On The Rock

So, are you starting to get worried yet, starting to perhaps feel a little anxiety? The times are more than strange, they are becoming evil, and many I fear, although they might not like to admit it yet, are beginning to show some of that anxiety in the form of doubt, doubt perhaps not in the ways of the Lord in these days, but what may happen to them personally.

That is how it most generally unfolds, as long as the danger is “over there,” we tend to pay a little less attention to it, but this time there is in a sense no where left to hide. And that my friends is where the fear, the anxiety, the worrying begins, when we start to look for places to hide, whether they be in the strongest building in town, or in the part of our mind that refuses to see and accept the truth. “But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.” (Matt. 24:43)

Every born-again believer who spends time in the Word and even just a modicum of time searching the media platforms available saw these days quite sometime ago. Not in the exact nature of how they have arrived and continue to expand, but in the knowledge that what was happening just a few short years ago was the precursor to the beginnings of sorrows (Matt. 24:8) that we are experiencing today. I could name every sign, every action of evil, every past occurrence of evidence that would point out this truth, but if you are wise, you already know about them. The question is what are you doing about it.

The Lord has blessed me not only to be at an age where I can devote nearly my entire day to the calling He has blessed me with, but with a beautiful wife who sees and understands that it is indeed from the Lord, and she has been honorable and true to my needs in these days, and is a worthy companion and coworker in these endeavors. Some are still going out the door each morning, providing for their family, others have nowhere near the income they had just a few months ago, but they also have been called, and have answered that call with the character and integrity of those worthy of being called slaves of Christ.

If they are not yet, soon all who do not call Jesus Lord will be against us, these things have already begun, and when they arrive at your doorstep, you must be prepared, you must today begin to be that goodman mentioned in Matthew 24:43, you must determine, if you have not already, to set your face like a flint, (Isaiah 50:7) and to perhaps pay the ultimate price if He so asks it of you.

You know that this is not our home, “For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.” (1 Chronicles 29:15) “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” (Heb. 11:6) And nowhere are we promised that pain will pass us by.

The same force that is separating the chaff makes the wheat to move, as a strong wind that will take the branches off of the trees. But we are rooted in Christ, (Col. 2:7) we have a firm foundation, we have not built our houses upon the sand. (Matt. 7:26-27) Pay attention to that account, that parable our Savior gave us, the wind did not stop, the waves did not abate, the storm came, and it is this storm that we are now, and should long ago been prepared to weather.

Compassion cannot falter because the storm has removed something from us, love cannot stop when the winds blow fiercely, our service to Christ should not halt because the days are growing darker, in fact, it should be increasing. “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:28) Prepare your hearts to submit to the will of God, not to the circumstances that surround you. We are the light of the world, (Matt. 5:14) if you have not turned that light up as far as it will go, it is time to do so.