History & Events Can Change, But God Never Changes

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.’ (Deuteronomy 31:8)

A while back, when the outlook at the time was bleak (even prior to the COVID pandemic), I had an insight provided by the Lord that I developed into a mantra of sorts; BE PREPARED, BE AWARE, PLAN ACCORDINGLY. (If you’ve read this blog for awhile, you may be familiar with this saying.)

The times looked bleak for the United States and for the world just six years ago; the powers-that-be were changing our culture to be adversarial within different subsets of it (and still are attempting to do so). There was active and official censorship of conservative musings and thought. A soft persecution of the Biblical Worldview was warming up.

The COVID lockdowns and the BLM riots accelerated much of this. One could not work unless one complied with the vaccine mandate. Conservative voices were dropped on several social media outlets, and many politicians celebrated the ‘deplatforming’ of such ‘false’ opinions that ran contrary to the official and approved narrative. The will of the people was being replaced by the will of the controlling oligarchy, those who were in that small club of ‘powers-that-be’.

Later, parents in school board meetings were shut down from speaking and even arrested for suggesting their child’s education should be focused only on the three ‘R’s’ and not on sexual kinks or gender identity. Churches, especially Catholic ones, were monitored by the FBI for its stances against abortion and gender being only man and woman.

Americans, fortunately, have forced the pendulum to swing the other way. I write this as a reminder for us to remember how close we came to losing our freedoms, and to state it was not just the will of the people or an election of a President or a Congress that brought the pendulum to reverse course. This is God’s plan for us. In Europe, Canada, and Australia, they are still occluded from free speech and under a soft tyranny of ‘right-think’. One day, either they will see the pendulum finally swing back toward freedom, or we will see it swing back to tyranny.

We saw the physical aspect of ‘BE PREPARED, BE AWARE, PLAN ACCORDINGLY‘ in how we need to be ready when store shelves are empty during COVID as toilet paper became scarce. Of course in Florida, we also adhere to this principle as we stock up in preparation for hurricane season (which starts in eighteen days, by the way). There is also the need to be ready Spiritually! In order to be ready physically, we must also be stocked up in Godly thought so we can take Godly actions.

God is still in control!  History has always been cyclic.  Strong men bring soft times; soft times bring weak men; weak men bring hard times; hard times bring strong men.  Faithful men brings God’s blessings, God’s blessings brings peaceful times, peaceful times brings God’s blessings being taken for granted and unfaithfulness, unfaithfulness brings turmoil, turmoil brings people back to God.  I Trust and have Faith God knows what He is doing as He has done throughout history, and will do so again. 

So BE PREPARED – get into the Word of the Lord, pray and grow your faith in Him, and also take steps to help get through the difficult times ahead (for yourself and others); BE AWARE – listen for Jesus’ voice to guide you, and see and listen to what is happening around you to see God at work and where God may need you to work; and PLAN ACCORDINGLY – be ready when the world is in conflict with the Lord (or when its at peace with Him) and anticipate how the Lord will want you to respond. 

These words from Moses to Joshua were repeated in Deuteronomy 31:6, and by Paul in Hebrews 13:5.  Even if we (corporately or individually) fail God (as we corporately have given the current state of affairs), God is still with us and still in control.  Right now, as has happened in the past, the world is winning but it will not win.  A team can have the lead through 3½ quarters of a game, but the game isn’t over until the referee blows the whistle when time’s up.  ‘The opera isn’t over until the fat lady sings’.  The referee is God and the ‘fat lady’ is whatever angel (or chubby cherub) is assigned the trumpet, and neither the whistle or trumpet has blown, so we’ve still got work to do! 

What work?  The work of the Great Commission, to provide the Gospel of Christ to the world – to the people who do not know or understand the Love of Christ.   We do not yet know if the Lord will call us to fight for freedom like our American founding fathers or become subservient to the coming oligarchy, but we do know for certain this; Jesus has commanded us to share His Gospel.

It may cost nothing or it may cost everything – but your team, the community of Christians known as the Church, is counting on you and most importantly our ‘Head Coach’, Jesus Himself, is counting on you!  Simply share the Word with your neighbor, your waiter or waitress, your store clerk, your doctor, the person sitting next to you at the DMV or the restaurant; Jesus is with you so you are not alone!  Go out, and rest assured, we will win as we have already won!  GOD IS IN CONTROL!