And whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be delivered and saved, for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the remnant (of survivors) shall be those whom the Lord calls. Joel 2:32
The church has preached the message of eternal hope, the message of calling on the name of Jesus, receiving forgiveness of sin, and inheriting an eternal life with Jesus when we die. Those of us who have called on the Name of Jesus, acknowledged our sins, believed on Jesus and confessed our sins, have confidence that when we die, we will get to spend eternity in Heaven with God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We do not seem to have a problem trusting God with our eternal destination. The problem many Christians have is trusting God with the life they are living here on earth. Even though we trust God to take us to heaven when we die, we seem to struggle with the concept that God is willing and able to deliver us from the struggles and problems we face here on earth. Religion has done a good job of misrepresenting God. (Remember religion is what put Jesus on the cross.) Religion tries to make rules and regulations that “save” a person and too often they are contradictory to the word of God. I had a friend who would tell her children that if they would not confess to doing something wrong, she would threaten to go in the bedroom and ask God to reveal their sins. I wonder how her children view God. All too often religions have tried to “help” people live a holy life with rules and restrictions. A holy life should come from a loving relationship with God that creates a desire in us to live a life that is not offensive to God. I heard a Bible study teacher a few months ago tell a woman that God broke her leg to teach her a lesson. Religion has tried to make God out to be a stingy God, who wants to see His Children struggle financially, barely making ends meet because after all, “Money is the root of all evil.” The verse says “The love of money is the root of all evil. Religion misquotes scriptures to “control” people and to try and explain why God did not do something they wanted done when they thought it should be done. The church has misunderstood the Father’s heart of what the end times will look like. I believe the church will be raptured like the bible teaches, but for those of us who were in church in the late 1970’s and the early 1980’s and we watched the movies like “Left Behind,” believe that the church is barely going to make it out of the problems our world is facing. The rapture has been taught as a last-ditch escape. Ephesians 5:25-27 Paul taught “ Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water of the word, that He might present her to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she shall be holy and without blemish.” We are supposed to be glorious, not a church that makes it into heaven by the skin of our teeth (your teeth do not have skin). We forget that God does not want anyone to spend eternity away from Him. 2 Peter 3:9 “God is not slack concerning His promises, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all shall come to repentance.” In the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:39-42 “The enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, as the tares are gathered, and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them in the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of your Father.” I believe the reapers have started to remove all of those who offend and practice lawlessness. He has allowed those who worship the devil, and rule around the world with wickedness a chance to repent. Jonah was sent to Nineveh to preach repentance right before God destroyed their city, but they repented, avoided judgement, and are still one of the strongest churches in the world. I believe that is why we have seen a delay in our prayers for deliverance. But instead of repenting, the nefarious world leaders have rebelled and have tried to cause as much havoc and damage they can to keep righteousness from prevailing. (That has always been the devil’s downfall, believing he could be like God. The bible says there is none like our God!) Several times in scripture, God judged the wicked before He delivered His people. When God sent Moses to deliver the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt, Pharaoh refused to repent, but hardened his heart. God sent ten plagues as judgement for the things Pharaoh did to His people. Goshen, the land where the Israelites lived was not affected by the last six plagues. The destruction and turmoil going on around us is a combination of the reapers removing the tares and the “tares” fighting to keep the control they have. In San Paulo, Brazil, a carnival parade much like Marti Gras just happened. Massive floats with movable images of Baal and Moloch were paraded down the streets while many people partied and danced in the false god’s honor. They went so far as ridicule Jesus, kicking and beating “Jesus” in defeat all down the street. A few days after the parade, there was a torrential rainfall and a great mudslide happened in that area killing many people. God is pouring out His judgement on those who are lawless and practice iniquity. Their cup of iniquity is overflowing. The bank collapse we saw this week is the beginning of God righting our money system. Congress took the USA off the gold standard in 1971. When the government took us off the gold standard, they took the blessing of God off our money system. Haggai 2:8 “”The silver and the gold is mine,” says the Lord of hosts.” This is when our nation began to see inflation rise dramatically and the national debt become insurmountable. The Fed and other government agencies and officials have made a fortune off taxing the American people. There came a point when God determined the unlawful systems have gone too far and He will step in. Some of the storms we are seeing is the judgement of God and some of it is manmade. Manmade snow is able to cause destruction, it has different properties. The snow will not melt when a flame is put under it, but instead will burn. If we are not intentional and keep our eyes on Jesus, we will become overwhelmed with what we see going on around us. Peter was able to walk on water as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. The bible says that when he saw “the wind was boisterous; he was afraid and began to sink.” Matthew 14:30. Do not be dismayed with all that is going on around us. God is still in control. Isaiah 59:1 “ Behold the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor is His ear heavy that it cannot hear.” God honors His word, Isaiah 55:11 “ So shall my word be that goes forth from My mouth, it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing which I send it.” Deuteronomy 32:43 “ Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people.” What are your eyes fixed on? Are you watching the storm and allowing it to pull you down? Who are you trusting to bring you deliverance from all the turmoil going on around us? Are you expecting our government to “fix” things? Joel 2:32 tells us “Whoever shall call on the name of the LORD, shall be delivered and saved.” This deliverance is the only way of escape, a way to slip through perilous times. We must get our eyes back on Jesus and call on Him to save and deliver us. Paul told us in 2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we walk by faith and not by sight. Sometimes the things we see are just an illusion or an elaborate charade. We must look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith and not man. Psalm 20:7 “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.” Moses wrote Psalm 91 after living a life in the faithfulness of God. He said, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust. Surely, He will deliver you.” The children of Israel were instructed to take the blood of a spotless lamb and apply it to the doorpost of their home the night the death angel came to judge Egypt and the death angel passed them by. We can apply the blood of Jesus to our homes and families as well, Revelations 12:11 “And they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” Jesus taught in Luke 21:26 “Watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” The Israelites were healed from the snake bites in the desert when they looked upon the snake on the tree. We will not only escape, we will come out victorious as long as we focus on Jesus and not the things going on around us. The remnant, those who have held on to God through it all are about to shine, Matthew 13:42 “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness and will cast them in the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of your Father.” We are also about reap a transfer of wealth from the wicked to the righteous. The children of Israel did not leave Egypt empty handed but walked out of Egypt with their treasures. The end time harvest has already started and it will bring in a great number of unsaved people. Just like when the Israelites left Egypt, “A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks, and herds-a great deal of livestock(wealth).” Do not allow the judgement of the wicked to create fear or anxiety, but get ready for the great things God is about to do. We will be delivered from the destruction and judgement. God will bless those who have been faithful and believing Him for a financial miracle. The best thing though, we are going to see family, friends, and the people in our community come to know Jesus as their personal Savior. God will deliver us.
Cathy Nesmith