New year, old tricks: Be aware of the enemy's tactics.

We give thanks to God, the Giver of life, for this New Year 2019. We thank God for sparing our lives to see another year. I know many of us have our visions and expectations for this New Year. We set our goals and we work towards them. That’s good and fine in their proper perspectives. My fellow readers, I have come to realize, however, that we are not the only ones who makes our goals; the enemy of God and the enemy of the human race has his goal, to get as many people into hell with him. As we go on to fulfill our own life’s goals, we cannot afford to turn a blind eye to this. What exactly, my friends, should we be aware of? We must keep a deliberate check to hold fast to the Standard of God and not lean on our own feelings and intellect.

2019 marks a pivotal year for the Jamaican legislature on many spiritual fronts. For this article, however, I will call attention to a battle which has been in the courts for some years now: attempts to remove the anti-buggery law, the verdict of which may very well appear early January, 2019 for our island of Jamaica. Now, before you exit the blog in annoyance at the specific mention of this sin, I encourage you to picture the deeper issues at play here. Why should we as Christians even be concerned about these issues? After all, doesn't everyone have freedom of choice? We all indeed have been endowed with the freedom to choose - but we need to remember that what we choose to do has consequences, for both the body and our eternal soul. When we realize that some choices place our souls in peril, how can a loving Christian accept and promote such choices? For 2019 and beyond, we need to realize that God's Word provides the most sound basis for all aspects of living. It stands as a guardrail for healthy family life.

In the past, many have risen up and tried to destroy the Bible by burning it in fire; but we see God’s Word can never be destroyed, for we still have the Bible around today. The Lord says that “heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” (See Matt.24:35) We need to be aware that the enemy is following a different tactic from just physical destruction of the Bible: he is waging a psychological warfare on the Biblical Principles that God has given to us as the Guide to live by. The enemy no longer wants us to use the Bible as our Moral Guide, but to replace it with culture, subjective feelings and societal thinking. Imaginations have gotten so corrupt that persons have started to deny their own natural born identity, and even are encouraging people to do the same. This is what is called sick in sin. “Is there a balm in Gilead for the sin sick soul?" Jeremiah 9:3 says in part: “The LORD says, ‘My people do one evil thing after another, and do not acknowledge Me as their God.’”

The ideology of the humanistic views has taken over the minds of many and it has let them live in an illusion, believing that they have the answers and the solutions for their problems, without any divine intervention. Only a fool would believe that any human has all the answers. Even if all the nations of human beings were to come together, we would never come up with a complete knowledge. This is what we look like, I quote: “Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing so deceitful: it is too sick to be healed. I, the LORD, search human minds and test human hearts. I treat each one according to the way he lives, according to what he does.” (See Jeremiah 17:9-10) The economic crisis, the wars, violence and the bloodshed, shed light on the so called “learned” persons, who have their round table talks, square table talks, parliamentary talks, and United Nations Congress talks, and the result is staring at us: the world is sinking into the depth of wickedness. Confusion is the order of the day, for some no longer believe that a baby is born a particular gender—they speak about genderlessness until the child is a certain age.

Parents, be on the alert, be in the know, rescue your little ones before you regret it. Send your children to a Bible-based Church from the child is in the womb. Do your duty, parents, make it be also your responsibility to teach your children who their Creator is. Open the Bible in your home and read it to your children from an early age. There is a psychological war against the Bible and it is raging. If you are not aware, you will be caught up into this deception. The devil keeps on coming in sheep’s clothing, so be on your guard.

Let this year be a year when you look in the Bible for answers. Readers, the Bible is our Instruction Book of how we must live. Don’t be carried away by society and culture, but be wise, look to the Higher Standard, God’s Word, that is what will judge us on the last day, and it is also judging us right now, as we live our daily lives. Be insightful. Pray to God for wisdom. Prayer is one way to keep in touch with our Creator. Resist the enemy, the devil. Do not give him the opportunity to entangle you, but let him flee. (See James 4:7) Pray for all people, fornicators, homosexuals, abortionists, liars, murders - we all have sinned and are in need of God's grace. Let us all draw close to God and He will direct us.