[Greetings friends and radio listeners!]

While we talk of the good news of the world tomorrow which is still in the future, is it also possible to expect a little bit of good news or good in our world today? Is this really possible, or life just a matter of chance? In our Filipino society, we call it “swerte” or “swerte-swerte lang.” Others consider what goes on in life as “tsamba-tsamba lang.” This concept has led many to involve themselves in the game of chance, in what they consider the game of life. So they go into sweepstakes, jueteng, 'last-two' and all the gambling methods and devices in gambling houses and other gambling activities as in horse raises, boxing bouts, cockfights, horse fights and other similar activities. Others believe that one’s success in life is a matter of good luck and favorable chance. There are many factors which some believed will affect one’s success in life. What are these?

Some believed in various astrological factors, which may be based on the birth year, birth month, date of birth, day of the week of one’s birth, or the gemstone of that birth month or the zodiac sign of one’s birth. Actually, these are all superstitions, which cannot affect one’s like one’s life for good or for bad. Others who follow the Chinese calendar may consider their lives governed by the kind of animal during the year in which they have been born such as year of the horse, year of the monkey, year of the pig, year of the snake. In all of these, it is believed that obviously, one has no control over those factors because it all came by chance and parentage and times in which they were born. And therefore, they think, you cannot do anything about it. However, these are plain superstitions, as we will see later. Similarly, or even worse is when one thinks that the positions of the stars are against them. In this regard, many of you have heard the word catastrophic. Those who understand that word discerned that it has to do with calamity, ruin or misfortune. But do you know where the word came from and what does it mean? You would probably be surprised that it has bearing on all of the superstitions that we have just been talking about. Actually, catastrophic comes from two Greek words, cata and astro or astron. Cata means against and astro or astron means star. Therefore, putting these two words together, cata and astro or catastrophic, it means that the stars are against us. The Greek word strephein can also mean to overturn. In either case, it means massive destruction and usually it is thought to be beyond one’s control. So we see that our current thinking, our positions and thoughts on the matter has been derived from pagan concepts of superstitions as in the word, catastrophic.

But what is the truth? Are we really helpless? Is there a way out of this? Is there also a sure-fire formula for success? Admittedly, most of what we see in our society and around the world is evil, sorrow, suffering, diseases, and even disease epidemics. We have crime, war, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and mass murders and rape. Are the stars really against us? And on an individual scale, there is widespread discouragement, despondency, dejection, despair, failure, chronic failure syndromes, poverty and ignorance. Are we humans doomed to failure? Or are there other reasons for this? It’s time we find out. When we talk of failure, we see it manifested in the personal life of most of the six and a half billion people alive on earth today. The greatest part of humanity on earth in history and including today, live lives of abject failure. Why? Are the stars really against us? Or are there reasons other than these? Why would a piece of rock, for example up in the heavens, or a ball of burning gas, as in the stars, billions of light years away, have any effect on us? Would it be reasonable when even the boulder of a nearby rock or the stones in a nearby mountain cannot even affect us? As you can see, these are plain superstitions.

Let us look closer at life on earth. We see failure and unhappiness manifested in too many marriages when certain poets and singers and lovers think it is the most wonderful and heavenly thing on earth. But sadly, some marriages are on the rocks, so to speak, while others may be on the verge of break up and actually millions suffering the effect of a broken marriage. Not only for the spouses involved but also the children, relatives, friends, in-laws, and oftentimes affecting even jobs, businesses, careers, and other things, but why? In most families today, we also see massive failure in child rearing practices. Unruly and undisciplined children are very common sight everywhere, both in the homes, in public places, in schools and in our communities. Are there reasons for this? Are there, in fact solutions for all of these? And where could we find the answers? In the New Testament, the apostle Paul was inspired to write a sort of prophecy concerning the conditions in our end time. Let us open to 2 Timothy 3:1-5. It says, in the New International Version, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” Those are the words of the apostle Paul, in fact, inspired by God, depicting or describing the times that we live now.

What could have contributed to the production of this kind of situation? Here are some possible factors. The first has to do with the matter of cause and effect principle. There is a verse in the Bible, which talks about cause and effect principle in the New Testament. I’d like you to open with me to Galatians 6:7. It says, “Do not be not deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” And later on, we’re going to see what man has sown which has brought these factors upon us.

The second possible factor is the lack of knowledge. There’s another passage in the Bible, which addresses this matter of the lack of knowledge and its effect upon us, God and the humanity. In Hosea 4:6, one of the Minor Prophets, Hosea 4:6, it says there, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (in fact that is a very common truism. It continues to say…) because you have rejected knowledge, (God said) I will also reject you, as my priests, because you have ignored the law of your God, I will also ignore your children.” We find here a direct connection between ignoring God, ignoring His laws, and therefore, the kind of children that we have in our society. Something is definitely missing in the way that we live and have brought up children in our society. Continuing in verse 7, “The more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful. They feed on the sins of my people (talking of the priests) and relish their wickedness (in fact, it makes money for people to have sinned). And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.”

Now, I have read Hosea 4:6-9. A third possible factor here is the matter of deception, good for evil and evil for good. We have a passage again in the prophecies written by Isaiah. In Isaiah 5:20-23, we find another possible reason for the kind of society that we have today. It says in verse 20, “Woe to them who call evil good, and good evil (in fact, it’s inverted, you see this), who put darkness for light, and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (verse 21) Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight! (22) Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe but deny justice to the innocent.” So here is a condemnation of God, pronouncing woe upon people, and this is becoming common. We praise bad things as good, noble. Bad things, we re-label them and call them politically correct. And so, when we see good things, we label them as bad, or hypocritical or too super righteous. So we have seen the effects of our society.

Now, a fourth possible, not just possible, but a real influence is the satanic influence. I’d like us to notice what the Bible says on this matter in Revelation 12:9,12. Revelation 12, I’d like to read verse 9 and verse 12, it says here, “And the great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent, called the Devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray: he was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” And as a result of their being hurled to this earth, in verse 12, the first part here, it says, “Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them!” Good for heaven because Satan is no longer there but in contrast, it says here in verse 12, “but woe to the earth and the sea! Because the devil has gone down to you, he is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” And the shorter time gets to the future of his reign on earth, the more angry he becomes, and that anger is reflected on humanity.

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Now, what can we do therefore? I have mentioned four factors here, the matter of cause and effect principle, lack of knowledge, deception, and satanic influence. I’d like us to consider the answers in a reverse situation. The first, since we address the matter of Satan, is to flee from Satan’s influence. That’s the first thing that we can do to have success in life. The topic by the way, has to do with how to have success in life. How can we be successful in life and not be a failure as we have described earlier? The first step is to flee from Satan’s influence. We read a scriptural passage here in James chapter 4, James 4:7, it says here, “submit yourselves then to God (in other words, we have to be obedient to God, we submit to His will and not to our own will). Resist the devil (meaning, resist Satan and the Demons) and he (or they) will flee from us.” Rather than inviting or entertaining or watching horror things or participating in things that are questionable, we have to resist them. And in verse 8, it says, “Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” This calls for reform, this calls for change and this calls for repentance. When we wash our hands, meaning, let us not get involved in things that defile us, spiritually speaking. And 'you sinners and purify your hearts,' in other words, let us have a clear and clean conscience. And, the matter here of double-minded means doubt. We should not have doubts for God, but replaced that with faith and confidence. Continuing in verse 9, it says, “Grieve, mourn and weep. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.” It calls for seriousness, there’s a time to be serious when it comes to things that really affect us and our life and even more, our salvation. And in verse 10, it says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” So the thing here is to flee from Satan’s influence by drawing close to God and resisting Satan.

The next step that we can do is to have real love for the truth of God. One of the problems why people have been led into deception, because we are talking about how to overcome deception, is to have a real love for the truth of God. 2 Thessalonians 2:7-11 gives us a clue on this matter, why people have been deceived, why they fell into deception, into massive deception, it says here, “They perished because they refused to love the truth”. They lack love for the truth, they allowed error to creep in. Slowly, little by little, but eventually, it reared its ugly head. Like a serpent coming in, the head is like a fish, innocent-looking, but as soon as more and more of the body comes in, it is actually a snake, a poisonous serpent that can kill its victim. So it says, they perished because they refused to love the truth and to be saved, and because of their lack of love for the truth, God said, “For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion (delusion here means deception) so that they will believe a lie.” So, it’s very important therefore, to be faithful and to stick to the truth of God and not allow even a little bit of untruth or deceit to come in, because deceit is like a leaven. It slowly builds up, and before you knew it, like a serpent, it has engulfed its victim.

The third thing that we can do to have success is to strive for knowledge. Strive for knowledge. Knowledge is very important. In the book of Proverbs alone, the word knowledge is repeated some 42 times, and that is 6 being man’s number and 7 for perfection. For those who understand the biblical meaning of numbers, there is a message for us here. So knowledge is important, very important. In contrast, and was stated earlier, God said in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge I will also reject you, because you have ignored the law of your God, I will also ignore your children.” The opposite is also true. If we love and accept knowledge, then, God will accept us. And if we obey God’s law, then, God will take care of our children. And so, it is important to remember these things. Now, in contrast, we read in Proverbs 18:15, “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; and the ears of the wise seek out knowledge.” (That is in Proverbs 18:15). And when applied this will produce the automatic result of cause and effect. When applying the principles here of fleeing from Satan’s influence and having a real love for God’s truth and striving for knowledge to prepare ourselves, all of these will confound itself to produce the automatic effect of a happy and successful life.

We have a booklet that we would like to offer in this regard. The title is “Making Life Work.” Making life Work. This is a free 32-page brochure. To be successful in anything in life, one needs education. And this booklet will offer that dimension, the training that is needed in life. It is essential and fundamental to success in everything that we do. In fact, drivers, pilot, doctors, mechanics, among others really need training to be able to properly do their job, and so the same with us. This knowledge is much more vital for the most important of all ventures. And do you know what is the most important ventures of all? It’s life itself, our own life. God has given us a mind to grasp our knowledge, and much resource of this knowledge is in the Bible. The problem is that most people do not know where to look or to find the answers or do not even care to believe in the Bible. Now, this brochure if you are only open-minded, will help you find out and make you successful in your life. What are some of the contents of this material? I’d like to show you some of them. It addresses the issue of marriage as I mentioned earlier, one in this world, which has created great problems or failure. Have you ever asked, what is the foundation of human society? Of course, family is the answer. And we could see and witness that if family scrambles, society will scramble along with it. But what is the foundation of families? Well, for those who are thinking, the answer is marriage. If one’s marriage is a failure, the family involved will most likely suffer from that failure. So how can we help guarantee that one’s marriage will not be a failure? Well, this brochure will provide helpful pointers and guides on this matter. Another aspect, which this brochure addresses, is the matter on child-rearing which is another foundational stone for a successful society and a successful start of it in the home. It has to do with how families raise children. In fact, our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal rightly observed, and said, that our youth is the hope of our fatherland. The question is how can we produce obedient, respectful, responsible, and upright children? How can we have drug-free, loving children of good moral character? This free brochure will help teach us how. Another factor or chapter has to do with a happy family. Most families now are not only sad, but broken and troubled. And even if not actually broken, there is much unhappiness, tension and strife residing therein. But is there hope? There are keys to happiness in the home. And by ordering this booklet, you’ll find, what are these keys of happiness that we can practice in our home. Another vital but much overlooked factors in people’s life is time. Time is a very precious commodity to help build a happy and lasting relationships, yet, it’s largely ignored or neglected in our time. What can you do about it? This brochure will also be able to help you on that matter. We all know that our modern society is also beset by lawlessness and violence. Where did that problem originate? Obviously, from the very start or foundation of society, which are our homes. And how can one properly create orderliness and decency accompanied by love in the home? This brochure will offer much insight in this regard as well and give wisdom. There are many important chapters discussed in this brochure. Some of them have to do with the importance of right friendships, these are vital, no man is an island; finding success in your job and career, because if one is a failure in his job and career, we don’t consider that as a success in life. Another thing, which bothers almost all of the people of this world, has to do with finances. These brochure gives certain tips on financial security and the resulting peace of mind when we have financial security. There is also a whole section on timeless financial advice taken and gathered from the Bible, which really works. And it also shows, or there is a chapter showing the keys to a healthy, long life, because as they said, it's not just adding years to your life but adding life to your years. And, the final chapter has to do with does life have greater meaning and purpose? Is this life all that there is to it? We go to work, we come home from work, we sleep, go back to work again, come home from work, sleep, and maybe in between do other necessary things in life, is that all? It would be boring. Many people find it hopeless to just go to that daily grind, but happily, there is much more greater meaning and purpose to life than an 8 to 5 job and living up to 70 and then retirement or something like that.

Now, let us finally come to the conclusion that life is not an accident, as many supposed, and one does not need to be a victim of a series of bad accidents. Life does not need to be a failure. Life can actually be tailored for success. Life can be specifically crafted to produce great fantastic success, and there are workable and proven formulas for success. Moreover, that fantastic success in life can be projected far beyond the realm of this physical life. Actually, God has much more in store for us, where the Bible even says, quoting from 1 Corinthians 2:9, it says, “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Therefore, the greatness, glory and majesty in store for us cannot be contained or comprehended now by our human imagination. So remember, contrary to what many believed, life is not a game of chance. Even more important to remember is the fact that you have only one life, we have only one life and it is therefore best that we make the best out of it and come out as sure winner. You owe it to yourself to find out how to guarantee you will come out a sure winner both in this life and in the future. Therefore, please be sure to write for the free 32-page brochure, Making Life Work.

[Until next time, in behalf of the Good News of the World Tomorrow, this is Edmond Macaraeg, saying thank you for listening!]