DEUTERONOMY 4:29-31 "But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto His voice: For the Lord thy God is a merciful God: He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which He sware unto them."

With special equipment I tried to find mention of the latter days in the entire Bible and was surprised to find the subject appears many more times in the Old Testament than it does in the New. That is proof God knows the future as well as He does the past. The list is too long to print, but you can easily find them in your own Bible. The Bible clearly describes many disastrous physical signs that will be seen in the latter days, and we are seeing many of them right now. If you are not seeing them and believe God may be letting them happen to awaken the world to repentance, this writing will mean nothing to you. I will not use space to mention these signs: that we should know are unusual and not just happenings of nature. But I am not interested in these obvious events of nature, I am far more concerned about the increasing sinfulness that should be seen. I was shocked to hear this week a recent government survey found that 43 percent of all babies born in the US are born to unwed parents. I happen to know of several such cases like this here in San Saba. There are unwed women who have several children and seem completely unashamed to say they are not married and are living with their boy friends. But it is a disgrace and a terrible injustice to the children involved. What chance do they have for future success when they can not proudly mention their father? Too many of our young girls boast of losing their virginity and becoming sexually active at a very young age. None of this is hidden from God and it directly violates His given laws and commandments. We should not forget that the very first sin committed by man was a sexual sin that happened in the Garden of Eden when Satan deceived Eve and she then taught it to her husband, Adam. Until that happened they did not even know they were naked. They made aprons from fig leaves to hide their nakedness, but it did not work. God shed innocent blood and took the skin of an animal to hide their sin. Then God let His only begotten Son shed his blood to be the full covering and forgiveness of all future sins. How many of the sinful Americans and God's world wide people do you believe are fully trusting His blood to cover sins and be forgiven?

Perhaps I have strayed a bit from my intention in writing this. We are truly seeing signs that prove we are in the latter days. There is murder, terrorists, stealing, robbery, false teachings in churches, and direct opposition to church attendance. And you might name many other sins that are weakening our national righteousness. I did not mention the financial and other hardships that are so obvious on purpose, but now I want to ask-Do you think that our neglect of God's laws and ways might be directly responsible for all those serious troubles? Will we see national and world repentance? God gave the answer and showed what to do about it several thousand years ago in the 5th chapter of His Bible that we used as a text. We are not seeing what He saw then.