Sunday 9 November 2014

And Such Were Some Of You

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:9-11).
  
Of all the questions about OSAS, those that refer to the above passage are among the most numerous. On its face, the first part of 1 Cor. 6:9-10 seems pretty clear, the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God. No argument there. It’s Christianity 101. And the examples Paul used to show what he meant by “unrighteous” are all clear violations of God’s Law.

Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

Some of his examples, like fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals, and sodomites appear on most lists of “big” sins. These are sins that lots of people hate, and while they are certainly sins, their notoriety causes some people to gloss over the other ones Paul mentioned. Stealing, coveting, drunkenness and reviling (criticizing in an abusive or insulting manner) often get ignored in people’s minds, having been overshadowed by “the big ones.”

And, at least among the people who send me questions, it seems that many people don’t even take a glance at 1 Cor. 6:11, And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

For that reason, I’d like to take a detailed look at the whole passage to see if we can figure out what Paul really meant here.

A Closer Look

First, let’s go back to 1 Cor. 6:9. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

If we really read that verse carefully we would see it can’t apply to believers because we are righteous by definition. We have a righteousness from God apart from the law that comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe (Romans 3:21-22). The examples of unrighteousness Paul gave all have to do with behavior, whereas our righteousness comes from our belief.

Where behavior is concerned, Jesus said it doesn’t take unrighteous acts to disqualify us from the Kingdom, it only takes an unrighteous thought. He gave anger (Matt. 5:21-22) and lust (Matt. 5:27-28) as examples but He could have listed many more, like greed, envy, jealousy, and the list goes on. How many of us have unrighteous thoughts from time to time? Does that mean we’ve disqualified ourselves from inheriting the kingdom? Of course not.

But the real kicker in in verse 11. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Paul said some of us were fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites,  thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, or extortioners. And from the Lord’s comments above we can assume that includes thoughts and words, as well as deeds. But note the past tense. We were like that. What has changed to make us not like that any more?

First, we have been washed. We haven’t washed ourselves, we’ve been washed. In Ephesians 5:26 Paul said it’s the Lord who washed us, cleansing us by washing us with water through the word.

Then, we were sanctified. It means to be made holy. Again, we didn’t sanctify ourselves, it was done to us. When Jesus washed us it was so He could present us to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Ephes 5:27), sanctified.

And finally, we were justified. It means to render righteous. The Greek word for justified is the opposite form of the word translated unrighteous in verse 9. This refers to the righteousness that has been imputed to us by faith. And like we didn’t do the washing and the sanctifying, we didn’t render ourselves righteous, either.  It was done to us, in the name of Jesus, by the Spirit of God.

When that happened we became a new creation in Christ. From God’s perspective, the old us was gone and the new us had come (2 Cor. 5:17). And though we still sin, He no longer attributes our sins to us, but to the sin that still lives within us. He knows our sin infested bodies will never leave this world. They will either die or be changed at the rapture, so when we come into His presence we’ll be the new creation He has chosen to see from the moment we were saved.

Paul used himself as an example of how God now sees us.

For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it (Romans 7:18-20).

David gave us a glimpse of this 1,000 years before Paul when he wrote;

Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit (Psalm 32:1-2), and

As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:12).

This explains how God can “render us righteous” while we’re still sinners. He separated the believer from the behavior, making the believer a new creation, holy and blameless, and attributing behavior that is not consistent with His new creation to the sin that still dwells within us. He knows the cause of our sinful behavior resides in the mortal part of us that will die or be changed. Our faith in what Jesus did for us allows Him to consider only the immortal part of us, which He will soon clothe in perfection. This is the only way He could guarantee our salvation from the time we became believers, because if it depended upon our behavior we would all have been lost again shortly after we were saved.

A License To Sin?

This interpretation of Scripture has been called “giving people a license to sin” by some. They love to cite hypothetical examples of worst case scenarios that frankly never happen. For example, I had one person warn me that if my interpretation ever became accepted by the majority of believers then, in his words, “Let the rape and pillage begin,” as if to say that unless Christians are held in check by the constant fear of losing their salvation there would be no end to the evil acts we would commit.

But those who make predictions of this sort overlook three important facts. The first is, by and large even unbelievers are reasonably well behaved, and they don’t have the fear of losing their salvation to restrain them. Romans 2:14 says those who don’t know God’s law, do by nature the things required by it, because it’s written on our hearts, and our own conscience acts as a guiding influence on our behavior.

The second is the indwelling Holy Spirit, sealed inside us when we were saved, to convict us of our sins, guide us into all truth, and counsel us on appropriate behavior. Remember, Paul said it’s God who makes us stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come (2 Cor. 1:21-22).

And the third is our gratitude. The great majority of those who believe we’re saved by grace through faith alone are so grateful for such an amazing gift that we try not to behave in ways that would embarrass the Lord in an attempt to express our gratitude. Paul called it “living up to what we’ve already attained” (Phil. 3:16).

Where Are You From?

It’s easy for us to lose sight of where we came from, so Paul reminded us in Ephesians 2. He began by saying that at one time we were dead in our transgressions and sins, by nature objects of wrath (Ephes. 2:1-3).

But because of His great love for us God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved (Ephes. 2:4-5).

Our relationship with the Lord is not due to the fact that one day we decided to clean ourselves up and make ourselves fit to be in His presence. In Ephes. 2: 8-9 he said we are saved by grace through faith, and not by works. God accepted us just as we are because of His mercy, and saved us because of His grace. Our only contribution was to ask in faith. And then, before we had done anything, good or bad, He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell within us as a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance (Ephes. 1:13-14).

We can’t claim our faith in God’s mercy and grace as the sole basis for our salvation and then demand that others meet certain behavioral standards in order to receive or maintain theirs. The fact that one person commits sins that are more obvious than others is irrelevant. Sin is sin, and we all do it.

He didn’t save us because we behave a certain way. He saved us because we believe a certain thing.

In A Nutshell

If you’re a human being, you’re a sinner. If you’re a saved human being, your faith in what Jesus did for you has allowed God to attribute your ongoing sinfulness to the sin that still lives within you. From His perspective it’s not you doing the sinning, but the sin that still lives within you. One day soon, you will shed that sinful part of yourself forever, and you will be clothed in perfection in preparation for your eternal life with the Lord. You will have finally been conformed to His image, just as God has always intended for you to be (Romans 8:29-30). Selah 11-08-14

Wednesday 5 November 2014

THE AMERICAN KING

By Pastor Mike Taylor




1st Samuel 8:6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." And Samuel prayed to the LORD.

 7 And the LORD said to Samuel, "Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being King over them."

In ancient Israel, God ruled over the people through judges that rendered justice according to the Word of God. But the people were not satisfied with an arrangement that had worked since they became a nation. If you read the story, Samuel was growing old and the office of being a judge fell to his sons who did not follow after the righteous judgments of their father, but departed into sinful acts of greed and evil.

The nation had been built on guiding principles found in their basic doctrines given to them from Mt. Sinai, The Ten Commandments. Israel forgot who was the source of their power, protection, and nation security. They demanded a king to rule over them, just as the nations about them had over them. God commanded that Samuel warn the people of their rejection of Him, and look to a human ruler to meet their needs of daily living. God told Samuel's  to give the people a warning  against kings, continuing in 1st Samuel chapter 8:

9 “Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them." 10 So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 He said, "These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day."

After those days, Israel had nothing but trouble. Wars on every side and the peace and safety they longed for, escaped them for years of hard living. Israel reasoned that to give the control to a king that would relieve them of the responsibility of controlling their own lives and following after the ways of their true leader, which is Almighty God. But they wanted a king to protect them, like other nations did, but never realized what they were giving up, or what they had become. It was not that God was against them having a king, but the people had become rebellious against the ways of God, and the problem was not them wanting a king, but that they had fallen so far in their spiritual condition, they could not see that the problem was them, not the need for a king. So it is with us!

AMERICA, A NATION IN DECLINE

Can we see this happening around us? Can we apply this biblical story of what happened to another ancient people who abandoned following after the founding principles that formed their nation? The bible was written, as a guide, to give us examples that righteous living brings prosperity. It is a gift from God when the people fear His name and reverence His teachings, by submitting to His righteous rule and embracing His ways by incorporating them into their individual lives. So it was when this nation was founded upon principles laid as a bedrock in our Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. We've had our “bumps in the road”, but God has blessed this nation like no other in all of history. We elected our representatives to give a voice for the people who feared God and expected those we chose to guide this nation in the ways of our founding documents forged by men of honor, our founding fathers of this nation as intended.

The nation was founded by the people and for the people. Our guiding rule was our belief and foundation in the invisible ruler of this nation, the only True God. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Christian God. Our faith and trust by historical events pointed to our need, our desire, and our understanding of this principle, “One nation, UNDER GOD” !! For 200 years, this is the way it was, but times have changed and not for the better.

Since the late 1960s and early 1970s, this country has decided that we no longer wish to have God rule over us. We have abandoned the founding principles that made this nation great. We have looked to ourselves. Humanist principles have overtaken our once Godly principles based on the bible that the majority of Americans believed in. Fleshly desires of sinful living have dominated our culture starting with dissolving prayer in our schools. Our education system has indoctrinated a whole generation of impressionable young minds that are now the adults who govern this nation. It is said about education from a quote sometimes attributed to Abraham Lincoln:

"The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."

From this period of secular education, the teacher's of our children have infected the impressionable mind with sex education, evolution, values clarification, moral relativism, Darwinian evolution, Socialism and Marxism, earth worship, multiculturalism, one-world globalism, Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, and appeasement foreign policy. That is the generation that is of voting age that elected Barack Hussein Obama to be president of the USA. This deplorable spiritual condition of our nation is manifested in the electorate voting for a man with credentials that would not qualify him for dog catcher, let alone POTUS.

It is stunning to think that more than 6 million self-described evangelical “Christians” would vote for a President who supports abortion on demand; supported the same-sex marriage ballot initiatives that succeeded in Maryland, Maine and Washington; and was on the cover of Newsweek as America’s "first gay president." Did these self-professed believers surrender their Biblical convictions in the voting booth, or did they never really have deep Biblical convictions on the critical issues to begin with?...This is what happens when the Church is weak and fails to disciple believers to turn biblical faith into action. Given the enormous number of evangelical Christians in the U.S., this bloc could still affect enormous positive change for their issues if they were to unify and vote for a pro-life, pro-marriage candidate as a bloc....What will it take to educate, register and mobilize Christians to vote on the basis of biblical principles, and what kind of candidates could best mobilize them? This is a critical question that Christian political leaders as well as pastors must seriously consider. As we have seen, just a few million more evangelicals voting for pro-life, pro-marriage candidates could offset other demographics that are becoming more liberal. This behooves us to ask us the question “What has become of the citizens of this nation?” What has developed is a whole generation devoid of biblical instruction or understanding. They know nothing of the founding Christian principles that formed this nation, or the blessing of free market capitalism. They forget what the bible says when it comes to standing with His chosen people in the last days. Let's look at that. Why have we been blessed in the last 50 years other than standing on founding principles that formed this nation? Correct! We stood with Israel from its inception. We nurtured and helped defend their national right to exist. But you speak to a lot of the Evangelical members and they only talk of the Palestinian plight of Israeli aggression. But no more do we stand with Israel as a majority in our government or our citizenry. Oh, they talk the talk, but their deeds and actions prove otherwise. We talk of still being a “nation under God”, but our actions and deeds prove us to be liars.

CASES IN POINT OF NATIONAL DECAY

We have an administration that has, from all reported details, lied to about what happened on many foreign situations that affect our national sovereignty. Let us mention the debacle in Benghazi, Libya, Syria and guns being sold to Mexican gangs to advance the abolishment of our 2nd Amendment rights in the Fast and Furious scandal.  On the domestic side we discover administration abuse concerning using IRS to intimidate conservative business and individuals.

How about  the threat of illegal immigration abuse and open borders on our  border with Mexico?. Even the threat of executive order to allow unrestricted illegal immigration (after the election, of course) and giving out 9 million green cards and work permits to these  undocumented aliens?. The dividing of our nation along racial lines by the most racist president we have ever had in the oval office?

We have a debt of 17+ trillion with no sign of fiscal sanity and the reported “fiscal cliff” looms in our near future. Our economy is divided into the haves, and the have-nots. Rich against poor, black against white, ethic group against ethnic group. We stand on the edge of financial ruin. Europe is burning with many nations all fearing economic collapse. The world has impending financial collapse and imploding upon itself. The people should be invading Washington D.C. demanding fiscal sanity. This is our money being wasted.

We have a Middle East crisis with a past war between Gaza and the IDF, with players of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and their benefactor Iran, just itching to get into a fight to remove Israel from being a nation.  We see ISIS rampaging across Syria and Iraq with murder, rape and crucifixion of Christians without a major challenge, (no matter what they say) from the POTUS. Returning to our own home country, we see a nation devoid of love of one another. Crime is rampant, as looting and evil grips the various large cities. We see the turmoil in Fergeson, Missouri after a police officer used deadly force to stop an 18 year old black male from plummeting him with his fist. The ensuing riots and violent protest make me ashamed of my home state. I’m more ashamed at the race baiters who scurry around looking for the next racially charged situation to make a buck on. And they call themselves “reverend”. I wonder if God is amused. I think I know the answer to that one. How about our first elected black president and his attorney general doing likewise at every opportunity? Still we look to a man to save us? Also, voters are embracing same sex marriage in a number of states, legalizing marijuana in others, fraud in elections, and our borders pouring illegal aliens into this country with some, no doubt, with intent to do the citizenry harm.  Many of these aliens are bringing diseases to an elementary school near you. . Energy prices soaring only to get worse. Financial ruin awaits everyone who is suddenly out of a job and can't find work. Unemployment at a false low of 5.9% will most likely soar in the coming months. Evil is at the door of every American living today. It waits to engulf us, but most go merrily along without a care in the world. Obama will fix it. Really?

THE AMERICAN KING?

This is the man who has repeatedly circumvented the clear constraints of the constitution with edicts and executive orders thus bypassing the legislature who are the lawmakers, and guardians of the purse strings. This is the man, who threatens by UN agreement to take away our 2nd amendment right to bear arms. This is the man who constrains our ability to be energy independent by bowing to the environmentalist at the EPA. This is the man who spends and wants to tax the masses and squeeze a nickel till the buffalo on the nickel bellows in pain. We are fast approaching financial insolvency and the collapse of our economy. Millions will die from starvation, or the streets will be filled with rioters. Marshal law will most likely be enacted and many will be imprisoned for being scared and hungry. And this is just a partial list of the Obamination that inflicts our country. This is the same path that many dictators have taken to control the masses. Obama is thus making himself in effect, an American dictator to the likes of the late Hugo Chavez of Argentina. OH, for a more simpler time, when America was home of thebrave,and the land of the free. America started on the right foot, but see how far we have fallen?

James Madison said:

""We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind of self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

A great start of this country, but what have we done? We have turned our back on God, and I fear that He has turned His back on us, as a nation. Do we think that it was coincidence that the largest perfect storm to hit the United States called “hurricane Sandy or hurricane Katrina” were pure global warming, as pundits want to suggest? I believe God has given us wake up call after wake up call. 9/11/2001 was such a call. Seems God is trying to get our attention. Are we listening? Appears not, as we need a king to rule over us. We need someone to fix what ails this country as Israel needed a king Saul, we elected “king Obama”. We put our trust in a man, that the media says “gives them a tingle up their leg”. We want a messiah, a deliverer, or anyone who can solve our problems for us. We want free health care, we want free “Obama phones”, we want food stamps, and any and all government handout systems that will relieve us from self reliance and getting off our duffs to have God provide. What? God provide? It seems we threw Him out long ago. Don't look to God in your present condition. Look to Obama!! Yeah, right

We still don't even know who this man is or his background and with time, it seems a majority of the American citizens don’t care or determined to find out. We don't know where he came from with certainty. We just go right on trusting our modern messiah.

It has been reported that this administration is the most divisive, non-transparent, and narcissistic of any modern presidency of our time. Look at his record, or the lack thereof. Barack Obama will stand openly for the things that God is against. He takes great pride is doing so. He campaigned with these things as the reasons why you should vote for him and re-elect him to the office of president. The first time he ran for president he was largely an unknown entity, and he used great guile and deceit to become elected. But when we all went to the polls this last time to again decide to vote him in or out, he was a very well-known candidate. My question is, why? Because the problem is not that we elected again an unqualified man to lead this nation, as our prince, but the problem is “we the people”. Look in the mirror, folks. Do you see the problem? It's an unbelieving society. We are so far removed from the teachings of the bible and our founding documents, that if the founding fathers were resurrected, they would surely shake their head in dismay and disbelief.

What do I believe about the future of America?  I fear that we are so far removed from God, that we will never find our way back. The corner has been turned, and there is NO coming back. Pray all you want for this nation, (it couldn’t hurt) but I see the judgment of God coming to our shores and covering the land like a cloud. To administer judgment, God has a historical habit of using men to enact His penalty for rebellion against His Laws, and His way of life. Coupled with that, expect more natural disasters, environmental upheaval, and untold destruction. Islam and their evil cohorts smell our weakness and they will only get stronger, as we get weaker. Can you say ISIS? Only thing holding back this nation’s complete annihilation is that God's church, His true church is in the way. When I say, true church, I don't mean that modern social club that sits in Sunday services thinking on anything and everything that is of this world and it's pleasures. As it was in the days of Noah and Lot, our Lord's statement in Luke 17:26-30 warns:

"And as it was in the days of Noe, (Noah) so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed."

Jesus warned that there will be no messiah, until the true Messiah, the Lord of Hosts will break through the clouds and proclaim, “Come up Hither.” When Jesus calls for His church to be removed then my reader, “all hell will break loose.” No false messiah, no Obama and  (especially Hillary Clinton) no mere man or woman will be able to save this nation from utter destruction. America will have gone the way of ancient Rome, destroyed.

Some say “why is the nation of America not mentioned anywhere in the bible”?  I believe she is, as I have spoken of before quoting in Isaiah:

"Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!" (Isaiah 18:1, 2)

The nation described in this text is in dire difficulty with God because the opening word is judgmental. God says, “Woe,” and the term always connotes judgment. I believe it speaks of America.

I believe the USA will be decimated to the level of a third world country, or invaded from without or from within. The principles that we rebelled against that were God given will matter not in the least to what's left of this nation at that hour. Judgment in all its wrath, will be raining down all over the world, and this nation SHOULD, and will possibly receive the greatest condemnation as they had so much, and gave up even more when they turned their back on their only benefactor that insured their greatness, and their posterity, God Almighty. This nation that poured untold amount of missionaries into other countries in days gone by, printed millions of copies of God's Word to be distributed worldwide, and professed to be a Judeo-Christian believing nation, but has abandoned it all. It will be a judgment sorely deserved and awful to watch.

AMERICA  IS LOST

Men and women of conservative political persuasion lament the outcome of this past presidential election. I know I did, as I voted for a return to our basic principles that this nation was founded upon, Maybe God would have given us more time by electing a president Romney, but from where I stand, God has said “NO”. I believe there is no more time. We now think by getting a conservative majority in both houses of the Congress, that maybe we can reign in Obama? Have we already been judged? When will this judgment start in earnest? I believe the introduction has begun. The first act of impending judgment awaits it's beginning with the opening of the First Seal of Revelation 6,

1: And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

2:And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

This is the beginning of the wrath of God, or the revealing of the Anti-Christ, the one who sits on the white horse. How close is this man to be revealed? It would be safe to say, that this man is alive today. Many have hypothesized that Obama could be this man. Is he? The man only has two more years, or so we hope. So if it were so, he would have to get moving. We can't say for sure if Obama is the man of sin or not, as he doesn't fit a lot of the requirements and attributes of the infamous anti-Christ. But one thing is certain, Obama is anti-God, anti-bible, and anti-Christian no matter what he mouths in words, as his deeds betray him. We have nationally elected by whatever means a man devoid of Christian principles and biblical foundation for governing in righteousness or at least in honesty and truth. But with all the doubts and failings in this president, WE THE PEOPLE ignored all that and elected him anyway. It will come back to haunt us all. It spells the spiraling death dive of a once great, God fearing nation, to its shame.

 When the hour comes upon you and judgment begins to fall, who will you look to? Will you hold out your hand to Obama (or any sitting president if it should go to another man or woman to fill that office), or will you raise your hands to heaven and pray to your only hope, God Almighty through His Son, Jesus Christ? If that man that is revealed in Revelation chapter 6, rides upon the scene and you wondered what all the commotion was about when some reported disappearance of a bunch of people all over the earth occurred, then what will you be thinking? Will you be thinking that God is my source of deliverance or will you be voicing “Let us worship the god on earth?” Most likely according to scripture, the latter will be your only choice and your only thought. Help from this global dictator? Don't hold your breath. Death and destruction is probably your future. When that happens:

1st Samuel 8:18,  And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day."

But there is a better choice. A choice for eternity, a choice for life:

II Corinthians

6:2  "(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)"

For Jesus said in John:

"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me'."

Hebrews 9:

27 "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation."

Don't make the mistake that Obama, or any other mortal can make your life meaningful or solve your earthly problems. Look to Jesus who is your source for eternal life. Don't look to an earthly king, but to the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. Don't wait another day. Time is running out. Jesus could come in the next minute as you read this. It is imminent.

This is pastor Mike Taylor, praying God salvation comes into your life. If you have needs for counselings, prayer, or just a listening ear, send me an email to realteam1999@sbcglobal.net,   . God bless you, till we meet at Jesus feet.