World Gospel Missions

  • Help Turn The Course Of Your Nation

    Help Turn The Course Of Your Nation

    By Henry Blackaby

    God is calling His people to return to Him and be a highway of holiness over which He can come to the lost world. But before we can become a highway of holiness, we must understand the issues of sin. In order to understand sin, we must see our sin from God’s perspective. We must build our relationship with God in such a way that our lives can be a highway over which God reaches the rest of our nation in a great revival among God’s people, and in a sweeping spiritual awakening in the hearts and lives of those who do not know Him.

    There is an urgency that we carry within us. This urgency has at least two major directions. If I understand the Scriptures correctly, God will judge any nation that neglects His direction.

    There is an urgency in the Scriptures when God says, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chr. 7:14). That great passage indicates clearly that the redemption of our nation waits on the repentance of the people of God. The salvation of our nation depends on the people of God!

    Revival and Prayer

    Do you believe that when God’s people pray that God hears, responds, and brings about a deep change? Are you helping your family and the people in your church to pray for the condition of their lives, families, church and nation? Remember, God said, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (2 Chr. 16:9). He also said, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (Jas. 5:16). Jesus said, “And whatever you ask in My name [consistent with everything I have taught you], that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). With these promises, with which God’s people can change the course of a nation’s history, what has become of prayer in your own life, in your marriage, in your family, in your church, or in your denomination?

    If revival in your nation depended on your prayer life, would there be a revival? If you have to say, Not my prayer life, then you must change your prayer life. To have a renewed prayer life requires a simple matter of a personal choice. Your life is the product of choices you have made and your church is the product of choices it has made. Your prayer meeting is a reflection of the choices you have made as a church. Our nation is a reflection of the choices that have been made by the people of God concerning their relationship with God.

    That is one of the reasons why this kind of message has a sense of urgency about it. I believe there is a lot at stake. In fact, eternity is at stake for many in our nation. But in your church alone there are enough of God’s people – if they were serious with God – to turn the course of our nation.

    There were only 120 people in the Upper Room who were wholly yielded to the person of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:15). God used them to turn the entire Roman Empire completely upside down. In 1904 God used a young man from Wales named Evan Roberts. God broke him and shook him through a specific time of prayer – with others who had been praying across the land – and 100,000 people came to faith in Jesus Christ in six months. The great revival of 1904 began with prayer. Thousands of people ended up on the mission field as a result. Roberts, at twenty-six years old, was focused on prayer and revival, and that revival set in motion a great missionary movement.

    What could God do through your life? Do you sense that your nation needs the mighty touch of God? Do you believe God could work through your life as He has done with others? Would you be willing to make the kind of choices required by God to be that kind of person? Your response to reading this message will be a reflection of the choices you have made concerning your Lord.

    Urgency of the Hour

    There is another reason why there is such urgency to being completely yielded to God in the here and now. I believe we may be the generation that is still living when the Lord Jesus returns. I believe that God may now be calling the last generation of those who will go with Him on a mission to the ends of the earth. Most of the leaders I have encountered in the last few years – whether a pastor of a local church, a leader of a ministry group, or a leader of a denomination – have joined in saying they believe with all their hearts that we may be the generation that is still living when the Lord Jesus comes back.

    Do you suppose, since the Father knows the time, the day, and the hour when He will say, Enough – time shall be no more; My Son will come in the clouds, the judgment will begin, and eternity will be ushered in, He could be causing an urgency in the hearts of His people and His churches, knowing that the hour is short and there is limited time for people to respond? Do you believe we will face our Lord and give an account to Him for the way in which we have lived? Do you suppose if our Father knows the time of His coming that He may have already issued the instruction to the Spirit of God to, make My people understand the urgency of the hour, that when they hear My Word, there will be a different kind of urgency in their hearts? Cause My people to understand that to invest their lives with the world that will pass away is not as important as investing their lives in the kingdom that will never pass away. (Paraphrase).

    From the Head to the Heart

    It is not enough for God to speak to you from His Word, because all the head knowledge in the world will never change your life. When what you know in your head hits your heart you will not be able to rest day or night until God has become that way in your life.

    I hear many people say, “Well, I believe Jesus is the Son of God. I believe He is the Savior of man.” All the Truth believed in a person’s head is also believed by all the demons in hell, yet they are one step ahead of us. At least when they know the Truth in their heads, they tremble. They know Jesus died for the sins of the world. They know He was the sinless Son of God. They know He was raised again. They know the power that raised Jesus from the dead has been given to every one of us who believes. They know He is interceding. They know He is coming back. There is not a Truth you and I believe in our heads that they do not believe and tremble. But the difference between the demons and us is that when we take it from our heads and let it hit our hearts, we cannot rest night or day until what God shows us in His Word is being lived out in our lives.

    Second Corinthians 1:20 has made an incredible impact on my life this year. The passage says, “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” The moment you became united with Jesus Christ in the saving work of God through the death of His Son on the cross, every promise God ever made in the Bible has become yes for you. Now, many of you know that in your heads, but let me tell you how to know if it has ever hit your hearts. The moment you know that promise is true, it ought to be an obsession with you to find every promise God has ever given and live it out, so God can be that way in your life.

    If it is in your head only, it will not change anything in your life. But when you hear the blessed Lord Jesus say, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12), and that Truth hits your heart, your life will never be the same again.

    Can you imagine what would happen to change the course of your nation if you believed just that one promise with our hearts? And there are hundreds of promises given in the Word of God. Are you letting what you hear in your head go eighteen inches lower to your heart, and begin to change the way you live?

    You and I have the greatest single possibility of making a difference because God has given us His promises. God says He will respond when we have responded: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…” (Jas. 4:8). Then why do we not draw near to God, and keep in that direction until we know God has drawn near to us and His presence has literally changed everything about us? You cannot be in the presence of God and remain the same. That would be absolutely impossible. The Scripture, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you,” is simple but profound.

    Are you taking the promises of God and literally standing before Him until He is in you exactly as He promises in His Word? The tragedy is that many of God’s people can know they are living their lives the same as the world around them without it disturbing them. Did you know that it deeply disturbs God for us to live our way instead of His way? For God’s people to go their own way is called sin. The Scripture says, “…Whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23). The Scripture further explains, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (Jas. 4:17). Another Scripture states, “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). One of the laws is that you, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). Sin is when you see your brother with a load, and you do not help him carry it – that is sin, and that grieves the heart of God.

    There is nothing I see in the Scripture that burdens the heart of God more deeply than sin in the hearts and lives of His people. So I want us to look at sin from God’s perspective – not from our perspective. How does God look on sin? Scripture says sin is coming short of what God has required. That is sin.

    “Oh,” you may say, “I’m just human.” No, you are not; you are indwelt by almighty God if you have been born again! You used to be just human, but now you are a child of the King of kings, indwelt as a temple of God, and now your life is not yours – it is now Christ living out His life in you. Is not that what Paul said? “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). That is not a figure of speech – that is a fact. For me to know that and to resist Him is sin.

    A definition of sin in First John 3:4 is that “sin is lawlessness [rebellion].” Rebellion is when one knows what God says and yet chooses not to obey. I have often said the two words that cannot go together are No, Lord. One of those words has to be removed. If He is Lord, there is no possibility of your saying no. You cannot call Him Lord without saying yes. What God is looking for are His children who constantly say, “Yes, Lord.”

  • Christ’s Resurrection And Our Newness Of Life

    Christ’s Resurrection And Our Newness Of Life

    By Charles H. Spurgeon (1834 – 1892)

        “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death:  that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

        In Christ believers possess all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and grace, and power, and love.  All things are yours, if you are Christ’s.  From our union to Christ follows our sanctification.  He died unto sin once, and we are henceforth dead to it.  He is risen by the glory of the Father, and we are risen with Him into righteousness, and acceptance, and joy.

    A Display of the Glory of God

        It is a blessed thing that we should be made alive in Christ.  In you has the LORD repeated the miracle which He performed on His beloved Son.  Your true life has come to you by your being born again from above.  “…This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  He that hath the Son has life…” (1 John 5:11-12).  The Holy Spirit has worked in us a higher life than nature possessed.  We have received a living and incorruptible seed which lives and abides forever (1 Pet. 1:23).  In this there is a striking display of the glory of God.  As in the resurrection of Christ we see all the glorious attributes of God, so is there in every believer’s spiritual quickening a manifestation of the divine presence.

        Know you not that regeneration is one of the greatest miracles that God Himself can perform?   To be begotten again unto a lively hope is a mass of wonders.  We, who before lay under spiritual death, have become possessors of a heavenly life; who shall fully comprehend this?  This is a miracle indeed, and we ourselves are the subjects of it.

        The life which is in you springs up unto eternal life.  You shall surely behold His face whose life is already within your breast.  What a blessed thing is this!  I cannot declare to you the measureless glory of God which I perceive in this quickening of souls unto God, and yet that which I perceive is the bare fringe of the glory.  Wondrous grace!  He that sits on the throne says, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5), and never is He to our hearts more truly on the throne than in this new creation of which we are this day the happy subjects –

    Raised from the dead, we live anew;
    And, justified by grace,
    We shall appear in glory, too,
    And see our Father’s face.

    New Life and Hope

        Notice that the life then given is emphatically new.  When we are born again we receive a life which we never before possessed.  We begin to feel, to think and to act as we never did before.  In your quickening you received a light which had never before shone in your bosom – a life that came not from men, neither by men.  It is not a development of something which was hidden in our constitution, it is not the evolution of a principle which really exists, only it is hampered and hindered.  “…You hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1).  You had no life; you had nothing out of which life could come.  Eternal life is the gift of God.

        You live now to please God; before you lived to please yourself, or to please your neighbors.  Once you lived for what you could get for yourself; you lived for the passing pleasures of a fleeting life, but now you have launched upon eternal seas.  Eternity holds your treasures; eternity excites your efforts; eternity elevates your desires.  You live as seeing Him who is invisible, and your conduct is controlled, not by the judgment of fallible men, but by the rule of the heart-searching God.

        Your new life has new objectives.  You aim higher, yes, you aim at the highest of all, for you live for the glory of God, and seek that your light may so shine, “that [men] may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).  The will of God has now become your law.  You count yourself only happy as you may fulfill His purposes, honor His name, and extend His kingdom.

        Now are we cheered by new hopes; we have a hope of immortality; a hope so glorious, that it causes us to purify ourselves in preparation for its realization.  We wait for the glorious appearing of our Lord.  We look for new heavens and a new earth.  We have a lively hope which defies death.  Now have we new possessions.  We used to wonder what the Christian meant when he spoke of “possessing all things” (2 Cor. 6:10).  We know now.  God has made us “rich in faith” (Jas. 2:5), and He has given us greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt.

        Behold the desert now rejoices and blossoms as the rose.  Now we have peace like a river, and a secret joy which no man takes from us.  We drink of a well which none can dry up; we have bread to eat that the world knows not of.  Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and this, even to ourselves, is so vast a joy that it overwhelms us.  We have come into a new world altogether; a world far more grand than that which nature reveals.  That text has come true to some of us, “…Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace:  the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands” (Isa. 55:12).  It is a wonderful thing, this new life.

    A Holy, Active Walk

        You were dead, but you have been raised from among the dead, and now you walk in “newness of life.”  The new life that God gives us is exceedingly active.  God’s children are not of a sluggish race.  There is vigor and fervency about them.  The new life in a Christian is quick, energetic, forceful.  The new life produces a holy walk as soon as it is created.  If you have been born unto God, you have cast off your lethargy, and are ready to run the race set before you.

        When in spiritual health, you will glow with divine ardor and burn with holy fervency, delighting yourself in serving the Lord.  This activity of life induces progress.  If we are really quickened, we are to walk in newness of life; that is to say, we shall move on.  We march on, going from strength to strength.  We are not at the end yet; we must advance.  It is true we have the new life in us, but we have not yet obtained everything; we must climb higher, and go further.  We are not to act or grow in the energy of the old life, but in newness of life.

        Brethren, have done with the things of the flesh.  Put off the old man.  If Christ has quickened you, walk in newness of life.  Say to the old man, “Down with you, sir!  I have done with walking in your way.”  Let the new man come to the front, and do follow his guidance.  Say in your soul, “O life of God within me, be supreme.  Take the upper hand, and let every thought be captive to your power.”  Let us not live in oldness of spiritual death, but in newness of spiritual life.

        The Lord, by all that He has done for us, and in us, has changed everything.  No point is unaffected.  Newness of life affects us from head to foot.  The Lord has made us rich in Himself, by the gift of Jesus, and by the work of His Spirit, and He would not have us grieving and fretting about the little matters which once were so exceedingly great to us.  “…After all these things do the Gentiles seek…” (Matt. 6:32).  Let us have higher cares and more divine aspirations.  Let us seek to live the life of heaven on earth.  We are called unto righteousness; let us not follow after mammon.

        We are new creatures; may the Lord renew us day by day!  Let us quit the old, for the time we have spent in it may well suffice.  Now to a nobler destiny our soul aspires.  The Christian life should be one of joyful vivacity.  The Christian man, living in newness of life, should find life fresh about him.  Our inner man is renewed day by day.

        A healthy Christian is one of the liveliest creatures on earth.  When he is at work you may hear him sing.  He cannot help it; do not blame him for a little noise.  Let him sing, and laugh till he cries.  Sometimes he cannot help it; he will burst if his soul may not have vent.  When he begins to talk about his Lord, his eyes flash fire.  Some people hint that he is out of his mind, but those who know best assure us that he was never before as sane as now.

        Of course, the world thinks religion is such poor stuff that nobody could grow excited about it.  To my mind, cold religion is the nastiest dish ever brought to the table.  True godliness is served up hot.  Newness of life means a soul aglow with love to God, and therefore earnest, zealous, happy.

        Do not live the old life over again.  Why should you?  Come, my soul, if Christ has raised you from the dead, do not live after the fashion of the dark grave which you have left.

        Oh, that you would plunge into the river of life!  How it would brace you!  What tone it would give you!  Be a Christian, out and out.  Serve the Lord with your whole being.  Give yourself wholly to Him who bought you with His blood.  Plunge into the sacred flood by grace, and you will exclaim – “Oh, this is life!  Oh, this joy, my God, to find You so!  Your face to see, Your voice to hear, and all Your love to know.”  May we thus walk in newness of life!  Amen.

     

  • With God All Things Are Possible

    With God All Things Are Possible

    By Brad Tuttle

        We pray because with man alone, it is impossible.  Recently, I woke up with a heavy burden to pray for the children around the world (born and unborn).  The more I interceded against abortion, sex-trafficking, transgenderism, and lies that are being taught to the children in schools, the heavier the burden became.  It was almost overwhelming, but then I heard that sweet and much needed voice of the Lord tell me:  “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26; see Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27).

        “But with God” – I instantly laughed with joy in my heart how quickly His one sentence turned everything around in my heart, mind, and spirit.  I quickly went from a depressing “oh my, this is terrible, this is impossible,” to “but with God, nothing, absolutely nothing, is impossible!”

        We find an encouraging story in Second Kings 3:4-18 where the kings of Israel and Judah planned on fighting against Moab.  But, on the way there, they traveled seven days without water; not a good place to be in when you are going to battle.  They then sought out Elisha the prophet and were given a word from the Lord.  “…You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water…” (v. 17).  And then they were told, “And this is a simple matter in the sight of the Lord; He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand” (v. 18).  Oh, may we always remember “this is a simple matter in the sight of the Lord.”

        We read in Genesis 18:12 when Sarah was told by the Lord she would have a son way past childbearing, she laughed.  She was then admonished with “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (v. 14).  Job 42:2 reassures us that no plan of the Lord can be thwarted.  Oh, let faith arise as Jeremiah 32:27 says, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.  Is there anything too hard [difficult] for Me?”  As we go through each day, can we ever declare this Scripture enough?

        A very promising and heartwarming story is found in Luke 1:26-38 where the angel of the Lord informed the virgin Mary she would have a Son, to which Mary inquired as to how this was pos­sible, since she was a virgin.  And the angel declared, “For with God nothing will be impossible” (v. 37).  When we are in a seemingly “impossible” situation, may our response always be as Mary’s – “Let it be to me according to Your word” (v. 38).

        Thank You, Jesus, You always give us a word in due season.  Our hope is not in man, or the world’s system, no, it is in You and You alone.  Whenever we find ourselves hopeless, discouraged, feeling defeated, let us lift up our head and shout:  But with God – all things are possible!  May we be so filled with Your Word, that Scriptures of hope and faith instantly come to our heart and mind to counter­attack the lies of our enemy.  Whatever we are facing, let us remind ourselves, “but with God, all things are possible.”

  • Face The Future With Faith In God

    Face The Future With Faith In God

    By W. C. Moore (1890 – 1980)

        “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matt. 24:12).  The fact that now iniquity does abound and that the love of many does wax cold does not mean that we must be among that “many” whose love has grown cold toward our blessed Lord!  Rather, it is a direct challenge and a warning to us to stir up ourselves to take hold of God and press toward the mark as never before and to continue to have faith in God regardless of how dark things look.

        The perilous times spoken of in God’s Word (2 Tim. 3:1-17) are a call not to retreat or to retrench, but rather to advance.  Days of terror and peril and danger such as we face today are days of opportunity for us.  The Lord calls us to be witnesses unto Him right out among the people (Acts 1:8).  Jesus says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).

        Oh, to let the light of God’s love, and the assurance of the great salvation wherewith He has saved us and the light of unswerving devotion to the Lord we love and trust – so shine before a frightened and frustrated people that they too may turn unto God!

    Full Reliance on God’s Faithfulness

        In this darkening hour, face all problems in full reliance upon God’s faithfulness.  No situation, no condition, no difficult, involved, unknown, untried, dark and dangerous circumstance or combination of circumstances is too hard for God.  He knows all things.  And He cares for us (1 Pet. 5:7; 1 John 3:20).  Nothing is too hard for God (Jer. 32:17).  With God all things are possible (Matt. 19:26).

        Instead of facing difficult situations, intricate obstacles, obstinate hindrances, sorrowful testings, large demands, heavy responsibilities in fear and dread and trembling – rather, rejoice!  God is bigger than it all put together, and He loves us and desires that we trust and obey Him always.  God is greater than any crisis which might be frightening you.

        Never face difficult and involved tasks and circumstances in a fearful attitude of mind or heart, as though God had gone off and left us, as though He had lost His power and His wisdom and His almightiness, as though He were not our faithful Creator, who in His love, has already shown and manifested His compassion for us by giving His only begotten Son (1 Pet. 4:12-19; Rom. 8:26-39).  Let us eagerly face hard things because it gives God a chance to manifest yet further His faithfulness and His supernatural might.  Hallelujah!

        “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:6).

    Live Right

        To the end that we may always have God’s help, let us be sure that our lives are lined up in His will, according to His Word – that we are not living in sin, that we are not grieving God by unbelief in His Word, by criticism of other Christians, by carelessness, by self-indulgence, by deceitfulness, by hatred of other people, by neglect of known duties, or by any other sin of neglect or of positive disobedience.

        “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.  And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:21-22).

        Feed on the Word of God.  “…Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).  Realize that our soul needs nourishment as well as our body.  Take time, make time, use time for reading and also for meditating on God’s Word, that you may know His will, and that you may be strong to do His will!

    Trust God in the Dark

        Abraham waited for years in faith for Isaac to be born.  So we may need to learn to keep on believing though answers to prayer may be delayed.  We may need to learn to trust God in the dark.

        “Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light?  Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God” (Isa. 50:10).

        Was David always on the mountain top?  Was Paul always out of the land of trouble and distress?  (Read the Psalms, Second Corinthians 11:23-33; 12:1-10; Philippians 4:13.)  How are we ourselves ever to know the true depth of our own love to God, and of His love to us, unless He suffers us to be tempted and tried?  Let us remember the “all things” of Romans 8:28 – “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

        Oh, to have in our very heart of hearts, that simple childlike trust in God that delights His heart!  Years ago I was thinking, “It is so hard to have faith.  It is so hard to believe.”  Immediately the Lord spoke to my heart:  “It is not hard to believe.  Even a child can trust.  You do not have to think to trust.”  And through the years, that has been an encouragement and a comfort to me.

        “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Prov. 3:5).  As we obey this Word and trust in the Lord with all our heart, we have no heart left with which to worry, or fear or fret.  We are not even to “lean” unto our own understanding.  Give no place to doubt or fear!  Resist the devil.  Give no place to him (Jas. 4:7-8; Eph. 4:27).

    See the Rainbow on the Storm Clouds!

        God is the God of the miraculous.  His ways are not our ways (Isa. 55:8-13).  God’s promise to Abraham was indeed to be fulfilled that he should have a son and heir, but Isaac was born when Abraham was “as good as dead” (Heb. 11:8-12).

        When the Lord, the miracle-working Son of God, was crucified between two thieves, and the disciples were scattered, was not that an hour of midnight gloom, and unutterable defeat – to all appearances – for the followers of Jesus?  Yet in about fifty days thereafter, the great revival burst forth on the day of Pentecost! 

        Although we today live in one of the earth’s darkest hours since Calvary, let us believe God to send yet another mighty Pentecost and save multitudes from among the Gentiles before He grafts Israel back into His favor (Rom. 11:1-32).  Let us set our faces (Dan. 9:3), and stir up ourselves to take hold of God (Isa. 64:7), and pray through till God comes and rains righteousness upon us (Hos. 10:12).

  • Serious And Watchful In These Last Days

    Serious And Watchful In These Last Days

    By Rich Carmicheal

        “…The end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers” (1 Pet. 4:7).

        This certainly is an hour to be serious and watchful in prayer!  The signs of the times make it clear that we are in the last of the last days with the Return of the Lord drawing ever near.  As Jesus forewarned, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matt. 24:7-8).  He goes on to warn of increased persecution, hatred, deception and lawlessness, and that the love of many will grow cold (vv. 9-12).

        Of course, these signs go hand in hand with conditions in our day.  In regard to international tensions and war, not only are there the ongoing concerns with Russia and Ukraine, but also the increasing concerns that China will invade Taiwan – and the impact that will make in the world.  And what may the near future hold for Israel and the world as Iran pursues nuclear capabilities?  As one news source recently pointed out, “Israel considers Iran to be its greatest enemy and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said he will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.”

        Think also of the many millions of people suffering today because of famines, droughts, pestilences, earthquakes and other natural disasters.  And extreme events such as these are only increasing in frequency and intensity.

        On a moral level, could we have imagined even a few decades ago how rapidly traditional values would decline?  Hatred, deception, lawlessness and immorality are now marks of our day.  As Franklin Graham shared recently, “The world is deteriorating so quickly.  It seems like every demon in hell has been turned loose.”  He believes a storm is coming and warns, “And we cannot be deceived and can’t be fooled.  We need to get ready and be prepared.”