2 Chronicles 7:13-15 ESV
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.”
In Troubled Times
In March of 2020 the Lord Jesus had me create a video
titled, “In Troubled Times.” In this video I talked about the times in
which we were then living with the onset of the pandemic which had spread
worldwide, I believe. And since that time, so many things have changed for us
in our individual nations and in the world, and in the ways in which we conduct
daily life, and even in how we think about daily activities in ways we did not
do before.
I believe that God allowed those things to take place in our
lives and in our nations and in the world in order to bring his wayward people
back to him, for so many people today who are calling themselves Christians are
living no differently from the people of the world who make no claims on
Christianity at all. Christians are even being taught that they need to blend
in with the world and that they are to immerse themselves in their culture.
For it is all now about becoming more like the world so that
the world will not be offended by us and so that the world will like us and so
that they will be comfortable in our gatherings, i.e. in the gatherings of “the
church.” And so the church is being marketed to the world in ways which are
acceptable to the people of the world but which are not acceptable to God and
which are not in agreement with the word of God or his divine character and
will.
And many people are now professing faith in Jesus Christ but
who have never died with Christ to sin nor have they been raised with Christ to
walk in newness of life in him, because they are not being taught that our salvation
is about us dying with Christ to sin and living to God and to his
righteousness. They are being taught it is all about God forgiving us our sins
so that when we die we can now go to heaven and escape hell.
And church gatherings now are largely being patterned around
what the world and the flesh of humans are craving, and they have little to
nothing to do with honoring God with their lives and with teaching the truth of
the gospel which teaches that faith in Jesus involves us being crucified with
Christ in death to sin and us being raised with Christ to walk in newness of
life in him in walks of holiness and righteousness, in obedience to our Lord.
And so our Lord is judging and disciplining his church right
now, I believe, for this is not over and done with. What we have experienced
the past two and a half years is not the end of it all. All that was just steppingstones
towards the next phase and then the next and the next until the world powers
have absolutely gained total world dominance over all people and over all independent
nations, and over the institutional church, too.
But this should not come as a surprise to those of us who
are versed in the Scriptures. For we have been told that these days were coming
upon us for hundreds of years, well actually thousands, for the prophets of old
foretold these days and so did the apostles in the New Testament. And we are
not promised that things are going to get better in our world, but that they
are only going to keep getting worse, which is not very comforting.
But what is our comfort in all of this? It is that our God
is absolutely in control over all things and that he is still on his throne and
that he is fully sovereign over all that he made and so none of this could be
happening to us unless God allowed it to happen for his purposes. And again, I
believe it is to bring wayward Christians to repentance and to obedience to the
Lord, as well as it is to lead many people to genuine faith in Jesus, and it is
to prune and to purify those of us who are walking in faithful obedience to our
Lord.
The ”In Troubled Times” Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFiz_L9O8LE&t=22s
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Day
by Day
Hymn
lyrics by Karolina W. Sandell-Berg, 1865
tr.
by Andrew L. Skoog
Music
by Oskar Ahnfelt, 1872
Day by day, and with each passing moment,
Strength I find, to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He Whose heart is kind beyond all measure
Gives unto each day what He deems best—
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.
Every day, the Lord Himself is near me
With a special mercy for each hour;
All my cares He fain would bear, and cheer me,
He Whose Name is Counselor and Pow’r.
The protection of His child and treasure
Is a charge that on Himself He laid;
“As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,”
This the pledge to me He made.
Help me then in every tribulation
So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,
That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation
Offered me within Thy holy Word.
Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,
E’er to take, as from a father’s hand,
One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
Till I reach the promised land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZyJ3PtcIBY
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