Preparation time...The old Boyscout “Be Prepared” motto comes to mind It has been used by millions of Scouts around the world since 1907.
I can recall a time in our country when we were not prepared: the start of our WWII involvement with Japan. Yes, we were already at war in Germany, but Japan caught us by surprise. I remember it well: I was barely eight years old, attending an afternoon matinee in our local movie theater when there was suddenly a lot of screaming. Everyone was soon rushing outside, and one woman was in hysterics. People were talking about a place called Pearl Harbor...but they were also wondering where it was. Pearl Harbor? Where was Pearl Harbor?But before long, we knew. And it changed everything.Things that were taken for granted in our small Texas town suddenly were affecting our everyday lives. We were out rounding up scrap metal to be railed off and melted to build airplanes, tanks, and guns; putting saccarin in our iced tea instead of sugar. Hoeingour “victory gardens” and canning what we grew into Mason jars, helping the Red Cross make bandages, buying war bonds, displaying window flags and hoarding our ration cards. God brought our country out of that terrible experience, for we not only did all of those things, but we also attended a lot of funerals and prayed a lot.That was over seventy years ago... yet I find myself hearing those same screams and shock again as people are running in panic.A nation not prepared for what is happening today. Despite attempts to raise Old Glory and instill that patriotism we had then,America is having to deal with situations we never dreamed could possibly be of concern: drugs, homosexuality, same-sex marriages,abortions, divorces, couples living together outside of marriage, ponography, and so many others. It’s not the same America I grew up knowing “back when”..Does God “get enough”? He certainly did in Noah’s day.“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts ofhis heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grievedhim at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them....but Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”“The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold I will destroy them with the earth”. (Genesis chapter 6).And God did just that-- all except Noah and his family, plus all the animals God had sent into the ark that God instructed Noah’s to build.What was it about Noah that spared him and his family? “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” (6:8-9)During this time of God’s longsuffering, you and I are , like Noah, being allowed to make preparations for the soon return of our Lord.A VISIONThe last of January, this year, I received an email from my friend and long-time travel partner, Bess Graham. She had had a vision from the Lord while in India:Hello Ms. Mary,The vision I had was in India 2weeks ago on Friday night after the crusade. I was praying with Roosevelt at the hotel. I saw The Lord sitting on His throne like I have seen before. He stood up and was holding a huge sword. The sword was a blazing flame. In front of him was a mass crowd of people. He took the sword and lowered it into the crowd. People went right into Light and people went into darkness going to the left. The Lord said, "My Word is sharper than a two edged Sword dividing asunder the soul and the spirit even down to the bone and the marrow." He said it was time for His church to take His Word and see what is of the soul and what is of the Word. He was tired of looking at his Church with no power sitting complacent. He is getting ready to come for His spotless Bride and she is not ready. Her identity is not in Him but still in herself. He said that it was time for us to submit to the spirit and walk in it so we do not follow the flesh. Take my Sword and see what is of you and what is of Me. I have plans for you but you are not in My Light. You are following the ways of the world. Separate yourself according to My word.I think that is all or the just of what He said. It was a very vivid vision and The Lord spoke so powerfully as I saw. I was prophesying as we were praying. We must get in Him. He has paid such a price for us and we just don't walk in all of it.He a reminded me yesterday of a vision He gave me several years ago on the side of a mountain in Arkansas. I looked across the mountains and it was in the fall. Most of the trees looked dead with just a few evergreens in there. The Lord said to me, " that is what I see when I look at my church. They are all asleep sitting dormant, no life being seen. They look dead for the most part. It is time for my Church to awaken, soak up the Living Water and let My Life shine forth. My church should be as the evergreen tree always showing life not sitting dormant sleeping while there is so much darkness in this world." Jesus is crying out to us to get in Him. Get out of this complacency and be the Living Church He paid the price to have.” BessIt’s ironic to me that just today the following article appeared in International Business Times:Missing Light Crisis: 'Something is Amiss in the Universe'by Hannah OsborneJuly 10, 2014 11:24 BST“There is a "missing light crisis" taking place in the universe with a huge deficit on what there should be and what there actually is, astronomers have said.In a statement, experts from the Carnegie Institution for Science said "something is amiss in the universe" with 80% of the light missing.
Lead author of the study Juna Kollmeier said: "It's as if you're in a big, brightly-lit room, but you look around and see only a few 40-watt lightbulbs. Where is all that light coming from? It's missing from our census."
Published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, scientists found that the light from galaxies and quasars is not enough to explain observations of intergalactic hydrogen, with a difference of 400%.
Empty space between galaxies are bridged by tendrils of hydrogen and helium that act as a "light metre".
The scientists discovered that when looking at galaxies billions of light years away in the early universe, the amount of light present appears to add up. However, in more localised parts of the universe, the calculations fail massively.
The ultraviolet photons that the light is made of convert into charged ions, or ionizing photons, which come from quasars and hot young stars.
Scientists discovered the discrepancy during recent observations from Hubble Space Telescope's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.
Kollmier said: "Either our accounting of the light from galaxies and quasars is very far off, or there's some other major source of ionizing photons that we've never recognised. (Jesus? m.e.)We are calling this missing light the photon underproduction crisis. But it's the astronomers who are in crisis—somehow or other, the universe is getting along just fine."
Study co-author Ben Oppenheimer said that if the light is really missing it would be a huge surprise as "intergalactic hydrogen is the component of the Universe that we think we understand the best".
Neal Katz, also a co-author of the paper, added: "The most exciting possibility is that the missing photons are coming from some exotic new source, not galaxies or quasars at all.” (Jesus returning? m.e.)
Proposing another theory, he said the light could be coming from dark matter that holds galaxies together, but has never been seen directly. "You know it's a crisis when you start seriously talking about decaying dark matter!" he added.
HE DWELLS IN BOTH THE DARKNESS AND THE LIGHT
“I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life “.(John 8:12)
Darkness never snuffs out the Light, it is always the other way around. Light causes darkness to flee, darkness does not cause light to disappear. As you walk with the Lord, honor His ways and Word, then you dwell in His Light. Do not give up your stand or flee when facing darkness! Call upon His Name, The Lord Jesus Christ, and watch His light pierce and scatter all gross forebodings. Where sin abounds, His grace does that much more abound. Beloved, do not fear the gross darkness that prevails upon the world. Darkness and light are the same to Him, you will never walk in a place where He is not already there. He will never, never forsake you, beloved one.Never !
MARY E. ADAMS