Good morning and welcome to our first service on Sunday morning. We have two services, the first of which is our weekly Bible prophecy update, and then second service, which will be live streamed at 11.15 a.m. Hawaii time is our verse by verse study through the Bible, and we are currently in the book of Hebrews, and Lord willing, today

we will complete Chapter 5 in its entirety, and we're going to look at those warning signs

in our Christian lives that indicate we are not growing spiritually. We are not maturing. So we'd encourage you to join with us at 11.15 a.m.

And for those of you that are on YouTube or Facebook, you might want to go to the website directly at this time.

That way there's no interruption and you will be able to view the uncensored

entirety of today's update. So with that, we'll get started. The title that I chose for today's update

is playing while the world is burning. Isn't that perky?

It's a play on words from the idiom, fiddling while Rome burns. And fiddling while Rome burns is an idiom that was derived from the popular

legend that Nero played his fiddle while Rome burned. It's akin to the better known modern day idiom of rearranging the

deck chairs on the Titanic. Both idioms describe the utter futility of playing with frivolous pursuits in the midst of catastrophic

crisis.

They can also describe the occupying of our time with normal business as usual in the face of imminent disaster.

I'm hoping and my prayer is that you'll hang in there with me today to the end of the update

because, believe it or not, this is actually a message of hope.

It may not seem like it right now, but if you'll just hang in there with me.

Now, I have to confess that I've struggled as of late, as it relates

to the updates. I just want to share my heart with you because week in and week out, it's

always the same warning about the same thing.

And I'm reminded of this every week as I continue to be excoriated and eviscerated for being caught up in all the, quote, conspiracy theories.

So, I've inquired of the Lord in this regard, and in so doing, as only he can and always does, he ministered to me and directed me to his word,

specifically his word through Jeremiah and to Jeremiah chapter 20 beginning in verse 7.

Oh Lord, you induced me and I was persuaded.

...