We are going to need to make some very serious decisions soon, perhaps sooner than we would like to think. I understand the difference between envisioning a moment of time, and actually experiencing it, they are like day and night, the circumstances that we believe will occur rarely turn out to be that way when our paths cross that moment, so in many areas of our walk with Christ, not only faith and trust in His motives must be assured within us, but we must be prepared as much as possible to face whatever circumstances that He desires us to encounter.
I tend to think in ways that encapsulate nearly every possible event within a situation, and so therefore, I think too much, and that can lead to both a readiness for situations, but also a lot of misunderstandings when they arrive, sometimes generalities are the best path, but no matter which of these two encompass your life, faith in that the Lord is in complete control must always be counted first. I will give you a “for instance” here.
Let us say that you have determined to not wear a mask, a covid-19 mask, and the reasoning behind it is that you believe it does not show total faith in Christ as the provider of not only all of your needs, but it does not show a complete and total faith in the direction that He has for your life. You are not trying to “prove your faith” to anyone, it is not meant to be a statement that God will protect me from this flu, it is simply a matter of the fact of your faith, you trust the Lord no matter what happens in your life, because “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) If you live, it is good, if you die, it is good. (Romans 14:8)
This would of course spill over into the area of the vaccine, and is in a sense no different than when you said you were going to cut back on the chocolate and soda pop or completely quit drinking and getting high, they were done for the glory of God with no concern to what others thought. But this one is different, people do not get fines or thrown in jail for not smoking cigarettes or fasting occasionally.
If you stay this course, you will no longer be allowed to enter into certain stores, and that may soon also include grocery markets and pharmacies, you will be denied entrance into the dentist office, the local courthouse, you will not be able to enter into any medical facility unless you either have a mask on or have documentation of a covid-19 vaccination, or perhaps even both. There is a very good possibility that you could lose your job, and it may be very difficult indeed to get another one, not only because of the possible mandatory ruling of vaccinations, but also because of the literally millions of individuals who are also looking for employment now. Travel will become non-existent for you, whether it be crossing state lines in the United States or going by car, bus, train, or plane to a neighboring country.
No mask, no vaccine, no papers, no life, or very little of what many used to call a life.
Forget about mission trips, forget about visiting those in care homes or prisons, put away thoughts of concerts, movie shows, shopping malls, forget about everything you used to take for granted. This is the plan, this is what is coming.
My friends, this is not something that you can just say, and then when an “emergency” or cabin fever sits in and you can relinquish and just forget about, especially if it is known by others that you intend to stay on this path. The child did not die because David sinned with Bathsheba, (2 Sam. 12:14) the kingdom of David was not cursed with perpetual strife and turmoil because he killed Uriah, (2 Sam. 11:15) it was brought upon David because he gave the heathen an opportunity to blaspheme the name of God.
If you are committed to this path, then you must remain committed, no matter what the Lord allows to come into your life. He will forgive you if you fail, but there will be others who will suffer if you do. The child did die, people rebelled against David’s kingdom until the day of his death, the heathen mocked the name of God.
I read a story once quite a while ago, a true account of an event that actually happened. Several Christians who would not renounce their faith in Jesus Christ were about to be beheaded by Muslim extremists, at the end of the line of these brothers in Christ was a man who was neither Muslim nor Christian, just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time, as they say. As this man watched these souls be put to death one by one, by the time they came to him, he had been convicted in his heart that the God those people served, he was going to serve, and he died moments later, and I am sure moments later was risen to eternal life.
People are watching you, your faith, your words, your actions are all they know about Jesus Christ. I will not say this with any certainty, but your life, or better yet, your death, may be the catalyst for their coming to Christ. It is more than just a decision to not wear a mask or taking the jab, it is the testimony of faith that may cost you your life, but may save a soul from taking the mark of the beast when the day comes.
