Gideons300

Just a note on keith. He was a radical christina, and in my mind, the conscience of the church for years. See if you can find a few of his songs that showed this..... Asleep in the Light, The Sheep and the Goats, and So You Want to Go Back to Egypt? You can still get copies of his tracts from Last Days Ministries, run by Melody Green, his wife. The man inspired many. I was one. Bruce

"The prophets give false prophecies, and the priests rule with an iron hand. Worse yet, my people like it that way! But what will you do when the end comes?" Jeremiah 5:31 We are told clearly that our enemy goes about as a roaring lion, seeking to devour us, and we are told to resist Him steadfast in the faith, and that our shield of faith will quench all the fiery arrows he throws at us. We are told to not be ignorant of his devices, and that his true power lies in deception and the twisting of half trusths into full error. Yet, as we look at God's bride today, we have been robbed of things Christ died to give us and more amazingly, the deception is so great that we fight for the half truths of decption we have been fed by the liar of all liars, rather than against the one who lies to us, for when he lies, he is simply speaking his native language. We not only allow ourselves to be robbed, but we have asked the enemy to make himself comfortable and to join us for milk and cookies after the pot luck supper. God has clearly told us that we have the right to put off our flesh by faith, and that is we are in Christ, we are not any longer in the flesh, but in the spirit. We are told that sin shall not have dominion over us. We are told there is but one profitable path for us to take as children of God, for us to be found walking in our new creature, where our flesh and the lusts of that flesh that bring forth sin have been put off. Yet, who has believed this report? All this is to be a product of our believing it, accepting it as truth, and this is the good fight of faith we have been told to wage. This is the faith we are told to earnestly contend for. Yet, for many, the shield of faith is found gathering dust, not arrows, and the sword, the word of God that we are told is profitable for instruction in righteousness, is not even revered as His truth for us any longer. Yet God has said that He honors His word, even above His name. How the mighty have fallen. Like Samson was found blinded and grinding corn for our enemy, the mighty bride of the book of Acts now bakes him cookies. The robber has robbed us for generations, played havoc with our walks, our families, our children, kept us hounded by condemnation, led us into worldliness and secret sin that dishonors the one who died for us and as the scrpiture says.... and yet, most amazingly, His people love to have it so. No longer. Is it not high time we awoke to righteousness and put on strength? Shall not we trust our God to roll up His sleeves and show himself strong on our behalf? Is it not called for that we compare what we believe as Christianity to the word of God and let His word rule, no matter what it requires us to change? It is time we let satan know who we are...we are the people of the Almighty God and we come in His name, with His authority and our own testimony of our God's ability to deliver and set free indeed. Our weak Christian walks may seem to have sufficed thus far as we walk towards Heaven, but the skies now are sunny and the waters calm compared to what is coming soon. God tells us though, to not stick our heads in the sand like spiritual ostriches, thinking these times of peace will continue forever simply because we want to them to. He asks us, "What will we do in the end?" If we cannot walk in victory and overcome the world in fair weather, how can we even hope to do so when the cost will be our necks? The answer is "We cannot". Saints, it is time we exposed the lies and girded ourselves again with truth...TRUTH! His word is truth, and until we wrap oursleves with it, arm ourselves with it, we continue to offer satan a place in us he has no right to. We must yield ourselves to God as those not in the flesh, but as those who are alive from the dead, victorious, powerful, with swords and shields of warriors of God. True victory, and in the end, our very souls, depend on it. Blessings, Bruce

Mayt I ask for what purpose this question is asked? I get the feeling I am a deer heading into a big pile of free corn but there are these funny little stands up in the trees. Bruce

John 15 v 9 - 14: "Just as my Father has loved Me, I too have loved you; so stay in My love. If you keep my commands, you will stay in My love - just as I have kept My Father's commands and stay in His love. I have said this to you so that My joy may be in you, and your joy be complete. This is My command; that you keep on loving each other just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than a person who lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you." Yeshua Here is what I have found true in my past life. All the words you share are true indeed, yet there is a problem, or at least there was for me. Romans 7. The things I wanted to do (obey) I often did not do, and the the things I did not want to do (disobey) I ended up doing. I searched and searched for an answer to this dilemma and found in the vast expanse of modern Christianity, this issue is swept under the rug for the most part. Few talk about it, other than to bemoan our weakness, and then self assure ourselves all is forgiven anyway. What eventually seems to happen is people stop striving for victory at all, and unbelief creeps in, assuring us we will never walk in the victory I see so clearly promised by a multitude of scriptures. God in His mercy finally led me to Ezekiel 36, where He prophesies to us the new covenant and its benefits. In vs. 26, He says "...and I will put my spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in my statutes". Praise God! Our lord promises to bring us to the point of obedience. Romans 7 weas for those still serving God in their effort, under the spirit of the law (7:1) and disobedience was still the result, even when we wanted to obey! But thank God, He says that he will bring us obedient hearts by dwelling in us. Loving others as we love ourselves is simply not a choice. We will run out of steam and revert to self preservation and self pleasuring. We must have a new heart on the matter. We need a new man. And bless God, He provides it to any and all who will receive it from Him by faith. I love how God finished off His promise of the new covenant. He said this: "I shall yet be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." What an amazing God we serve. To any who long to love others in a deeper way, a way that does not tire or wear out, God has an answer for you, the blessing of putting off your old selfish man by faith alone. Seek Him for it. Tell Him you need it if you are to truly walk as the obedient child you desire deep within you to be. He will not disappoint. As a matter of fact, we are told in the word that His eyes search to and fro across the whole earth, seeking those on whose behalf He can show Himself strong. God is not looking for strong Christians, he is looking for saints who know their weakness and seek Him to live in them and to love through them so that they can finally do the things that before, they simply had no strength to do. As Paul reminded the Ephesians "Nothing profits but a new creature." Blessings, Bruce

Bruce, thank you for posting this. I am wondering tho is if folks truly understand the biblical concept of love. I think most think in terms of the 'love' they see and experience everyday, instead of the powerful love that God says that He IS! A love that hates evil by it's very nature, for instance...as I have recently been TOLD that God's nature is much MORE then love because HE judges and deals heavily with sin and etc......yet, the two - dealing with sin and loving - ARE very compatable, and not seperate at all. When I love someone I do not want them harmed by evil. I also want the very best for them...and therefore do not want them tangling with sin and it's destruction. Also, true agape love displaces evil...as light displaces darkness. It also sacrifices itself for another. It comes from heaven, therefore it is powerful and so it IS NOT the fluffy, powerless love we see here on earth. Therefore, I think people have to realize that when they read about God's love or loving others in scripture that THIS love is a far-cry from the love they are automatically thinking of. Blessings to you... You have much wisdom, Miss Jenny. You are correct. Sadly, if we are existing still in our flesh, we think thru that flesh and judge by the flesh. We are told to put off the old man and be renewed in the spirit of our mind and to put on the new man, created in righteousness and true holiness. Yet how many try to renew their minds without first putting off the old nature which is totally contrary to God working thru us, and teaching us real truth. Love is the very essence of our Christian faith, but it is far from just ooey-gooey feelings. It is submission to His will, totally trusting that His will for us is "that good and perfect and acceptable will of God". It is putting full faith in His promises to us, no matter how far fetched they are to our human reasoning. We do not serve a God of the natural, but of the supernatural, and all His promises in Christ are yea and amen. We can take them to the bank, write checks on them regardless of what we see and feel, and know that God is not a man that He should lie. How do we truly show our love to our Father? We TRUST Him with our lives, and in that trust, fully, 100% submit to His will, whatever it may be. How can we do that? Because we KNOW He loves us and would never give us anything that was not perfect for us to make us full of joy in Him. You posts are much appreciated. Blessings, Bruce

In the book of Acts, the early Christians, filled with the spirit, were so filled with love for one another that they shared all things common. Those that had plenty had nothing left over. Those that had little saw no lack. Is it any wonder that this type of love caused the church to blaze thru the known world, "turning the world upside down" as one non- Christian exclaimed in Acts? We would be hard pressed to see anything like that anywhere in our Western Christianity today. This commandment to love others as we love ourselves is not easy, most would agree. I will go a step further. I believe in truth it is not just hard, it is impossible, unless a man or woman gets free from their fleshly nature. But there is the rub. How many truly want to be free of it? Many say they do, but it is the most valuable asset in our collection of pearls, self-rule, that must be sold in order to truly possess and be possessed by the one who is the pearl of great price. With the defeat of the flesh goes our "right" to self-rule, self-will, , leaning on our own strength and determination to follow after God, which will never be enough, especially as the cost for following the Lord increases as times get bad, In these last days, God is revealing that when we say "Lord, Lord", we use the word correctly, as someone how is not his own but as someone 100% submitted to the will of the loving master, the one who bought him with a price.This is Christianity with a cost, something almost unheard of in our Christianity today. This is also the pathway to walking "free indeed", free to love one another with our entire hearts, not just with the remnanants of what is left over after we finish loving ourselves. This is the "being saved to the uttermost" that we as His body so desperately need to walk in to prove to a disbelieving world that our God truly reigns. Make no mistake, the challenge before us is.... Can a man walk in the new nature as Christ promised? Can a man be brought to a place, a dwelling place, an abiding, where he is no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit, all day, every day? Paul told the Ephesians "Nothing profits but a new creature" but how we do not want to believe that. Our God has promised that our shield of faith would quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. He promised that we would be given a way of escape in every temptation. He promised that sin would not have dominion over us. He told us clearly that we are not in the flesh, that we are dead to it, and we are now to yield ourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, not as those trying to die. Why is it we hear so few hunger after this type of victory? To not know how to walk here is forgivable and understandable, as few teach this "being saved to the uttermost". But not to even hunger after truly defeating the old nature, content to simply "do the best we can" when we all know for a fact that we put far less than our best effort into becoming holy....that is the problem I see we need to address if love is to ever rule as God wills in our lives. We can talk about love all we want, but until we talk about how to lose our old nature, it is simply nice sounding words, with no power to back them up. Jude told us to "earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints". If we are to "turn the world upside down" again as the early saints did, if we are to love as they loved one another, the answer is contending for the faith that "it is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me". May God help lead us to do so. Blessings, Bruce

Charitow it isn't a particular thing or person etc - it's just that with my time with the Lord He IS showing me that this is a hard commandment to follow because of our sense of falling back into fleshliness....the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and because we are comfortable in the weaker side of ourselves, because it's easier and "safe", familiar, we then do not obey what we should be obeying hence loving one another in Spirit AND in truth...not just lip service - In the book of Acts, the early Christians, filled with the spirit, were so filled with love for one another that they shared all things common. Those that had plenty had nothing left over. Those that had little saw no lack. Is it any wonder that this type of love caused the church to blaze thru the known world, "turning the world upside down" as one non- Christian exclaimed in Acts? We would be hard pressed to see anything like that anywhere in our Western Christianity today. I agree with you...this commandment to love others as we love ourselves is not easy, and as I said previously, I believe in truth it is impossible, unless a man or woman gets free from their fleshly nature. But there is the rub. How many truly want to be free of it? Many say they do, but it is the most valuable of our pearl collection that must be sold in order to truly possess and be possessed by the one who is the pearl of great price. With the defeat of the flesh goes self rule, self will, and when we say "Lord, Lord", we use the word correctly, as someone how is not his own speaks to His loving master. This is Christianity with a cost, something almost unheard of in our Christianity today. Make no mistake, the challenge before us is.... Can a man walk in the new nature as Christ promised, where he is no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit? Paul told the Ephesians "Nothing profits but a new creature" but how we do not want to believe that. Our God has promised that our shield of faith would quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. He promised that we would be given a way of escape in every temptation. He promised that sin would not have dominion over us. He told us clearly that we are not in the flesh, that we are dead to it, and we are now to yield oyrselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, not as those trying to die. Why is it we hear so few hunger after this type of victory. To not know how to walk here is forgivable and understandable, as few teach being saved to the uttermost. But not to even hunger after truly defeating the old nature, content to simply "do the best we can" when we all know for a fact that we put far less than our best effort into becoming holy....that is the problem I see we need to address. We can talk about love all we want, but until we talk about how to lose our old nature, it is simply nice sounding words, with no power to back them up. Jude told us to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. If we are to "turn the world upside down" again as the early saints did, if we are to love as they loved one another, the answer is contending for the faith that "it is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me".

we put on the new nature when we are saved! I would love to agree with you and in theory, perhaps I can, but how few truly believe it, and thus, it does not profit them. How many are still battling their flesh when we are told clearly that we are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwells in us. What is our testimony of ourselves. Do we believe we are light in the Lord or are we sinners battling to do good and to "become" light. Either we are in the flesh or in the spirit, we cannot be both. How many are experiencing the victory our shiuled of faith gives us, quenching every arrow? How many are finding the God does indeed give them a way of escape in every temptation? Those are promises to our new nature. Sadly, most are still laboring to "become" new and finding out even after 20 or 30 years that they are still as fleshly as they always were. just perhaps a bit more religious in their fleshliness. Blessing, Bruce

I am going to throw a monkey wrench in this very excellent post. What is posted is true....but.... (don't you hate that?) The fact is it is not hard to love others as we love ourselves, it is impossible. We are simply wired to self love, self preservation, thoughts of self pleasure, due to our adamic nature. God does indeed will us to love like this, but there is a catch. We cannot get there from here. We must figure out how to get out of our flesh in order to do so. Then, we need to experience the love of God and the full understanding of the forgiveness we really needed to be brought to becoming sons and daughters of His. The word says "He who is forgiven much, loves much". Does that mean we nood to do really bad things tin order to love more? LOL, no. We need to finally see how bad our flesh really is in reality in God's eyes. We oftentimes think that we are good people who have made a few mistakes and God forgave them thru Christ. No wonder we have a hard time loving. Until we see that our "righteousness" is really a filthy rag in God's eyes, that there is none righteous, none "good", we cannot truly appreciate what a miracle God did in saving us. It is only when we ourselves are being loved fully by God and walking in that abiding nature that we then can even begin to love our fellow man, saved or not, as we love ourselves. As Christians, we mistakenly hold up the ideal and we think we are to imitate, to duplicate it. How foolish we can be. Our only hope is to be possessed by that love ourselves and let the overflow of His love in us love the unlovely through us. As Paul said: "I no longer live but Christ now lives in me and the life that I now life, I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20 There is but one way, putting on the new nature. Paul said in Ephesians 6" "Nothing profits but a new creature." How I pray we finally see the deep truth hidden here. Blessings, Bruce

Excellent post!

Fraught, you are absolutely right. But sadly, many continue in this for years, long after being new Christians. If we could but see that God is not impressed with our goodness, nor our righteousness, and frankly not at all surprised by the failures our flesh bring to the table. There is no point in running nor in hiding. Where shall we run where God is not there? He simply wants us to admit that we are in need of a new nature because He has one for each of us, a nature we are to put on by faith, not be works or our own efforts. If any readers have recognized themselves in this description as one who has a form but no power, do not despair. Simply come to him and tell Him you know you need His power in order to change, and that you are well aware that in you dwells no good thing. To your amazement, you will see Jesus smiling through your tears. Blessings, Bruce

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Running With The Footmen Saints, here is our dilemma. God says to his Bride-to-be: If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, what the heck are you going to do when the horsemen arrive, and if in the land of peace, you have no victory, how will you survive when the evil overruns its banks?? Jeremiah 12:5 Please do not be offended by my paraphrasing..it does mean what it says...really! Listen, we have been saved as brothers and sisters in the Lord in a time of little persecution or cost in becoming a Child of God. Yet, even so, for the most part, our struggles in gaining victory have kept us defeated and not mounting up with wings of eagles, where we walk and do not get weary, and where we run and do not faint. We also know perilous times are coming, soon, and that it is highly possible that in our lifetime, it will cost us our lives to profess His name. So God warns us.... "Listen", He says. "Do not be fooled into thinking that somehow, miraculously, you will somehow find victory in tough times that you could not find in good ones. The truth is rather that it will be far harder!" Most Christians I know, myself included, have had this "progressive" theory about victory, that each year we walk, it gets better, easier, the things of this world hold less sway and we walk more and more with our eyes set on heavenly things. The sad fact is that in my life, like most I know, the opposite has been true and thay our constant failings finally have led us into a peace treaty so-to-speak with Satan, whereby we said in essence "If you don't bother me, I won't bother you." We then settled into a fake victory stance, a play-like type of walk where are mantra becomes "We are only human", and somehow excusing our failures to walk pleasing to Him every day, all the day because of our humanity instead of believing that "I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me." Listen, dear brothers and sisters, tough times are coming...very tough. Not just physically. There is coming a spiritual wasteland and many will be made shipwreck. Now is the time to get oil in our lamps, not then. Do not be fooled into thinking that persecution will somehow do for us what God's grace could not...make us get serious about our walk with Him and figure out how to gain the victory He has promised, a victory by the way that unless we find and hide ourselves in, we have no hope of enduring until the end. There is no miraculous cure to be found in hard times. If we do not discover the secret to victorious living now (and there is one), then what in the heck will we do when evil is absolutely rampant and we are threatened with not being able to buy or sell, or hold a job, or get medical treatment for our children, unless we bow the knee to satan? This warning of God is for us, today, in the 21st Century church. It is high time we really became transparent with God and ourselves. If we have not yet discovered how to walk above sin in our lives, if our unruly flesh still seems to dominate us, then we had better hit our knees and ask God for the answer. There is one you know.....for God has promised that he is able to keep us from falling, and that we can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. How? Listen, it is NOT try harder! That is the problem, not the answer. We must believe in HIS goodness to keep us from Satan's power. And why can we not believe? Because we have not yet realzed that we cannot walk the walk He desires of us, unless He walks it in us! Our problem is not that we are too weak. It is that we have not yet been made weak enough. It is only a humbled and broken and contrite heart that can exercise the faith God asks of us. Have you yet realized your ineptness at walking the walk? Have you finally agreed with God that in you (your flesh) dwells no good thing? That all your efforts to keep His commandments, try as you might, seem to end in abject failure? If you have, praise God, that is the hard step, painful but absolutely necessary. The second is a gift...believe that what you cannot do in you, He can do, and WILL do, if we but believe. He has promised it. Hear what god says in Ezekiel 36:23 concerning the result of the old covenant...i.e. written laws, and what the new covenant will do for us. Ezekiel 36:22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. 23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. 24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. 30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. 31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. 32 Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. 33 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. 34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. 35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. 36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. 37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. 38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD. Let hungry hearts lift up the God that can keep us from falling. That shield of faith in HIS work is promised to quench all the fiery darts. The horsemen are coming...I can, like you, feel the rumblings of their hooves on the earth. Run into Him, and He will keep you until that day. That is His promise and our God does not lie. Faithful is he who calleth you who also shall DO IT! Praise God!

Brackish- even the word conjures up yucky images. What is it? It is the waters where a river of fresh water empties into salt water and the result is water that is neither fresh nor salty. It has become brackish. Is this not what the modern day church has evolved into? A brackish form of Christianity? Part grace, part law. Part faith, part working for wages, as if God owes us when we walk in the way we feel we ought. Part living for the next world, yet at the same time, seeking for the security and pleasures this world has to offer. No wonder God told the Laodecians that if they continued in their deception and blindness, He would be forced to spew them out of His mouth. In real life, here is the problem. Fresh water fish do not thrive in brackish waters. Neither do salt water fish. It becomes like salt that has lost its savor...good for nothing but to be cast underfoot. Jesus told us some amazing truths in Matthew 12: "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit." James remembered this lesson well when he taught in James: "Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic." James 3:11-15 I posted a post on unity versus union and stated in it that until we come into union with God, we cannot walk in unity with one another. Yet how hard it is for most of us to believe that, to accept that we have not the power to live holy, loving lives without learning to abide in weakness in the God of all strength. If we would but step back and look at how we interact as His body, and admit what we do not want to admit, that by and large, we do not love our neighbor as ourselves. We bite at our brothers, rather than take to lowest spot in humility and so honor Christ. We have strife, divisions, seditions and heresies and yet do we blsuh for this? No, it is business as usual. Brothers, we have a brackish Christianity, a form with no power, a slight healing only, enough to get us out of Egypt but not enough to get us into the Promised land of rest from our own efforts. Are we free as Christ promised He would make us? If not, why not? Have we experienced being "saved to the uttermost"? Brackish Christianity will not get us there. Here is what I feel is on the horizon. You may judge for yourself. God loves us far too much to let us continue on in this lukewarm, compromising, world loving, brother-against-brother Christianity. He is about to shake everything that can be shaken, so that one thing remains- those things that are of HIM. We as His children can do the thing that pleases our God, acknowledge our brackishness, our divided hearts, our lack of love for any like we love ourselves, including God Himself,or God can bring us to our knees involuntarily. He simply loves us too much to not do so if it is found needed. Some may say a God of love would not do such a thing to His own children. I would answer that God has done this exact thing with His people Israel an innumerable number of times, who like us had wandering hearts, compromising with the world,with their hearts not cold, not hot but simply lukewarm.....brackish. I pray we examine whether or not we truly be in the faith, or whether or not we are simply walking out a form, devoid of a faith in our God as a God who has any ability at all to work in our lives other than to bless us with forgiveness. Oh, our modern Christianity uses the right words. But it changes not who we truly are on the inside. Heck, even the outside of our cups are not clean, let alone our insides. Fleshly Christians. Captive saints. Compromised believers. When will we finally "make our tree good"? We best learn quickly as to how such a miracle is brouight about in our lives, for the distant rumble of coming shakings reverberate on the horizon, and frankly, many are not ready to endure to the end, so severe will the shakings be. The world as we know it today will seem like a dream from another time in a few short years. All is fixing to be altered and it is inevitable. We can continue to hide our heads in the sand and prentend all is well with our souls when in truth we are empty and defeated, or we can finally be honest with ourselves and admit to the low state to which we have arrived. The only question remaining for us whether or not we will be found serving only Him. Multitudes are on the fence right now. It is where brackish Christianity camps. But on that day, the fence will be empty, and all will be on one side or the other. We have entered the valley of decision, where we decide with heart wrenching self examination whether or not we will voluntarily lose our lives to gain His. Do we hate our old man? Do we see it as vile, or as simply "being human", which we reason among oursleves is not even a sin, is it?? Make no mistake, Those who try to save their life will lose it. Those who voluntarily lay all on the later of God to be consumed by His love and purpose will find the life that has so far eluded them. Yes, there is a great falling away coming. But there is also a grand awakening of many of the virgins of Christ and the church, long dormant and divided, is about to put on strength. Amen. Blessings, Bruce