Mysteries So Bright

( Image courtesy of www.HolyLandPhotos.org )
As I watch the daily news about the turmoil and trouble in the U.S., and the awful storms that are taking a toll on the country – the tornadoes, hurricanes and floods, drought and forest fires, sudden changes in weather, I hear a voice, “Repent…Awake, Oh Sleeper, before it is too late”

It is a call to our nation, to the believers in our country that don’t see the need to cry out to the Lord for revival of His people; that we would repent and turn from the idols of prosperity and the “good life” that the vast majority of us are worshiping; to fall on our faces before Him in seeking Him for mercy and healing of our land.

I thought of the Mt. Ebal vs Mt. Garizim ceremony, the blessing and curse promises of the Lord to His nation of Israel which would follow their choice to either follow His commands or not. Moses gave the directions starting in Deuteronomy 27:4 , and then carried out in Joshua 8:30-35.

The message from Moses includes this important command in Deuteronomy 30:19 –

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

Would that each believer that is truly committed to Jesus would reach out to his or her friends that are also serious about following the Lord and ask them to become sober, to become watchmen on the wall, and warn the people about the curses that have been experienced and future ones that are coming; to prepare for the persecution already breaking out in much of the world and will soon be experienced in our own country.

Would that we all take the call in Hosea to heart: “So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn…” (Hosea 6:3)

Would that we turn off the screens and open His Word instead, and sit often and at length before Him; to be able to join Elijah in saying, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand…”; and from that place of holy ground to the good news of the Kingdom – to warn of the calamity coming; but also to point to the path, the Way of salvation, namely Jesus Himself, as the only way out of the darkness into the light.