A Calm Before the Storm

Romans 5:1-5 ESV

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

My husband and I went out for breakfast this morning. As we were sitting at a table eating breakfast I could all of a sudden hear the tune to a song that came out in 1970 when I was a college student, which was also the year I first began to date my husband who was not my husband then. We were fellow students at the University of Akron, in Akron, Ohio (USA). I was a music student and he was an engineering student, but we both sang in the University Chorus, and that is how we got to know each other.

The song, which is a secular song, is titled, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.” This song also came out the year of the Kent State University shootings (May 4,1970), and this was a neighboring school, and so we also had the National Guard on our campus at that time. So it was a scary and/or unnerving time for us students, for several students were shot to death at KSU by the National Guard, presumably. And this was also during the war in Viet Nam, so these were troubled times for the world and for us who live in the USA.

Now the song speaks of “a calm before the storm,” which metaphorically means “a period of unusual tranquility or stability that seems likely to presage difficult times” (source: Oxford languages). And “presage” means “sign, warning, herald, signal, foreshadow”. So, it is like where we are in America right now, for we are in an apparent time of calm, but it is a mirage, for we are at war with the world, in reality – always at war with someone, and things have been stirring for some time now.

But then the song goes on to say, “I know it’s been comin’ for some time. When it’s over, so they say, It’ll rain a sunny day, I know shinin’ down like water.” And what immediately comes to my mind here is the day when Jesus returns for his bride and we all are caught up with him in the air and our bodies are changed to glorified bodies and now we are forever with the Lord. And now we won’t suffer any more. We won’t feel any more pain. We will cry no more tears, unless they are happy tears.

So, the song is basically about life here on this earth. We are going to have good days and bad days. We are going to go through tough and catastrophic times, and times which aren’t as bad or are even much better. But we still live on this earth. We still live among wicked and evil people who are plotting evil against the followers of Jesus Christ and against the people of the world, as a whole, in reality. And the things the Scriptures told us will happen in these last days are happening, and they are going to get much worse.

So we need to be mentally and spiritually prepared for things to shift and to get worse before they get better. It may seem peaceful for some of us right now, but we ought to be able to see the signs of the times and face the reality that just around the corner things could suddenly get much worse or seriously catastrophic. And this could be speaking about our personal lives, or this could be speaking on a national level, or this could be speaking on a world level. But we should always be prepared for the rain to fall.

So, this is a good time to make certain that you have truly been justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and that you genuinely are at peace with God through God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ. For Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one DOING the will of God the Father who is in heaven. For many will stand before him one day professing him as Lord and proclaiming what they did in his name and he is going to say, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness,” for they wouldn’t obey him (Matthew 7:21-23).

And Jesus also said that if we want to come after him, we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we save our lives, i.e. we hold on to our lives of living in sin, we will lose them for eternity, but if for Jesus’ sake we lose our lives, i.e. we deny self and we die daily to sin and to self, and we follow him in obedience, then we have the hope of eternal life. But if we are ashamed of him on this earth he will be ashamed of us when he returns. And we won’t go to heaven.

So, we need to make certain that we have been crucified with Christ in death to sin, and that we have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. And we need to make certain that we are now walking according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh, and that we are no longer deliberately and habitually sinning against the Lord, but that we are walking in obedience to him in holy living, in daily practice.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

And for those who are now walking in obedience to Jesus Christ, in practice, and who are walking in his ways and in his truth, who are living the gospel and who are sharing the gospel that Jesus taught, and that his NT apostles taught, we need to be prepared to be hated, rejected, cast aside, and persecuted for our walks of faith in Jesus Christ. But we must know that suffering produces endurance and character and hope, and so we must graciously endure unjust suffering for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

When I Go Home

By G. M. Eldridge

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes…” Revelation 21:4

In the moment He appears

And the light from heaven shines,

I’ll forget ev’ry fear,

Ev’ry pain I’ll leave behind.

Then I’ll see Him as He is

And I’ll know Him as I’m known.

Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.

Ever present is the tho’t 

That a moment waits for me

When unworthy as I am,

His glory I will see.

I will empty all my praise

Before my Father’s throne.

Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.

If the trial I endure,

And your presence I can’t find,

Be near me, Lord, I pray,

Bring back unto my mind

That your promises are firm

And I’m never on my own.

Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z98Zvr1CyXg 

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