As I sit here and see video after video of devastation from the tornado rampage I can’t help but sit and think. I remember back in my Sophomore year of high school, I was in history class and some of the details of the Hurricane Katrina disaster came to light. It hadn’t been long since the devastating Indian Ocean earthquake and other things had been taking place as well. I mentioned to my history teacher that I had a bad feeling about it all. All I had been hearing lately was “the worse event in the U.S. for decades” or “the most cataclysmic event for 100 years”. Everything was the biggest, the worse, or the most devastating. Continuously since then I have gotten numerous impressions that the birth pangs mentioned in the Bible were indeed worsening, and we were right in the middle of it. In any category you wish to mentally grab for you will see the same rate of change. Blatancy of spiritualism, abandonment of God, love of self and money, natural disasters, sexual immorality, and a push for the removal of God’s law. These are all culminating into one big societal disaster. Everything is coming to a head and it is going down faster than any of us wish to acknowledge. A lot of times I am seeing people blaming God, calling him some sadistic heartless sociopath that allows all the people he made to suffer. Other times they claim that because of the fact that we are suffering there clearly is no God whatsoever. At this point we tend to make ourselves into our own God….”Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law” (sound familiar?). Drop the rules, drop the accountability, and do whatever the heck I want to when I want to because I make my own outcome and heaven and hell is what you make here on earth. This decision to abandon divine guidance and refuse to live with faith and hope is exactly the outcome the devil wants.

The interesting part of this all is that in Christianity we are never promised a smooth ride. As the great controversy between God and Satan unfolds we sit back and watch in anger, dismay, and surprise, but God cared enough to let us in on the plan ahead of time. He didn’t leave us in the dark, figuring we would just figure it out somehow…He laid it down plain and simple. In Mark 13:4-13 he makes it plain that strange and dangerous things were going to start happening, that Christians would be hated for following Christ, that there would be a lot of persecution, and that this was only the beginning. He doesn’t promise that with prayer things will suddenly stop or that everything will turn around. It all has to play out and finish off until God comes back to collect His own. He left us millions of copies of His detailed play book on this earth so that in the end no one could say “I never knew” or “This isn’t fair, how could anyone expect this?” Not a single one of us in America can claim ignorance because we have all seen a commercial, been confronted by a friend, driven by churches, and received pieces of Christian literature. There are indeed some people in remote areas of the earth that have limited access to the gospel, but God is moving in huge and fantastic ways to change that, and judges all men according to the light that each has been given. It is all case by case. You can’t be saved by your parents, your good deeds, or your amazing academic track record. Sadly enough you can’t be saved by deciding to pull the “I don’t believe there is a God” argument either. If 10 men were all standing on the same rug, and someone pulled it really hard, everyone would fall to the ground…regardless of the fact that 3 of them decided not to believe that the rug was going anywhere. We are all on this boat together and the same wave is headed toward all of us. Varying religious beliefs, walks of life, and perspectives, it’s going to come down regardless and it’s coming down hard. The Bible stands on its own two feet when it comes to credibility.  If you choose not to believe that then research it…with an open heart this time…I believe your eternal destination to be worth the effort. (After all we can spend days straight mindlessly playing video games and watching movies and months researching for school and planning for weddings. Why not give a couple hours to the determination of our eternal whereabouts?)  The prophecies played out as promised, and evidently they are still playing out as we speak. God is also continuously making His word a reality to millions daily…he doesn’t just leave you with the book on your own…He sends His Spirit, angels, and even people to your aid so new realizations come from it all the time. There is always more to learn and more that will be revealed.

What I am ultimately getting at here is that now is not the time to blame God for what is going on but thank Him for warning us and giving us a sweeter deal than imaginable by our tiny brains at the end of it all. Because He is just and must uphold His law, He has to allow us to go through this for now (Read the Great Controversy by Ellen White if you want a more detailed explanation as to why. In fact get your free copy of this masterpiece and others right here http://www.knowthebible.com/html/books_order_form.html now you don’t have that excuse). But Satan has NO control over what happens to us in the end. He can destroy our money, materials, and these diseased bodies we walk around in but he cannot alter our destinations. You my friend decide that one all by yourself. The man that lives rich all of his days and dies cozy in his bed without God in his life will never be as well off as the poor man that treasures the companionship and love of God all of His life and wakes up on the day of the Second Coming with confidence and joy in his heart. Eternity makes this little life we lead look smaller than a baby tapeworm inside of a sperm whale. The comparison is nonsensical because the difference is just that huge. Sitting in your chair and refuting every argument your Christian friends throw at you in the most philosophical and informed voice you can muster is going to give you exactly that…moments arguing against the God of love…once your time is up…it’s over…you’re done…you are just a memory. You will have gained nothing in this life but the goods you got your hands on, and the people that have fallen victim to extreme disasters and have met death early will tell you by example that those things come one moment and are gone the next. You don’t know when, how, or why…but you will meet your end and EVERYTHING you clung to will be totally meaningless. On the deathbed none of the things you wrapped yourself in during your life will mean a thing…what happens next is all you have to look forward to. Those that devote their lives to running from the Arms of Love  will have absolutely nothing more…nothing next…except for waking during the second resurrection to see the sad face of their creator looking down on them wondering why they didn’t just take the gift…accept the promise, and love Him back as He first loved us.

The ball is in your court….and you don’t have forever. As over 300 people in our own country just showed us yet again…we can’t even count on the next 5 minutes sometimes. We need to walk with God day by day and learn that being a part of His plan is a joy…a delight…and is given more freely than anything this petty world has to offer us. What are you going to miss? Getting inebriated? Having sex with whoever you want to? Killing yourself daily with substances? Watching every disgusting thing the devil throws out there to trap you with? Luckily for us God doesn’t even make us leave those things alone to come to Him. All He wants is some time…enough time for you to get to know Him one on one. Not based on what you heard from your pastor or some skeptical YouTube guy that has it all figured out and bashes God to no end. He wants a chance for you to have your very own personal experience with Him…different than that of every other person on earth. He wants to show His love to you in His own special way and let you know why the things that make you sad have to happen. He wants to give you comfort during those hard times and share with you the promise to bury you with happiness, blessings, treasures, love,  and abundant life that outshines all of the hardships 9,000,000,00000 x10^inifnity fold. You don’t have to promise Him anything….for now all he wants is a chance….a moment with you…a prayer to Him asking Him to reveal Himself in His own way and in His time so that you can know the God of the universe one on one. All the rest falls into place after that. Once you decide to open your heart simply to the possibility that you could have your mind changed, that there is perhaps something more than your biases predetermine…God has his ways of connecting the dots and giving you a mysterious joy in the worst of times.  Once you see God, you can’t not see Him, and until you try to see Him, you usually won’t. Don’t keep your eyes closed to something so important. I beg you. Place as much value on yourself as He does. Let Him in. He won’t let you down. In the end you win…you can’t base eternal reality on what is going on around you right now. When God promises something…good or bad He delivers. You have the opportunity to be included in His brightest and most everlasting promises…don’t give it up for skepticism or a grudge that you are misdirecting at Him for something terrible that happened in your life. He will explain it all to you one on one face to face if you let Him. And for now…He will lead you to answers as you spend more and more time with Him. Give Him a chance…a fair one this time. Drop the biases and the well thought out scientific arguments that most closely match what YOU want to do with your life…science can beautifully proclaim the existence of God in more ways than it can disclaim it. Look at both sides of the story without deciding ahead of time to prove it wrong. Look further and YOU might just be proven wrong in ways you won’t expect…but the good news is…being proven wrong and drawn to God is THE BEST thing that will ever happen to you hands down. Both now…and in the ridiculously long run. Don’t be afraid to be wrong this time…be hopeful. He will add a whole new dimension to your life that you never thought possible.

Do me a favor…take a look at this dude’s life story. He went back and forth with God in ways that most of us will never have to…fortunately. He is a scientist, knows the ins and outs of the arguments like the back of his hand, but against his own will was proved wrong. It will be an hour well spent and more productive than most of the things we do with our time. And it is VERY interesting. Promise.

http://amazingdiscoveries.tv/media/1/901-low-walter-veiths-life-story/

I am here for you, any of you, that with an open heart and mind want to talk about any of this stuff. If I don’t have answers, since I am still working on this thing myself, heck we will search together. Give Him a shot. You have to trust somebody with your life and God is the only one that earned the privilege.

If you need any materials or assistance, or even Bible studies the resources are endless and I can help direct you to those. Slip me a line and I will be overjoyed to help. If you have read this far, you are on the right track already, now don’t let it stop here.  We need to get serious now…it’s time to go hard AND go home…our eternal home.