Many of us thought we would be gone by now. We’re not, obviously…..

It was simply great to believe we would escape dark things that we knew would one day come upon the world. We knew the predictions, we just didn’t think we would still be here when those events began to take place.

How did we become so complacent, so caught up in living and obtaining to the point of forgetting what we once knew and embraced, the very words of Jesus himself, that told us what to watch for. All the parables, the signs of which his disciples asked about.

Nobody likes doom-say stuff unless it’s in fictional books or movies. Fairy-tales we accept, because they are only that, tales and nothing more.

There was once a stark interest in prophecy and Old Testament predictions among us. Even in rural areas, men traveled and taught their understanding using giant charts to illustrate their point, some reaching from floor to ceiling.

With the arrival of new age thinking, free love quotes and ‘do your own thing’ rants, our society as a whole wanted no more of this Bible stuff.

So many had been turned off by all of this dangling over the pit doctrine and constantly being threatened with hell fire for the least infraction. Some of us have almost made a complete 180 degree turn from what we were once taught or believed.

Time marched on and events drew nearer nonetheless. We actually became a part of the end-time prophecy, the very thing we hoped to avoid.

The dreaded “mark” we all knew of, is no longer a vision of the far future. We can now see that it actually began several years ago.

Many of us have become desensitized from watching and reading too much violence; our own shock and awe doesn’t last long. We are in denial about much. Some will sigh that again all of this doomsday talk has resurfaced and turn it off.

To the gist. We should have never silenced most of our prophets. Their job is to be watchmen, to warn the body, to tell the assembly of approaching pitfalls, of dangers, snares that come from within the body as well as without.

They also bring good news and uplifting words . We decided we liked the nice compliments and fore-seeing but rejected correction.

If allowed to do their job, they would have warned us that we were becoming complacent and worldly minded, that our love for one another had gotten off-track.

They would have admonished us that our desire and desperate claims to be Apostolic had perhaps caused us to forget the simple teachings of Jesus Christ, the gospel that came first and the predictions of the greatest prophet of all, the one who sees and knows the beginning and the end.

Even He did not know the exact day, He said that only His Father knew that. But, He did know everything about it we would likely ever need to know.

You will disavow the messenger. In the past, I did the same. I would never give credence to a broken down, reprobate of a has-been who would dare to proclaim anything whatsoever about God, even if what they said were true.

We don’t know God, we just think we do. Again, the prophet would have reminded us to hear the message, not to shuck it off because it didn’t fit our morays.

We would have been reminded that God uses whomever He pleases, and he/ she would have quoted scripture that listed the way He works and whom He would use to confound those who thought themselves wise, upbraiding us if necessary, to remember that God does not think like we do and His ways are past finding out. (It should kinda limit our egos, don’t you think?)

I’m scared. I am real about it. If our Church body was strong and vibrant in the Spirit as we claimed it to be, I might rest easy. The very idea that persecution and trouble will be the things that cause us to reclaim and use the deeper things of God causes me great fear.

I know this. Jesus himself said that when we see these things beginning, we were not to be afraid. I don’t trust Him enough, that’s apparent.

There’s no need to quote all the verses about not fearing, we know them all. We are to be shaken. I only thought I had been shaken til now.

Many are cold, and they don’t care; another sign — but we were certain He was talking about the world, not any of us.

It comes so I must say it. We never believed that we would be some of those that had a form of godliness but would deny the power thereof, even though that was written to the church, not the world.

I don’t know if we are ready for what’s coming, what is already transpiring before our faces. There are things we cannot write here.

We are being watched, patrolled and all our data saved into vast systems that can recall every aspect of our lives; we are in denial about that also but it doesn’t change it.

For those of your who do not know, traveling has become a virtual nightmare, especially across oceans. What we view as ‘safety measures’ are often channels of control meant for that purpose.

If I add what I’m thinking, we have children who know absolutely nothing about fighting spiritual warfare, not a clue. They have not seen the Gifts demonstrated in total, or viewed the true Offices of the Church in action.

We will learn to pull together again — we will have no choice. I will quote one verse: “Perfect love casteth out all fear.” I think part of the answer for me is this: I must begin loving Him more than I ever have before.

I must develop and maintain a relationship with Him like I have never known as yet. So many hate this expression, but it must be made over and again until we hear it.

It’s not about my doctrine, it’s about how much I love Him!

We simply will not be apostolic until we become a true follower of Jesus Christ, loving the way He loved and forgiving the way He forgave.

Would I die for you? Do I love you enough that I would go to all ends to help you and encourage you, no matter who you are or what you have done in your life?

We need to stop riding this clause about being so separate from other people. Peculiar people love others even when no one else does. We need to get over ourselves.

Jesus was ‘in’ this world, but was not a part of it. We are to do the same.

We are not known for our love. We just aren’t. Many of us do not even act like Christ. He wouldn’t treat people the way we do. He wasn’t a separatist.

Pulling together, lifting one another up, preferring one another, saying words to encourage, admitting and laying aside our jealousy and envy, our strife and contentions, going the extra mile, confessing, repenting and atoning and learning how to love those who hate us and those we hate, THAT is what will get us through the days ahead.

Faith and hope will end and prophecies will cease and even fail. But LOVE will not, never.

When I am willing to lay down my life for my friends, then I will know love as He did. We are foolish to think we can survive these sorrows if we do not embrace this.

They are here, just as He said. And I know I have a better chance of making it if I know I am not alone, somebody cares, I mean something to someone.

I don’t want what’s coming. People are bad enough already, what happens when it gets worse, and it will?

We are not ready. We must fall at His feet as never before. We need to be like Him, not just say we are.

I can’t help you. Without the Spirit there is nothing I can do to make your way easier, I’m too busy trying to survive myself.

With His Spirit and absolutely everything He has for us, we can come through this stronger and more powerful than ever before.

I have to believe that. He survived everything and I can too, only if I am like Him. Amen/.

 

~ Robert Blackburn

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Robert Blackburn

 

 

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