BY DESIGN

Me overshadowed by my
favorite artist of all time,
Vincent Van Gogh

              Are you a designer? Of course you are!

                          A limitless one, in fact. 

Fashion. Architecture. Industrial. Automotive. Graphic. Software. Avionics. The arts. The list goes on and on. Name it, with the brain we've all been given, we can conceptualize no end, put our thoughts into action. 

Where would we all be without our ability to imagine and think, and make these imaginings work? What would become of us without our Grand Designer's wherewithal to create and pass on this ability to us?

"Wisdom!" That's the long and short of it. All of God's power to design and make things work stem from His wisdom spoken to bring universe into existence. 

Wisdom speaks through the writer of Proverbs:

“The Lord possessed me (wisdom) at the beginning of His work (Prov.8:22).”  "When He established the heavens, I was there; when He drew a circle on the deep, when He made firm the skies above, when He established the fountains of the deep, when He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters  might not transgress His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside Him, like a master workman… V27-30a

So where’s the big bang theory coming from? This wondrous, complex universe could not have existed by just a confluence of elements or particles simply kissing each other and melding into gigantic spheres of immense beauty.

Our beautiful earth? Don’t tell me it’s merely an accidental assemblage of atomic particles. It’s not happenstance or evolution. That’s intelligent design! 

Design is so evident even in the tiniest flower or an insect or a cat. 

Image credit: Mina Bhasavanich

Cactusway.com says that cacti go to extreme lengths to conserve water, so they open their stomata (pores) at night to make sure they’re able to store sufficient water in their bodies. No wonder we find them thriving in arid places. And oh, yes, they spring forth the most gorgeous buds. Design!

How do ants survive? Proverbs 6:6-8 “Go to the ant, o sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.” Design!

Lion facts: (wwf.uk.org) Lions’eyes are sharper in the dark so they do their hunting at night, giving them a huge advantage over their prey. They hunt more during stormy nights so the wind and noise can camouflage their movements. Females rear their cubs in prides—much like a family of human mothers caring for their kids together. Design, a definite yes. 

Ever wonder how God spoke these into being…? The Alps and other majestic mountains, grand canyons, mighty oceans, mesmerizing aurora borealis, icebergs, glorious beaches, snow flakes descending on your nose like flakes from heaven. These and a million others, big or small, have thrilled us no end, haven’t they? 

And what about you and me? Fearfully and wonderfully crafted, says David in Psalms 139:14; that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, per Ephesians 2:10.

Miniaturize yourself, hold on to your nano-sized camera and plumb the depths of the human body. It’s the world’s single greatest wonder. What if you can really explore your inner parts? What a joyous discovery cruise! 

I don’t need to be a doctor or a biologist to realize what a cool and wondrous being I am. Thanks to my grade school science teacher, and yes, Google. Knowledge explosion, dear. 

The smartest dog or elephant doesn’t even come close to what we humans can accomplish. 

Here’s why you and I are even more unique… we’ve been made in our Creator’s image! The God who spoke creation into being breathed life into us. That’s why man has the capacity to know, understand, create, invent, produce, write, teach, etc., etc. 

And boy, what treasure we’ve been handed! Our universe, this earth, our very lives. We’re just a speck or dust in God’s total scheme of things. But because He breathed life into us, he too gave us free will to make choices. 

We’ve just been through Holy Week, a reminder that because of our first parents’ decision to believe a lie, we’ve been separated from God. But God’s design is this—that we be restored back to Him. Yet only through Jesus, the Word, through whom creation came into being. 

But it’s a choice you and I need to make. Resurrection Sunday is also by design. Jesus came down from heaven, became human, died on the cross; and by so doing, made a way for us to be reconnected with our Father. Don’t you just love this design of redemption! 

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that those who believe in Him might have everlasting life.

He asks only this—place your faith in Jesus. Afterall, He’s your Creator. Whom would you rather trust to ensure your future?  

Prayer: God, thank you for creating me. I realize that my sins have separated me from you. Forgive me. Jesus, save me, enable me to turn away from sin and obey you. You know me from the inside out. You created me. Therefore, lead me. Teach me your ways. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

COME DOWN FROM YOUR PERCH

Image credit: The Wall Street Journal 

Ever felt like a crumb or a flake? That time when your terror-of-a-boss tore you to shreds in front of your colleagues?

Or when you, trotting like a diva, fell headlong because your three-inch heel broke. 

Humiliating! Embarrassing! Argh! 

All you wanna do is cry, take cover and disappear from the face of the earth. Yet these are nothing compared to utterly humbling and life-altering experiences. 

Like finding yourself in jail or homeless one day—and losing your family—when, just yesterday, you were wallowing in a sea of money and luxury. Remember Ponzi scheme artist Bernie Madoff? (my post prior to this)

Humbling situations. We need them! It’s the Almighty’s way of saving us from ourselves and our delusions. 

Because you can't be diva-esque and remain untarnished by self-importance and narcissism (especially if you have millions of mad-about-you social media followers).

Nor can you be a wise manager if you become just like your terror boss, thus perpetuating antagonism and warmongering in your workplace.  

And you can’t endlessly be amassing wealth at the expense of others. Something’s gotta give! Sometime. Somehow. 

Luke 14:11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

So the earlier you descend from your high perch, the less painful and humiliating it should be. 

One of the Bible's prime examples: Zaccheus. Tax collector. Corrupt. Wealthy. 

A wee-sized man, he climbed a sycamore tree to get a glimpse of the Master who just blew into town. He was curious about this miracle worker who stirred the entire nation about the coming kingdom of God.

“Ah nice! Up here, He won’t even see me,” he must have thought. 

Yet, Jesus, upon reaching that spot, looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. Luke 19:5&6

That lone encounter with Jesus changed Zacchaeus’ life forever. 

Verse 8—"Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."

Verse 9—Jesus replied, "Today salvation has come to this house…”

This in spite of Zacchaeus being a low-life. He was saved in the nick of time! 

What could have happened if he didn't come down from his high perch and Jesus didn’t tell him He’d stay in his house that day? 

To this day, Jesus calls us:

“Come down. Humble yourself. Open your heart to my grace. I alone possess the key to turn your life heaven-ward—no matter how greedy or proud or narcissistic you’ve been.”

Verse 10—“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

Fact is: all of us are lost. In big or small ways, we are all corrupt. Let’s start with your thoughts. Your conscience knows. 

Sin has separated us from God. That’s why Jesus came. 

The God who created us has the power and the authority alone to rescue us from our follies. No one or nothing else can. 

Ephesians 2:8—“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” 

Prayer: Examine my heart, God. Cleanse me of all my sins. I repent. Jesus, come into you into my “house”. Holy Spirit, make me your habitation. Lead me. Enable me to obey and not follow after my own desires. Jesus, be my Savior and my Lord. Amen.

GREED MONSTER

Bernie Madoff—the dark side of investing.
Image credit: Netflix Movies

 How heavily invested are you? I mean, money-wise. It's a volatile marketplace, analysts say, so be careful. Your hard-earned money may turn to mush. 

I'm no expert, so don't take my word for it. But learn a lesson or two from those who've been baited into placing their money in ghost investments, and lost. 

Smooth operators, these sweet-talkers, promising you sky-high returns.

Case in point: Bernie Madoff—one of the founders of Nasdaq, once hailed as a Wall Street investment expert, a do-gooder who supported numerous charities—conned investors big-time. 

Netflix's "Madoff, the Monster of Wall Street," detailed his Ponzi-style "fund management" as having defrauded victims of approximately $65 billion. 

Investor.gov defines Ponzi as an investment fraud which pays existing investors with funds collected from new investors. Simply, your money never really gets invested. It just goes to the swindler's bank account—money merely juggled between his clients’ funds. 

A promise of over-the-top-earnings—that’s the bait. So clients' invest more, because initially, they’re really getting big returns. 

Until the well runs dry. 

“Ponzi” derives its name from Charles Ponzi, an Italian swindler and con artist who in the 1920s lured US and Canadian investors to invest with him by promising 50% profit within 45 days (per Wikipedia). 

1 Timothy 6:10 "The love of money is the root of all evil." 

Proverbs 23:5a "Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone..." 

It may have been a slow-mo riches-to-prison spiral for Madoff, yet consider the sad trail of tragedies which befell him, his family and his investors. 

He was sentenced to 150 years in prison. (Madoff passed away in 2021.) Five of his former employees were also indicted. 

His son Mark committed suicide, followed by the death of his brother, Andrew, who succumbed to lymphoma. They both worked for their father, but they were unaware of his shenanigans because the dark side of the business happened on another floor of the building where they were off limits. They notified the authorities once they discovered their father’s criminal activity. 

Madoff’s wife remained homeless after all their properties were confiscated. 

And his investors? They periodically stormed the courts and the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) for their money back. Some were very old retirees who lost not only their hard-earned earnings but their properties as well. 

A fund manager representing smaller investors committed suicide. 

Yet how stupid is it! That anyone would knowingly inflict harm on the  unsuspecting, break the law, and expect his corruption to be undiscovered. 

The whistle-blower—bane of fraudsters.
Image credit: Netflix Movies

Yes, a whistle blower did Madoff in. Within minutes of running Madoff’s numbers, financial analyst Harry Markopolos discovered the mathematical impossibility of the former’s incredible no-loss financial uptrend. He persisted in banging at the doors of the SEC in spite of their dismissiveness. It helped too that the 2008 US financial crisis pushed up-front the country’s fractured investment system, 

Hear the Lord’s Word against fraudsters: Micah 2:1,3 “Woe to those who plan iniquity, who defraud people of their homes, rob them of their inheritance... I am planning disaster against this people… You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.”

Every wrongdoing will be exposed, even shame its perpetrators! 

How not to be entangled with con artists? Proverbs 14:7

“Escape quickly from the company of fools…” 

Don’t be greedy. Ecclesiastes 5:10 “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income…” 

It’s hard to come off a vicious cycle of greed. But with God, nothing is impossible.   

BLURRED LENSES

 

Myopia—a narrow view of something; nearsightedness. Per Merriam-Webster. 

We’re all myopics then. None could claim a genuine expansive worldview because we assess things around us based on our own sketchy, patchy perspectives. 

You and I are bounded, limited. I grew up within the confines of my country, culture and family.  Your education, training and experiences, even your life challenges, are way different from mine.  

If you’re a prodigious writer, you worry about syntax and grammar. A reader will just be too happy he understood what you wrote—without concern about your correct use of past or present tense.

Engineers focus on efficiency, systems, processes. Logic reigns. Tell that to an artist who’s motivated only by self expression and colors and textures.

Admit it, we size up people based on our own limited and familiar orientations, thus judge one another quite rashly. Or make decisions that put others in harm’s way. 

Take current days’ politicos. 

Why did Putin invade Ukraine? Was it out of a divine inspiration that the USSR could be reunited as an empire? Has he not learned that invasions and autocracies are a thing of the past? Is he living in the middle ages? Outdated view, isn't it. 

Why did the Marcos name reemerge in the Philippines? Was it because Marcos the younger believed his father’s legacy was worth restoring?  Yet it was an evil regime proven by history. Tangled view, this!

And why did I judge my neighbor as such and such only to learn later on—and to my embarrassment—that my assumption was wrong? Myopic! 

So if our own measuring scales are rusty and inaccurate, what standard do we hold each other to—so that we make the right decisions? 

Since the fall of Adam and Eve, man’s concept of right and wrong has been messed up: success measured by the power, influence and gold one amasses; autocrats applauded; billionaires worshipped; sensuality and the selfie-culture promoted. 

The Bible holds us to one gold standard—our only basis for assessing ourselves, others and situations around us. 

We’re all sinners. 

Romans 3:10-12—“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

So how can I judge John or Joannie as such and such when I too am a sinner. Too, what boundaries have hemmed him or her? Abusive parents? Bullies at school or at work? Couldn't I give him or her the benefit of the doubt? 

We all needed saving. 

Yes, even megalomaniacs and corrupt politicians.

No wonder Jesus came. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

“Perish” is what we all deserve. Yet if we “believe”, “perish” gets replaced by “everlasting life”. Jesus is our only way out of life’s stickiest situation—eternal damnation.  

The Word of God shows us the ropes. 

2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.”

Prayer: Lord, help me look at people and situations through your eyes and regard them with wisdom from Your Word. I have preconceptions of my own, but I count those as nothing compared to the amazing grace through which you regard all of us—with love, compassion and kindness. Lord, teach me your point of view. 

SCULPTURE IN PROGRESS

Image credit: travel.com

Trivia: Between being a painter and a sculptor, which calling did Michelangelo take pride in?   

Painting? No! He agonized about completing his Sistine Chapel "Creation"—did it in six years. It was in fact discontinued because of clumping problems with his paint and his back-breaking position while painting from a scaffolding. 

"I'm a sculptor, not a painter," he argued with Pope Julius II, but did it anyway because of the latter's insistence. 

One of Florence, Italy's most prized attractions today is Michelangelo's 15 ft. sculpture of David—the Bible's shepherd boy-turned hero who smote and killed Goliath with a single stone from his slingshot, and won Israel's war against the Philistines. 

Here's an interesting back-story on this piece of sculture: 

Two earlier sculptors rejected this quarried stone—"tall but narrow block full of imperfections, tiny holes, and visible veins," per travel.com; "it remained in the courtyard of the Opera del Duomo for another 25 years."

Till Michelangelo. Patiently chipping puny bits of hard impervious stone into dust, chisel by tiny chisel, hammer by hammer stoke, he turned this once rejected bloke into a masterpiece. 

Blokes. You and I. Ordinary. Dude. Dudette. Carnal. Sinful. Failure-bound.

Yet under our divine sculptor's chiseling, we can be a David, Pastor Steve Houston reminded us at church this Sunday. "We are all work in progress," he says. 

One tiny bit of chiseling is painful. Achey-breaky hearts. Pain. Discomfort. Depression. God allows all these to shape and mold us into the sculpture piece He originally wanted us to be—conformed to His image. 

"But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you," 1 Peter 5:10.

And He doesn't give up on us.  Not just yet. Even if you're like murderous Paul who persecuted believers (Acts). God used the hammer on him one day, and there he was, blind for three days, unable to eat or drink. 

A big jolt. A sledge hammer. God knows the kilojoules to hit us with to get our attention and keep us on the road again.

Jesus turned Paul's situation around. He just needed to ask, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" Then the biggest evangelist of all time came to being. 

God is all ears. With all the chiseling and hammering pounding you to pieces, who are you gonna call? Life is tough. Problems pounce sometimes in tsunami proportions. 

Sin all around—and within us—make life a bit messy. Why not come to the Rock of our salvation? 

The real David, Psalm 61:2-3 "From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings." 

With Jesus as your Lord and Savior and Refuge, no chiseling or hammering can topple you. 

Strengthened? Established? Settled? Yes! 

THE PLOT THICKENS

Is this piece about a telenovela or a new best-seller? Wished it were. 

This is way more sinister, blacker than black. 

A pied piper has been deluding our children with honey-coated tar—to lure them to the cliff, unfortunately. 

"My body, my choice." "My gender is up to me." "Truth is mine to concoct, nothing is absolute." But to what ends?

And it seems we’re (parents) helpless to stem this tide. 

My, how the powers of darkness squirm with delight. Satan and his underlings, heaven's fallen angels, have since the beginning of time been at it—preventing babies from seeing the light; and dragging to hell those who make it through life.

If he can get babies destroyed early enough in utero, the more guilt-strapped women he can trap. If he can harden children's hearts early enough, the more prone they would be to rejecting God.

Satan's puppets—those who unwittingly do his bidding to orchestrate his dubious plans?  Power-hungry and greedy politicians, idiologues and their fawning sycophants have become his deputies. Yet they think they're doing all of us a favor, that women's rights be upheld, and children be free to decide which lifestyle suits them—yet to their destruction. 

Their latest strategy? Take parents out of the equation. Bar them from exercising authority over their children.

Before you dismiss this as one grandma's hyper-dramatic rambling, read today's news and be shocked. 

In it's AB 1184 bill passed last year, the California Family Council effectively prohibits insurance companies from revealing to policyholders (parents) "sensitive services of anyone on their policy, including minor children—such sensitive services including abortions, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, except sex change surgeries."

Ergo, parents need not know if their kids opt for, say, abortion or hormone treatments. 

And how's this for craziness: "they" should now be used instead of the pronoun "his" or "her". LBTQ has been expanded to LBTQIA+. In the long history of mankind, when has plain "girl" or "boy" not sufficed? 

Genesis 5:2 He (God) created them male and female and blessed them. Doctors and scientists would agree with God on that. 

The sadder part? The multiple sex and permissiveness culture is being shoved upon our throats through the educational system! So if one's middle schooler wants a sex change or if a girl who gets pregnant orders abortion, as demanded, he or she would get it! In California and seven other states. Because, hey, girl, "it's my body, my choice!"

What about the unborn's right? Abortionists and misguided rights groups argue, "They're just a bunch of tissues."

But it's not just in this part of the world that the assault on children—be they unborn or otherwise—is happening. It's a worldwide campaign waged by Satan in so many forms.

Some interesting facts... 

When Moses was born: Exodus 1:22—"Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: 'Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.'" Pharaoh feared the Egyptians would be overpowered by their Israelite slaves. 

Matthew 2:16-18 details Herod's massacre of infants to make sure that Israel's promised Messiah—one who would be safe Israel—would be eliminated. 

Since the US Supreme Court decision in 1973 to legalize abortion nationwide, 63 million abortions have been done in the US. This law has of course been overturned recently, so women's rights proponents have furiously taken to the streets again for it's reinstatement.

Wikipedia: China has a history of infanticides spanning 2,000 years. It's 1980 one-child policy had led to unprecedented abortions till 2015. 

Per the World Health Organization (WHO): In sub-Saharan Africa, 45% of all child deaths are linked to malnutrition. This is traceable to wholesale corruption in government. 

UNICEF stats: More than 125 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of female genital mutilation. 11% of girls world-wide are married off before age 15. Leading causes of death in children under 5 years are preterm birth complications, pneumonia, birth asphyxia, diarrhoea and malaria. About 45% of all child deaths are linked to malnutrition. Mostly attributable to corrupt governance. 

Child Labor Foundation: 25% of human trafficking involved children who were sold for forced labor and sex. 

Glean the pattern. Since time immemorial, babies and children have been the enemy's object of destruction. 

Who will lobby for them? Who will protect them? Aren't parents supposed to be their children's primary advocates? 

It is a frustrating going-against-the-tide effort for many families. Thank God for organizations taking up their cause even to the courts, or NGOs and missionaries caring for children and women in oppressive regimes. 

We can do volunteer work, like counselling young women on making right choices, helping them appreciate the sanctity of life; or contributing to organizations engaged in such efforts. 

Yet, let's start with our own families. Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." 

I worry for my grandchildren's future. I'm sure you do too. Yet, the Bible assures us, fear not, for He has conquered the world, and the evils plaguing it. So pray! Pray that the Lord's protection be upon all the children of the world; and we'd all be vigilant and take action, as the Lord leads us. 

THE BIG PICTURE

Image credit: Reuters.com

“If there is a God, why is there so much evil in this world?”

“Why poverty?”  “Why disasters?”  “Why wars?”  

The list goes on ad nauseam.

We’ve at one time or another asked these questions, right? I have. And they’ve boggled my mind.

Have many rejected God for these reasons? Would you, pretty please, bear with me and patiently read this introspection…  

I’m no brainiac, scientist or preacher, yet I see it clearly. This beautiful world we live in, and the universe we’ve come to know more and more because of NASA, speak loads about One so powerful and mighty, He must have made all of these possible.  

Any scientist worth his salt will attest: nothing comes from nothing; for every action, a reaction. Everyone’s quite agog about the big bang theory; yet who or what ignited the big bang, and what causes the universe and its milky ways to percolate as they’re doing so now? We’d surely be crushed to smithereens without someone powerful enough controlling them. Could only be God!

Image credit: NASA.com

Here’s the mind-boggling part for me: the nature of man. Dust, you and I are, right? (Ever peered at the cremation chamber and seen one’s material remains—maybe once an illustrious and powerful person—now burnt to a crisp, then to dust?) The bible is right, “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” Genesis 3:19b.

So if we’re mere dust, what are we really? God’s awesome creation—just like the mind-boggling universe. But God desired something better for this dust. He breathed life into it, Genesis 2:7.

Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” That’s what it means “to be created in His image”—not this body we pamper with age-defying enhancements and blings.

Our body is just the laminate. The breath of God in you—that’s the real deal!  

And being created in His image, we too have the same free will as God’s. Freedom of choice is the one distinctive which makes man stand taller than, say, elephants, whales, dolphins, dogs—no matter how smarty-pants they’ve been trained to be.

Free will caused man’s downfall. Adam and Eve fell for the serpent’s (actually the devil’s) ruse. Yet, God being God had prepared in advance a rescue plan. Jesus, who reigned with Him from eternity, came to save lost humanity. No one else could ransom sinful man from sin but God’s only Son.

He thus set aside for Himself a nation—Israel—through whom Jesus stepped down to earth. A man just like you and me, He became acquainted with our grief and struggles. By His dying on the cross, He ransomed us from sin, reuniting us with our Creator God.

Yet man is still given a choice. Salvation is not automatic. Remember, He has given us free will.

Image credit: missionaries.com

That’s why today, those who have already believed in Christ are being sent to the ends of the earth to make Jesus known—the Savior of mankind. To thus reunite man with our Creator God. Jesus is our way back to the Father! History’s sinners, and today’s sinners—as long as they placed their faith in God, and later on, in Jesus—could now be back in His grace!

So, dear John and Judy, let’s circle back to our original question. “If there is a God, why is there so much evil in this world?”

You and I live in a fallen world. Sin abounds. It has caused us to abuse our limits, skew our sense of right and wrong, blur our senses from discerning truth from lie, enthrone dictators and autocrats who enslave and invade others to quench their thirst for power and conquest.

God is continuously calling us out. He’s still withholding His full wrath, patiently demonstrating His love through Jesus, and waiting for people to repent and accept His grace. This verse is key: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that those believe in Him might not perish but have eternal life,” John 3:16.

Image credit: crosswalk.com

What about the tribes and nations who worship vain idols and false gods? Worry not. He promised that the end will not come until the gospel has been preached to everyone. Everyone!

Christian missionaries have infiltrated once unreached tribes. The internet has made it possible for the gospel to go viral, everywhere.

It’s a phenomenon! Throughout history, billions of I-me-and-myself-centered and prideful souls who’ve encountered Jesus have testified of changed hearts and lives. The living Word—Jesus—turns lives around, no matter their circumstance. In closed cultures and tribes—those who worship detestable  gods—no amount of beheadings, burnings and abuses could stop believers from believing in Jesus.  

So, is God a hard taskmaster, having let suffering to proliferate?

Ann Graham Lotz: “For years, we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools… government… our lives. And being the gentleman that He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and protection if we demand He leave us alone?”

This book by Amir Tsarfati
might help you understand
the Book of Revelation.

God does not leave us in the dark about His plans. Jesus warned us in Matthew 24 of the signs to usher in the end times, e.g., wars, famine, earthquakes, increased wickedness. Are we seeing these now? Most definitely, and with greater intensity. Yet, greater wrath is yet to come.

Read Revelation. More terrible times lie ahead, that’s for sure. Yet this shouldn’t surprise us or cause us to fear. His love and grace still abound. He’s still waiting for everyone to repent. Have you? Call on Jesus that you may be saved. 

That’s God’s whole s scheme of things. How do you see yourself in it?

God being God never misses a bit. His purpose will prevail. He wants everyone to humble himself before Him—that the curse of sin and death may vanish and we be restored to a relationship with Him, in the kingdom He originally planned for us to inhabit.  

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for your great love. You’ve patiently waited for me. Today, I let go of my pride, forgive me. I repent of my sins. Jesus I confess I am lost without you. Be my Savior and my Lord. Save me from the wrath that is to come. Holy Spirit, help me to obey, in Jesus’ name. Amen.