Having Your Fun First.....Really?

Many are telling newly married people to have their fun first before they have children. This grieves me because it flies in the face of God's truth.

One of the greatest joys in life is to have a child with the one you love.

The more we indulge ourselves in play the less we prepare ourselves for the life of a family.

2 Timothy 2:22

"So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."

Pleasure is addictive, when someone believes pleasure is more important than the family they usually live their entire life pursuing that which distracts for God's purposes.

Luke 8:14

"And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature."

Seeking pleasure after marriage, delaying family to have fun causes those who pursue their pleasure to remain immature. The family life done God's way matures those who love Him.

Those who wait too long to marry often remain immature because they have set their ways in pleasure. They are burdened by family rather than blessed by it.

1 Corinthians 10:7

"Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”

When play and pleasure are the focus there cannot be growth in wisdom and the principles of God. It is only in pursuing God in our marriage that one can grow in holiness.

When a couple pursues God in their marriage they will mature at a much more steady rate as they learn the life lessons that come from striving together for things that matter to God.

1 Corinthians 13:11 "11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. "z

The pursuit of pleasures is a sure sign someone is not ready to obey God in raising a family. The children in a situation like this will be taught to play all the time while tacking a little of god on at the end to feel spiritual. This is what we have in our culture right now and getting worse.

The pleasures of life do not fulfill anyone, they are temporary for as long as they are being enjoyed, but fade the moment they are finished.

In order to keep the joy alive, we must continually pursue the pleasures. For the man who trusts in God, all that is needed is the everyday life in their various forms are fulfilling. That is striving together to raise a family, build a homelife and the simple things in life bring pleasure, nothing grandiose or boast-worthy are needed for the one following after Christ.

Psalm 37:4 " 4 Delight yourself in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart."

When we seek the Lord in all things He changes our heart to want what He wants. Our own desires are removed and replaced with His desires.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

"11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we instructed you, 12 so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need."

We do not find anywhere in Scripture in which God instructed us to play or pursue pleasure. His desire is that we will gain our pleasure from the things He has given us to do. We do see, however, the interaction with other believers as we help one another in daily life.

Worship and Abuse of Freedom

The United States is about to lose the freedom it worships above God.

We have abused the freedom we have had and place other things and people above God. Trusting more in these things and people, even becoming angry at God when we begin to lose them.

All the complaining about our government continually when it was our sin that caused God to give us what we deserved in this government.

Repentance is the only thing that will bring this country back, but I am convinced we are in the end times and there is no coming back. The very people who want revival will not repent from their sin of pride and foolishness.

Many in this country say they believe in the Bible but do not obey God. Their Bible is a prop in their house like an amulet, to make them feel safe but they read it rarely, and when they do they do not obey what they read.

Many people who do read the Bible express superiority over others for their knowledge but defy the verses that command them to "love others above themselves." These people have a form of religion but deny God in their practices.

They divorce and remarry continually, if they do not they defend those who do. They endorse sin on many levels and claim they are doing it for God. They love sin and hate righteousness. \\

Most people who claim to be Christians today have no interest in the Bible except to snatch verses out of context to make them say what they want to justify their sin.

They use phrases like:

"God wouldn't want me to be unhappy" Really, the God that sent His only Son to the cross to die a cruel death for others would not want you to be unhappy?

"Don't judge" God commanded us to judge those in the body, we are to be discerning about our brothers and sisters.

"Your mean" when someone brings scripture to bear on their sin. We are accused of many things we are not merely to intimidate us into silence so the one who is sinning does not have to listen.

I could write a book about these phrases that are completely unbiblical but revered by many. There are many phrases "Christians" use that have no basis in the Bible but they believe they do.

When we see these phrases being used to justify sin and rebellion we know we are dealing with someone who has no interest in truth or they would ask God to show them. They do not ask God but they do get angry at anyone who will correct them with the scriptures.

Proverbs 1:22-23 "22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge? 23 If you had repented at my rebuke, then surely I would have poured out my spirit on you; I would have made my words known to you.…"

We are living in a rebellious world now, except for a remnant of believers who are "people of the book", that is serious students of the Bible. These people pray for wisdom more than knowledge. They are unconcerned about impressing others but care deeply about pleasing their Savior.

Hallelujah for those who love God so much that the love of man is not on their radar, only that they impart truth to others.

Be Discerning with the Help of the Holy Spirit

Just recently we have seen a political figure being worshiped just the way the antichrist will be accepted. The final antichrist will "say" He is god and the world will fall in line to follow him. We see how it can happen, ignoring all the clues until it is too late and they are sealed for hell with the exception of a remnant who God will protect.

All an antichrist has to do today is "say" what the world wants to hear and the "saying" alone is enough for most people. Even a little doing helps solidify the allegiance to this personage's false persona and the followers will ignore all the clues they know are there using excuses of all kinds to follow this person.

We live in a fantasy world of make-believe, through television and movies we have been trained to think something is true merely by the "saying." People do not look for clues or truth, only that someone says what they want to hear.

Words are of little value, it is in the lifestyle and commitment that proves the words. If the words are all that is there with a little bone thrown in to fool the people then we have seen an antichrist at work.

I grieve every time I see a Christian becoming overpowered with love for a personage who clearly has monstrous clues of his level of evil, but the people will not see it.

They have concocted a persona in their mind about this person that they choose to believe and will not listen to all the clues about them. Those who lack discernment will be the kind of people who follow the antichrist. They may even say they would never do that but have already demonstrated by their favorite actor or political leader that they would in fact do exactly what they say they would not.

How we respond already is a clue of what we will do in the future. If we are discerning and critical about everything then we will not be fooled. It is those who refuse to be critical thinkers who will see the truth about anyone. Those who are not critical thinkers will have idols they follow no matter what the clues that prove their idol to be wicked.

Psalm 118:8

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man."

Jeremiah 17:5

"Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord."

This is an important verse in Jeremiah, God clearly tells us not to trust in any man. This means that when a man, no matter how much we like them, says something we are to evaluate it in terms of the Bible. In other words, God is more important than any man.

When a man is so important to us that we cannot think critically that man becomes an idol. Those who have idols must repent from this, coming back to Christ alone.

2 Timothy 3:13-17

"While evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."

A Foolish Person

2 Traits Central To Understanding Narcissism

God and His Shutdown

I praise God that He shut down all our idols using a pandemic. God is giving everyone a chance to see what is important and to reflect on their final destination if they are to pass.

It matters not where this pandemic came from, it only matters that God allowed it for His purposes. I hear that more people are contemplating their walk with God than did before all their pleasures were taken from them.

Especially as Americans, we have more pleasures than anyone can count. Some just useless and others downright wicked.

We are moving into the end of the end, a time when things are escalating right before the rapture and the tribulation. God is warning people to remove their idols and focus on Him.

Whatever you speak of the most is probably your idol. We ought not to speak more of our pleasures than we do of God and the rest of the time ought to be in silence and prayer.

Soon the church will be taken out and all hell will break loose to torment those left upon the earth. We have seen an immense deception in this last election for a leader, that most people do not see. Their focus is so completely on the things they want they choose to ignore the signs.

The people have been deceived already on many things, but the antichrist will deceive so completely and covertly that they will not listen to reason. Only a remnant will listen and be safe with Christ. The rest will live in torment after the antichrist fools them, then He will unleash his devils on them to do terrible harm. It will be unbearable, and all because many will refuse to see the clues that he is evil.

1 John 4:1

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world."

2 Timothy 3:13

"While evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived."

Matthew 7:21-23

"“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

1 Timothy 4:1

"Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,"

We are living in times of intense deception greater than ever before. Most people live in a fantasy world of their own making. They choose to believe what they want and disregard the warnings.

Matthew 24:24 "For there shall arise false christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."

Many who call themselves Christian are following people and ideologies that are contrary to God and they will not listen.

May the Lord open the eyes of those who have been deceived. May these people want to know only truth so they can be delivered from their deceptions.