This a strange time to be alive – and a historic time. These are unprecedented things that we’re seeing, but they present opportunities for us. Of course, it’s a challenge and can be confusing, but it’s also exciting, because, if Jesus tarries, historic things will be spoken and written about our time for generations to come. Even as weird as it is, it’s an exciting time to be alive. As disturbing as our current events are, we must remain engaged in our culture.
We can’t be so discouraged in “the system” that we say we’re just not going to vote, but that’s the worst thing we can do. We need to vote for whichever platform (not person) that most aligns with the Bible and what it has to say. We might feel like we’re voting for the lesser of two evils, but we shouldn’t get our hopes up that there’s a messiah or a savior in a president – it’s not going to happen. We have one Hope, and that’s Jesus Christ, and Jesus is going to do his work through the Church, Scripture says.
We need to bank on that Hope, but we do need to engage and be involved – to vote – and to write to our elected representatives. We need to throw our hats into the ring and let our representatives know. If they don’t hear from us, in the words of Dr. Bill Federer, “Silence is consent.” Despite all the negative news lately, God is moving – across our nation and around the world in massive ways. Unprecedented things are happening right now in the Kingdom.
It’s so easy to get spun up and distracted by what’s going on in culture and the news media – the fake news media and propaganda news media – but we can’t let ourselves get spun up or caught up in it, because it’s all just a distraction to get our eyes off of Jesus, and off of the mission. We’ve been commissioned by God to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19,20 NKJV)
Let’s get back on mission, and not spend all of our time swimming in the cesspool of media, and doom-scrolling for endless hours – God is moving.
Baptize California, an event that unfolded Saturday and Sunday at various locations throughout the Golden State saw a historic number of people immersed at individual churches and during a main-stage event at Huntington Beach. The two-day extravaganza showcased countless examples of life change and spiritual renewal, featuring speakers, worship music from leaders like Sean Feucht, and more. According to preliminary numbers, there were over 6,000 people baptized at the Huntington Beach location alone, with an additional 6,000 people immersed in churches across the state.
God has not given up. We may have some disparaging things to say about our neighbors, but God does not. The Jesus Revolution started in southern California and that seed is alive and well, and we’re seeing fruit from it even now. “You can smell another Great Awakening in the air like rain before it hits,” Pastor Francey, who founded the event, told CBN News on Monday. “God lit a match yesterday! If God can do this in the church in California, it can – and it will – happen in the rest of America!”
As previously reported, Francey, pastor of Oceans Church in California, shocked the nation last year, when he hosted Baptize SoCal. The event attracted thousands of spectators and led to nearly 4,200 baptisms, which was reportedly the largest recorded baptism in U.S. history at the time. However, that record was upended a few weeks later, when Pastor Greg Laurie hosted a similar event and saw over 4,500 people get baptized.
On the same beach where the Jesus Revolution started, God is on the move, because, “where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more” (Romans 5:20). The darker it gets, the brighter the light shines. If we take that perspective and realize Jesus is coming back for his bride, who will be without spot or blemish when he gets here, we can know that God’s cleaning us up right now, even though it feels hard, laborious, and painful.
God is allowing the shaking to happen. If we get this perspective, we won’t see it all as the sky is falling – we’ll see it as being just a part of the problem. God is cleaning up his bride. The tree is shaking. Stuff is falling out – but stuff also will remain, and that which remains will last – it will remain forever.
Currently, there are reports of revival, as thousands are being baptized at beaches and rivers across the United States. Hundreds are being baptized in Texas fountains, as wells of revival are stirring. Twenty-five thousand people marched for Jesus in Paris, with many saved, healed, and baptized in the Holy Spirit. Hundreds more were set free during the “Kingdom to the Capitol Tour” in Maine. The gates of hell will not prevail.
This is good news in the middle of craziness, so we should not get spun up and lose our minds thinking that it’s all hopeless. But it’s not hope-less – it’s hope-full – it’s full of hope. If it takes shaking to wake us up and drop to our knees to cry out to Heaven for God to come in revival and spiritual awakening, then we should say, “Amen! Shake it, God! Do what You have to do to get us ready – to get us prepared and back on mission.”
If anyone has ever experienced severe storms, they become sensitive to storm warnings – and it causes them to pay attention – to watch and listen more, and to be alert and vigilant during the storm seasons. Right now, there are some “storm warnings” in the air concerning what’s going on in our nation and in the world – and the question is, “Are we paying attention? – are we listening? – are we praying into what we’re seeing and hearing?”
We should be committed to praying more and studying God’s Word more than we study and listen to the news. We should be committed to offset that by not letting culture outweigh what we know to be true in the Bible – what we know to be true of the nature of our God and of our Lord and Savior Jesus. When we catch ourselves doom-scrolling and reading the news – swimming in the waters of text strings of real-time news, we need to, rather, tip the scales with the weight of God’s Word. It will change our outlook on everything.
Mark 4:35-51 LSB
“And on that day, when evening came, He said to them, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling up. And Jesus Himself was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion; and they got Him up and said to Him, ‘Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?’ And He woke up and rebuked [arrested, stopped, ordered to cease and desist] the wind and said to the sea, ‘Silence! Be still.’ And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, ‘Why are you so cowardly? Do you still have no faith?’
And they became very afraid and were saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’ ”
Where was Jesus? He was in the boat. He was in it. Jesus wasn’t on the outside looking in – he was with them. He knew it could get dicey out on the lake at night. When they woke up Jesus who was sleeping, they asked him, “Jesus, don’t You care that we’re perishing?” They had already seen Jesus perform plenty of miracles, but now they were in a panic, and they defaulted to their old way of thinking.
The disciples were forgetting everything they had recently witnessed firsthand. They were forgetting that Jesus, himself, was right there in the boat with them. Likewise, we, in our storm, need to look for God in it. In the middle of chaos – in the middle of pain and suffering, we can forget, and be temporarily blinded or have our eyes diverted to another place, and we default to who we used to be. We default to the panic mode of, “God has vacated. God has left us. God has abandoned us and now He’s nowhere near.”
But God doesn’t move – we move – and he’s actually closer to us when we’re panicked and in chaos and turmoil or when there’s massive disruption in our life – he’s closer in those moments than ever. But, we just can’t see him there. After he calmed the storm, Jesus said to the disciples, “Why are you so cowardly?” – Jesus, who had healed the lame, raised the dead, and fed thousands. (Revelations 21:8 NLT lists cowards as people who will not inherit the Kingdom of God.)
Some of us, in the middle of panic, have said to God, “Don’t You care about what’s going on? Don’t You see what I’m going through? Don’t You realize how bad I’m hurting?” That’s the language of lamentation in the Psalms. It’s a lament – where we come before God and bring our complaint. But God has very big shoulders. He can handle our confusion – our moments of weakness – and our doubts in his faithfulness.
He’s big enough to handle it, but when we open our mouths to complain, we need to then quickly turn around. Many of the Psalms are David’s lament as he is crying out to God about his circumstances, and then we see him quickly add, “But God… but I will trust in God. I will trust in His faithfulness!” He makes the turn because he finally begins to look for God in it, and he finds him.
Where? It’s in his faithfulness. We have to understand – God will never leave us or forsake us. He will never pass us by or abandon us. On another occasion – in another storm – Jesus walked on the water and the disciples thought he would pass them by – but he didn’t. He stayed there in the storm with them. Are any of us going through a storm right now, or feel like we are? Then, we need to look for God in it, because he’s there. He never left.
Now, like the disciples, we have a decision to make. Will we trust him in the storm? No matter what’s going on in our culture right now – no matter how dark it looks, don’t forget – Jesus is in the storm.
Right now, we’re seeing more baptisms and more salvations around the world – more churches are getting started – underground churches in China, North Korea, and Africa. God is on the move all over the world. He’s in it, but we need to look for him in it. If we’re not in a storm right now, storms are in the forecast – because it’s life, and life happens in a fallen world. When the storm comes, we need to look for God in it.
Jesus was not outside the boat – he was in it, and the good news is, he’s in our boat, too. He is with us in our storm. He hasn’t left. We don’t even need to ask him, “Don’t You care?” – because he does! He’s closer than we can possibly comprehend – because he’s for us, not against us. He’s with us, not away from us. He’s here, not someplace else. he’s here with us – in it …in the storm!
Prayer
Father, in Jesus’ name, we’re asking that You would reveal Yourself in it. As we look for You, reveal Yourself. It might not be big or epic – it might be just a tap on our shoulder – a note from a friend or a text of encouragement. Somehow, some way, You always get something to us when we need it. So, for those of us in the storm right now, who maybe haven’t felt that tap, or haven’t looked for You in it – give us grace right now – right here – to help us look for You in it – in this moment – in this situation – in this circumstance.
Your Word in Romans chapter eight says that You are for us, so who can be against us? We’re sorry for thinking that You might not be for us, and we’re moving forward from that. Thank You that You are for us and not against us. Lord, we’re looking for You in it. As we hear the storm warnings, and see the storm bearing down on us, we thank You that You are in it, and we will look for You in it. Thank You, God. We love You and honor You in Jesus’ name. Amen
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on The Bridge
Featured Image by István Bogdan from Pixabay
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