Let God be true and every man found a liar’. Romans 3:4
Tonight my son asked the ancient question, ‘Why does God allow this?’ That is, why do good people suffer? He is understandably horrified by the deaths in Syria and Turkey. We all are.
The answer is found in recalling to mind that God is the eternal judge, of men and events, and times. No matter what we see, or are able to understand, we must know He is righteous; He is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all. And never forget it.
There is nothing that has befallen men, except that it is a common fate dating back through the millennia. Perhaps man’s greatest error is in esteeming this life as anything more than a proving ground for eternity.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now… For the earnest expectation of the creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God. Romans 8:19, 22
2 weeks ago, I wrote about the testing we face in life. All of us spend time in Biblical ‘Egypt’. Some come out with the strong arm of God. Some don’t make it out. Joseph understood that Egypt would not be the last place for God’s people. Nor will earth. So he commanded his bones be taken with his kin at their departure.[1]
We all need the faith of Joseph. We need to hold the Kingdom to come as so real, so dear to our hearts, that we can survive whatever life doles out. I didn’t say enjoy it.. but survive it. Even as the author and captain of our fate, Jesus, endured the cross - despising the shame and is now set down on the right hand of God - for his obedience.
(I’m not saying it’s easy. I reckon that there is not a one that gets out of here unscathed. Not a one).
We all have a common ancestor in Adam. When his children branched out, most were lukewarm in their relationship with God – a trait that dogged the Lord God for millennia. Some even entertained Adam’s original rebellion. Think Nimrod - the founder of the most evil empire on earth in its day - Babylon - whose mirror reflection is unfolding even now.
The rare Old Testament saints who followed God closely were virtually alone in their generation. Think of Noah, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Nehemiah, Daniel and a handful of others. They were so unique in their faith, that the persecuted prophet, Elijah, was convinced he was alone in the world.
Today I saw this photograph of a building under construction in Turkey. (above) It looks like an accident waiting to happen. It did. Few people indoors such buildings escaped. One man took a walk to get a cup of tea. While he was out for a few minutes, his apartment building collapsed. People see this as ‘fate’. Or serendipity. It can be any of those things, for men without Christ are relegated to the status of a statistic.
But what of those who are ‘in Christ’? My son asked about this too, considering how many Christians suffer early deaths - and also, his having only just seen the remarkable story of a man whose life was saved, who should have died! An 18 wheeler truck fell on top of Bruce, nearly slicing him in two. But he lived. (I looked on the internet just now, for a photo of the miracle man, and found dozens of articles about people who did not survive such a thing.)
That’s where it gets Biblical. And this is the point of this post..
That man who was killed (and came back to life) - Bruce - was a Christian, working as a truck mechanic. His story is so fantastic, that the History Channel filmed him, intending to ‘out him’ as a fake. Instead they realized, and published - that his ugly death and return to life - was a verifiable miracle.
For some it begs the question - ‘Why was he saved, when so many people in Turkey, and Syria, and Ukraine, Russia, the USA, China, etc, aren’t. Why was this man’s life spared?
Well, for one thing, it nearly wasn’t. He died twice. But the Lord God sent 2 amazing people to him – the first was the medic attending the man bleeding out under a truck – she called him twice back to life - and twice he chose to listen. The next was the man who prayed over him in the hospital – leading to a creative miracle where 9 feet of intestines - that had been surgically removed from his body – were put back!
So, why was his life spared? Why were 2 miracle workers sent to him in the nick of time?
For one reason – He called upon the name of the Lord.
In that TERRIBLE SITUATION laying there in indescribable pain, the blood pouring from his mouth, the man thought of his lord, and called out to him.
What you SAY in the moment of crisis, locks the consequence in place.
(Remember the man in Turkey, who wasn’t home when the house fell on everyone else? What about a house that fell, right next to one that remained standing? It reminds me of the tornados in Oklahoma, that pulverize a house - and leave the house next door untouched. What can’t the Lord do - if only people would ask him?)
So why don’t we see this sort of thing more often? Why is a man getting totally delivered by the Lord such a notable miracle today, instead of a daily routine in the churches? Is Mark 16:18 a lie? (Let God be true..)
I’ll answer those questions with questions:
How many Christians go to the Lord when they’re sick. And how many go to doctors first?
How many churches closed in 2020, when a - (ultimately to be proven - non existent) - ‘virus was in the streets’1.
How many saints put on the Babylonian garment – (Masks) - covering themselves with a covering - and asking not at the mouth of God. (Isaiah 30:1,2)
The Church is not a bastion of faith today. The Lord saw this in his day and asked rhetorically – Will I find faith when I return?
Moses lived to see 100% of the Children of Israel DISBELIEVE God and line up behind 10 fearful men. (Numbers 13) ALL of them wound up perishing save 2 men who believed what God had said.
Jesus Christ saw so little faith, that when a gentile military officer believed in his ability to save his servant’s life, the Lord ‘marveled’ – and then lamented – I have not found so great faith - no not in Israel’.
Now ask yourself a question –
How many of you have taught your children that when they face danger of any kind, to ‘call upon the name of the Lord’?
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What sayeth the Scripture? ‘WHOSOEVER, shall call upon the name of the Lord ‘SHALL BE SAVED’. (Romans 10:13)
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ALL OF US HEAR THE STATISTICS – SOME 800,000 CHILDREN IN THE UNITED STATES GO MISSING EVERY YEAR.. How many of them came from Christian homes? Why didn’t they know to call out to Jesus? WHY? (Exactly WHAT are the ministers preaching anyway?)
How many of you thought that verse only applied to salvation?......
(While we’re on the subject - Did you know that verse contains a double blessing? What do I mean? If a person is in danger of any kind, and cries- ‘LORD SAVE ME’ - they get 2 benefits –
1) They get immediate rescue from whatever the danger is,
2) They win eternal salvation. (If they don’t have it already that is.)
How can that possibly be?
Well, let’s quickly review the instructions the Apostle Paul gave to the Church for getting saved..
Romans 10:9 & 10
‘If thou shalt confess with your mouth, Jesus as LORD, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, thou SHALT be saved.
For with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, and with the heart man believes unto righteousness’.
How’s that again…?
A person in danger yells ‘LORD’HELP ME’ - He just called him ‘Lord’ and obviously believes that he is ALIVE to be called upon !
That man just fulfilled the requirements to not only be saved from danger – but gain the hope of eternal life.
Do you now see why tragedies like that which just happened in Turkey and Syria – happen all over the world?
The Scripture asks - How can they believe except there be a preacher? (Romans 8:14)
But how can Christians teach the Syrians and Turks something they themselves don’t believe..
How can Christians demonstrate for others the confidence in His NAME that they don’t practice themselves?
How many people in the world are failing to get saved, because they see no reason to believe in the Christian’s God…? When they see the fear in the lives of Christians..?
My son and I also talked about David.
David was the ONLY man in all of Israel willing to stand up to the Giant. And he wasn’t even a soldier. He was about 23 years old, and a shepherd. But there was something inside of him that burned like a furnace in his heart – a faith in God that no other man in Israel apparently shared. David had put God to the test. At one time he defended his flock from a lion, another time from a bear. He proved God. And God proved true. David didn’t take the easy road. (That would have been to run away from danger, and later tell his dad that they’d lost some sheep that day.)
When that truck fell down on Bruce and he saw his own midriff cut to within an inch of the ground, the easy thing would have been to close his eyes and give up the ghost. It took a lot of courage at such a time to open his mouth and call on the name of the Lord. Both men proved God, (Bruce and King David) and both were rewarded.’
When you step out in faith – the Lord God will never let you down.
NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER
Not crying and begging, not fear, but faith. What is faith? Faith is looking at God and NOT at the circumstances. God is INVISIBLE Hebrews 11:1 says FAITH is seeing the invisible. The Lord taught it to his disciples by walking on the invisible – (Water).
How often do you let the Lord call you out of the boat?
How often do you prove him?
Don’t wait to prove God when a crisis hits.
That’s what happened in 2020. Too many saints had never tested God before, never tested the promise that ‘nothing can by any means harm you’.. The saints did what the disciples did (before Pentecost changed them),.. they went into hiding. Locked down – ‘behind closed doors for fear..’ (John 20:19)
The time to prove God is EVERY SINGLE DAY.
In the 1980s there was a joke. It goes like this.. ‘Some guy came to NYC and found a parking space, so he went out and bought a car’. In the ministry in Manhattan in those days, we would practice ‘proving God’ by praying for a parking space. I never failed to find one – so I went out and bought a car. No kidding.
Safety and salvation are no laughing matter. Proving God daily is something to teach ourselves and our children.
I taught this to my son, Nikolai, early on. He has known to ‘call upon the name of the Lord from childhood’. He had it down at age 2 - and was starting to preach himself at that age. Twice in his young life, Nick came within an inch of being killed. Twice he walked away miraculously with his life intact. That happened to me too. Twice in my life I came within seconds of being killed – Each time I called out ‘FATHER HELP ME’, and saw a miracle happen immediately. (Some of these stories are found in my book ‘THE TYRANNY of MASKS’, which chapter I’ll eventually share here. It would make this post way too long to add them here).
The best proof of my family’s habit of proving God faithful - was during the fraudulent ‘pandemic’.
We never wore masks, we never even considered taking shots, we never locked down, or closed our business. In fact, our businesses were busy in 2020, because everyone else in our industries had closed up shop! You see friend, even if there were a spectre of death marching through the cities in the form of a virulent contagion – it didn’t matter to us. WE BELIEVE GOD. END of STORY. THERE WAS NEVER A LICK OF FEAR.
Neither did we post PSALMS 9l banners on our closed business, or our web site (as many churches did) and pretend that we were ‘safe only in our houses’.
Psalm 91 was not written to the Church. It was written to an apostate Israel, by Moses – trying to convince them of God’s care and protection. (Read Psalm 90 too! “…we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath we are troubled…’) These were people in rebellion and unbelief that Moses was trying to calm the fears of. Psalm 90 and 91 have nothing to do with the Church of Jesus Chris.
No - OUR promises are MUCH bigger! > Do read Luke 10:19.
The Church of born again saints is not just safe at home – hell no. This is NOT EGYPT, and this is NOT A PLAGUE FROM GOD. (If it was, do you think a mask made in China would thwart it?)
We have AUTHORITY over ALL of the evil in this world! We are covered in the blood everywhere we go! NOT just at home. OUR complete covering in the Blood – is the SUBSTANCE of which the blood on the mantel in Egypt was only the shadow.
The OLD COVENTANT was replaced by a much BETTER covenant.
The saints after Pentecost were as BOLD AS LIONS. AND THE WORD OF GOD GREW MIGHTILY AND PREVAILED!
The Jews missed it because they were still chasing shadows.
The Church has largely missing it, still chasing shadows.
Back to Turkey and Syria.
The reason people around the world, even in ‘Christian’ nations – get hurt – or killed before their time, is unbelief. It is the lowest common denominator. But this unbelief is endemic; the Church has largely failed in its mission.
Somewhere some ‘Christian denomination’ is not believing God – Somewhere some minister doesn’t believe God himself, so he can’t teach his people to believe God.
Missionaries are as vulnerable as the people they are preaching to in foreign lands - because they themselves don’t themselves know the Christian’s authority, nor believe their ‘sonship’ rights.
To answer my son’s question - this has been the way of the world since the Garden. God is no respecter of persons. He is a respecter of faith.
Until men come into a full understanding and faith in God - what He can and will do for ANYONE who calls upon him in a crisis, .. the world will continue as it has been for 6,000 years – with sickness, death and dying – until finally, the restitution of all things brings the Lord back from heaven to set up his eternal kingdom.
Friend, learn to walk on water. Now.
Prove God now. Don’t wait for the emergency.
He is faithful - the Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever.
The God who David trusted is also yours. He’ll show you if you put Him to the test.
Then, you’ll have something to offer the world.
VJCB
[1] Hebrews 11:22
There is no such thing as a viral contagion as you have been taught to believe. There are many virologists who have tried to correct the misinformation - at the top of the long list is Dr. Stepan Lanka, (Germany). Sickness has been triggered by nasal test swabs, vaccines, and a spiritual element that acts like a ‘contagion’, which will be discussed in depth soon.
This is terrific! Please continue to write. God is at work in you. The faithful and apostate both need to hear the word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God from faithful ministers through whom God works [Romans 10:8ff]. Do not become weary in well doing: for in due season you shall reap, if you faint not [Galatians 6:9]. That last part is for the speaker and the hearer alike.
On another note, regarding being saved in the flesh. My career was in property management. I took over the management of a very large high rise condominium in the late ‘90’s. It was built at the same time as the World Trade Center and shared a feature. They both had the same elevator equipment, Otis Type 2. As I had 18 devices, 12 of which were the Otis Type 2, I accepted a bid for the full time elevator maintenance contract from the company that ran the WTC. There were dozens of men assigned to the WTC site full time.
On the morning of 9/11 every mechanic was called down from their respective shops for an early morning meeting. As the meeting was breaking up it was decided that they would stay downstairs as it was close to coffee break time and made no sense sending the men back upstairs just to come down again. Not one of the men was even scratched let alone killed in that morning’s attacks. Coincidence? I think not.