Time to Ponder Our Truth

Time to Ponder Our Truth

8/8/14

No matter what time frame in history is read one has to stop and wonder how come the people of that era did not see what was about to occur in their immediate worlds?  Just as interesting is that once we have read these past articles of wisdom we continue to ignore them and set into motion the same ignorant paths that the people in history chose.  We look at our world today and see many wars and angry people roaming back and forth trying to make themselves happier, yet all we see are new fires being started almost every day.  World situations seem pretty tough right at the moment but the question remains how will things be when conditions are ripe for a total and global disaster? With all of the despair now, one should keep in mind of how things will be if we are not prepared for a coming shaking.

I have written about a terrible shaking in some of my article topics a while back and if you have not read them I hope that you will do so for they have some very revealing knowledge about what will happen when things start to go south.  It has been said that people believe they know how others will act in every circumstance and while that is an utopist philosophy it is one that we cling to and hope for most of the time.  This belief also keeps our sanity intact when we see new conflicts arise around the world and in our own personal lives for we still have trust in our fellow humans to keep a level head about them.

But what happens when the world takes a terrible turn because of our own doing?  This type of setting places our stability into an entire different light, one that is not so bright when you stop and think about things for a while.  Humans like to believe that we are all in this together and this is a correct statement but an increasing majority are becoming of the mindset that we alone can overcome our worries and problems.  None of us can argue that many advances in medicine, technology, science and hundreds of other fields have come into play over the past few thousand years and all of these things have been great but it has placed within our lives a false sense of security since we have forgotten who actually gave us the ability to make all of these new technologies.  What happens when another catastrophic event occurs like the Wall Street Crash or a global shortage of food occurs?  We would like to believe that with our current population that we could turn towards our resources and revive once again the ability to provide for our families.  But we as a race soon realize that this crash is not going to be recoverable any time soon and that it is digging deep into each one of our lives to which some of us may not survive?

I read recently where there is a radical Islamic group that is doing its best to take over a large part of the world and to install another Islamic Caliphate.  To many this creation of this type of state is no big deal and they cannot understand why it is making so many headlines.  For now, this group has no immediate bearing upon our country for it is not even close to our borders, but these same people have also forgotten that we have read about this activity and therefore it has already been introduced into our mind’s border which brings this event close to our personal hearts.  These groups of warriors wish to eradicate every other religious belief from that part of the land and to give no one any other choice but Islam to live under.  Their policy is death to those who do not comply with their demands, no options, no choices and no other way. 

This group of warriors that I have mentioned is not a desolate group acting upon pure impulses, for it is well known that they have already demonstrated themselves as a well organized and well financed body that has a specific goal in mind and up till now have executed their plans quite well to achieve this goal.  Why is this important to us over here in the western portions of the world?  Because those people that are inflicting mass horror on thousands of lives have a goal and a determination to enforce the end results of that goal upon everyone in the world and up until the very second that you read this article we have not done one iota to stop them from obtaining their destination.  This is a stressful situation and one that brings much pain to those around the world since many have family or distant relatives living within that region.  All of this activity just heaps on more troublesome and worrisome conditions to our lives which if allowed can attribute to our destruction in all areas.

We must keep one important fact about the world in our minds and we must never forget it either.  This fact is that humans inhabit the entire world and it is our common bond of humanness that is the basis for everything that we know.  We are all in this together and it does make a difference when we do not understand this fact.  There are certain conditions that we can ignore because we live thousands of miles away from each other but we must stop and look at the bigger picture here and realize that while those isolated issues are important to some the overall global picture and issues should be addressed more seriously or in time, when things really hit the fan, these personal issues shall spill over into the mainstream world and wreak havoc on a biblical proportion.

This too can be traced back into history and even specifically to leaders of “civilized” nations.  Take Nero for example, he was one of the more famous or infamous emperors of the Roman Empire.  He was also notorious for some of the laws and decrees that have ever been passed upon a society yet he was allowed to continue his reign for quite some time.  Nero failed to recognize the state that his empire was in and refused to address the issues that gripped the land.  While these issues at first were isolated and small they were left unattended and they became a major factor in everyone’s lives including the Christians. 

Many who have read about or have been taught about this time period know that the climax of his reign was marred by a huge fire to which it almost destroyed the entire city of Rome.  It has been taught that Nero just sat around writing music and playing his harp while Rome burned, it has also been suggested that he did not care about what transpired during those days and did not do anything else but try and blame others for what was occurring.  We know that Nero did specifically blame the Christians for the destruction of Rome but as time has settled many sources have stated that anyone could have started that fire.

But the blame continued and within Nero’s uncontrolled rage began a venturesome campaign to rid Rome and much of the world as possible of the Christians.  This persecution was horrendous on any level and while the persecution was unimaginable it only paved the way for an even more heinous persecution just a few decades later.  This small group of issues produced one of the more gruesome amounts of bloodshed known to man and from what is transpiring on this planet today, looks like will continue the escalation of the bloodshed once again.

I want to bring to your attention a few things that are currently occurring within the world stage and while some of these do not hit close to home try and think about the scale on which these events are on now and then place them on a worldwide level where everything is rampant.  Ever watch a basketball game and one team is behind but not too far behind that they could still win the game?  What happens? Even though it is a controlled situation the players on the court begin to change tactics and to try and switch the score of the game by using desperate measures.  While both teams have tried to prepare for these circumstances, the tactics often word and the game proves to be tense at the end.

A few weeks ago a woman in Oregon went missing.  Most of you read about this and heard all of the pleas that went out for her return. How many questions were thought about or raised while this precious life was missing?  While this lady was living in another part of the country, it might have seemed small to a person living in Tennessee it was an event that captured many of our hearts.  As the story continued to unfold the pleas continued and more details emerged and some of the questions were answered and with those answered raised further questions.  The tragic pile up of that story hit the airwaves with a shock and brought back into motion the concepts of human life and exactly what pressure it can pose on a seemingly stabile person.  Times were not bad for that family and while they probably would have liked to have more in their life I can guarantee that they would much rather have their daughter, wife and mother back with them.

A story that has received about the same amount of coverage but has recently been quiet is that of a marine wife that went missing some time back.  This woman was young and had been pregnant but suffered a miscarriage along the way.  She was pregnant again but some questions had been raised concerning another man that was a part of her life.  As time has gone along in this story, numerous bits of information concerning the past of this lady and how she wanted life to be, have painted a dimmer picture of what might have happened in her case.  But, we have no final answer in this story as of yet so we will wait to see if anything transpires in the future but the same holds true that someone out these will be affected by the final outcome of this story and other than the normal young person’s adjustments to a certain new life not many major issues were present in her life either, just choices that became important.

Another story that got some attention these last few days occurred in Chicago.  A man that had been demoted at work approached the CEO of the company and then shot him for reasons that made no sense to those of us who understand our own actions.  The man then turned the gun on himself and ended his life without any remorse or judgment from his peers.  As in the other examples above many of the details of this story may never make the news but the gist of what occurred is not hard to recognize.  As I look at this story I came to the conclusion that this person was not prepared for what had transpired within his life and for whatever reason he felt like he should take matters into his own hands.  Yet he could have chosen to take another path and do things differently but once again not all of the details are known and his choice was to take his own life along with shooting another.  Even though times may have been tough for this man and it is true that the economy is still on shaky ground, things could have been different for this man and really should have been by his own abilities.

In reading these examples of isolated situations it would seem easy to place these all into a small category and set them aside as just human failures that have nothing to do with our overall society.  But let me pose something to you and I want you to think about this for a while and then draw your own conclusions about what I am going to say.  While it may seem that these people were anonymous in comparison to the “famous” people of the world their lives still mattered to others and they deserved to live accordingly.  While the tragedies of these families made the spotlight under overall normal conditions of the world, what kind of events would the human drum up if things were really bad?  How would the human react in order to survive and I mean REALLY survive?  The examples that I have given here all have destructive results under “normal and stable” conditions, the question I just posed is begging to be answered or at the very least publicly addressed.

Given the above question and the fact that the common denominator of that question is the human being, one must wrestle with the fact that humans cannot really be predicted as well as one might wish; therefore, we must also consider how we will respond when these worldwide bad conditions take effect.  How can I say this statement and be accurate about its content?  Look at history, both secular and biblical and you will see just how right God is when He has warned us to change our lives and hearts.  A popular saying in our country or at least in this part of our country is we are living the dream and it is another day in paradise, but what would we do if the dream and our paradise no longer exists? 

How does the equation change when we throw the world market, and by this I mean the world and its inhabitants, into the mix?  When we look at history we can see just how proportionate human actions and reactions are compared to the stability of their environment, and by environment I mean their surroundings.  Then you place these surroundings on the global scale and what do you have?  It has been many decades since the Great Depression and there are very few people still living that understood what it was like to live in those conditions.  I have to be honest and say that I have not read much on this subject but what I do understand is that everyone was in bad shape, not only in this country but all around the world as well. 

Take all of the bad acts that humans are involved in today.  Personal and political scandals all over the globe, economies of the world are struggling to maintain their competitive edges, human organ trafficking is still present, of course wars and conflicts on a global scale continue to rule many nations and the rise of immigration situations and the ever popular and largely growing industry of human sex trafficking all present a dismal view of our planet.  I do not like to use the phrase “a standard” in these instances but how would people respond if the economy of the world was not available to support these and many more vices and crimes that we contend with everyday?  How do you think people would react to and to what extreme would they go if they did not have the ability to produce enough money to buy the basics of life?  The normal human response is to survive at all costs because none of us wish to die; even though we may have accepted this fate it is still hard to swallow and when forced we as humans will push back in whatever way possible in order to survive.

Talk about tense times!!  What would you do in order to protect your daughter from being raped by a gang of people looking for food? Would you be prepared enough and have a leveled response in your heart in order to take care of what needed to be done or would you watch as your daughter was raped and then your house ripped apart by strangers who care nothing about you all in the name of searching for food.  Do not believe it will happen to us?  Neither did Europe and parts of Asia when WWII was ongoing.  Neither did Africa, Australia or South America either.  We cannot forget that humans will act accordingly to their situations to survive.

Another common denominator that we must consider is God and how the world viewed God during all of those times.  It is evident in both secular and biblical histories that when God is taken out of the human investment, voluntarily I might add that humans suffer.  We cannot argue that the world’s population is the largest ever and it is continually growing.  So if this is true that means that the potential of grotesque measures by humans on each other would be on a much larger scale could unfold.  Do not believe me?  Ask any Rwandan about how quickly people can turn to deadly and brutal violence against fellow countrymen and countrywomen.  It is possible and it shall happen.

It has been predicted that another great shaking shall come to this country and I believe it to be so.  To what extent I have no idea but with the ways that this country and the other countries of the world have adopted, I believe it shall be a great falling; to the core.  As of this moment we can avoid this catastrophe from occurring but also as of this moment we have no intentions of returning to a godly State. Remember God is a complete God and that if His judgment is upon one area, the providers and followers of that area will suffer His judgment as well.  This is something that we need to keep in the front portions of our brains; the followers of said area will be included.

I trust that all of the ones who are reading this article understand how important these times are how things can be reversed and changed if we come together and return back to God.  Look at the world and we shall see nothing but a controlled chaos right at the moment but what happens when the “controlled” portion of the chaos gets removed?  This has been predicted and it shall come to pass, so why are we literally sprinting towards this world catastrophe and not towards the real and legitimate answer for our lives?  You take all of the times that the world has been thrust into stressful situations and combine them with the acceptance and knowledge of God you will find that things could have definitely been a lot worse.  Many say how could God allow something like this to occur and the answer is simple it was our choice. 

During the past not everyone believed in God nor did they wish to accept His ways, God understood this back then and He continues to understand this concept today.  Remember, God is a complete God and He looks upon every heart to understand the situation of mankind so He must include all of the heart and while not everyone believed in Him He did see their respect for those who did and He took this into consideration.  The same ideology can be placed upon our lives today, and it is, as to how we look upon God.  There is no question that God is not welcome in our society nor is He in many of the other societies of the world.  Now, enter that portion of the equation and see what you come up with.  Some will not care because they still do not believe in God; He understands this.  Some will not care because they cannot stand anyone who sees things differently from the world and popular views; God understands this.  There are others that wish to know God as best as they can; God understands this.  God also understands that there are many more opinions about life and about Him out there as well.

Given the examples and words that God has shared with us in this article, understand what is about to occur and understand just how severe our shaking shall be.  God shakes from the core outward, for God looks upon the heart so must He judge from the heart outward. What is the heart of our matter?  Look into yours and see, then take a look at what our country’s heart lies within and there you will find what God shall shake.  These isolated and individual circumstances that some of us face now-a-days will become enormously enhanced. 

There are two very important instructions that are before us.  The first is that if we do not change our ways our shaking shall be great and will bring previously unknown conditions to this world, both personal and global.  The second instruction is that we can avoid this if we only repent and allow God to restore our lives back to the way He designed them.  In either situation we choose know that it is OUR choice.  I would love to say that I am optimistic about our societies changing but I have to be realistic and say that I doubt we shall change one degree from our current path.  There are dates in play here and it does not seem like the world cares enough to try and understand what they mean.  Most people do not like history because in their opinions all history talked about were dates, but there is a reason that God uses dates and it is actually for our own protection, security or failures.

So I guess the ISIS group in northern Iraq, parts of Lebanon, Syria and Turkey do have a prominent presence in our lives.  And all of the personal suicides and unfortunate murder / suicides do have meaning to me and to you.  They all represent the small advancing towards the large and unless we stop now these patterns and events will not only increase but expand exponentially around the world.  God loves you and He wants us to live in a provided and secure life and if we do not return our heart’s focus back on Him, we shall never see our world the same again.  So in reality our future is now and it is strictly our choice as to how things will unfold.

DLB