This is an odd post. I started out just relaxing on my patio in beautiful weather and typing my thoughts on God's warnings to America.....not even sure that I would wind up posting it....when at 2:50 the weather started to change....and fast. After checking the ominous radar scope....I switched to describing the change in the weather. This whole episode lasted fifteen minutes max. My power came on at 8:00.....and after cutting up the limbs I'm adding this paragraph....and completing here where I left off....where a winnowing is coming in the church....because if the Lord's return is near....as we usually use the word near....then the delusions will just be too great unless one is firmly in the hands of Christ....born again....not just recruited....not just religious....and even here it is only Christ who has the power to keep those who trust in Him....and it is only trust in Christ that will keep.
here is the post that I started in beautiful calm weather....
As one might read through the Old Testament prophets....either the major prophets....(major in the length of the book)....or the minor prophets....one would read of a nation that not only knew of but experienced the power and holiness of not only their God....but the only true God. The reader would see time and again that same people forget all the commands and the blessings and the miraculous protection that was bestowed upon them by that only true God. One would read of continuous warnings....in Jeremiah's case lasting decades....and one might wonder in true amazement how those warnings could time and again go unheeded.
The judgments would come in God's timing....and we read an eye witness account of the horror that the people experienced. Interspersed in many of these books are judgments for the far away future....at the culmination of all things. Sometimes one has to have some help in reading as one verse might pertain to judgments of that day....and the next judgments for the future....and the next judgments for the end times....but it becomes clear as we read these books over time.
Ultimately....after seeing the entire process as it played out with the Israelites....we then see ourselves....not only knowing of God but having experienced his hand upon our nation from the very first time that ships anchored off these shores....and we see hundreds of years that have passed.....just as with Israel and Judah....until we can hear....if we permit it....Jeremiah's and other's warnings of destruction aimed directly at us.
If this were not enough to shake us up and bring us to repentance....and it hasn't been....there is the New Testament warnings....all the writers and Jesus Himself giving us an almost step-by-step description of a collapsing world before His return. We can see the wars such as there has never been before....and the violence pouring out of the peoples....and the numerous false gods. The miraculous establishment of the state of Israel alone should have told us that the long wait may be over....only the decades remain.
At seventy years old I've witnessed the step-by-step disintegration of a whole people. I've seen God mercifully bring many into His kingdom.....myself being one of them. I've heard the warnings of many Billy Grahams....that reached deep into a remnant of the people but totally ignored by most. I've seen the church grow blissfully ignorant....and what is known politically as evangelicalism fall head over heels for a false prophet.
There is not going to be a nationwide awakening in America....at least not one that changes the course of the country for decades....and certainly not a making of America great again. Our hope should be that God might have mercy on enough of the people of this land that we might look to Him as these judgments unfold. There is surely a winnowing ahead for the church....where those whose salvation is real....whose hope in that salvation is only in the merits of Jesus Christ....
here is where the weather suddenly changed
I'm going to digress here for a few minutes. We have a storm warning in our area due in the next fifteen minutes. I look up and the sky is blue other than white clouds passing rather fast. I'm on my patio...and can hear soft thunder in the distance....and darker clouds are moving in swiftly from my left.....the northwest. The temperature dropped a few degrees since I started this paragraph. The winds were picking up but they stopped altogether as the wooden chimes that were knocking wildly against each other but are now hanging limp. I took the opportunity to check the local radar....and a deep burnt orange mass is a few miles away. The wind has suddenly picked up and within a two minute span we have a deluge moving horizontally. We lost power....tree limbs are everywhere. It’s fifteen minutes later and I.....and all the neighbors....are surveying the damage....as sirens are heard all around us. I’ll hopefully look this post over later when the power is back....as I'm posting this on my iPhone.
Addendum: There is a message in this experience. At one moment I was kicked back with my feet up on the table....with blue skies.....and I barely had time to get my computer and books out of the wind and rain.
here is the post that I started in beautiful calm weather....
As one might read through the Old Testament prophets....either the major prophets....(major in the length of the book)....or the minor prophets....one would read of a nation that not only knew of but experienced the power and holiness of not only their God....but the only true God. The reader would see time and again that same people forget all the commands and the blessings and the miraculous protection that was bestowed upon them by that only true God. One would read of continuous warnings....in Jeremiah's case lasting decades....and one might wonder in true amazement how those warnings could time and again go unheeded.
The judgments would come in God's timing....and we read an eye witness account of the horror that the people experienced. Interspersed in many of these books are judgments for the far away future....at the culmination of all things. Sometimes one has to have some help in reading as one verse might pertain to judgments of that day....and the next judgments for the future....and the next judgments for the end times....but it becomes clear as we read these books over time.
Ultimately....after seeing the entire process as it played out with the Israelites....we then see ourselves....not only knowing of God but having experienced his hand upon our nation from the very first time that ships anchored off these shores....and we see hundreds of years that have passed.....just as with Israel and Judah....until we can hear....if we permit it....Jeremiah's and other's warnings of destruction aimed directly at us.
If this were not enough to shake us up and bring us to repentance....and it hasn't been....there is the New Testament warnings....all the writers and Jesus Himself giving us an almost step-by-step description of a collapsing world before His return. We can see the wars such as there has never been before....and the violence pouring out of the peoples....and the numerous false gods. The miraculous establishment of the state of Israel alone should have told us that the long wait may be over....only the decades remain.
At seventy years old I've witnessed the step-by-step disintegration of a whole people. I've seen God mercifully bring many into His kingdom.....myself being one of them. I've heard the warnings of many Billy Grahams....that reached deep into a remnant of the people but totally ignored by most. I've seen the church grow blissfully ignorant....and what is known politically as evangelicalism fall head over heels for a false prophet.
There is not going to be a nationwide awakening in America....at least not one that changes the course of the country for decades....and certainly not a making of America great again. Our hope should be that God might have mercy on enough of the people of this land that we might look to Him as these judgments unfold. There is surely a winnowing ahead for the church....where those whose salvation is real....whose hope in that salvation is only in the merits of Jesus Christ....
here is where the weather suddenly changed
I'm going to digress here for a few minutes. We have a storm warning in our area due in the next fifteen minutes. I look up and the sky is blue other than white clouds passing rather fast. I'm on my patio...and can hear soft thunder in the distance....and darker clouds are moving in swiftly from my left.....the northwest. The temperature dropped a few degrees since I started this paragraph. The winds were picking up but they stopped altogether as the wooden chimes that were knocking wildly against each other but are now hanging limp. I took the opportunity to check the local radar....and a deep burnt orange mass is a few miles away. The wind has suddenly picked up and within a two minute span we have a deluge moving horizontally. We lost power....tree limbs are everywhere. It’s fifteen minutes later and I.....and all the neighbors....are surveying the damage....as sirens are heard all around us. I’ll hopefully look this post over later when the power is back....as I'm posting this on my iPhone.
Addendum: There is a message in this experience. At one moment I was kicked back with my feet up on the table....with blue skies.....and I barely had time to get my computer and books out of the wind and rain.
