A sad young minister and his wife came to me for counseling recently. After four troubled years of marriage and two children, they were contemplating divorce. She was the saddest looking wife I have seen in years. Her husband, the young youth minister, stood nearby, shuffling his weight from foot to foot, while his teary-eyed wife sobbed out her confession to me.
The most difficult thing in all the world for Christians to do is forgive. For all the talk in the church about forgiveness, restitution, and healing, there is very little of it truly demonstrated. We all like to think of ourselves as peacemakers, lifters up of those fallen, always forgiving and forgetting. But even the most deeply spiritual today are guilty of wounding brothers and sisters by not showing a spirit of forgiveness.
Jesus was ministering to a great multitude when the people began getting hungry. He took his disciple Philip aside and asked him an important question. "He saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do" (John 6:5-6).
There is a unique experience common to every follower of Jesus. I’m talking about the tremendous spiritual letdown that follows a mountaintop experience of blessing or victory. We call these experiences “dry spells.” They seem like a deep plunge into spiritual darkness, an immersion in great testings, after we have experienced a special touch of God.
A national radio call-in show spent two hours of a recent broadcast focusing on the book of Revelation. The host posed the following questions to his listeners: “Do you believe that all the recent calamities are God’s judgment for our nation’s sins? Do you think the book of Revelation is being fulfilled? Do you believe we’re living in the end times?”
Isaiah 25 describes an incredible vision. In it, the prophet Isaiah is transported into the future, to the very last days. Bible commentators agree, this is one of the clearest pictures in Scripture concerning the end times. It’s no mystical, foggy prediction. Isaiah shows us precisely what God intends for the nations and for his church, just prior to the end. And right now, we’re living in the very hour Isaiah describes.
I've always wondered at a question Jesus asks in Luke 18:8: "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" What could the Lord mean by this? As I look around at the church of Jesus Christ today, I think no other generation has been so focused on faith as ours.
Everyone seems to be talking about faith. Sermons on the topic abound. Seminars and conferences on faith are held across the country. Books on the subject line the shelves of Christian bookstores. Multitudes of Christians flock to meetings to be propped up and encouraged by a message on faith.
I want to show you what happens to a nation when its leaders - as well as God's people in that land - reject the Bible as the Lord's divine voice. Wherever the authority of scripture is removed, chaos soon follows - and judgment appears at the door.
I know of no nation on earth today that is governed by God's holy word. In many Muslim lands, the people submit themselves to the authority of the Koran, and Mohammed's word is law. But in supposedly Christian nations, no such subjection to holy scripture exists.
The Christian life is not a life of clear sailing. Every believer is going to have bad days, no matter how holy he may be. In fact, I believe the more godly a person is, the more trying and excruciating his bad days will be.
I once heard a preacher say, "The Bible never says anything about backsliding." That man doesn't know his Bible! The Scriptures speak much about backsliding, because it is a very serious matter — with very severe consequences!
In reading the history of Israel and Judah, we see one generation after another backsliding against the Lord. God told Hosea, "My people are bent to backsliding from me..." (Hosea 11:7). In Hebrew, the meaning is, "My people are in the habit of turning their backs and withdrawing from me. They've always had this tendency!"
