“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” – Matthew 24:13<\/p>\n
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” –\u00a0Revelation 2:7<\/p>\n
Most professing Christians today were not prepared for the COVID-19 virus. They are sitting in their homes on their computers trying to find some way to defeat the boredom. However, they are also scared, fearful of assembling, obediently donning ineffective and even dangerous masks, and have otherwise accepted the violation of their Constitutional rights without a whimper. They not only do not recognize the aberrations in the Government response to COVID-19, the encroachment by scurrilous politicians, but they do not wish to recognize anything wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.\u2019\u201d \u2014 Matthew 13:15<\/p>\n
Someone might protest, \u201cBut that was directed toward the Pharisees, who were spiritually out of touch with God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, they were spiritually out of touch with God. But are most professing Christians today more spiritually in touch with God? The watchmen have been warning for some time that the trials people are going through were to prepare them for a coming Dark Storm. Instead of allowing the trials to prepare them, the great majority of professing Christian sank deep into apathy, refused to have their faith purged, and focused on the things that made them feel comfortable, happy, and secure.<\/p>\n
They replied to the watchmen, “Why are you so negative? Why can’t you be more loving and encouraging?” Genuine love speaks truth to the ones in darkness or heading in that direction. One of the most popular cries from hell is, “Why didn’t someone warn me about this place?”<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the same professing Christians are aggressive toward the Believers that discern that COVID-19 is not the major issue. They choose to believe that the Lord Jesus will return and snatch them up to glory before their comfort zones are invaded. Nonetheless, there is evidence that Globalists and political liberals are taking advantage of this situation to create a much worse crisis. We may get through COVID-19 with our health intact only to discover that we have lost our liberty. Predictably, any warning regarding the subterfuge of wicked people is labeled a \u201cconspiracy theory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Admittedly, there is a constant river of conspiracy theories and fake news on Social Media. True Christians did not create that mass of ill-communications. The conspiracy theory flood was created by unscrupulous attention-seekers that likely do not know they are providing a cover for satanic works of darkness. A clever and oft used trick of Satan is to present an obvious and repugnant deception. Then while the Believers are focus on avoiding that easily recognized scheme, he works a similar but much more clever deception. Discerning Believers that attempt to expose the more clever wile are ignored because people think they are aware of the danger.<\/p>\n
Thus, under the great odious cloud of conspiracy theories, Satan conducts a scheme that will bring about some loss of liberty and some degree of bondage\u2014we do not know what that degree is. It could be the Dems winning the Presidency, or the advent of a One-world Government and digital economy. One thing is certain, the ones that lust for power also despise Christianity. As one of their follows bragged, they never let a crisis go to waste. Another historical fact is that once they gain power and control, they do not easily relinquish it.<\/p>\n
How do professing Christians that did not prepare intend to endure when the days become much harsher? God asked the same question of Jeremiah, who was much more prepared.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?\u201d \u2014 Jeremiah 12:5<\/p>\n
Consider the facts and look at the signs\u2014our world has changed, is changing, and going to change for the worse. Genuine Christians are not going to like those changes. Professing Christians that think that they are ready to live in such a world are mistaken, or worse\u2014deceived. We cannot just confess that we are ready and expect that to be the case. It is easy to brag about our mastery over Satan in a church meeting, but how do we do in the battles for our focus, our desires, and our steadfastness in faith? We have to actively prepare ourselves, and allow the Holy Spirit to prepare us, to be able to stand and to endure.<\/p>\n
Consider the Apostle Paul\u2019s words about this fight of faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cI therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.\u201d \u2014 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 (The Greek word, adokimos, for castaway is translated as “reprobate” in Romans 1:28; 2 Corinthians 13:5; 2 Timothy 3:8; Titus 1:16; Hebrews 6:8 \u201crejected\u201d – reprobate.)<\/p>\n
Numerous professing Christians believe that all they have to do is confess belief in Christ and attend church meetings. They have no relationship with him. They do not obey the will of God because they do not even seek the will of God. Nor do they know how to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Of all stripes of professing Christians, that faction is not ready to face what is coming on this earth. (see Luke 12:42-48)<\/p>\n
The children of Israel were not fully prepared to depart from Egypt. There was no announcement before Moses showed up that they would have to pull up stakes and leave everything familiar behind. One can only imagine how harsh that must have been to endure. Following God often goes down a path that we do not understand, and would rather not travel, and often do not know where it will end.<\/p>\n
The fact is, we often have to go on a long journey through a desert before realizing the promise.<\/p>\n
The Pharisees were not prepared. they did not even recognize Christ when he arrived. They were looking for someone like them\u2014someone proud and pompous, that exalted himself with their manufactured spirituality and sacrosanct authority. They were not looking for someone who mingled with the masses, but someone who set aloof above them and barked out commands as a king.<\/p>\n
Judas was not prepared. Judas apparently had a concept of the Messiah that would involve him leading Israel back to their former glory. He believed that they would escape the Roman rule, and be restored to Israel of David\u2019s leadership. It could be that when he joined with the Pharisees to send Christ to his death, he thought Jesus would perform a miracle and triumph over his enemies. Death, burial, and resurrection was not Judas\u2019s idea of a miracle.<\/p>\n
Even the disciples were not fully prepared. They became bewildered and discouraged after his death. They did not know how to respond to the events that led to his crucifixion.<\/p>\n
The Jews were not prepared for Hitler. The Russians were not prepared for Stalin. China was not prepared for Communism. Christianity was not prepared for COVID-19. Are we prepared for the \u201cnew normal?\u201d<\/p>\n
Job was prepared!<\/p>\n
\u201cThough he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.\u201d \u2014 Job 13:15-16<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” – Matthew 24:13 “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” […]<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-wa","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994"}],"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=1994"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1998,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994\/revisions\/1998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}