Combating the spirits of the world

If you've spend any time on social media, or if you have children, then I'm sure you're familiar with what they call memes. I know in my home, my kids can sit in front of their phones for hours looking at these things. Oh, how we waste our time on so much trash these days.

The question is, are we letting the world push God out of our lives? If so, why? What could be more important to us than our relationship with the Creator? Why watch so much TV when we say we're too busy to pick up our Bibles? Because we have let the spirits of this world take over our lives! This is exactly what Satan wants. He wants us to spend our time watching, reading and listening to all these pointless things of the world because the more time we spend doing that, the bigger opening we leave for him and his demons to wedge themselves into ever corner of our lives. And the more we let them in, the further away we push God from us. How do you hear God's voice when you're focused on the droning of the world? You can't!

When I look at the churches today, I see so much apostacy happening right before our very eyes. People are too busy for God today, but why? What can this world possibly offer that could even compare to a moment spent with the Lord? This world and everything in it will pass away one day so why do we spend so much time involved with things that will not last? Does the world seem like it has gotten increasingly evil and lonely to you? Have you ever thought about why that is? Think about what the average life was like fifty years ago. People attended church regularly. Parents read their Bibles. Children went to things like Sunday School and Bible Camp.

We've kicked God out of our schools, taken down the commandments in our courthouses, and legalized nearly every form of sin listed in our Bibles. Now we are reaping what we have sown, an increasingly sinful world with no compassion or neighborly love whatsoever. We should not be surprised that the world is such a mess today when we've excluded the One who created it.

Most of us do not even live our lives in a way that gives us the right to call ourselves Christians. In all honesty, today's "Christians" have given Christianity a bad name. It's no wonder unbelievers want nothing to do with us or our beliefs. They see us acting like the rest of the world and yet we think we have the right to judge the behavior of others? It's time for the Church to get our act together and start behaving like we care what God thinks of us. Examine your life. Can you honestly say you think God is going to say to you, "well done"? I don't, and it's time to change that!

So what do we do? Well, for one we need to pick up our Bibles and starting communicating with God again. Listen to His Word, stop immersing ourselves in the world, and most importantly we need to start praying. Pray for the lost, pray for the Church, pray for our leaders, pray for our children. Countless times God performed miracles in the Bible in response to the prayers of his people. Stop judging people for their behavior and start praying that God will give them the strength to change. Stop complaining about your government and start praying that the leaders of this nation will be led by the Holy Spirit.

We are never going to win the world for Christ when His people are running around acting like devils. Put away the things of this world and starting behaving like God made a change in your heart. When we start acting like children of God, the world around us will change. We need to be the Church again, the real Church of God, not this empty and self-serving shell that the church has become today. Rise up Church! Put God first and He will honor us! Be the Church Jesus died for!

Forum Updates

Good morning beloved brothers and sisters in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!

Just a quick update on things going on over at the Berean Study Group Forums website. As you can see here, I've been away from social media and blogging for the better part of the last week. The reason is that I've been devoting most of my time to the forums as I am in the middle of a major overhaul. Adding a few features and making some major changes to aesthetic aspects of the site. This can be very time consuming since I am doing my best to make sure all images used on the website are original content so that we do not violate any copyrights. Since we do not have a staff or budget this means I am creating each and every image by my own hand. But don't get me wrong, I love this work and I'm excited to be working for the Lord in any way I can.

I hope you've had time to stop by and check out the forums, and I'm praying you will see the value in becoming a registered member so that you can engage in the bible study with us each week. It's free and it doesn't require much time, you can post as much or as little as you like. Our main purpose is to encourage getting into the Word of God on a daily basis and to share your thoughts and be exposed to the thoughts of other believers for the sake of encouragement within the body of Christ. We also want the forums to be a place of safety on an ever-increasing dark internet. We hope to become a close family of believers in these last days.

So with that said, if you haven't checked out the forums yet, I pray you will do so today. Please make note that the host of the site does not allow me to customize the mobile version of the website so if you are viewing it on a mobile device such as a phone or small tablet you will not be seeing the forum as it is designed and many of the features are not available. If you scroll to the bottom of the mobile site you can click on the DESKTOP link on the bottom right to enjoy the full benefits of the site.

Updates to the desktop version of the forums as of today include:

• New icons for each board to help you quickly and easily identify each topic
• A new text color scheme to help identify links more easily
• A quick scroll button on the right of the screen allows you to quickly move to the top or bottom of the page in one click
• New achievement badges have been added, with more to come, to make the experience more fun and help you set goals on your daily activity... you get a badge just for registering!

Click here to visit Berean Study Group Forums

May God bless you and keep you always!