TRIBULATION

TRIBULATION

                If one were to try to describe the complete chaos of the Tribulation, he might start with Panama City in north Florida. Hurricane Michael dealt a devastating blow to a 60 mile wide, several hundred mile long swath of Florida and Georgia that has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. The banks are not yet functioning so people can’t get any money out. Gas is in short supply. Cell Phone service is non-existent at this time and since there is no electricity to recharge the phones anyway, they have become useless. Cars are abandoned along roads and freeways wherever they ran out of gas.

                If you add to this the miles and miles of rubble that used to be homes and businesses… one has to wonder how long it will take to recover from this one hurricane. Picture if you will, being a person whose house was totally destroyed and their place of employment ruined. Picture being without power, without a car, without cell phone service… without money… without refrigeration… without air conditioning… without food or shelter or fences for you pets. What are you going to do and how are you going to survive. Picture being without soap… without toilet paper… need I say more?

                Church ministries like “Operation Blessing” have driven 30 Semi loads of food, water, clothing and supplies to the area. These people have nothing to do but stand in long lines in the hot sun day after day just to get food and water handed out for the day.

                A member of our church (James) is down there working on restoring electric and phone lines, but so many homes are destroyed and therefore unable to handle the electricity that may eventually come their way.          

                As these major storms increase year by year, we get tired of hearing about them. We take one look at the rubble and then turn back to the ball game… not only because we have become complacent, but because, even if we weren’t complacent, what are we to do? Shall we just drop everything and go down there to help? And if we do, will we really be able to do any good or will we just become a part of the problem where dwindling supplies are concerned.

                So, we remain more or less complacent until disaster hits our own area. Major earthquakes on the west coast and the New Madrid fault lie come to mind. We don’t’ know when they will happen, but they will happen and when they do, they will reshape America.

                Actually America hangs in the balances. God granted us a 4 year reprieve… a stay of execution to see if we will repent like Ninevah, or if we will continue our sinful ways as did Sodom and Gomorrah.

                We are being faced with ever increasing dilemmas such as these as nature unleashes its fury. It is like pent up rage breaking out against the sins of our time. We don’t seem to recognize the connection between the spiritual and the physical realms. We justify ourselves of our so called victimless crimes asking “What difference does it make? “ But we forget that all things are upheld by the Word of His power… and when we defy that Word, then it ceases to protect us. God can only dwell where He is invited.

                This world is still enemy territory. We still live behind enemy lines… and while God may come and break bread and serve wine and cut a covenant with every soul that invites Him in, He cannot break His own rules of righteousness. He comes by invitation, not by force. He inspires us with love. He doesn’t dictate by force. Satan is the dictator… God is the passionate lover of our souls… the Creator that calls us back to Him by choice and not by coercion.

                If we want shelter from the storm, then we must learn how to abide in the secret place of the Most High. If we don’t want to be enslaved to the demands of the flesh, then we must by all means learn to live by the Spirit.

                In the chaos of this world, we have a connection with Almighty God that is not dependent upon phone lines, or gas, or electricity, or even a roof over our heads. Our connection is through the Holy Spirit who Jesus sent to provide a direct link between us and Him. Our means of rescue involves learning how to walk in that Spirit rather than wading through the rubble of our ruined lives. Jesus has literally given us a way to walk on water so to speak. It involves learning to walk in a dimension that is not of this world and therefore not of this chaos.

                To the extent that we fail to walk in the Spirit, we remain amidst the rubble. We remain a part of the problem and so we cannot rescue others because we are trapped ourselves.

                Jesus came into our chaotic and hopeless world and He said: IF any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38

                This water comes from a different dimension. It is heavenly water. It is living water. It is Spiritual water. It doesn’t depend upon broken water lines and electricity. It is other worldly water that He has given to those who hunger and thirst for Him. We receive this water and then it produces an everlasting spring of the same water inside of us so that we can turn around and give this water to others.

                We too are on a rescue mission. We too are searching through the rubble for the lost and dying. For many of them time is short. They don’t have much life left. They need to receive our living water or they will die.

                Everything concerning our salvation in the Bible is presented, not as a onetime thing, but as a continual thing. We must be continually drinking… continually giving… continually growing in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We continually feed upon His Word. We are continually growing in our faith. We are continually being transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are continually being conformed to the image of Christ from glory to glory.

                Evangelism in the past was good for its time, but we need to move beyond some of the concepts that it created. Salvation is not a one- time trip to the altar to pray the sinner’s prayer. That is, of course, a good place to start, but salvation is based upon a continual and ever growing relationship with Jesus as we become more and more like Him, having put away the lusts and sins of this world. We are to grow in grace. We are to grow in knowledge. We are to become disciples of Jesus… to take up His cross and to follow in His footsteps.

                Jesus said in John 7:17, “If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.”

                Nowhere in the Bible do I see the concept of being once saved always saved. It is not that one trip to the altar back in 1971 that saved you. It is what you have done since then in terms of intimacy of relationship. Are you increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man? (Luke 2:52)

                Jesus said in John 15:4-7: “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you.”

                As we see the issues and problems of this world escalating into the final throes of a dying world, we must absolutely seek and pursue this kind of abiding in Christ. He must become our very life.

                Jesus…Please help us to abide in you. Teach us how to abide in You in such a way that we cannot be shaken out of You. I pray that Your rivers of living water will flow from our innermost being so that we can supply this water to those around us who are thirsty and dry. In Jesus’ Name.