Who would have thought it—pirates today taking over huge ships out on the briney deep?

It’s certainly a different world from that in which some of us grew up singing, “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli”—Tripoli being the place where our marines finished off the pirates of the past. Seems like time to call out the marines again rather than simply surrounding the pirates on the high seas! But who am I to know?

At any rate, it seems that what goes around comes around—here we are in 2009 confronted with pirates of all things!

But other things have cropped up again that we thought were put to rest—depressions, diseases we believed to be eliminated, a new liberalism brewing on the back burner in evangelical kitchens, a resurgence of unbelief, the uprising of Islam—you name it.

There is no peace, no rest in this world; one must always be on the alert lest he be caught up in something that is emerging in his backyard. New doctrines, new ways of worship, new approaches to evangelizing—some good, some bad—all needing careful biblical scrutiny.

How important for churches to continue to preach solid doctrine, to teach—not merely exhort, to explain—not only whip up emotion.

How crucial to learn to use the Scriptures to mine the principles and practices of counseling, business, home life and every other area of life in depth. Enough of superficial story-telling and the relating of experience instead.

This is a time of great transition. Much was kicked up into the air by a succession of wars, by the hippie movement. and by other such revolutionary activities, that has not yet come down. Where it will land, and in what configurations, no one but God knows. But when it comes down, Bible-believing Christians must be ready to deal with it. And we will be able to do so only if and when we spend the time and energy expounding and carefully applying Scripture to each as it settles in place.

There are pirates-and always will be until the coming of the new heavens and the new earth—not only on the seas, but everywhere-ready to steal the truth from you. Watch out!