Shaken

   Someone mentioned on Facebook that she thought the hurricane was God's wrath being poured out. But Jesus is our Mediator (our One and Only), who saves us from the punishment we deserve. We are in a New Covenant, for which I am and will be eternally grateful.  What I do believe, however, is that God loves us so much, He will allow whatever it takes to get our attention so we take necessary action. not just storing survival supplies, but taking a look at our spiritual survival. This call is especially for those who don't even know He exists or know they have need of Him, but it applies to all of us who claim to trust in Him but who have slipped back into lukewarm, half-hearted devotion, with one foot following the world's values and dictates and the other trying to still touch heaven by tiptoe.
   Early on in the storm news, before I even knew how severe the prediction would become, He told me that there would be a great shaking.  People would wake up to the danger.  But the real danger, they would come to realize, wouldn't be the hurricane. It would be rejecting and cutting themselves off from their Savior...the One and Only Lover of their souls who gave everything so that they could be rescued from the hands of the evil one and live with Him forever...now in this life and in the next.
For those of us who have already made that commitment to Him, how much of our actual walk with Him is pretense?  What do we truly believe in our heart of hearts. How much of what we have been given do we really entrust to Him? How much of our lives do we spend seeking His will and His heart?
   The true danger is one that can't be seen on a TV meteorological report or in the economic news or in an approaching storm cloud.  It is in turning from the hand of God being extended to us, from the acknowledgement of our own sin and helplessness to save ourselves and, instead, making ourself our own god.   Every other religion of the world, from the formal major religions to new age philosophies and popular cults of the moment, demands that you raise yourself up to that god's height to attain what is promised, to avoid the wrath of its god, or to attain that status for yourself. Only in pure, unadulterated Christianity does God reach down to rescue, demanding nothing but
acknowledgement of His Kingship and grateful receipt of His Gift, His Sacrifice of Love. This is the One I've come to know. The One Who even now rescues us from The Eternal Danger, as well as caring for and protecting us in the temporal.  I'm grateful for both, but I know which is crucial.
   Yeshua said that His desire was and is that no one be lost. I believe this includes those who have treated their declaration of trust as more of an insurance policy than a vital and active daily relationship.  It's time to have a 'come to Jesus meeting'....literally.
   If  we must endure the shaking, let us be confident in knowing it comes from a heart of Love, not one of Vengeance. After the shaking, one thing remains....

" 'Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,' says the Lord, who has compassion on you."
-- Isaiah 54:10

"Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever."
--Psalm 125:1

"I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken."
--Psalm 16:8

"Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken
--Psalm 55:22

"Truly He is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken."
--Psalm 62:6