THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF TIMES

"Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbour, Pressing him to your bottle, 

Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his (or her) nakedness! Habakkuk 2:15 (NKJV) 

In this chapter we also see the most horrible sin dominating the world in the darkest of times.

• It speaks of evil men using violent coercion and alcohol (or drugs) to sexually abuse powerless victims (male or female). 

  • In today’s world rape, kidnapping and trading slaves for prostitution is out of control. It is a huge global industry.

Liberal humanist governments have legalised prostitution in many countries, hoping this will prevent and help control violent criminal sexual abuse but such laws has often have often produced the opposite result.

The democratic freedom we rightly value comes from Western Europe, Britain and former British colonies. These are the countries where the Bible once had a profound influence on culture.

• It is true that classical Greece was pagan but that country only gave democratic rights to the male citizens, who were a privileged class ruling over women and slaves.

• It is also true that the French Revolution also proclaimed faith in Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. However the French Revolution was the scene of the most depraved mass slaughters, horrific wars and an epidemic of arbitrary executions.

Liberal democracy is only fully effective when there is a measure of respect for Biblical truth and moral goodness.

• When the God of the Bible is ignored or despised, Western Society, once known as Christendom, falls to pieces. That is what we are seeing today.

• All Western Countries are sinking under a mountain of debt and moral confusion.

Habakkuk Chapter 2 vividly describes this chaos. However, in this chapter we also find the solution to the problem.

I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected. 

• Then the LORD answered me and said: "Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.

• For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.

"Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith. Hab 2:1-4 (NKJV) 

In the traumatic End Times, faithful believers will seek personal encounters with the Living God of Israel and He will not disappoint us. 

• God will share profound and powerful truths with those who love Him and listen to Him.

When God gives you a message to share, don’t wait until your pastor invites you to preach on Sunday because it probably won’t happen. 

• God calls you to share His messages with the people around you, at home, at work, on the bus and on the Internet.

• But don’t just preach. Live by faith. In these difficult times, only a profoundly personal faith in God will get you through. 

  However, the End Time is not only a time of darkness.

• God will answer our heart cry for His presence in a way we have not yet seen or understood, although many of us are beginning to experience fresh revelations of His glory.

For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea. Hab 2:14 (NKJV) 

We see a similar message in Isaiah.

Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. 

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; 

But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. Isa 60:1 (NKJV) 

It is time for us to begin to see the glory of God in more dramatic abundance than ever before. 

• I believe we will see extreme miracles which will surpass the miracles of Moses and the Miracles worked by Jesus when He lived as a man.

Never before in history has the earth been FILLED with the KNOWLEDGE of the Glory of God but it will happen. 

• And it will happen in the midst of darkness and strife before Jesus returns.