Big changes prompt big reflections. I recently experienced these processes. This article is about getting my head and my heart in the right place when life threw me a curveball. It was therapeutic for me to sort through my perspectives and to organize them on a blank sheet of paper. While they are my experiences, I believe the lessons I've learned here are applicable to all of God's children. I hope this article is helpful to others who have faced their own changes.

Hardly a day goes by where I am not struck by the utter foolishness of our culture and of our world. There are so many cases of people doing, saying, and believing the most ridiculous things. Excuses for this phenomenon are easy to come up with, but the real problem is a spiritual one more than anything, and the prophetic Scriptures show the problem is going to get a whole lot worse. This article is a sobering review of where things are and where they are going.

It's hard to recognize a church by its name these days. It's even hard to recognize some of them by their choices and their behaviors. I know I'm not the only one to be concerned with all the ways the church has aligned itself with the world's standards, particularly when God has laid out such simple instructions for what a church needs to be and how it needs to function. This short article is intended to redirect us back to some basic terms of God's design.

A great deal of misinformation swirls about concerning the Tribulation, and many believers are trying now to prepare for this horrible time. The problem is their notions don't always gel with the facts from God's Word. As a result, elaborate - and errant - ideas abound, and the net result is the church is ineffective with its witness. This article borrows from a conversation I had with a friend. It illustrates the futility of preparing now for the time of "Jacob's Trouble," and it reorients us to the frank truth of the Scriptures.

The news might represent a lot of things, but there are times it is a pulse on the spiritual condition of our world. A recent headline captured my attention and got me running with an idea. The more I thought about it, the more relevant the idea became with the prophetic Scriptures in view. This article seeks to blend man's idea of a "last hope" with the Bible's definition of the same.

It's claimed that Tim LaHaye's wife said seeing so many Christmas decorations going up was a sign that Thanksgiving was just around the corner. Prophecy is just like that. We see things taking place now that are clear indicators of what is nearly upon us. The surge of globalism is an evident sign that the world is already being prepared for a time when the church is removed from the earth. Recent political events in our own country play a part too, and this article seeks to put some of these turbulent issues into proper perspective.

As Christians, we tend - I believe - to focus on the threats to our faith and to our Bible-based values which come from the world-at-large, a place outside our community of believers. That's understandable, but it's not entirely correct. We're directed to be aware of the threats to our faith and to our values from within our ranks too. There are common adversaries in both places. This article is a review of a very real danger that both Paul and Jesus warned us about.

It's flirting with disaster to take one's eternal standing casually. I've come to the conclusion that many "Christians" are not truly saved, and I believe the Bible has something to say which confirms my assumption. This brief article was a hard look in the mirror for me, and as I carefully forged each phrase of it I was challenged to take stock of why I believe the things I say I do. Perhaps it will help others to reflect on critical issues which are so important in these "days of deception." I hope so!

A busy life is not necessarily a good one. It may pursue responsibilities and goals that are noble by man's standards, but that's no guarantee they are consistent with the ideals of God's Word. In fact, a busy life often anesthetizes us against the expressions of a proper eternal perspective, and I'm as guilty of that as many others are. Consequently, this is a vulnerable article - and while it is brief, I trust it is "good medicine" for tired souls.

There are various terms we toss around in Christian circles that are seldom understood as they need to be. "Apostasy" is one of those. This article provides a brief primer on the concept of apostasy, and it pays particular attention to how it's used in the Scriptures. The application of apostasy for the church today is a sobering one, for we may be more off-course than we are tempted to believe.