No More Natural Affection :: By Terry James

Lucifer’s drive to destroy humanity has, from the time he was found to be with iniquity, been his priority. His incessant drive to kill and destroy is his ceaseless endeavor. We are warned of his never-ending campaign to eradicate humankind in the following:

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). 

We and others have many times looked at this all-consuming hatred Lucifer has for us. It seems that when God created us in His own image, it was more than the most gloriously arrayed angel could bear; he couldn’t stand that there was a creation more God-like than himself.

From this jealous rage, the mystery called “iniquity” flared within the mighty cherub, and the result, as we know, was the rebellion of one-third of the angels and their eviction from Heaven.

Apparently, a first hate-filled act Lucifer undertook was to plan a way to separate humans from their Creator, then destroy them.

Now known as Satan, Lucifer not only continues the assault against humanity begun in the Garden of Eden but steps on the accelerator in his drive to destroy us during these times so near the moment when Christ will call believers to Himself in the Rapture.

Satan has increased his attempts at terminating humankind, having been at the center of the world’s two most destructive wars. Of course, we are told through Bible truth that wars come from the hearts and minds of fallen people, but at the nucleus of that war-making proclivity is the “father of lies”—the chief instigator of death and destruction, Lucifer.

Only God’s restraining hand has prevented the eradication of the human race. With the advent of atomic weaponry, Satan no doubt thought he had at his disposal the means of doing us in through inciting conflicts and, ultimately, total nuclear annihilation.

Satan knows Bible prophecy, but he, in his supreme arrogance and now total anti-God, reprobate mind, still believes he can defeat God’s foreknowledge. That foreknowledge has promised us that through belief in His Son, Jesus, we will, on one eternal day, be in the Father’s house forever.

So the devil tries not only war-making but, more subtly, more deceptively, to take humankind down through, primarily, two other ways.

One of those ways is through the sin of homosexuality. He has worked feverishly to encourage the practice that guarantees if carried to the full, that the human race will disappear. Homosexuality can never procreate, so the “lifestyle” fits Satan’s plans perfectly. This is really a “death-style, not a “lifestyle,” for the human race.

The second way, and even more egregious, perhaps, is through the evil of abortion. Through this wickedness, Satan has convinced those who should be the fiercest defenders of life within themselves to literally murder babies in their wombs.

This shedding of innocent blood–a thing God says He hates—fits perfectly, for example, within the designs of the human minions of Ephesians 6: 12 to achieve their goals for their so-called New World Order.

The plans for those who want to implement the Great Reset, those of the World Economic Forum and other one-world builders, include the intention to bring earth’s population down to five hundred million people or less. This was engraved on the recently removed Georgia Guidestones, you perhaps remember.

The following item encapsulates how Satan has convinced the child-bearing members of the human race to participate in his hellish scheme to seek and destroy all of humankind.

A Nebraska teenager was recently sentenced to 90 days in jail after she burned and buried the remains of her aborted baby, a case U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar called a “frightening violation of privacy and autonomy.”

Omar published a screenshot of a New York Times article about the case of 19-year-old Celeste Burgess, who was not charged “under Nebraska’s abortion law,” the article notes. At the time, Nebraska prohibited abortions after 20 weeks; that has now been moved up to 12 weeks.

Instead, she “pleaded guilty in May to removing or concealing human skeletal remains, a felony. Prosecutors agreed to drop two misdemeanor charges against her: concealing a death and false reporting,” the New York Times reports.

Burgess, 17 at the time, was “almost 30 weeks pregnant” in April 2022 when she used abortion pills obtained by her mother to terminate her pregnancy, according to the article. Her mother, Jessica, has pleaded guilty to violating Nebraska’s abortion restrictions along with providing false information to police and removing or concealing human skeletal remains, according to the Times.

Police obtained Facebook messages between Celeste Burgess and her mother where the daughter talked “about how she can’t wait to get that ‘thing’ out of her body,” according to the Associated Press. (“Omar expresses support for a woman who burned and buried her aborted baby’s remains. Courthouse News reports that the mother and daughter tried to hide the remains, “at one point attempting to burn the remains with apple-flavored charcoal briquettes.”  Anthony Gockowski, Alpha News, 8/9/23)

Of all signals that this generation is bumping up against the very end of the age, it is the mounting evidence that many fall under Paul’s prophetic warning that gives proof:

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be… Without natural affection” (2 Timothy 3:1, 3a).

There can be no greater “natural affection” than that of a mother for her child. But millions have been deceived into believing that the baby within is a thing that is to be gotten rid of from within their bodies, as the above tragic story of the young woman’s experience attests. This burgeoning, without-natural-affection slap in the face of God evil, like homosexuality, is surely a profound sign that God, who created us in His own image, is about to say, “Enough,” and begin the divine process of bringing back heavenly order.

But there is still redemption for those who will but turn to God’s way–the only way—to forgiveness and acceptance into His eternal family. Here is how to be forgiven, even of the sins of homosexuality and abortion: 

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

 

 

Hebrews Lesson 57: A Good Conscience Spiritually :: By Sean Gooding

Chapter 13: 18-25

“Pray for us; for we are confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably. 19 But I especially urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner. 20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. 22 And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words. 23 Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly. 24 Greet all those who rule over you, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. 25 Grace be with you all. Amen.”

As we approach the end of our journey in the great book of Hebrews, I pray that you have learned, as I have studied it, the wonders of our salvation that we have in Jesus. That you have seen the absolute confidence we can have in God’s power to both save us and keep us saved. That you have seen the very clear connections to the Old Testament, and you will now gain more and more confidence in reading the Old Testament when you see the connections between the two. I pray that you will see that God has never been caught off guard and that even our salvation was never a ‘plan B,’ but THE PLAN from the very beginning. I pray that you will draw closer to Jesus as you, and I, for that matter, struggle with our carnal man, our flesh and its desires.

May we grow more and more gracious to each other as we experience the loving kindness of God when we fail. I pray that we will see and appreciate the lengths to which God and Jesus went to redeem us from death and Hell. I pray that we will all live more deliberately for the Lord as he died deliberately for us.

Pray for us, verse 18

I have met Christians from all around the world. Just last night, I had a conversation with a lady from Beijing; she is a born-again lady. We talked for an hour or so about the Lord and about life as a Christian in China. We vowed to pray for each other. I have dear friends whom I have never met face to face, but they love the Lord, they live and work in Pakistan, and they are always asking us to pray for them. Here in Hebrews, written sometime in the mid-first century, Paul, a captive in Rome, is asking for his brothers and sisters to pray for them. This is one of the most important things that we can do for each other, and I think we take it for granted.

Knowing that someone is actively praying for you is powerful. I have a dear friend who is a pastor in Indiana, and every now and then, I will get a simple message saying, ‘I prayed for you today.’ Oh, what wonderful words to read, feel, and see! Someone thought about me, my family, and our church. There is this energy and this power that comes to God’s people when they know that there are people praying for them.

Do you pray regularly for your Christian friends, your kids, your Pastor, your Sunday School teachers, and your kids’ bus driver? Do you have a missionary that you pray for regularly? Let them know that you are praying for them. Paul needed prayer; your missionary friend does as well. Do they have children? Maybe you can get your children involved by praying for their kids. But pray, when all else is happening, pray. The same Paul puts it this way in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Pray without ceasing; we should always be in a state of communication with God about everything, and we should be praying for each other as often as we can. Pray for us. Send your requests, and we will pray for you.

Living Honorably, verse 18

What do we pray for? Paul tells them that his desire is to live honorably. Why? Paul was under house arrest in Rome, and as we can see later in the text, verse 24, “Those from Italy greet you’.” He was sending greetings from the Christians in Rome. Paul won most of the soldiers, it would seem, that guarded him, and he won many of the household of Ceasar; see Philippians 4:22.

“All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.”

Paul lived in such a way that even as a prisoner, he led his captors to the Lord. We should pray for each other that we live honorably in this world and that we, too, can win our friends, neighbors, and acquaintances to the Lord. Paul led many to the Lord, but he had many brothers and sisters praying for him and meeting his needs in Rome. This is what happens when we begin to pray for others; the Lord begins to show us how to help, how to make a difference in these folks’ lives, and you become the catalyst for how God helps and how you can spearhead others to help. You see, in this way, the person being prayed for can actively see the hand of God meeting needs. This empowers them to be more committed to the work and more secure in God’s commitment to them, and it helps to calm fears, the kind of fears that we all have.

There are countless stories of men and women who have been bolstered by someone praying for them, and often, they did not even know that they were being prayed for. Let us pray for each other that we would live honorably among the people in our lives and, as such, create an environment that offers people a place to come and talk, chat, cry, ask for help, and even just shoot the breeze so as to create a window for the Holy Spirit to find a way in.

James 5:16, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

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