Witchcraft, magic, and other similar practices are very lucrative. In fact, the love of money is at the root of this evil just as it is all others.
With each passing year, witchcraft has grown more acceptable in the eyes of man, yet God has not wavered concerning His thoughts on these matters.
The God of the Bible is a God of truth. On the other hand, the Devil is the great enemy of truth. The Bible says of him, “there is no truth in him.”
God knows everything, but this does not eliminate man’s responsibility to confess his sins. Failure to do so forfeits God’s practical forgiveness.
Everything in the Christian life is dependent upon prayer. Thankfully, we serve a God who hears, answers, and has respect unto prayer.
Far too many people have forsaken the simplicity which is in Christ and have instead pursued the complexity and labour of religion (2 Corinthians 11:3).
Nations have only been great so long as they resembled a nation submitted to God. When a nation forsakes the Lord, He will forsake that nation.
Elijah was a good man who loved the Lord. He could not bear the thought of the people of God rebelling against the Lord. Although misguided into thinking that he was the only remaining person who cared about the things of God, he certainly did care. Elijah took things personally when the people forsook the Lord’s covenant, threw down His altars, and killed His prophets. Elijah constantly pleaded with them to make things right. The apostle Paul felt the same way, but his feelings even extended to a jealousy over the people of God (2 Corinthians 11:2). Unfortunately, few people today seem to take such a personal interest in the Lord or His people.
Man’s conviction is a work of God that begins within a man, hidden from the view of others. Yet, that work ultimately manifests itself on the outside. As the apostle Paul reasoned with Felix concerning righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, the Spirit of God took the sword of the Spirit (the word of God) and worked within Felix. Though Felix’s conviction did not lead to his immediate conversion, it visibly affected him by causing him to outwardly tremble. The book of Daniel tells us that the Lord interrupted king Belshazzar’s party and caused his knees to smite against each other (Daniel 5:1-6). The Second Book of the Kings tells of Josiah’s conviction that was manifested through his weeping and the rending of his clothes (2 Kings 22:19).
The Bible introduces the apostle Paul as he was expending all of his energies to persecute the church of God. Yet, once the Lord saved him, he spent the remainder of his life attentively protecting the testimony of the ministry. Paul was in a unique position that would have enabled him to give the ministry a bad name (see the things he faced as mentioned in 2 Corinthians 11:23-30). Instead, he worked hard to give “no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed.” He proved himself as the minister of God. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer men today are exhibiting the level of character expected of them by God. Far too many preachers of the gospel are living their lives with little concern for how it impacts the ministry and the cause of Christ..
