The Daily Word of Righteousness

Antichrist—the Worship of Self, continued

But Abraham replied, "Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony." (Luke 16:25—NIV)

The love of money is the root of all evil because it reveals a love and concern for one's self rather than for the needs of God and other people.

Sin, as we have said, is a bondage, a symptom of the worship of self.

The democratic stress on the rights and freedom of the individual, while it appears at first as an expression of Christianity, or at least a friend of Christianity, is by far the deadliest enemy of God and man. This is because it nourishes the worship of self.

God has given us the cross to cure our worship of self. As we are willing to suffer in order to do God's will, our worship of self is converted to the worship of God.

Self-seeking, self-centered selfishness is the most hideous of all bondages. An individual bound by self-seeking is completely without integrity and absolutely cannot be trusted; for he will lie, steal, kill, betray, or do anything and everything else to make sure he is exalted and benefited.

Jesus Christ is filled with God and lives for the glory of God. He does only those things that exalt and benefit God and the creatures of God. He does nothing of Himself. His joy and food are to do God's will. This is the way people are supposed to be.

Satan will do nothing except that which exalts or benefits him directly. This is Antichrist.

Antichrist is the human expression of Satan just as Christ is the human expression of the Father.

All creatures of God, including man, are so formed as to worship God. When we have no God, no principle, no ideal, no person that we love sacrificially, no one or nothing for which we will exert ourselves except as it benefits us directly, we are as Satan; we are as Antichrist.

God puts us in many different situations and shakes us repeatedly to make sure He has uncovered every possible source of disobedience in us. When we hold the knife over Isaac, then God is assured we fear Him.

As God prepares to bring His Kingdom into the earth, all of His creatures must be tested and shaken, particularly the members of the royal priesthood, until God is absolutely assured no rebellion remains—not the least trace. There are to be no more snakes in the garden.

When the shaking comes to us personally, let us make every effort to respond by glorifying God, even when it seems the heart is being torn out of us. It is to our best interests as well as God's that all rebellion concealed in us is uncovered and removed.

Only then will we be fit to enter the Kingdom of God. Only then will we be candidates for the first resurrection, and qualified to be raised from the dead and caught up to assemble with the invading Commander in Chief as He organizes His troops for the Battle of Armageddon. (from Antichrist—the Worship of Self)