Tag: famine

The prophesied ‘perilous times’ are upon the world, but you can be kept safe through it

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‘But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come’  2 Tm 3:1

 

Many, if not most, Christians believe that we are living in the ‘end times’ just preceding the return of Jesus Christ. The signs are too globally evident for any discerning Bible believer to overlook them or take them lightly. What are the most obvious of these ‘signs of the end times’ today?

Perhaps the most observable changes on the earth today are those related to the climate. Earth’s weather patterns – which have remained basically unchanged since the Flood of Noah’s time – have turned so ominous in recent times that obscure and even normally obdurate nations are giving their full attention to doing something to avert the consequences of climate change.

Personally, I am experiencing in my native land today a monsoon season gone awry. Ever since I can remember from childhood, until about three or four years ago, the monsoon was a very predictable event in the lives of the people of my country. Schools in the state where I live reopen for the new academic year on the first working day of June. As kids prepare to leave their homes on the first day, the skies too begin their preparation for the new season. And as the students leave their homes for school, the monsoon breaks heavily upon them. If it didn’t on school reopening day, then surely it fell on the kids the next day, but rarely beyond that.

Now the monsoon comes whenever it does and has no relation whatever to school reopening day. There may be sporadic rains one or two months before June and for a few months after that. Gone are the heavy downpours that used to last for hours at a stretch. Gone is the systematic annual flooding of the roads, stopping all traffic for several days, from the overflowing river nearby.

What’s happening to the climate in my native land is a minor inconvenience compared to what’s happening to weather patterns on a global scale. All governments now know that drastic steps have to be taken if they want to escape the worldwide calamities arising from the greenhouse effect.

The tsunami of 2004 December was probably the greatest flood, in terms of its global scope and of the lives it took, since the days of Noah. And that tsunami, in which over 225,000 people perished, was just a beginning.

It is not just the prophecy preachers who are predicting more tsunamis and other calamities around the world. Some time ago, a group of scientists researching the changing climate’s effects on geological hazards met at a conference on Climate Forcing of Geological and Geomorphological Hazards in London. The researchers predicted more frequent and violent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and tsunamis as global warming affects the earth’s crust.

The researchers concluded that Mother Earth is so sensitive that ‘even slight changes in weather and climate can rip the planet’s crust apart, unleashing the furious might of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides’. Even human attempts to stall global warming could trigger a catastrophic event, they say.

Perhaps the greatest geological hazards during climate change will be the result of melting ice sheets, the scientists warn. Apart from the risk that loose sediments exposed by melted ice could slip into the sea as tsunami-generating landslides, the removal of heavy ice could also trigger volcanic eruptions.

Jesus said that just preceding his second coming the seas and the waves will roar (tsunamis come with a terrifying roar) with such magnitude that people who witness them will faint.

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth   Lk 21: 25-26

Earthquakes

Earthquakes are increasing in frightening frequency. Look at this statistic from the US Geological Survey:

Number of earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 and greater:
1983 to 1900 – 38 years – 12
1901 to 1983 – 38 years – 53
1939 to 1976 – 38 years – 71
1976 to 2010 – 34 years – 167
2011 to 2016 – 6 years – 102

Since 1997 the frequency has increased tremendously. For example, between 1986 and 1996, a period of 11 years, there were just 15 earthquakes listed by USGS of magnitude 7.0 or greater. This is not markedly different from previous similar periods of 20th century, where an average of about 18 might be expected. But between 1997 and 2007, a period of only 11 years, there were 99 earthquakes with magnitude 7.0 or greater. This is more than a 6-fold increase on the previous similar period. And then from 2011 to 2016, there were 102 earthquakes in just 6 years, more than in the 11 years between 1997 and 2007! The increase is frighteningly exponential.

Famine

Famine death in Kharkov, Russia, 1933.

In his article, ‘The Century of Famine’ Peter Goodchild, says:

Without ample, free-flowing petroleum, it will not be possible to support a population of several billion for long. Famine caused by petroleum supply failure alone will result in about 2.5 billion above-normal deaths before the year 2050; lost and averted births will amount to roughly an equal number.

In terms of its effects on daily human life, the most significant aspect of fossil-fuel depletion will be the lack of food. ‘Peak oil’ is basically ‘peak food’. Modern agriculture is highly dependent on fossil fuels for fertilizers [one of the processes for manufacturing fertilizers involves combining natural gas with atmospheric nitrogen], pesticides, and the operation of machines for irrigation, harvesting, processing, and transportation. Without fossil fuels, modern methods of food production will disappear, and crop yields will be far less than at present. Crop yields are far lower in societies that do not have fossil fuels or modern machinery. We should therefore have no illusions that several billion humans can be fed by ‘organic gardening’ or anything else of that nature…Over the next few decades, therefore, there will be famine on a scale many times larger than ever before in human history…

The news of the coming famine might not be announced with sufficient clarity. Famines tend to be back-page news nowadays, perhaps for the very reason that they are too common to be worth mentioning. Although Ó Gráda speaks of ‘making famine history’, the reality is that between 70 and 80 million people died of famine in the twentieth century, far more than in any previous century.

Drought

In ‘Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning’, George Monbiot writes:

Many parts of the world, for reasons which have little to do with climate change, are already beginning to lose their water. In When the Rivers Run Dry, Fred Pearce, who is New Scientist’s environment consultant, travels around the world trying to assess the state of our water resources. He finds that we survive today as a result of borrowing from the future.

The great famines predicted for the 1970s were averted by new varieties of rice, wheat and maize, whose development is known as the ‘green revolution’. They produce tremendous yields, but require plenty of water. This has been provided by irrigation, much of which uses underground reserves. Unfortunately, many of them are being exploited much faster than they are being replenished…

Roughly half the world’s population lives within 60 kilometers of the coast. Eight of the ten largest cities on earth have been built beside the sea. Many of them rely on underground lenses of freshwater, effectively floating, within the porous rocks, on saltwater which has soaked into the land from the sea. As the freshwater is sucked out, the saltwater rises and can start to contaminate the aquifer. This is already happening in hundreds of places. The worst case is the Gaza strip, which relies entirely on underground water which is now almost undrinkable. As the sea level rises as a result of climate change, salt pollution in coastal regions is likely to accelerate.

As these two effects of climate change – global drying and rising salt pollution – run up against the growing demand for water, and as irrigation systems run dry or become contaminated, the possibility arises of a permanent global food deficit. Even with a net food surplus, 800 million people are malnourished. Nothing I could write would begin to describe what a world in deficit – carrying 9 billion people – would look like.

For God’s people to have a glimpse of how horrific the coming famine would be, the Bible gives an example:  It is so shocking and sickening I don’t wish to describe it here, but I urge you to read it in the following passages and plead with God to spare your nation from such a situation: 2 Kings 6:25-29; Deuteronomy 28:53-57; Leviticus 26:26,29

Israel sinned and received all these curses as a result, which had been prophesied. The nations that have the Bible but have cast God and His Word behind their backs will suffer even more than the ancient people of God who forsook him.

When the great droughts and ensuing famines happen and millions of people will be starving to death around the world, God promises to supply bread and keep alive those who look to him for protection during these evil days.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.   Ps 33:18-19

Diseases

First, a look at what the Bible says about the world scenario when pandemics sweep through every continent.

Let’s start with what is probably the most widespread pandemic in the world today: obesity and overweight. According to a WHO report, globally there are 1.6 billion overweight adults (age 15+), with at least 400 million being obese. WHO projects that 2015, approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.

While obesity itself may not be looked upon as a deadly disease, it is the diseases that obesity is directly responsible for that are the dangers. Anybody who is overweight stands at great risk of several chronic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke. WHO projects that diabetes deaths will increase by more than 50 percent worldwide in the next 10 years!. Another disease that overweight causes is cancer, especially of the uterus, breast, and colon. Children who are obese are at risk of premature death and disability in adulthood.

Overweight was once considered a symptom of an affluent society, not a problem encountered commonly in the poor and developing nations. That has changed and overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in the low and middle-income countries.

An overlooked sign of the end times is the calories consumed by people worldwide. As the world heads towards the prophesied cataclysmic end, an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended will grow each year. People will continue to increasingly consume energy-dense foods that are high in fat and sugars but low in vitamin and other vital nutrients. Fast food will become faster and slow-cooked meals will become rarer. Keeping pace hand in hand with the consumption of junk food will be decreased physical activity and increased sedentary work. And so, far more overweight, far more increase in its related diseases and far more deaths in every country.

Animal-borne diseases

Animal-borne epidemics are already out of human control.

For centuries, humans have been afflicted with diseases that originate in animals. Many of the agents responsible for epidemics throughout human history have their origins in animals: tuberculosis, influenza, bubonic plague, food-borne illness, and AIDS. Episodes of animal-borne diseases, also referred to as zoonotic diseases or zoonoses, are increasing around the globe. Exotic sounding ailments, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), monkeypox, mad cow disease, Lyme disease, and chronic wasting disease(CWD), have been capturing global headlines. Some scientists expect the rise in zoonotic disease episodes to continue.’  healthyamericans.org

Even the most advanced nations are not equipped to prevent and control these diseases. In the US, for example, there is no coordinated effort or a single federal agency with the command and control responsibility for managing this growing health problem.

In India, I had a harrowing experience when H1N1, or swine flu, fear swept through the nation. I happened to be in an unfamiliar city for a few days during this time. Surgical masks were selling faster than hot chapattis as people frantically tried every means possible to protect themselves. While in the grip of this fear myself, I started getting the first symptoms of this deadly horror. But for this fear, I would have treated my symptom as those of a normal cold or a seasonal flu. But, no, public warning posters everywhere, urgent radio and tv announcements, daily newspaper coverage of new cases of swine flu, and the sight of masked people walking on the streets, send me as fast as a vehicle’s wheels could take me, to the nearest hospital that had advertised itself as swine flu detection center. They weren’t dealing with it anymore and directed me to another, where I met the same response. Finally, I landed in a government hospital and joined a large crowd of people in a similar situation as mine waiting outside the hall where the detection tests were being done. But it was already too late for us. The day’s visiting time was over, and we had to return the next day. But one frantic mother wasn’t giving up. She was pleading pathetically for the hospital staff to just treat one more case – her little child. I don’t know if the child was taken in, but I returned shocked at the inadequacy of a nation to deal with an emergency situation for a good percentage of its billions of citizens.

As for me, I was told that I had to fill in a long application form, submit corroborating documents with it, stand in queue of hours and then perhaps I might be lucky the next day to have the test taken. Now this was only for the test to see if I had contracted swine flu – not the treatment for swine flu, which did not exist. I decided that was better to risk out my symptoms than go through the futile efforts in getting some futile government attention. By God’s grace, my symptoms started receding soon, and a couple of days later, I was fleeing back to my native land. But in my mind, the vision of what’s going to happen in the sooncoming years in each city around the world was strongly etched by what I experienced in that city in India.

Humans who come in contact with infected animals risk contracting a zoonotic disease that the animal may be carrying. The opportunities for such contact are growing steadily. Human and farm animal populations are increasing around the world, and in some areas like Southeast Asia, this is bringing more humans and animals into close contact. People are moving into parts of the world where humans have never lived before, exposing themselves to unknown infectious agents.

Air travel and cargo ships allow an infectious person or animal to reach far-flung parts of the globe in less time than the incubation period of many pathogens. The monkeypox virus entered the US through imported Gambian giant rats sold in the nation’s under-regulated exotic pet trade. The rats infected pet prairie dogs which are kept as pets, which passed the virus along to humans. The outbreak sheds light on the lack of coordinated federal oversight to prevent future zoonotic disease outbreaks, as well as the confusing state and federal laws that govern exotic pet trade…The spread of infectious disease, not just human-to-human, but also animal-to-human, knows no boundaries.’   ‘Animal-Borne Epidemics Out of Control: Threatening the Nation’s Health’, published by Trust For America’s Health.

War

The Encyclopedia Britannica says that the Thirty Years’ War which ended in 1648 was “the most horrible military episode in western history prior to the 20th century”. Cautious estimates say that about 7 million died in the Thirty Years’ War. When we come to modern times we find that World War I (1914 to 1918) in just over 4 years killed approximately 20 million people. But only 21 years later World War II began (1939 to 1945), resulting in the loss of 62 million lives, triple the loss of World War I, while the monetary costs quadrupled from an estimated $340 billion to an estimated $4.5 trillion. There can be no question that there has been a great increase in the intensity of warfare.

It has been calculated by a former president of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, aided by historians from England, Egypt, Germany, and India, that since 3600 BC, over 14,531 wars have been waged in which 3,640,000,000 people have been killed.

Since World War II there have been at least 12 limited wars in the world, 74 rebellions for independence, and 162 social revolutions, either political, economic, racial or religious.

From these figures it is easy to see that wars and revolts have greatly increased. For example, during the 5,500 plus years since 3600 BC, an average of about 657,000 people died as a result of war per year (including WW I and WW II). Whereas, if we average the 82 million deaths of WW I and WW II alone using the entire 100 years of the 20th Century we arrive at an average of 820,000 deaths per year from war. This is not counting the deaths from the over 260 other wars, rebellions and revolutions of the 20th Century.

Today at least 35 nations have nuclear weapons. The United States and Russia alone having a total of 12,000 strategic nuclear warheads and about 48,000 smaller tactical nuclear weapons. The combined total of both superpowers nuclear power equaling a total of about 1,350,000 Hiroshima size bombs! Many people are worried that nuclear warheads can reach any part of the globe within 30 minutes, and that the superpowers have stockpiled enough nuclear explosives to equal 300 pounds of TNT for every man, woman, and child on earth.   ‘Are Wars Increasing?’- Real-World-News.org

Increase in knowledge and global traffic

The increase in knowledge and traffic in our modern age was predicted in Daniel 12:4.

But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.

The incredibly dramatic increase in mankind’s fund of knowledge since the late 19th century onwards has been going hand in hand with the increase in global travel and transportation, and vice versa. That is, the more people travel, the more knowledge increases and is spread, and the more it increases the more people run to and fro to dissipate it.

Population increase is ‘exponential’. It does not increase in the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 order; it explodes in the 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 order. That word is even more applicable to the increase in knowledge today, especially technology, the progress of which has been defined by Moore’s Law  (‘The number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years’). Futurists such as Ray Kurzweil believe that the exponential improvement described by Moore’s law will ultimately lead to a technological ‘singularity’: a period where progress in technology occurs almost instantly, the time when current global trends go wildly off the charts and technological changes ‘become so rapid that we cannot possibly envision its results’.

I urge God’s people everywhere to understand more about this sooncoming ‘singularity’ so they can be prepared for it.

We in this generation have already entered a new era. Levels of intelligence far greater than our own are evolving rapidly right today. Machines are increasingly exceeding us in the performance of more and more tasks, from guiding objects like missiles or satellites to assembling other machines. They are merging with us ever more intimately and are learning how to reconfigure our biology in new and significantly faster technological domains.

When the singularity happens – scientists expect it to happen between 2020 and 2040 – technology will have advanced beyond the human mind and it will be machines then, and not people, which will be the source of new inventions. At that point, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be responsible for creating new breakthroughs with minimal human input.

By the 2040s, when nonbiological intelligence will have soared past the capability of the human brain, machines will be a billion times more powerful than the 10^26 computations per second that all biological humanity represents. Artificial intelligence in certain computers is already more complex than a human brain and has surpassed the 20-petahertz threshold for potential intelligence. In 10 years, it will be everywhere. It’s already a short step to computer systems that make better decisions than corporate managers do, say scientists.

When the singularity happens, there will be radical transformation in the way people work and relate to each other. The sudden explosion in machine intelligence, along with the rapid innovation in gene research and nanotechnology, will result in a world where there is no distinction between the biological and the mechanical, or between physical and virtual reality.

Kurzweil says that by 2019 the current rate of technological progress will ultimately result in most routine jobs in the economy being automated via technologies such as robotics and specialized artificial intelligence and that this will cause significant unemployment, as well as a drastic decline in consumer demand and confidence, possibly precipitating a major global economic crisis.

At some point in the next decade, as machines become smarter than people, humans will get fitted with smart biochips, wearables, and other enhancements. What happens when people and machines converge into a mass-mind superintelligence?

The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, which convenes the annual Singularity Summit to coordinate and educate scientists and other concerned individuals on the challenges facing humanity, asks these disturbing questions: ‘How will near-human and smarter-than-human AIs act towards humans? Why? Are their motivations dependent on our design?’

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.   Albert Einstein

Says scientist Damien Broderick: ‘We will live forever; or we will all perish most horribly; our minds will emigrate to cyberspace, and start the most ferocious overpopulation race ever seen on the planet; or our machines will transcend and take us with them, or leave us in some peaceful backwater where the meek shall inherit the Earth. Or something else, something far weirder and.unimaginable.’

And where do God and his prophecies come in this emerging world order? Surely Bible prophesies could not have overlooked the ‘Singularity’ – considered by secular minds to occur soon as the single greatest event in human development history. Begin to read the prophecies in the Bible in the light of the new understanding you have gained about this subject.

Human behavior

But more than any of the preceding signs of the end times, the most frightening is the change in human behavior.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God   2 Tm 3:1-4 KJV

The Amplified Bible is more lucid:

But understand this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear]. For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane. [They will be] without natural [human] affection (callous and inhuman), relentless (admitting of no truce or appeasement); [they will be] slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers), intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of good. [They will be] treacherous [betrayers], rash, [and] inflated with self-conceit. [They will be] lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of God.

The word ‘perilous’ is translated from the Greek word ‘khalepos’. This word is defined in the Bible Greek Lexicon as ‘fierce, hard to bear, dangerous, savage’. This is the same Greek word used to describe the demon-possessed man of the Gergesenes.

And when He arrived at the other side in the country of the Gadarenes, two men under the control of demons went to meet Him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce and savage that no one was able to pass that way.   Mt 8:28 AMP

In the verse about perilous times, Paul was not referring to just wicked men, or people in some places but to mankind in general – ‘For men shall be lovers of their own selves…’. The average man’s life will be marked by increasing insensitivity to the needs and sufferings of others. The average godless man will be fierce and dangerous. Streets in every nation will be filled with people who are walking pressure bombs. You can never tell when they will explode at you.

People of God, you are living in fierce times which have already fallen on this world as never before in history. And the frightening truth is that this fierce times is getting more perilous day by day.

As the end draws near, you will hear of and see with your own eyes hate among men increasing. Men will be less and less tolerant of others. Brutal acts will increase in the intensity and scope of their brutality.

The most tragic aspect of the hate and violence of the end times will be in the family. Men and women will continue to marry in greater numbers, only to divorce soon in almost equal numbers. The hearts of the fathers will turn away from the hearts of the children. Natural paternal love will decrease. Children of ungodly families will grow increasingly abhorrent of their parents to the extent that many parents will die as a direct consequence of their children’s hate for them.

Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.’  Mt 10:21

All the prophesied endtime disasters and violence may bring a kind of warped thrill to some people today. But when the evil sweeps through the whole world in its strength, each day will be a day of depressing gloom. When it is day people will hope to find refuge in the night, when it is day, people will long for the safety of the day.

In the morning you shall say, “Oh, that it were evening!” And at evening you shall say, “Oh, that it were morning!” because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.’   Deu 28:67

While mankind as a whole will be experiencing great agonies during these times, there will be a group of people who have been prayerfully watching world events unfolding as prophesied in the Bible, and who have been seeking God’s protection constantly. These people will be considered ‘worthy’ to escape all the global terrors which are coming upon earth. And when the climatic end happens, this group of protected people will be whisked away from their residences, or wherever they are at that time, to a place of safety specially prepared for them by God. There they will be cared for supernaturally until the return of Christ, when he will cut short the evil days before it utterly destroys the whole world leaving absolutely no survivor. But ‘for the elects’ sake’, God the Father will send his Son for a swift and dramatic intervention to what’s happening on earth.

Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.’   Lk 21:36

Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past.’   Is 26:20

But the woman was supplied with the two wings of a giant eagle, so that she might fly from the presence of the serpent into the desert (wilderness), to the retreat where she is to be kept safe and fed for a time, and times, and half a time (three and one-half years, or 1,260 days).’   Rev 12:14 AMP

And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.’   Mt 24:22

The endtime signs are happening so quickly that I am almost certain I will live to see Christ descending with the clouds, and if not in my lifetime then surely the world cannot go on as it is now beyond my children’s days. Christ said no one can know the precise time – the day or the hour – of his coming. But he also said that the generation seeing these signs will not pass away until all that he had prophesied had taken place Mt 24:34

I have not covered all the signs of the end times here. Other signs that will occur on a global scale are religious deception and the rise of miracle-working false christs and prophets; the severe increase in the persecution of Christians around the world; the rebirth of the Holy Roman Empire as 10 united nations in Europe, with the Beast and the False Prophet as their political and spiritual leaders; the captivity and tribulation of the nations that God refers to as ‘Jacob’ –  US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, and the Scandinavian countries; the increase in the world’s population of homosexuals, with some cities having more homosexuals than heterosexuals; the increase in women in political power; the building of the third temple in Jerusalem, and the world’s increasing focus on that city; and many other signs, each of which I will share in depth in my coming messages on this website.

Is there anything else in the world or in your personal life that is more vital and more urgent than to ensure the safety of your and your family’s protection in these fierce times?

Pray daily from today that you with your loved ones will be counted worthy of escaping all the global calamities that are coming soon. And as you pray, begin to examine your relationship with God. As you begin to sincerely seek God and his help in cleaning up your life, you will come to understand the prophecies in the Bible with increasing clarity and thrill. Read Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 to know what Christ himself said about the sooncoming world events. Read the whole book of Revelation, even if most of it sounds mysterious to you initially. As you earnestly study it, you will come to the point where you will find the book of Revelation the most exciting of all the books in the Bible. In fact, in no other book of the Bible has God pronounced a special blessing to those for reading and heeding what’s written in it.

The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place…Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.   Rev 1:1,3 NIV

Today, even as you read this, God is calling you to be ready for ‘what must soon take place’. Today can be the real beginning point in your and your family’s lives of receiving God’s protection through the perilous times until Christ comes.

My prayer for you:

Lord God, bless this child of yours who is reading this message, whose heart is being moved by your Holy Spirit to seek you so he or she can be prepared by you for the return of your Son Jesus Christ. Begin to keep this blessed child and his or her family under your wings of protection until the perilous times are over. Amen.

 

Pappa Joseph

 

 

Be Always Prepared to Live the Basic Life

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What would you do when a disaster strikes your place and there is no electricity, water, basic facilities? No home. No food.

We are living in a global civilization today that makes daily living convenient for the average person more than at any other time since the first human community formed. How many of us, on turning a faucet handle, pause to gaze at the wonder that is pouring out of the spout? When I was a teen, such a sight would have been a real wonder for me, at a time when the latest technology in my village was a pulley on my well to make drawing water easy. In those days we never sat on a ceramic commode but over an awesomely awful hole in the ground (which may be a remote reason some babies in the third world, who grew up to be famous people, in those days were named Sithole – to squat over that hole, the depths of which were frighteningly dark and abyssal, required some fortitude).

Decades ago, I was fascinated by the lifestyle of a minister of Christ, who said he began his day at dawn by having a shower. And that minister lived in a cold country! For me, even in a tropical country, taking a bath early in the morning was a shivering experience. It was only when I was an adult and taking early morning showers in a developed country did I realize what the minister meant. He meant a ‘hot’ shower. Now how could a youth in my primitive circumstances ever imagine that steaming sprays of water could be available 24 hours at the mere turning of a knob in the bathroom?

Well, I suppose by now you see what I am getting at. The simple daily appurtenances of modern life are wonders that we take for granted and don’t give a thought to…until… Until one of them stops functioning. The handle is turned, and not a drop comes out. The switch is oned, but the room still stays dark. The lift stops halfway down. The car breaks down. And worst of all in this cyber age, the internet is down. As one denizen of the virtual world said, ‘You disconnect from the internet and get this awful feeling, as if you just pulled the plug on a loved one’.

When one of our daily life-facilitators fail, panic strikes and our only thought from then on is about getting back the indispensable facility we hadn’t once given a second thought to until now.

During the first Gulf War when Iraq annexed Kuwait, and bombs started falling close to the borders of neighboring countries in the region, I was living alone in the United Arab Emirates, while my family was safely away in India. I continued my life as usual. But those with families in the country began to panic. Nobody knew if the war would spill over to the nearby countries. Supermarkets began to run out of bottled water as households stocked up essentials for a siege. But Saddam soon ran out of cartridges in his ammo boxes, and people were all back in their comfort zones as before, wondering what to do with the excess water and grains in the house.

This message is of no relevance to people living in, say, Syria, where, at the time of writing this, Christians are being targeted by both government and rebel forces. Many have fled the country and are barely surviving in makeshift refugee camps. A mattress, just enough water for a full bath, a small bite of something delicious occasionally, a little privacy for the couple to sleep together, a rudimentary school where their little ones can go safely, a few currency bills for a little shopping, a tv to pass their dreary time, some little other facility they had been enjoying all their lives before the war drove them out of their cozy sofas…these are the wonders the refugees are dreaming of at the moment now, even as I am debating with my stomach about lunch – whether I should settle for a tuna salad in the office itself or walk to the food court nearby for a couple of KFCs, which I hadn’t savored in quite a while.

The purpose of this message is not to persuade you to daily gaze in wonder at all the little blessings of daily living that you are taking for granted, though that would be good thing if one could do it. I have given scenarios of surviving without the basic amenities of daily living so that you can be watchful and be always prepared for the time of severe trouble that is coming upon the whole world. God counsels us in the Bible,

Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen   Lk 21:36 NIV

Child of God, keep the following basic understanding in the forefront of your mind:

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. For man also does not know his time: like fish taken in a cruel net, like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them.   Eccl 9:11-12

A person may be wise and prescient about the state of the world today. He plans his life accordingly and lives prudently. He has everything ready to face any adversity in life and still…and still evil times can overtake him suddenly, like a snare springing out of nowhere upon a bird and trapping it inside.

Time and chance happens equally to God’s people as to those who do not know God. I could give you countless examples of evil times swiftly befalling God’s people throughout history – from the day Joseph was abducted without the slightest indication of prior hostility from his brothers, to the moment Job was instantaneously transformed from the most content man in the world to the most afflicted, and from the time that David knew his family was abducted by enemies, to the days when faithful Christians were dangerously stranded between warring factions in World Wars I and II.

I had some relatives living as expatriates in Kuwait when that country was suddenly invaded by Saddam’s soldiers. These expatriates were regular church attendees, and grateful to God for all the abundant material blessings they enjoyed in the rich sheikhdom. Then one morning, they woke up to find their city overrun by Saddam’s forces. The expatriates were allowed to flee the country, and nobody was shot dead while trying to cross the border. But none of them was able to take to es own country any item of possession apart from the clothes e was wearing and possibly a suitcase of essentials. I heard the sorry tales from my kinsfolk of the huge quantities of precious stones, gold, money and other treasures they had accumulated over decades of hard work in that country and how they had to leave them all behind in the plush apartments they abandoned when they fled. Many of these expatriates when they finally reached their homeland had to start life all over again with the merest of basic necessities.

Disaster struck them suddenly. As it does millions of other innocent families and communities around the world every year. It could be a manmade calamity such as war, terrorist attack, persecution, or a natural catastrophe such as earthquake, tornado, tsunami, fire, plague. But the effects are the same: the affected people are left with barely anything other than the clothes on their bodies. And that is when the difference between survivors who trusted God and survivors who trusted in their own abilities begins to be clearly seen.

So, first of all, understand that time and chance happens to everyone. Destiny’s presently favored children, who are basking in their luxurious lifestyles, will wake up sooner or later to their shocking realization that destiny favors no one, not even the good people. Our Creator has deliberately made it impossible for any man or woman, even those closest to him, to know if tomorrow he or she would be protected from adversity, or if e would be allowed to go through some unexpected trouble that arises suddenly without any warning. Therefore, let this truth never fade from your mind:

When times are good, enjoy them and be happy. When times are bad, think about this: God makes both good and bad times, so that no one really knows what is coming next.   Eccl 7:14 The Voice

The New Living Translation puts it this way:

Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Remember that nothing is certain in this life.

The Message version says:

On a good day, enjoy yourself; on a bad day, examine your conscience. God arranges for both kinds of days so that we won’t take anything for granted.

The simple daily appurtenances of modern life are wonders that we have taken for granted and don’t give a thought to…until. Until one of them stops functioning.

The next understanding I wish to share with you is about the state of mind a person should have during both hard times and good times.

The very first principle of Godly survival in a disaster is to maintain a state of mind called ‘basic happiness’ or ‘primary contentment’ constantly, daily, in every situation, under any circumstances.

Actually, a person can never acquire the state of basic happiness by his own diligent application of ways to attain it. But that’s not what secular motivational writers and speakers teach. Their books and seminars show how one can apply various ‘secrets’ or ‘keys’ to maintain a positive frame of mind in any adverse life situation.

I recall the years when my boyhood favorite band, The Beatles, looked to an eccentric guru, The Maharishi, for their spiritual guidance. The fab four grew up as Christians, at least nominally, but obviously they did not find Christ charismatic enough to be their guru. The Maharishi had a better message of happiness for them. He wrote: ‘Being happy is of the utmost importance. Success in anything is through happiness. Under all circumstances be happy. Just think of any negativity that comes at you as a raindrop falling into the ocean of your bliss…within everyone is an unlimited reservoir of energy, intelligence, and happiness’.

Now if celebrities can somehow discover within themselves, through the guidance of their gurus, the reservoir of happiness, why do they need Christ, who has never once mentioned anything about ‘success’ or ‘happiness’ anywhere in his Gospel. He did, however, promise his own peace and his own joy within us though, even when we are going through a lot of unhappy and unsuccessful situations.

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid…These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.   John 14:27;15:11

Now, if we look at the fruits of what the celebrities learn from their spiritual teachers, where do you find the unhappiest marriages and the brokenest families on earth today? Don’t most celebrities in Hollywood and other woods have one or more gurus to lead them to the fountain of lifelong cheer? Yet the most successful of them are the most miserable as well. Just a few weeks ago, as I write this, came the shocking news of the suicide of one the cheeriest actors in filmworld, Robin Williams. His gurus gave him everything for the successful life except basic happiness.

Understand that only if God enables you by his Spirit can you be in a state of basic happiness always. This basic state of mind is a pure gift of God, and not the product of one’s effort in keeping any laws of happiness. So ask God regularly and persistently for this gift. And while asking God, there is some groundwork you can do for yourself to be prepared for any eventuality.

A prerequisite of basic happiness is that you should consciously keep reverting your mind to the one overriding reason for your living – to prepare for the incredibly thrilling life in the sooncoming Kingdom of God. No matter how dreary and gloomy the world around you, the clear vision of the joys and pleasures of Paradise should be more than enough for you to tide over every unhappy but temporary circumstance in your life. And then – of even greater encouragement – you have God’s promise that he personally will see to it that you survive through every adversity and be able to stand victorious and faultless before him.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.   Jude 1:24-25

Another absolute prerequisite of basic happiness is a determination to delight in and live by The 10 Commandments no matter how bad the times are. God’s Word promises that a person who loves and keeps God’s Laws will never be perturbed by any adversity or unhappiness.

Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.’   Ps 119:165

Says the Contemporary English Version:

You give peace of mind to all who love your Law. Nothing can make them fall.

Nothing can make you fall if you love God’s laws and keep them. No electricity, no money, no food, no water, no home – nothing can make a person who loves God’s law be overcome or devastated or panicked by any unhappy circumstance but he is always able to rise above every adversity by holding on to his Helper’s hand which is ever extended to him.

Sudden staggering disaster drives the Christless person, no matter how successful e is in the world’s estimate, to desperate acts of survival, and if that doesn’t bring him or her deliverance, e resorts to what e thinks is the only way out of es misery, suicide. But for the man or woman who has a passionate love for God’s laws and keeps them with zeal no crisis will overwhelm em.

Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction. I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have given me life.   Ps 119:92-93

If I had not found happiness in obeying your Law, I would have died in misery. I won’t ever forget your teachings, because you give me new life by following them.’   CEV

Finally, basic happiness is not possible without contentment.

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.’   1 Tim 6:6-8

The man or woman gifted with basic happiness will never moan or grumble as long as e has food, clothing and a place for em and es family to lie down safely. Such a person will trust God to supply em with everything else at the right time, but until then e will be content with the barest essentials of life.

When bad times fall upon a Christ-based person, he or she doesn’t focus es prayers too much on getting out of the situation immediately, though e would daily be asking God to deliver em as early as God’s will allow. But es greater focus is on asking God to strengthen em to go through the trouble that God has allowed in his or her life until e emerges out of it smiling. In the meantime, as e waits for es deliverance, e looks around at what remains in es life, and renews es gratitude for each and every one of them. E praises God more than e did in the past because e has been given the basics to live through each day so that e and es family do not have to suffer acute deprivation.

Now, you can confidently ask God to provide you always – in adversity just as in prosperity – the three absolute essentials for your and your family’s daily living: food, clothing, and shelter.  As long as God supplies you daily with these three basic needs, you have no reason in the sight of God to be unhappy or complaining about any lack of provisions.

You may not have a job, you may not have meat for meals regularly, you may not have matching shoes for your trousers, you may not have a tv, or a car, you may not have even a bicycle to ride on…but you can have basic happiness if you are able to feed your family and yourself two or three meals a day, have at least untorn clothes you can wear without embarrassment in public, and a place to sleep in safely.

Note, that I used the word ‘place’, not home. It may happen in some rare instance that a person may not have a home of his own to sleep in and have to find refuge elsewhere. But God in his great mercy ensures that such periods are very brief, and always restores a home for those who look to him for every need. I speak from experience, dear child of God, as most of my messages are.

One day – suddenly, as a bird caught in a snare, exactly as the Bible mentioned it – I found myself, my wife and our tween daughter on the street, evicted from our residence for no fault of ours. (The owner of the apartment we had rented didn’t pay his municipality taxes on time, and the officials sealed the entrance to it.) One hour, I was basking in security, the next, I was looking desperately for shelter.

We were in another country, and we had no relatives or friends to go to immediately. And I didn’t have the money to take a hotel room. The nearest person I could get help from was in another state. And night would be upon us soon. But, fortunately (for God-trusters, there is no word ‘fortunately’ or ‘luckily’ in their vocabulary; I use it here just as a common expression), I realized I had my office keys with me. Nobody will be in the office at night. I took my family to the office. And we spent a not-uncomfortable night there, sleeping on the office couches. Next morning, before the office staff arrived, I took my family to the next state and put up with a friend for about three days. On the fourth day, we found ourselves in a good hotel room, without having to pay a cent from my side. After about a week, we were able to return to our residence.

If God allows you to be without shelter suddenly – say, because a whirlwind blew your roof away, as happens in tornado-frequented countries – dont panic. It becomes God’s responsibility then to provide you temporary shelter until you are back in the comfort of your own home. Such times will be extremely rare, most likely not more than once a lifetime.

But whirlwind or earthquake or war, one thing you will not be deprived of for even a single day is your daily food and clothing and a place to sleep safely. That is God’s promise you can count on with your and your family’s whole lives.

You will be wise to be mentally equipped at all times to face any unexpected change in your circumstances. And when bad times come, understand that the trouble is not a sign that God is not protecting you or that he is not pleased with you. Instead, understand it is the surest sign that God has found you spiritually mature enough he can now trust you to go through the flood or the fire safely. Let him hold your hand as he gently and steadily leads you and your family out of the danger zone and to safe shore.

He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young.’   Is 40:11

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior’   Is 42:1-3

If you tend to fret because you are not having a more comfortable life, then God may have a mild rebuke for you, as he had for one of his faithful but complaining servants. In the words below, instead of Baruch, put your name there. God is no respecter of person, and what applies to Baruch applies to every man and woman of God:

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch: You have said, ‘I am overwhelmed with trouble! Haven’t I had enough pain already? And now the Lord has added more! I am worn out from sighing and can find no rest.’ Baruch, this is what the Lord says: ‘I will destroy this nation that I built. I will uproot what I planted. Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don’t do it! I will bring great disaster upon all these people; but I will give you your life as a reward wherever you go. I, the Lord, have spoken!’   Jer 45:2-5 NLT

I have faced a few critical situations in life where my family and I had to live the basic life for several days and even weeks. The latest was about two years ago, but mercifully, it was relatively mild compared to what we had gone through in the past, and it lasted only a few hours.

On that morning I rose from bed tired, having woken up several times in the night to attend to my senile mother’s needs. My first need in the morning was for a cup of refreshing coffee. I turned on the tap to wash my coffee mug. There was no water. I then switched on the water pump, but the pump was silent, and I noticed the electricity meter showed no electricity coming into the house. The meter had conked. I took my mobile to call the electrician. He was not picking up, even after several attempts.

The situation could have been panicky for me had I not known Christ, and had I not some months earlier decided that no matter what acute contingency happens to disrupt my daily life, I will not allow myself to panic or become desperate because I know my God is in total control of everything that happens in my life.

But it was indeed a critical situation. I found comfort in the fact that at least I could get some essential water by drawing it from the well manually. But that would require a bucket and robe, and they were not available. Then, I suddenly remembered with dismay. My income for our monthly needs was totally dependent on my freelance work, for which I was absolutely dependent on the computer. And that very day was the deadline to submit an important work. Without submitting this work on time, I would be in financial straits. There was only one thing that could deliver me from this crisis. I appealed to our Father in heaven in my desperate situation. And he sent an immediate answer.

A thought came to my mind seemingly out of nowhere. The thought was, ‘Open the meter box, and check one of the fuses’. I am a greenhorn in technical matters. Nevertheless, I opened and pulled out one of the fuses. The fuse wire was burnt out. I was able to replace the wire, and the electricity came back.

But what if the thought of opening the complicated switchbox hadn’t come. My whole day would have been one continuous affliction, and if I didn’t get the electrician somehow, it could go on to two or more days of severe crises in several areas of my life together.

If a day ever comes in your life that you have to resort to the three-blessings basic life, here is another of God’s assurances to you and your family for such a time, paraphrased in parenthesis by me:

Though the fig tree may not blossom,
(Though the economy of my country has crashed)
Nor fruit be on the vines
(Nor do I have any means of income)
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
(Though all my projects have failed)
And the fields yield no food;
(And my business is yielding no profit)
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
(Though creditors have seized all my assets)
And there be no herd in the stalls—
(And I and my family are left with only our basic lives)
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.
Hab 3:17-19

Child of God, as long as your Father in heaven has daily provided you all that you need for your basic happiness, rejoice. Rejoice daily.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!   Phil 4:4

 

Pappa Joseph