Many come to America because they look upon it as the land of opportunities. You may have perhaps heard the saying, “Only in America,” when someone makes a fortune in a business venture or earns money selling a patent.

Americans have liberties which many in other countries do not enjoy. Women can vote, drive cars, start their own business and go about freely—something they cannot do in some countries. There is no violent religious persecution at this time, although that could change rather rapidly. Right now, a person can pursue life, liberty and happiness as long as it is within the confines of the law.

There is relative safety and peace of mind in smaller rural areas. This is not true, of course, in larger cities where there is crime and violence. Americans enjoy freedom of speech which is protected by the First Amendment, without fear of imprisonment or death, which is a possibility in some countries.

But American freedoms cannot remotely compare with what God is promising true Christians. They have been offered a land of opportunity where there is true prosperity and peace. That land is the world tomorrow, the Millennium, when Christ returns to establish world rule under Himself with the resurrected saints as co-rulers. It will be a time of joy and true peace, with wars having been abolished.

Zechariah describes it this way in Zechariah 8:4-5:

“Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Old men and old women shall again sit In the streets of Jerusalem, Each one with his staff in his hand Because of great age. The streets of the city Shall be full of boys and girls Playing in its streets.’”

This scenario is hard to imagine, when we think of the violence and ghettos of our major cities today.

Notice, the citizens of Jerusalem will be of great age and the children will be safe to play in the streets of the city where there will be no more bombings or stabbings like we see today. We will rule as kings and priests, as Revelation 5:10 says: “And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”  Kings will rule in accordance with God’s laws, and priests will teach God’s laws which describes part of our future responsibilities to spread the law of God over all the earth.

Isaiah 2:3-4 casts additional light on what lies ahead in the future: “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

What is pictured here is the true land of opportunity where there will be peace and harmony with one world religion, which is something we ought to be looking forward to. We are admonished in Revelation 3:11 to hold fast to the end: “Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.”

It is imperative to hold fast to the truth without compromise if we want to enjoy the benefits of becoming co-rulers with Christ. God is anxious to bestow on us the gift of eternal life and to grant us our reward of rulership, as well as the potential to be involved in this future land of opportunity.

Most of our spiritual growth and understanding comes from Christ working through the ministry. If angels can learn something being said from the pulpit (compare 1 Peter 1:12), then logic dictates there certainly is something for us to learn. People who think they do not need the ministry and can just sit at home are guilty of overlooking several biblical concepts.

For one, they reject the admonition to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Hebrews 10:25). In addition, they forget that iron sharpens iron and that cannot be done at home alone (Proverbs 27:17).

There is also a tendency of being wise in our own understanding, which usually leads down the path of self-righteousness and error.  I have noticed that over time, the arrogance of knowing better than the ministry is self-delusional.

What we need to accept is the fact that God, not man, places the offices of the ministry in the Church. Ephesians 4:11-13 tells us:

“And [Christ] Himself gave some to be apostles, some, prophets, some, evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

Notice the purpose for God doing this: To become a perfect man, to be more Christ-like.

Christ is the Head of the Church (Ephesians 5:23), and the Church is likened to a woman. We are spiritual embryos, as it were. A baby in the womb is protected. The ministry has the responsibility to protect the sheep from wolves and their false doctrines. The baby in the womb is also fed by the mother. We are being fed by our mother, the Church.

The umbilical cord connected to the baby carries blood, food and oxygen for growth and nourishment to the baby. Imagine if the baby in the womb decided that it no longer needed the mother; that it was mature enough to be on its own, wanting independence.  How long would it survive, once being disconnected from the mother?

This analogy can be applied to the independent Christian who feels mature enough so that he no longer needs the ministry for spiritual growth. The outcome is predictable. It is usually only a matter of time until the “babe in Christ” suffers premature spiritual death, unless genuine repentance and forgiveness prevents this from happening.

Our continued growth in spiritual understanding hinges on our understanding and belief that the ministry is a vital part of that growth. We should be grateful to God when He provides faithful servants who fulfill their responsibility of feeding, nourishing and protecting God’s sheep in a non-compromising manner (John 21:15).

For those of us who have been around for a long time, we remember the talk in the late 60’s about God’s Church fleeing to a place of safety in 1972, then in about 1985; and more recently, 2017 was proposed as the year of Christ’s return, allegedly following an imagined “seven year contract” between the “beast” and other nations and 3 ½ years of Great Tribulation. None of that has been remotely accurate. Then there were other dates proposed, but in each case the score has been zero for accuracy. The reason is, no human being knows the date of Christ’s return, and it is rather foolish to draft up charts and speculations about the time, since in Christ’s own words, not even He knows the exact date, but only the Father knows, as He will decide as to when He will send Christ back to this earth.

Mark 13:32 quotes Christ as follows: “But of that day and that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

So if one wants to pursue futility and engage in a waste of time, then one can try to “figure it out.” But what is really important to God is to come out of the world, by God’s mercy, and if we endure to the end, we will be saved and enter God’s Kingdom. Matthew 10:22 tells us:  “And you will be hated of all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

All of us are getting older, but we must push on and finish the job we have been given. The Church has not yet finished its commission to preach the gospel to the world as a witness, but the time will come when sufficient testimony will have been given to the last generation, and God promises He will take care of those who faithfully carry out the task at hand. We must not neglect our spiritual growth in the process, but coupled with our God-given responsibility to preach the gospel, we become, as it were, the “complete” man.

What lies ahead, prior to Christ’s return? Will we live in a better, peaceful world? Not according to the Word of God. Instead, we can expect more problems, more wars, terrorist attacks and a general deterioration of the moral fiber of America, Canada, the UK and all nations around the world.  Some of us may not be around in a few years from now and there will be new faces in the Church to pick up the challenges, but the work  must and will go on. Otherwise, Christ could not return, but He will, as He is the ultimate solution to all the problems in the world. He must return to save mankind from itself.

Matthew 24:22 gives us this frightening prophecy, and at the same time, this reassuring promise:  “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved, but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”

Will we face problems and challenges? The answer is yes, but when the going gets tough, the tough get going. That is not to say that we should get calloused about our job; rather, we have to do it zealously, knowing that it is for the ultimate good of mankind.

The category we want to be in when Christ does return is framed in Mathew 25:21:  “His lord said unto him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'”

Donald Trump has been chosen as the 45th President of the United States. He is a successful business man with no political experience who considers himself an outsider.  He built up a fortune of some nine plus billion dollars and promises to make  America great again.

There is so much corruption in politics that it is difficult to sort everything out and get an accurate evaluation of what is really going on. The one thing we know for sure is that Mr. Trump will not make America great, because the problems are insurmountable.

To put an end to the madness, the only real solution to making America great, and every nation on the face of the earth, is the return of Jesus Christ.

We have just gotten back from the Feast of Tabernacles which pictures a world of true peace and harmony, being ruled by the incorruptible Family of God. The sons and daughters of God, under Christ, will not be subject to political pressures, bribes and corruption, but they will govern with equity and fairness, something this world has never seen.

We, as God’s Church, have the responsibility to get this message out to the world. It has to get done so that Christ can return, and it will get done. Matthew 24:14 says: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

The question we need to ask ourselves is this: Are we a part of the process of fulfilling this God-given commission which will, in due time, make the whole world great again, not just America?

When someone has suffered trauma, is unconscious, has stopped breathing and his heart has stopped, then the person is administered CPR.

“Cardiopulmonary resuscitation,” commonly known as CPR, is described as an emergency procedure that combines chest compression, often with artificial ventilation, in an effort to manually preserve brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person.

The reason this has to be administered quickly is to avoid brain damage from a lack of oxygen to the brain. Failure to act immediately can cause permanent and irreparable brain damage. CPR in first aid was developed to prolong a person’s life until professional medical attention could be given to the patient involved.

When you look at the conditions in the world with all its current ills and evil, you have to conclude that the patient (mankind) is in dire straits, and something needs to be done or the patient will surely die. What is needed for mankind is another form of CPR—“Christ’s pressing return”—to avoid certain death. The professional treatment for mankind is the imminent return of Christ in order to save mankind from himself, as man is currently on a self-destructive course from which there would be no return.

This ushering in of a new age will solve, in time, all the ills and problems of mankind. A patient or victim, bleeding severely and in shock, has to have the bleeding controlled in order to get well. Likewise, conditions on the earth cannot get better until the bleeding, as it were, is controlled and the patient can and will recover.

This new age is one of peace and harmony, something mankind has not experienced to any degree or at any length of time since Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise and Cain killed his brother Abel.

God’s Church has the opportunity and responsibility to be engaged in the process of proclaiming the good news (the gospel) of God’s Kingdom to the world, just prior to the new age being ushered in. This is a great privilege which should not be taken lightly. Rather, we should be zealously doing the Work, which our loving Father has given us, not looking back but moving forward to finish the job for the ultimate benefit of mankind.

While a dying patient may need CPR in the form of “cardiopulmonary resuscitation,” this world needs another form of CPR—“Christ’s pressing return.”