Let’s face it, there are some scary stories in the Bible about God bringing His hammer down on people who do wrong.

In the Old Testament, you have stories like the one about Korah (see Num. 16), a guy who rebelled against Moses. Things didn’t go as planned, though, and his end was something out of an IMAX horror movie: “As he [Moses] finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions” (Num. 16:31–32).

When you look at the New Testament for an example, you’ve got the story of Ananias and his wife Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11) who told just one lie about how much money they got for selling some real estate and then, “Ananias fell down and breathed his last” (vs. 5) followed by “she fell at his feet and breathed her last” (vs. 10).

These stories, and similar ones in Scripture, remind us, as C. S. Lewis said, that Aslan is not a tame lion.

That’s why we’re told “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23) with the cross showing how seriously God takes sin. The cross is the only vehicle allowing Him to destroy sin and evil without destroying us in the process.

That said, today you don’t see the ground opening and swallowing those who thumb their nose at God’s authority or people who misrepresent their good deeds dropping dead at church. But that doesn’t mean a clear and present danger doesn’t exist for anyone who consistently traffics in sin.

Those that do rarely get a lightning strike from above, but instead something much worse in the long run. The Bible tells us over and over what that is and says it so much that if I were to quote all the places it’s mentioned, we’d be here for hours going over it all.

The enemy within

When talking about his previous drug addiction, actor Robert Downey Jr. said: “It’s like I have a loaded gun in my mouth, and I like the taste of metal.”

That pretty much sums up how God punishes us for our continuous sins — He gives us over to something our old nature likes the taste of and lets it eat us alive.

Paul talks about this process in Romans where he writes three times that, when people turn away from God, He “[gives] them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper” (Rom. 1:28). What follows afterward is a train-wrecked life for the unrepentant individual and, sadly, oftentimes also for those around them.

Legion is the tragic story of the impenitent thief, adulterer, liar, abuser, and power-hungry who seem to have it all on the outside, but are rotting away on the inside, which sooner or later externally manifests. Isaiah describes God’s judgment on our sin like this: “You have hidden Your face from us and have delivered us into the power of our iniquities” (Is. 64:7).

The Hebrew word used for “delivered” here is very descriptive and literally means “melted”, which conveys the idea of our sins dissolving us (shudder). But we shouldn’t be surprised because we’re told, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7).

The Old Testament character Job knew a little about ending up “howling and insufferable,” which is why he wrote: “According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble harvest it” (Job 4:8), and added that continuous sin causes people to be “delivered … into the power of their transgression” (Job 8:4).

And that’s a pretty terrible place to be.

Even non-Christians realize this. In their song, King Nothing, which describes the emptiness that accompanies a reckless self-indulgent life, the rock group Metallica warns, “Careful what you wish, you may regret it; Careful what you wish, you just might get it”.

Indeed.

So, while God may not open up the earth for us or send a massive coronary on the spot when we sin today, that doesn’t mean consequences don’t exist in this life for believers who constantly traffic in wrong with a clear conscience. God has hardwired the grief and pain experienced from sin into the sin itself.

That being true, we should remember a quote that’s typically attributed to Charles Spurgeon and do our best to avoid such error: “Sin will take you farther than you ever wanted to go, keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay, and cost you more than you ever wanted to pay.”
Sources:Christian Post

http://theendtimeradio.com

A supernatural Christian revival is stirring up once again on American college campuses through Unite US—an evangelistic movement marked by salvations, water baptisms, and worship. Last night at the University of Kentucky, more than 2,000 students responded to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ and many took part in spontaneous baptisms.

“It’s hard to believe. This keeps happening. It is insane,” said Unite US speaker and founder of IF:Gathering Jennie Allen.

Unite US was birthed out of a desire to “lift the name of Jesus.”

It all began at Auburn University’s Neville Arena in September 2023 where 5,000 students showed up to worship Jesus and 200 were spontaneously baptized in a nearby lake. And now, the organization hosts massive worship events making waves on college campuses across the country.

Collectively, those events have brought in more than 70,000 college students.

Their first stop in 2025 was the University of Kentucky, just 30 minutes from Asbury University where the first sparks of a new spiritual awakening were seen among American students in February of 2023.

This time, more than 8,000 students packed Rupp Arena to worship Jesus and to hear a powerful message on the Gospel.

“Every time they are confessing their sin, they are yelling it out. They are responding to the Gospel in herds. Like droves of kids are coming forward to receive Jesus,” said Allen. “We are baptizing kids for an hour and a half. [They are] giving their lives to Jesus.”

“It is only God,” she added. “There is a movement amongst students that you can’t believe. And even when you see it, you can’t believe it!”

CBN’s Abigail Robertson was there, and she attests to the almost indescribable move of God that took place on the campus.

“I’ve never seen anything like what happened last night. Kids lining up to get baptized in 30-degree weather—it’s truly amazing what’s happening,” she shared.

According to the event’s organizers, it is an event that they have been praying about for months.

“Our local student team organized weekly prayer gatherings and walked up to 42 miles one Saturday as they prayed over their campus,” the founder and visionary behind Unite US, Tonya Prewett, told CBN News.

“‘Jericho Marches,’ they called these Saturday prayer walks and we saw walls come down last night,” she added.

“We’ve been praying for this night for months, and God met us here again,” reads a post on social media. “We know it’s just the beginning of all He has in store.”

Prewett shared a powerful message with the crowd about giving it all to Jesus.

“You get so tired of the enemy and his attacks, that you will do anything. Even if it costs everything. Many times God will use our deepest pain to propel us into our deepest purpose,” she shared.

The night ended with hundreds of students making a public declaration for Jesus Christ, followed by water baptisms. And as each person rose out of the cool waters, cheers erupted from the crowd because another life was counted for the Kingdom of God.

“He did it again. Except for He did it bigger than He’s ever done it,” said Unite US speaker and Pastor Jonathan Pokluda of Harris Creek Baptist Church in Waco, Texas.

“It was just crazy,” he said. “All the aisles and the altars [were] just full of people. Literally thousands [of] college students came forward to give their lives to Jesus. My legs are sore, my arm is sore from baptizing people. And we say thanks to God. Praise be His Name.”

Unite US is bucking the claims that GenZ is spiritually apathetic.

“I think we’re a generation of critical thinkers, and I think we’re a generation of authenticity, and we’re a generation of vulnerability,” Trosper Buchanan, a junior at UK.

“I’ve seen and, and experienced firsthand, the death and the depravity that is disguised as the college experience. We’re just taught like this is what fulfills you and then this is life and then we, we take it and it kills us, and we’re like, ‘Well I guess, I guess something’s wrong with me,'” he continued.

Dr. Sarah Baldwin, Vice President of Student Life at Asbury University, was at Asbury two years ago when a revival hit the campus that lasted several weeks.

She told the outlet that GenZ is waking up to their true identity in Christ.

“The students are recognizing that like, ‘no, this is what I was designed for; this is the purpose that was set aside for me, this is the life… this is the love that Jesus has for me.'”

And events like Unite US are serving as a catalyst across many of those college campuses.

“Revival is here,” Allen said. “We’re not pulling teeth. We’re not doing magic tricks. We are just there responding to the Gospel. They want God. And it is so beautiful.”
Sources:BREAKING CHRISTIAN NEWS

http://theendtimeradio.com

A state appellate court has stayed a lower court ruling imposing a fine and jail time on a pastor for operating a 24/7 homeless ministry at his church.

In a statement released Thursday, the religious liberty law firm First Liberty Institute announced that the Sixth Appellate District on the Court of Appeals of Ohio has put on hold the criminal sentence levied against Pastor Chris Avell, who leads a Bryan, Ohio-based church called Dad’s Place.

Last month, a Bryan Municipal Court Judge ordered Avell to pay a $200 fine and gave him a 60-day suspended jail sentence for keeping his church open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to care for the homeless.

“This is the second time that an Ohio appellate court has recognized that Dad’s Place’s case presents a strong likelihood to succeed on appeal,” said First Liberty Institute Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys. “We are grateful to the court for granting this stay and will continue to fight until city officials in Bryan abandon their harassment of Dad’s Place and Pastor Chris.”

First Liberty Institute said the city was “aggressively attacking the church in court.” The church, it said, was accused of committing zoning violations and subjected it to “middle-of-the-night fire inspections” and “police antagonism.” The law firm also maintained that the city engaged in a double standard when enforcing fire codes.

“While city officials demand the church install an expensive fire suppression system, the city does not require all of its motels, most of its apartment complexes, and even a senior living facility to install fire suppression systems in their buildings,” First Liberty stated.

In a video interview, Ryan Gardner of First Liberty Institute remarked, “I have never seen a pastor get criminally charged […] with just doing the work that the church does: caring for the needy, loving those who have no one else to love them, and seeking and saving the lost.”

Gardner added, “The city doesn’t want [Avell] to do that here. To the city, the people here are the problem and these people here need to go somewhere else.”

The legal battle surrounding Dad’s Place dates back to 2023 when Avell first opened the homeless ministry at his church. Several months later, the city of Bryan filed 18 criminal charges against the church. While the city agreed to drop the charges in exchange for Dad’s Place pledging to seek necessary building certifications and zoning permits as well as any “safety measures associated with those permits,” the church faced additional criminal charges after the city conducted a surprise inspection of its facilities in April 2024.
Sources:Christian Post

http://theendtimeradio.com