I’ve heard Christians say something like, “If only God would speak to us like He did to those in the Bible.” The truth is we have more word from God today than any Old Testament believer, including the great men of old such as Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, et al. Even with those who had the completed version of both Old and New Testaments in the earlier Church age, we today have a better understanding for example of latter day prophesies, simply because we are at the threshold of Christ’s return.

Also concerning latter day events, we now understand how everyone in the world can see something take place at one time. We have seen Israel reborn as a nation in our lifetime. We understand how the Antichrist can have total control of the entire world with a mark on the body. We understand how the world can be destroyed by nuclear power. We know that China can man an army of 200 million. We enjoy conveniences that were not even dreamed of a hundred years ago, fifty years ago, and even twenty-five years ago.

Whether we speak of prophecy, salvation, Christian living, among many other things, the Bible is the very Word of God. Everything He wants us to know is contained in the Bible. Therefore, God does speak to us today. Here’s the problem that many Christians have. Most of our Bibles are seldom used. If we don’t use them, we are not going to know what God is saying to us.

Most Christians are lazy. They want someone else, a pastor for example, to tell them what it says. How do you know you’re being told the truth? How do you know if the person you’re listening to is giving you correct or incorrect information? They may be mistaken in what they say, or they may be lying. How do you know?

Even though the lost cannot understand many things in the Bible, because they do not have the Holy Spirit living within them, they can understand how to be saved. God makes that clear even to those who are not His, so that they may believe in His Son and be saved.

The greatest problem in the Church today is our laziness in not studying God’s Word. Someone may say, “That’s not true. Our greatest problems in the Church today are perverted sexual sins, greed, lack of love toward one another, blasphemous worship services, compromising with the world, etc.” I beg to disagree. These are actually symptoms resulting from our laziness in not studying

God’s Word.

Therefore, do we really know what God says, if we don’t read the document (Bible) He left for us? Do we ever go beyond just reading it occasionally and actually put some serious time into studying the Word He left for us?

The Bible has been removed from our schools and we gripe about it, but think about this. The Bible has just about been removed from our churches. How many people do you see bring their still new looking Bible to the church service with them? How many Sunday school and Bible study classes teach and study from a book or quarterly someone wrote instead of directly from the Bible? How many churches use large screens to show the Scriptures, thereby encouraging those who come to not “pack” that big Bible around with them?

When things happen in our lives, good or bad, we don’t know how to handle them because we do not have a good solid foundation in God’s Word, the Bible. Now I’ll grant you that many Christians love God’s Word and spend much time in it, but they are definitely in the minority. Most Christians live like the world, because they don’t know what God says about how to live for Him. They’re Biblically illiterate.

Let’s say I’m just dying to have an apple pie, and I don’t want one from the store. I want a homemade apple pie. So I go out in the backyard and pick some apples from the tree. (We used to have three or four apple trees in our yard when I was a youngster.) I bring them inside and set them on the kitchen counter, then step back and just look at them. Hour after hour, day after day, I keep staring at them, but no apple pie. Eventually, all I’m going to have are rotten apples instead of that mouthwatering homemade apple pie. What I need to do is get out the cook book, turn to the page that tells me how to make a homemade apple pie, and then do as instructed. Before you know it, I have my homemade apple pie.

This is the problem with many Christians. They got saved and just stopped there. They need to pull out the recipe book and follow the instructions. God wants to speak to us through His recipe book (Bible), but if we don’t pull it off the shelf and use it, it does us no good.

God does not work through osmosis. Some Christians must think that they can hold their Bible in their hand for a minute or two and all that is in it will seep into their very being. No. We must open it and read it.

It’s so easy to tell a maturing believer from an immature believer. When the “rubber meets the road” in life, the immature believer will fall apart. The maturing believer may waver, but they are stronger, because they have fed their spirit on good food (Bible) instead of junk food (everything else). Most Christians live on spiritual junk food, and in this country, there is no excuse for it.

With immature believers the tail wags the dog. With maturing believers the dog wags the tail. In other words, are we controlled by our emotions or our mind? The Scripture says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” (Philippians 2:5) and “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16)

The only way we’re going to “let this mind be in you,” or “have the mind of Christ” is to take what He says into our mind, and that can only come from the Bible. The Bible is where God speaks to us. When we lay our Bible aside and ignore it, we are shutting off communication with God. From that point forward, we walk by our emotions instead of what God is saying to us; i.e. our opinions as opposed to His Truth.

Is the Word of God (Bible) sufficient for all our needs? It most certainly is. As we breathe His Word into our soul by reading, studying and praying, our Lord breathes out His Truth to us, which strengthens and matures us. We can’t live a spiritually productive life without it. Unfortunately, many Christians continue to “fly by the seat of their pants” instead of allowing themselves a true foundation in His Word.

King David said, “Thy word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. (Psalms 119:11) “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalms 119:105) Now that makes sense. His Word is sufficient for all we need.

Grant Phillips

Satan has many names in the Bible. One person listed over forty, and none of them are good. Personally I think Satan is just a narcissistic angelic bully. He destroys everything he touches. There is no good found in him. What made him this way?

The Bible narrows it down to “pride,” and this will be his eventual downfall.

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)

Only God knows the number of people Satan has already seduced into hell and the number of those yet to come. There could be no doubt that he will reside in the very core of the Lake of Fire when his judgment day comes. Unfortunately, many others, even fallen angels, will also be there, but I doubt any will be in as severe a predicament as he.

What a mess this most beautiful, powerful and wretched of all angels has made of this world. To think of all the wars and senseless acts of perversion and evil that could have been avoided if he had not allowed himself to be consumed with his own pride. The heartache he has brought down upon mankind and even his own Creator is without excuse. I’m sure God’s judgment will be perfectly in line with all his atrocities for this most evil of all creatures.

Satan is not stupid and he knows his time is quickly running out. Even though, I believe he is so full of himself, he thinks he still might have a shot at defeating God. Ha! To us, and maybe even to him, it sometimes appears that he might win the battle, but God is a much better chess player and the game was over before it ever began. God wins. We win.

In the meantime, he is still wreaking havoc here upon earth. Anyone who thinks the world is getting better, the wisdom of man will bring peace on earth, and the church will soon reign over the earth as Christ’s co-regent needs to stop drinking whatever it is they’re drinking. Every five minutes, a Christian is murdered for their faith in Jesus Christ.

The world will get better, but not before judgment of the Tribulation. There will be peace on earth, but not before Christ destroys His enemies at the end of the Tribulation.  The Church will reign on earth, but not before Christ is ready for us to do so during the Millennium following the Tribulation.

Our politicians want us to believe everything is okay and peace is on the way because they want to retain their positions of power in government and increase their net worth.

It is way past time for the true Church to get to work and stop playing tiddlywinks with the Gospel. Christ is coming and people need to be warned that He is sending judgment ahead to clear the path.

This entire world is in such a mess it would take a massive computer to record all the wars, crimes, perversions, and apathy that currently exist. People across the globe are dying by the thousands from diseases, murders, and war. The elites are getting richer by the day while walking up the backs of the working man. Many are either feeding at the trough of government hand-outs or dying in the streets of some third world country. The sexual deviants are pushing their perversions in the face of respectable people. And the church is snoring on the back pew.

Wake up Church! Jesus said to today’s churches:

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

I now believe that Jesus is not only speaking to the lost who sit in the church pews but even to His own that need to wake up and get serious about Him. Far too many who claim to know Christ think going to church on Sunday morning fulfills their obligations and the rest of the time is theirs. They can be a saint on Sunday morning and a little devil the rest of the time.

In my opinion there are two messages that we the Church need to be getting out; (1) John 3:16, and (2) Revelation 22:12-13. We need to share the Gospel of Christ and forewarn that He is coming soon.

We don’t know when Jesus is coming, so we must be ready at all times. He may come today. He may not, but He is coming. Soon, perhaps sooner than we think, the day will be here for Satan to receive his just reward. What reward will we receive when our time comes?

Satan is a great deceiver. For those who are alert to what the Bible says, take a look around you. Is it not obvious that we are surrounded by people who do not have a clue of the imminent judgment that is to come? Those without Christ I can understand, but those in the church? It’s astounding at how many church folks are asleep. The wolf is at the door and most are unaware. The world is coming to an end and we act like it’s just another day at the office.

Satan doesn’t know either when Jesus is going to start the Tribulation period by first removing His bride, but I have a feeling he thinks it is much closer than we do, and he thinks he can win.

Satan knows God well enough to know that his judgment will be just and severe. He knows he must win or it just “ain’t” going to be pretty for him on judgment day. He’s making preparations. He’s ready.

Are we ready? Am I ready? Am I ready as a non-Christian to meet God? Am I ready as a Christian to get to work by getting the message out? But you say, “I have no ability but to live my life as Jesus would want me to, standing up for Him and following His Holy Spirit.” That’s all you can do you say? That’s plenty! Do that with all your heart and you will be a walking witness for Christ!

Satan is going to get his comeuppance. We long for the day, but in the meantime, let’s snatch as many souls away from him as we can in our own circle.

Grant Phillips