By Jim Towers
Being a “people person” I’ve met and talked to people of various persuasions and ideologies. I’ve talked to brilliant people, dumb people, ignorant people, preachers, judges, articulate people, funny people, angry people, hurting people, sick people, lonely people, uppity people, perverts, harlots, weirdoes, charlatans, and scallywags. In so doing, the one thing I’ve noticed is that we all have the human tendency to sin and to take God for granted, forgetting to thank Him for anything but asking for everything. That is if we even believe in Him at all.
Human beings are resilient, stubborn and hard headed sinners, and God knows it. They leave Him no alternative but to shake them awake. For some the shaking will take the form of life threatening illness, death in the family or financial loss.
Today, in spite of all the hate, killings, rebellion and apostasy, most people act as if life will continue as usual and most take God for granted. Although God loves us, He is nobody’s patsy or Santa Claus. He is just in His dealings with mankind. It must grieve Him when you think you know him through reading books or saying pretty but repetitious prayers and willingly betray Him behind His back.
What a world we live in; a world in which black is white and right is wrong. Today there are only different shades of gray. We’re all sinners, even preachers have a propensity to sin, and unless they’ve had a direct encounter with Jesus Christ, it’s a very easy thing to do. God lets us stumble through life without interfering until we reach out to him in utter humility and with weak knees.
Members of our former corrupt government are falling like dominoes, and are finally beginning to face the consequences of their actions; while despots in other countries are destroying their own people because of their greed and power madness. The way things are going and with Biblical prophecy being fulfilled at a very rapid rate, the time for playing church is over. It’s finally time to get real. It’s a time of reflection and repentance toward God before He unleashes His fury upon unrepentant sinners who take Him for granted.
In Guam people are turning to prayer like never before after Kim Jong-Un threatened to hit that island with ballistic missiles, and even lobbed some in their direction. The North Korean despot did so because there is a strong U.S. military presence on the island.
Yes, the time of chastening is upon us, and we deserve it for throwing in our lot with the devil and letting criminals run our nation. Although God is longsuffering and loves His creation, He will soon be forced to reveal His well deserved wrath toward the ungodly. You can count on it.
Many back sliders and apathetic Christians will be chastened as well in these final days of human history. The shaking is sure to intensify, but we shouldn’t despise it since it brings about repentance, and repentance brings about reconciliation and peace. This may just be our last call.
What is it going to take for people to wake up and repent and seek God’s face? God is already shaking up the world with earthquakes, famine, and political upheaval and is even letting us express our hate for one another. It seems He’s letting us hang ourselves with our Godless behavior while He increases the intensity of shaking to awaken humanity to our need for Him.
In spite of that, “God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Furthermore, “God chastises those he loves.” And He loves us all.
Ultimately, some will continue in disobedience and thereby destroy themselves in doing so. But some of us will bend the knee from all that we see happening in our country and around the globe. Soon He will burst forth and reveal Himself to all mankind and there will be no more taking Him for granted. No more manipulating Him with promises we don’t intend to keep. God’s chastisement is coming and we shouldn’t resent it, since it is only meant to wake us up.
“It’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” But it doesn’t have to be that way for you if you are a believer. You can rest in His presence if you draw close to Him with a contrite and repentant heart, and today is a good day to do so.
Christian movie makers are licking their wounds and deciding whether to continue on, since only a small fraction of movie going audiences attend their often syrupy trite and feel good movies. The money just isn’t there and neither are people’s interests.
I just watched a movie produced by Tommy Lee Jones of the “Men in Black” series. He and one other actor, Samuel H. Jackson, starred in this two-man movie staged in one room. It was all dialogue with not one scene of action or violence. The 2011 made for television movie “The Sunset Limited” was rented from the public library.
The two characters discussed the existence of God and even mentioned Jesus Christ as Savior, ( a savior who had reached out in an audible voice to the hardened criminal portrayed by Jackson). Jackson’s character, who rescued a much learned professor (Jones) from committing suicide, discuss the meaning of life across a small table.
In the middle of the table sitting in the rundown room was a well worn Bible, a book that the former criminal knew well. The professor had lost all hope and articulated his dilemma well. Both men put up a good defense for their way of thinking. The well made movie was thought provoking to say the least. This was a good approach to dealing with matters of life and death.
Like the character portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson, receive Jesus Christ today and have a peace like he did, one that surpasses all understanding. “If you will believe in your hear and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved.”
YBIC
Jim Towers jt.filmmaker@yahoo.com and www.thepropheciesmovie and book.