Love of the World

The biggest threat and danger to our Faith is the love of this world -- worldly pursuits. Jesus spoke of this in the parable of the seeds and soil:

"Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful."

It is a difficult balancing act to put the LORD's concerns above our own. And spiritual apathy is pandemic in the church in this time of the famine of the hearing of the Word of God. At this point in time ALL the virgins are sleeping.

Some of the hardest things to resist that I can think of include:

* Compromising with truth to be acceptable to unsaved family/friends;

* Hiding one's beliefs to fit in at work;

* Falling in love with an unbeliever in hopes of converting him/her;

* Forsaking daily reading of the Word, after all, you've read the entire Bible;

* Justifying sleeping with unmarried lover, after all, 'we love the LORD and each other';

* Giving in to same-sex attraction, 'God made me that way';

* Backsliding into old habits you forsook when you got saved (smoking, drinking, carousing);

* Keeping quiet when Christian friends speak highly of false teachers and not caring enough to warn them.

I do believe that watching for the signs of His appearing and getting excited about His coming does indeed help with our sanctification. This is an advantage we have over those who are preterists and post-mils and a-mils. 

Let's keep on eagerly awaiting the Time of our Visitation and hold onto our crowns!!

“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”" - Luke 21:34-36

"If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. " - Col 3:1-7