The new video called "The Blessing" by Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes and Elevation Worship (I just posted it here ) just broke my heart. I have been sitting here from 2:00 AM until now (4:30AM) in prayer. I have been greatly burdened by the disaster that has overtaken our world. A friend from Australia said to me yesterday "Our world will never be the same after this virus has devastated it" and she is right. After the terror, and the horror will come grief. Grief like the world has never known.
And in the midst of the burden of these thoughts, God led me to listen to this song. I've already been listening to "Graves into Gardens" (by Brandon Lake and Elevation Worship) ...and God crashed through my despair and night with these words from the Blessing "HE IS FOR YOU"----when it seems like God has turned his back and abandoned his creation, when he has left us to drown in our sins as, literally, our lungs drown in the final stages of this disease. But no...his favor surrounds us. He hurts us to heal us--as any surgeon can tell you. Surgery hurts but it heals. God is shouting to us through this darkness..."I am here. I have not forgotten you. I am FOR you. I LOVE YOU."
I have not cried tears for a very long time. I have cried out in pain. I have felt deep sadness...but no tears. Tonight, hearing those four words ("I am FOR you!!) broke me. Not a lot of tears--only two or three but the agony of this planet was contained in those tears. They were hot tears...escaping from the conflagration in my soul. Burning tracks down my cheeks and there was the impossibility and the incontrovertability of the fact that GOD LOVES US! He loves you. He loves me. He loves every person who right now is struggling to breathe --and their last breath is not far away. He is screaming into the darkness " I LOVE YOU. COME TO ME, you who labor (for breath) and are heavily burdened, and I will give you peace!"
The possibility exists that tomorrow, or today, you may come down with this plague that is decimating our globe...and you may have only days left to live. That is a real possibility for every person alive right now. I have to ask you a question. The most important question you will ever have to answer---and that is: "Are you ready to meet God?" Because you will meet him and if you do not have the blood of Jesus obliterating your sin--then that sin stands forever between God and you and if you do not have the forgiveness and mercy that Jesus purchased for you on the cross, then that sin will keep you from the embrace of God.
Hell is real. And it is worse than this virus. And the numbers of people on their way there,or already there, blows the stats of this virus out of the water. And the thought that there are so many doomed to destruction needlessly breaks my heart and it breaks the heart of God.. You see, there IS A REMEDY! There is an antidote. It is the blood and suffering of Jesus --God himself--who paid for your admission to his kingdom. But if you don't accept the remedy, if you do not make it your own, then it will not help you..but it will stand as a testament to your hard heart and the sin which you have permitted to destroy you. Needlessly. Oh my friends...ask yourself, search your heart and be honest about where you stand with God. Have you made him your Lord?
And in the midst of the burden of these thoughts, God led me to listen to this song. I've already been listening to "Graves into Gardens" (by Brandon Lake and Elevation Worship) ...and God crashed through my despair and night with these words from the Blessing "HE IS FOR YOU"----when it seems like God has turned his back and abandoned his creation, when he has left us to drown in our sins as, literally, our lungs drown in the final stages of this disease. But no...his favor surrounds us. He hurts us to heal us--as any surgeon can tell you. Surgery hurts but it heals. God is shouting to us through this darkness..."I am here. I have not forgotten you. I am FOR you. I LOVE YOU."
I have not cried tears for a very long time. I have cried out in pain. I have felt deep sadness...but no tears. Tonight, hearing those four words ("I am FOR you!!) broke me. Not a lot of tears--only two or three but the agony of this planet was contained in those tears. They were hot tears...escaping from the conflagration in my soul. Burning tracks down my cheeks and there was the impossibility and the incontrovertability of the fact that GOD LOVES US! He loves you. He loves me. He loves every person who right now is struggling to breathe --and their last breath is not far away. He is screaming into the darkness " I LOVE YOU. COME TO ME, you who labor (for breath) and are heavily burdened, and I will give you peace!"
The possibility exists that tomorrow, or today, you may come down with this plague that is decimating our globe...and you may have only days left to live. That is a real possibility for every person alive right now. I have to ask you a question. The most important question you will ever have to answer---and that is: "Are you ready to meet God?" Because you will meet him and if you do not have the blood of Jesus obliterating your sin--then that sin stands forever between God and you and if you do not have the forgiveness and mercy that Jesus purchased for you on the cross, then that sin will keep you from the embrace of God.
Hell is real. And it is worse than this virus. And the numbers of people on their way there,or already there, blows the stats of this virus out of the water. And the thought that there are so many doomed to destruction needlessly breaks my heart and it breaks the heart of God.. You see, there IS A REMEDY! There is an antidote. It is the blood and suffering of Jesus --God himself--who paid for your admission to his kingdom. But if you don't accept the remedy, if you do not make it your own, then it will not help you..but it will stand as a testament to your hard heart and the sin which you have permitted to destroy you. Needlessly. Oh my friends...ask yourself, search your heart and be honest about where you stand with God. Have you made him your Lord?
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