I love to start with “It is written”, because it’s pretty hard to go wrong with the Word of God. In His Word we gain wisdom, we gain peace, and in His Word we find the way unto everlasting life. In 1 John 1:4-10, we read,

4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Right there is some pretty plain language, nothing mysterious or deep there at all, just the plain, simple truth that we not only need to hear, but we need to OBSERVE AND DO. And of course, we need to do more than merely “confess” our sins. We need to forsake them and pattern our lives after the Word of God.

Probably the root cause of all discontent in the world today is from disregarding God’s Word. The “unregenerated” nature of mankind is evil to the core, there’s not one good one among us, not me, not you, not anyone. If not for the fact that Christ Jesus of Nazareth willingly sacrificed Himself as the payment for our sins, there would be no chance whatsoever that any of us could be redeemed and saved. NONE, whatsoever.

I find it so sad that between the time recorded in Genesis chapter one, till Genesis chapter six, God already found it necessary to do a major “reset” to His creation, and bring about the destruction of mankind on the earth. We can read about it in Genesis 6:1-7,
1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Verse 5 tells us that every imagination of the thoughts of man was evil CONTINUALLY, meaning our perverted hearts never ceased to think up even MORE evil. Tell me, do you see any of that taking place in our world TODAY? I don’t know about you, but I see another “Noah moment” getting ready to happen any moment now, and it isn’t going to be pretty.

Like I said earlier, had not Christ Jesus of Nazareth came to our rescue and paid our sin debt, we would all be lost, period. So how should we be living, seeing how He has done this thing for us? Should we be thankful? Should we be doing our very best to show gratitude unto God for another chance? Sure we should. The question is, ARE WE?

I’d like to think I’m doing a super job of pleasing God, but the hard truth is, I still have too much of the “world” in me yet, and it may be possible that I’m not the only one who needs to admit that.
Christ Jesus narrowed down the number of commandments we need to observe, to basically TWO: those being written in Matthew 24:35-40.
35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

You know, it would seem to me that without all the other 600+ Mosaic laws to worry about, that we could get just TWO of them right. And yet we stumble with even this. That shows how “broken” we are, and that we need to be “fixed”, and the Holy Spirit is the only repair that exists for our brokenness. There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not needing to strive harder to overcome my inborn human nature. Just saying the “sinner’s prayer” isn’t enough. Words are cheap. Action comes at considerably higher cost. Pouring out our corrupt human nature, and replacing it with the Spirit of God, allowing Him to re-image us into HIS image is not a one-time magical moment. It’s a full-time from the moment we are “born again”, until we draw our last breath experience, and we can never, even for a moment, forget from whence we came.

It is written in Jeremiah 29:11-13,
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

And so our journey starts with realizing, WE NEED JESUS! WE CANNOT SAVE OURSELVES! There is NO other way to the Father, but through Him, and one of our first acts must be to take God up on 1 John 1:9,

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

So, if you find yourself in fear of what is coming upon the world, then that should tell you that your confidence needs to be in Christ Jesus. The world is getting more evil by the day, but YOUR future can be bright and secure. “If we confess our sins……” isn’t just for those sitting at home with nothing better to do right now. It’s your ticket to not being condemned with this evil world, and it’s not something to put off till “later”. God can decide to do a major “reset” to this world with little warning. Probably everyone laughed at Noah all those years he was building the Ark, and the Bible says they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the flood came and took the all away. No doubt, Noah was telling people around him that they needed to repent from their sins, but they wouldn’t listen. Once the flood came, well, it was too late.

We just never know when God is going to say, “Enough is enough!” It could happen today, or maybe YOUR expiration date may be coming up. Regardless of which comes first, “Don’t leave home without salvation”. You know what to do……., so do it NOW while you still can!