8-26-22 Move Over Sodom; Here Comes the World!

Move Over Sodom; Here Comes the World! - By Gene Lawley - https://www.raptureready.com/2022/03/20/move-over-sodom-here-comes-the-world-by-gene-lawley/ It is blatantly apparent that the world is embracing the sexual immorality down-slide. It is said that we must keep up with the trends of history, so many major corporations are eager to recognize claims of transgender activists and promoters. It has established the greatest confusion among people that the world has ever seen. The demands of the so-called LBGTQ+ movement are put in first place as if any other response would be worse than death itself. Yet, that part of our population is less than ten percent. Why is this happening? One of the major happenings that signal the approach of the return of Christ for His body of believers is that there will be a “falling away from lawfulness,” and that means people will turn to immorality, injustice, crime, murder, and any other unrighteous activity that evil man can devise. Abortion and the sexual revolution are topping the list, for certain. The Scriptures predict that the falling away will include turning away from God, giving Him no recognition at all, as if He has never existed. In Proverbs 9:10, it says, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” The proponents of abortion-at-will claim that what happens at conception results in a mere particle of tissue having no life. Then somehow, mystically, it takes on life with a heartbeat and continues on into a fully developed person to be born and nurtured by its mother. The Bible, however, clearly tells us that God is very present at the time of the conception, in His infinite knowledge, and causes the conception to occur, giving the new person a name and recording it in His book. Here is the Scripture that tells that truth as the psalmist addresses the issue before God: “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them” (Psalm 139:13-16). The real battle is that eternal one between God and Satan. The attack upon God’s highest creation, the creation of mankind in his own image, is reaching a critical but terminal level, for the devil knows his time is short. Abortion has become an industry, most surely indicated by the dark-sided sale of those body parts taken in an abortion. No wonder those people are determined to see abortion approved up to the time of birth! Now also, the gigantic confusion of gender identity and sexuality issues. “No one by taking thought can add one cubit to his height,” Jesus said (Matthew 6:27-KJV). Neither can a person, man or woman, change their gender as they were born by taking thought. It is a deception of the devil to distort the image of God in which he or she was created in the beginning. Satan has taken up the creation of mankind as a battleground to slap God in the face, actually, just as he wanted to do when God allowed him to test Job. You recall that account, where the devil was sure he could cause Job to do as his wife did. She told Job, after he had lost everything but his own life, to “Curse God and die!” But Job had a very deep fear of God that consisted of a recognition of God’s justice. But we see in James 5:11 that God wanted to instill in Job His attributes of compassion and mercifulness. (I take this “rabbit trail” to show that Satan’s wiles are not new, but these of today are hitting God’s highest creation with a stunning blow. And, unfortunately, the world seems to be buying the whole package, even many church leaders, as well as nations.) In a 2018 address to the LBGTQ+, the now current president of the United States spoke with glowing terms of the lifestyles of those who have embraced that immoral deception. More than a few of the large church leaders have succumbed to that evil and ungodly claim of equality with morality and righteousness and are accepting them into their churches as members without restriction. Surprisingly, many of those large congregations are Southern Baptist denominations. It is bringing a crisis to the existence of that body of believers. Where is it headed? The shoulder-shrug that says, “This is not new; this has happened before,” must want to think it will pass without any meaningful intervention by God. I am thinking of judgment. God is not silent on the issues of the gender and sexual revolution. In Romans 1:18-32, His Word makes an awesome declaration of His position on this direction in which the world is fast-moving. It is a word picture of raw carnality in opposition to His very existence: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” There is a passage in Luke 17:28-30 that tells us of a coming time when… well, let’s see the passage: “Likewise, as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brim-stone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” When you read Genesis 18 and 19, it tells us of the saturation of Sodom with homosexuality involving every male of the city. They all, every one of them, banged on Lot’s door, demanding that he turn out those two “men” (angels) that they might “know them”! You see the result in the Scripture report—the city was destroyed, and every person in it died. God saw the evil of the people and sent the two angels to bring judgment upon them. Note further, however, that this passage speaks of a future time, the time of the return of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. This cannot be at the time of His Second Coming, for at the time, the judgment of the seven years of tribulation will have closed down almost all activity of “eating and drinking, buying and selling, etc.” At that time, the major concern of any people left on earth will be for survival. Read about it in Revelation chapters 8-19—hardly anything is left intact, having been devastated by the judgments of God. It leaves us with the obvious question for this world that is plunging into the likeness of Sodom with devasting certainty: “Will you repent and accept the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, or continue into a like destiny of the people of Sodom?” The Scripture is clear that “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Contact email: andegetmercy@gmail.com Insanity Defined - By Hal Lindsey - https://www.hallindsey.com/ww-4-3-2022/ No one can say definitively who said it first. It has been attributed to Albert Einstein, but scholars can’t find any time when he uttered the words. The earliest we find the quote in print comes from Alcoholics Anonymous. But whoever said it first, it is worth remembering. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.” Over the last few decades, western civilization has become increasingly disdainful of God and His word. We have abandoned the principles that gave the most people the most opportunity and greatest prosperity in history. Godly principles broke down class and racial barriers. Today, our society has turned away from those good things. And it’s not working. High percentages of people now suffer from mental disorders. More and more die from overdoses, overdrinking, or both. Suicide rates keep climbing. Corruption is growing in both the government and the private sector. Civility is becoming rarer. Violent outbursts happen with increasing regularity and in the strangest places. Children are less disciplined and less happy. I could list more, but you already know them. We reap the whirlwind, then try to fix it by sowing more wind (Hosea 8:7). We sow deceit and reap pain. In response to the pain, we sow even more deceit. And the cycle continues. We try to solve problems by doing the same things that caused the problems, but each time in more extreme ways. We’re making our problems worse by doubling down on the things that created those problems. We have become a violent and angry society. We need to seek God and repent. With the Psalmist, we should humbly ask God, “Teach me the way in which I should walk” (Psalms 143:8 NASB). But instead, this society fills its mouth with cursing, deceit, and fraud (Psalm 10:7). It says to itself, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it” (Psalm 10:11). As nations and as individuals we must urgently and earnestly turn to God. Psalm 143:10-11 says it well. “Teach me to do Your will…. Let Your good Spirit lead me…. For the sake of Your name, O Lord, revive me. In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble.”