The Encroaching Darkness

"So Moses stretched
His hand toward
 heaven,
and there was
thick
darkness in the
 land of Egypt
three days.
They did not see
one another; nor
 did anyone
rise from his place
 for three days. 
But all the children
 of Israel had light in their dwellings."

Exodus 10: 22-23








Can you sense the encroaching darkness? Can you tell that there is something terribly wrong with this world, things are not just going along like they always have?

If not, I hope you will believe me when I tell you things are not going to get better on this planet. Not until there is a drastic change, anyway. (As in the Lord coming back.) That change will not come about by any scheme of man. No amount of planning, persuading or patrolling people into what they call a "new world order" will make things any better.

Have you noticed the more we try to improve our race, the further downhill things go? Things we never dreamed of ten years ago are happening now. If you feel like you are perfectly at home on this planet, I ask you whether you are really being honest with yourself? Do you really think a new president of the United States can get us out of the mess we are in?

No other society has ever survived when it began to rot inwardly from corruption. Why do we think it will be different in our case?

I feel a heavy burden on me for the way things are. The way our children are being corrupted when they have barely even reached grade school. The way the traditional family has been torn apart, also. The way that nobody dares call "sin" sin anymore. I am no better than anyone else, but I sense real chaos in the making.

I have a million different choices today on how to spend my time. I can watch one a gazillion channels if I wish, or line up a huge playlist on Youtube. I can download, workout, zone out, or vent, but today I feel like I must cry out.

I must cry out to my Maker. Lord, we have fallen so far away from Your righteous standards. Many may scoff at that but I believe this land is mourning.

For the land is full of adulterers; For because of a curse the land mourns. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. Their course of life is evil, And their might is not right." Jeremiah 23:10

They have made it desolate; Desolate, it mourns to Me; The whole land is made desolate, Because no one takes it to heart. Jeremiah 12:11

They sow the wind, And reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no bud; It shall never produce meal. If it should produce, Aliens would swallow it up." Hosea 8:7

We might ask, "What can one person do?" For me, it involves taking a long hard look at myself. Maybe I am part of the reason we are in such a mess today. But as long as there is still time, I can own up to my failures and have a fresh clean slate each day.

I could never deserve this fresh slate but it is given to  me courtesy of the Lord Jesus. He took on all the decrepit things I have said and done and paid for them completely.

O earth, earth, earth, Hear the word of the LORD! Jeremiah 22: 29

I don't have to stay in the darkness. Every moment that I breathe is an opportunity to turn around and come back to His light.

"Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool." Isaiah 1:18

Lord, let our answer be "yes" to Your question: ...Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"

(As I hit publish I realized this was my 200th posting on this blog site. To God be the glory!)

 

Can A Believer Know the Bible by Reading It?

1John 2:27 "But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him."

At the end of the Dark Ages, a monk named Martin Luther tried to be the best monk he could ever be. He did it in the desire that it would assuage the terrible feelings of guilt and fear that hounded him constantly. Martin Luther had a picture of Jesus in his mind as a "Frightening Avenger." He did not hear about the grace of God poured out upon us through the Son of God by means of dying for us upon the cross.(Galatians 2:20) He did not know that Christ had actually stood in the gap for him so that Martin didn't have to be apprehensive all his life of Him. (II Cor. 5: 21) Since Luther had been beaten regularly by his schoolmaster in order to learn Bible facts, he didn't associate the Bible with grace. No, not at all.

Even Martin's superiors realized his great anxiety and decided that Martin needed to be a professor instead of a monk. That is when Luther first got to read the Scriptures for himself and the things he feared about God were gradually addressed. He was convinced that he had to work for his salvation, for that is what he had been taught all of his life. One day, while studying in the book of Romans, Martin read Romans 1: 17:

1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.

1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."

What Luther read in Romans 1:17 was actually a repeat of Habakkuk 2: 4 in the Old Testament, so this fact was actually stated twice in the Bible. Martin Luther had been known to beat himself with ropes. He said prayers constantly and attended services seven times a day. He begged and took vows of poverty. But none of these things made the miserable monk mollified.

"You are Guilty!" were the words he could not overcome.

So when the Scripture's declaration "the just shall live by faith" popped off Scripture's page that day, Martin Luther was incredulous. This truth had not been revealed by a Pope but to a perplexed and troubled man, studying for the priesthood, who just happened to be reading the Bible.

This one verse did more than light the Protestant Reformation. It revealed that one seeking the Truth could find it in the Scriptures by merely reading them with a heart that is positive to Jesus Christ and want He wants to reveal to him/her.

But some may say that only if the words are properly exegeted can we properly understand them. That argument sounds like we are going back to the days before the Reformation, when only the Pope or the priest read the Bible to the masses.

Here are some verses that encourage us to seek the Lord. How do we seek Him? Do we do some mystical ceremony? No! We seek Him through His Word! The Psalmist says:


Psalm 14:2 "The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God."

Psalm 119:18 "Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law."

Psalm 138:2 "I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name."

Jeremiah says:

Jeremiah 15:16 "Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts."

Jeremiah 6:19 "Hear, O earth! Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people--The fruit of their thoughts, Because they have not heeded My words Nor My law, but rejected it."

Jeremiah 22:29 "O earth, earth, earth, Hear the word of the LORD!"

A few of the Lord's statements on the Word:

Matthew 7:24 "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock (v. 25) "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock."

Matthew 24:35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."

Do you think that if you sat down with your Bible and wanted to understand it, God would refuse you? If you had a clean conscience before Him, do you think He would deny your request, "I want to know you Father?"

Luke says:

"If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" Luke 11: 13

Jesus showed us the Father. We learn of the Living Word in the Written Word. In the times of the Old Testament Jews, the Jews did not even have the whole Pentateuch in some cases. We now have the whole Bible, plus all the free online Bible resources too numerous to be counted like the http://v3.blueletterbible.org/index.cfm. In a country such as America, for us to be ignorant or led astray is really our own fault. If you ask Him, He will lead you to a place where you can be taught accurately, too. But you have the written Word, and according to the book of Hebrews, today is the day of salvation! (Hebrews 3: 15)