Amos 7:14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:
One need not have the prophetic gifts to read the signs of the times.
Well, here we are again mourning another act of madness. We try to understand, but we cannot though we should understand perfectly. We pray that it will not happen again, but we must face reality and know that it will happen. In fact, I believe it will increase in frequency and intensity.
I do not know why exactly, but I was not caught off guard when all these shootings started. I looked around my world in the seventies and said that if the Lord tarried twenty years there would be Christian blood in the streets. Would to God that I had been wrong! I was only a young Christian then and not even aware that I was a budding preacher, but I knew that the Church has lost its respectability because it had lost its holiness and that the World saw it as fair game rather than off limits.
In the eighties, I suffered a taste of what I believe is to come for all Christians. My life was threatened and I was abused emotionally at my job. Those folks had religious ties but had no ties with Jesus. Everything I held sacred was mocked and I believe that if the old boy that threatened me had figured a way that he could get away with it I would not be here today.
In the nineties, we see people needing permission to pray a neutral prayer at a public gathering. They are threatened with punishment worse than what criminals receive should they mention Jesus and this insanity was by a Texas judge! I would have figured it in some other states, but never Texas. At least, I would have figured Texas to be the last state to fall to such incredible foolishness. Our forefathers are spinning like a Texas twister in their graves. If they were alive today, that judge and any others like him would have been disbarred for life for their ignorance of the foundational laws of this country.
Of course, they had backbones. Because we do not have the focus they had back then we wring our hands and whimper. We have laid around and played around this old world too long. We have kicked back under the Magnolia tree sippin’ on our non-alcoholic mint juleps enjoyin’ the breezes of the Promised Land rather than being in training for spiritual warfare. Our forefathers fought to give us religious freedom. We thought this would always be a Christian nation. We thought we could enjoy a peace dividend and disarm the Church and muster out the Christian soldiers. Well, just as America may soon reaps its so-called peace dividend with thermonuclear fires; we are being bombarded with the fiery darts of the devil.
It is time we wake up! (Eph 5:14) We have been derelict in our duties and slept on our watch and the base is being overrun. (Ezekiel 3:17) We may have signed a peace treaty with the devil, but Jesus did not. The Church went on R&R when Jesus was still sounding the charge. The Russian bear is only hibernating and getting ready for the Spring forage and the devil played possum until we slept and became fat, spoiled children who throw tempter tantrums. (Deut 32:15) Now, he is revealing himself as the devouring lion and murderer that he has been from the beginning. Why are we shocked? (1 peter 5:8; John 8:44) We have had plenty of warning and instruction to not be ignorant of his devices. (2 Cor. 2:11) Now he has the advantage over us because we have spent too much time chasing mammon and trying to make the World like us and find us respectable by watering down our mission and the message. (Luke 6:13, Matthew 10:33-39) We were told the world would hate us as it hated Christ (John 15:19-25)
We are not in Heaven. We are in country. For those not of a military background, in country is what you were when you landed in Viet Nam. We are in a war zone. We are not here to win the polls by pen, but win the souls of men. We have used the carnal weapons of politics rather than using our weapons of spiritual warfare. We are seeing the use of satan’s carnal weapons against us because we failed to be about our job of "casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (2 Cor 10:4,5)
Pauls says of the lost, "Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Rom 3:15-18) Is it any wonder that "blood toucheth blood" even in a church house? (Hosea 4:2) Verse one tells us that "there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land." Then we see the result of that in verse 2. "By swearing, and lying, and killing, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Well, hello America, 1999!!! We’re number one alright, verse one and we are suffering the results listed in verse two!
Let us look a little closer at verse 2. Surely, we do not hear any swearing in this country. It was interesting in Thailand when the Thais wanted to really peel the wallpaper off the wall they used English cuss words since they did not have anything much stronger than monkey butt or dirty dog in their language. It also carries the connotation of imprecate. For folks like me that don’t use those fifty cent words, it means to call down evil upon someone. To do that you have to call upon a higher power and do not many folks think God’s last name is damn? Do they not ask Him to damn or call down evil upon everything on the planet at one time or another? Yep, we have a little bit of swearing in the land.
After the nonsense and shenanigans of many politicians, I think we can say ’nuff said about lying. Killing is murder and fairly self-explanatory. The stealing here is more sneaky stealing and not armed robberies. Heard of any scams lately or insider trading? How about tax evasion or embezzlement as examples of sneaky stealing? God might put not paying the tithe in this category. (Malachi 3; 8,9) Yep, we have some sneaky stealing. Again, adultery is a word requiring no explanation.
Matthew Henry speaks to "they break out" as follows;
By these they break out, that is, they transgress all bounds of reason and conscience, and the divine law; they have exceeded (Job 36:9); they have been overmuch wicked (Eccl 7:17); they suffer their corruptions to break out; they themselves break over, and break through, all that stands in their way and would stop them in their sinful career, as water overflows the banks. Note, Sin is a violent thing and its power exorbitant; when men’s hearts are fully set in them to do evil (Eccl 8:11) what will be restrained from them? Gen 11:6.
(From Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
When they break out what happens? Blood toucheth blood refers to multiple murders. The blood of the victims touches each other. Now do we understand Columbine, Paducah, Fort Worth, and all the rest as skirmishes or operations in the spiritual war between God and satan? The victims are casualties of war and since the war will not be over until the new heaven and earth we will see the body count rise as "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse." (2 Tim 3:13) Paul says earlier in the chapter that in the last days perilous times will come and men will be among other things incontinent or without control and fierce. They will be despisers of those who are good or hostile to virtue. This is why we have so many problems.
Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! KJV
We live in an age where anything is tolerated except that which has been called good for centuries. Virginity is mocked and abstinence seen as an impossibility. Babies are not babies anymore unless they are wanted. Unwanted babies are just parasites or fetal tissue that can be sawed, burned, and hacked into the trash can. Darkness and death are hailed in music, movies, and video games. The list goes on and on, but enough has been said of the insanity of our age and the woe that is upon us!
Brothers and Sisters, it is long past time to put on the whole armor of God and finally fight the good fight of faith. We have met the enemy and for the most part, we are our own worst enemies. We do not know we are at war. We are unskilled in warfare and the use of our weapons. We are unsure of who is the enemy.
We do not read the Word. We do not pray. We do not witness in word and deed. We do not assemble. We do not fund the Church. We do not reach out to the poor or to our own wounded. We do not want to offend anyone with our uniforms and we are afraid to use our sword. We heed not the voice of our Commander-in-Chief.
We have only offensive weapons, but we want to be on the defense. We are to war against principalities, powers and wickedness in high places, but we spend our money and time attacking the ones in low places. We are to stand firm and hold our ground, but we have weak knees and compromise our convictions and theology to appeal to this present age. How can we wonder why the World is sick of us and our casualties rise?
It is time to repent and return to our first love. We must take back the ground we have lost by goldbricking and desertion. We must take it back on our knees and we may only gain it back an inch at a time, but victory is ours if we follow the manual of arms. Carnal armies cut down their enemies by killing and taking prisoner their enemies’ soldiers. The Army of God is to destroy the army of satan by setting the captives free into the new life of Christ!
It is time for satan's kingdom to suffer loss. It is time to tear down the strongholds of satan. We will not bring in the Kingdom, but we must occupy and brings souls into the Kingdom until the Kingdom comes. He who lives by the World’s sword shall die by it, but He who dies to the Sword of the Lord shall live! With such promises, my Brethren, will you join the fight? You were saved to be a soldier, not a deserter. Oh hear the call and then truly sing "Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the Cross of Jesus going on before."
