Tag Archives: Bible

Prepare the Way

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In Matthew 3 we see John the Baptist preaching the word, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He was considered the one Isaiah spoke about when he prophesied a voice crying in the wilderness “Prepare the way of the Lord”.

How are we, as Christians, to also prepare the way of the Lord? I believe this is speaking to how we are to share the gospel with others. It’s easy to do all the things that check the boxes of Christianity like read the Bible, pray, go to church, but the difficult part is the prep work required for us to be the salt and light of the world. (Matthew 5:13-16)

Salt is a preservative. How am I preserving the gospel message on a daily basis? Not only preaching it to myself, but also preaching it to those around me? John the Baptist “prepared the way of the Lord” by telling everyone and anyone who would listen to repent! 

We are to be the light. Light illuminates the darkness yet also helps show the way. We are called to “go and make disciples”. This is the great commission. The Bible does not tell us to sit in our cozy homes and just pray for people. Beautiful are the feet of those that bring good news. (Isaiah 52:7)

How are you preparing the way of the Lord today, tomorrow, and this week?

Goals

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Every year at this time we set out to change things for next year. What goals have you set in place? How long do you think you can keep them going?

In order to make a true shift in your ability to make something actually happen, you must commit by changing or updating your identity. The number one goal we should all have this year is to get a few steps closer to Jesus. Our whole world becomes clearer and calmer when we abide in Jesus and His Word abides in us!

Who are you? What is your identity? If your identity is found in Jesus, then let the following five commitments be our battle cry this year:

  1. I am committed to having a “learner’s spirit” (a desire to learn Jesus).
  2. I am committed to examine my life honestly in light of the Bible only and not the world.
  3. I am committed to comparing myself to the Bible rather than to others.
  4. I am committed to obeying God, in all circumstances.
  5. I am committed to Biblically prepare myself for trials and tribulation this year and learn through them as I lean on the Word of God. 

With these five commitments in mind, our one, over-arching commitment should be to read the Bible often and thoroughly. Be blessed through God’s love letter to you!

Clean Your Lens with the Gospel

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We go about our lives mostly on autopilot. Life consumes us. Life beats us down. We often become tired, annoyed, restless, anxious, and even depressed when we do not view life through the lens that God has desired for us. Somehow our lens has gotten foggy and distorted with images of self, desire, pride, people-pleasing, control, and any other world-view that eagerly fights for a spot on that lens. How do we wipe away that lens so we can see clearly? The gospel.

Why is the gospel message so important?

It is our hope, our redemption, our purpose, our lens cleaner.

Get to know the gospel. Memorize it. Preach it to yourself. Share it with others… often!

THE GOSPEL BASICS

God created the world – He created you and me too! As Creator, He is in charge of everything and everyone. He made us to be holy, as He is holy. Sin entered the world through Adam and Even with the deception of Satan. The sin is now in every human and is our nature. Sin separates us from God and deserves ultimate punishment – death. Jesus, God in the flesh, came to earth and lived a perfect life that we should have, a holy life, died the death that we deserved due to our sin, and rose again to eternal life. We may have reconciliation to God and eternal life with Him through hearing the Father’s call and giving our life to Jesus by putting our entire trust, faith, and hope in Him as our Lord and Savior. This means being obedient to His commands as seen in His Word, the Bible, and trusting His will and plan for our life over our own.

TEN POINTS OF MEMORIZATION

  • God is the Creator
  • God is holy
  • Sin separated us
  • God is a just God
  • God is a loving God
  • Jesus is the way
  • We must repent
  • God gave mercy and grace
  • We must have faith
  • Christians gain eternal life with Jesus

TEN POINTS WITH SCRIPTURE

God is the Creator
See Genesis 1:1, John 1:3, Colossians 1:16, and Revelation 4:11.
He created everything, the world and people, to be perfect and without sin.

God is Holy 
See 1 Peter 1:16, 1 Samuel 2:2, and Revelation 4:8.
God is holy, which means set apart or without sin. He created us to be holy, too.
We can only be with God if we are holy like He is.

Sin Separated Us
See Romans 5:12-14, Isaiah 59:2, and Romans 3:23.
Sin entered the world through Adam and was passed down to us. Apart from Christ, sin is now our nature and manifests in our selfish desires and motives. This makes us unholy and separates us from God.

God is a Just God 
See Romans 6:23, Romans 5:12, and James 1:15.
The consequence of our unholy sin nature is death.

God is a Loving God
See John 3:16, Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8, and 1 John 4:8.
God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to pay the price for us by dying on the cross.

Jesus is the Way 
See 1 Peter 2:22, Matthew 14:33, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, and John 14:6.
Jesus, fully God and fully man, is God’s only Son who lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose again. He is the only way to salvation.

We must Repent
See 1 John 1:9, Acts 3:19, and Ephesians 1:7.
We are to ask for forgiveness and turn away from sin and toward Jesus.

God Gave us Mercy and Grace 
See Ephesians 2:4-9, 1 Peter 1:3, 2 Chronicles 30:9b, and Daniel 9:9
God gives us mercy and grace. Mercy is not getting what we deserve, punishment in hell. Grace is getting something we don’t deserve, treasures in heaven.

We must have Faith  
See Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 10:9-10, and Romans 10:17.
We are to give our lives fully to Jesus and trust only in Him for our salvation.

Christians Gain Eternal Life with Jesus
See Revelations 21:4, Luke 23:43, Matthew 6:19-21, John 14:2, and Ephesians 2:6-7.
We will live forever in Heaven with Jesus in our resurrected, perfect bodies where there is no more pain and there is only perfect harmony with Jesus.

Purpose, Passion, and Peace

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How do you live your life? What do you think about most? What do you think about when you think about God?

A.W. Tozer said that what you think about God is the most important thing about you. While that statement is true, a better thought, in my opinion, was said by C.S. Lewis and says what God thinks about you is infinitely more important.

There are two responses to how we live our lives.

Our vertical response and our horizontal response.

Our vertical response is how we were created in light of our relationship vertically, up to God. Our horizontal response is how we were created in light of our relationships horizontally, out to others. The simple answer is usually the most easy to understand, is often the most practical, and usually the hardest to follow.

VERTICAL – You are intended to WORSHIP God.

HORIZONTAL – You are intended to HELP other humans.

As a woman, you are intended to help. Not everyone all the time, but specific people for specific seasons. As an individual, your job is to bring glory to God. As a wife, your roll is to be a helper to your husband. As a mother, your job is to help raise your children to glorify God. As an adult daughter, your job is to help and honor your aging parents. As a friend, your job is to help carry your friends burdens.

Are you overwhelmed yet by that long list? Being a helper is a lot of work. My goal is to try to help you become the best at giving glory and worship to God first and knowing exactly how to be the best helper to others in your life without completely overwhelming yourself. I want you to know when it’s time to say yes and time to say no. I want you to know that every need that people present to you is not always a calling from God. I want you to know that it is OK and necessary to keep a lot of white space on your calendar rather than filling it up with things that may not matter 100 years from now.

Are you ready to find out God’s foundational plan for you? Are you ready to be full of purpose, passion, and peace? Are you ready to stop caring about what the world thinks your purpose should be and focus on God’s perfect plan? Are you ready to rest in that gorgeous plan that is already spelled out for you in the Bible?

I pray that this blog will help you to lean more fully on the Holy Spirit, follow more fervently Jesus’ example, and rest more abundantly in God’s plan.

An Excellent Wife

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What have we become? Overwhelmed. Worrisome. Riddled with anxiety. I had thoughts of becoming an excellent wife as a young girl. Like the descriptions in the Bible – a wife who is regarded as “more precious than jewels” and praised by her husband, who is strong, smart, generous, skilled, dignified, wise, kind, full of hope, without fear of the future, and without worry. This describes the women of long ago. These are the women we are supposed to emulate. What happened? How did we veer so far off course?

I remember watching my son focused as he worked, masterfully creating and artfully building, snapping one LEGO piece together with another. I often wondered what he was creating and how it was to be used.

What is my purpose? Why was I created? Amidst a myriad of worldly reasons, the roll of women has been battled and argued, seemingly won at times, only to find more confusion and frustration arise from within the human ranks as history speeds on. To obtain a correct view of our purpose we must take several large steps back and ask ourselves Who created us and what was the Creator’s intentions.

You would probably find it comical, if not outright frightening, if your child’s LEGO creation stood up and boldly proclaimed its autonomy with an inherent right to decide for itself its purpose. I can almost hear what my child’s respond would be as he corrects his creation and decides to change mid-play its intended use, or chooses to smash it to pieces in order to build it up as something wholly different.

Why is this any different with the Almighty Creator of the universe in regard to us? Just because we have will, conscience, and seeming autonomy, the fact of the matter is, we have a purpose that was already determined. All we need to do is understand two specific intentions as put forth by our Creator.

Why were YOU created by God?

Promises from Above

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Seasons Prayer JournalGod’s promises are everywhere in His word. Some are promises for specific people, some for an entire nation, some for His children (you and me), and even some for the entire world, through His amazing common grace. The verses we will look at this week are promises from all over scripture. Make sure to consider the context of each verse. To whom was it written to and why? Is there a universal truth to the passage? How it could apply to you today? Store these promises in your heart. Write them on your mind through memorization and repetition. Call on them when you need help on the battlefield. God is always ready with his armor. Tell God how big your problems are, but always remember to tell your problems how big your God is!

Look up one verse per day this week and prayerfully consider how you should respond to it.

Day 1: Jeremiah 29:11

Day 2: 1 John 1:7

Day 3: Romans 8:28

Day 4: Proverbs 3:5-6

Day 5: 1 Corinthians 10:13

Day 6: 1 John 1:9

Day 7: Matthew 6:33

Are You Actually Kidding Yourself Straight to Hell?

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1 John 1:6 ESV
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Fellowship was a word not used by the secular writers of the day. It meant to have intimacy with God. This was a foreign concept to both the Jews and those of other religions. But Christians understood the gospel meant that they now have access to the Father through the Son. The literal and figurative veil was torn at the death and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The resurrection and the following receiving of the Holy Spirit guaranteed and sealed their fellowship. The Holy Spirit is our internal guide. He is our Truth. Our True North. We might “say” we are intimate with Jesus. We might even go so far as to “say” we love Him and think He loves us back. The give-away that this warped sense of reality is, in fact, not true is when someone who claims Christ as the one they follow also practices unrighteousness.

The word here in Greek is περιπατέω which is transliterated as peripateō which means to walk, however the Hebrews used this word to mean the conduct of one’s life. I realize that we often speak of ourselves or others as having lost their way. But John is clear when he says if someone says they are a Christian but the conduct of their life is counter to God’s word, then they are not a Christian. At. All. I will say it again, as I have said in multiple other posts: Satan has had thousands of years to perfect the art of deception, and you better believe he is excellent at his craft. Don’t believe the lie he is telling you. Start looking at your life through Truth. Through what the Bible has to say. Please do not lie to yourself thinking you are better than the next person. What are you holding on to? While you may be a “good person” what does that actually mean? I want to give you some solid examples rather than leave this up to interpretation. Here is a very short list of typical claimed-as-non-sin “sins” people commit in entitled America who call themselves Christians but are actually not.

TYPICAL LIE #1
You are sleeping with your girlfriend or boyfriend. (I am going to expand on this first one just a bit so you can see what I mean). You have somehow justified this law as either antiquated or you are engaged or in the eyes of God you are already married.

I remember having a long conversation with an older man in my neighborhood who identified so strongly with Jesus and was extremely involved in his church. He was divorced with kids and was dating another woman from his church who was also divorced with kids. Somehow in the conversation he mentioned three things. 1. They are living together. 2. Yes, they are sleeping together but they said vows to each other so in the eyes of God they are married. 3. They are not getting along so he thinks he is going to break up with her soon. WHAT??? I could have just let it alone but I called him out on his obvious erroneous thought process. He has believed so many lies and was living one HUGE lie after another. He sort of ho-hum agreed with my rebuke and I never saw him again.

Another person in my life believes it is OK that they are sleeping together because they are getting marred and have also stated some sort of private vows. Not only is that unbiblical on several levels, it is also an issue because they were sleeping together LONG before they ever even started to talk about getting married. She agrees to disagree with me.

A friend of mine believes the man she is marrying will “come around”. She says he promised to come to church with her and she is hopeful he will get saved soon. She also says that she can walk down the isle, say her vows, and then ask God to forgive her for going against His word by becoming unequally yoked. How are all these lies are becoming truths? Satan is just that good. She is no longer speaking to me.

TYPICAL LIE #2
You call yourself a “cussin’ Christian”
What does THAT mean? Well, you say bad words. Often. Or perhaps you use the Lord’s Name in vain and really don’t think much of it. Sorry, you are living a lie.

TYPICAL LIE #3
You chase money. You tell yourself it is not money that is bad, it is the LOVE of money. While yes, that is true, it is still a lie. If you are chasing money and using that line to back up your idol, then again you are living a lie.

TYPICAL LIE #4
You are a prayer warrior. Your gift is not evangelism. You leave that to people who are gifted at talking to strangers or who are gifted at sharing the gospel with others. Usually that gift is for pastors and people in full-time ministry. Again, a HUGE lie. We ALL are commissioned to spread the gospel. ALL.

TYPICAL LIE #5
You consider yourself a normal Christian but you have friends who are Jesus Freaks. You reserve that name for the really intense Christians in your life but that is not you at all. You fit in. Your way of witnessing to others is by not being crazy, because who is really going to respond to that anyway, right? LIE!! Being a Jesus Freak does not mean being out of your mind crazy, it means living a life that is counter to how the world lives. Living based on the Bible. Yes, that would most likely put you in the Jesus Freak category, but not in the, stand-on-the-street-corner-holding-an-end-of-the-world-sign crazy. Make sense?

TYPICAL LIE #6
You attend church, you read your Bible as often as you can, maybe a few times a week, maybe every day if you remember. You go on short term missions, or you tithe or give offering to the church. You made a profession of faith when you were 13, you got baptized and you are from a Christian church. I realize not all of this describes you, but some of it may. Christianity is not a checklist. While you may do all these things, they do not, in and of themselves, make you a Christian. Check your growth. Check your fruit. This lie is one of the BIGGEST there is.

2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?-unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Secret Societies Cloaked in Rituals

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1 John 1:5 ESV
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

In 1 John 1:5, John refers to light and darkness. God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. Historically, there are two meanings for light and dark: the intellectual and the moral. Intellectually light is truth and darkness is falsehood. Morally light is purity and darkness is sin. God is perfection through and through. John is challenging the heretics of the day who met in secret societies cloaked in rituals and secret veiled initiation rights. For them to claim they knew God was ridiculous because God IS light and he would not be found in the literal dark rituals of the heretics.

This is interesting for today’s modern society where so much is applauded that is shrouded in darkness and secrecy. It is easier to live in the darkness too. What is truth these days? Truth has become lies and lies have become truth. How do we, as Christians discern the difference?

I grew up in a church where the leadership team looked the other way when confronted with bold-faced sin. There was no accountability and sin was shrouded in secrecy. This was a supposedly bible teaching Baptist church. After I left for college, one person after another fell into scandal. BIG scandal. It was like watching flies drop. It was horrific really. It was sad and heartbreaking. How does that much scandal happen in the church? Secrecy. Sin. Darkness.

We all sin, but it is the fact of making sin a practice that is the difference. Making a habit of sin is what John will expand upon in 1 John 3:6. If you practice sin continually John, without hesitation, calls us out as not being a Christian. We will stumble. But with the Holy Spirit in us, it is extremely hard, impossible really, to make a practice of sin.

My dear, dear reader. I implore you, on behalf of Jesus, to be reconciled to God. (2 Cor. 5:20) Don’t get caught up in a “feel good” church. Please. Don’t do it. Read Matthew 5-7. Read John 6. What does it say in John 6:66? Jesus was not preaching to the masses. He was preaching to the called. He was not trying to sell anyone anything. He was speaking truth.

Truth is hard. Get yourself into a church that is not afraid to preach the truth. If you are attending a “self-help” topical feel good sermon preaching church, get out! Run! Find a church that will speak the truth to you. Find a community that has leaders like John. I look at John and think what a great thing to be under his leadership. That is what I look for in leaders. Truth. Hard truth. Truth that is full of light and no darkness at all.

Broken Beyond Healing

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1 John 1:3 ESV
that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

The word for proclaim is apaggello which also gives weight to the fact that John was commissioned by Jesus to testify. Koinonia is the Greek word for fellowship. It is specifically a word used for Christians. We have fellowship with each other only because we have fellowship with the Father AND the Son. John makes this distinction clear because his readers were dealing with heretics of their age that were stating Jesus the man was not the Christ. John is being clear that our fellowship as believers stems from our fellowship and intimacy with the Father and the Son.

Coming from actual on-the-scene eyewitnesses, we as believers can join in with the fellowship of the church and the blessed fellowship with the Father and Son.

This is so real to me as I have gotten tossed around by the world this week. Fellowship with Jesus and the Father is such a huge blessing however it is more so when done in the community of believers. I fear too many people today are lacking in this area. They church hop like they coffee shop hot. In fact, people are more attached to their favorite coffee shop than they are to their church. The fickle behavior of church goers state, “If I don’t feel good at my church, I’m out.” I get it. Family is hard. Being guided and reproved is hard. But as Proverbs 9:8b states, “reprove a wise man, and he will love you.” Too many of us are wise in our own eyes. We are unwilling to listen to criticism. We are stubborn to the point of breaking. Proverbs 29:1 states, “He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.”

I don’t want to be broken beyond healing. Lord, help me to learn and grow even when it is hard. Help me to be moldable even by men. Show me respect and teach me love for those who correct me and are responsible for me. Give me leadership that leads well. Give me leadership that teaches and reproves me the way I need to be reproved and help me to be humble in my education which is my sanctification which is my life. You are everything and I will take all you have to offer in any means necessary to bring about the greatest growth and maturity in Christ.

The HUGE Lie about Christianity

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There is a HUGE lie that is going around in regard to the picture people are painting about Christianity. “Come to Jesus, and you will find rest!” “Let Jesus into your heart because He loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life!” (skip to the bold to understand why I am writing about this.)

These benefits sound amazing right!? Well, truth be told, and you know I love me some truth pills, all of that could not be further from the truth. In fact, it is the exact opposite! Jesus GUARANTEED we would have troubles in our earthly life if we chose to follow Him. I will concede, however that those statements above about finding rest, and there being a wonderful plan for your life are 100% true and 100% taken out of context. Your rest will happen in eternity. Yes, there is great peace in trusting in Jesus and knowing our final destination, however actual physical rest here on this Earth was never promised. Yes, He does have a wonderful plan for you, but it won’t be what you think of as wonderful. You won’t get the perfect job, marry the perfect person, and have a perfect life. As a Christian, that just won’t happen. Sure there will be times of great joy in this life. Be sure that God not only loves you, He also LIKES you. He will give good things to you. He will shower love on you. HOWEVER, He wants you to GROW! You will not grow unless you suffer and experience hardships. There are over 100 verses in the Bible that talk about hardships and suffering specifically for God’s children. At the end I have listed a few to give you an example.

But get this! Not only are there hardships and sufferings that God allows and sanctions in your life to help you grow, degree by degree, but there is another, quite infuriating hardship that we must endure. If you are a sideline Christian, you most likely will not experience this. If, however, you are an “all-in” fully sold out for Jesus kind of person, then you better bet you will experience this and if you don’t you should worry and question why you are not.

WARNING: This may be upsetting.
If you are a sideline Christian, I am going to challenge you to figure out what that means. Sideline Christians typically consider themselves sort of lukewarm. They may call themselves “Cafeteria Christians” or “Carnal Christians” or my favorite, “Cussin’ Christian.” My heart breaks for you if that is you. There is no room for this type of Christianity ANYWHERE in the Bible. If you consider yourself a sideline Christian, consider with all your being your actual salvation. Really study this and figure this one out. You may not be a Christian. Please read my testimony to see what I am talking about. I considered myself to be a “Cafeteria Christian.” While I did not use that phrase, when someone described it, it made perfect sense. I cherry picked all the stuff in the Bible I liked. The stuff I did not understand or felt was antiquated (really just meant for people back then, and couldn’t possibly mean for me, such as women not being able to be pastors) all this “stuff” I literally shoved out of my self-created religion.

So, where am I going with this? The closer you are to the Target, the more you will get hit. By whom? Satan and his henchmen. The Target: Jesus. All those fallen angels are wildly upset with the fact that their fate is sealed. Their one and ONLY goal is to get people messed up. They have a very skilled two-pronged approach.

    1. Get people to THINK they are Christians when they actually are not. (see Matthew 7:21-23 ESV) No really, LOOK IT UP, this may be describing you!
    2. Get the actual Christians so distracted with trial after trial, persecution after persecution, that they will not be as effective witnesses and therefore less people will come to Christ and obtain the very thing they are no longer able to get: eternal salvation.

I am writing this today because in June of this year I decided to go to a different church with my husband that was more his pace. After an entire summer being away from my church and not really involved in the new church at the request of my husband I can tell you not only was it the worst spiritual growth I have had over a 3 month period, but it was also the easiest from the spiritual battle perspective. No major trials, no major suffering, after a full, and I mean FULL 2 years of major trials, one after another every 2-3 weeks something new hitting me hard. It was exhausting, but I was also ON FIRE. I was witnessing to everyone, serving in any capacity I could, I was growing, and thriving in Christ but being beaten up literally by the world. 

I even questioned why I was getting off so easy this summer. I was nervous at the fact that God was being so silent in my life. I knew in the pit of my stomach it was because I was not as close to the Target as I am when I am at my old church. The spiritual battle is palpable at that church. I even started getting nervous about the possibility of going back because I knew I would be starting the battle again. I would be growing more and Satan does not like that, so I am sure I have some new henchmen assigned just to me. Then, on Sunday, I declared to two of my friends that I am coming back to my church since my husband has not been coming with me to the new church as promised and I never want to force him to do anything. That is not my style. Monday morning I start a potentially life-saving Periscope daily broadcast going through 1 John, one of the most convicting books in the Bible and then later that morning, I get hit with some major tax news that put me into a tail spin. Tuesday, today, my son got punched in the eye and sent to the principal’s office (soooo not like Jacob AT ALL) and I got hit with a lawsuit for imagery infringement (those of you who know me, know I am a big contender for image usage rights, but this one was an honest mistake and I am now facing legal action.) Needless to say, here we go again. Pile it on! In this life, as a sold out servant of Christ, you better believe I am going to be bombarded with distractions and suffering from Satan’s minions. But I will COUNT IT ALL JOY! I know I must endure. I must learn. I must grow. And soon, YES, very SOON, I am going to see Him face to face and for that I hold my hope close to my chest. For THAT my hope is secure.

If you find that your life is pretty easy and things tend to always go your way, I would re-evaluate where you are with your salvation and your relationship with Jesus. We are all on different paths and all have varying degrees of faith and ways in which He teaches and leads us. I look around at my friends who clearly are not Christians based simply on their lifestyles, yet they claim Christianity. Guess what? They have it pretty good. Their life is not spiritually attacked and they may be blessed in ways you and I will never be. Just remember, this may be the best they ever have it. I really REALLY want you to take time this year and evaluate your life. Evaluate your sanctification. Do a fruit audit. Get right with the living God. He may come back way sooner than we all expect!

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, (Philippians 1:29 ESV)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4 ESV)

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5 ESV)

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.(Romans 8:18 ESV)

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:12-13 ESV)

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, (2 Timothy 3:12 ESV)