Yes, danger is always lurking around the corner. The devil is everywhere, trying to devour God’s people. If you are walking closely with Him, in His light and love, demons are at hand, too; ready to reach out and grab you.
But the Lord is nearer. So is the time of His return and our Rapture.
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17).
But it wasn’t to be on this particular Feast of the Tabernacles.
Many were hoping and waiting…
Sunday night, we watched the moon eclipse turn a splotchy reddish color. It didn’t signify our immediate rise through the skies. But it did accomplish something terrific. We met some neighbors we hadn’t known before. They were watching the moon, too. We got to know some fine young folks out in that parking lot. I’d been praying for the other tenants in our building for some time and anticipated meeting them.
We finally did. Now I’ve got two young women to take some homemade soup to this evening. It’s a start.
We’re the age of most of these “kids” grandparents, and we keep an eye on them. And pray for them. They are bright, healthy college students. But some are living very immoral, and therefore dangerous lives.
They all got pulled into the American Dream machine, way back when they were little children. Some claim their major vocational goal is marketing. It’s not. It is feeding the covet machinery they already rely on. It’s a treadmill that has put them hopelessly in debt: financially, intellectually and morally.
Some are future pharmacists. In reality, they will be feeding a public made up of folks desperate to feel good in spite of their horrid lifestyles, and all that the nasty powers around us can inflict. And it’s all for the glory and aggrandizement of an industry that will never say, “No.” They will continue to hold out promises which they cannot deliver. And hand the tab over to the government. And the public will continue to pursue lives that will only make them unhealthier.
At least these college kids will probably pay taxes one day. Someone has to.
Me? It’s a day to study God’s Word, work on my notes on Jeremiah and throw together the best spicy lentil-barley soup you’ve ever had. And some homemade whole wheat flat bread to dunk. Young women, today, are so amazed to meet older women with domestic skills. (That’s what they call cooking.) They have none. Bread of life, bread for the body—both are completely ignored by a culture that only values acquisition of merchandise, pragmatism and efficiency.
As believers we are so soul-weary of what we see around us. We want to go home to Him. But we must do all the lord allows us to; to grab a few people to take along.
I’m on the go, so “That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works” (Psalm 26:7).