Audio only youtube link https://youtu.be/QnCeGV_PEjI
2Tim 3 12-13; Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Because evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Isa 1:4-5; Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity, Offspring of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the Lord, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have turned away from Him. Where will you be stricken again, As you continue in your rebellion.
Hosea 4:6; My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
Eph 6:10-12; Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His omnipotent power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
James 1:19-20; You know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
Rom 12:18-21; If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord.
20 "But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
The leftists say they want unity but the only place where there can be any unity is if they agree with us that the Laws of Divine Establishment as written ice Constitution by our founders is the Law of the land and does not need any change.
Eph 4:13; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Apart from that there must be division. 1Cor 11:19; For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved among you may become evident.
2Cor 6:14-15; Do not become partners with unbelievers, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
15 And what agreement does Christ have with satan? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever?
John 14:27; "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
1John 4:4; You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
We are in a study on Smyrna, the base of the pivot power for the first gentile client nation SPQR. When we stopped last time we were in Rev 2:10; that starts with the mandate to "fear nothing"
This took us to study of the faith rest drill where last time we noted that sharing God's happiness is not only a problem solving devices but it is God's grace provision for a true and sustaining happiness on earth in the midst of the greatest adversity or prosperity. Phil 1:27-29;
God's perfect happiness includes: tranquility of soul, contentment of soul, capacity for life, stimulation (which includes exhilaration, enthusiasm, and the invigoration of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ), and the ability to meet changing circumstances with problem solving devices.
If you are in reversionism, nothing will make you happy because you are engaged in a frantic search for happiness in all the wrong places.
Once a person has tranquility and contentment of soul, he will cease from all crusader arrogance, from trying to interfere with the lives of others, from improving the devil's world with activism.
Happiness is not a matter of race, gender, class distinction, being rich or poor, or evaluation of others. This means that the fake gospel of social justice and the equality god that most of organized religion serves and teaches these days cannot provide any happiness.
Relationships with those whom we love are not the secret to happiness. People can stimulate you and distract you from your emptiness for a short time, but they can also make you unhappy unless you have entered into the second stage of the faith-rest drill.
Human power can make you happy but it can also make you unhappy when your unrealistic expectations are not met.
God's perfect happiness is only acquired through consistent cognition and inculcation of Bible doctrine. Perfect happiness is developed from metabolized doctrine in the soul that is stationed on the FLOT line of the soul to defend against stress in the soul and to deal with all the problems of the soul.
God is perfect and eternal righteousness; therefore His happiness is related to His perfect and eternal virtue and integrity. This explains why true happiness in mankind cannot be separated from virtue. In the same way that truth is the sine que non of freedom, virtue is the sine que non of happiness.
Without truth there can be no freedom and without virtue there can be no happiness. The leftists in our country have rejected truth and virtue so they are destroying freedom and will never be happy.
God has found a way through his grace policy to share with believers His very own happiness that is not dependent on others but on the thinking or the mind of Christ, that is Bible doctrine. God's happiness prevents adversity from being converted into stress in the soul.
God's happiness is, a happiness that does not change with circumstances. In His wisdom, God's happiness is built on virtue so it cannot be acquired until there is the capacity to enjoy it. The capacity comes from maximum metabolized Bible doctrine in the soul.