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!)

 

His Truth (really) can set us free...

I am so excited this evening. I just returned from the most amazing ladies seminar message delivered by my friend and mentor, Mrs. Judy Seligman. Judy is a woman who takes God at His Word. His faithfulness to her has been evident to all who know her. She is a woman set free. I wanted to share with my readers some of the inspiration I received.

Did you know that when Christ died on the cross for our sins, He really did pay for them all? (Colossians 2: 13-14)Did you know that no matter what you may have done in the past, when you become a believer, all of that is wiped away forever? (II Corinthians 5: 17) It may seem too good to be true, but it is.

Jesus called out from the cross in victory not defeat, "It is finished!" (John 19:30) Yes, the most tragic thing happened when they crucified our Lord, but it was also the most important and most glorious moment ever in human history, too. In fact, human history was divided by the birth of Christ, even if men call B.C. now "Before the Common Era" instead of "Before Christ." If that moment had not occurred, there would be no hope at all in this world. (Romans 5: 5-8)

His death on the cross took care of all the sins we committed in the past, presently, or in the future. This is not so called "cheap grace." Jesus Christ poured out His soul unto death for us.(Hebrews 5: 7, Psalm 22: 14) There was nothing more He could give, He poured out His life as a substitutionary sacrifice and all the sins of the world were paid for that one afternoon. That does not mean that all men will be saved, for we must take His free gift as an act of faith. (John 3:16) Our will must agree with God's in believing on the person of His Son.
But think of what this means. Our sins were paid for, so we can truly walk free. Jesus said in John 8:36:

"Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."

In my own experience, I did not experience that freedom that Christ talked about. Judy told us tonight what the missing ingredient is if we are not presently experiencing Christ's freedom. It is a simple thing, really.

I can either believe what God tells me in His Word or disbelieve it. Even if it feels untrue with all the feelings within me, it is still true. She shared that for years she had struggled with resentment toward another believer. As hard as she tried, she could not make these feelings go away. Have you ever been there? I know I have, way too many times to count.

The more you struggle to get free from sin in your own power, the stronger the sin monster becomes. In I Corinthians 15: 56 God tells us a curious thing about the law. It says:

"The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is in the law." That means the more you try, the harder you will fail. But if you have reached that point of failure, as I have, many times, you should rejoice. Why? For then you will realize that if Christ does not perform the righteous deeds that the law commands inside you, it will not be done.

Galatians 2:20-1 tells us that we have been crucified with Christ, and why Christ had to die:

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes by works, then Christ died in vain.

Righteousness will never come by works, but only by Christ living out His life through us. He promised us that we would have "rivers of living water" flow out of our heart in John 7:38. If this isn't our experience, then something is wrong with us, not Him.
We need to believe Him: that He lives in us, that He forgave us all our sin debt. And most importantly, we need to believe that when He died, our old sinful self died right there with Him.

Romans 6: 6 says: "knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." We have a choice. We can either let Christ live His life through us, and experience the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control--Galatians 5:22) OR, we can disbelieve it and continue living the lie of the self-life.

He does want us to give up our lives. But that becomes easy when you realize that our lives, without Christ, will only produce misery.

John 15: 5: "I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing."

Here is the "hard saying" of Jesus, which, when you consider the alternative of living gratifying your old nature, becomes a pleasant thing to do. John 12: 25 tells us the absolute Truth:

"He who loves his life {your own right to choose for yourself what you want*} will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." In hating what that old person so craves, we find a new life of joy and peace in Him. We give up the things that have kept us in misery for so long and finally have the life that we truly longed for.

Tonight, I was reminded that it is as easy as a simple decision. No matter how much my flesh will scream at me, God's Word is truer than that voice inside. I simply have to choose with God and His Word. If I fail, I pick myself up and receive a fresh new start every single time. What other religion in this world will offer you that?

It's never too late, we can make that choice and start having His resurrection life pour through us today!

*my added thoughts