SIN AND TEMPTATION
I was gardening yesterday, and I was clearing some thorn bushes with a pair of lopshears. Several of the little, insignificant thorns would catch on bigger thorns, which, when I would cut them, they would get caught on bigger thorns, thereby multiplying the time I spent out there. Eventually, I had to get someone with a chainsaw to take the entire tree down. As I was working, I thought, "Wow, what a great spiritual application!" The thorns represent sin and temptation in our lives, and the lopshears represent our efforts to rid ourselves of those sins and temptations through the Holy Spirit. We will try and get rid of the small sins, but they will lead to bigger ones, and as we try to get rid of the bigger ones in an effort to get the small ones off, they will tangle in even bigger ones. Eventually, after awhile, we get exhausted, and can no longer work. We have to ask God to remove the sin, even when we've done all we can. He will remove our spiritual 'tree', and we can praise Him for it.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
As I was working in those briars, I got to talking to the lady who had hired me. We got to talking, and one of our topics was how the world was suffering more and more disasters. The earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, the subsequent tidal waves, the fires, bombings, and shootings--these are all SIGNS OF THE TIMES. These signs of the times indicate that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Son of God, one-third of the Trinity, is coming back very, very soon.
One of the examples of this is the recent development Congress has put through, a national ID card that would be embedded in your vein, able to be scanned by scanners. This is a direct ancestor to the 'Mark of the Beast' mentioned in Revelation 13:16-17. This 'Mark of the Beast' will be required to be given to all people in the Tribulation:
16And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
The fact that we have the technology to achieve this is a sign of the time in itself.
This should be a call to action for us Christians:
SPREAD THE GOSPEL, PRAY WITHOUT CEASING, FELLOWSHIP WITH ONE ANOTHER
Amen and Oya, Kar'taylir Manda!
