Be prepared. This is not the happy, happy little article that you would usually come across from me. Time to spill my guts. Time to dig deep and put out the raw emotions that I felt today while on my walk. I wanted to fall to my knees. I wanted to burst into tears. I wanted to cry out to Almighty God. I stifled it and walked on. What was causing this anguish? I wish I could pinpoint one thing, but I knew all too well it was a complex mass of a metastasizing tumor that has taken over our world, and I felt helpless, hopeless, devastated, heartbroken, desperate and morose all at the same time.
Let’s start with my job. I think that was the kicker today. You see, just about the time I start to think maybe we are going to be lingering on this earth for a while longer, I go to my computer to work. In my job, I see case after case after case of drug-addicted, drug-seeking, drug-abusing and drug-deluded people who are spiraling into darkness. Many, if not most of them are in their 20s and 30s. Many of them are anxious and depressed. Many, way too many, are on Disability for their “illnesses” and the large majority of them are so far gone that they will never be back. It is an epidemic. We are losing this generation so quickly it is astonishing.
Many of these people are too “sick” to work—they have found the magic diagnosis or diagnoses that will allow them to live off the dwindling remainder of those of us who still do work. They have chronic pain, chronic anxiety, chronic depression, chronic panic, chronic suicidal thoughts, chronic homicidal thoughts and are chronically in the emergency department, police department or the psychiatric unit.
Nothing new, you say?
Oh, yes it is. It is epic. I have worked in this field for thirty-plus-years and I have never, ever been so positively jerked back into thinking that the Lord must certainly, I repeat, certainly, be coming soon. Our nation cannot handle this. Our financial situation is so dire that the government simply writing checks to this huge percentage of the population will tip us over the edge.
Why all this hopelessness among our youth? You tell me. I’m nearly 50 and I don’t have children, but I’m not too impressed with the parenting I see coming out of my generation. We have to be the most selfish generation in centuries. I don’t know what happened to us. Of course, there are plenty of good parents out there, but we are driven by a “reality TV” world and it seems that we have lost our senses. It is easy for me to say, I know, because I have never been a first-hand parent and I don’t understand today’s problems. It’s true.
But I have seen hundreds, probably thousands of teenagers and young adults come crashing down on a daily basis and I see the broken situations these kids come from. Many of them are living in the same house with their parents, grandparents and in many instances with babies (that they themselves have had in or out of wedlock). Four generations under one roof with the oldest among them carrying the burden. Well, the money is about to run out. And that older generation will die before their time due to the stress, because I can tell you, these youngsters are too self-indulgent and immersed in their own antics to take care of the elderly.
I cannot ever remember a time when so many of our young people don’t drive at the driving age. They don’t work at the working age. They don’t get married, they just cohabitate and procreate. They have big lavish baby showers, ridiculous secular-themed churchless weddings, long after the babies have been born, divorces a few years later, and then the process repeats itself. It truly is all about the drama. The attention. The focus on “me.” Is the camera on? Is this on social media? Will everyone see me and read about me? What will I do to top this when I wake-up tomorrow? If nothing can top it, I will just take some pain pills and sleep all day.
Oh my, we didn’t know how bleak this was going to get, did we? Forgive me, but it has been brewing inside me for a long time now.
Who is to blame? Satan. Duh. He is on a whirlwind world tour and he is selling out at every event. He is kicking butt and taking names. He is laughing all the way to the proverbial blood bank. He is looking for easy targets and they are everywhere. Our society has been so infiltrated by his diabolical gangrene that we don’t know the up from the down and boy, are we down—dumbed down.
If you have turned on the television set lately, you will notice that probably 80% of the shows on TV have something to do with dark, devious, devouring devilishness. The titles for the programs—good grief! It’s all there; everything from 666 to blood and guts; sexual perversion to piercing and tattoos. Wicked this, deviant that. My cable-based home page even puts the top-watched programs on the listing every day and they are ALL evil-tinged, demonic-laced or immoral-themed shows.
Nearly every new movie that comes out involves the supernatural and not in a godly way, might I say. You cannot sit through a TV show or even a commercial without hearing that annoying bleeping noise every ten seconds. You cannot watch any reality show without a catfight or a smack down. It is unbelievable. It is overwhelming and it is so obvious that there is a force at work that is using its maniacal powers to take over our minds. Unfortunately, it is working.
So what can we do as believers to thwart the darkness that we are being thrust into? It is almost too much, isn’t it? It was for me today. I cannot remember feeling such a rush of sorrow and distress in those few minutes this afternoon, and I could almost see the face of the evil one, laughing and taunting me, taking pleasure in knowing I was feeling pain for the lost souls he has taken and continues to snatch.
He won’t win. He is winning now, but ultimately, he is defeated. The victory is already ours. Conquered at Calvary, my friends. Jesus has fought this battle and won it handily. We as Christians need to be strong and determined. We need to be alert like Jesus was when He said to Peter, “Get thee behind Me, Satan” and we need to be able to recognize Satan’s tactics. He thrives on confusion. He loves chaos. He jumps in at the slightest opening. He preys on the weak. He is certainly the god of this world. But he flees at the name of Jesus. And that is all we need to know.
“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).
I saw a post the other day that said we probably have quite a bit of time before the Rapture of the church. Don’t believe it. My first thought was, “That is exactly when it is going to happen.” When we have depleted our spiritual savings and are running on the fumes of frustration and doubt, the trumpet will sound. I don’t believe God will lead us down the path of disappointment. We know He is calling us home soon. We know it in our fibers. We feel it in our guts.
We must live it in our remaining days. Someone asked me a few months ago how long did I think it would be until the Rapture, like 20 years, or 2 years? I don’t know, but I told them I thought closer to 2 than 20. It’s just my feeling. But God’s timing will be perfect and if it is 200 years, think of how many souls could be reached for His kingdom in that expanse of opportunity!
I don’t know when He is sending Jesus for us. I only know, my heart tells me it is soon, and that is how I cope with the world gone mad. Many have gone before us who have seen untold horrors and things we cannot imagine—I believe they probably thought Jesus was coming soon. But things are culminating now. Prophecies are fulfilled and the season is at hand.
If it happened tonight, would you be ready? Are there people around you who fit the categories I mentioned above? Are there young people in your life who are in pain and despair and who need to know the Lord? Command Satan to get behind them and ask God to give them strength and guidance.
Pray daily for their deliverance from whatever is attacking them and ask God to give you opportunity to witness to them. Myself, I feel we have very little time. I see the clock ticking every day while I am simply doing my job. God can deliver anyone from anything. Soon, he will deliver His children to eternity in heaven and I know I want to hear Him say, “Well done.”
I have a lot to do. I’d better get going…