Ready or not

1 Peter 4:18 "And if it is with difficuty that the righteous is Saved, what will become of the Godless man and the sinner?"

Now pair this with Acts 20:28-30 "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them."

I am so challenged that it is clear all throughout Scripture that it is going to be very difficult and trying before we come into the presence of our Lord and Savior at judgement time! So, the challenge is to lead others as the Lord leads me in His word and not just according to my thoughts. We must test everything with Scripture and not ever take anything for granted because it comes from someone we trust. I even test my own self and teaching with Scripture and have found fault in my teaching and corrected, repented, and confessed immediately. The scary thing in the latter passage is that the people that are being exhorted here are those elders as chosen by the Holy Spirit. WHOOAAAA, so if these elders of old who were chosen very carefully are going to rise up and teach perverse things then the truth of the Word is where we must go always.

Now with all this said we have to take Peter's warning in 2 Peter 2:1-2 seriously, "But, false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;"(bolding added for emphasis)

So, basically these heresies will be disquised, will not be obvious, will look good. But, PRAISE GOD there is hope in His word as we test everything with the Truth. Part of the difficulty that we are told of in 1 Peter is going to be discerning what is truth and what are the enemies schemes. Again we know that the enemy is not going to make it obvious, look at Masons, Jehovahs Witnesses, Mormons, The unitarian church, these heresies are already in play and people are being deceived. Unfortunately for us it is not only happening in these cults that I named it will come front and center in the true body of Christ and we must be aware.

Ready or not it will come!!