Over the past months in growing
earnest, but over many years in fact, I've watched with rising
internal anguish as a darkness has crept over the country in which I
live. Some may deny it, but I would challenge them to open their
eyes. Though there is still life occurring in Christs Church (I don't
dispute this), in one of the places in the world in which one could
be most free to enjoy the privilege of worshiping our God, a
spiritual disease has taken root. Though I despise it, it was in
essence foretold and must take place in order for Christ's own words
to be made unerringly true. Because of what must come, our faith will
begin to become of much greater consequence than before. This is why
I am writing now.
Each of us has been given a measure of
faith. The power of that faith is dictated by what we've chosen to
invest it in. Many without any recognition invest it in the
predictable things in this world and in the nature of things around
us. There are recurrent things in our lives that we've come to count
on without consideration and we don't question them. But I suggest
without apology that it's better placed in the God that created the
world and who has written these laws of nature. I say this because He
has the power to change these things that we've grown comfortable
with and He's warned us in advance that He's about to shake it up.
Many without realizing it, have divided
faith. Their vision is obscured by the reliability of things closest
to them, but they also have some measure of faith invested in the God
who created them. To them my urgent question is this: If you allow
the strength of your faith in your God to languish in the comfort you
may have now, will it be strong enough to carry you through the
trials and tests in the days to come? If you invest any measure of
your faith in things that are changeable, you may in the future find
yourself shaken terribly by the unchangeable God who has omnipotent
power to change everything you once relied on.
If you wonder what I'm referring to,
please read Matthew chapter 24 and be observant of the growing
reality. I know that many others have noted the late hour before
this, but I'm merely asking you for your own sake to check the time
according to the word of our Sovereign Lord. Globally, political
unrest, frustration and tension is rife. Natural disasters are
widespread and nations of suffering people grow bolder for relief and
an opportunity to have what others have long enjoyed. Behind all of
this, the stage is being set for bold persecution of all things Godly
and the fruition of things predestined.
The father of evil has craftily forged
his own brand of wisdom intended to discredit anything holy or sacred
and to declare God's own wisdom to be foolishness and it has spread.
He's invested heavily in spreading religions bent on destroying all
others and a particularly favored target is the children of God. The
spread of Islam, intolerant of any other belief, is rampant and in
many places in the world and as a consequence our brothers and
sisters in Christ are being tortured and killed for their faith.
Preparations are being made in areas of the world that would once
have been considered impenetrable for the same things to occur there.
The erosion may be subtle in order to avoid alarm, but it's effects
are devastatingly effective.
In the United States of America, a
nation once founded on Godly laws and using the word of God as its
governmental guide, the erosion and bold eradication of anything it
was once founded on is under way. Indeed the observance of Godly
principle by that society has been abandoned by a large part of its
people and in its place a fevered drive to remove even any reference
to it has begun to take its place. Bold attacks against Christianity
by the ungodly are much more common now. Even to the point of their
going to Christian websites purely to disrupt and spread their filth.
The one time attitude of reverence and obedience is being replaced by
radical defiance and rising outward hostility ... and all of it has a
place in prophetic days to come.
In order for Jesus' words to be
fulfilled, the stage has to be set to get there. To my humble heart,
it appears that the hour may be very late. So many things are
unsettled and perilously hanging in the balance waiting to be tipped
in one direction or the other. The stage is set and ready in short
time for Jesus return. I don't mean to tell you that I know when He
will come. Even Jesus Himself said that He didn't know so how could
I? He told us well that only the Father knows.
But if you should find yourself someday
in the future standing in that predetermined moment of worldly terror
and uncertainty running to Him yelling Lord, Lord save us - will He
even know you? If you're called to walk upon the waters where feet
may fail, born up only by your faith in your God - will it be strong
enough to carry you? Or will it be flaccid and too weak to carry you
to the finish? Will you be one of those who abandons his faith and
turns away as Jesus foretold? Or one who stands tall in the strength
of his faith in the God who will never fail?
Some may posses God given strong faith
in Him. For others, our faith, like the muscles of our flesh
sometimes needs to be exercised to grow strong. Our trust in our God
grows by our experience in relationship with Him and we can't know
His unwavering faithfulness without experiencing it in order to know
that we can trust it. Are you one who will know that you'll have what
you need when you need it or wait until the prophesied days are on
you to find out?
My hope is that if you haven't been
going to His spiritual gym and working out already, that you will
take my advice and take advantage of any opportunity you have to do
so now. Exercise your faith and by His grace grow strong in the
knowledge of His faithfulness so that you can traverse the troubled
waters that will come in an hour you can't possibly know ...
You may consider me by my words to be a
zealot and indeed you may not be far from the truth. I am still a
work in progress saved only by grace, but I am also zealous for my
God and I harbor no shame for it. I'm very much in love with my
Creator and I consider it a blessing to be enthusiastically drawn to
the only One who can and has promised to save me no matter what
happens to the world.
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