It’s Coming: A Famine Of The Word
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<Jesus said to His followers,> “(7) Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. (8) All these are the beginning of birth pains.”’ (Matthew 24:7-8); ‘“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.”’ (Amos 8:11)
An organization called Open Doors International provides a list of the top 50 nations where Christianity is highly persecuted. The top nation, North Korea, is not a surprise as it is very xenophobic with its leader, Kim Jong-Un, literally being the country’s official ‘idol’ for worship as part of its’ Communist dogma. No other ‘religion’ is permitted, and it is likely most North Koreans have never heard the name Jesus let alone His Gospel.
Mexico surprisingly is on the list (at #37) due to its criminal gangs and drug cartels forcing many of Mexican citizens out of the churches due to vocal opposition to their influence. Canada, while not on the list, has since 2021 had a number of churches burned down, many in Native American or ‘indigenous’ locations, as well as policies of the Justin Trudeau regime attempting to shut down the Truth of Christ and replace it with the lies of the secular ‘woke’ movement. Even here in the US, ANTIFA and other radical movements have disrupted church gatherings and congregations in attempting to dissuade people from attending services. During COVID, state and local governments forced churches not to meet, using unprecedented ’emergency’ powers to stop God’s Word from being spoken.
With these overt attempts in shutting down the flow of the Truth, society globally has turned away from God and with less people having a desire to hear the Word, less people are preaching the Truth. Due to wanting to fit into society many churches have devolved from teaching the True Word and are now ‘tickling the ears’ of those who attend by providing a milquetoast, feel-good, message that is false but pleasing to the unrepentant. As more of the world rejects and repudiates the teachings of Christ, the less the Word will be freely available as less people will be able to share it. This will bring the ‘famine of the Word’ as described in Amos 8:11.
We may not yet be in the Last of Days, but we are certainly one day closer to them than what we were yesterday. Jesus prophesized that there would be famines and natural disasters globally, either caused naturally or by man-made actions. He gave us this prophesy not to scare us, but to prepare us. We know Jesus does not want us to live in fear nor needlessly suffer, but to live in Hope. It is proper to ‘BE PREPARED, BE AWARE, PLAN ACCORDINGLY.’
It is proper to ‘Be Prepared’ to go through that which we can see happen, through the discernment of the Holy Spirit, both for ourselves and for those who we may see needing help. There is not a ‘mandate’ or call by Jesus on a level of preparedness; unlike the Mormons’ call for a year of goods to be stocked back, we have the Spirit to discern the level to which to be prepared toward. In other words, do that which you can do, per the direction of the Holy Spirit.
The more important famine that we Christians can affect directly is the ‘famine of the Word’. Amos the prophet records for us the message God provides him about a time when God’s Word will be silenced, by either decree or disregard. While many regard this as the time between the end of the prophets and the return of Jesus in His 2nd coming for the Jewish people, we can also see this in its budding fruition with Christianity today. A majority of ‘Christians’ have an apathy for the Word, and several governments, such as Canada, Sweden, and California, have become hostile to the Christian Faith. As Christians, we can provide ‘relief’ from this ‘famine of the Word’ by sharing the Gospel with others.
We can stock up what we need to overcome a ‘food famine’, and whether we can only cover our own needs or have the blessings to provide excess to others in need, we can provide the Word – per the Great Commission the Lord gave us – to help overcome the ‘famine of the Word’ we see in our world today.
