In these latter days people have exchanged the truth for a lie. To exchange something is a willful act. This is why it is so important that Jesus is the most important thing in our lives. We must prefer God above all things, even our own families and friends. This day is a day of separation.

The prophet once said ” choose ye this day whom you shall serve.” This certainly applies to the times in which we live. Before this is all over there will be no middle ground left to hide in, no shades of grey, only darkness or light, only the sinking sands of the world or the solid rock of Jesus. The times in which we live will expose whether the structure we present to the world has a foundation or whether the winds and the rains will simply sweep it away. God is coming back for a pure and spotless bride and the that bride will be made like the finest of gold by the refining fires of persecution. Who will stand in this evil day?

Dan 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

Daniel speaks of a time when the saints will be worn down. I believe the process of the saints being worn down has already begun. Times have been changed and wrong has become right and truth, at best, is relative. This is wearing the saints out as they struggle to come to terms with these fast changing circumstances. There has been a blitzkrieg so to speak in the realms of the spirit. Compromise and unrighteousness has surrounded the saints. We are an obstacle that at some point will have to be removed if the enemy is to have total dominance. More laws will be changed and we will witness more compromise by Christendom

These are the days where it is vital that we find our strength in Jesus. We must press into Him, we must abide under the shadow of the almighty. It is time to be unashamed of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. Yes you will lose friends, even Christian friends. Co-workers and family will find you unacceptable as they are drawn ever deeper into the sea of compromise and corruption. But listen brothers and sisters, if we lose our saltiness, then what good are we? If we allow the light that is in us to become dim and we cover it, then what is our purpose on earth? If the light in the lighthouse is turned of then what good is the lighthouse, it would be a structure without a purpose and countless people would drown in the storm as they are crushed upon the rocks.

Let us continue to stand upon the solid Rock of Jesus. Let His Truth be the light that shines from our inward man to a dark and dying world. Do not be afraid brothers and sisters of the terrors of the night nor the arrows that fly by day. For we shall call upon the Lord and He will answer us. We shall be more than conquerors in Christ Jesus for the Lord is our hiding place, we continually abide in Him and in Him there is no darkness. Let your light so shine before men and be fierce advocates of the Truth no matter what……bro Frank

The most dramatic moments in my Christian walk have been when I discovered just how much sin was in my flesh. It has brought me low and trembling into His presence fully expecting and in many ways desiring punishment, and there, right in that place, finding grace. It has reduced me to a body wracked and sobbing. The realization of the depths of His love and forgiveness produced a flood of tears that lifted me up to the heights of His glory and majesty.

This morning I was having a very unpleasant procedure. I was getting shots in my spine, in the neck and lower back. Before the procedure the doctor asked if he could pray with me if I did not mind, he said he prays for all of his patients and went on to acknowledge the Lord as the great healer. When I was laying face down there was music in the background on the radio. It was some noisy heavy rock stuff. The doc made the comment that it was not very relaxing music. So someone turned it of and then, all of a sudden a women, one of his nurses began to sing a hymn. I am lying there, knowing many people were praying for me, and here was this woman singing a hymn. The doctor said to her ” you have worked for me for 11 years and have never sung for me before.” When the procedure was over I got up and asked who had sung. The nurse came over and identified herself. I hugged her and told her that many people had been praying for me and that she had blessed me by singing. In the other room, another nurse was watching over me and we began to talk. She had had a troubled life and she shared with me some of the details. I shared with her a little of my own troubled background and shared with her how I had found healing and wholeness with the Lord. So, a day that was unpleasant physically was a a day that the Lord could use, first to reassure me and then to reach out to the nurse. Thank you Jesus.

How many times have you invited someone to church? Its kinda what Christians do. You meet someone who is not a Christian and maybe you say ” you should come to my church on Sunday,” or ” you have to hear my pastor,” but perhaps you don’t say anything. Given most reliable stats, you don’t say anything.

I suppose asking someone to come to church is better than not saying anything at all, maybe. If the whole thing is a cop-out then perhaps we need to search our own hearts? Sharing your faith is something that should come naturally. Can I ask you, when was the last time you meaningfully shared your faith with anyone? Now, I don’t ask this question to put a snare on anyone. If the stats are correct, then 92% of us never share our faith. I want to suggest that this is a tragedy.

In the day and age that we live in it has become increasingly difficult for people to share their faiths. I want to suggest that this is not simply because of the shallowness of what currently passes for Christianity, although that certainly plays a part. Neither is it simply that the generation we now live in has been preceded by more than one generation of cheap grace conversions but of course that also plays into it. No, we are now living in a society where one of the high crimes is to offend someone. This is a generation that is hyper sensitive to being offended. They would rather surround themselves by like-minded shallow people and create an echo-chamber where no difficult different idea has to be dealt with.

Society has new rules and new ways of dealing with anyone who steps outside of social norms. Let’s say you had some legitimate concerns about illegal immigration. To voice them is to be punished with the new whip. It used to be the cat of nine tails now it is the label. Voice a concern about a politically incorrect subject and you are branded a racist or a bigot. Voice a concern about gay marriage and you are branded a hater. So, in any number of subjects you can be shut down simply by being branded, pigeon-holed and at the very least, ignored. Now why would the enemy of our souls seek to create a society that is hyper sensitive to being offended?

Gal 5:11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased.

You see, the cross, the central tenet of our faith, is an offense to those who are perishing. When shared and preached by the power of the Holy Spirit the fundamental aspect of who we are in Jesus and what is required of men by God becomes utterly unacceptable to men. Now we live in a day and age where offending someone is rising to the level of criminality. We are only a few steps away from the central truth of Christianity being criminalized. That central truth that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but through Him.

If you cannot share your faith now, in any meaningful way, if the best that you can do is say to someone that they should come to your church next Sunday, then can you see the trouble that you are in? If you cannot do it now, when the only ramification is an offense to someone, how will you be able to share your faith when it will be against the law? By overly relying on the one man system in our churches, where only a few get to exercise their gifts, we have effectively starved the Body of Christ of edification. We are a mal-nourished group of people barely able to share even the most basic aspects of our faith, but rather all we can do is feebly point towards someone else and hope they tell them the truth.

When we encounter someone and the Holy Spirit creates an opening for us to share the Gospel, it should be our  our life-blood, our passion, to take that opportunity and share whatever the Lord lays on our heart to share. Not passively hand them off to someone else with a feeble invite that they may not even take you up on. The world has a phrase” Carpe diem,” seize the day. We, as Spirit filled Christians, must seize our moments. I believe we shall give an account to the Lord for the moments He created. Now every tear will be wiped away from our eyes no doubt, but how much better to hear these words ” well done good and faithful servant.?

Five months ago we rescued a two month old male Labrador. At the age of seven months Jack walks without a leash. He heels, he sits, he comes, he drops things from his mouth when told to. He is the envy of the other dogs that see him each day because he is not shackled to his leash. He runs ahead of me, or lingers behind, he runs the fields and the tree line. He loves to run in the tall grass and I love to watch him zig zag through the grass. He runs into the forest chasing rabbits and chases squirrels up trees. Even in full flight of rabbits he will cut short the chase when commanded.

Now to get to the point we are at now took discipline and consistency. There was a sternness to my voice when needed and punishment too when required. Yet, now that Jack and I have the right relationship, now that he understands his need to submit, his need for obedience, his brokenness so to speak, it is Jack that reaps the rewards. I would say that he has more freedom than any other dog in the neighborhood.

You know, this has been my experience with the Lord. I am sure some will object to the master/dog analogy but for me it really fits. As a young man and a young Christian ( came to the Lord at 27) I was very headstrong, rebellious and undisciplined. I marvel at the patience of my Master, my trainer. I too experienced discipline and I would say that it came mostly in the Lord allowing me to suffer the consequences of my actions. If He had shielded me from them I doubt I would have ever learned a thing.

Another aspect of my dog is that he always keeps me in his line of sight. He could be fifty yards away but as long as he can see me, as long as he knows I am there, he is at rest in his activities. He can be dashing around the tall grass and suddenly his head will come up, see where I am, and then he his back to his activities. His world revolves around his proximity to his master and all is right with his world as long as he can me and is close to me.

Now, consider the un-disciplined dog. He walks with his leash and is always straining against it. He never gets to run, he never gets to explore, his master cannot trust him and always has to keep him on a tight leash. The disobedient dog will never experience freedom. The unruly dog is forever confined. He is constantly being choked as he pulls against his leash. Can I suggest that this is the experience of the immature saint, the saint who would not yield to discipline, who would not be mastered, whose will is forever clashing with the will of the Master.

To be free in the Lord Jesus is to be obedient. The broken-hearted and the contrite saint is the free saint. We have been called to freedom. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Gal 5:1) For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives (Heb 12:6) Will you be free? Then will you bow the knee? It is in the bowing of the knee, the yielding of the spirit and the obedience to His word and voice that throws of the shackles of sin and produces a peace that surpasses understanding. And that peace comes from trust and faith in Jesus, not only as our Saviour which He most certainly is, but above all our Lord and Master in whom we follow and obey all the days of our lives.

Before I encountered God in new birth I felt zero worth and this was the root cause of all of my problems in life, be it anger or alcohol or drugs and so on. Without any details, I was robbed of any worth as a kid. I set of down that typical destructive path. My brother ended up in prison, in and out for many years, my sister fought her own demons and died last year ( not before finding God, praise Him)

Encountering God in the new birth,there sprung forth life. Yet every life needs the light to grow, nothing grows in the darkness. And so I have had at least two significant encounters with the inspiration of Calvary after the new birth which has significantly changed the actual wiring in my head. You see, to know what Jesus did is revelation through His word but to truly understand it requires inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

To inspire someone causes them to grow because of what you have imparted. Have you been ” inspired,” by the Holy Spirit, has there been an impartation? How will you know? How would you not know? It changes everything. If you have never experienced this then I urge you to seek and to plunge the depths of Calvary, consider the cost, consider the anguish and the agony of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. What kind of love is this??? Something above and beyond our wildest imaginations. Can it be grasped?

Yes, it is a work, it is the work of the Holy Spirit and it is found by those who diligently seek it out. If you are looking, He will find you, He will reveal to you, He will inspire you and impart to you the depths of His love as seen on that old Rugged cross so despised by the world. And you will finally see your true worth as all the lies of this old world fall away like scales from your eyes. Your worth is founded upon His love!