Line Upon Line

Here's a insightful and timely word from Francis Frangipane that I wanted to pass along to you.

WHAT WILL YOU GIVE IN EXCHANGE FOR YOUR SOUL?
by Francis Frangipane

"In the last days, perilous times shall come" (2 Tim. 3:1).

When Paul writes that, "perilous times shall come," with holy fear we ought to consider his words. Indeed, we might expect the apostle's warning about the last days would focus upon coming persecutions or specifics concerning the Great Tribulation. But what Paul actually describes as "perilous" is a world full of obsessive self-fulfillment and readily attainable, and almost unbridled, opportunities for pleasure.

Consider well his warning. For his spiritual analysis reads like the advertisement section of a local newspaper. He continues,

"For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2 Tim 3:2-4).

It would be difficult enough if Paul were warning of the world's condition. However, the conditions he describes are not isolated to pagans or atheists, for such attitudes have always run rampant in the non-Christian world. Paul is warning about the worldly attitudes of people in the church. His concern is that many Christians will be intoxicated with the pleasures of this world. He then tells us that a religious veneer will mask this preoccupation with pleasure: Christians will hold "to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power" (2 Tim 3:5).

Beloved, Paul is warning about the conditions in many of our churches in the western world.

We need a deep, cleansing revival that returns us to passionate, biblical Christianity. I am not talking about a "flopping, hopping, run around the church sanctuary" emotional experience, but an all consuming return to the pursuit of Christ's character and power.

Amen, Francis!

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think on these things...

"Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, `If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, `but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.'

"Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand.

"O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name...''

-- Nehemiah 1:8-11 (NKJV)