HOW LONG, O LORD
by Brooks Alden
"0 Lord, how long shall I cry for help and You will not hear? Or
cry out to You of violence, and you will not save? Why do you
show me iniquity and wrong, and Yourself look upon or cause me to
see perverseness and trouble? (Habakkuk I: 2-3--Amplified
Version)
When the prophet Habakkuk uttered these words six centuries
before Christ, he may not have known that he was prophesying
today's conditions as well. In the first passage of his writing,
he described a burden; an announcement of something threatening
that is to come. Well, it has come, and it is threatening the
peace, safety and prosperity of every one of God's people
in the True Israel lands. Just look at the financial mess! The
2010 projected deficits of the Israel nations are staggering; 1.7
trillion in America, 200 billion pounds in the UK, 85 billion
over 5 years in Canada, 32 billion in Australia, 11 billion in
New Zealand and if you look at other Israel nations in Europe,
all are swimming in a pool of debt.
The titles of two articles that appeared in the February
20th New York Times could well be stated about other Israel
nations to perhaps a lesser extent but are very scary indeed. The
first "Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs" describes
the new "poor" and the fragile social safety net. The second,
"States Have Not Yet Seen the Worst of Economic Times, Governors
at Meeting Say" describes falling revenues and potential tax
increases, among other issues. One thing every observer can
easily read into these articles is that we are reaping the fruit
of all the jobs our governments have permitted to be exported to
third world countries. Through corporations, the unscrupulous
rich described by James 5:1-6 have done more damage to our
economies than imaginable. And our banking institutions have
played their part well in shattering our economies. What did
Jefferson say, "I believe that banking institutions are more
dangerous than standing armies."
Jefferson wrote something else that is just as prophetic,
"If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired
from within or without, we must try to extinguish it." Well, our
house is on fire and reading into all the political statements,
it could be the time for more shearing of the sheep. Despite
rhetoric, no one really seems to be trying to from extinguish
the fire, and if we are reading the signs correctly, there
are very bad times ahead. Here's a good example! Oil went to
$150.00 a barrel in 2008, despite demand that was not equal to
the price. It then rapidly declined to the $35/40.00 per barrel
level. Now it is back up to $80.00, when it has been shown that
supplies are in record territory and that tankers are supposedly
sitting around full of crude with no depositories. So, the price
does not reflect market but instead, greed or a shearing.
But the fire has spread to all aspects of our society,
including the morality of True Israel. Indeed, the enemies of
Jesus Christ have done a thorough job reducing the moral fibre of
our nations and our Israel people. You will instantly think of
numerous examples of the decline but here's one. In conjunction
with the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, the organizers handed out tens
of thousands of complimentary condoms and still ran out of
supplies.
So, hidden behind the competitive sporting events, to which
all of us were behind our respective countries, was sexual
debauchery rivalling the old Roman Empire, when it was about to
fall. And still, good people sit on the sidelines and just let
this take place without comment. Dante Alighieri wrote in the
fourteenth century, "The hottest places in Hell are reserved for
those who in time of great moral crises maintain their
neutrality." Well, True Israel, better stoke up the fires because
an overwhelming portion of today's society can be classed as
fence sitters.
So when Habakkuk called out "0 Lord, how long shall I cry
for help and You will not hear" what have we done to deserve His
help. He basically told us through the prophet Hosea (5:15) that
because we are the disobedient people we are and not heeding His
Commandments that He will just return to His place until we
acknowledge our offence. To those of us who have studied God's
Word in length, acknowledging our disobedience is a nobrainer,
that is, why do our people want more of the same. But as God told
us in Exodus 32:9, we are a stiffnecked people and think nothing
of having turned aside from the Lord. So, we have fully deserved
all of the bondage we have brought upon ourselves. Now, as the
Times article relates, this bondage has also been brought upon
the "new poor, the millions of people long accustomed to the
comforts of middle-class life and who are now relying on public
assistance for the first time in their lives - potentially for
years to come."
I suppose the beneficial aspect of our economic decline
from the great nations of Israel to the bottom of the barrel, and
ruled over primarily by nonChristians, is that the pain is
becoming too severe and as the lash of more confiscation of our
wealth, our safety and our freedoms is applied, we will do as the
prophet Hosea wrote in Hosea 6:1 "... let us return unto the LORD
... and he will heal us." Isn't this what we did as children, go
to our parents when adversity came upon us. Well, soon we will
seek out our God because the remedy our leaders are making ready
is too unpalatable to swallow.
......
From "Thy Kingdom Come" - April 2010 of publication of the
Association of the Covenant People, Burnaby, B.C. Canada.
......
Well, as another fellow said, "It's not over till it's over." And
though it may seem bad now, in comparison to what we have had it
like in the last 60 years, it is NOT yet over, things will get a
whole lot worse, and sad to say we shall yet sink deeper into
immorality as nations. How long O Lord? We may indeed ask, but we
really do not know how long our God has given, or will give, for
it is in His power to delay the end of this age, till He thinks
it need be. In the meantime, God's people have the opportunity to
spread the Gospel near and far, to reach others with Salvation
and the coming Kingdom of God on earth, to prepare a people for
the first resurrection. So now is the time to work, for the day
will come when no man can work, as Jesus once said. God's truth
is still marching on, and YOU can be a part of making it march
on. Be a light in a dark age, be a city set up on a hill that
cannot be hid. Pray for the Church of Christ to go forward with
the Gospel. Pray that it will be given open doors to preach and
teach. Pray that more laborers, faithful people who have the
ability to teach the truth of God, will come forth, for as Jesus
also said, "The harvest is large and ready, pray you therefore
that the master of the harvest will send forth laborers into the
harvest."
Please pray that God's true ministers will have health and
strength, protection from physical harm, long lives, and will
remain faithful to the word of truth - which is the Word of God
(John 17:17). Thank you, and again I say thank you.
Keith Hunt
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