Preparing for the worst……
This is a very difficult subject for me to write about, it is a deep concern for many, but as a Christian I must wade into these waters! I have been in prayer for some time and I wanted to share what God is encouraging me to share, with you.
I am afraid we are headed for difficult times. Our country has strayed further and further from God.
We fight constantly about prayer in schools, pre game prayers, faith based Christmas displays, the meaning of marriage, and the right to abortions. Several states are fighting over bills about who can use public restrooms!!!!! According to recent studies, we have fewer people attending churches, and fewer people taking part in prayer or many that do not pray at all. Young people in massive numbers are rejecting a belief in God. For most of the history of America, God has blessed our nation, but with so many of our fellow citizens rejecting or ignoring God, if you were God what would you do??!! Thankfully we are not God, and His love is far above ours, but I have to believe we are trying His patience! After all He has done for us, we are not showing much love and respect back to Him!
The elected leaders that we have been sending to Washington, for the most part, have not been making decisions in our best interest! It has become a good old boys club with the inside members benefiting while we have been robbed, cheated and lied to. Debt has climbed to the highest amount in history, the last eight years have seen debt far greater than all the years of our nation’s history combined! The world economy is in shambles and something has to give! Economic reckoning is coming.
Now why am I concerned about this? I’m a husband, father and grandfather and a servant of God, and if times get very difficult, and I’m afraid they will, I have the responsibility to not only take care of my family, but to also reach out and help others! What is person of good conscious to do?
This is what I believe God is saying to me. Prepare for the worst, that is prudent advise for any of us, storms, tornados, severe weather, even civil unrest, we need to be able to survive for a while until things get under control, that just makes sense! The spiritual side is more important! Here is my to do list:
1. Trust in God and know He is aware of my circumstances . Have faith in His love, protection and power to watch over me and my family.
2. Know that great trials are the greatest opportunity to lead others to Him. I must be prepared to try to help others, assist them and show compassion in difficult times.
3. I must be prepared myself to face hard times. My personal faith philosophy has come down to a wonderful quote I have given here in the past. A character in a wonderful Christian film, said this; “Life comes down to just two things, God Loves you , so love others and God sacrificed everything to be with you, so sacrifice everything.”
Artists Standing For Christ is having t-shirts made with that simple phrase, “sacrifice everything.” It is the essence of living for Him, let nothing be more important than your devotion to Him and your service for Him to the lost, all else is rubbish!
Blessings,
the pilgrim
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 20th, 2016 at 3:37 pm
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Amen Bill!
I agree with everything you say. I think many of us have taken this country and our liberty for granted too long, and have been “asleep” at the wheel. I count myself in that category. This great country has been so blessed because of the Judeo-Christian principles of it’s founding. Too many people have turned their backs on these principles, or perhaps were never even taught them in the first place. We Christians need to step up to the plate on this, and demonstrate leadership.
Most of the world’s people that have ever lived, have been under one type of tyranny or another, a very small percentage of humans that have really lived as free people are alive today, and most of them are US citizens. Ben Franklin said the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. We have been taking God and our blessed country for granted too long.
I too think we are in for some very difficult times ahead, unfortunately it is of our doing. Trusting politicians and not God and self-reliance is why we are in this mess. Only one way out: trust in God, prepare for hard times.
God bless,
Ron
Thankfully we can trust in Him, it’s all in His hands!
I agree with all that you have said here, Bill, and share most of the same concerns you have expressed so well.
But we can not overlook the wonderful youth who have truly committed themselves to a life of service and devotion to God. Every week, I see numerous examples of young people who are sacrificing their time and using their abilities to help others — often people they’ve never met.
While we need to have the vigilance you describe, we also must be sure to take the extra step to let these young people know how they are valued, appreciated and loved by God … and by us.
There is a substantial element of young people who are doing the right thing, who are avoiding the numerous temptations and following Christ.
It is our duty to make sure they know God sees their hearts, and that they are doing right – regardless of peer pressure. Because we all know that Satan is working harder than ever to steal away our young people. Let’s do our best to keep him at bay!!!!
I agree, the young people that are following Christ must join us as leaders for the rest of the youth of America, we must love them to Christ!!!
So true! We need to get back to basics and also restore mercy and kindness to our daily lives as well.
This political campaign is the wake up call for Americans. The allegiances of candidates to special interests vs. the interests of the American people are so intense that we are close to meltdown. Though I am not on board with much of his philosophy Bernie Sanders speaks accurately when he attacks the financial connections between special interests and both parties and their candidates. Neither has any lock on either vice or virtue and the only other truism is that both are so entrenched that they are unable and/or unwilling to come back to their senses.
The harsh reality is that WE are responsible for OUR mess. WE elected these mediocre and paid for politicians and keep electing them. WE belch and cringe over dirty politics and “attack ads” and yet WE reward the candidates behind them. WE have created a system so polluted that few men and women of good character want to risk being sullied by running for public office.
Hate to break it to you, folks, but if you don’t like Trump or Cruz, you are probably responsible in part for such mediocre choices. Ditto for Hillary. As for The Bern, he’s kind of a special case. Some of my more “conservative” friends who despise many of his ideas nonetheless respect Sanders’ sincerity and “if you don’t like me, don’t vote for me” approach.
Republicans got off track when they began favoring Wall Street and China over Main Street. Democrats lost sight of the people on Elm Street. Both by pandering to the extremes (and their money) lost touch with real America and because they are so beholden they are dysfunctional.
Imagine that every day you told your spouse that he or she is worthless and everything he or she says or thinks isn’t worth even considering before you summarily dismiss and berate it with a “my way or the highway” attitude. What do you think your marriage would be like? And how long would it last?
That’s what’s happened to our country. We are unable to listen to each other and consider what someone else says. And for anyone claiming to be pro-business that’s the kiss of death. Any good business person knows that good ideas can come from anywhere — and if your competition has it you are either going to steal (and hopefully improve on) it or go broke. We have so many people who say they want government to be more business-like and I say “Amen” to that except that the people who cry that the loudest are often the first to AVOID applying sound business principles to governing.
As a Republican I am particularly dismayed. The party of Eisenhower and, later, Nixon that I grew up with is gone — having been bought out by the John Birchers and other wackos who at one time were pariahs in the political environment. Why is this so devastating?
A friend of mine who is an old line classic liberal (in the true sense of the word) member of Congress put it to me like this: If you want to do something patriotic, join the Republican party and help bring it back to its senses. You expect us Democrats to be crazy. But Republicans were the sane and sober farmers, merchants and bankers on Main Street who you could count on to be good managers and get things done. Many of our greatest accomplishments are as a result of this stewardship that today is gone, replaced by a group of crazies.
The Democrats, of course, are not without blame. Their pandering to every potentially marginalized fractional interest while sucking up at the big donor trough has left the workingman on Elm Street to wonder why it keeps claiming to represent him (or her).
So, yes, we have strayed far from our principles — perhaps we have few, if any, left — and WE are to blame. God help us because we are as Hell aren’t doing it ourselves.
Much work is left to be done!!!!
Amen, Brother! This is a difficult year for all us conservatives. He is our only hope that something good comes out of this mess (which we have allowed to evolve). Trying to lean not on my own understanding, but to trust……
Always wise to lean on Him!!!!
beautiful message
Thanks Joshua!
Fellows I agree with everything I have read by everyone that has posted and Bill I applaud you for having the integrity to post this. One of the issues I see is the church itself. We have become so wimpy it is pathetic. Sometimes I don’t even know if we can be classified as “luke warm”. I do acknowledge that there is a remanent that is strong spiritually. We have been infiltrated by the world and have left God out of our lives. The result is that our young people and the lost world do not see Christians any different than themselves. They do not see Christ through us. I recently heard that in Iraq all but 20% of the Christians have left but the 20% that is still there refuses to leave even in the face of persecution to the point of death because they say that the people need them to point them to Christ. If persecution comes we may not have as many people in church as there is now but we may become a power to be recognized. I hope and pray that the things you spoke of do not come but we have asked for it as a country. I can’t help but think of the way that God would send judgement on Israel to bring them back to HIM. I guess it boils down to we had better get to a point that we know in whom we have placed our faith and determine to stick with Him. All these other things that occupy our lives is is just distractions. Preach on Bill and God’s Speed.
I will stand on nothing less than Jesus love!
Not sure why but I thought I would share this here, It touched both myself and my wife today. Thought some of your readers would relate to it.
I want to share this story:
8 Days ago I sold an Apple MacBook Air on Ebay and an iPad. Nothing unusual I sell off my old gear so that I can buy new gear and have been doing this for several years now.
Clearly if I am typing this and sharing there is something weird. Well here it is the same person bought these items, this has never happened before. So here we go; I thought this was odd and started to snoop around. Of course this was after I had already shipped the MacBook Air. Which I had done based upon being told payment was received and the screens on Ebay I watch indicated I had. Wrong I had not been paid.
The details here are not that important to the story at this point. I was fooled into thinking I had been paid when I hadn’t. Ebay could not do anything, the US post office said they could not do anything but try and intercept the package.
Fast forward, the Post office told they had failed and that the package was gone. My MacBook was delivered and I was not paid. Nobody could do anything.
I accepted that I had a hand in this and was part of the problem and moved on and worked to forget about it. Which I truly believe I did I was over it and learned from my mistake.
Now the interesting part:
Last night my wife and I were talking about things I wanted to do, I wanted to ride my motorcycle to the Smoky Mountains and take some pictures (600 mile ride for me). To which she said I should, I said I can’t because I know longer have a small light weight laptop to take on my motorcycle with me (the above story), we then discussed taking our RV and going (costs a lot more and I Haven’t worked in 2 years).
Today I am out cutting grass and my wife comes homes and waves a package in the air to me as I am cutting. Not sure what she is showing me, I stop and walk over. IT IS MY MACBOOK AIR THE POST OFFICE TOLD THEY COUD NOT INTERCEPT AND WAS GONE.
SO now I am thinking GOD is sending me a message to go on my motorcycle to the Smokys and take pictures. As I continue to cut grass I realize that if I post both the iPad and the MacBook on ebay again and sell them I will get enough with what is in my PayPal account (from other Nikon items i sold) to pay for the trip to the Smoky Mountains in the RV.
I do not know about you but I never asked God to help me out, but I have to believe he had more than a little bit of a hand in this situation and showing me that I was supposed to do something. He is amazing.
Now for the real irony in this story I will be going to the Smoky Mountains to shoot it, but it will be by myself (sadly) to save some money so that I can do some home improvements when I get back.
Funny how when you least expect it GOD delivers a message and shows you away to make things happen.
Thanks for reading this.
He is always one step ahead of us!
I note with disappointment that Andy Stanley said from the pulpit a couple of weeks ago for us 45+ group to “shut-up” about everything you have written here. He went on to justify his position by saying “that you (the older generation) are scaring the younger generation! He went on to ask where is the older generation’s “faith”? I kept wondering what where “faith” was in the 5 virgins whose lanterns ran out of oil? I think the 5 that had enough oil properly prepared were not only using faith but also intelligence! I am a huge supporter of “faith” – but also a supporter of sharing the facts and being preparing for worse. I am very disappointed in pastors justifying evil as good. (BTW the bible talks about this happening “in the last days”) Christians, both pastor’s and laymen, that gloss over real problems have their heads in the sand! Preach on Bill! Turn the truth loose!! Maybe all of us need to be a little bit scared!
I don’t think it is ever a bad thing to prepare for the storm. I was a Boy Scout and of course that was our Motto, “Be Prepared”! I do not live in fear, but I have grave concern for America, and her fate. I pray daily that God will forgive those that have turned their backs on Him and give them another chance, but as for me and my family, “We will serve the Lord!”
Bill,
Thank you for speaking out. No doubt, times will get tough – the economy and civil unrest. And we have only ourselves to blame. Why we have allowed our country and our faith to falter is beyond our understanding. I’m told that 2,000 of the some 2500 prophecies have already come true, and the last 500 are quickly passing. We need to wake up and pray that the protection God has bestowed on America can be restored. And we need to be ready to do our part as well by bringing others to Christ. Your outline above is a great plan.
It should be, it was from the Holy Spirit! 99% of what I share here is from time in prayer with my Heavenly Father, the other 1% is the rubbish I think up!!! kGod is in control, and he has a plan and we are all part of that plan, my part, I pray, will be to lead as many to Him as she allows, as we enter the worst of times and eventually the end.
Such a wonderful message today. I wholeheartedly agree with what you are saying here. I have no doubt that God uses you through this website as you minister to so many. I firmly believe, as 2 Tim 4:3 says- “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” That time is now! We need to be about the business of preparing ourselves and others. Our pastor has a mission statement “We need to get as many people to Christ as possible as fast as possible”. God gave most of us a sound mind in order to use it to be prepared. Faith steps in when you’ve done what you know to do and God takes care of the rest. I always admire and appreciate what you do Mr. Fortney.
p.s. How much are those shirts?
Awesome post Bill like always.
Mr. Fortney,
Thank you for this post.
Sincerely,
Mark