It’s funny how each year brings with it different challenges with the changing of the season. Last fall it was easy – the leaves fell little by little and I was able to keep up on them – mowing and raking and the weather was cooperative. This year that has not been the case. Most of October was cold and rainy and the leaves stayed on the trees for most of it. Then, about half of them fell midway through and it continued to rain. At the end of the month, we had some strong rain and wind and the rest fell and lay there in wet sodden clumps. This makes my job so much more difficult. It finally warmed up this past weekend, and thanks to some young people, we were able to get some major amounts of leaves raked in to piles and burned several of them. The leaves, not the teens. Of course, some pile jumping had to occur as some of these piles were seriously as big as a 50s vacation home. It was a great day and I felt good about what was accomplished.
There’s a lot going on in our country. I listen to various perspectives about decisions being made and have to wonder what will end up happening. There is a day coming, I believe very soon, where America will give away everything our forefathers fought for. We are a country of entitlement, and this health care debacle is just another item on a long list of things that someone apparently thinks we deserve. “Every American has the right to have health care provided for them” … so we are told. But I have not asked for it, nor do I wish it. Each of us will shoulder the burden of massive tax increases and decreased benefits. I watch and listen to these TEA party activists and wonder how far they are willing to take it. Will it be like the days of old when they rebel and throw the tea into the harbor and say “enough is enough?” How would our government respond? Would they be locked away as extremists or would their protest change the face of this country? I believe there is going to be a grassroots movement that will grow and swell in an effort to return America to the republic it was designed to be. But in the end, I wonder too if we are just playing a part in a grand script which ends with us as an insignificant footnote in the war to end all wars. We have been dismissed as non-existent in Bible prophecy, perhaps because, like many before us, our pride and lust for power and hedonistic self-gratificaton has blinded us from truth and has caused us to hand over our birthright to the prince of this world, who will raise up a man on the earth to unite the nations under his rule. Because of spiritual blindness and apathy, many will be fooled and will believe and support this man as the saviour of all our problems. Even Israel and Palestine will be at peace. And life will be unlike anything we have ever seen. At least for a while. Soon will come the terror. And life will be unlike anything we have ever known. 9/11 was a shock to our country, but there are things that will take place on this planet that will make that pale in comparison.
It’s the changing of the season for sure. And events have been set in motion that I never imagined I would see. Compromises and concessions are leading America down the road to socialism more quickly than I thought. For the most part, we have gone willingly, without much of a fight. Sure there are protesters and dissenters, but bill after bill is being passed with or without our consent. Tolerance is rampant, and no one dares speak about anything that might be taken as a possible offense toward a person of another color, creed or sexual preference. We have lost the ability to hold public discourse, and checks and balances seem to have been thrown away, with the appointing of governmental czars. America is in a precarious place, and our leadership is blind to the reality.
But it is part of the design, the master plan. And like it or not, we must be brought down, so that Jesus can come and remove he whom the enemy will raise up to rule when all else fails. And in the day of shaking, when the world is falling apart, the sky will split and a procession unlike anything we have seen or heard before will fill the air and make it’s way around the earth. A final battle unlike any battle ever waged on the earth will be fought, and a Jewish King, with scars on his hands and feet will sit astride a white horse and destroy the enemies of God with a sword of truth. No matter what you believe, there will be a day when each one of us will be on our faces before the King of the Universe confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord. What an amazing day that will be. And the earth will be recreated and made new, and those who believe will be here… on the new earth, with this King. Blows my mind when I think about it every time. Even so come Lord Jesus. Hasten your return.
Against all odds, I still have a hope inside of me that continues to believe the “Who knows if” of Joel 2 for our nation. I have to believe it!
As a side note, I hope that we’ll be close in proximity when it all goes down.