Daniel Holdings – Oct 5, 2013
It’s Balaam’s Donkey again, reporting from Babylon. I just have one question – “Am I crazy or… has the world gone nuts?!”
I was having breakfast with a dear friend yesterday who I love. This guy has been there for my family and I, and has a heart as big as Texas. He asked me how the progress on my next book was coming. I told him that it was progressing, but that I really wanted to make sure that I only write what God would have me write. To do that, it takes time.
He said, “Well, one piece of advice… Stay away from that Darkness junk.”
Darkness junk? I’m assuming that it was a reference to my last book, As The Darkness Falls, but the comment cut me. His concern was that I would get lost in the ugliness of the times that we live in and that some of it could rub off.
I defended myself by saying that I always try to balance the “darkness” in my books with the Light of God’s grace and mercy. A point to which many of my readers would agree – I think.
But the comment got me to thinking. I spend countless hours sifting through news in order to post it to my website. If you’re reading this blog, chances are that you’re familiar with this work of passion that the Lord has given me.
I’ve been called a “Watchman” although I’d never hold onto the moniker. The real Watchmen, some listed in the links at the bottom of this website, have spent years on their face before the Lord and searching the news and scriptures. They fast, pray and preach about a day of judgment soon to come. However, although I’ve been a Christian for over thirty years, I only just woke up yesterday, figuratively speaking, and don’t deserve to be compared to such men of God who have painfully paid their dues.
That said, I do keep my nose in the news and… watch. People have asked me how I could possibly keep from being depressed at the sight of all the things that are coming upon the earth. Fact is – I pray a lot.
As I’m reading, listening and searching, I constantly talk to the Lord. More importantly, I listen to the Holy Spirit about what I should put up or leave alone. I’m also in a perpetual state of worship while I’m researching. Most of the time I have worship music playing in the background and I always try to focus on the goodness of God and His promises, past and future. His promises are the only thing that keeps me sane while I do what I do.
Likewise, those people who know me would say that I’m a positive, up-beat person – in spite of my inclination to read and post “that depressing and dark” news.
So the question is: Can you look at the reality of the world around us and not be engrossed in the Darkness that is falling upon it? I believe the answer is a resounding – Yes!
Yeshua told us to “Watch and pray”! He told us to look for the signs of His coming and exhorted us to be Salt and Light to a troubled Earth. We are told that although we live here, on this 3D Earth, we are not from here! We belong to a kingdom which came with the advent of Jesus! His kingdom!
With all due respect to my well-meaning friend (and I mean that), to tell someone not to get too caught up in the Darkness as I am shouting out a warning – is kinda like telling an on-fire, new Believer not to get too carried away by all that Jesus stuff!
The world is what it is, and we can choose to ignore those things that are in front of our very eyes, or we can acknowledge them in light of the power, love, grace, mercy and righteousness of our Lord’s warnings. To ignore them, as the vast majority of people do, will be hazardous to your health – both physical and spiritual. Because ready or not, here comes The End Of The Age.
A point of clarity must be made here: Notice I said “judgment” and not “wrath”. The Bible says that God’s elect are not appointed to His “wrath”. However, Jesus told us about all the things that would lead up to that wrath in the form of “birthpangs”. I believe those pangs have started and are what we are seeing now, thus the reason for my books and website.
That said, as of the publishing of this article, we are at day four or five of a U.S. government shutdown. There are many that fear the shutdown will lead to Martial Law, the collapse of the economy or an attack by an enemy because our military backsides are laid bare and open. In addition are those reports of an incoming celestial object(s) that will cause grave damage to Earth. These reports are often quoted alongside of disintegrating socio norms that threaten to unleash a ‘Mad-Max’ breakdown of civilization.
While all of that may be possible, or even inevitable, we must look at those issues, like everything else we watch, in light of God’s grace and mercy. He is a just and righteous God and will do what He must do… what He told us He would do in His word long ago. Yet, when we draw close to Him in worship, repentance, prayer and fasting, we find His peace an ever-present anchor in these times of Jacob’s Trouble.
So to my friend, who I love and respect, and every other reader who thinks this writer’s crazy; I need to ask the question – Did the Israelites think that Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah or any of the other warning Prophets of their own time crazy? Of course the answer is yes, and yet we of a modern 21st century Church read their words of warning and believe they were scary sane.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling myself a Prophet. I’m just reading the news and telling people what I see. But if I did put the label on myself, which I’m not, Yeshua Himself said that a Prophet is not a Prophet in his own hometown. Indeed, He couldn’t do the miracles in Nazareth that He did in other places because they kept saying of Him, “Jesus?! Miracles? Messiah? No way, we know Him. That’s just Joseph’s boy. He’s always been a little off.”
The Word also says that familiarity breeds contempt – Go figure.
So, by all means, don’t listen to this donkey. But I implore you – read the news! If you do so honestly, without the bias of hoping that man can turn things around, you will see that it’s way later than you think.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go nibble on some grass before I go back to bearing my Master’s burdens.
Shalom