The idea of the above verse seems to be that the rebellious cannot be punished until first the obedience of the saints is complete.

Complete, stern obedience to the Fatherùthis is the need of the hour for believers in Christ.

The Christian must be conquered internally before he or she is ready to fight the external battles of the Lord.

All the while the Jews were in the wilderness, before they arrived at Jericho, the Lord was attempting to conquer them internally. God gave them commandments to keep, animal sacrifices to restore their fellowship to Him when they fell short of the commandments, and an abundance of trials and tribulations to test their character.

While there were skirmishes before they crossed Jordan, including the conquest of the Plains of Moab, the Israelites were occupied primarily with learning and obeying the ways of the Lord, with the conquest of their own personality.

The adults who left Egypt, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, failed the program. They were not permitted to attack the external enemy in the land of Canaan.

In the present hour God is dealing with the internal conquest of the Christians. We would like to sally forth in the conquest of our environment and the peoples of the world. But before the disobedience of the world can be punished the obedience of God's people must be complete.

We don't like this. We much prefer to criticize the government or the United Nations. But the Lord didn't say if the government or the United Nations would humble themselves, pray, and seek God's face, but if His people would repent of their wicked ways.

God has no problem healing the land. God's problem is with the worldliness, lust, self-will, disobedience, unbelief, stubbornness, and rebellion of His own people.

Today the Spirit of God is sending the fires of judgment on the Christian people. If you haven't been baptized with fire yet, get ready.

God wants us to confess our love of the world, to repent of it as sin, and to ask God to remove it from us. How many Christian people of our day are occupied with making excessive amounts of money, professional sports, watching television, spending hours on the Internet doing nothing constructive, buying things they do not actually need, selling, marrying, giving in marriage, partying, preparing for their retirement so they can spend all day playing golf or traveling around in a vacation trailer?

If you are immersed in such activities, not redeeming the time, not presenting your body a living sacrifice, not taking up your cross and following Jesus, not pressing forward in Christ, and the Lord loves you and wants to save you, then get ready for a great deal of trouble. You can save yourself much grief by turning to God before He judges and chastens you.

If you will judge yourself, you will not be judged.

"Brother Thompson, I am too old." Are you breathing? Well that is more than some of them are doing. You are not excused from the program of salvation until you no longer are breathing. Ask God for health and energy and quit your worldliness!

To be continued.