Faith
So here we are. We are at the very gates and beginning of the most exciting time in the entire history of all mankind. The flood gates have been breached and are now beginning to open allowing the cleansing water from above to wash the wrong from neglect upon our very special land, mother earth and once Garden of Eden, she is old but steady and true. It is bitter sweet, but none the less, one that may have to be done. What are we doing? What are we suppose to do? What are we going to do? Other then “prepare the way of the Lord” (Isaiah 40:3; Mal. 3:1; Matt. 3:3) by helping all of those, that will come, to find their way into the kingdom of heaven.
It is very sad the way the Kingdom of God is coming or being ushered into our world which we must take into account the timing, our time, our generation, and this might have something to do with us, what we have done and what we have not done or failed to do. It is an exciting time because we know Jesus is coming soon, but it is a difficult time because of the trials that precede Jesus’ return as we know and find written in Mathew 24, as well as many other books in the Bible- Old Testament and New.
The question could be raised, why is God bringing so many difficult and trying times an events upon us before Jesus returns? Is it punishment, is it a deterrent, is it a wakeup call, what is it really, and why as Christians are we allowed or have to go through, questionably even forced to endure the chastisement of God on unruly or ungodly people, just to get their attention and to get them to follow God and or the creators created design? As a brief explanation it may be as we have seen throughout history written for us in the Bible, that God’s people endured the trials that were drawn on the rest of the population at the time each event took place, like with Noah, Sodom and Gomorrah, Egypt and Moses, on and on as well as with Jesus and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Empire. In addition, did we notice that in all of these situations and events when God made His move and brought chastisement on the people it was because of their behavior or lack of, rebellion and not following the way the world was made to be lived in or sin?
Why do we think God is making His move now on our world and people today? Yes, our people, we are all in this together. The Bible and even Jesus said that we do not know the day or time when Jesus will return only God knows (Mathew 24:36), but the truth is we are the ones that are forcing God to make the decision to usher in the kingdom of God. It is not an arbitrary day, date or time that God has chosen out of the blue, but it is our behavior that is choosing the time and date when Jesus will return. It is sad but it is believed that we are not going to change on our own and straighten out the mess that we have made, we indeed need divine intervention, it is the only way, and we are only going to get worse. We also need to know that God is only going to let us go so far before He intervenes, we will have some dignity left in us when Jesus returns. As we see this throughout history as God did intervene when the people got so far out of control that God had to do something about it, but He did not let them annihilate themselves or delve into sin so bad that they were unredeemable.
The point in all of this is to find out what is happening and what we need to do? We can read the Bible and find out what is going to happen that being Jesus will return, but the question is what do we need to do until that happens? The answer is not too much really, but get as close to God as we can in this time of turmoil. It goes back to as Billy Graham says, “it is all about the cross and the blood of Jesus”. It is all about the blood of Jesus is a metaphor and not actual having blood poured on us. The metaphor is about the saving power of Jesus’ death and sacrifice for our sin. The truth being the death of Jesus and His sacrifice is salvation and eternity or eternal life with God for us. It is a seal, a cover, a cloak, a shield, a defense, a barrier. It is a fortress around us. It is the Holy Spirit, and it is Pentecost. It is a part of God. It is God and God’s very presents in, around, and through us. Hang on to this resource and truth as the road gets bumpy and hard.
It is sad but the reality is that we are going to need help during this time of trial, remember that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are where we need to go for the strength to see this through and to see our God, Lord and Savior coming in the clouds for those He loves. God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all One and are a great well of resources available at our access to drink from. We need to remember not to come to the wedding feast with our lanterns out of oil as half of the ten virgins did found in Mathew 25:1-13 and that is in reference to Jesus coming late in the night when everyone was asleep. Yes, it is late in the time of our history when Jesus will come, but that is a tribute to those that have fought the good fight, that have gone before us for over 2000 years now, that have upheld the banner of goodness, righteousness and kindness or right living, and that they have lived by the way God desires and created the world to be lived in that being proper, righteous, Holy and a Godly life. How are we doing lately sense the 60’s and the hippie movement or generation?
We need to think that we, the Holy Spirit and Jesus are living beings and as we know all living things need to be feed and nourished, metaphorically speaking; we need to feed our spiritual relationship and nurture it. We need to water our relationship with God and feed our spiritual life and relationship, keep filling our lamps with oil- do not let the light burn out it is dark there. Jesus is our only source of comfort, strength direction, renewal and sanity really at this stage in the game no one else can help us with and through this, it is just too big. Things are hard and it is getting harder. People are frightened, angry and confused (Daniel 12:3). Our economy, the worlds economy are in a downward spiral, spinning out of control. Our debt is rising beyond all means of human intervention or repair. We owe more in debt then we make in revenue, not addressing the issue of the principle that is now over 15 trillion dollars and rising. Jobs are getting harder and harder to find. Retirement in no longer an option for many people and soon our health care will no longer be available and affordable for the retired as well as many others. The housing market is falling apart with our houses and infrastructure along with it. Peoples love is growing cold. Violence is rising and is getting crueler. Natural disasters and wars are happening almost everyday now. We can not turn the TV on without hearing of some disaster that is happening in which it is so sever that it has not happened that bad in 100 years or ever in recorded history. Do we see any correlation between our behavior and God’s behavior or reaction too our behavior? The perplexing and sad part is that no one is saying anything that we should turn toward God for help and direction with our economy or life style, no politician, no great religious leader and no great professor in our higher learning establishment in all of the best schools in the world, no kings or queens or no great leaders of our time, no one is saying anything about our behavior and what is happening in our world today. It is like in the times of Noah when no one really said anything, they all just went about there daily business, Mathew 24:37-39. When will we stand for and with God too fight the good fight for the truth and what is right, if we won’t who will other than God, as we see God is beginning to make a statement. God help us to be overcomers Rev. 3:5,21.
Another sad issue that should be addressed is the issue of us being raptured out of all of these difficult times now and to come. One, if a pretribulation rapture is the right one we should have already been raptured out. Two, from a rational perspective, what if this is the time when God may be needing and depending on us the most and we are trying to do everything in our power to try and get out of it and the mess we are in. We should be ashamed of ourselves really; if this doctrine was for any other reason then for the fear of our pain and suffering we would not have entertained this man made doctrine for a minute. Where would we be if those in WWII, would have tried to get out of fighting we would be under communist rule and we would not be able to have this conversation, it would be against the law to talk or write about God? Why do we think we are a special group or bunch of believers when all of those that have gone before us have endured and gone through what God has brought before them? Why do we think we are special, because we are afraid of what God has planed? Third, is the point that we should read God’s word on your own, do not go by what someone else says. Read Mark 13:21-27 and the rest of the Bible you have to add mans words to the word of God to make it have a pretribulation Jesus coming. Jesus is not a yo-yo we should not play with this, “no Jesus is going to come then go back up, no half way down then back up, no with the saints but not the dead, no with only the believers that have died, then no He will”. No, no, no, this is not right, leave it alone. Take what God says at face value. We do not know what is going to happen but we can trust God to see us through. Jesus said that those that know Him to ask that they will be hidden and protected during this time Luke 21:36. We do not know how this hidden part will prevail or be played out, but God knows what He is doing. Don’t we want to get this over with and fight the good fight and do what is right? Aren’t we tired of the ugly way we are living, we think we are slick and can get away with more and more subtle things, even Christians, it is a slippery slope really. We are in a bad way here guys, like Sodom and Gomorrah, like in the times of Noah and we do not even know it or acknowledge it or say anything about it. What are we doing and what are we going to do?
Please I would like to ask you to take the time and comment on the article. It can be as simple as you liked it or not. I am to hard on this or you would disagree about that or even my grammar and spelling. I think this is an issue that needs to be addressed? Thank you
by William Pulley
chicago il
11/18/2011
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