Many believe that the current world is not going to remain as it is today. Be it political or racial unrest or even the increase of natural disasters, a subculture of people are preparing for apocalyptic conditions. “Preppers”, as they are called, stockpile food, survival gear and even construction of secure facilities to safeguard against what they perceive as tumultuous times ahead.

A survey taken in 2017 on finder.com lists the following results, “More than 160 million American adults (65.45%) are estimated to have either recently purchased survival gear or, interestingly, are already in possession of survival gear because they always keep them on hand. The remaining 85 million (34.55%) are not preparing for the end of the world as we know it. Of those who report prepping, 36.35% spent up to $400 on survival kits in the past 12 months.”

Which is better? Are counting the costs and obtaining blessings both necessary? Indeed they are! Trials are essential to our potential for reaching perfection. In order for us to receive the blessings that God promises us, we also need to count the costs and consider trials which we will encounter. This is what we should have been aware of when we answered God’s calling and took the necessary step to become baptized, choosing to live a life pleasing to God. We are to learn and grow so that we don’t keep on stumbling, and when we do, what we have learned is supposed to help us to overcome quickly.

We look around the world and we see many people who appear far more blessed than we are with their riches and success. How then are we more blessed than they? We may not be more physically blessed, but we certainly are more spiritually blessed. We have been selected by God the Father to have the opportunity to be in His Kingdom and receive everlasting life. We have more knowledge than the world when it comes to spiritual matters and what the Bible has to say, because our minds have been opened. The riches and physical things could very well be considered a distraction from what is really important. These physical blessings that the world dwells on now are only temporary, and the time will come when they will mean nothing anymore. Times will get terrible and money won’t be able to buy anything (compare Ezekiel 7:19).

Last Saturday here in San Diego, less than 20 minutes from where we meet in Ramona for Church services, a young man snapped and fired a gun in a synagogue and killed one person, and injured a few others. A senseless and cruel act of hatred! All around the world we are seeing a sharp rise in these types of deadly acts.

It is one thing to read about issues and problems halfway across the globe. But when we are confronted with them in close proximity, or people we know go through instances like the one above, things become much more “real”.

We know from Scripture that the early Church was plagued with many serious issues, including the members being persecuted in various ways. Christ’s bold statements in John 15:20 are a stark realization of what is coming: “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.“ And again over in John 16:1-4, Christ warns that these things would happen, then and now. The road of being a Christian has never been an easy one. But the trail is becoming increasingly more difficult with each passing year. When we read Scriptures such as the ones listed next, it becomes evident that we have a NEED to be as close to God as possible: Acts 14:22; 1 Corinthians 4:8-12; 2 Corinthians 4:7-12; 2 Timothy 3:1-17; Matthew 10:16-33.

Pictured during the Days of Unleavened Bread is the desire of putting sin out of our lives. Leaven is pictured as sin which if not dealt with can cause us to lose out on salvation. So it is a very important thing for us to remove sin from our lives and keep it out!

Since a little leaven leavens the whole lump (Galatians 5:9), and leaven is likened to sin, it’s crucial for us to remove it from our lives. Leaven, as sin, is similar to a rotten apple on the top of a barrel of good apples. If it is not removed in time the bad apple will rot all the good ones.

The importance of putting sin out is crucial for maintaining a good relationship with God, since sin acts as a barrier and a resistance in our communication with God.  It impedes our prayers and God tells us that He does not hear sinners, that is, those who are practicing sin and are making no effort to remove it from their lives.

As this Update (#872) is being published and sent out, many of those faithful to the Word of God will have already observed the Passover, the first of God’s annual Feasts. This will be followed by the Feast of Unleavened bread, which contains the first two of God’s commanded annual Holy Days.

These, and those Holy Days and Feasts which follow throughout the year, portray the plan of mankind’s salvation. The ultimate focus is on the role God gave to Jesus Christ in making this plan possible. This is why God the Father sent His Son into the world, and Jesus confirmed this:

“‘I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was'” (John 17:4-5; also, verses 24-25).

The gods of this world go by many names and they belong to many religions. They have different origin stories and mythologies surrounding them. They each have purported special powers to allegedly influence the lives of their followers, for better or worse. And each of those gods figuratively competes for the top post, positioned above the others. Yet, there is only one true God, who puts all others to shame.

Since you are reading this editorial, there’s a strong likelihood that you proclaim your god to be the one true God; the Creator of Heaven and Earth, and all that lives upon it; the God who blessed Abraham because of his obedience; the God who is a Family, consisting of the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ; the God whose plan involves increasing His Family to include as many of mankind as will obey Him. If this is the one whom you proclaim to be your God, you do well.

Is everything going well in your life? Or do you encounter trials and do you struggle with problems and obstacles? I dare to say, you do! And you would not be alone! The question is, How do you deal with setbacks? Do you view them as just being temporary and passing, or permanent and lasting?

When God revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush and announced that He would use Moses to free Israel from Egyptian slavery, Moses did not believe him. So God convinced him through a set of miracles that it would happen as declared, and finally Moses reluctantly followed God’s command and returned to Egypt. God told Moses very clearly that there would first be obstacles—Pharaoh would not let Israel go until he was forced to do so by a mighty hand. God even told Moses that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply His signs and wonders in the land of Egypt (Exodus 7:3).

God specifies the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. It consists of a number of components which, considered as a whole, make up this fruit, and actually are characteristics that everyone who has God’s Spirit will display in their lives to one degree or another.

The second component of this fruit is joy. So, what is joy? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines joy as “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.” This implies that when things are going well, or expected to go well, we can be joyful.

There are many examples in the Bible of people expressing joy. Two of them are in the book of Ezra. This was a time when the temple had finally been finished after a great amount of local opposition and around twenty years since King Cyrus had made his decree that the temple was to be rebuilt. It was also a time between a little over a month before the Passover, and just after the Passover. Ezra 6:16 states: “Then the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the descendants of the captivity, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.”

In his “State of the Union Address” last month, US President Donald Trump raised the issue of abortion. Taken, word for word, from his speech, he said the following:

“Lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments before birth. These are living, feeling, beautiful babies who will never get the chance to share their love and dreams with the world. And then, we had the case of the Governor of Virginia where he basically stated he would execute a baby after birth.

“To defend the dignity of every person, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother’s womb. Let us work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life. And let us reaffirm a fundamental truth: all children — born and unborn — are made in the holy image of God.”

For years I have run an online business on one of the large internet sales platforms. One of the important factors of my business deals with the customer rating of my past performance.  I not only receive monetary benefits from a high rating but it helps potential customers understand my selling history and honesty. It is easy to see the results from my actions, because I am incentivized to be successful. This has built-in motivation to excel in performance.

There is nothing wrong with this kind of goal but this accomplishment, along with all other physical pursuits, is not lasting. As Christians, it is critically important that we do not let these kinds of physical desires become the end-all in our daily lives. We must strive for something greater, something that the world sees as a closed-minded rejection of “enlightened” understanding. We must, by worldly standards, become fools if we are to please God. “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty” (1 Corinthians 1:27).