SHOUT!

God's word and warnings are given into the hands of His people to declare the danger in time and space of our accountability before almighty God.

Well, I was late posting this blog so thanks to Becky and Kevin for bearing with me. We arrived back off holiday to be plunged into some confusion with my father taken ill and zoomed into hospital. I remembered a few times that I needed to write something but the time and headspace eluded me. I woke up in the middle of the night last night, and I was prompted to cry to the Lord about a number of things - then I remembered again that it is my turn to write a blog. What should I write Lord I asked?

What came to mind was that scripture: Isaiah 40:6-9 (NLT) - A voice said, “SHOUT!” I asked, “What should I shout? “SHOUT that people are like the grass. Their beauty fades as quickly as the flowers in a field. 7 The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the LORD. And so it is with people.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.” O Zion, messenger of good news, SHOUT from the mountaintops! Shout it louder, O Jerusalem. SHOUT, and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah, “Your God is coming!”

There was a three-year period where I got a scripture for each year and each year that scripture came to pass or started to come to pass. In 2018 the scripture was: Haggai 2:6-7 (NLT) - “For this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: In just a little while I will again shake the heavens and the earth, the oceans and the dry land. I will shake all the nations...” 

The sense that I had with the scripture was that a shaking would begin and continue. A shaking in which God's people would not be observers but participants - a shaking which I, our family, our friends, our fellowship, the wider church would experience first-hand in a very direct way. God was about to start to shake the trees to see what would remain - and so, arguably from different people's standpoint, in various ways, it has happened and started to happen.

From when we were on holiday one of the prevailing images that I have in mind is a scene from Herculaneum. This is one of the towns overtaken by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79. (Future Roman emperor Titus besieged Jerusalem and destroyed the second temple in AD70 – a contemporary historian commented that Titus’ reign was unnaturally accompanied by disasters). 

Both Pompeii and Herculaneum were overtaken by the erupting volcano - Pompeii was submerged in pumice and ash and Herculaneum blasted by fearsome heat. The image that remains is of the skeletons of people who had not run but waited at their boat houses to be rescued by the Roman fleet. The fleet never came. There was a Tsunami and the ships could not get to the people to lift them off. Instead, these comfortably well-off people in their holiday homes were scorched to death in seconds where they stood waiting... You can see them today their skeletons mark where they fell.

What if you knew this was going to happen and did nothing? What if you had science beyond the ages and a report saying that in on August 24th AD79 Mount Vesuvius was going to violently eject a cloud of super-heated tephra and gases to a height of 33 km (21 mi), ejecting molten rock, pulverized pumice and hot ash at 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing 100,000 times the thermal energy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which would destroy both towns - and did nothing?

So, we are urged "SHOUT"! ... God has determined that His word will endure forever. Jesus said that the testimony of the words that He spoke will never pass away. The Lord has declared that His word and His Name are exalted above all things. His word is our notice of warning. The “shakings” so far are nothing compared to what is to come. Do we stand by and let the bodies pile up on the beach or do we "SHOUT"?

God's word and warnings are given into the hands of His people to declare the danger in time and space of our accountability before almighty God. Jesus declares to the church "don't be caught sleeping yourselves"! “Be ready”! “Get oil”! “You are the watchmen”! We need to know that in the time of shaking there is only peace and refuge in one place - in Jesus. Whatever our path, no matter how we are shaken, He is the only saviour. His is the only salvation. He alone has the words of eternal life.

Now reaching older years, I have almost experienced all of the stages of our life on earth. I am slower than I was, I am more tired than I was, I think about things differently than I did, I have a different lens on life. As the song goes "nothing lasts except the grace of God but which I stand in Jesus". So those who know the Lord in my generation have a duty to KEEP SHOUTING – “Build on the rock”! “Build your life on Jesus”! “Give your life to Him”!

Nothing lasts except His word, His promises, His love and what we need most desperately all of us - His grace and mercy shown through the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Let us heed His warnings. Let us not be found asleep. Let His people SHOUT!

Author: Chris Pearson

May God bless and enrich your life

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