The wicked have always been destitute of the truth — despising it, trampling it, mocking it with disdain. I saw an example of this in The New York Post, as one writer confidently declared, “Science has now replaced faith.”

Paul’s greater concern was always for those who had known the way of truth, confessing their faith in Christ, and yet flirted with sin. “Who changed the truth of God into a lie . . . For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections” (Romans 1:25-26).

“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work” (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

The Greek word Paul uses for iniquity in this passage literally means lawlessness. Therefore, the mystery is one of lawlessness — acting without law or restraint.

“Before his translation [Enoch] had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:5-6). What was it about Enoch that pleased God so much? It was that his walk with God produced in him the kind of faith God loves.

Throughout the Bible and all of history, those who walked with God became men and women of faith. If the Church is daily walking arm-in-arm with God, continually communing with Him, the result will be a people full of faith.

Elijah and Enoch, the only two prophets to be translated, had something in common. They were both haters of sin and cried out against it. They both walked so closely with God that they couldn’t help sharing His hatred for ungodliness.

The undeniable effect on all who walk with God is a growing hatred for sin — and not only hatred, but separation from it. If you still love this world and are at home with the ungodly — if you are a friend to those who curse Him — you are not walking with the Lord but sitting on the fence, putting Him to open shame.

In this day, many Christians are running to hide from mounting calamities. So-called prophets are telling people to come to their safe havens. Christian Jews are being warned to get back to Israel to escape the financial collapse anticipated in America.

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:5-6).

“And Enoch walked with God.” The Hebrew meaning for walked implies that Enoch continually conversed with God. He lived three hundred sixty-five years — or a “year” of years! He introduces to us a new kind of believer, for he is a type of the dedicated believer in Christ.

The Old Testament is filled with accounts of the wonderful blessings that came to those who walked in God’s presence.

God’s presence was so evident in Abraham’s life that even the heathen around him recognized the difference between their lives and his: “Abimelech . . . spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest” (Genesis 21:22). This heathen king was saying, “There’s something different about you, Abraham. God is with you wherever you go.”

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

If Jesus Christ is your Lord, He has commanded the light of His loving-kindness to shine in your soul.

This glory of Christ — this tender loving-kindness that shines in our hearts as we pray and search His Word — changes us, “from glory to glory,” into the likeness of Christ. And the revelation of love, compassion and caring we receive from Him must shine out of us to others.

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17–18).

We Christians struggle so hard to find the will of God for our lives. And then once we believe we’ve found His will, we labor hard to see it fulfilled.

I am convinced this struggle to find God’s will — to live in it, walk in it and see its fulfillment — can become our greatest battle. And the battle intensifies whenever we find ourselves in dire circumstances.