Can you see the truck stuck up to its axles in the sand? Can you see the ship sailing on the sea and the rainbow to the left of the ship? What a contrast the two parts of this photograph make. Do you feel like the truck? It was an all day ordeal for the owner of that truck. The fine for driving a vehicle without a permit on the beach starts at $500 and can go up to $1,000. The cost of the tow truck was $200. The tow truck would get the truck out of the sand. The owner of the truck, not understanding the nature of the sand, would drive his truck right back into the same predicament. He got the truck stuck at least two more times in the sand. Finally, our beach chair attendant, Ethan, called one of his friends who works the beach and is allowed to drive his vehicle on the beach. When he arrived he explained to the truck owner that he had to get on the packed sand and that the owner was to follow right in his tracks till he led him off the beach.
It was a visual lesson on the epic poem "Footsteps in the Sand" depicting Jesus carrying a person through the hard places in life. When life is great it is like the ship sailing on the sea with the beauty and promise of the rainbow from God. When life is hard we are sidelined, humilated by making the same mistake over and over in front of the whole world. One of our beach chair neighbors aptly named the trek of the truck owner through the sand to retrieve his truck "the walk of shame." And so it was for him because everyone had been going up to the truck all morning long examining how deep it was in the sand, trying to figure out the path that brought it to its current resting place, wondering what drunken idiot had managed such a feat. Then he had to humilate himself over and over again with an audience of no less than four police officers and the entire beach crowd as he restuck it again and again in the sand. When he finally drove his truck between the line of wooden beach chaises and the sea on the hard packed sand the chairs where filled and we the people yelled and waved as he drove pass his captivated audience. He waved but hung his head in shame.
The current state of the world is like that truck - collectively, I believe humanity feels stuck in an uncertain economy, with an uncertain future. No one seems to really know which way to go or what to do. Here in the USA we have been so blessed for so long with so much at our fingertips. Even a modest income in the states has always had a certain level of luxury unheard of in the majority of the world.
Do we look to ourselves, do we look for a great leader, do we look to paper money, stocks, bonds, commodities, gold, silver, diamonds . . .?
There is only one place of hope and refuge -- the Kingdom of God. We are quickly approaching "the great day of his wrath." Whose wrath? Revelation 6:14-17 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 And the kings of the earth and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; who shall be able to stand?
So, you see there is no riches on this earth, nor man mortal or hybrid or fallen angel, that will be able to save himself much less anyone else on the day of the Lamb's wrath. That Lamb being Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
It is never too late to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. There is no sin committed that He can't forgive you for. Repent, Receive the free gift of the Blood of Jesus and be saved before the great and terrible day of His wrath coming upon the whole world.
Yes, there is an exit plan for all of those who belong to the Lamb. It is found in I Thessalonians. First, according to I Thessalonians 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. And with that knowledge we will back into the exit plan. I Thessalonians 4:13-18 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep (dead), that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
I have a theory about the three-fold process of what is commonly called the rapture. First, I believe that the shout of Jesus is what brings the dead bodies alive and unites the dead bodies with their souls. Second I believe the voice of the archangel will announce the rapture to the living Christians who have been purchased with the Blood of the Lamb. Finally, I believe the trump of God will be the instrument to change our mortal bodies into immortal bodies.
I Corinthians 15:50-55 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortatlity. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is they victory?
Time grows short - today is the day of your salvation!
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