One factor that always comes into play when the light of the church grows brighter is that those living in darkness become more threatened by it because they love the darkness more than the light. For this reason, they will attack those who walk in the light. Therefore, Christians must always be prepared for persecution, and those who are not prepared for it are not prepared for the times. How do we prepare for this?

Previously, we began to address the question of why it seems that every host of a great revival gets left in worse shape than before the revival. The answer to that question will give us many important answers that could bring a huge influx of life into the church, as well as enable the church to sustain a level of life and power that could make revivals obsolete and unnecessary. Why is this? Revival is only required when something has to be revived.

In this study of how the church will possess its Promised Land, we are taking a bit of time to examine government, because the kingdom of God is basically and first of all the government of God. Just as many conquerors in history discovered, and just as the U.S. has discovered in Iraq, it can be an easy thing to conquer a land, but an entirely different matter to govern it. As we are coming to the time when we will be possessing and inheriting the kingdom, there are practical issues concerning government in the kingdom that we need to understand.

          When we embrace the cross, we do so because of the conviction of our sin and the revelation that the cross is the only remedy. Only through the atonement of the cross can we be reconciled to God.

Because there is such an interest in the restoration of the former Heritage USA property (also known then as PTL), I will from time to time give a report on it as a Special Bulletin.

      As we begin our brief study of Marxism, we must keep in mind that judging other people groups by their most extreme elements can be an ultimate deception. There are liberals who are not socialists, and there are socialists who are not communists. Even so, the most moderate liberals can have some Marxist ideology in their worldview without knowing it, or they may know it and agree with it, but that does not make them a Marxist. There are many heathen who hold to some of the basic principles of Christianity, but that does not make them a Christian.

The real battle we are fighting is against fear. Evil people want to control the world through fear. As one of our great President of war once said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." To the degree that fear controls our actions, that is  the degree to which fear has become our lord.

          We are in the times of the beginning of a new epoch for Christianity. True apostolic Christianity is being restored to the earth. This will result in nothing less than the greatest manifestation of Christ on the earth since He Himself walked the earth.

We are in the time when those who are faithful will become more faithful and be trusted with even more authority. It is also the time when the faithless will become more faithless. Both the good seed sown into the world and the tares will come to maturity. Because of this, it will become more and more clear which are tares and which are the good seed, as the Lord prophesied in Matthew 13:37-43. Here He explained to His disciples the meaning of the parable about the enemy of the farmer who came and sowed tares in his wheat field:

         Two of the most enjoyable and interesting people I’ve met are Dexter and Birdie Yager. They had one of the largest organizations within Amway. I have never been part of Amway, but my wife and I used to get together with the Yagers for dinner occasionally, and each time it was an evening we would never forget.