As covered previously, many consider the seven churches of Revelation to be a prophetic outline of church history, and I share that view. Looking back, this is an amazingly accurate outline of church history. It would mean that the last church the Lord addressed, the church at Laodicea, would represent the church at the end of the age. This was the church that the Lord gave His greatest promises to: they would be given their food by Him, and they would sit with Him on His throne.

Every Christian is called to ministry. Every Christian is given a measure of Christ’s nature to manifest as a part of His body, as is stated in Ephesians 4:11-16:

          No President has been so resoundingly rebuked by the American people as was done with the Elections of 2014. The House now has its largest majority in history, and it is Republican. Republicans won control of the Senate. There are Republican governors in most states. On every level, Republicans won a huge victory this year.   

     Last week we discussed how Jesus prayed in John 17 that the love the Father had for Him would be in us. If I had time here, I believe I could biblically prove that the love of the Father for His Son and the Son’s love for the Father is the greatest power in all of creation and is personified in the Holy Spirit. The ultimate experience, fulfillment, or ecstasy that we could ever feel is this love. When we touch this love, it will overflow into a true love for everything and everyone, even our enemies.

September 11, 2001 is called “the day that changed the world forever.” It has also been called a “defining moment” in history. Now we must ask two questions. Have the changes been good? How have we let these events define us?

          This week we are continuing to examine the Lord’s important Word about the scribes who become disciples in Matthew 13:52:

          “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old.”

The normal state of Christianity is to be persecuted, and true Christianity and true Christians tend to make the greatest advances during times of persecution. However, what has been happening in the U.S. and Europe represents a dramatic loss of influence on the part of Christianity and the belittling and shaming of the gospel. This also computes to the growing lawlessness that is dragging an increasing number of souls into damnation.   

     If you are a student of history, you see how civilization fluctuates between extremes just like people do. The story of our U.S. government is fairly consistent, moving politically from the left and then back to the right. This is not necessarily a bad thing—an eagle needs both a left wing and a right wing to fly. Even so, if you are trending in one direction, moving to the left a little more each time than you do to the right, you will end up turning left overall. The same is true if you trend to the right.