Is God Trying to Tell Us Something?

                               Is God Trying to Tell Us Something?

     Sixteen years ago Monday was a Tuesday.  That sounds dumb I am sure but 9/11 of 2001 was on a Tuesday. Had it been on a Monday it would probably mean nothing to me. As it happened though, I was delivering a load to Bayonne, NJ directly across the river from the World Trade Center. Normally I would have been delivering on a Monday.  The load was barrels of spices from Reno, Nevada. The load had originated in India and been shipped to Reno, Nevada where it was broken down and shipped to other points in the USA. The load took me through my hometown which allowed me to do some things I needed to get done. However it postponed my delivery which was originally scheduled for Monday. Little did I know the significance that small change would have on my life. Instead of hearing about 9/11 on the radio I ended up watching it unfold live. This was the fourth plane crash I had seen in the course of my life. Two of the others I had been close enough to feel the heat. This one however burned an image in my heart that I will never forget.

     One of those previous plane crashes set in effect a circle of events that seems to be coming full circle lately. On February 6, 1992 a National Guard C-130 Aircraft out of Louisville, Kentucky crashed into the Drury Inn in Evansville, Indiana. Having seen the wreck first hand I was interviewed by CNN and was on national TV. My best friend and his wife saw me on the news and used the information they got to track me down. We had both been in the service in the early seventies and because of transfers we lost contact with each other.  The crash reconnected us after an almost twenty year break.  Shortly after the airplane crash a door was opened for me to start driving my own truck over the open road.  It gave me the opportunity to drive all forty eight states and Canada, which also set the stage for me to be where I was on 9/11.

      When I had “The Big One” in January of 2004 my friend Mel was the first one to call me when I was in recovery.  He and his wife were stationed in Naples, Italy at the time.  Only later did I learn it was the end of my truck driving career. It however opened the door for me to be with and help my youngest daughter during her seven year battle with a brain tumor. Flying home we landed in Louisville and during the approach to land I saw the planes parked on the tarmac. They happened to belong to the National Guard unit that had crashed in 1992. Somehow I knew it was the end of a circle. Glenda passed away in August of 2010 shortly before her birthday. 

        One of the last events Glenda and I attended together was a 4^th of July Cookout at my friend Mel’s house. He lives only seventy miles away from me.

At the cookout I met a retired Air Force officer who worked in claims and compensation.  He advised me from our conversation that I was entitled to Agent Orange Compensation.  Thanks to Steve I started receiving compensation in October of 2013.  I would not have met him had it not been for the plane crash.  On the 27^th August of this year we met again.  While I enjoyed meeting him again and thanking him for all he had done for me, it was a sad day. We were at a memorial service for my best friend. What made it even harder, as it was also my youngest daughter’s birthday, she would have been forty.

    With all that is happening in the world today one has to wonder if God is trying to tell us something.  The western half of the U.S. is on fire. The south eastern half is drowning.  As we wait for Irma to make landfall many wonder if the end is near. As I read my Bible this morning I noticed something I had never noticed before. I had seen in Daniel 12:4 that Daniel was told to close up his book and that it would speak to the end time. One of the signs given is that people would run to and fro thru out all the earth and knowledge would be increased.  The explosion of knowledge actually began in the 1400’s with the invention of the printing press and the discovery of the New World.  A discovery that happened supposedly because of Columbus faith in the inerrancy of the Word of God and Isaiah 40:22 which says, “God sets upon the circle of the earth.” Events that would or will lead to the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the Bible given in Matthew 28: 18-20.

       

      18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

    This morning while doing my Bible reading I felt compelled for some reason to turn to Daniel 9/11 and it was an eye opener and definitely says something to me. To get the whole gist of it, it might be better to start with verse 9 and read thru 14.

         9/11Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

   Jesus gave us some subtle hints about what was to come. He spent his last night on earth warning of what was to come. He started off in Matthew 24:6 saying we would “hear” of things that would come to pass in the future, but says they are the beginning of things.  In verses 30 and 33, however, he changes the change to seeing instead of hearing. I believe it was not an accident and there was intent to what he said. It was so we would be able to discern the things happening around us. We will not know the hour or the day, but he made clear we would be able to discern the time.

    Lately we are so absorbed in hurricanes we have missed other world news.  One of the upsides to events is that we have not had to listen to the media rant on and on about Donald Trump.  Most people missed the fact that there was a 6.1 earthquake in Japan on the 7^th of September and an 8.1 one in Mexico on the 8^th of September. Earthquakes were one of the things Jesus warned of us as a sign of the end.

    Getting back to seeing and hearing there is another event that was clearly stated and could not have happened until pretty recently in world history.  Revelation 11 says there will be two witnesses to the end time and the things they have to say will really upset the world. In fact they will be killed, however, three days later they will be resurrected and ascend into heaven.  The key is in verse 11:9 where it says the whole world will see them dead and celebrate and give gifts to each other. That could not have happened till the advent of satellite technology.

    In Matthew 24: 29-31 it makes clear that those who believe will go thru a great period of tribulation and then in verse 31 it says they shall gather the elect from the ends of the earth. Regardless of what the “Left Behind Series says” So it may not be the end, but certainly all the signs are set for the end to come. Read Revelation 22:6-7 and Jesus warns, “Behold I come quickly”, but it also says the things which must come to pass will be shown.

    Hosea sums it up pretty clearly.

       6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

  The only way you can truly know God is thru His Word.  Jesus was the Word incarnate. If you want a real relationship with Jesus, it will by seeking him and coming to know him thru His Word. You say I don’t have time for that.  Well he gives you twenty-four hours in a day. You can start by sharing some of that time with him. It will time well spent and it may make an eternal difference in your life.

   As an interesting footnote you might read this link, history has a habit of repeating itself.
         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_massacre