Some day the Lord of the Church will flip the United Nations building with His little finger and it will fall into the Hudson River never to be seen again.

We have a funny idea of Christ's wealth and power!

In many instances the American churches are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Is your assembling like this?

We are wretched because we are smug and self-satisfied.

We are miserable because we are not serving the Lord with our whole heart.

We are poor because we are building our own houses and not the house of the Lord.

We are blind because we are not adding virtuous character to our personality.

We are naked because we are not receiving the sparkling white linen of righteous conduct.

But we don't know it!

We don't need help from the government. We need help from God!

We are to buy gold tried in the fire. This is faith refined by suffering.

"Oh Brother Thompson, haven't you heard? We are not supposed to suffer. If the Apostle Paul had had faith, he would not have had to suffer.

"We are all going up in the rapture in our Sunday clothes, the little girls in their party dresses. We practice every Sunday for the rapture by jumping up and down next to our pews. We always carry warm clothes in the car because it might be cold when we get a few miles up.

"We understand that Christians of all ages and even today have suffered and are suffering. But we are God's pets. We are going to disappear and then all the cars are going to crash into each other.

"We will be sitting on clouds in air-conditioned comfort while the poor Jews face Antichrist without the Holy Spirit. Isn't it marvelous? Here we are eating popcorn in perfect comfort while a hundred and forty-four thousand Jewish evangelists are being slaughtered. They are preaching the Kingdom but cannot enter it because they haven't been born again. You see, the Holy Spirit left with the Gentiles. Praise God for His grace! Can you say amen?"

The crazy stuff that is preached today makes you weep and laugh at the same time.

For those who are waiting for the unscriptural rapture to deliver you from trouble, you may find that it's late in arriving. You better do what the Bible says and arm yourself to stand in the evil day.

Pure faith can be refined only by suffering and temptation. But its worth is far above all we can imagine.

White clothing is woven by righteous, Christ-filled behavior.

Our blindness can be removed only as we turn to the Lord, take up our personal cross, and follow Jesus. Only the personal cross of the believer can prevent deception. Bible study always is a help, but only the cross can guard against deception.

If we do not act on the Lord's counsel we will be poor, naked, and blind in the day of His appearing.

To be continued.