I am surrounded by cultural, moral, and spiritual decay.

The rot and its stench are everywhere.

Will this decay invade me?

Every day it tries, with varying degrees of limited success.

So every day I need cleansing, deliverance, and restoration.

I need preserving.

“And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (2 Timothy 4:18).

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).