November 2001

Part Forty-one

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory (F)

Recent acts of terrorism have shifted the world’s focus from complacency to active concern. Each new incident plunges greater numbers of people into unstable emotional states. Depression is fast becoming a chronic disorder of the masses. Lack of trust in anything or anyone is giving rise to a public outcry for more security measures; but the only response natural man can make to such demands is to create a “police state”! But history reveals that restrictive societies like the former Nazi and Marxist regimes; the ongoing communist oppression; or the recent Taliban domination of Afghanistan- do not make people feel more “secure”! To the contrary, all such dictatorial rulership strips a citizenry of all its personal freedoms such as: public expression, individual prosperity, or unobstructed travel. America has never been subjected to such a militaristic autocracy, but we now: see armed soldiers patrolling our air terminals; are being made to endure invasive “security checks” of our possessions and our persons; see surveillance cameras everywhere capturing us on film; have our business calls answered by robotic devices that routinely announce, “Your call may be recorded for security purposes”; and two-way video systems that allow our telephone, television or computer monitors to observe our daily homes movements; and computer chip tracking devices that can be implanted beneath the skin; and electronic detectors of the human voice or retina! For now, these are touted as “protective measures” and “modern conveniences”; but a closer look reveals early signs of despotic domination!!
        A little over 20 years ago I took a friend to see the play, “Sound of Music” at a local theater. I was seated on the aisle and she sat next to me. We very much enjoyed the excellent production of the true story about the Von Trapp family who had to flee on foot through snowy mountains- with nothing more than the clothes on their backs- when Hitler’s forces invaded their Austrian homeland
        Near the end of the play where the Von Trapps competed in a national music festival, a sudden chill ran down my spine making me shudder and glance around. I nearly jumped out of my skin to see standing next to me, and all the way up both of the aisles, armed Nazi-dressed soldiers each with a leashed German shepherd! I nudged my friend to call her attention to this and as she turned to me she spotted the “soldiers” over my shoulder and she visibly jumped in her seat! At the conclusion of the play, my friend and I discussed this incident and confirmed each other’s impressions that a military coup in our country could be accomplished just as quickly and deftly as the appearance of those stage actors! The Lord gave us discernment to know that this experience was the chief reason we were brought there that night. And in just these 20 years, we have witnessed the advent of the computer age, the internet phenomena, and the staggering escalation of the vast electronic industry! Then recently, for the first time, “terrorism” has reared its ugly head in our “once-secure” nation! Do not look at “people” for the cause or the cure of these situations, beloved! These things are carefully orchestrated and executed by God’s wise purpose from the foundation of the world! Just like that theatrical production, we are all playing predetermined roles as “actors” on the stage of humanity! Sometimes we are the “good guy” and sometimes the “bad guy” in the over-all scheme of things, since every all humankind is one great “Tree of the knowledge of good and evil”! (Gen 2:9) But God promises, “ALL things work together for good, for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose!” (Ro 8:28) Of course, ALL created ones shall eventually be “called according to His purpose”, but God says it must be done, “Every man in his own order”; beginning with Christ as the Head of a Body of sons as the Father’s “Firstfruits” of His Harvest! Then these are followed by “all who are Christ’s at His coming!” (1 Co 15:23) Make no mistake, dear ones, CHRIST IS COMING!
        The biggest mistake made by every generation of God’s “set-apart ones”, was to lose sight of His Promises when their fulfillment was delayed (by human appraisal)! So they dismantled their weapons of warfare; reduced the number of watchmen on the city walls; and decreased their state of personal vigilance! Not until some unexpected enemy attack did they “wake up” but always too late to offer any substantive resistance. Hear now this pertinent Word of the Lord!

             The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel, ‘Hear this, you old men, and listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Have times like these been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about them! Let your children tell their children, and their children tell another generation. What the palmerworm has left, the locust has eaten; what the locust has left, the cankerworm has eaten; what the cankerworm has left the caterpillar has eaten! Awake, ye drunkards; weep and howl, you drinkers of wine because the new wine is cut off from your mouth. A nation has come upon my land- strong and without number- whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, which has the jaw teeth of a great lion. He has laid waste my vine and stripped bare my fig tree...its branches are made white. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The meat and drink offering is cut off from the House of the Lord; the priests- the Lord's ministers- mourn! The field is wasted; the land mourns- for the corn is wasted; the new wine is dried up, the oil languishes. Be ye ashamed, you husbandmen (church pastors); howl, you vinedressers (teachers and evangelists), for the Wheat (Revelations of Truth), and barley (the Spirit of humility and repentance); and the harvest of the field (ingathering of the fruit of the Spirit) are perished from your midst! The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languishes for water; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree, the apple tree, all the trees of the field, are withered: because JOY is withered away from the sons of men!!
        Therefore, gird yourselves and lament, you priests: and howl, you ministers of the altar! Come and lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of God! The offering of meat (Jesus says, “My Meat is to DO THE WILL OF GOD” Jn 4:34), and the drink offering, is withheld from the house of your God! Sanctify ye a fast, and call a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and every inhabitant of the land into the House of the Lord your God (not your buildings of wood or stone, but the Spiritual House of the Body of Christ), and cry to the Lord, ‘Alas for the day of the LORD is at hand, and it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty!” (Joel 1:1-15)

        God is shaking our foundations that whatever can be shaken- of our self-will, self-reliance and self-glory will be shaken away; and whatever remains of His Will, and our reliance on Him; and His Glory will remain! This is the call for all prodigal sons to return home!

[TO BE CONTINUED]

Notice: this ministry will be in LONDON, ENGLAND the week of Dec 9-16

[except 2 one-day trips to Dublin, Ireland and Paris, France]. Any Kingdom group interested in hosting a meeting must please contact us as soon as possible by email: Sonrise1@aol.com, or telephone: 702-647-2131. Our itinerary is filling up quickly.

[P.S. We are not in need of lodgings as all our accommodations are prearranged.]