Anyone who believes in the atonement of the cross of Jesus is redeemed and will have eternal life. However, there is far more to our calling than just securing salvation. The Great Commission is to make disciples, not just converts. When we study the Lord’s teachings about the characteristics of His disciples, we may wonder if we know any. Being a disciple of Christ is not an easy life, but it is the path to the most fulfilling life we can live. This is a life of “growing up in all things into Him” (see Ephesians 4:15).

The church is called to be a message to the earth of God's character and power, and His kingdom, which is His rule. As the church matures into its full purpose at the end of this age, it will become a part of heaven on the earth, being ruled more by the power and authority of heaven than by the earthly realm. The church is called to be the body of Christ, which is the very extension of His being on the earth that He seeks to do His works through.

As we covered some time ago, the first lesson Israel had to learn if they were going to make it across the wilderness to their Promised Land, was how to turn the bitter waters into sweet, as we read in Exodus 15:22-26:
 

As we have been covering the last few weeks, the church now stands on the brink of one of the most important advances in history. It is an advance that must take place. If the church continues to wander in the wilderness, it will only wither away. We are called to be sojourners, but not nomads. Sojourners travel to a destination, while nomads just wander. We are coming to the destination that the entire church age has been preparing us for and now we must cross over.

In the next verse of the Lord’s discourse concerning the end of the age, and after saying there will be “wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6) He speaks of the issue that will cause most of the wars and conflicts.

World War II remains the most devastating and costly conflict in human history. Including the war in China there were as many as one hundred million people who died in it. The physical damage is far beyond our ability to calculate. It was motivated by the some of the cruelest evil to ever manifest itself in mankind. Even so, as both the Lord Jesus and Paul explained, the things that will come upon the world at the end will be like birth pangs when a woman in labor. It is the nature of birth pangs or “contractions” to become both stronger and more frequent the closer to birth.

Our text for this week is Ephesians 5:4:

Presidents from both parties, congressmen, government workers, and the media seem oblivious to the fact that small business is the economic engine of America and where true prosperity and economic growth is in the world. In Marc Nuttle’s remarkable book, Moment of Truth, he writes about one of the most important insights possibly ever stated by a leader of China.

As covered in a previous bulletin, there is a different mandate given to the government than to the church.

          The Apostle Paul warned that many would be deceived in the last days because they would only want to have their ears tickled, meaning they could not endure hearing anything difficult or challenging. If you make it through the next few weeks with the Word for the Week, we will know you are not in that category because we are addressing the most difficult issues about discipleship first, such as the Lord’s statement in Luke 14:33: