A SEPTEMBER TO REMEMBER

A SEPTEMBER TO REMEMBER

                Our church is a small church. We usually have 125 to 150 people attending on a good day and while there are people in all stages of spiritual growth, there is nevertheless an inordinate number of prayer warriors and deep students of the Bible that can, when given the chance knock your sox off with their insights and their powerful prayers. There is a depth and fervor to what they believe and what they practice and preach.

                The same goes for our pastor and his wife Alice. Over and over again I see in them a great humility and a great love for the people, not only in the church but in the community so that they are almost like parents to the whole town of Clinton. The poor and the lame come for prayers and hugs and a listening ear.

                When Bonnie and I first arrived in Tennessee a little over a year ago, we began praying that God would lead us to a church where we could not only be blessed, but we could bless others. We visited a youth oriented church with its ear splitting music and it’s “too cool for heaven” talk and didn’t find the substance we were looking for. We visited a couple of Messianic congregations, but something was missing in them that we had experienced back home.

                We were running out of ideas, but every time we went by it, I kept being attracted to the church on the hill. It was a Pentecostal Church of God and we had attended one before and we knew that they are Bible believing, Spirit filled, born again people who believe in holy living and a firm scriptural foundation so one Saturday morning; we drove up the hill to see if they had their church hours posted on the door.

                We didn’t expect that there would be worship going on in the sanctuary since it was Saturday, but to our surprise there was a worship service going on.  I later came to realize that this was what they call a “Bridge Meeting.” Young people from the church pack up soup and sandwiches for about a 150 homeless people that live under the bridge and along the river and they share lunch with them and talk to them and love on them. Then they come back to the church afterwards to pray for them and to worship the Lord.

IT WAS HIS EYES

                As I went up to the door to look for the church’s hours of service, the door flung open and one of the elders (Jamie) shook my hand, invited me in (I had actually hoped not to be noticed) and then he asked me to wait a minute as he went all the way down to the front of the church and got the pastor. Well, I am a bit shy and stood nervously waiting for what would come next… you know… that sort of churchy plastic welcome as they spill out their  promotions, but I was taken back a bit as Pastor Akers came through the door.

                In his eyes I saw such genuine humility and genuine love. There was no hidden agenda here… no salesman’s pitch. All I could see in his eyes was the genuine love of Jesus Christ… someone who loved people and loved the Lord in ways that seem rare in this day and age. So after our brief encounter I knew all I needed to know. The presence of God was in this place and I went back out to the car and told Bonnie… this is where we belong. The Lord has led us here.

                And sure enough, within a couple of weeks I was invited to fill a spot on the worship team and Bonnie, was invited to serve in the kitchen (which is her love) and both those appointments the church had been praying about, so that rather than starting over again from square one we have become an almost immediate part of this family and we love the people dearly and we love how they minister food and clothing to the poor in the community as well as being the kind of genuine Christians that God is certainly looking for in a remnant people.

                Every time I hear the Pastor preach I learn something of substance to take home. He is an expository preacher who simply preaches through the Bible, bringing home the lessons therein. And he knows a good deal about prophecy as well and we have good discussions on a variety of subjects.

                So why did I call this article “A September to Remember?” It is because our Sunday School teacher, Judy… a prayer warrior and deep Bible student, shared with me that several of the woman in the community aglow meeting ( A gathering of like prayer warriors who pray over the community)  feel like something significant is going to happen in September… something major… something life changing.

                Well, none of us knows the future beyond what the Bible tells us, but we certainly can see prophetic events taking shape in our world and in our prayer life, we can sense a kind of urgency. The Holy Spirit can speak into our hearts… giving warnings… insights.

                So as I listened to an interview between Paul Begley and Steven Denun who had just finished a prophecy conference in Cincinnati, I realized that the women’s premonitions may be right. Israel is about to take out Hezbollah with the help of the United States and Saudi Arabia and if Iran steps into the fray or feels threatened then Russia may step in and if so, there could actually be a limited nuclear exchange, perhaps even in the United States. (So say the informants)

                Apparently there are 9 oil tankers on fire in the Persian gulf and Iran is trying to block the flow of oil through the straits of Hormuz and the entire Middle East is like a powder keg… not to mention that the globalists want a world war to reduce the population and to produce the chaos that will lead to their global control. (Via the antichrist.)

                Both Steven and Paul have insiders in the military and in the alphabet agencies that feed them information. (Steven being an ex- CIA man himself) and they say that this current build up is not a drill, but the real thing.

                But to add to that NASA has finally admitted the existence of planet X, by whatever name it may be called. Astronomers are in Hawaii at the new telescope there scanning the skies around the clock looking for this mysterious planet. It seems to be visible only in the infra-red spectrum since this rogue planet doesn’t give off its own light. It is now believed that this planet as passed by the earth at various significant events in earth history such as the Exodus from Egypt and Noah’s Flood, for there are ancient cultures around the world including China that bear record of these earth changing events.

                Isaiah 24 warns of a coming pole shift that will cause the seas to rise and the earth to wobble like a drunkard and it will kill off about 1/3 of earth’s population and in fact the effects from planet X are being felt by our earth today in terms of radical weather, increased earthquakes and volcanoes and in the destabilized electromagnetic fields around our planet and the sun.

                In short we are plunging into the prophetic events of Bible prophecy that will be manifested in the political arena and in nature.

                And to add to the dying of our oceans and the many mass animal deaths and crop failures that we have been reported, there are now millions of pigs dying in Vietnam… a place that produces more pigs than the United States. They are dying of some sort of African virus and so when we look at the weather that is causing thousands of farmers to go broke, and snow and temperatures and floods and such around the world preventing the crops that feed the world, one doesn’t have to look too deeply into the looking glass to see that famine and war and earth shaking, sky shaking events are on the near horizon.

                The end time events of the Bible are engaging even as we speak and from here on out, all of them are going to increase in intensity and frequency. So if you are complacent about Bible prophecy, that complacency may soon change and many may be going to their pastors and asking urgent questions and most of them won’t know any more than they do. So you will want to flee from the happy-go-lucky churches that teach you nothing beyond biblical sound bites and cool phrases and you will be in a desperate search for anyone that knows something and in many cases you won’t find it.

                I believe that the religious scene is about to change and to polarize in biblically described ways. Many will seek security and acceptance with the coming global order, while some churches will enter more deeply into a study of the Word as they escape the clutches of Babylon, its false churches and its false security and its corrupted governments. In other words, persecution is coming and a scenario is beginning to be played out that will make the antichrist the ruling authority. He will promise peace through global unity and people, in the pressure cooker of end time events will no longer have any tolerance for genuine Bible based, fundamental Christianity.

                Somehow, as is usually the case in extreme situations, Christians and Jews are blamed and become the scapegoats for earth’s problems. We always become the focus of earth’s hatred because we refuse to become a part of Babylon. We hear God’s call to come out of it. His sheep hear His voice and that makes us automatic enemies of the world system.

                Now is a good time to shore up our faith and our faithfulness and to make sure that we are living by the Spirit and Truth so that whatever comes our way, we will make the right choices and stand on the right side of the issues… for we are God’s remnant people. We are found in every denomination at this point… even in bad churches and in bad political systems.

                Some try to give the remnant people a name such as a denominational name or a political party name… but in the end we will most likely be called out of all of it… and it will be known that on Christ the solid Rock I stand… all other ground is sinking sand. Everyone has his own interpretation of the Word, but Jesus said to watch and to pray and He also told us that when these things come to pass, then we will recognize them.

                Jesus said that the generation that sees the fig tree (Israel) blossom will be the same generation that sees His return. We are that generation that will witness the Lord’s return and while we would be most glad to be yanked out of here before any trouble hits the fan, we must also be willing and ready to die for our faith if it comes to that. In fact many Christians around the world are doing just that even as we speak. God’s Word is absolutely true and everything will happen just as the Bible says… but that doesn’t mean that it will happen the way we presently believe it will happen or the way our traditions say it will happen.

                Let us therefore be faithful to God and to His Word and let us learn how to live by His Spirit and Truth, so that when He comes we will be found among the wise virgins that have oil in our lamps and that we have made ourselves ready as a Bride adorned for her Husband… in garments made white by the precious blood of the Lamb.