The Only Safe Place In Times of Crisis

The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, who stops up his ears from hearing bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil: He will dwell on high; His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; Bread will be given him, His water will be sure. (Isaiah 33:14-16)

This verse is written in the context of of God's judgements in Zion. The first part of this verse is the questions that the sinners are asking in the midst of the city experiencing the judgements of God. They are asking, "Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire?" The fury of God was being poured out on their city and they ask these questions. They ask, "Who can stand in the midst of God's judgements?" Verse 15 gives us the response. "Those who walk righteously and speaks uprightly". The kind of person that will be sustained by God in the midst of God's judgement is the one who "walks righteously". The one who lives in the fear of the Lord and lives as if before His eyes always. The one who not only talks the talk and speaks uprightly but the one who also walks out the very righteousness.

It is the wisdom of God in the hour of history for us to give ourselves to understanding God's standard of what it means to walk uprightly. For this is the only safe place when God's judgements are in the land. It is the upright and the righteous who will be given bread and who's water will be sure in times of drought and famine. It isn't the one who stockpiles enough food and ammunition or the one who lives in the wilderness far away from the major cities or any of the other advice that is being talked about under the surface of all the news headlines today. But it is right standing with God. It is knowing Him and being known by Him. It is walking in the fear of the Lord. Not that it isn't wise to practically prepare for times of crisis, but if we are not walking uprightly with God and if we do not know Him and then all of our planning and preparation will come to nothing in the day of God's judgement. In the day of judgement, He isn't casting judgement on lack of preparedness but on the lack of justice. He is casting judgement on oppression and unrighteousness.

We are all aware of the undercurrent of understanding in our day that a major catastrophe is on the horizon. With the earthquakes that have been happening in the last few years and the social unrest that has been increasing in frequency there can be little doubt that we are living in the time in which God is beginning to shake the earth. I personally believe that we are living in the beginning of sorrows spoke of by Jesus in Matthew 24. We are living in the days of "wars and rumors of wars. We are seeing nations rising against nation. We are seeing "famines pestilences, and earthquakes in various places."

I can hear the voice of the scoffers saying "Where is the promise of His coming", and "wars have been happening since the beginning of civilization along with earthquakes", every generation thought that they were the last generation" etc. What I have to say in response to these voices is this: Jesus clearly told us to keep watch for these things. If we call Him Lord, then we would be wise to accept His saying as true and instead of trying make His words fit the frame work and categories of our own fallen, limited, un-renewed minds, we should come to God with true humility and great poverty of spirit asking Him to help us understand. If there is a disconnect in our own minds and hearts, we should not be so quick to criticize God, His Word and the scriptures and embrace the commentaries and opinions of broken minded men and their logic and reasoning. The only way to get real clarity on the truth about the hour in which we live and the end of the age is through actually knowing God and asking the One that not only wrote the bible but wrote all history before it was played out in time. To trade a pray life with God based around the scriptures for commentaries and opinions of fallen broken men is stupid. In doing this we position ourselves in the same way the majority of the religious leaders did in the days when Jesus walked the earth. They read all the rabbi's commentaries on the scriptures but did not have a track record with God in the very words they used to accused God Himself. They traded a track record with communing with the God of the scriptures for the commentaries of mere fallen men. This lead them to being blind to the very fulfillment of the biblical prophecies they were longing for.

We are living in the beginning of sorrows and we are on the verge of seeing a global government and economic system rise up that will attempt to crush Christianity at every level from every angle humanly possible. Are we at a place where we will be able to stand in that day like Job stood in his day under the testing of God and the very God ordained torment of satan? Will we "curse God and die"? Or will we be able to stand with Job and have it said over us by the host of heaven that " In all this we never sinned or accused God of wrong." Will we take part in that great falling away that has been prophesied or will we stand with God in the greatest hour of trial the world has ever seen before? Our track record with God and our history in Knowing HIM and loving Him in the secret place of our hearts is the only place that we can find refuge. No prison can hold one that has His refuge in God, no gun call kill a man who's life is in God Almighty.

There is a very real day coming where every one, both living and dead will give an account for what he chose to do with his life here on the earth. We will be judged according to what we have done. There will be many teachers, pastors, leaders and even those who call themselves Christians in this age that will find themselves burning in the lake of fire at the end of the age. What you do on Sundays has little to do with how you will be judged on that day. the verdict over our lives on that day will have consequence for ETERNITY. Your vocation does not exempt you from the judgement. What you call yourself does not exempt you from this judgement but it's the truth of who you really are and whether or not you ACTUALLY KNOW HIM AND OBEY HIS WORDS that will be the determining factor.

What I am hoping to accomplish in writing this is to invoke in all the readers a very real sense of the fear of The Lord. This is the very beginning of wisdom. There is no wisdom that does not start here.

There is a day of tremendous crisis coming to this nation (USA) and the planet. Your food stockpile will mean nothing in light of the heat of God's fury. It will be turned to vapor in a second if that fury is pointed at you. In this context, God is looking for friends that will actually take the time and effort to not only acknowledge Him but to know Him. This knowledge of God and the subsequent life that is lived in light of knowing Him is the only safe place in the days to come. At all costs, know Him and obey His commandments.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.

Job: Post 2

Job was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. (1:1)

Job lived before God's eyes. One of the first ways in which Job is described is as one who lives in God's sight. He feared God. He was aware of the fact that God's eyes were on him and it translated into the way in which he ordered his life. He lived blameless and upright. The NCV says that Job was an honest and innocent man. He honored God and stayed away from evil. His walk with God translated into the the way he made every day decisions. He knew that God saw his ways and counted every step he took (31:4). He shunned evil. He distanced himself from that which is evil. He walked and live out what James describes as pure and undefiled religion before God. He ministered to orphans and widows and kept himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27. Job 1:1, Job 29:1-25, 31:18)

Job had a large family and great wealth. (1:1-5)

Job cultivated a life of ministry to Lord early in morning. He would offer sacrifices to The Lord early in the morning after the feast days after his belly was full and satisfied. (1:5) Job did this regularly. (1:5)

Job was able to stand in the midst of a flood of tribulation because he cultivated a lifestyle that was identified by his pursuit of God. He walked in the fear of the Lord and in the day of trial, He was sustained and was found to be unmoved in His resolve to live before God's eyes. His hope was in God therefore no outside circumstances could shake him. He cultivated a lifestyle that made his reflex to trials be one of worship and surrender opposed to offense and apostasy. He got to the point where the enemies warfare could not move him. I want to get to that place. To the place where I'm beyond the temptations of this world and the temptations of the enemy. I want to be truly unshakable from an eternal perspective.

God give us grace to walk with you. Give us grace to walk in the fear of the Lord in Jesus' name!

M@

Job: Post 1

Job was a man of God. He was righteous and he lived a life that honored God and God's blessing was on all that concerned him. He was prosperous. What really strikes me about Job is his response to loosing everything within not just one day but within a matter of minutes. Within a really short amount of time he was given news that all of his kids died, all his wealth was gone along with all of his live stock and everything this man owned was taken from him. His response was to worship and to say: "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord." This mans trust was in The Lord and his response to tremendous crisis clearly shows this. He lost everything in one day and "In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong." I want to tap into what Job tapped into. This man was unshakable. There was nothing that could be done to this man outwardly that would cause him to sin or curse God. This testimony follows Job throughout this book. I want what Job had.

I've been told not to study the book of Job because if I did, God would test me. This has been my view of the book of Job until I actually started reading it and studying it. Testing will always come to our lives, the question is not whether or not testing will come but how we are going to respond to crisis when it comes. Do we have the foundation in God to understand His sovereignty and love for them when the trials come?

I feel that one of the wisest things that we can do is to look into the lifestyle of Job that produced in him that confidence he had in God's character.

I want to post my findings on this blog on the following days as God gives grace and I stay on track with it. I feel it will be beneficial for those that Love Jesus to understand the things that I will find in looking into the life of Job.

Job was blameless and upright, he feared God and shunned evil. (Job 1:1)

Only One Thing is Needed part 1

I went back and started to read some of my old notes from studies I have done over the last few years in the house of prayer and I felt that I was to post them on this blog to get them out of my journal and somewhere where they could potentially bless some people that may need to read what The Lord gave me. I figure it doesn't do you any good sitting in my journal. And I would likE to get some feedback on it as well.

A Branch in the Vine

"I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing."
John 15:5

We are called to be vitally connected to Jesus as a branch is connected to The Vine. We can bare no lasting fruit aside from being connected to Christ. There is no other priority that is set higher than this in the life of The Christian. To neglect this for any reason is to entirely neglect The Lordship of Christ in our lives.

We are called to first be intimately connected to Jesus. This is how we obtain the position of abiding in Jesus and it is at this point and this point alone that our labors are not in vain for it is Christ in us doing the work. This is how The Lord builds the house. All work done disconnected from Christ at the heart level is all for nothing. If the work isn't done from the place of relationship with Christ it is in vain.

We connect to Christ, The Vine, The Bridegroom, by spending hours of private communion with Him. We connect to The Vine by cultivating an active living fellowship with Him. There is a reason the first commandment, as spoken by Jesus, is set in the first place.

Matthew 22:37-38
Jesus said to Him, "You shall Love The Lord Your God with all your heart, with all you soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment."

If we miss this one, all else is for nothing. Our labor is in vain if we don't first seek to Love God with everything in us. This takes place when we spend actual hours with Him in prayer and devotion. When we make the choice to sit at Jesus' feet, we are choosing the one thing that will never be taken from us.

See Luke 10:38-42

More to come later!

Blessings
M@