“Being not weak in faith, (Abraham) considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb” (Romans 4:19).

Every Christian claims to trust the Lord. Yet in reality, many of God’s children aren’t ready to face the black storm coming upon the world. Unless we lay hold of a special, unshakable trust in our Lord, we won’t be ready for the hard times, now or in the future.

In the book of 1 Samuel, David and his men came home from battle to find their town burned to the ground. Ziklag, where David was headquartered, had been attacked by the Amalekites. To make matters worse, the enemy had taken the families of David’s army captive. All the wives, children and livestock were gone.

When David and his men saw this, they fell on their faces weeping. They were convinced their loved ones had been killed in a bloody holocaust. Scripture says they all wept until they had no more strength.

Here at Times Square Church, we sing a hand-clapping song that goes this way:

Send him on down, Lord, send him on down. Lord, let the Holy Ghost come on down. We need him, Lord, send him on down.

We sing other, similar songs, pleading with the Holy Ghost to come down.

But the truth is, the Holy Spirit is already here. He came down from heaven at the Upper Room at Pentecost. And he never left!

The book of Revelation tells us that in the last days, Satan will rise up in anger and make war “with the remnant.” This remnant, of course, is the body of Christ, comprised of all “(who) keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).

We in the church of Christ talk often about spiritual warfare. The war that is described in Revelation is a worldwide attack Satan has launched against the body of Christ: “It was given unto him to make war with the saints” (13:7).

There is a unique experience common to every follower of Jesus. I’m talking about the tremendous spiritual letdown that follows a mountaintop experience of blessing or victory. We call these experiences “dry spells.” They seem like a deep plunge into spiritual darkness, an immersion in great testings, after we have experienced a special touch of God.

The prophet Isaiah warns us that in the last days God is going to “turn the world upside down.” He declares, “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down” (Isaiah 24:1).

According to this prophecy, sudden judgment is coming upon the earth, and it will change everything in a single hour. Within that short span, the whole world will witness fast-falling destruction upon a city and a nation, and the world will never be the same.

Luke 15 has been called “The Gospel of the Outcasts.” For centuries this chapter has been seen as God’s Word to those who have fallen. It is a message for all who have wandered from Christ, who once were found but now are lost, who may be bound by a besetting sin.

What exactly is an outcast? In Luke 15, the outcasts are those who have been rejected as failures by society and by the church. They include those who feel rejected by God because of a moral failure.