It's hard to be optimistic when you have a misty optic.

To the average professed Christian today, living so far below normal, New Testament Christianity would be a shock.

Paul was not ignorant of Satan's devices, but we are not so wise. Among his most successful devices today are these: exalting tolerance above truth; emphasizing the head more than the heart; making size more important than sort; stressing the positive to the neglect of the negative; putting happiness above holiness; majoring on this world instead of the next.

What we love usually manages to get into our conversation. What is down in the well of the heart will come up in the bucket of the speech.

Somehow the idea has gotten around that it is unchristian to take a stand against heresy. Some of us need to read the New Testament again.

The tragedy of today is that the situation is desperate but the saints are not.

Every Christian is a priest, not offering a sacrifice for sins - since that has been done once and for all - but offering his person, praise and possessions.