Great Challenges for Every Christian

     Tuesday’s election is behind us.  The next four years will be a challenge for me and for every Christian in America.  I look back and find that Cindi and I made it through the last four years under God’s unchanging hand.  It is certain that we can survive the next four years.  I am reminded of the song we often sing together when we are with the church, “This world is not my home.  I’m just passing through.  My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.  I know He’ll take me through, though I am weak and poor.  And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

     The apostle Paul wrote to us by inspiration of God concerning the “last days,” the days in which we live in 2 Timothy 3.  He wrote about “perilous times.”  Just before he penned these verses that are depressing and very scary, he wrote the follow passage in 2 Timothy 2:22-26:

“Flee also youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.  But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they gender strife.  And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

     I find here that in perilous times my task is to do the following;

1.        Run from youthful lusts (selfishness, greed, worldliness, complacency, ignorance)

2.       Run to righteousness, faith, love, and peace

3.       Avoid foolish and ignorant disputes

4.       Do not quarrel

5.       Be gentle to everyone

6.       Teach with patience those who in opposition to the truth

7.       Walk in humility taking every opportunity to help whomever I can to know the gospel

8.       Pray for those who are held captive by the devil to come to these senses, repent, and escape

     This Sunday at Enola we will continue to study the lessons that Jesus taught during His ministry on earth; His Parables.  This week we will take a look at the Parable of the Covetous Man or The Parable of the Foolish Rich Man in Luke 12:13-21.  Covetousness is sinful.  If you would like to read about this subject, take a look at Exodus 20:17, Ephesians 5:3, Colossians 3:5, 1 Timothy 3:3, and Hebrews 13:5.  Do we understand that our lives do not consist in the abundance of the things we possess?  The thing about things is this:  Things get old, they tarnish, they rust away, they depreciate, they soon lose their value.  Things simply do not last. Things are not sinful within themselves.  Fact is life should be about faith, hope, and love.  Why?  These treasures never get old.  They do not tarnish or rust away.  They never depreciate.  They have value beyond calculation and are eternal in nature.  I hope you understand.  It is okay to have things.  Just as long as we understand that our lives do not consists in the abundance of the things we possess.

     On Sunday evening at Enola we will continue in our series on Foundation Principles with a lesson on righteousness.  God’s plan includes faith, repentance, confession, and baptism.  Now what?  Every Christian must walk in righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus Christ.