Day 11 – Get Ready, Get Set, GO!

January 16, 2010

I have been thinking, as I am sure much of the world has been, about the people of Haiti and the suffering they are enduring. 

The situation was brought to my attention during our Wednesday morning senior’s Bible Study. Someone asked if I had heard from our daughter, Lori, since the earthquake. This was all news to me! Lori was with her YWAM mission in the Dominican Republic, the other side of the mountains from Haiti, and so they wondered if there had been any news from her. There hadn’t – and still hasn’t, but I am sure they are fine.

Then we heard that a friend from Vancouver was in a building that collapsed in the earthquake. She was there checking out some things for a future mission's trip with Impact World.  Thankfully she is home safe and sound now but she said things were pretty grim there! 

We were studying Daniel 9 in Bible Study that day, and the whole context of the news and study got me thinking about how so often people blame God for these disasters. We even call them “acts of God”. 

There are increasingly more and more of these disasters around the globe, but there is a little talked about common factor in these events.  Many of them happen in the places that have been most closed to the gospel of Jesus. 

Even here in the US, Katrina hit the city that is known for its voodoo and “sinful fun”.  In Indonesia where there, it was in the Muslim region that was totally closed to the gospel and any other outside influence that was so devastated by an earthquake, and now Haiti, which has twice been dedicated to satan by its people. Fifty percent of Haitians practice voodoo.

If we could but remember that it is satan’s agenda to kill, steal and destroy and God’s to take upon Himself the sin of the whole world to SAVE and REDEEM us, maybe we could see and hear His urgent plea to come to Him and receive the gifts of love and forgiveness that He so readily offers. 

There were many Christians who lost their lives as well in the Haiti earthquake. People who were in there trying to make a difference for these poorest of people and bring the love and freedom of God to their lives.  So I am not saying that being a Christian will protect you from disaster, but I am saying that as you look at the places where disaster has hit, those places where people acknowledge and call on the name of the Lord have much less loss of life (apx 1,836 people in New Orleans) compared to those who do not (as many as 200,000 people in Haiti).

When people turn from God they leave themselves open to the evil one to come in. This is how satan treats his followers!  his only agenda is to kill, steal and destroy! Maybe now the world will begin to see him for who he is and turn their hearts to the true Living God, Jesus, and choose Him to be their God.

One of the interesting things that happens in disasters like these, is that Christians are some of the first to respond. They come in with the Love of God and relief aid. This is what happened in Indonesia, the largerst Muslim nation in the world.  After the earthquake there, the Christians came in with relief aid and the gospel, and many thousands have turned to Jesus as their Saviour. there is a revival going on in Jakarta.

It is too bad that we wait until things finally get "bad enough" to go to God. He is able to save and protect and wants to do that for us. He is NOT out to get us! He died to SAVE us! One of the ministries in Haiti, World Concern, which is based in Shoreline, WA where we live, was the only building standing in the area! All the other buildings were rubble, but it was unharmed!  God is ALIVE and POWERFUL to save those who call on His name!

When we put our trust in God, and are in right relationship with Him, we don't have to fear. His perfect love gets rid of the fear, because we know that even if we die, we will live forever with Him. That is the hope of the Christian faith, and what Jesus came to earth to buy for us.

I have spent my whole life believing that I would see the second coming of the Lord. I believe the end is near – I don't know about 2012 because scripture tells us NO ONE BUT GOD knows when, but scripture gives us signs to look for, and we have seen almost all of them fulfilled!

Now is the time to be looking at our relationship with God; making sure that we are not trusting our own righteousness, but God's love and grace through Jesus, to keep us safe. We want to be sure that all of our family members know and believe what Jesus did for them so that they will put their trust in HIM and HIS righteousness to cover their sins, as well.

Our hope is in the finished work of Jesus on the cross that triumphed over the enemy and won back for Himself fallen mankind.  One day satan will be forced to bow down to Jesus.

24 Then the end will come, when he (satan) hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He (Jesus) has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. …

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.  

24 Then the end will come, when he (satan) hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He (Jesus) has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. …

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true:

"Death has been swallowed up in victory."

55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.   (1 Cor 15: 24-26, 51-58 - NIV)

God is alive and wants to have a relationship with us. The enemy only offers suffering and death, even when it looks like power and influence. There is a way that seems right to man but ends in death – here and in eternity.

I pray that you know Jesus and have a living relationship with Him.  If you don’t and would like to know how you can, please leave me a message and I would be happy to walk you into that place of intimacy with God.

For those of us who do know Jesus already, I would like to share a verse that the Lord gave me one day.  It goes for us all.

Peace & Love,

Holly M. <><