After the landfall of the storm Sandy and after getting up
so early in a dark morning , I am led to several musings. I think these are worthwhile to pass on, and
I do so for your prayerful consideration.
·
One of the early comments I heard made the point
that again in this disaster we see the firefighters, the police, the nurses,
the emergency medical workers and others
of that ilk who never shrink from their duties, who do think of others first,
who put their lives on the line immediately in disasters and emergencies. Others who fit in that group are most of our
military, especially those young soldiers who go to Afghanistan and Iraq and
such places over and over. I just add
that those people and their actions and devotion remind us of what was and in
part still is America and what we need to be in whole, in entirety. If you ever have the opportunity to sit with and
look in the eyes of most of the young servicemen and women before or after they
travel to the Middle East and you are not moved, you need to reassess who you
are and your priorities in life.
·
Some are writing about Sandy as being a form of
God’s judgment in these last days and also as being a warning to the United
States for its behavior in recent years that is so much in opposition to God’s
word and plans. I do not know this
absolutely, but one thing I do know: the
Lord did say that as we approach his return there would be fearful events and nations
would be frightened by the roaring and tossing of the sea. Certainly Sandy qualifies on both those
points. One thing I have observed – in all
the news reporting on the storm and all the interviews, I’ve not yet heard
anyone mention even remotely this was a warning from God. So if it is, most people other than those who
already are serious believers in Jesus evidently didn’t get the message.
·
It still remains true that something is holding back
so many Americans who attend the churches but don’t really know God and the
full gospel as well as those who just are outside the churches and have no
knowledge of God. Some veil, some
confused false doctrine, something is keeping them back from a true saving and
empowering knowledge of the Lord and the gospel. All the evangelism efforts and ministry
programs and television programs of all those well-meaning people who believe
themselves called by God for such purposes still have not broken through to
this large body of people. Some
individuals of course come to know God and accept the Lord. Some individuals do receive miraculous divine
healings and other miracles. But the bulk
is still in the dark, and it is becoming ever clearer that it is going to take
a move of God, some divine action, to remove those veils and wake up the bulk
of this large and spiritually sleeping body of people. Well, Jesus himself did say that no one can
come to him unless his father draws that person to Jesus. Now will that indeed happen? I for one am not sure, for the Lord spoke
very clearly that few are they who find the way to life. Using other words in one of his parables he
said many are called but few are chosen.
Now few of course can still be millions upon millions, so I still look
for that move. But when I see the Holy
Spirit minister in power in one of our services, with many dramatically touched
likely for the first time by God, and so many actually seeing God in action, and
then I see no later reaction to that in the community or church (as far as I
can tell), I do wonder. There is clearly
some veil, some blockage interfering with a larger receiving. Despite all that we keep trying, don’t
we. We persist because that is what
Jesus called us to do, and we don’t stop.
And we leave the results all up to him and his father and the overall
guidance and power of the Holy Spirit.
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