THE COMING STORM AND THE AMERICAN DREAM
Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that a man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you. (DT 8:2-5)
Well here we are well into 1999, it is almost the next millennium, are you ready for the coming storm? What coming storm you ask? Let’s pick one, Y2K? solar flares?economic crash and depression? natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, ice-storms, earthquakes, blizzards, el nino or la nina? Let’s face it God Almighty is doing something upon the earth. Many of us believe He is about to do something greater. This is not a “gloom and doom” message it is one of hope, read on. “But we’re counting on His love and mercy” you say. Yes we are praying for His mercy. What we may not understand though is His mercy takes on many different meanings and is displayed in many different ways. His mercy is anything He chooses to do to keep us out of HELL. His love is manifested in anything necessary to draw us to HIM. The God of the new testament is the same God of the old testament. The only difference is now we have Jesus to make atonement for our sins, instead of bringing our own sacrifice to the altar. Now we bring ourselves to the altar and become the “"living sacrifice"” He desires.(Rom 12:1) But His hearts desire is that we learn to obey. He says that obedience is better than sacrifice. (1Sam 15:22) So how obedient are we? Do we really trust Him? Are we open to what He is about to teach us?
How prepared are we? Do you have your diesel generator in case the power temporarily or permanently goes out? (no, us neither) How about candles, got enough for a year, or even a week? How about that propane refrigerator and 500 gals of propane? ( no, not yet) O.K. How about that solar charger and bank of batteries? (we’re working on it) How about food, do you have enough freeze-dried food for a year for each member of your family? Maybe your planning a big garden, do you have 1200 empty canning jars? (What, how many? I might have enough for 2 per week) Got your outhouse built yet? How about a woodstove and lots of firewood? (well we have trees) All of this stuff would require a second mortgage, and there is still a million little things we haven’t even thought of. You say, “well I know there will be some solution, God doesn’t want me to suffer”. Try again, suffering makes us stronger, brings us closer to God, Jesus did it and said we will too. (Rom 5:3, Heb2:18,Php3:10, ect.) This is beginning to get overwhelming isn’t it? Self -sufficiency isn't so fun after all is it? It’s supposed to be that way, the sooner we realize we aren’t in control the sooner Jesus can start working with us. Once we agree to let the Lord be in control it brings great peace. God is pulling us closer to Himself much the same way He did Moses and the children of Israel. He said He heard their cries and was concerned.
Now let’s see how the children of Israel and their deliverance relates to us today. We begin in Exodus with the birth of Moses, God has His spiritual leaders but they are born not elected, or self -promoted. God showed Moses the burning bush as a representation of himself, He couldn’t use Moses until he first got his attention. A leader must know who God is. God then shows Moses His plan and His signs and wonders, and says this is so they may believe. America doesn’t believe in anything as much as she does herself. Moses started complaining so God gave him Aaron to help him but He still expected Moses to be the leader. Then the Lord sent Moses to Egypt to perform signs and wonders so the people would believe. He was referring to His own people not the Egyptians. He said to perform before Pharaoh and tell him to let the people go so they can worship the Lord. He desired their worship, they had gotten so bound up that they had forgotten how to worship, a lot like the church of America today. Then the Lord said He was hardening Pharaoh’s heart. He used him to create a situation so that He would be revealed to the people. He will do the same with us, and He may bring us to the point of building bricks without straw, or at least it might seem that hard. This was all part of His plan, then He reveals the next step to Moses, deliverance. Deliverance from slavery, something we also need, we as a nation are slaves to our own sin. God said He hardened Pharaoh’s heart , but He wanted the people let go to worship Him. All His plan. Then he sent the plagues, they were all around the people yet they weren’t touched. If you’re truly in God’s kingdom he will protect you. He made a distinction between His people and the Egyptians. He raised up His people for this purpose, to show His power to them, that His name might be proclaimed in all the earth. The Lord even brought forth a storm that we would recognize, thunder and lightning and hail, yet the hail didn’t hurt God’s people. The thunder and lightning are common manifestations of God’s presence. All His plan. Then God said He did it all not only for the people to believe but for them to tell their children and grandchildren how harshly He dealt with the Egyptians, and to prove who He was.
Over the generations we’ve lost our fear of God, and we as a nation don’t teach it to out children anymore. God is creating a situation that will remedy this. We must teach this generation to fear the Lord and worship Him. Then the Lord brought the wind, more representation of himself. Then the locusts, more of His plan. Then the darkness fell upon the Egyptians, you are in darkness if you don’t know Jesus. Then God revealed more of His plan to Moses, God Himself required the firstborn, He took them from the Egyptians but not from the Israelites, from them he wanted them to be given willingly as we see later in the dedications and sacrifices. Again He was making a distinction from His people and those of Egypt (representing the world). Do you willingly give the Lord the firsts in your life? time? attention? love? Then the Passover, the redemption, this is what would bring the people out of slavery (representing sin). Redemption happens when the blood is applied. The blood was applied to the doorpost as a visible sign. Is your life visibly different from the world? God did all this to show His people who He was. He is about to show America who He is. America must be redeemed by the blood of Jesus or she will die!! Even though the people cried and begged to stay where they were (as difficult as it was they had grown comfortable, are you comfortable with your sin?) God had another plan. He remembered their earlier cries for deliverance, and His covenant with Abraham. So he delivered them, taking them through the Red Sea, water representing a birthing process (no turning back now). He delivered them right into the desert! He put them into a place where they had to trust Him or die! But He did provide for them, and He will provide for us, and He will pull us closer to Him. Are we going to willingly learn or grumble? He wanted their worship not their complaints. At one point He got so fed up He was ready to wipe them all out. Is America at that point yet? The only thing that saved them was the interceding of Moses. Thank you Jesus for interceding for us now! He gave the people food and water but only enough for the moment so that they had to continue to go to Him for more. Then He taught them how to worship. He taught them how to live for Him, how to obey. He gave them the law to show them how inadequate they were and how much they needed Him and the redemption only He could provide (Jesus). He showed them right from wrong, a lesson America has forgotten. He even showed up in person. There was thunder and lightning and the Lord descended upon the mountain in fire. The whole mountain trembled violently. His creation knows when He is present, do we? Moses said , “the Lord has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” So will the storms come? They already are. What will we do? We will learn to worship Him. What is worship? Seeing who He really is, loving Him, trusting Him, obeying Him. What is the American dream? It is entering into Caanan, the promised land, it is the security you have when you don’t worry anymore. It is believing in Jesus. It is knowing and trusting that He will provide when we obey Him!
WATER-NUM:20:8, 1KIN 18
FOOD- JN 6:1-13&27& 35, MK 6:32-44, LK 4:14, 9:10-17, MT 14:13-21
PROTECTION-JN 7:30,8:59,10:39 LK 10:17-19
MEDICAL- MT 5:12-13&17 4:39-40, MT 8:7&16&22&29, 10:1