Don’t hang on to your fear.  Let yourself hope.  It is only brave people who find life beautiful.”
              –William MacLeod Raine  (Challenge to Danger)

    “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
              –1 John 4:18 (NKJV)
———————–
“Today God may seem silent to you.  The wicked prosper; those who commit wrong get away with it; the poor are crushed.  Suffering is ladled out upon the heads of the righteous from the scalding caldron of pain, adversity, and evil,” states George O. Wood.  
Where is God?  Why is He silent?  Why do the immoral rule and say that evil things are good and the good is evil?  Friends, don’t be like a leaf blown in the wind, for a day is coming when the majesty of God will be revealed.  Psalm 50 gives us a glance of what it will be like when the Lord comes to judge the earth.

    1 – Yahweh, the God of gods speaks; He summons the earth from east to west.
    2 – From Zion, the perfection of beauty, God appears in radiance.
    3 – Our God is coming; He will not be silent!  Devouring fire precedes Him, and a storm rages around Him.
    4 – On high, He summons heaven and earth in order to judge His people.
    5 – “Gather My faithful ones to Me, those who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”
    6 – The heavens proclaim His righteousness, for God is the Judge.  Selah
    7 – “Listen, My people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel.  I am God, your God.
    8 – I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or for your burnt offerings, which are continually before Me.
    9 – I will not accept a bull from your household or male goats from your pens,
   10 – for every animal of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
   11 – I know every bird of the mountains, and the creatures of the field are Mine.
   12 – If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and everything in it is Mine.
   13 – Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
   14 – Sacrifice a thank offering to God, and pay your vows to the Most High.

    The Lord is coming soon in His majesty, glory, and radiance.  Verse 3 should hold us in silence; a trembling should go through our body and soul.  Look at how He comes.  He will not be silent!  This reminds me of the prophecy of Joel in describing the Day of the Lord.  I like how the NLT puts verse 3, “Our God approaches with noise of thunder.  Fire devours everything in its way, and a great storm rages around him.”
    There is something here that is important for the believer.  God honors us in the fact that we are faithful to Him in the giving of sacrifices, or in today’s terms:  church attendance, Bible reading, prayer, and other spiritual disciplines.  However, what are they to God?  We can do all the demonstrating we want but if we do not trust Him what is the use?  Someone I know proclaimed the other day that we must turn on “worship music” (whatever that is) and sing/shout as loud as we can.  Why?  Is God deaf?  Is that what He really wants or does He want a people holy, acceptable to Him?
    Listen, I don’t think that God thinks in the terms of 2020.  We may think, only a few more weeks and this year will be over, but is it the end?  Why has God allowed the things to happen in 2020?  Perhaps it was to get our attention.  Perhaps to wake up a slumbering church.  Perhaps it is to get quiet before Him, humble ourselves, and then truly begin to trust Him.  

              “Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain
               Could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain.
               But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, takes all our sins away;
               A sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood.”
                         –Isaac Watts

    Let verse 14 speak to you.  “What I want instead is your true thanks to God; I want you to fulfill your vows to the Most High.” (NLT)  Ponder, meditate, contemplate, and take action on this verse.  Fulfill your vows!  Have you ever made one to God, if so, it is still binding, begin to fulfill it now.

Evil men seldom rest for long.”
              –J. Lee Butts (Brotherhood of Blood)

    “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
              –Judges 21:25 (NKJV)
————————
In this time of concern, confusion, chaos, and consternation I figured I might try to write something “light” this morning.  The times are evil, the earth is filled with terror and wickedness and we must be mindful of that, however, sometimes we must stand back, reorient ourselves and take a short rest.  Rest is vital for a sound physical body; rest is vital for emotional and mental well-being; rest is important for our spiritual health to be renewed.  The problem with rest is that people can become lazy, they can become lackadaisical, they can become complacent if they continue in their rest.
    Our nation is in turmoil and it will not be solved by a presidential election.  There must be a national awakening in which God is one again exalted.  Unless the Holy Spirit sends conviction the country will continue on its downward slope.
In the midst of all this, and your own personal life, don’t forget to stop and smell the roses once in a while, but while doing so remember in the midst of rosebushes there are thorns.  In fact, it’s always good to remember not to walk barefooted in a rose garden.
    So here’s one story.  A family returning home from church began their devastating criticisms.  The mother objected to the sermon.  The father ridiculed the ushers.  The older sister made light of the singing.  But it was the little son that tore them up when he said, “Still it was a pretty good show for a dime.” (taken from Grandpa Was a Preacher, Leroy Brownlow)
    Deer season opens Saturday.  Now, I’m no longer a hunter, but I don’t mind a venison steak or chop, or even some good sausage.  For me, part of the enjoyment in hunting was to be able to get out in God’s great cathedral.  I remember when I first hunted in Texas, as I grew up in Colorado.  I was told to get in the stand and wait overlooking an oat field.  Some use corn feeders for bait.  I wasn’t used to that.  In Colorado there was more stalking instead of climbing up into a deer stand.  
    “‘There is no need to travel unless you know your direction,’ was one of grandpa’s mottoes.  He said that one Sunday they had a guest speaker, a student from a seminary.  After the service, grandpa overheard him ask one of the deacons, a grizzled, plain-spoken man, what he thought of the morning’s efforts.  ‘Waal,’ answered the old man slowly, ‘I’ll tell ye; I’ll tell ye in a kind o’ parable.  It reminded me of Sim Peck’s furst deer hunt when he was green.  He follered the deer’s tracks all right, but he follered ’em all day in the wrong direction.'” (Grandpa Was a Preacher, Leroy Brownlow)
    There’s much truth in that little story.  We must be headed in the right direction.  So much of our country has traded the right for the wrong, the good for the bad, and they will do anything they wish.  Go back and read the Book of Judges where it speaks of man doing right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25)  Hmmm, looks like it could come right out of today’s newspapers(?), media sources.  Unless they don’t like the story and will not tell it if it does not fit their agenda.  Therefore, it is imperative that we follow God’s Word and keep our focus on Him.
    It was good to rest, check the back trail, reflect on where you’ve come from, but now it’s time to get your bearings and rise.  Time to awaken, put off the slumber, rest has been taken.  The Lord is in control, of that you can be assured.  Perhaps it is time to put aside all the things that weigh us down and look to Him for the guidance that we need for our lives.

A man living in wild country has to be aware of everything around him.  He has to keep his eyes looking, his ears listening, his every sense alert.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (The Lonely Men)

    “Now when these things begin to occur, stand tall and lift up your heads [in joy], because [suffering ends as] your redemption is drawing near.”
              –Luke 21:28 (Amplified)
———————-
My morning devotions have been from the Book of Matthew and recently from chapter 24.  Some call chapters 24-25 the Olivet Discourse when Jesus tells the signs of the end.  Many believers in the world are saying that we are living in the end times, and that is most definitely true, but it is not the end yet.  Let’s see where the discussion by Jesus starts.  He sat down, whether to teach or to rest or to get away from the crowds.  From the wording, I believe He wanted to get away from people, to spend time privately with His disciples and His Father because the dreadful day of His crucifixion was approaching.

         “Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?'”
                  –Matthew 24:3 (NKJV)

    The words of Jesus immediately after these questions should grab our attention.  Jesus was warning His disciples and that warning goes out to us as well.  It is a warning as well as a command:

         “…Take heed that no one deceives you.” (24:4, NKJV)

Deception is the way the devil operates from the Garden to the events of our lives in this day.  It is so easy to be deceived and there are many places in the New Testament that tell us to guard the truth, hold on to faithful and true doctrine.  But the problem is that sound doctrine is not preached often today.  People hear fanciful stories that scratch their itching ears–deception.  People hear a doctrine, not sound but false, that tells them to “blab it and grab it.”  There are some churches which I wrote about last week that are promoting universalism and other false teachings.  It is important that we don’t succumb to every wind of teaching out there, but that we study it closely through the Word of God.
    That becomes another problem.  Besides the fact that many/most churches do not teach/preach a complete gospel the people are lazy as well.  Statistics show that only 11% of Americans have read the entire Bible.  Look at that in another way, 89% have not read the Bible.  That is alarming for a nation that was founded on the Bible and biblical principles.
    The disciples raised good questions; questions that you and I have asked and Christians throughout the centuries.  Jesus speaks much about His coming, but He doesn’t answer their specific questions, instead He says,

         “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” (24:36, NKJV)

He then gives indication of what life will be like when He comes and what will happen, but He doesn’t tell them when.  He re-emphasizes the importance of watching.  This is the duty of the truly wise man–to keep watch.  Man must watch.  Joseph Parker says, “The watcher wins; the watcher reacts; the watcher sees the coming day.”  In the next few parables, though not necessarily stated, the term “watch” is emphasized.  We are to watch for His coming.

         “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”  (24:44, NKJV)

Do not be lulled to sleep–watch!  Do not be unprepared–watch!  To “be ready” is the consequence of watchfulness.  We must stay awake at this late hour.  Oh, sometimes it is so hard to stay awake.  “We are beset by perpetual temptations to sleep, to spiritual drowsiness and laziness.” (Alexander MacLaren) However, we must watch–we must be ready.  We are to be kept busy in expectation of His coming.
    I am thinking that this world is becoming more and more a wilderness.  Not in the sense of unoccupied, untamed forests, mountains, or deserts, but a wilderness of danger and terror that is filled with evil.  We have to stay alert, listening and watching.  The trumpet may sound–are you listening?  The Lord may come for those who are ready–are you ready?