Harvest Time

Revenge is not a topic with which we are comfortable.  But, today's text deals with the vengeance of God as well as His reward. 

It is, thankfully, the beginning of the final judgments!

And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.  Revelation 15:1

The plagues are indicated in this text (14.14-20), and then detailed in chapters 15-16.  They are delivered by seven more angels.

John is an old man at this point; his mind is so saturated with the Scriptures that he can hardly utter a sentence without traces of Moses and the prophets winding their way through like tendrils from a grapevine.  The picture of the harvest evokes images in John's minds-eye:

Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.  Come, tread the grapes, for the winepress is full.  The storage vats are overflowing with the wickedness of these people.”   Joel 3:13 (NLT)

The text pictures two harvests – grain and grape.  They parallel the judgment of rewards (bema seat for the raptured saints), and the judgment of revenge (bummer for the ruptured unbelievers).

The Explanation

Grain Harvest – Judgment of Reward

Then I saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was someone like the Son of Man.  He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.  Then another angel came from the Temple and shouted to the one sitting on the cloud, “Swing the sickle, for the time of harvest has come; the crop on earth is ripe.”  So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the whole earth was harvested.  Revelation 14:14-16 (NLT)

Many passages in the Scriptures may have some degree of difficulty concerning interpretation.  I don’t think this is one of them!  (That is not to suggest arrogance, or claim special revelation; there are just so many telling references that the passage seems to cry out about itself.)

Moody Bible Institute's past president George Sweeting told about a student who was befuddled when his professor spoke about the pre-millennial view, and the pre-tribulation rapture, and the mid-tribulation, and the post-tribulation rapture; finally the student was in despair.  He folded his arms, sat down, and said, I.A.K.. And the professor said, What does that mean?  The student said, That means I am confused.   The professor said, Confused doesn't start with a 'K'.  The student replied, You don't know how confused I am.

This passage is about the coming of Christ, and the final judgments.     Chicago's Rabbi Eckstein says that with all of the climactic ferment, epi-centered in the Middle East, it seems to him to be Messianic times. And if this is it, if the Messiah appears, rabbi Eckstein says that he can't wait to ask Him one question:  Is this your second visit or your first? 

There is no apology needed to say This is the second!  And LAST!!  Henceforth Jesus will no longer be a visitor in a place where the Prince of Darkness has his dominion.  Jesus is coming back to claim His rightful place as Lord over the entire universe.

A Sickle 

The sickle, or hook, is a tool of harvesting.  The scene has an angel emerging from before the throne of God in heaven.  He tells another angel[1], the time is now; begin the harvest.  The angel receives the message and begins the harvest; we call it Armageddon, that last and final battle.

A Swing

This harvesting activity is a picture of the grain harvest.  In Matthew 13 Jesus told the parable of wheat and tares.  The darnel (tares) is false wheat, actually weed.  What we have is a picture of genuine believers and false professors.  This harvest separates the wheat from the weeds.  Many see this as reflecting the imagery of rapture – the wheat being taken from the earth is believers being reunited with Christ and loved ones.

The primary lesson we learn here is that not all judgment is to be feared.  Any true believer identifies with this judgment as good.  In a sense there is a lack of patience on the part of Christians everywhere for the second coming.  The Bride of Christ longs for her husband.  This separation is a time when the wheat will be taken to God's home.

The grain harvest also shows how those who have rejected Jesus Christ in this world have no place in God’s rewards for believers.  This should hold no terror for the child of God! 

But it should make anyone who has not accepted Christ’s salvation consider carefully what he is waiting for

….because the Scripture then tells us what unbelievers are waiting for:

Grape Harvest – Judgment of Revenge

After that, another angel came from the Temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle.  Then another angel, who had power to destroy with fire, came from the altar.  He shouted to the angel with the sharp sickle, “Swing your sickle now to gather the clusters of grapes from the vines of the earth, for they are ripe for judgment.”  So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and loaded the grapes into the great winepress of God’s wrath.  The grapes were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress in a stream about 180 miles long and as high as a horse’s bridle.   Revelation 14:17-20 (NLT)

Revenge is not a Christian thing; rather it is a Divine Prerogative!   

…“I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the LORD. Romans 12:19b (NLT)

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.    Revelation 20:15 (NLT)

We learn in this passage about the vengeance of God on His enemies:

The Day of God’s Vengeance

God's character demands justice and judgment.  That does damage to some people's view of God.  There is a common misunderstanding that a God of love would/could never judge and condemn unbelievers. 

That is entirely untrue to the character of a holy and just God.  One preacher/scholar put it this way:  I believe in a God of absolute and unbounded love, therefore I believe in a loving anger of his which will and must devour and destroy all that is decayed, monstrous, abortive in the universe.[2]

The day of vengeance is not something which appears without ample warning and remedy.  Just as in the fullness of time God sent His son to save us from our sins[3], it is also on the record that God never takes revenge until He has exhausted every avenue of getting our attention and allowing for repentance.  The harvest is only accomplished after a long season of planting, watering and waiting.

The Disaster of God’s Vengeance

The idea of God’s winepress of wrath is not unfamiliar to people in the Middle East.  The prophets predicted this great slaughter of the final battle.  

“I have been treading the winepress alone; no one was there to help me.  In my anger I have trampled my enemies as if they were grapes.  In my fury I have trampled my foes.  Their blood has stained my clothes.   Isaiah 63:3 (NLT)

Come here and listen, O nations of the earth. Let the world and everything in it hear my words.  For the LORD is enraged against the nations.  His fury is against all their armies.  He will completely destroy them, dooming them to slaughter.  Their dead will be left unburied, and the stench of rotting bodies will fill the land.  The mountains will flow with their blood.  Isaiah 34:1 – 3(NLT)

The prophet Nahum describes in one passage both the fairness, and the finality of the Lord's Day of Vengeance:

The LORD is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished….Who can stand before his fierce anger?  Who can survive his burning fury?  His rage blazes forth like fire, and the mountains crumble to dust in his presence.   Nahum 1:3 - 6 (NLT)

John wrote in Revelation^(14.20) that the blood would flow along as deep as a horse's bridle, and 18 miles.  This is roughly the distance from North to South (Dan to Beersheba) in Palestine.  This may not be literal, but signifying the completeness of the judgment.  It begins at Armageddon and sweeps throughout the land.  There is no one who could stand in that day of the Lord's vengeance!

The Application

     An explanation without an application (how to bring this into our everyday lives) is a waste of time. 

Considering the harvests of reward and revenge, what do we do today that will make a positive difference in how we spend eternity?  I believe that there are at least two ways this text impacts our living:

Seeing

We must be careful that we keep an accurate perspective of the real Jesus always.  Some people have a notion that He is a milquetoast doormat – kindly waiting for Little Bo Peep's sheep to come home. 

Rather, my friends, remember the picture of a gigantic holy combine, able to harvest the entire earth with one swipe of the sickle.  And when He does, the blood will run so high horses in the entire land will drown in the deluge. 

The first time He came as a babe willing to shed His own blood.  The next time He will be ticked, and ready to do a little more shedding – but this time it will not His own blood!

Sowing

Christians (especially professional types like evangelists and pastors) have a propensity for counting the nickels and noses.  We want to add up all the decisions and pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. 

As we have seen in the text today, harvesting is not our area of responsibility – sowing is! 

Let's reserve our judgments about the results of Christian ministry, and the decisions.  They will be judged in eternity by someone who is qualified. 

Rather, let us concentrate on planting genuine seed, watering with the pure milk of the word, and living in a manner that will please the Lord.  Then it won't make a difference when He comes.

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[1] or Jesus, himself, depending on your interpretation (either way does no harm to the text)

[2] Charles Kingsley, Draper's Book of Quotations for the Christian World © 1992 by Edythe Draper

[3] Galatians 4:4

Nelson Mandela: Trouble-Maker - Man of Peace

Friday, December 6, 2013

For I know the vast number of your sins and the depth of your rebellions.  You oppress good people by taking bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.  Amos 5:12 (NLT)

Nelson Mandela was a trouble-maker!  He stirred the waters of unrest and righteousness for those who would keep the status quo on apartheid.  Fox News[1] carried the following in memorializing the first black president of South Africa:

Stamps were issued with his likeness, songs written about him, statues erected in his honor everywhere from Johannesburg to London and more than 50 universities around the world awarded him degrees.  Even a species of spiders was named in his honor.

Ironically, the leader hailed as a symbol of peace at one point was on a U.S. terror watch list because of his affiliation with the ANC [African National Congress], which was designated a terrorist organization by South Africa’s apartheid government.  He was finally taken off the list in 2008.

Mandela, although initially committed to non-violence, had, in fact, once been involved with the militant wing of the ANC, which was founded in association with the South African Communist Party and carried out a campaign of violence against government targets.

The man who died an anti-apartheid hero, world statesman and symbol of the strength of the human spirit was born Rolihlahla Mandela in a village near Umtata in the Transkei on July 18, 1918.  Rolihlahla literally means "pulling the branch of a tree" but more colloquially, "troublemaker."

Pulling the branch of a tree can create quite a mess.  Twenty-seven of Mandela’s 95 years on this planet were spent in prison for making trouble.  He looked at the way oppressors increased the misery of the poor and disenfranchised, and, like Amos, decided to do something about it.  The oppressors put him away; God objected!

Released from prison two decades ago, Mandela became the first black president of South Africa and an icon of grace that changes hearts and nations.  

He once said:

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion, he wrote in his autobiography….People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.[2]

Today

Are there some low-hanging tree branches near you that need some pulling?

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[1] World mourns Nelson Mandela, former South African president and anti-apartheid leader, FoxNews.com, December 05, 2013

[2] Ibid

My God Has a NAME

Thursday, December 5, 2013

I love you, O LORD my strength,
O LORD my stronghold, my crag, and my haven. 
My God, my rock in whom I put my trust,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, and my refuge;
you are worthy of praise.  

Psalms 18:1-2

I really do start out intending to read all the Scriptures of the day; most days I hardly make it out of the Psalms before something grabs me and I have to tell you about it.  Here I am….again!

In the first two verses of Psalms 18 God is called by eight different names!  So this is my potpourri of impressions when I hear His names.  It’s a bit of a doxology of praise from my heart to His; you’ll have to draw your own conclusions today:

·        

My strength –the laptop computer I use can only store so much stuff – so I have an external hard drive that’s like a mega-closet for all the files I want to save, but don’t use very often.  I could store 20 of my computer’s stuff on that hard drive.  That’s my God’s strength…so far above what I can imagine, and all I need for today and forever.  God, you are my strength!

·        My stronghold – is a place where no matter what assaults may come in life, I am secure; the arm of my God is not shortened!  God, you are my stronghold!

·        My crag – is like a strategically-placed field stronghold…In times of sudden spiritual attack when Satan tries to “blindside” me, I am placed in the cleft of the rock, and covered there with His hand.  God, you are my crag!

·        My haven – is the place of green pastures, still waters.  God, you are my haven!

·        My rock – is the anchor point of everything.  In a shifting world where one day you can be hero and the next zero, and what was true yesterday is today’s irrelevance, you can always count on Jesus the bedrock Truth!

·        My shield – helps me walk upright.  You cannot stop all the weapons of an enemy, but God as my shield will fend-off Satan’s darts before they pierce my unprotected heart.  God, you are my impenetrable shield!

·        My horn of salvation – A horn is a symbol of strength and vitality.  God as “horn of my salvation” gives me evidence and assurance that the trust I placed in Jesus Christ to hold me up for eternity will never fail!  God, you are my salvation!

·        My refuge – is the one place I can go no matter what is happening, and there I am at peace. 

∞  I sit in my study tapping on the keyboard, and this room has a view of my back yard…peaceful, serene and green even in winter.  But it is not my refuge. 

∞  I have a life and soul mate to whom I can pour out my troubles, and I am safe and happy with her.  But she is not my refuge.

∞  I have a church and family and friends with whom I can share the joys and rocky parts of life’s road.  But they are not my refuge.

Everything in the universe can fail me – most of all I can fail myself; there is only One true refuge – Christ, the hope of glory!  God, you are my refuge!

My God has a NAME!  

Refuge, Horn, Shield, Rock, Haven, Crag, Stronghold and Strength!  And so many more.  

No wonder the Psalmist cried out:  YOU ARE WORTHY OF PRAISE!

When Predator Becomes Prey

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

This is what the LORD says:  “A shepherd who tries to rescue a sheep from a lion’s mouth will recover only two legs or a piece of an ear.  So it will be for the Israelites in Samaria lying on luxurious beds, and for the people of Damascus reclining on couches.  “Now listen to this, and announce it throughout all Israel,” says the Lord, the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies.   Amos 3:12 - 13 (NLT)

Amos was a shepherd, so he knew that when a lion gets hold of a sheep there’s not much left!  As a reluctant prophet Amos didn’t have much “warm and fuzzy” to tickle the ears of those who would listen.  He was from a poverty-stricken area of the Southern kingdom of Judah, and his message was to the affluent Northerners dwelling in Samaria.  Amos was a poor-boy “nobody” prophet coming to town like the Beverly Hillbillies wearing a signboard warning about the end to come.  

Few paid attention.

What did Amos’ message mean?

Samaria was full of rich folks who had gotten that way primarily by oppressing the poor.  The picture Amos paints is how the fat (prosperous) lambs of Samaria are going to be torn apart by the lions of Assyria, the few people left like discarded legs and ear parts the lion missed after the attack; few would escape this carnage.  Out of their ease and luxuriant lifestyle would come devastation and hardship.  One day you’re eating “high on the hog”; the next day you’re skewered on the rotisserie pole over an open fire!

How could God let this happen to His own?

Well, God didn’t let it happen; God caused it!

God sent the Assyrians to devastate Samaria (and eventually Judah/Jerusalem) because they were His own, with a mandated message to proclaim to the world of holiness, righteousness and God’s sovereignty.  But, instead of proclaiming TO the world, Israel had become part of the world’s system.

Nothing New under the Sun

The church in America parallels what we read in Amos; instead of preaching an unadulterated Gospel of the Kingdom of God, we opt for cultural relevance.  We want our culture to understand the Gospel on their terms, so we try hard to not offend.  We try so hard we take the offense of the cross[1] away and make following Jesus all about being nice, prosperous and good for whatever’s broken in you.  There’s hardly anything about denying self, taking up a cross and following Christ.[2]

In this part of world history, the premier “super-power” has been America and western culture.  Americans are accustomed to being in-charge in the world – just like lions in the jungle.  And, just like lions ruling the jungle, we can fall in love with the sound of our own roaring while failing to notice Assyria getting bigger in the rear-view mirror. 

We forget that our strength in time-past has been because we understood that our riches and power are gifts to be used for blessing God’s world – not a soft couch to live the good life!  If we are blessed of God, surely we (like Israel) have a mandate and a message.  If we will not do God’s bidding, can it be long before we wind up legs and ear flaps strewn on the ground?

Today

Is it your practice to pray for our government’s leadership?  

And do you pray that God will only uphold leaders who will stand up for the oppressed, instead of standing with the oppressors?

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[1] See Galatians 5:11 and 1 Peter 2:8

[2] Luke 9:23

Preciou$ Promi$e$

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.  We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.  And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.  These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.   2 Peter 1:3 - 4 (NLT)

I think my Mom did her most creative thinking when she was worried. 

At least that’s the memory I have, of her sitting by the living room window, awaiting the arrival of my brother.  Winter basketball practice always went past 5:00pm, and Thom would walk home in the dark.  She worried; and crocheted.  And I watched.

One very creative teaching moment came unannounced, one of those bleak winter waiting evenings.  My brother was not yet home and Mom was pushing that crochet needle at top speed.  What amazed me is how she could do that without even looking at her hands.  She had one eye on the window, the other on the clock.  It was quiet, except for the tick, tick, ticking of the clock.  Then the sound barrier came unglued….AAAaaaaargh!

I thought the Second Coming was upon us.  But Mom was just looking at her crochet project that covered her lap, shaking her head.  With her normally-pleasant expression scrunched into a scowl, she started pulling the whole thing apart.  (I learned that day that you can pull-apart three days’ of crocheting in about thirty seconds!).

I asked what was the matter and Mom said, “Stupid, stupid, stupid!  I made a mistake on the first row!!”  (She had just completed something like row #3 billion!). 

The Teachable Moment’s Lesson

It’s a lot easier to do it right the first time, than to pull it out and start over again.

This same lesson applies to our understanding of what God says, and how we apply it to our lives. 

Many in our day have “dropped a stitch” in their theology project when it comes to how to view financial blessings God entrusts to us.  The verses of 2^nd Peter are my case in point.  Too many Christians see “…he has given us great and precious promises and God has given us everything we need… and fall into the trap of imagining God has given us something of a blank check to cash.  Just put your “prayer quarter” in the slot, and viola, out pops a wad of cash, or a shiny new Cadillac.

It’s known as The Prosperity Gospel – and it’s a dangerous mistake to crochet this perversion of who God is into your walk with God.  The mistake comes from taking a Bible verse out of its context and building your whole theology on a supposed “precious promise” from God.  And the problem with this is, once a believer gets it in his head that God has promised that every Christian should be healthy, wealthy and prominent in the earth….well, it’s harder to straighten that out than pulling out three days of crochet stitching.

Much better to do it right from the start

Most thinking people (who have read more than John 3:16) would agree the Bible condemns lust and greed (even nominal Christians have heard of the seven deadly sins).  Well, reading Peter’s letter past the “precious promises” portion, we see that God’s power is indeed promised to the believer, but it’s for the purpose to …enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

God’s promises are not so you can “pray-up” a wad of cash for a new car, house, boat or tummy-tuck.  God’s promises are for power to withstand the pressures Satan will use to stir-up the natural/carnal appetites that are within.  Let’s face it – God knows me, and He knows you; He knows we don’t stand a chance against our own ungodly lust and greedy impulses that lie just below the surface.  So He promises His power to help us resist.

Today – a few verses to “undo some bad theological crocheting”

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.   Matthew 16:24 (NLT)

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his classic book, The Cost of Discipleship, When Christ calls a man, he bids him to die.

Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”   Luke 12:15 (NLT)

Instead of dwelling on things that you don’t have (which makes you a target for Satan plucking your lust and greed strings), remember that you have a heavenly Father Who knows everything you need ^{(Matthew 6:33)}, and will supply all those needs by His riches in Christ Jesus ^{(Philippians 4:19)}.

Last Call

Someone once said -- If you're in the wrong place, the right place is empty![1]  Our text deals with the basic simplicity of God's invitation to be in the right place.  This is His last call to the nations. 

It is built on four basic presuppositions --

1.  God is God, and He must be worshipped.

And I saw another angel flying through the sky, carrying the eternal Good News to proclaim to the people who belong to this world—to every nation, tribe, language, and people. ⁷“Fear God,” he shouted. “Give glory to him. For the time has come when he will sit as judge. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all the springs of water.”    Revelation 14:6-7 (NLT)

The everlasting gospel is that of the kingdom of God.  This is a promise that Jesus gave to his disciples, that the entire world would hear the good news before the final battle.

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.    Matthew 24:14

When the angel proclaims this gospel, he says it without stuttering, and without apology; Give GOD glory!  Today many people live as if God is not a part of the equation.  The Scriptures plainly declare that we belong to God.

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.    1 Corinthians 6:20

2.  Those who oppose God and teach others to do the same will be held accountable.

Then another angel followed him through the sky, shouting, “Babylon is fallen—that great city is fallen—because she made all the nations of the world drink the wine of her passionate immorality.”  Revelation 14:8 (NLT)

Babylon is John's cryptic reference to Rome, and the evil kind of influence world systems have.  The World is not the physical realm in which we live; rather it is the particular mindset of separation from God.  It is the independence Adam and Eve sought, desiring to control their own destiny.  It is the basis for all false religion. 

The ancient false religions started in Babylon, with Nimrod.  There is a tale of Nimrod's wife, Semiramis, who was also his mother.  When her husband died she married her own son to keep control of the fledgling Babylonian world domination.  Her birth story was that she cracked the eggshell in which she lived in the Euphrates River, and emerged fully grown, becoming the mother of all living creatures.  In short – she claimed to be God.  She was not!

God has always hated false religion, and He has always treated its followers much more harshly and decisively than those who simply were ignorant.

Beloved, there is enough of the image of Almighty God stamped on your spirit for you to know He alone is God.  To ignore Him or twist Scripture to fit your way of thinking about the way you want to live, rather than how He has commanded us to live will bring you before the judge!

3.  Those who prove unfaithful in their profession of faith in Christ (apostate) will not go to heaven – they will suffer eternal punishment.

Then a third angel followed them, shouting, “Anyone who worships the beast and his statue or who accepts his mark on the forehead or on the hand must drink the wine of God’s anger.  It has been poured full strength into God’s cup of wrath.  And they will be tormented with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb.  The smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night, for they have worshiped the beast and his statue and have accepted the mark of his name.”  This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently, obeying his commands and maintaining their faith in Jesus.   Revelation 14:9-12 (NLT)

Eternal punishment is for those who are false believers – those who only play at religion.  Human beings have always attempted to do away with hell in an attempt to ease our conscience, but that doesn't mean eternal punishment doesn't exist. 

A very popular pastor and author of a book entitled “Love Wins” takes the idea of eternal punishment off the table.  This means he believes God will not punish unbelief; everybody will eventually be saved.  It is a popular idea; it is also inconsistent with what Scripture teaches.

4.  Faithfulness to Christ is the only criteria God uses to extend eternal rest and reward.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this down:  Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on.  Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!”    Revelation 14:13

The word blessed literally means finding the right pathway.  The believer who remains faithful to Christ, no matter what the circumstance, is the one who is on life's right pathway. 

THE APPLICATION

An exposition of Scripture without application to our life's structure is just a waste of time.  So let me give you three ways to apply the teaching of John's vision:

#1  Don't fall for the world's materialistic system -- It will fall apart in your hands, before your very eyes.

Babylon fell apart, as did Rome, because of a preoccupation with self and greed (and maybe America if we don't turn from our wicked ways). 

#2  Don't fall for the world's false view of God – He really does punish those who reject Him.

When my brother Thom and I were kids we loved to go to Stump Pond to swim.  One particular Sunday afternoon the pond really beckoned, but Dad said No!  We didn't think that was quite fair, but Dad remained firm.  It was a great day, and we couldn't see any reason not to go – so, when we could we slinked off and through the woods to a fun-filled afternoon at the swimming hole.  It was fun-filled until Dad saw us coming down the lane.  I will go to the grave with the sight of those steel-blue eyes blazing holes in my soul like a laser.  The utter embarrassment of being caught in a disobedient lie by Dad was bad enough – but you know it didn't stop there!  We couldn't sit for a week.  My Dad took his role seriously as God's minister in that household -- and he indeed ministered to the seat of my pants.  The Heavenly Father is also God Almighty.  He does not wink at sin.  He makes certain no one sneaks in Heaven's back door.

A false view of God tells us to fit in with the world, be respectable and likable.  A right view of God says, Be different, be holy like God is holy! 

This could be a last call – he could come back today, or you might be called to see him tonight.  Either way…reject this world’s standards; lean on Christ and be saved.

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[1]Original author unknown, David J. Frahm, The Great Niche Hunt, (Navpress, 1991), 15