As
the world moves over the brink of disaster in economic chaos and in lust for war,
the Bible believer will be very tempted to participate in the panic party. This
page is my way of helping us all look beyond the "present distress"
to see a sovereign God in total command of all events in heaven and earth.
HERE
IS A LETTER FROM CHRIS KLIPPERT
In
this discussion you will read about a survival skill that is totally missing from
all the gurus of survival-- How to deal with persecution, alone, and with
other saints.
Hi Steve:
You recently asked:" What is bothering you out there? Is there an issue in
the world or Christendom that needs discussing?"
I
offer my thoughts for whatever they may be worth.
I
enjoy your web site and many new blogs, but I have to say that sometimes it gets
to be overwhelming.
Chris
continues:
THE
END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
Survivalists,
while often dealing with the real world in crisis, usually fail to see the blessing
of TEOTWAWKI. First, the criminal system of human governance that we have evolved
over the last sixty years will crash. It is hoped that a better thing will come
into existence.
The
problem is, Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Thus,
what man invents to replace the present chaotic system will be worse that the
one before. Those who have faith in the goodness of man will be sorely disappointed.
The Bible makes it clear that things get worse and worse, not better and better,
as evolutionists claim. 2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men
and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
So,
what is our hope? Only a hope in the end of the wicked age we live in, as brought
to humanity by Christ himself, can promise real hope and total change.
So,
I think we're missing something here.
We're constantly facing Fear from doom and gloom forecasting promising that this
is "The end of the world as we know it" as the popular song pounds into
our brains:
Collapsing global economic meltdown Riots and anarchy in the streets Killer
weather hurricanes and tornados, floods and solar EMFs Terrorism, wars, pestilence,
mass deception and bio weapons etc. Massive Earthquakes Godzilla arising
from nuclear fall out in Japan and attacking the U.S. cost after walking across
the Pacific Ocean floor
A. W. Tozer has some good advice to follow to bring us back on track:
We
suffer from Information gluttony, too much disinformation turning us into
news junkies
"Knowledge
does not promise edification, indeed the vast majority of the time knowledge leads
men to hell." (Steve Van Nattan)
Shouldn't we be busy getting the Word out instead of analyzing current events
reported through the fallen minds of worldly men and women?
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which
are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on
things above, not on things on the earth. (Colossians 3:1-2)
What about persecution while we are being so busy preparing for some cataclysmic
event and hiding from the wrath to come. Are we preparing for this also?
We�re too busy reacting with fear in an attempt to (�flee from the wrath to
come�) to think about evangelizing, teaching, and preaching the Word.
Does our pursuit of rational survival contain elements of Sensible survival. or
does it fill us with a lifetime of pursuit? Instead of living our lives, we spend
and possibly waste a large portion of our lives preparing for what may never happen.
Why don't
we prepare for what we know will absolutely happen? Life is finite and we will
all die, let us then spend our time wisely (Ephesians
5:15-17): See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming
the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding
what the will of the Lord is. and live for the Lord while we are
living instead of preparing to survive from elements that may shorten our lives
and preoccupy us from the work at hand.
Jesus
said: (John 9:4) I must work the works
of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
Too many scenarios, how shall be prepare?
Should
we study the art of disappearing without a trace, or should we build safe houses
to hide Christians fleeing persecution or maybe study the Underground Railroad
system used during the Civil War? Should we study primitive survival skills to
find out how man survived with little technology? And how many books must we read
to figure out what are the proper elements of a survival cache?
Survivalism
seems to be a rich man's sport.
The world system wants to hide: Revelation 6:15-16: And
the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains,
and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the
dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall
on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the
wrath of the Lamb:
I
offer some advice for survival preparation, and more importantly, some rare and
hard to find advice on what to do and how to handle arrest, persecution and torture:
Here are some excerpts (mostly quotes from sources) from a couple of old newsletter
I wrote in the 90's.
Excerpt
1: From:
THE "OLOGY" OF PAIN, SUFFERING, TORTURE, AND MARTYRDOM:
Chris Klippert
Gleaned from the literature I have read on the subject of survival, two articles
stood out far and above the rest. They offered something that none of the others
touched upon.
PREPAREDNESS:
THE DRILL, testing/Practicing skills in a realistic manner. This is a modest
article about survivalist friends who maintain "bug-out" kits in case
of emergencies. This kit consists of miscellaneous survival necessities. These
men decided to test their knowledge and the integrity of their kits. They spontaneously
decided to spend a weekend ("the drill") with their "bug-out"
kits. The result was a real life evaluation of the success and failure of their
kits. They voluntarily put themselves to the test and benefited from real life
experience.
The second article comes from WESTWAYS MAGAZINE June 1994 by Catherine
Fredman titled:
THE
PALEO-TOURIST, A STONE AGE SCHOOL MAKES MERE ROUGHING IT SEEM SISSIFIED BY COMPARISON.
This article describes a survivalist school that provides a course which
supervises groups through learning primitive skills techniques. The first phase
of training is called "Impact". "Stripped of all your gear and
thrust into a changing environment with little instruction, no information, little
food and no sympathy." They claim that "impact" mimics a situation
you would find yourself in if stranded in the wilderness. Again, real life experience
in a controlled environment.
"IMPACT"
Richard
Wurmbrand, founder of the Voice of the Martyrs, Inc. makes this
statement:
"If
what some Christian leaders are saying is true, sooner or later the Church must
face two alternativesï: socio-political compromise with anti-Christian forces.....
or incur the wrath of a controlled political-religious hierarchy by refusing sucH.....
WE MUST PREPARE NOW."
"Since
these alternatives have already been posed in many parts of the world, there is
no reason to believe that the area where we live will continue to escape their
realities. Let us then, as Christians, prepare ourselves now and be sure that
our children have a clear example before them if their turn comes."
"The church underground
is the Church of one third of the world, men who had never thought before that
they would have to belong to an underground church."
Richard Wurmbrand, (PREPARING FOR THE UNDERGROUND CHURCH, The Voice of
the Martyrs, Inc.) P.1.P2.
Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn describes
for us the sudden shock of reality during initial arrest:
"Arrest! Need it be
said that it is a breaking point in your life, a bolt of lightning which has scored
a direct hit on you? That it is an unassimilable spiritual earthquake not every
person can cope with, as a result of which people often slip into insanity?"
"Each
of us is a center of the Universe, and that Universe is shattered when they hiss
at you:'You are under arrest.' "
"If
you are arrested, can anything else remain unshattered by this cataclysm?"
"But
the darkened mind is incapable of embracing these displacements in our universe,
and both the most sophisticated and the veriest simpleton among us, drawing on
all life's experience, can gasp out only: 'Me? What for?' "
"A person who is not
inwardly prepared for the use of violence against him is always weaker than the
person committing the violence."
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, (THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO 1918-1956 An Experiment in Literary
Investigation, HARPER & ROW 1985) P.3. p.10.
Howard
Rutledge was a POW in
North Vietnam for seven years, here is his assessment of early days in captivity:
"It's
hard to describe what solitary confinement can do to unnerve and defeat a man,
You quickly tire of standing up or sitting down, sleeping or being awake. Here
are no books, no paper or pencils, no magazines or newspapers. The only colors
you see are drab gray and dirty brown. Months or years may go by when you don't
see the sunrise or the moon, green grass or flowers. You are locked in, alone
and silent in your filthy little cell breathing stale, rotten air and trying to
keep your sanity."
"I
had the best of survival training in the navy, [but] no survival training can
prepare a man for years of solitary confinement. What sustains a man in prison
is something that he has going for him inside his head something that happened,
or did not happen back in childhood in the home and church and school. Nobody
can teach you to survive the brutality of being alone. A first you panic. You
want to cry out. You fight back waves of fear. You want to die. To confess, to
do anything to get out of that ever-shrinking world."
Howard and Phyllis Rutledge, (IN THE PRESENCE OF MINE ENEMIES, Commission Press
1977) p.35
"THE
DRILL" PREPARING FOR SUFFERING
Richard
Wurmbrand offers his
insight:
"What
about the terrible tortures which are inflicted on prisoners? What will we do
about these tortures? Will we be able to bear them? If I do not bear them, I put
in prison another fifty or sixty men whom I know because that is what the oppressors
wish from me, to betray those around me. Hence comes the great need for preparation
for suffering, which must start now. It is too difficult to prepare yourself for
it when you are already in prison."
"We
have to make the preparation now before we are imprisoned. In prison you lose
everything. You are undressed and given prisoner's suit. No more nice furniture,
nice carpets or nice curtains. You do not have a wife any more and you do not
have children. You do not have your library and you never see a flower. Nothing
of what makes life pleasant remains. Nobody resists who has not renounced the
pleasures of life beforehandï. But there exists a Christian mortification, now
a "giving up" of the joys of the earth. The Christian who prepares himself
for this now will not suffer the loss of them when he is in prison. You have to
use the things of the world without allowing an emotional attachment."
"Don't live with doubts,
but seen their solution.When you are tortured these doubts are changed into treason
because you have to decide to live or die for this faith."
"You must love Christ
more than your family. There you are before a court and the judge tells you that
if you deny Christ you may keep your children. If not, this will be he last time
you will see them. Your heart may break, but your answer should be, I love God."
"This
must be resisted. Where the results of resisting are beatings and tortures, you
have to take upon yourself, even if you die. In the same way, you take the physical
pains of torture upon yourself to protect your brethren from being arrested. The
worst thing which might happen because of this is that you will die under torture.
But to die is the most natural thing in the world".
"Your
mortality is obvious; take it as your view of life in general. If God wishes me
to die today He does not need a torturer. I can die by heart attack without a
torturer. So the torturer can never shorten my life by one day. Never can the
best restaurant with the finest dainties prolong my life one day. I die when I
am called by God."
Wurmbrand, Op. Cit. p.4-6.9.11.12.
Howard
Rutledge goes on o say
how he began to cope as a POW after the initial panic wore off:
"Then, gradually a
plan of defense takes shape. Being alone is another kind of war, but slowly I
learned that it, too, can be won. Like a blind man who is forced to develop other
senses to replace his useless eyes, a man in solitary confinement must quit regretting
what he cannot do and build a new life around what he can do."
Chris
Klippert is not giving you a course of action-- he is talking to himself, you,
and me. This is a time for godly introspection, NOT morbid self-dissection. Did
you hear about the guy who was talking to a pastor about his life and stress?
He told the pastor that he simply wanted to peal away the layers of hypocrisy
and find his real self." The pastor asked, "What if you find out you
are an onion?"
The
point is NOT to get lost in introspection, like some swami on the mountain in
the Himalayas. Certainly, we need to BE searched, but we are not the competent
ones to do that, as the Psalmist said, Psalms 139:23 Search
me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
Are
we ready to walk with God through the coming "present distress?"
What
is the "present distress"?
It
is something temporary which comes at the Bible believer from the world, the flesh,
or the devil. This "present distress" rises and lowers in intensity,
and we must adjust our walk and ways to deal with it. Most Christians simply go
silent and hope not to be noticed. Our lord did not deal with his ministry that
way.
Here
is the "present distress" comment from the Apostle Paul in the Bible:
1
Corinthians 7:25 Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet
I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.
26 I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress, I say,
that it is good for a man so to be. 27 Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not
to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. 28 But and if
thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned.
Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you. 29 But
this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have
wives be as though they had none; 30 And they that weep, as though they wept
not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as
though they possessed not; 31 And they that use this world, as not abusing
it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.
You
see that Paul is saying that a change in the flow of life of the Christians at
Corinth must be considered. Paul is saying that there is no commandment from the
Lord as to the question that was asked of him in the previous verses-- what to
do about marriage and what about dealing with the persecution the church was receiving
at Corinth.
So,
Paul tells them not to break up their marriages. Perhaps they were thinking that
if one died the other should not be present to be taken and killed also. They
also may have wondered whether to leave an unsaved spouse. In any case, Paul tells
them not to break up the home for any cause. Then Paul warns them that they might
well lose everthing, and he warns them not to cling and put the things of this
world, even their spouse, ahead of their life that Christ wanted to live out in
them. Richard Wurmbrand correctly dealt with this in comments above.
We
may be on the brink of the very same experiences, maybe for different reasons,
but when nations crash and fascism comes rolling in like a tsunami, it is historic
that the wicked turn on the saints of Jesus Christ and find them to blame for
something. We are seeing the beginnings of this today as Janet Reno in the past,
and Janet Napolitan in Homeland Security, have said the Fundamentalist Christians,
especially those that believe in as prophetic End Times Christianity, are potential
terrorists. If you are a war veteran, you have the provilege of being a potential
terrorist on two counts.
If
you want examples of insipient hate for Bible believers, here are the two fronts
of the war against the true Church:
The
world-- This man is speaking to intellectual godless people. You will
think I picked the wrong video until you hear the very last question at the end
of the video. You may need to play the end a couple of times to catch the astounding
conclusion. All world and social progress is grinding to a halt because of YOU.
Christendom--
I
will next give you two Psalms that I find VERY appropriate to the "present
stress."
PSALM
4
Psalms
4:1 <To the chief Musician
on Neginoth, A Psalm of David.> Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness:
thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my
prayer. 2 O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how
long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah. 3 But know that the
LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call
unto him. 4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your
bed, and be still. Selah. 5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put
your trust in the LORD. 6 There be many that say, Who will shew us any good?
LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. 7 Thou hast put gladness
in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. 8
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell
in safety.
Commentary:
Neginoth
was probably a pitch setting or musical style of a chant. One leader specialized
in one particular style of singing. Habakuk mentioned his personal instrument
or singing style in Habakuk 3:19. Almost all of the Psalms were meant to be sung,
and CCM has destroyed that. CCM is all about the rush, and the gush of the "worship
leaders," and the lead musician. The Psalms were all about Jehovah. What
passes for worship in the average mega church today would have sounded to David
like the Philistines having a devil dance.
Verse
1. Survivalists and church house pessimistic prophets seem to miss the fact that
God is quite able to make the righteous profit or be enlarged during distress.
As you prepare of hard times ahead, has it ever occurred to you that hard times
present some rare opportunities to make a living and do well. I have heard many
such stories from the Great Depression.
Verse
2-3. David rebukes the sons of men who contrast with the people of God who trust
him. Verse 3 contrasts sharply in that God has set the righteous apart for God's
purposes. Thus, if you are not born again by faith in Jesus Christ, you have noting
going for you but your own wits. When they give out, you will perish one way of
another. God owes you nothing because you laughed him off before the distress
came along.
Verse
4. "Stand in awe" means to stop, be still, and get ready to worship
God. Panic is not conducive to this. Now, "commune with your own heart upon
your bed" sounds like some sort of self-centered event. Not so. The verse
that follows explains. But, there is a thing about getting away from other people
alone and sorting our your thoughts to see if you are behaving like a jerk.
Verse
5. This is the objective of verse 4-- The sacrifice of righteousness is not an
animal sacrifice, it is worship. God seeks to have your worship, and when that
happens, he hears (verse 3). If your have rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
you really will not care one way or other if God hears you. You believe you control
your fate. Well, it ain't necessarily so.
Verse
6. A contrast again. The unbelieving expect nothing good to happen, and they usually
get just what they expected. The righteous expect to hear from God, and God responds
to them in love.
Verse
7. Remember, verse 1 sets the scene-- distress. The child of God, after following
the commands of David above, finds reason to be glad. The wicked may have a good
crop and lots of wine in the wine press, but the gladness of the child of God
goes far beyond physical and earthly blessings.
Verse
8. Possibly the greatest complaint in times of national and economic distress
is the difficulty of going to sleep. Insomnia in western nations is at an all
time high and increasing. Why does David go to sleep? Answer: He feels safe with
Jehovah. God does not intend for you to have no locks on your doors and no weapons
of self-defense, but these things fail us all too often. Without God we man has
no one to fall back on. Man may be arrogant and claim to control his own fate,
but when the bottom falls out, it is amazing how God comes to mind of even the
committed Atheist. As a Jewish scholar has said, "We think God is far away
and unapproachable until we are in child birth or in a fox hole." Dr. Trudy
Wiserosenman
PSALM
49
Psalms
49:1 <To the chief Musician,
A Psalm for the sons of Korah.> Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye
inhabitants of the world: 2 Both low and high, rich and poor, together. 3
My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
4 I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the
harp. 5 Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of
my heels shall compass me about? 6 They that trust in their wealth, and boast
themselves in the multitude of their riches; 7 None of them can by any means
redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: 8 (For the redemption
of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) 9 That he should still
live for ever, and not see corruption. 10 For he seeth that wise men die,
likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and
their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own
names. 12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts
that perish. 13 This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve
their sayings. Selah. 14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall
feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and
their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. 15 But God will
redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah. 16
Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
17 For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend
after him. 18 Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise
thee, when thou doest well to thyself. 19 He shall go to the generation of
his fathers; they shall never see light. 20 Man that is in honour, and understandeth
not, is like the beasts that perish.
Commentary:
While
this Psalm was set to music to be sung, it is a bit unique, for it is in the form
of a sermon. The sermon is to all people, expecially the rich and the poor. The
rich are cautioned by being told that death will level us all, rich and poor.
Pride in ones prosperity is very rude and shows that the rich are often vrey stupid
about their destiny as they make pretenses. This Psalm has been in recent Jewish
tradition recited in the house of mourning.
Verse
1-3. It is imlied that the whole world needs this sermon. The high and low, rich
and poor, together. Here is a lesson by implication. When a ministry is started
to the rich and famous, like Doug Coe's Family in Virginia, where Senators
and Presidents and the filthy rich gather and listen to Doug's blather and bluster,
this sermon will not be preached. The greatest need of the rich and famous, that
is, to control their pride and egomania, will simply go right on manifesting and
provoking God.
Also,
when a ministry is started to the poor and the down and out so that the rich of
sociaty do not have to deal with the poor, God is again provoked because he wants
them to learn to worship together, and he wants them to ministry to one another.
There have been several times in my life when very poor saints ministered to me
and my family. I would have wished they had spent their money on some need THEY
had, for they had less than I did. There is a grace naver learned by talking about
it alone-- that is the grace of receiving tangible love from someone who should
be the one to receive it.
So,
this Psalm is rather meaningless unless it is received "together."
Verse
4. We now know this psalm should be accompanied by a harp. The most common harp
is a piano with a range of seven octaves. If you are in a church which claims
that singing to a piano is wicked, you are in a Pharisee church. You might want
to move on.
This
Psalm is a parable, which means some things mentioned are "thrown along side"
the foundational truth. The parable content is not the main event, but it points
us back to the basic teaching. What is the foundational truth? Answer Verse 20.
Verse
5. The rich and famous cause fear in the poor. The psalmist is encouraging the
poor to stop being intimidated by the rich and famous. The second half of the
verse seems to imply, in context, that the iniquity of his heels is caused by
the rich and famous who torment him and use his poverty for gain. We have in the
USA and in Europe a covey of rich and famous who cry out against the rich who
are richer than the less rich. These crocodile tears are abusive in this way--
they cause the poor to exalt the near rich and tax the very rich out of envy and
class warfare. This is also very wicked. Are YOU being suckered in by the millionaire,
Barak Obama, as he attacked the "one percenters." He is not teaching
the rich to be merciful. He is using the VERY rich to help himself, the generic
rich, get reelected. If you let this scam deceive you it will sour your soul and
make you hate the rich. There is no room for hate.
Verse
6 - 9. This is a statement that moves clear beyond this life and riches of poverty.
The rich man does not have enough riches to buy his brother salvation. Roman Catholics
try this today be buying hundreds of masses and novenas to be said for their dead
rich relative. One man who was Catholic and left the Roman Church to confess his
faith in Christ said his family was to panic stricken about his destiny in eternity
that they put $10,000 in escrow with the church to start frantically saying masses
for him as soon as he died. The Mafia take a huge portion of the cash they stole
and extorted from the poor business man, and they pay for masses and novenas to
be said for their damned to hell criminal gang members. What a crock!
The
parenthetic in verse 8 indicates that God alone redeems men if they have worshipped
him in spirit and in truth before they die, and their redemption never ceaseth.
The old English in this verse actually means the opposite of what it sounds like
to us.
Verse
10. God sees the rich, the brutes, and the poor die, and God has arranged that
none of us can take anything with us. Regardless of how rich a man is, you will
never see a U-Haul trailer attached behind his hearse when he dies. In ancient
times the kings and rich would have their tombs filled with all manner of delicious
food, gold, and even their wives and servants. When the tombs are opened, the
gold is not in heaven, nor is the wheat and corn. They bones have turned to dust,
and they are in hell screaming for water.
If
you have no idea if you are redeemed or not, NOW is the time to make sure, for
once you die there is no way you can make arrangements with God. Hebrews
9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
You cannot buy off God later.
Verse
11 - 13. These are parables in the form of word pictures to show the futility
and the snare of riches. Rich men believe insane things about what their riches
will get them. I hesitate to get personal as a rule, but I must mention Donald
Trump. I have never in my life heard a man who was so clever in the wealth making
business make such idiotic suggestions as to how he would manage the affairs of
state if here were President. I can honestly say that I would prefer the most
lowly dog catcher to Trump. But, you see, the man has his senses clouded by his
absolute confidence in his god-- Mammon.
THE
PRESENT DISTRESS
We
need to identify the "present distress," as Paul calls it in First Corinthians,
in up to date terms. The way to do that is to look at the last five sins the men
will cling to in the End Times. By End Times I mean even after the sixth angel
with the sixth trumpet has brought woe and torment on all the world in the book
of The Revelation. Here is the end of that event:
Revelation
9:20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented
not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols
of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see,
nor hear, nor walk: 21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their
sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
We
see the following sins which wicked men will not give up:
1.
Idol worship
2.
Murder
3.
Sorcery (and drugs implied by the Greek word pharmachia)
4.
fornication
5.
Thievery
What
does this mean to Bible believers just before the Lord's return? It means that
these five sins will be totally ingrained in "the good life" and "good
godly people." The Whore Church will participate in these five sins also.
You may ask how the modern church approves of murder. This is easily seen in the
promoting of war under the color of stopping terrorism and the slogan, "if
we don't stop them over there, they will come here." War for ANY reason but
self-defense is murder. War to bring Democracy to the nations is murder. God's
coming government will be an absolute monarchy, not a sinner dominated democracy.
Also, our government condones the murder of Americans in the womb and by the use
of deadly medical drugs and procedures.
The
other wickedness above is easy to identify to the savvy and informed observer.
The problem is, you the Bible believer must live with these people and deal with
the five sins in a nation that may even enforce them by law. Your tax payments
fund them. What shall we then do about this dilemma?
Please
remember this verse you studied above: Psalm 4:4 Stand in
awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
We
must ALL come apart from the world of media hype, social pressure from our peers,
and from ungodly family members and think alone, and seek God and his Word for
answers. Think of Nehemiah, Daniel, and Joseph. Each one, each in a different
pagan culture, kept their zeal and faithfulness for God and his promises. You
can too if you want to.
James
1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally,
and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Matthew
7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall
be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh
findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
2
Corinthians 1:12 For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that
in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of
God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.
2
Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ.
Jeremiah
29:12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will
hearken unto you. 13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search
for me with all your heart.
1
John 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments,
and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
Psalms
25:9 The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.
Proverbs
2:3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge
of God. 6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and
understanding.
And,
you thought you had nowhere to go? Come now, you have all of the resources of
God Almighty. What are you waiting for, go to him with all of your particular
puzzles and the confusion of the world around you. He promised to hear, and he
promised to meet your need.
In
Bible study the Rule of First Mention applies well here. Jacob
speaks- Genesis 49:24 But his bow abode in strength, and
the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob;
(from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
The word shepherd is used once before to speak of the Egyptians as shepherds,
but the above verse is first mention of God as a Shepherd.
AND.........
If you came in faith to Jesus Christ, you are not alone EVER: 1
Peter 2:25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd
and Bishop of your souls.
Though
the most treacherous conspiracies rage in this world, and though we feel weak
and helpless, the God of the universe is our personal Shepherd. Why do we tremble
so? Read Gen. 49:24 again. Jacob says that essentially God's hands are on your
hands. The strength available to you is enough for ANY occasion, and it is Almighty
strength. No wonder Janet Napolitano is terrified of Bible believers :-)
Survivalists
will tell you that there are three top priorities in times of crisis- Water, food,
and security. Without these all other survival preparation is worthless, AND no
one will be able to rest.
As
to leading sheep, they do best with gentle guidance, not driving them harshly.
The Hebrew word of "leadeth" is not talking about a stampede.
The
Hebrew again speaks not of placid waters, as with a swamp or a stagnant pools--
these are literally waters of restfulness-- a cool shaded rippling brook.
Dad
and Mom-- Does this describe your home? If not, when will you repent and model
your parenting after the Chief Shepherd?
Some of you are too busy trying to figure out how soon you can beat the sheep.
Does
this describe your local church? If not, when will you get out of there and find
the restful waters and safety of a strong and gentle under-shepherd?
FARTHER
ALONG
You
cannot understand why things are the way they are. The world will always let you
down in the tight spots, and even Christian friends can be thoughtless and timid
in the hard times. But, you will understand all things one day soon:
If
you give me a long enough timeline, I can assure you that you will not survive.
Why?
Well,
simply this..... Jesus has plans for you in your eternal home, and nothing
you can do will put off your destiny with Jesus.
