“And he causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, and he decrees that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six” (Revelation...

      The Lord warned in Matthew 24:12 about the time of the end of the age that we are now in: “Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold.” Lawlessness begins when we start to push our own concepts of law and justice above God’s, as He has clearly laid them out in His Word.

      Another example of how...

      As we study the seven churches Jesus addressed in Revelation, we need to see how they apply to their time, our time, our churches, and to us personally. As we see our connections with the church in history, we will see how closely the history of our own local church can mirror the churches in Revelation, for good or bad. As we will see in the Lord’s message to the first church He addresses in Ephesus, it is when we lose our first love for Him that we get diverted from following Him. The same is true...

      In these times when lying and deceiving to gain political advantage are so prevalent, we must become even more devoted to the truth. As we’re told in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10, God will destroy “… the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved (emphasis mine).”

      People seek truth for many reasons, but there is only one reason the followers of Christ are to use: because...

      We can be humble and contrite as the ones the Lord is seeking to build His house with, but this will not guarantee that we will not fall into the same traps as others have. Being humble and contrite is a good foundation for the other qualities we need, but there is more needed. Our trust cannot be in our humility but in God, whom alone we must follow.

      We follow Him by knowing His voice and only responding to His voice (see John 10) and by staying filled with His Spirit, who has...