthew 7:24-27<\/p>\n
In the above passage, Christ tells us how to endure a destructive storm. Consider that each of the individuals heard the words of Christ, each of them built a house, and they both went through a storm that produce a flood and great wind. However, only one house endured and survived the test.<\/p>\n
In Proverbs 24:10, God\u2019s word declares, \u201cIf you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.\u201d Obviously, in order to have strength to endure the last day\u2019s turmoil, will need to follow the principle of enduring. We must hear, but also do God\u2019s word. It appears that most professing Christians have considered that optional. In the second chapter of James, the apostle wrote that hearing and not doing is dead faith. It is like a shell of godliness that has no power. \u00a0It is weak, subject to crumbling under pressure, and may even be shaken apart by bad news.<\/p>\n
To be honest, the principle of enduring has been compromised by heresies that have stripped the strength and even life from many people\u2019s faith. Some of them have been told that they should not do anything to strengthen their faith except be positive. Positive confession is no substitute for obedience to God. An optimist who falls off a cliff will not land softer than a pessimist. Our words must have action in them or they are empty and worthless.<\/p>\n
Other ones have been taught that obeying God\u2019s word is works-based salvation or legalism. They apply the Apostle Paul\u2019s words about the Mosaic Law to salvation under the New Covenant. Ephesians 2:8 declares, \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is<\/em> the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.\u201d God\u2019s work of salvation was purchased by the sacrifice of Christ and not manufactured by the deeds of humanity. However, access is by faith. As the very next verse declares, that faith is not dead, but living faith.<\/p>\n \u201cFor we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.\u201d \u2013 Ephesians 2:10<\/p>\n Finally, there are the ones who are putting all their hope and trust in escapism. They have decided that they will not face a harsh storm. Sadly, millions of them are on antidepressants because they cannot endure the bad news from the print and broadcast media and streaming 24\/7 on the Internet. God\u2019s people are certainly not deserving of His wrath. However, as evidenced by past and present history, that does not exempt them from the deeds of wicked people. The last day\u2019s storm is allowed by God, but He did not cause it. It is caused by the wickedness and rebellion of evil people. God is not responsible for ISIS or any of the vile ones murdering, robbing, raping, mutilating, and otherwise functioning with a demonic nature. He will judge them and cast them into eternal hell.<\/p>\n The storm is already in other nations and is coming to America. Weak faith will be no match for its extremely destructive power. Just as in the days of Noah, people are being warned. Some are scoffing and claiming that the last days are far in the future. Other one\u2019s whistling past the graveyard in na\u00efve denial. But the affairs of the world system keep getting worse. Wicked people are being honored, supported, and protected, which cannot help but create more disaster. Godliness is under attack from all quarters while wickedness is being touted as normal. Violence is widespread. There is no stopping the last day\u2019s storm\u2014we must endure it.<\/p>\n The door of opportunity to align oneself with God\u2019s will is rapidly closing. Deception is not healthy food. Delusion is not a safe place. And there is no strength and structural fortification in flimsy faith. Perseverance must have as its core obedience to God\u2019s word and will.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cTherefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-the-remnant","category-the-great-apostasy","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-is","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1144"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1405,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions\/1405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}