When the church begins to entertain the flock and respond to the cult of self—it is diminished to a mere community center.

Our minds are molded in many different ways— often in ways we are not aware of at the time. I am convinced that many things—the films we watch, the television we see, the music we listen to, the books we read—have a great effect on us.

The world may argue against a creed, but it cannot argue against changed lives.

The Scripture teaches that popularity with the world means death. Satan's most effective tool is conformity and compromise. He is aware that one man standing in the midst of a pagan people can move more people in the direction of God than thousands of insipid professors of religion.

Compromising and conforming to the world's standard is against God's Word.

There is no room for God's Word in our culture, where our children are without reverence for God or faith in the Bible. There is no room for our Lord's creed of purity and self-denial when the media sends forth a constant barrage of profanity and indecency and materialism.

In our desire to make Christ known and to increase the influence of the church, we are many times prone to think that Christians and the church can be made popular with the unbelieving world. This is a grave mistake on the part of the church.

Sin diverts some. Pleasure diverts others. Social service and "religious" activity divert others. We are told to be occupied with Jesus Christ Himself.

Don't savor temptations; don't dwell on them or toy with them or replay them over and over in your mind. The more you think about a particular temptation, the more enticing it becomes.

The fact that immorality is rampant throughout the nation doesn't make it right!

What does repentance mean? It means to change—to change your mind, change the way that you're living—and to determine that with God's help you will live for Christ.

We want to be relevant . . . However, the more relevant we become to a sin-dominated world, the more irrelevant we actually are to God.