Live for Eternity

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

(Matthew 6:19-21)

I feel that it is time for me to exhort all of you, my dear readers. I have seen a great evil in the Church, especially in America. I cannot allow it to continue without a fight, so I will write to you all about this. Please let all your family and friends know about this. If you need to, have them read this post; but please do not allow this evil to go unchallenged in your life and in the lives of others! 

Men of God, as I look around me, I see Christians who are striving after worldly things. They want a new car, a college education, a pay raise, to move up on the social ladder, you name it. These things are not bad in themselves. However, this is the main goal of many of these people. There are men who go out and spend forty hours or more a week to spread the word about their political candidate in an effort to get them elected to some political office. There are some who go out and waste themselves physically, mentally, and spiritually in order to pay for a high-end college degree or to buy the house on Beverly Hills. There are also men who spend most of their time sitting around staring at a television and pressing buttons on a controller in order to get the highest score on Call of Duty (or any other video game for that matter).

Brothers, this should not be reality!  

To those who are wasting themselves in order to get a college degree, can you not do even more work in order to gain wisdom and knowledge of God? Why should you fill your head with pagan philosophy, science, and history, yet refuse to do more than just take a glance at God's Word once a day?

To those who are wasting their lives trying to buy a better house, can you not spend yourself working for the mansion in Glory? Why should you live and die in order to buy a house which will be gone in a hundred years or less, yet do nothing in return for Christ's preparing a place for you in Heaven?

To those who sit around playing video games, why in the world should you sit around wasting your time and attention killing the next fake figure on the screen when you could be standing and fighting against the powers of darkness? Why should you sit around pressing buttons all day, sometimes even doing in a video game what Satan would joyfully do in real life, while there is a spiritual battle to fight?!

To those who waste their lives on politics, can you not spend your life working for the Eternal Kingdom? These empires of the Earth will soon fade away, burned by the fires of Hell. Why should you waste your time working to strengthen something that will be consumed, when you can be working for the King of Kings whose Kingdom shall know no end?!

Men, all the things of this wicked earth shall be consumed in fire and brimstone. The grand empires of man will be destroyed, the buildings will collapse, our college degrees will be of no worth, and our time playing video games will be completely wasted. When we get to heaven, our wealth will not matter, our pagan education will be worthless, our political standing will be of naught. Nothing will matter but our faith in God and the fruit which we bore as a result of this faith. 

When you stand before the judgement seat of God Almighty and He asks you, "What is the greatest thing you ever did?" or, "What did you spend the greater part of your life doing?", what will you tell Him? Will you say, "I made the American government follow the Constitution!" or, "I bought an awesome new car!", or, "I gained a Master's degree in Psychology!"? If that is what you tell him, should you expect Him to say, "Well done, good and faithful slave!"? 

Stop wasting your life on the things of this world! They will never satisfy you! Not only that, they will all perish in eternal fire! Men, why should you waste your life on things which are completely worthless, when there is eternity to work for?! 

Please, listen to me! We must stop wasting our lives! (I include my own, for I am far from perfect on this issue) We must turn from our ways, and work for the glory of God Almighty! Everything else is of no value! If it is not for God's glory, it is not worth wasting our time on! 

Live not for this world, live for eternity!

2012 Elections

This week, I was speaking with a couple of people about the election in 2012. During this conversation, we started talking about whether or not we can trust men to turn this country around, or even to do the good which we want them to do. One of these people is voting for Romney and believes that we can trust his character and his past patterns enough to do the good which we want him to do. I believe that this is a very good topic for a post, so I have decided to write about it.

Here is my issue with the above argument, can we truly trust un-saved Man to do what is good? Can we trust them to make laws that line up with our beliefs? Overall, are they worthy of any trust?
Let us look at the Bible.

"Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in his heart;
there is no fear of God
before his eyes.
For he flatters himself in his own eyes
that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit;
he has ceased to act wisely and do good.
He plots trouble while on his bed;
he sets himself in a way that is not good;
he does not reject evil." (Psalm 36:1-4)

Also, here is Psalm 5:9,

"For there is no truth in their mouth;
their inmost self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
they flatter with their tongue."

cf. Micah 7, Eccles. 9:3, Jeremiah 10:7-8,14, Jeremiah 13:23.

Unsaved rulers/candidates, although they may be considered "good" men by some cultural standard, are really ungodly, ignorant and foolish men. They have no true character (nor can we trust in their character), for every inclination of their hearts are toward evil (Gen. 6:5).I say none of this because I hate these men or am angry with them or want to smear their names, rather I say this because this is who they are.

This is why the Psalmist wrote,

"Do not put your trust in princes,
Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.
His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;
In that very day his plans perish." (Psalm 146:3-4)

Notice, it says that in man, there is no help. There is no help apart from God. Furthermore, we must not trust men to turn this country around. Even trusting them to make laws that will turn this country around is wrong.

If there is still any doubts about this, this is what Paul wrote to Titus about un-saved rulers (which far outnumber saved rulers),

"Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us..." (Titus 3:1-5a)

Paul is here saying that we must be submissive to the rulers and authorities, being obedient to them, not slandering them or quarreling with them. Why should Paul be telling Titus this? Because the rulers were being foolish, disobedient to God, slaves to their fleshly desires, hateful, envious and malicious. Overall, the rulers were just plain bad. However, Paul says (paraphrase), "Why are you amazed at this? They are slaves to sin, just like we once were. You cannot expect slaves of sin to be wise and godly, nor can you expect them to rule wisely and in a godly manner."

It is the same with our nation's leaders. The vast majority of them, unlike what some may say, are not followers of God. They are wicked and foolish, running whole-heartedly on the paths of darkness. Please remember this when you look at the way our leaders are acting and what they do. Do not be amazed when they sin, nor be hateful towards them or slander them. Rather, pray for their salvation daily.

So, I must say again that putting your trust in men to turn this country around or even to make laws that are in accord with godliness, is a very much misplaced trust.

Since I do not trust in men and especially not in the character of the unsaved, I cannot say that I at all trust our rulers. However, that is not an issue for me, because God has complete authority over all rulers and no one can do anything outside of His plan. Thus, I trust not man, but God.



Now that I have said that, here is what I have to say about voting in the next election:

1) Do not put your trust in your candidate. Both of the top candidates are unsaved men. Furthermore, they are only men, prone to evil and foolishness. They are not the deciding factors in what happens in the world, rather, God is in complete control.

2) Vote for the candidate whom you believe is closest to your own views. 

3) Do not slander any of the current rulers, nor any of the candidates, nor anyone in general. Much of Politics rides on mud-slinging, where you slander your opponents and treat them as garbage. Do not take part in this, for it is truly evil and sickening in God's sight.

4) Trust God with the outcome. Please remember that all authorities are appointed by God, even in a democratic/republican system. God will appoint whomever He wishes, no matter what men may wish.

5) Do not act as if the world rests upon this election, nor upon politics in general. Again, this election is not the deciding factor in what happens in this world. God is the "deciding factor" and Supreme Ruler, not America's elections or leaders. Also remember that this world is not our home, nor is America our ultimate Country. We are not citizens of this world, we are citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom.

"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ..." (Philippians 3:20)

As I read what I write and look at my knowledge of God and the Scriptures, I continually see how so many men whom God has called are far greater than I. This is not of their own doing, but of God's, so that His Name may be praised. So, I leave the expounding of this last point which I have given, to Charles Spurgeon. Please read this sermon or listen to the audio which is on it.

Citizens of Heaven

Note: I do not completely agree with Spurgeon, especially about Politically-Involved Christians. However, as Christians, the politics of this world are not of the worth of the Heavenly Kingdom. God is our King and He alone, not the worldly country in which we reside, deserves all our allegiance.

Still, something continually comes to my mind, can a truly godly Christian become the highest official in the land? Will not the hatred of the whole world be upon him because his God is the Lord and he speaks out against the sin of Mankind and reminds them of the Hell which is justly theirs? Can hell-bound Man love a Christian enough to put him into a seat of high honor and power?

Clarifications

Hello all.
I just talked with one of my readers a couple days ago, and he asked a very good question about one of my earlier posts. "So, does submitting to the government mean that I must also agree with what it is doing?"
Quick answer: No. Not at all.
If we look at the lives of the Apostles, we find them continually at odds with the ideas of the Roman Government. They refused to worship the Emperor, and they oftentimes preached the Gospel even when the authorities told them not to.
The idea of submitting to government means:
1) You obey all their laws which are not against what God commands you,
2) You give those in authority the honor and respect they deserve as agents of God,
3) You never, ever take up arms to overthrow them.

As Peter and the Apostles said, when the government tells us to do something against what God commands, "We must obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29)


I will post more this week, and I believe I shall move on to a different topic.

God Bless.