Beloved: grace and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am pleased to welcome you to another week of the month of July 2023. I pray that God will continue to keep you safe from the corruption of these last days and make you stand before our Lord Jesus pure and blameless when He returns. Amen.
Recently, I saw some very disturbing videos on the internet of some of our young men and women in the country stripping themselves naked, even in some big markets, all in the name of playing a game. They call it flip-game challenge. And many are getting involved in this madness boldly. Why? They just want to make themselves happy and forget their pains and sorrows. And they don’t care what they have to do to make that happen. Then some see this as a means to make easy money on the internet.
Now all this brings to my mind one of the things our Lord Jesus says about the last days. He says, “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matt 24:12-13NIV) What will increase in the last days? Wickedness! Immorality! Deceit! And how will the increase in these things affect God’s children? It will make the love of many of them for the Lord become cold. In other words, they will no longer be passionate or fervent in living for the Lord or in serving Him. That, of course, will be because they too want to keep in step with their friends, lovers, family members, neighbours and so forth that do not know the Lord.
But the Lord is also very clear to us about the fact that it is only who remain firm in their love for Him and devotion to Him to the very end that will make their salvation complete. Those who give up on Him or on righteous living because of the wickedness, immorality, deceit, bitterness or jealousy around them can only lose their souls. So, don’t let any of the terrible things the people around you are doing to take care of themselves, protect themselves or make themselves happy make the fire of your love for God die. Instead, condemn their acts, turn away from them and cling to the Lord. That will be your wisdom.
Remember that the Lord Jesus says, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matt 16:25NIV) What this means is that all your friends, family members, colleagues at work or in school, neighbours or even church members that think they are going to save themselves or make themselves happy by stealing, getting drunk or getting involved in prostitution or money rituals will someday realise that they have not saved or made themselves happy at all but have only destroyed themselves. And if you allow them to entice you to be involved in their sins, you too will someday realise that you have destroyed yourself and perhaps the people you love in your attempt to save your life.
Which is it going to be, then? Will you remain true in your devotion to the Lord, regardless of the challenges life may throw at you, and depend on Him for victory, peace and joy in every situation? Or will you join all the people around you that are daily destroying themselves while they are trying to save themselves? Well, the ball is in your court. My prayer, however, is that the Spirit of God will strengthen your heart not to foolishly join the world in running a race that is bound to end in destruction. Amen.
Have a glorious week.
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