A good friend once told me “if God brings you to it, HE will bring you through it”. I know deep within the essence of my soul to let go and let God. But at times the challenge is not obvious, nor is it easy. The darkness of fear is a creeping sense, a strange manipulative whisper. If it was obvious, it would be easier for me to confront. That is my skill set, that is my approach toward all things of darkness. Turn on the light, drag it kicking and screaming into the forefront and then confront it directly. But alas, it knows, in its hateful manipulative way, the direct approach is ultimately far less effective than just a stealthy whisper in the shadow behind me. If evil faced me head on, I could crush it in the sunlight of battle. I’m strong enough that way to never fear that which I can see and even if I don’t understand it I can apply my sense of center to overcoming it.
It is the things unseen, the whispers, the shadows, the possibilities that turn frustration to worry, and strength to doubt. Darkness is really good, artfully skilled, at placing itself just out of reach, keeping you on alert and senses tingling in anticipation of the worry and frustration providing just enough fatigue to drop your guard. It is patient. Deviliously patient. A creeping lurking movement, drawing strength from the fear or frustration it is able to create. As a kid its the shadow in the half-open closet door. Common sense tells you to just get out of bed and shut it. But in the aloneness of your mind, it’s not that easy is it?
As adults the closets are bigger and no longer confined to an arbitrary bedroom; the doors are different, not really doors at all. And the worries are different, present even when the lights are on. The darkness is visible more because as we age we are able to sense the character of those who carry it within them. We are able to sense ulterior motives and see the hidden agendas so the darkness adapts, becomes more deceptive, and finds new ways to enter our environment.
I find it difficult to describe, but it seems like there is a strong electric charge in the air that is causing anxiety around our planet. Uprisings are springing up in every corner of the world. People are spontaneously taking to the streets in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain, Algeria, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Nigeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Albania, Pakistan, Syria, Belgrade, Serbia, Croatia, and China. Western mainstream media has attempted to explain these spontaneous uprisings as a longing for freedom and democracy by the oppressed nations of the world, but this reasoning seems a bit hollow and empty. Why now? What’s different? Something far more complex, and perhaps even supernatural, is taking place and it just seems incredibly powerful.
The intangible fear of impending calamity has pushed the levels of violence all over the Earth to an all time high. Never in the history of the world has both the crying for peace and the screaming for war been so deafening.
Gold is at an all time high because people no longer have any faith in the dollar. People are stockpiling food and they are buying guns out of fear for the future rather than fear of crime. For many months ammunition manufacturers have had a difficult time keeping up with demand. People are sensing something really big and really bad is perhaps about to happen and people all over the world can feel something. Something coming.
The world economy is far too deeply in debt to recover by the methods of our historical construction, and it appears teetering on the brink of collapse. The world banking system is a house of cards that is being artificially propped up by its own bankrupt members. Many state a collapse is long overdue and when it does finally come the result will be cataclysmic. Some are now predicting on that day somebody, some entity, will be standing in the wings and will pick up all of the broken pieces and will put them back together in a single worldwide system that everybody will be required to belong to in order to conduct even the simplest of transactions. Financial irresponsibility will be a thing of the past because each transaction, no matter how large or small, will be tracked in real-time by one central system.
In the past atheists didn’t believe and didn’t care, they were just complacent disingenuous non religious believers in only themselves. Now however they all seem to be rabidly obsessed on a mission to eliminate every trace of Christianity and Judaism, yet nobody seems to feel compelled to stamp out any other religion other than Christianity and Judaism. What gives?
Religious persecution has increased in frequency and intensity to the point where Christians are fleeing for their lives from the entire Middle East, as well as other parts of the world. Over the past few decades the Muslim world seemed to be relatively content to live and let live as long as Christians did not disparage Allah or Mohammad. Now it seems there is an ever-increasing determination to kill every Christian and eliminate all traces of our history and even all traces of our very existence. What changed? The Islamic community at times almost appears to be frightened of Christians and lashing out against almost the entire non-muslim world.
When Paul told us immorality would increase, his words were very matter of fact. In the past immorality increased in a subtle, almost coy manner, like a cancer silently spreading through the body of its host. However, in recent years the intensity of immorality has multiplied itself exponentially and, most disturbingly, with a shocking viciousness. Immorality is now so centrally center stage that many are so proud of their sin they march in the streets demanding to be recognized as a special, privileged class. We have actually reached the point where it is literally a crime to say (or even imply) that any immoral consideration is a defect of humanity. Is evil really being called good and good being called evil?
Is it just me, or has filthiness become the accepted norm in far too many places where just a short time ago it was not only considered vulgar, but also unacceptable as well? Even more disturbingly, has the viciousness of sexualization being forced upon our children increased dramatically? Many believe they have, and sense that something much worse is in their future because of it.
All of these activities have intensified immensely. In every direction we look we see the writing on the walls. So, what can we do about it? Stockpiling gold, food, and .44 magnum jacketed hollow point ammunition is not the answer.
Perhaps the first thing we should do – the most important thing we should do – is to be absolutely certain that our reservation has been make to be in heaven. A faith in our Lord that He is the only path to God and that He is the one and only Savior of the World, and a request in which we must go to Jesus in prayer and ask Him to be our Savior. At the instant of death our eternal fate is sealed. Our time here on this Earth is precious, but it is a gift. There is no guarantee that we will still possess life here on this Earth a moment from now. Then maybe the second thing we could do is to use the time that we have remaining to make sure those around us know love. Not just our love, but the love of an eternal God. Finding faith and understanding that with faith comes hope eternal.
