Chaos Abounding


Alvin Toffler had it right: the shock of the future is overwhelming to those of us born early in the last century. The pace of events, the gushing of information from every quarter, the number of cracks showing up in what we believed to be solid institutions, the perfidy of politicians, the recklessness of people with leftist inclinations, strangely coupled with their pacifism, all of these trends are disconcertingly sliding past us at light speed. Not only is it hard to understand the why of it all, by the time we have figured out a response to these inanities, it is too late to effect anything, the world having by then rushed by us towards we know not what.

It is quite obvious that the steering of our ship has come loose in the midst of our negotiating a treacherous channel, with rocks to the right of us, rocks to the left, and just to be perverse, rocks dead ahead.

Common sense, slow to the fore as it usually is, occasionally prevails, to the vast relief of many of us. But, in the next wave of insanity, whatever was sensible will have been thrown overboard again to delight the elites and the confounding of the conservatives. Now the Democrats are still in power. It is truly a topsy-turvy time in America, where faith seems to be waning, and patriotism is in bad taste.

It is hard to remember where all of this wild and irrational thinking began. Was it during the 1950’s, when Communism was being hounded by McCarthy, or was it earlier when those insidious utopians got a foothold in society? Was it when it was chic to be a Red, or at least a follower of madmen from Europe? Perhaps it was during the great depression, when we voted into office the New Dealer, and allowed Communists to roam free in government spaces? Or, was this all the fault of the German-American Bund, the US affiliate of Nazi Germany, that was quite vocal back in the late 1930’s? Or, all of the above?

What seems to have happened is the Communists dove underground and colored themselves Progressive Socialists, joined the Democrats to seem a bit more respectable, and gradually have taken over the left side of things. Idiots delight! Despite the abundant evidence that Utopian schemes cannot work, these clowns persist. It must be lust for power alone, and no altruistic motive at all.

Where have the true keepers of the American Flame gone? Several million of them are in the armed forces. Volunteers who are willing to put their lives at stake for an ideal--freedom and security for everyone. Thank God for them! The rest are apparently intimidated, it seems, by the rush to political correctness, hate America speeches and tomes, and the incessant accusations thrown at our former President that need to be defended. The din is so loud that few can think clearly, fooled also by the shifting, disingenuous arguments and polemics from the Socialist side.

Even our hallowed(?) institution, The Supreme Court, has been corrupted by doublespeak and the idea of shaping the Republic to their beliefs and ends. So we have porn, a high divorce rate, prostitution, persecution of Christianity in the name of multiculturalism and diversity, and a hundred other violations of our Constitution and moral ways that we seem not to realize, or care about. The pace of change, and the bewilderment of most of us as to just how all of this drivel was allowed to come about, and how to stop it dead, has frozen the minds of the average citizen, or so it seems.

Our collective horizons have come exceedingly closer and closer, not allowing us to see far enough to understand the consequences of each little step being taken over our heads. Americans are seemingly entranced with their lives, their things, and their newfound money and time, and their local world, too far gone to grasp the events that will affect their children in not too pleasant ways in the reasonably near future. We are being shepherded by the press, the TV, and radio to think in counter-intuitive terms about what we want our lives and our nation to be--yes, when it grows up.

Frustrating, these times are, but there is an ultimate faith that Americans will prevail against the slatterns and touts of the left.

Since December, the wife of my favorite relative has been in continuing pain with no resolution. Now, this afternoon my cousin had to take her to the hospital for stroke like symptoms. The medical staff have said she did not have a stroke, yet tests show at some point she did have a stroke. As everyone knows, having a history of stroke can cause more strokes.

This couple are devoted lifelong Christians. Their entire lives have been an example to others.

I am asking for fervent prayers that something positive can be done to lessen the chance of her having another stroke.

My gratitude for such prayers is great. Thank you.

The 50's were great. The vicious war was over. Ike was President and the country was a powerhouse. The Pledge of Allegiance and Bible scripture reading was in vogue in the classrooms. The 10 Commandments stood in the schools front entrances. Good vibrations were everywhere and people were happy and working. If you compare the 50's to this current mess, I'll take the 50's everytime. Now we have a stolen election with the most corrupt politicians who hate their own country in leadership, we have sexual perversion and drugs on every street corner, men thinking they are women and women thinking they are men, the country has turned on the White Christian men who made the country great, outlawed racism and gave us our freedom against the Nazi's, we have leftists pushing diversity, Inclusion and equity for everyone but Whites, we have men marrying men and women marrying women. Our culture has gone to hell in a handbasket and the spin put on it is that it is "progressive". Our government has never been more corrupt with our politicians in bed with our enemies while passing onto them vital secrets. We have one party in control, protected by both the Marxist media, FBI and deep state. Nine of their criminality meets with any consequences. Useless vaxxes are mandated, worthless masks deemed necessary and a rainbow flag is being flown at out Capitol. Gays are teaching our children their decadent lifestyle in grade school while the 10 Commandments are torn out of those same schools. Our country is in deep doo doo and we are praying that the righteous hand of God takes these demonic, perverted, corrupted people down.

Hey Armi!! Good to see your still kickin!!

After I let Gus go, I swore I'd never do it again myself. Now, I have an 85 lb slobbering, snoring, hard headed bulldog who is irreplaceable. We still have the horse too, and they're best friends.
The horse, Buster is 25, or 26 now, and Ruger is 5, so we have a lot of grief ahead.
I reckon it's worth it in some way because they give us unconditional love, and loyalty.

They're all good ones. That's what makes it so hard to not love them.

The most unpopular subject that people don’t want to hear about is hell. Yet the Bible has almost as much to say about it as any other subject. It cannot be ignored even though it makes people uncomfortable.

The word hell is used in thousands of conversations in hundreds of different ways every day.

Some people use it in swearing.

Others use it to describe their lives.

An alcoholic may say that he is enduring a living hell. An abused woman may say that her home is a hell on Earth.

But in the church, the doctrine of hell is not only unpopular, it is almost forgotten. And if you still happen to attend church regularly, you’ll probably find that there have not been many sermons on this subject in recent years.

Because it has not been preached, few people seem to believe in hell anymore. And there are many numbers of ministers that have never preached a sermon on hell.

Yet, as I read the New Testament, I find again and again direct references to this subject, and most of them are made by Jesus Christ.

Perhaps because some people associate hell with a kind of outmoded theology in which the devil is pictured as a fire-engine-red creature with a fork, tail, split hoofs and horns, we cannot imagine anyone taking the subject seriously.

But I must remind you, with all the earnestness of my soul, that the same Bible that tells us about the love of God and the beauties of Heaven also tells us about judgment and hell.

There is only one person who was ever qualified to speak authoritatively of the future life, and that is Jesus Christ. Read in the New Testament some of the statements that Christ made about this place called hell:

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

Jesus used every descriptive word at His command to warn people to flee the wrath of God that will fall upon sinners who reject God’s plan of salvation.

Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels’ (Matthew 25:41).

I have heard some people say that they live by the Sermon on the Mount, and therefore they do not believe in hell. But listen to what Christ had to say in that sermon: “Whosoever says [to his brother], ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matthew 5:22).

There are many similar utterances which fell from the lips of our Lord in which He emphasized the fact that people should avoid hell at all cost.

There are four words that have been translated hell in our Bible. One word is sheol, which in the Old Testament is translated a number of times as hell. It means an unseen state—a shadowy underworld. Words of sorrow, pain and destruction are used in connection with it.

The second word is hades, which is translated from the Greek and is used 10 times in the New Testament. It means the same as the Hebrew word sheol in the Old Testament. Judgment and suffering are always connected with it.

The third word is tartarus, used only once, in 2 Peter 2:4, where it says that disobedient angels are cast into tartarus. It indicates a place of judgment such as a prison or dungeon where there is intense darkness.

The fourth word is gehenna, used 12 times in the New Testament and translated as hell. It is the illustration that Jesus used of the valley of Hinnom, a place outside Jerusalem where rubbish and debris burned continually.

No one can read the Bible without recognizing that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). No one can read the Bible even casually without realizing that there is a day of reckoning and judgment coming. No one can read the Bible without recognizing that there is a hell.

We fashion our earthly hells out of the passions, the selfishness and the sin that floods into our lives. There is always plenty of material for the fabrication of a hell on Earth, and many of us have made one from which we cannot extricate ourselves.

However, the Bible indicates not only that there can be a hell of our own making on Earth, but that there is a hell in the future, toward which everyone who rejects Christ is going.

Many people ask, “Why should this doctrine, which seems irrelevant to many in this modern age, be brought to our attention? Why should we give it any consideration? Why should we warn people to flee from it?”

First, we should shun hell because of God’s warnings concerning it. God does not waste time in idle chatter. He makes every word count, and we do well to heed His tender, loving warnings.

His Word says, “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly … the Lord knows how … to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment” (2 Peter 2:4-5, 9).

Second, we should shun hell because of Christ’s estimate of it. He called it “everlasting punishment.” He called it “outer darkness,” where there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

He called it “a furnace of fire.” He called it “a place prepared for the devil and his angels.” He called it a place “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”

He told us that it is a place where we have consciousness and the use of our faculties. In the story of Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), Christ said the rich man in hades lifted up his eyes—he had vision. He was in agony, being in torment.

He had the faculty of speech; he cried and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me” (Luke 16:24). He had memories; he said, “I have five brothers … testify to them, lest they come to this place of torment” (Luke 16:28). These are Jesus’ words, not mine. I make no attempt to explain them away.

Christ has told us enough for us to know that hell is a place to be shunned. He considered it so awful in its darkness, its separation and its agony that He spoke at length, both to the multitudes, and to His disciples, about its terrors.

He told men to flee from it, to pluck out an offending eye, if need be. “It is better,” He said, “for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire” (Mark 9:47).

Jesus used every descriptive word at His command to warn people to flee the wrath of God that will fall upon sinners who reject God’s plan of salvation.

Third, we should shun hell because of what it cost God to save us from it. Heaven would not have sacrificed her Royal Prince, God would not have given His only Son, and Christ would not have willingly died on the cross, if the penalty facing mankind had been a light one. God so loved us that He gave His only Son to die in our place in order to save us from the judgment of our sin.

Finally, we should shun hell because God did not create man for it. Hell was created primarily for the devil and his angels. But if you insist on rejecting Christ, then you are destined to spend eternity with the devil and his angels.

Essentially and basically, hell is separation from God. It is “the second death,” which is described as banishment from the presence of all that is joyous, good, righteous and happy.

The Bible has other fearful descriptions concerning the awful condition in which the soul without Christ will find itself after death, yet people will prepare for everything except death.

We prepare for education; we prepare for business; we prepare for our careers; we prepare for marriage; we prepare for old age; we prepare for everything except the moment we are to die. But the Bible says, “It is appointed for men to die once” (Hebrews 9:27).

Everyone would like to ignore death, but everyone must face it—the king and the peasant, the fool and the philosopher, the murderer and the saint. Death knows no age limit or partiality.

And after death, there is an appointment with God on the judgment day, and all who have deliberately ignored God during their lifetime will be banished from His presence.

If you are out of Christ and away from God now, in many ways you are in hell; for hell is separation from God.

We were not made for sin. We were not made for bondage. We were made for life, for joy, for peace, for happiness, for love, for Heaven and for God. Christ is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life” (John 3:36).

Renounce your sin. Repent of your sins and receive Christ as your Lord and Savior. At this moment surrender yourself to Him. Let Jesus into your life. Give Him your heart and your devotion.

If you are not sure where you stand with Almighty God, you can be sure today. First, confess your sin and turn away from it. Second, receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, putting your faith in Him alone to save you. You can do that right now. He promises to live in you and transform your life. You can have a new life, a new beginning, if you will surrender to Christ.

START BY SIMPLY TALKING TO GOD.

You can pray a prayer like this:

“Dear God, I know that I am a sinner. I’m sorry for my sin. I want to turn from my sin. Please forgive me. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son; I believe He died on the cross for my sin and You raised Him to life. I want Him to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want to trust Jesus as my Savior and follow Him as my Lord from this day forward. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

DO IT RIGHT NOW!

"Some people do occasionally stumble across the truth. But they then pick themselves up and move on as if nothing had happened."

Winston Churchill

"It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich person to enter into God's Kingdom." (Mark 10:25)

This is a remarkable statement made by Jesus. In it He highlights the insidious danger that affluence poses to our spiritual well-being. This, He says, can damage the soul. Most everyone in our materialistic culture, even if not openly, are envious of more affluent people. It is natural to desire sufficient financial stability to ensure a sense of peace, security and material comfort for oneself and one's loved ones.

And yet, if we could really grasp the truth that Jesus is trying to impart, we would understand that with an over abundance of worldly privilege; people actually become underprivileged. They are deprived people. Jesus continues to explain the terrible trickle down effect of affluence as it creates worldly power and material comfort. It is impossible, He says, for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Their worldly diversions make it difficult to focus upon God.

Let us not minimize His language. Some soften this by explaining that historically, the eye of a needle referred to a tiny gate, about four feet high, located in the wall of Jerusalem, and that by squirming and wriggling a camel could conceivably get through it. However, I think Jesus is saying to them, It is pert nigh impossible.

It is clear from the context that riches associated with the privilege of possessing them tend to destroy the values that are necessary to enter the kingdom of God. They destroy the childlike ability to trust in God. Affluence creates a concern for secondary values, rather than willing sacrifice.

Comparatively wealthy people are not worried about where their next meal is coming from; they worry about it being sufficiently gourmet. They are not concerned about worshiping God in spirit and in truth, but whether they are fashionably dressed to impress, whether the building which they've chosen to attend is a suitably admired structure, and whether the congregation is composed of those who are of their own socio-economic status.

The conveniences that have become somewhat commonplace in modern culture transfer our concern for the necessities of life to those superfluous aggrandizements which elevate one's own self importance and ease of lifestyle.

Furthermore, affluence destroys teachability because it creates a false sense of self worth based on the power and authority that is derived from possessing money and material objects. Those who have power because of their material comfort feel qualified to teach, but rarely to receive instruction.

This results in arrogance, indifference, and, often, insensitivity to the needs of others, a lack of concern which is self isolating.

Finally, affluence gradually enslaves those who become attached to it. It builds an increasing dependence upon comfort, upon a life of electronic, technological luxury, leaving people unable to concentrate on former goals that require effort.

"He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like foliage." (Proverbs 11:28)

They are owned by their possessions. controlled as if by a habit-forming drug, addicted to comfort and ease. Therefore it destroys the responsive spirit that is ready and willing to learn God's will and to subsequently follow God's truth whenever it is revealed.

That is why Jesus said it is impossible - with people. But not with God. This is the value of grace. God can break that enslavement to riches and material comfort, for if a rich person comes to Christ, he or she must do so with the same humility as a penniless, homeless wanderer.

Affluent people have to acknowledge their complete and utter need and dependence as does every other wretched and miserable guilty sinner, and to receive the gift of life at the hands of Jesus from His cross. There is no other way to receive God's grace, but at the foot of Jesus' cross.

May we be ever alert to the possible corrosive effect of being owned by our possessions, and our attitude one of ready willingness to relinquish them back into His hands... whence they came.

James 1:16-18 "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we would be a kind of first fruits of His creation."


Adaptation: Ray Stedman, The Plight of the Overprivileged