2 Peter 2:17

17 These [houtos] are [eisi] wells [pege] without water [anudros], clouds [nephele] that are carried [elauno] with [hupo] a tempest [lailaps]; to whom [hos] the mist [zophos] of darkness [skotos] is reserved [tereo] for [eis] ever [aion]. KJV-Interlinear

17 These are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.NASB

The major objective of the spiritual life is to make you a free and independent person. You accomplish this by means of your growth in God, in Christ, and in doctrine.Gods Word is the quintessence of all that is, Psa. 138:2.

The major objective of the world is to enslave and destroy you by means of arrogance, by its enticements, by its distractions, by its coercion and intimidation, by means of its ridicule of truth, by means of its distorted and deceitful duplication of truth.You fall into this pit simply by means of your indifference to truth.

In doctrine, is truth, power, life, eternal life, comprehension, orientation, completeness, meaning and purpose and so forth.

In the world is emptiness, nothingness, aloneness, loss, failure, worthlessness, etc.

In life there are two opinions Gods, and everything else.

Gods opinions are truth.Everything consists of lies.

Ignoring truth either in whole or in part, means that you embrace the lies for the world as your standard.

Spiritual maturity represents the attainment of the Promised Land, where prosperity and plenty exist for the taking.

Spiritual dysfunction represents life in the desert, far, far away from everything of meaning and value.

When one walks through the desert, and approaches a well, the joys of life bubble up inside, in anticipation of something as simple as a drink of water. But when the well is discovered to be dry, then the despairs of life overcome and overwhelm your entire essence. All of the former celebrations and boastings quickly vanish.

And so these are the representations of the promises of the world. They are nothing more than dry wells, springs without water, empty hopes.They are the dark clouds on the horizon, promising the hope for badly needed rains, but the clouds only cause darkness, blow over by the winds and bring no rain, no hope, nothing to aid or perpetuate life.

That is what life is without doctrine.A meaningless, and hopeless, and endless existence.

Life is a serious matter.God has given us all examples of the consequences of our decisions in life. We have seen economic depressions, famines, world wars, and more, just to name a few examples of the worst of times.

People have been forced to live through the worst of times, and not because they just happen to have been unlucky, but because they were reserved for the black darkness s that the world has to offer. And that simply means that they brought them onto themselves.

With doctrine and spiritual growth, what you have to look forward to, are the best of times, even being preserved in dark times, which are certain to come.

Without doctrine, or by means of compromising doctrine, your only future is far worse. Humanity will never be able to eliminate, on their own, the dark times from life. Despite all of the promises, all of the rhetoric for change, for hope, for better things to come from hard work and so forth, these are all empty wells, empty clouds, and when people finally discover their emptiness it will be too late.

In life there are those who deceive, who are driven by their ego s and lusts for authority and power, and approbation, and such.

In life there are those who are the deceived, the followers who ignore conveniently all that is true in order to get something for nothing.They reject responsibility and accountability and look to others for the answers of life that they don t want to be held responsible for themselves.

In both cases they become the enslaved and the pathetic when hard times finally catch up to them. And by the way, when a people subscribe to anti-doctrinal ideals in life, it is difficult if not impossible to get them to change.Only the worst of times has the power to break the chains of arrogance, and that unfortunately means dark times for us all.

There is only one category of people who manage to evade the difficulties of the world, and those are the spiritually mature, the spiritually positive, the ones who look to God for their deliverance and support, by means of responsible spiritual growth (not by means of genie wishes).This does not mean that we can avoid being hammered by hard times, but it does mean that we have God to look to for holding out lives together during those hard times.

As for those who have ignored God, they have no one to whom they can look for help. And that is the darkest and worst situation that anyone can ever be in, in life. Something you don t, want to experience for yourself.

Now is the time to post a prayer.