God’s Church does its best work when under extreme pressure and danger. This is our time to break from darkness and march for the light of the Gospel.

Who and what are you going to believe? Who are you going to throw your confidence behind… the devil and his scary fake news? Or are you going with God’s Word with its scary but hopeful outlook?

The scary news is not necessarily all fake or false, not all of it anyhow. These are the last days spoken of in Scripture with difficulties, lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, abusive, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, without self -control, brutal, not loving good, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure and not lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but totally denying its power. (II Timothy 3:1-5)

Every day’s news puts us eye to eye with such behavior. If the unbeliever is unknowingly heading to hell in a basket, these are some of the baskets he’s using!

Whatever news source you just turned off, be it MSNBC, CNN or Fox… coupled with what you have seen with your eyes and felt in your heart, all bear witness to us living in dangerous times. The danger of taking it all in with just our five physical senses is that those five don’t give us the entire story. The most important part for any believer is what Holy Spirit reveals about this time on earth.

Matthew 24:1 says this: “For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now-and never to be equaled again.” Many believe this is speaking about the Great Tribulation. Whether we go throw that incredible period of time, leave before it begins or taken away part way through it, we are presently in a time of spiritual darkness beyond what any of us have ever experienced or want to experience.

But here’s where we need to tread confidently with hearts of faith. Did God fail to anticipate this time? Obviously not, for He warned specifically of it. Has He lost His capability for dealing with sin and its consequences? Is His arm ‘short?’ Has His power somehow and somewhere dissipated? We must immediately answer “NO” to these questions.

When you read II Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land,” how do you read it? With skepticism? Doubt? Wishful thinking? Or do you respond in faith and feel that faith build confidence in you?

 And when God promised Job to “… pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.: (Job 2:28) was He just kidding?

Does God see His Church with downturned heads, fumbling faith and fearful faces or does He see us as trustworthy followers who follow His agenda to give the Gospel to all we can reach.

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed

throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations,

and then the end will come.” Romans 1:19-20 ESV