GOD IS MY HELP IN TIMES OF TROUBLE

GOD IS MY HELP IN TIMES OF TROUBLE

            Bonnie and I each have this app on our phones called “Quakefeed.” You can set it to go off at various levels of magnitude. If you were to set it at say 2.5 or greater on the Richter scale your phone would be sending out its alarm at a rate of 40 or 50 to a hundred times a day. So the best thing to do is to set it higher so that you receive only the earthquakes that can do damage. Bonnie set hers at 5.0 or greater and I set mine at 6.0 because 6.0 is the level at which earthquakes are considered to be major.

            We got started with this when we lived in Washington State, because there had been warnings given for a possible catastrophic 9.0 or greater along the Cascadia Fault Line off the coast of Northern California, Oregon and Washington that would literally leave nothing standing west of Interstate 5. It was a 9.1 I believe that killed around 25,000 people in Japan in 2011 because of the major tsunami. Since then we find it interesting to follow. After all, a majority of earthquakes are around the ring of fire around the Pacific Ocean.

            As I came to my desk this morning my alarm went off for a 6.8 in New Zealand and in the last couple of days New Zealand has been is rocking and rolling. Bonnie’s Quakefeed app went off probably a dozen times yesterday for quakes in New Zealand in the 5.0 and 6.0 range. So this 6.8 earthquake off the coast of New Zealand this morning has tsunami warnings attached to it. (Keep in mind that Mt. St. Helens was around 5.2 if I remember right.

            You may ask, “Why do you track earthquakes? Doesn’t that just create anxiety? Isn’t there enough trouble in life without tracking natural disasters of various kinds?

            Actually, no, it doesn’t create anxiety or fear… and every time the alarm goes off we hear Jesus describing end time events which included earthquakes in diverse places. Now to be sure, if I was in an earthquake and buried under tons of rubble and waiting for rescue, then I would be more emotionally involved. My heart goes out to those poor people that are frantically digging through massive piles of cement and wood and or mud and debris looking for missing loved ones and children.

            Earthquakes in general have increased by about 400% in recent years and now in the last couple of months it seems like their frequency and intensity have increased a much more.

            There are two ways to look at end time Bible prophecy:

1.      You can say, “I don’t want to hear about it. It scares me.”

2.      Or you can watch with fascination as a thousand little pieces of a very big prophetic puzzle fit together to create a picture the Jesus has painted for us.

            How do soldiers prepare for war? Do they say, “I don’t want to hear about it because it scares me”, or do they go through rigorous training, learning how to use their weapons and how to keep a level head in the chaos of battle?

            Soldiers train. They keep in shape. They develop their fighting skills. They learn the strategies of war. They prepare for various situations and one of the key goals is to keep the guy who is fighting next to them alive. You have his back. You keep him alive because in the next moment of time he may be keeping you alive. Soldiers cover each other and protect each other even as they protect themselves and advance against the enemy.

            Many Christians want to settle down in their comfort zone. They don’t want to hear about the rapid formation of the antichrist kingdom. They don’t want to know that all of our freedoms are being taken away at an alarming rate. They don’t want to hear that animals and fish and birds are dying off, or that millions of pigs, chickens, and fish and such are dying off so as to quickly take us into worldwide famine, or that crops around the world are being decimated by extreme weather of all sorts… or that drug resistant pandemics threaten to wipe out large portions of civilization. They don’t want to know why the elite class of this world are building underground cities and stocking them for a major disaster, or that they are preparing for an upcoming event that they are not telling us about.

            God is about to shake the heavens and the earth. He is soon to unleash the angels that hold back the winds of strife. He is going to release the pent up gods of war so that earth can enter into its final birth pangs.

            The question is: Are we soldiers of Christ, preparing for battle? Are we prepared to protect the person fighting next to us? Are we prepared to rescue the injured and the lost or are we among those that bury their heads in the sand and hide from all sources of fear.

            David was not a passive worshiper. He was in the middle of a constant battle, because he had been anointed to be king. For him his faith in God was more than a passive ritual. He saw beyond the religion of his day to God’s intended and eternal purposes. He said:

            “Sacrifice and meal offerings Thou hast not desired; my ears Thou hast opened; Burnt offering and sin offering Thou has not required. Then I said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of Me; I delight to do Thy will O my God; Thy Law is written in my heart.” Ps. 40:6-8.

            This Psalm was later applied to Jesus… and we know that Jesus did not come all the way from heaven to play a passive role. He came to rescue us and about this Hebrews 10:4-10 says:

            “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He comes into the world He says: “Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, but a body Thou hast prepared for Me; in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, “Behold, I come (In the role of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will O God.” After saying above, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burned offerings for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them (which are according to the Law) then He said, “Behold I have come to do Thy will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

            A soldier that is training for battle has to do so until the external strategies of war have become internal. He begins to have the heart of a soldier so that when the battle comes He acts on instinct. He can’t get his books out on the battlefield and review the strategies of war with bullets flying all around him. He needs the heart of a soldier now. He needs the strategies of war written in his heart.

            Paul talks about this same thing in 2 Cor. 3:2-6 saying: “You are our letter written in our hearts known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God who also made us adequate as servants of the New Covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

            Becoming good soldiers in this battle between good and evil, between Christ and Satan, we need more than the strategies of war on paper or on stone. We need the very power and presence of God in our hearts so that our adequacy will be from Him and not from ourselves. So in a sense we could say that the Old Covenant contained the strategies of war written on parchment and stone, while the New Covenant writes those strategies on our hearts so that when we find ourselves in the midst of the battle, we instinctively do the right thing and while we are at it we protect and save the guy fighting next to us as well.

            David was a warrior king…so when he talks to us about God being his refuge and strength, or about dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, He is not talking about a place of retreat or a place of hiding. He is talking about a place written in his heart in which God is his refuge and strength even in the heat of battle… even in the valley of the shadow of death.

            Let us as Christians not develop an “I don’t want to hear about it” attitude, but rather let us face the battle and learn to fight it in the name of the Lord of Hosts.