We pay for what we take or get.”
              –Luke Short  (Brand of Empire)

    “He will pay them back for their sins and destroy them for their evil. The Lord our God will destroy them.”
              –Psalm 94:23(HCSB)
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God made us in such a way that our spiritual well-being is closely connected to our emotional and physical well-being.  A person who is emotionally distressed can begin to have physical and spiritual problems.  A physical ailment or disease can definitely work on the emotions and cause one to doubt in their spirit.  The culture of today wants to downplay shame and guilt, yet it is through these that anguish of the soul comes and because of that repentance.  The person who does not feel shame cannot say they have sinned and thus repent.
    Let me interject a severe word of warning.  Sickness may come because of sin, however, remember Job.  To say that all sickness, and there are some out there, comes from a person’s sin can lead to despair and depression.  It may be an attack of the devil, it may come from natural causes, or in this case brought by David, it may be caused by sin.  Contemplate the words of this portion of Psalm 38.

    1 – Lord, do not punish me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.
    2 – For Your arrows have sunk into me, and Your hand has pressed down on me.
    3 – There is no health in my body because of Your indignation; there is no strength in my bones because of my sin.
    4 – For my sins have flooded over my head; they are a burden too heavy for me to bear.
    5 – My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness.
    6 – I am bent over and brought low; all day long I go around in mourning.
    7 – For my loins are full of burning pain, and there is no health in my body.
    8 – I am faint and severely crushed; I groan because of the anguish of my heart.
    9 – Lord, my every desire is known to You; my sighing is not hidden from You.
   10 – My heart races, my strength leaves me, and even the light of my eyes has faded.
   11 – My loved ones and friends stand back from my affliction, and my relatives stand at a distance.
   12 – Those who seek my life set traps, and those who want to harm me threaten to destroy me; they plot treachery all day long. (HCSB)

    David is in anguish.  We are not sure of the cause but he is physically and emotionally in severe pain.  He is crushed and broken, but there is one very important fact that we must gain from this–David turned to God.  It seems as if this torment came because of sin in David’s life.  Many, in David’s situation, might get bitter, they might accuse God.  Remember, Job’s wife, “curse God and die”?  David knows that God sees him in his pain and torment.  A person of God always turns to God in the turmoil and suffering of life.
    Just a side note:  check out verses 11-12.  Does that sound like the virus we are facing today?  I can imagine our President relating to these verses.  In the midst of this “pandemic” some in Congress are blaming the President for the deaths caused by the virus.  Hatred has overcome common sense.
    We look out at the world around us and many are troubled.  They want peace, that is peace down in their soul.  It is always a good time to do a personal inventory.  If we have offended the Lord, we need to recognize it and repent.

         “O my offended Lord,
          Restore my inward peace.
          I know that you can; pronounce the word,
          And bid the tempest cease.”
                   –Charles Wesley

We work to feed ourselves, but we live to enjoy ourselves.”
              –Kenneth S. Pratt (Willow Falls)

    “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.”
              –Psalm 63:5 (NKJV)
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         On Monday, we have bread and gravy,
         On Tuesday, it’s gravy on bread,
         On Wednesday, it’s gravy on toast,
         On Thursday, it’s muffins instead.
         On Friday, it’s rye bread and gravy,
         On Saturday it’s gravy on cake;
         But Sunday’s a treat, ’cause we never get meat,
         We get gravy without any bread.
                 –Home and Jethro

I guess growing up, we were what was considered “poor.”  I never thought we were, but when I look back on it we must have been.  I took baloney sandwiches to school and Grandma always made cookies or brownies.  But I can remember many times just having a mayonnaise sandwich or mayonnaise and lettuce sandwich.  Chips, what were they?  I do remember when my Aunt Bern went to work for Safeway that the table faire increased because of her increased pay.  The thing is–we never went hungry and we were content.
    Perhaps this quarantine has helped, at least some of us, to be content with what we have.  We seem to clamor for more, more, more and really we need less.  Now, that isn’t to say that we shouldn’t enjoy the blessings that we have been given, and we should be thanking our heavenly Father for those blessings.  Paul wrote, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content” (Philippians 4:11, NKJV).  We rarely had steak on the table when I was a kid and we were content.  Now, we can have steak once in a while, and I enjoy it, and I am content.
    I was blessed, for whatever Grandma made tasted good.  That blessing ran over in abundance when the girl I married did the same.  Maybe it’s not so much what we have, but who is preparing the food and that adds to the blessing.  I wrote earlier this week, could you live today on what you thanked the Lord for yesterday?  How did you answer it?  Truly thank the Lord if He has allowed steak on your table, but don’t be any less thankful for the pinto beans.  Thank Him if you have meat in the gravy to cover your biscuits, but thank Him just the same if you just had gravy made from the drippings.
    This is one of those reasons that evil clown, and I mean those words, Cortez riles me up.  “Stay home from work,” she cries, when work is one of those blessings we have been given.  That’s when a person has their plate broken, when they refuse to work.  Not being able to is one thing, but refusing to work when it is available is another.  Count your blessings, whatever they are.

A man with no soul will always be a poor man, one way or another.”
              –Elmer Kelton  (The Time It Never Rained)

    “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
              –Matthew 10:28(NKJV)
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There is something about darkness.  I remember many times, up in the high Rockies, looking up at the stars at night, that they seemed to shine brighter, and one reason for that is the darkness.  At the same time darkness can bring up fearful images.  How many children and adults, must have a light on at night because of the darkness?  Evil seems to loom heavily in the darkness, sinister crimes happen in the darkness, imaginations run wild in the darkness.  There is more than natural darkness, there is the darkness of the mind and of the soul.
    Jesus has opened the first seal, the Antichrist is now on earth.  This is a rule of darkness.  Right after opening the seal that releases the white horse with the Antichrist, Jesus will open the second seal revealing the red horse.

         “When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.”
                   –Revelation 6:3-4 (NKJV)

Even though the Antichrist is in the process of bringing about a global society under his control, there will continue to be nations.  It seems that this horse brings mayhem between nations and between individuals.  Look at the current situation.  Imagine if there is more than toilet paper shortages; imagine food shortages, and there will be.  Neighbor will turn against neighbor.  Also, the “state” might offer rewards to those who turn in individuals who are going against state mandates.  There will be blood running in the streets throughout the world.
    I mentioned famine–look at the third seal that is opened–the black horse.  Famine often follows war, but it will be a widespread famine.  Remember also that many people have left this earth in the Rapture.  How many of them would be men and women who till the soil, who raise livestock?  Look at the man on the black horse:

         “When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come and see.’ So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.'”
                    –Revelation 6:5-6 (NKJV)

Millions of people will starve.  Areas of the world that never knew famine before will now experience it.  The United States with its vast land size has never known national famine, I believe that during this time it will.  Hunger causes desperate men to do desperate things.
     Want to live under socialism?  It will happen here for this government, under the rule of the Antichrist Who will take over the food supply.  An armed rebellion against him? Nope–he will have control of the weapons industry.  Nah, you say.  Remember, many people are gone.  You see your child starving–the solution, turn in your gun, take this mark and food will come your way–easy as pie.  In reality–DOOM!
     Now is the day of salvation.  One day it will be too late.

He already had blisters enough.  But he never considered backing out, once the commitment was made.”
              –Elmer Kelton  (The Good Old Boys)

    “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
              –1 Corinthians 15:58 (NKJV)
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Friends, I would ask you to take heed to what’s before you.  Look at what the media can do to a pestilence.  Fear runs rampant, there is massive hoarding, along with a continual build up of hatred toward conservatives.  If you are a scoffer, or a nonbeliever, or even a pseudo-Christian don’t be surprised if one day you don’t see your Christian friends.  Soon, and I believe very soon, the trumpet is going to sound.  
    More and more the liberal agenda is being pushed and stopped primarily by Bible-believing Christians, but when the Church is gone, what will hold them back?  Right now there is moderate pandemonium over a pandemic, soon there will be mass chaos.  It will take a strong-armed man to take control–enter the Antichrist.  Right after the Rapture, he will appear.  The “Seals” are about to be opened in heaven.

          “Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, ‘Come and see.’  And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.”
                    –Revelation 6:1-2 (NKJV)

Do not confuse the “white horse” here in Revelation 6 with the one upon the Lord will ride in Revelation 19.  It is the Lord, Himself who is opening this sea.  The rider of this horse will bring unheard of evil into the world.  This is the man known as the Antichrist.
    Man now is crying for globalism, a one-world government and this man will give it to them.  He will have tremendous power to rule and paradoxically confuse the people of the world.  He will be a conqueror, not just in war, but also diplomacy and financial.  Millions will recognize him as the coming Messiah; someone who will give them hope, but in the end he will only bring despair.  Paul refers to him as the “man of lawlessness.”  Others have called him the “superman that will rise out of the chaos.”  He will come as a symbol of peace, but instead will remove peace from the earth.
    I don’t think that stockpiling toilet paper will do a person any good.  In fact, I don’t think the hoarding of preppers will help them much either.  Right now governors and mayors  are telling people to turn in anyone they see not abiding by the rules set in place because of the virus.  If you think there is hate now, it will multiply after the Rapture has taken place.