You shall be called… the restorer of paths to live in. – Isaiah 58:12
Imagine being a Christian during the Roman persecutions. It must have been horrifying to wait your turn to be ripped apart by wild beasts. I wonder if some of the Christian prisoners were forced to feed and care for the very lions that would eventually kill them. I also wonder if we are doing something similar today.
With rogue nation states and terrorist groups wreaking havoc across the globe, the attentions of the American media is intently focused on the critical issue of which candidate’s wife would make the worst First Lady.
Even as death tolls rise with an estimated thirty killed in Brussels and another 70 killed by Taliban terrorists in Pakistan during their Easter attack aimed at Christians, the media and their sponsors are obsessed with stimulating the most vulgar of man’s instincts while promulgating rumors and innuendo. Continue reading “Sex Games”
As I read through various news articles related to the current anti-prayer culture war, my mind raced to memories of words I learned from the Biblical book of Revelation many years ago. The Apostle John relayed his vision of the future as given to him by God. He told of a day when the world would be in turmoil and people would stubbornly resist the call of God.
The refusal to repent is nothing new. We see it with Cain who failed to master his sinful thoughts before following through and murdering his brother Abel. The builders of the tower of Babel thought they could reach God without His help, and were scattered because of it. Noah preached the whole time he was building the ark. God didn’t want to bring the flood, but people continued in their anarchy and destruction. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah resisted the visitation of Angels and sought to harm them instead of receiving the grace that was available.
We are now fully engaged in 2016. As I have prayed and contemplated all that is happening in the earth, I believe that God would have us be prepared for a year of contrasts and apparent contradictions.
Up front, and for the record, I am NOT offering a “Thus saith the Lord”. That kind of thing got people killed in the Old Testament and I would prefer to avoid a rock concert given in my honor.
At the same time, however, God has been faithful over the years to reveal many things to me – and others I have known – ahead of time. Have I ever missed it? Yes I have. Have I learned and grown from my mistakes? I hope so. The Apostle Paul illustrated our current understanding of God’s truth by the word picture of a dark mirror:
Back in January I attended a prayer conference with leaders from multiple denominations. It was a powerful life-changing event. Unlike so many prayer meetings where most of the time is spent in teaching or even idle chit-chat we did something amazing – we prayed! We prayed individually, we prayed in small groups and we prayed together corporately.
We spent time in prayer asking forgiveness for our short-comings, we spent time praying for each other and we spent time asking God to prepare us for the days ahead. It was during this conference that I had the tremendous opportunity to see an early screening of the movie War Room and learned that it would be released in the fall.
As Greece dances in the streets, the world teeters on the brink of financial and political collapse. Irresponsible and narcissistic impulses have seemingly seized control of the nations financial system and correspondingly our world economy.
I watched in horrified amazement this week as the people of Greece celebrated their recent electoral decision to stick their collective tongues out at their creditors. In some ways they are like little Oliver Twist holding out their beggar hands saying, “Please sir, may I have some more.” The biggest difference is that the people of Greece are not saying “please.”