Here we see one major point of the plan and purpose of God... to deliver us from "this present evil age". Or, perhaps as so many would have it, Paul got it wrong. Perhaps, as the preachers of health, wealth and happy have it, Jesus died so that we might be liked by "this present evil age"; perhaps Jesus gave His life so that we could be part of "this present evil age"; perhaps we can even be kings of "this present evil age"... or, maybe, just maybe, God said what He meant! Dear child, do not be deceived, God intends that His children be holy, and since He is God, He gets what He intends!! If you belong to Him, you can know that He will do whatever is neccessary to make you holy, break whatever needs broken and remove whatever must be removed... He will not cease training and refining His own precious child!! While this may not sit well with the purveyors of the false prosperity "gospel"... it DOES line up with scripture. God tells us repeatedly in His Word that He will make His children Holy. He also tells us in James 4:4 that to make yourself a friend with the world is to make yourself an enemy of God. Do not be deceived, there is no option for a sin-filled "Christianity" that also includes the hope of heaven! But the awesome and beautiful upside of all this is the simple fact that when we are His, the hope of heaven is ours!! More than this, it is the promise that the living, loving Father who began this God and glorious work of sanctification in us, will absolutely carry it to completion on the day of redemption in Christ Jesus our Lord. So that the One who died to deliver us FROM this "present evil age" is the One who IS our final deliverance!! Praise the glorious name of Jesus, you WILL be free from the anguish and misery of sin!!!