A Waning Moon

Friday, November 29, 2013, 6:45 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with the song “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read James 2 (ESV).

Those Who Oppress You

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

The Lord Jesus led me to read several news stories, which I will reference below. The first story rings a familiar bell. Purportedly Thailand is now among the many countries in the world which have, in recent years, experienced uprisings and government takeovers. Supposedly there are two sides to this situation: pro-government and anti-government. Yet, the Lord Jesus continues to show me that what this is really all about is the New World Order (the US + allies) systematically taking over the nations, people and governments of the world, one at a time. So, the existing two sides are really the old order and the new order; the existing governments in nations and the global “Beast” government; freedom and slavery; democracy and communism; freedom of religion and one world religion, yet more specifically permitting the gospel of Christ to be proselytized openly and now opposing the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and persecuting and killing those who hold to the testimony of Jesus. In other words, Thailand’s government is presently being overthrown by the New World Order, and those within the country who hold to the testimony of Jesus Christ are now being opposed and persecuted, if they will not bow to the “Beast.”

I also read a news story about Ukraine. Evidently the president of Ukraine is being pursued (or forced) to sign some type of agreement with the European Union, yet last week he purportedly ditched such plans. The Lord Jesus is showing me here that these are really “move-out” papers. In other words he is being asked to sign over the sovereignty of his nation to the New World Order, which is a giant step toward the time of tribulation in which the one world beast rules the entire earth for a short and predetermined period of time. The path ahead will be hard (difficult). This will mean handing over control of his government and his people for this New World Order to rule as it pleases (oppresses). This will be like Hitler’s Germany during WWII on steroids, only Jesus Christ’s true servants and witnesses are the ones being singled out for extinction this time around, as well as are any political resisters (opposition) to the new rule. Evidently Ukraine’s president is having great difficulty signing, and it sounds as though he is under threat of the N.W.O. if he does not sign. I read an article about execution-style killings (shooting people in the head) in Baghdad, and I could not help but wonder if these were “examples” for intimidation purposes in order to get people to listen to the N.W.O. and to get others to comply.

Lastly, I read a news article about Obama and Obamacare (New World Order Communism). It appears to me that not everyone in Congress (and in local government) is onboard with signing on with the New World Order. Going into other nations and raping, killing innocents, confiscating property, and growing in power and strength due to oppression is one matter, but when it comes to handing over your own nation and your own people to be treated in like-manner, that is something else altogether. Signing the accord would make obvious what they have kept hidden from the American people, so it also appears to me that they have been exercising some delay tactics, some of which may have to do with the failed website. They do use stall tactics sometimes as distractions to hide what they are really doing behind closed doors, but it is inevitable that the truth will come out. We, the people of the United States, will be handed over to the New World Order “Beast” rule just like all the other nations of the world, and those in our nation who hold to the testimony of Jesus will be severely persecuted, too, and many will be killed for our faith. Our government will hand us over, and this will send the US on a path to destruction, hardship and severe trials.

Those Who Are to Be Judged

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Here the Lord Jesus is giving me a picture both of our government leaders here in the US and of our church leaders. God has laid the foundation of the earth, which is himself, and he laid the foundation of the church, which is also himself/Jesus Christ. Humankind, but in particular our government and church leaders, decided to redo that foundation, i.e. they built a flimsy wall in place of the solid foundation. Stemming from that flimsy (shabbily built) wall, they constructed a path off to the side which sidesteps the truth and which does not confront sin, but allows for it. In order to keep people from seeing all their filthy and sinful practices, they do everything they can to avoid dealing with or admitting to the sin by giving vague responses; by covering up their evil deeds by trying to appear righteous; by resisting the true gospel which exposes and deals decisively with sin; and by opposing those who teach the truth of the gospel, lest the truth might expose those sins being covered up.

The Lord Jesus also gave me a picture of these sinful practices, the revelation of which and the confrontation of which are being sidestepped, i.e. avoided and dodged from open and transparent discussion by the government and by the modern-church movement. He gave me a picture of a barren and muddy (lacking vegetation; fruit; outgrowth) area in the shape of a quarter moon, and which was situated between the flimsy wall (See Ezekiel 13:10-11) and the sidestep, and of which the sidestep went around (avoided revelation).

This ¼ moon is a waning moon, i.e. it is half-light and half-darkness and the light is waning, i.e. it is declining, weakening and diminishing. The light represents truth and it represents Jesus Christ and his gospel of salvation which is declining, being diminished to mere hints, shades or suggestions of light in today’s church. This is a picture of the world, but sadly it is a picture of the institutional church, too, much of which has laid a foundation other than the one Christ laid, and from which they have constructed their own path, which goes around (avoids) discussion of and dealing with sin, including the sins of the church people and those of the church leadership. It is half-light and half-darkness because they blend the spiritual (light/water) with worldliness (darkness/dirt), which then produces mud. “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud” (2 Peter 2:22b NIV).

So, judgment will come in the form of a hard path and difficult circumstances in order to open ears to hear God speak. The last quarter moon (the waning moon), also called “old moon,” also means “to draw to a close (finish)” or “the end of a period; the conclusion of a time or season” (Encarta). In other words, this is also illustrative of this final period of time on the earth known as the tribulation period, at which time God will judge the inhabitants of the earth, including he will judge his spiritually adulterous and idolatrous church (See Rev. 2-3). Yet I believe God has promised (scripturally) that the church will be revived and that many people from all nations will flock to Jesus Christ and to his gospel at this time, so there is hope for the repentant, because God will be merciful in forgiving the sins of those who come to him in humility and in forsaking their sins and in allowing the Spirit of God to transform their hearts and to give them new hearts which are moldable to Christ’s image.

Faith Without Works

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

We need to teach the true gospel of salvation, even if we are hated, persecuted, opposed strongly, lied about, accused falsely, ostracized, mocked, beaten, and killed. People’s lives and their eternities depend upon it. We need to teach people that the true gospel does not placate sin but it demands death, and not just Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins, but our death to sin and self. And it promises new life in Christ Jesus - free from slavery to sin, free from eternal punishment in hell, and free to walk in Christ’s righteousness and holiness in his power at work within us. Faith in Jesus Christ is not just an emotional decision or an intellectual assent to what Jesus Christ did for us in dying for our sins, but faith is action, and the action required is submission, surrender, repentance and following Jesus Christ with our lives (See Eph. 4:17-24; Lu. 9:23-25; Ro. 6; Gal. 2:20; 1 John & Titus 2:11-14).

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Joseph M. Scriven / Charles C. Converse

What a friend we have in Jesus,

all our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry

everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit,

O what needless pain we bear,

all because we do not carry

everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations?

Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged;

take it to the Lord in prayer.

Can we find a friend so faithful

who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our every weakness;

take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden,

cumbered with a load of care?

Precious Savior, still our refuge;

take it to the Lord in prayer.

Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?

Take it to the Lord in prayer!

In his arms he'll take and shield thee;

thou wilt find a solace there.

News Sources: 1) http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/29/world/asia/thailand-protests/; 2) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/world/europe/european-union-grapples-with-disappointment-over-ukraine.html?_r=0; 3) http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/29/us-iraq-violence-idUSBRE9AS07020131129; 4) http://www.wsbtv.com/ap/ap/financial-services/dems-obama-head-into-2014-distant-determined/nb6kP/