A friend posted on Facebook yesterday a quote from Johnny Cash, “Being a Christian isn’t for sissies. It takes a real man (I presume he meant a woman also) to live for God – a lot more man than to live for the devil.”
“At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24 v 10-13)
Many will turn away into betrayal and hatred.
Many false prophets will come.
Many will be deceived.
Most will experience their love growing cold towards Jesus because of the rise of evil.
But the one …
Jesus prophesied a numerical decline.
But the one … can you imagine what it is like for the one?
Standing alone, watching your faith-friends walk away, worse, betray you, can you imagine what that is like? Can you imagine what it is like when they fall under the spell of false leadership? So they still believe in something but it isn’t what they started out with the one. They are not with the one in the pews singing and praying anymore. That’s where they started but their passion dwindled. Can you imagine what it is like to lose your best friend because they walked away into a complete different lifestyle because they wanted to have it all now?
But the one … remains. The above is maybe many but it isn’t everyone! The one will get to the end of their life and will have resisted the deception and the temptation. They will be saved.
Johnny Cash didn’t live a sinless perfect life and he had many battles within the industry he worked in. However, he was one who made it to the end and was saved.
“I’m thrilled to death with life,” Cash told Larry King. “Life is – the way God has given it to me – was just a platter. A golden platter of life laid out there for me. It’s been beautiful.”
Missions Paul 