John 9:25He answered, "Whether or not He's a sinner, I don't know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!"
The words of the above scripture and of the song Amazing Grace describe what happened in my life just three short years ago. I too, was lost and found. I too, was blind and now see. And now that I see, I also see how many are blind.
They’re good people. Church going people. Co-workers. Friends. Relatives. They’re the people on TV. They’re the lady standing behind me at the checkout. The girl in the car next to me. The man who changes the oil on my car. The kid at the drive thru. They’re busy living their lives. Trying to make ends meet. Dating. Enjoying their children and grandchildren. Working overtime. Going to school. Planning for retirement. Shopping for the holidays.
Thanksgiving was last week and I had much to be thankful for. We all did, my family and me, as we have all been blessed with good health, good jobs, roofs over our heads, the clothes on our backs, food in our bellies and all the necessities of life. It felt rushed though, because everyone had somewhere to go and something to do after the short visit with family and a meal. Half the family disappeared into the media room to watch the game. A few others left to attend other family gatherings. The house was like a beehive of activity for about three hours and then they were gone.
I had brief opportunities to speak of our ministry and the work we are doing in various conversations with family members. I also had the opportunity to warn of the coming wrath when discussion came up about the economy and all the financial difficulties that surround us. It’s a common conversation these days because if the people who bring it up aren’t experiencing it themselves, they know someone who is. When they ask me what I think about it, I tell them “I hate to say it, but it will only get worse because we’re in the middle of the Tribulation.”
Of course that makes me in their eyes, a “downer” or a “dooms-dayer” and a “fear mongerer”, because everyone wants to speculate that things will get better in time. Many have seen hard times before or heard the stories from Grandparents who lived through the Great Depression and World War II. They say people have been predicting the end of the world for thousands of years and it had yet to happen. They hear the media saying it will be a year or at the most fourteen months before we’re able to climb out of the financial crisis we’re in and they hold out hope that they won’t be one of the ones affected like those they see on TV living without electricity or in Tent Cities. They pray they’ll keep their jobs and that next summer or Christmas they’ll get to take that big family vacation and that the stocks will again rise and their retirement funds and pensions will remain intact.
Isaiah 43:8 “Bring out a people who are blind, yet have eyes, and are deaf, yet have ears.”
They don’t believe me when I say it will get worse. They don’t believe me when I say we’re experiencing the Tribulation. But it’s the truth, and they are blind just as I was three, nearly four short years ago.
They don’t see that we are all being poisoned from food, water and the air supply and that the entire world is becoming a cesspool of ill health because their health is good.
But what about the millions around the world who are suffering and dyeing from cancers and various diseases, illnesses and plagues?
They don’t see that global warming will continue to happen, with drastic weather changes that are here to say until Father’s plan is completed because they only watch the news for the weather where they live and the weather where they live is just fine.
But what about the millions around the world who have lost their lives and their homes and crops in Hurricanes, mudslides, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tsunamis, tornadoes and cyclones?
They don’t see that global monetary collapse is around the corner because they have savings and good jobs and a roof over their heads and haven’t yet been touched with financial distress.
But what about the millions around the world who have lost their jobs and/or their homes either due to the global financial crisis, religious persecution and natural disasters?
Satan has blinded people with false information and false beliefs and he also keeps them busy just trying to make ends meet so that they don’t have the time to evaluate what is really happening unless they stop and make time for it. But who has time to stop when the day is already filled to the brim with work, responsibilities, bills to pay, kids to chauffeur around, errands to run, chores to do and worries and anxieties galore? They are living each day as it comes and perhaps planning for years ahead in the future when they are old, but they aren’t stopping to take a look around at the reality of the world we currently live in.
When I shared my experiences at Thanksgiving with members of my family and the fact that despite my efforts to warn them they simply did not see, the following was shared with me via one of Father’s Holy Angels:
“Faith is believing in something that does not seem logical to fleshly thinking, and because of this they cannot figure out why things are as they are, and cannot understand why Father has permitted evil to flourish down to the end times, nor can they figure out how Father can right the injustice of a world that seeks only science for its answers. To them, logic is man's way and not that of a God that promises destruction upon a world that does not obey Her. Father's ways are not those of mankind's. Because some believe that Father is love - and rightly She is, they think love will not also bring calamity upon those She has spawned forth. But Father brought calamity upon the flesh and blood of the very one She loves the most - Christ Jesus, Her Word. She did so in an effort to not only show Her love for the lower creation, but also to prove Her love by not wiping mankind off the map of Her creation.”
It was our Christ Jesus who healed the blind. I cannot heal the blind. I cannot make them see. All I can do is warn them of the impending wrath so that when it happens they will not fall away but instead realize that it represents the end of all that is evil and the promise of the Kingdom’s establishment and eternal life. All I can do is continue to serve and pray that there will come a day that those who are blinded will see.
“I will lay waste mountains and hills,
and dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn rivers into islands,
and dry up marshes.
I will lead the blind by a way they did not know;
I will guide them on paths they have not known.
I will turn darkness to light in front of them,
and rough places into level ground.
This is what I will do for them,
and I will not forsake them.”
Isaiah 42:15-16
On my drive home from the Thanksgiving family gathering, as the sun set off to my left and turned the sky into glorious colors of reds, oranges and pinks. And as off to my right, the moon made its first appearance of the night the thought came to me… “Even amidst the darkness, Her light does still shine.” It was like a visual message calling out to Her children walking in the darkness of this world. A reminder that even when calamity does strike, and it will, She will still be there for all who were blind but now see.
Mark 10:49 “Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called the blind man and said to him, "Have courage! Get up; He's calling for you."