Here it is, the beginning of March 1997. The Passover season
is just around the corner. Today, Sunday the 2nd of March, the
state of Arkansas was hit by a dozen or more tornados, deadly and
destructive. More destruction and deaths swept the whole area
from Texas to Ohio. The scenes were heart wrenching. Oh, such
has it been for many parts of the USA in the last number of
years. Floods, famine, heat waves, snow beyond memory, in many
parts of the land. Hurricanes and tornados multiplied as never
before.
The days are perilous and frightening. We live in the time
Jesus warned about in Matthew 24, before the greatest tribulation
that the world has ever experienced, would come on this earth,
about three and one half years before this age and His return
would transpire, to usher in the age to come that all the
prophets have spoken about since the world began.
But before that age of peace, tranquility, health, joy and
salvation for all nations is to come, there is much hardship,
pain, and sorrow, for our peoples to endure, IF, yes if as a
people we will not repent, turn to our God in humble obedience.
All this force of nature unleashed on parts of the USA
reminds me again of the words the Eternal God has spoken to our
peoples through the mouth of the prophets, and the prophet Amos
in particular.
We pick up the words the Lord says to us in chapter 4, and
verse 2.
"....The Lord God has sworn by His holiness, that. lo, the
days shall come upon you, that He will take you away with hooks,
and your posterity with fishhooks......And I have also given you
cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all
your places: yet YOU HAVE NOT RETURNED UNTO ME, says the Lord.
And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet
three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one
city, and caused it not to rain upon another city.....YET YOU
HAVE NOT RETURNED UNTO ME, says the Lord. I have SMITTEN YOU WITH
BLASTING AND MILDEW......YET YOU HAVE NOT RETURNED UNTO ME......I
have sent among you the PESTILENCE......YOUR YOUNG MEN HAVE I
SLAIN WITH THE SWORD......YET YOU HAVE NOT RETURNED UNTO
ME......I have OVERTHROWN SOME OF YOU, AS GOD OVERTHREW SODOM AND
GOMORRAH......YET YOU HAVE NOT RETURNED UNTO ME.......THEREFORE
THUS I WILL DO UNTO YOU, O ISRAEL: AND BECAUSE I WILL DO THIS
UNTO YOU, PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD, O ISRAEL. For, lo, He that
forms the mountains, and creates the wind......that treads upon
the high places of the earth, the Eternal, The God of hosts, is
His name.........Hear you this word.....o house of
Israel......For thus says the Lord God: The city that went out by
a thousand shall leave a hundred, and that city which went forth
by a hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel. For thus
says the Lord unto the house of Israel, SEEK YOU ME, AND YOU
SHALL LIVE.....Seek the Lord, and you shall live, lest He break
out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it......You who
TURN JUDGMENT TO WORMWOOD, AND LEAVE OFF RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE
EARTH......Seek Him who makes the seven stars and Orion.....The
Lord is His name......They HATE HIM THAT REBUKES IN THE GATE, AND
THEY ABHOR HIM THAT SPEAKS UPRIGHTLY.....FOR I KNOW YOUR MANIFOLD
TRANSGRESSIONS AND YOUR MIGHTY SINS......SEEK GOOD AND NOT EVIL,
THAT YOU MAY LIVE.....HATE THE EVIL, AND LOVE THE GOOD, and
establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of
hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, says thus;
Wailing shall be in all the streets; and they shall say in all
the highways, Alas! Alas!.......And in all the vineyards shall be
wailing: FOR I WILL PASS THROUGH YOU, says the Lord........I
HATE, I DESPISE YOUR FEAST DAYS, AND I WILL NOT SMELL IN YOUR
SOLEMN ASSEMBLIES......take you away from me the noise of your
songs; for I will not hear the melody of your viols. BUT LET
JUDGMENT RUN DOWN AS WATERS, AND RIGHTEOUSNESS AS A MIGHTY
STREAM........."
SOME OF THIS DESTRUCTION IS MAN MADE; NOT BEING IN HARMONY WITH NATURE. BUT GOD IS NOT PREVENTING IT; HE IS LETTING US REAP WHAT WE SOW. HIS HAND OF PROTECTION IS NOT OVER US ANY MORE.
The Eternal God is far from being pleased with our so called
"Christian nations" and our outward form of religion. We have not
really sought for TRUE REPENTANCE and true righteousness, the
righteousness of the Lord. SOME churches may be full on Sundays,
we may (and most of us do) claim we believe in God, and claim to
be Christian, but in spirit and in truth and works and with a
contrite heart, we deny Him and His way.
We continue to practice sin as defined by the word of the Lord.
God says we have left off true judgment and righteousness(see
Ps.119:172 for a Bible definition of righteousness). The feasts
days we observe as a people, God despises, and if you think
He is there with us in our solemn assemblies(Easter,
Thanksgiving, Christmas, January 1st, All Souls Day, and the
rest) then you think wrong, for He tells us He is not!
True Godliness, holiness, righteousness, seeking the good,
hating the evil, establishing correct judgment, is far from us.
Many of us go about externally establishing what we say is
righteousness(don't touch this or don't touch that, put this away
from off your clothes, body, skin, hair, don't drink this or
that, give up altogether or for forty days at "lent" time, this
thing or that thing), while the weightier matters of the law are
neglected.
SOME want to go to church with a Bible in our hand, while we
establish "free abortion" as a way of life. We want to say we are
a Christian nation, while we continue to legalize homosexual
marriages with child raising rights, and even ordain homosexuals
to the church ministry.
God looks down upon us with all our mountainous sins
stinking His nose, and because He loves us, He corrects us,
sometimes directly, sometimes by allowing our own ways to turn on
us. Some of that correction the Eternal lays out for us in Amos
chapters four and five.
The Lord does not want us to suffer and die. He has no
pleasure in the death of the wicked. He will punish and correct
in order that we will not perish but REPENT and turn again to Him
and His mercy and salvation.
"Therefore I WILL JUDGE YOU, O house of Israel, every one
according to his ways, says the eternal God. REPENT, AND TURN
yourselves from ALL YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS; SO INIQUITY SHALL NOT BE
YOUR RUIN. Cast away from you all your transgressions......and
MAKE YOU A NEW HEART AND A NEW SPIRIT: FOR WHY WILL YOU DIE, O
house of Israel? For I have NO PLEASURE IN THE DEATH OF HIM THAT
DIES, says the Lord God: wherefore TURN YOURSELVES AND LIVE!
(Ezek.18:30-32).
Do you still "sigh and cry for all the abominations that be
done in the midst thereof"? (see Ezek.9:1-9).
Jesus said that we would not have gone over the cities of
Israel until the Son of man came. There is MUCH LEFT TO DO in
teaching and warning our peoples about sin, repentance,
righteousness, HUMBLE OBEDIENCE to God, and the coming(already it
is here) death and sorrow and punishment, for our peoples IF we
do not as nations turn and repent towards our God.
Let's be about our Father's work and business in whatever
way He has given us, with whatever doors He has opened for us to
spread and teach His word and truths. We have all been called to
do our part in being a WATCHMAN for God, so some may turn and
live (Ezek.33).
................................................
Keith Hunt(March 1997)
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