Last Days

2 Timothy 3 "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. 6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds,who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone."

This scripture has been playing in my mind over the last few days. I think when we look around at the world what is happening, we can be blinded because we have it so easy, but the signs of the time are here. I don't know when Jesus is going to return, but this verse makes it very clear what we are going to see.

Look at verse 2 "People will be lovers of themselves," I think most people may look at this verse and say, I don't love myself, I actually dislike myself, I don't like who I am, I don't like my job, I don't like... If God called you from the foundations of the earth, He formed you in your mothers womb, He knew what you would go through and how you would look, because He made you. For those that say these things and more, can you imagine if you started saying Lord you created me, I want to honor you with who I am, instead of seeing all the wrong that you see with yourself, start praising God that He chose you. It starts changing your perspective on yourself, because no longer is it about "I", but You Lord.

God calls us to love Him most of all (Matthew 22:37), there is no buts or saying when times are good or tough, that we can stop putting Him first. He calls us to a higher standing than other people, because He wants us to not be like the world, but to be like Him. Look around to see how the world handles things, they get angry, because they feel it as an attack on themselves, but when we are able to say it is not my will Lord (Matthew 6:10), but Yours, it changes our view. I have used this example many times, when someone cuts you off in traffic, do you curse them or bless them? The world curses them, but God says bless them. You say Geoff that is impossible and I tell you this, that all things are possible with those that love the Lord with all their heart, soul and mind, because no longer is it about self, but about God. We need to stop being a people that holds onto our rights and start dying to the rights of ourselves and look at what the Bible says, what God says.

Example husbands and wives, have you ever read what the God calls us to in the Bible? He calls us to honor, respect, love, not just in the good times, but all the times. It isn't easy, but when we change why we are doing those things, we change ourselves. We do those things, not because it is easy or because they deserve it, we do it because God, the creator of heaven and earth, the creator of ourselves calls us to do it. It is because He has said do it, we shouldn't be asking how long or why, we should be doing it because He is our God and we love Him and long to serve Him.

This is the same as how we are to our parents, to our kids. God says it and I believe it and that settles it for me. Isn't it time we stop saying my rights and putting our rights aside and saying Lord I want to serve you more than myself?

The rest of the verse is the same, when we make life about self, it is not longer about God. When we start wanting to please self. People are getting divorced, because it no longer works for themselves. They made marriage about self. Then you look at the people that aren't getting married, but having sex outside of marriage, they say it is what makes them happy, because they took God out of it. When you take God out of the center of your life, it is somehow alright to do the very thing that God has warned us not to do. Put God in the center and follow what He says, isn't it time to do it His way?