2 Timothy 3:1-4 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

Matthew 24:10 & 12 At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. . . Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.

I want things to get better and better, but it isn’t going to happen. Things are going to get worse and worse, and the speed at which things deteriorate is going to accelerate faster and faster. The first words in 2 Timothy 3 above are ”realize this, ” this is the way it is going to be by God’s design, His plan, so get used to it, and stop fussing.

I am not suggesting a nonchalant passivity or apathy. I do everything that I can to change the world that I live in. I pray a lot for people I know, for people I don’t know, for our government leaders, for justice at every sign of injustice, and for wisdom to see any and every opportunity that God would give me to make a difference. I preach and teach the Bible often so as to teach people the importance of living life righteously and making a difference, of being salt and light in our perverse world. My sermons are available on the internet, and again I pray that God would cause my teaching of His Word to go all over the world. My sermons are broadcast twice a day on the radio. I write a daily blog attempting to communicate truth and wisdom praying again that God will prompt people to read it and that He will give me the insight and wisdom to write well. I write tons of letters to government officials, especially to the governor of Oregon voicing my opinion and concern, and I voted. I try very hard with God’s strength to live my life in a way that will be an example and an encouragement to others to do the same. I know many others are doing that much and more, and still ”the world is going to hell in a hand basket.”

So I focus on Philippians 3:20-21 ”For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”

1 Kings 21:1-16. Now it came about after these things that a man named Naboth had a vineyard which was beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden because it is close beside my house, and I will give you a better vineyard than it in its place; if you like, I will give you the price of it in money.” But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid me that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers. . . .So Jezebel (Ahab’s wife) wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and sent letters to the elders and to the nobles who were living with Naboth in his city. Now she wrote in the letters, saying, “Proclaim a feast and seat Naboth at the head of the people; and seat two worthless men before him, and let them testify against him, saying, ‘You cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out and stone him to death. . . . . When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is dead.” When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab arose to go down to the vineyard of Naboth to take possession of it.

A rich King murders a poor man to gain more. Very evil and very sad that that kind of evil exists in leaders of countries, but it does, and it will get worse right up to the anti- Christ who will be the worst of them all.

As we hurdle toward the day that the antichrist becomes the king of the world things will get worse and worse, governments will get worse and worse. There will be some like Naboth who get murdered for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, but most of us will have a semblance of a normal life. Our responsibility given to us by God is to live righteously, loving every person God sovereignty brings into our life, no matter how hard they may be to love, and win as many people to faith in Jesus as possible.

I am sitting in my recliner reading my Bible, praying, writing this blog, and checking the election stats. I am rotating between them because I am nervous about the election and variety always seems to help when I get nervous about anything. I am praying diligently for President Trump to win reelection, then I check the stats, then I read a little bit, and then I write on this for awhile until I can’t focus on what I am writing then I go pray some more. Oh yeh, one other thing that I like to do when I am nervous and that is to eat. Sherrie fried up a bunch of chicken, all drumsticks with yummie barbecue sauce on it. Also there is a bunch of prawns to eat, and I am thinking seriously of making a big batch of popcorn with lots of butter on it. I hope this thing doesn’t drag out the whole night or I will probably be sick tomorrow and too sleepy to do much work. Oh bummer, it looks like it is.

I have been praying very hard for this election not that I think that President Trump is wonderful, but because the Democratic Party is so in favor of murdering unborn babies, so anti-Christianity, so prone to control my life like I am a slave, and a dozen other things that I feel strongly about.

One of the things that I teach in my prophecy class is that the devil is going to have more and more control of government around the world including ours until it culminates in a one-world government led by the antichrist. It will happen, you can read all about it in the Bible, so it might as well happen in my life time instead of me hoping things will be nice and comfortable until I die.

I am teaching a class on prophecy on Sunday mornings at 10:15 am at JBC. It is being Live Streamed as well or you can watch it anytime on You Tube after the class is taught. One of the topics that we will be talking about in the days ahead is the ”Rapture” when followers of Jesus rise into the air to meet Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

There are several things to note in these passages; (1) the spirits of those who have already died will be with Jesus when He comes and they will get their glorified bodies just a split second before those who are alive and on the earth will. (2) We will all meet together in one big crowd in the sky at the level that the clouds usually form.(3) There will angels with Jesus along with the spirits of those who have previously died. ( 4) When Jesus descends from heaven He will give out a big shout, which I believe will be, ”COME UP HERE” and those alive will all hear it. (5) An angel will blow a trumpet which seems to be the signal for everyone to get their new bodies.

One of the points that there is discussion about is the timing of this event, when does it happen in regards to the other events that are going to be happening. The main one being the seven-year Tribulation period. I strongly believe that the rapture happens before the Tribulation starts, this is called the pre-tribulational view. Others think it will be in the middle of the Tribulation or a little after the middle, this view is called the Mid-Tribulational view or Pre-wrath view. And then some think it will be at the end of the Tribulation which is called the Post-Tribulational view. There is also the ”partial rapture” view that believes only mature delivers leave with Jesus before the Tribulation and the rest go through the Tribulation to further develop their character. And then there is the ”Preterist” view that teaches that the Tribulation already happened way back in 90 AD.

There are a dozen reasons I believe in the Pre-Trib view, but I will give you just one today.

2 Thessalonians 1:4-10 therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed.

Again some observations; (1) God gives relief to all believers alive when Jesus is revealed from heaven with His angels. That relief would come because we are taken out of the world. (2) Those who do not know God and have not believed the gospel get left behind, separated away from the presence of the Lord to experience the awfulness of the Tribulation and ultimately hell forever. (3)Those who Paul wrote to at the church in Thessalonica were suffering at the time he writes the letter so he certainly was not suggesting that the rescue and relief he was promising was from the Tribulation. (4) Paul is writing this passage to give the saints at Thessalonica hope suggesting that the rapture could be at any moment, the imminent return of Jesus has been a foundational teaching of the church since Paul wrote this letter.

And the final observation for us. Times will get bad and we will experience trials, but we will get rescued and experience relief when we get raptured and then it will get awful here on this planet. Some are fearful of the increasing lawlessness and chaos that seems to be increasing daily, but that is what we get rescued from, so take heart.

Daniel 3:1-6. Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent word to assemble the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces were assembled for the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the herald loudly proclaimed: “To you the command is given, O peoples, nations and men of every language, that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. But whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire.”

Nebuchadnezzar had it all. He was the ruler of the most powerful kingdom, probably in the entire history of the world. He was rich beyond measure. He had hundreds, if not thousands of wives and concubines. So why did he do this statue thing, ordering everyone to bow down to him? What was the motivation for doing such a thing? There appears to be in people this desire to be a god.

In the book entitled ”Unbroken” and the movie that followed the story is told of Louis Zamperini, a World War II Bombardier who was shot down, survived 47 days in a rubber raft and then became a prisoner of war in Japan. Louie had a supervisor in the camp, he was imprisoned in obsessed with getting Louie to cower before him. The bulk of the book and the movie are about this confrontation of wills, and as the title suggests, Louie was unbroken though he was tortured terribly for several years. So, the same question comes to mind, why would someone inflict such horrible cruelty simply to dominate another human being.

It goes back to the beginning in the Garden of Eden when the devil tempted Adam and Eve. He said to them ”if you eat this fruit you will be like God, ” so they ate it, and people have been trying to be like a god ever since by bossing other people around and telling them what to do.

In a couple of weeks we will celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday based on the Pilgrims celebration of thanks in 1621. They came to America on the Mayflower to escape the tyranny of England where rulers were telling them how they were to worship. The United States of America is a country that had it’s beginning as a place of freedom. Our National Anthem says, ”the home of the free and the land of the brave.”

Revelation 13:16-17 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

A question; why does this man in Revelation who has become the President of the entire world make a law requiring that everybody receive this mark on their hand or forehead?

I think the answer is, to show that he can. I am the most powerful man on the earth and to prove it I will boss everyone around.

Our government is controlling people by creating fear in them, by threatening them with consequences, by shaming them, and by the power of mass migration, (everybody is doing it so it must be right). The media has communicated huge amounts of skewed, biased, and false information in order to create this mass hysteria, this fear of catching COVID and dying. Face book, Twitter, Google, and YouTube have censored and banned almost all contrary information.

Thousands of doctors and scientists have published documents and signed documents that say the consequences of lockdowns are worse than catching COVID, that we are just postponing the inevitable, and that masks do no good.

A question; So why are all these rules being made and enforced? The same answer, to prove that they are ”all-powerful” and can. It is the spirit of the antichrist fueled by the devil who is working through people to create a one-world government, a one-world economy, and a one-world religion.

I put my ballot in the ballot box by the Fire Station in Jefferson today, I voted. It is interesting talking to some people about that experience of voting. They often express an attitude of futility because they are only one person among millions. One fellow I talked to said that he and his wife didn’t vote, and the reason was because he couldn’t talk her into voting for Trump and she couldn’t talk him into voting for Biden so they decided rather than just cancelling each other out they would just not vote.

A mindset that I have tried hard to develop in myself is to do everything that I do for the Lord. To think about what His will would be according to the Bible and then make choices that I believe will please Him. I can make choices based on what I think is best for my kids or me or others, but I have the most confidence figuring out the right choice using God as the reason for all that I do.

Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

One of the blessings of making choices and acting on the basis of what I believe will please the Lord is that I know that what I do does not get lost in the crowd. Though there are many people and there has been many people God is more than capable of keeping close track of me and what I do. He promises that everything I do matters to Him and someday when I stand before Him He will reward me.

1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

The bad person that I am is called my “flesh” in the Bible.

Galatians 5:19–21 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these,

My goal is to conquor this wicked tendency in me, and to live a life that pleases God and blesses others.

1 Corinthians 9:27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave,

2 Timothy 2:22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

A very powerful tool that I have in my pursuit of righteousness is goal setting. I write goals about what I don’t want to do and I write goals of things I do want to do. I write goals of bad habits I want to quit and I write goals of good habits I want to start.

The problem is that I forget what my goals are, so it does no good to write them down. I forget what I aspired to and keep doing what I have always done.

But I have solved that problem, I read my goals every day, and I don’t forget, in fact by reading them every day they get stronger and stronger in my mind and heart, and I can’t hardly not do them.

Writing out my goals every year and reading them every day isn’t really that hard, and it doesn’t really take that much time, but the rewards are life-changing. I can’t imagine at this point in my life not doing this basic discipline. And I can’t for the life of me figure out why so few people practice this basic key to success in life.

I write yearly goals for my life, and I write one for every year old that I am, so this year I have 72 goals. I start reading my goals every day on my birthday, so I just finished with my second reading of my new goals. As I read each one I think about it for a minute in regards to how I am going to accomplish it. Some of them are ongoing, so I never really accomplish them until the end of the year. An example is reading my Bible every day, or praying with Patty 3 times a week, or reading 80 pages a week in a good book. Some are fun and won’t take much work to accomplish other than making the time for them, like fishing in the Colombia for Salmon 3 times. Several are BHAG’s, Big Hairy Audacious Goals, and they will take a huge amount of planning, preparation, and work.

One of my BHAG’s is to start a satellite church. A satellite church uses a video presentation for the preaching and possibly for worship as well. This saves from having to find someone to be the Pastor and worship leader. I just need to find someone to do the administration and to lead the services. We have video recorded a bunch of my sermons so I have a good source of sermons to use for this new church. I need to find a place to start it, recruit some core people, advertise a bunch, and then find the time. Once I successfully start one I should be able to do a bunch more. The goal would include finding a Pastor and staff after the church grows to the point that offering income would support them.

Another BHAG of another sort is climbing Mt Adams. I have attempted and failed to summit the last five times I have tried to climb it, so I am determined to make it this year. I plan to camp on the Mountain for two nights and take three days to climb it and make the descent. I will do a bunch of running this year to get in shape for the climb. I am pretty sure I can do it.

Goals add a great deal of focus to my life. I know what my goals are, and I don’t fool around with anything else. I can’t imagine trying to live my lifec successfully without the power of goals.