A few minutes ago I read God’s famous warning to His people about perilous times that shall come.

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come” (2 Timothy 3:1).

I look around me and I see the exact conditions which He outlined.

And I look within me and see some of those same conditions.

“For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than loves of God” (2 Timothy 3:2,3).

It’s no longer that perilous times shall (at some point in the future) come.

It’s that perilous times have (at this very point in history) come!

May I stand strong in the Living Word and His written Word!

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

A friend’s nephew died in Iraq, a casualty of war, found by a sniper’s bullet.

He died in Iraq because he lived in Iraq. How simple is that? Very simple. Yet profound, I suspect.

Anyway, my thoughts wandered that little bit, connecting “real life” with this Scripture:

“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (2 Timothy 2:4).

I wonder if the opposite is true: No man entangled in the affairs of this life warreth; thus he fails to please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Am I at war?

What kind of a warrior am I?

How focused am I on the mission?

Do the affairs of this life entangle me?

Is my Commander pleased with me?