“for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”

1 John 5:4

This world is taking to itself more and more authority and power over our individual lives. Laws can now be made very quickly and the whole country can be put into a lockdown in one command. People are having substances put into their bodies, and no one knows exactly what they are. We ask few questions and there are no answers. People are afraid…

The images, stories, programmes on the media corrupt our morals and mind processes and it is accepted as entertainment. It is everywhere and our eyes see things that should not be seen. We are assaulted on every side by the forces of evil, and we are so used to it, we don’t even notice. Our hearts are heartened…

Our education is full of fairy tales and people making up facts to suit the situation. We have no control over what our children are taught, and they have been contaminated with the deepest of worldly mindsets. They are being manipulated and maneuvered into selfish and conceited views of themselves and others, yet their precious psyche is being oppressed and confidence to live life is eroded away. Our minds and future are uncertain…

Families are being torn apart and the problems we face in our relationships are profound and destructive. The very fabric of society is in tatters, and there is no one to mend it or to comfort the hurting.

Where are we to turn for succour? Who can help us? Can we stop it?

God is always in control. He has told us this would happen at the end times. We are never in control and we cannot help ourselves either.

“Unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect ones, whom he has chosen, he shortened the days.”

Mark 13:20

There are dreadful days coming when we will have to run to safety. If we read the whole passage in Mark 13:14-23, we see something that we know could easily happen in our days.

“…. when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go back inside to retrieve anything from his house. And let no one in the field return for his cloak.”

“How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! Pray that this will not occur in the winter. For those will be days of tribulation unmatched from the beginning of God’s creation until now, and never to be seen again. If the Lord had not cut short those days, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom He has chosen, He has cut them short.”

“At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible. So, be on your guard; I have told you everything in advance.”

Mark 13:14-23

We have instances all over the world of people fleeing all kinds of physical and spiritual troubles. We are also fleeing and running from a nationwide trouble that has frightened many and scarred many. Yet we remain without the Lord. We have no help but our own wits, and they are being used to lift our defences, and take away our civil liberties, never mind our God-given rights to life, liberty and choice. You can choose the flavour in your expensive coffee, but that is all. We really have no real or profound choice about anything.

This world has definitely taken its hold on us and our lives, and we don’t see it.

Falsehood and false prophets and Christ’s are everywhere. We make religions about of brand names and organisations that seem to help us, but we clutch at straws for something to believe in, but not he true God. Our minds are so polluted and our emotions so brutalised, we know and feel no longer…

“Knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

2 Peter 3:3-4

Even people who say they are Christians, think like this – we do not think, but just accept what this world gives out and take what we can get. Our mindset has become shallow and our behaviour perfunctory. Apathy rules, even in the church seats. People perish and we continue not to care. Cynicism rules our thinking and the outworking of it is coldness. Coldness to God and towards each other, in other words, no love and no God. This is godlessness and the root and poison of atheism. It is a non-virtuous circle of hatefulness.

We live in dreadful times. The greatest crime is to be impolite. It masks a deep seated hostility to each other, so we have learned to keep it in, except we curse each other in the street for inconvenience caused. We are deeply selfish and therefore have become very insecure as a society and paranoia has taken hold. Apathy rules, except where making money is involved. We invent new religions to try to stop the rot, and stem the river of carelessness that is dragging us down into perdition.

Who can help us? Where will we turn?

There is only one answer. Only our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ can help us. His voice is still heard in the quietness of individual hearts and He is still calling people to trust in Him. This is not religion, but a personal relationship with the living God. Only when we come to the end of who we are and see the futility of all our ways, will we seek God. Only when we are horrified by the sin that infests our own hearts, will we run to the love of a Saviour. He is the beginning and end of our faith, even Christ, who came and died for us.

“But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.”

Hebrews 9:26-28

Our Saviour, Jesus had come and lived among us, and has given His life for us on the cross. This sacrifice of Himself, has put away sin, once and for all, for those who believe. Only He can save us from the consequences of our sin, and rescue us from the ills that beset our world. Only He can shield us from the wrath of God that is surely coming.

As Jesus came the first time, as He promised, so He will come the second time for those who are waiting for Him. If we remain in apathy, carelessness and hardness of heart, we will be lost, lost to God and ultimately loosing our own souls.

But, we can overcome the world. We overcome through exercising our faith in the Lord Jesus and walking as He walked.

“This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him. But whoever keeps his word, God’s love has most certainly been perfected in him. This is how we know that we are in him: he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.”

1 John 2:3-6

This is how we overcome. The power of the Holy Spirit who lives in the Christian, teaches us the commandment of God and gives the power to keep them. We keep the commands because we love Him. We love Him because He loved us first…

This is how you know you are a Christian. You walk your life in purity, as Jesus walked His, and keep yourself from being contaminated by this world.

“Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

James 1:27

Even this short verse is the antithesis of what we observe in our society today.

“But know this, that in the last days, grievous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power.”

2 Timothy 3:1-5

These are so-called religious or just “good” people, but their hearts are full of sin, and most don’t realise it- they have become conditioned to thinking it is all ok. Their souls are dead, so they have no sensibilities to the Spirit of God. They continue with impunity and bring many down with them.

“The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn’t darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining gives you light.”

Luke 11:34-36

We need self examination now, more than ever, to see if the faith we profess is real, of if we are just used to the darkness within. Is my faith overcoming the works, or am I subject to it? Am I resisting the onslaught of evil in this world?

These are the questions for our lives. We need to be sure what kingdom we are in and what leader we are following. Only Jesus Christ is able to save us, and we must grasp that fact. Otherwise we will be duped and led astray but every foolish fear and doubt that comes along. Only Christ is able to save and He can save us to the very end and bring us safely to our home in heaven. This is the hope of the Christian, even our faith, with which we overcome the world. Jesus said…

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

Do not be caught out by this world. Do not allow you own sins to blind you.

“Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

Isaiah 55:6-7