WORST DROUGHT IN 50 YEARS It is the worst drought in 50 years and extends over 86% of the midwest. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the year 2013 will see price increases for beef, pork, poultry, dairy and egg as well as packaged and processed foods. Insect outbreaks in the Southwest are destroying even more food crops. (See videos below) MORE PROBLEMS FOR AMERICANS Many people are already living paycheck to paycheck as it is. There are nearly 100 million people living in or near poverty in America today with more than 46 million receiving food stamps. A rise in the price of basic necessities such as food becomes a real emergency when one can barely keep food on the table now. |
WHO CONTROLS DROUGHT CONDITIONS ? ARE THEY JUST NORMAL RECURRING FEATURES OF CLIMATE ?
When in difficulty, philosophers and the great men of earth desire to satisfy their minds without appealing to God. They ventilate their philosophy in regard to the heavens and the earth, accounting for plagues, pestilences, epidemics, earthquakes, and famines, by their supposed science. Hundreds of questions relating to creation and providence, they will attempt to solve by saying, This is a law of nature.
A vast number are skeptical when God speaks from His Word, but there is in this period of history great credulity when some learned man speaks. The power of human minds giving explanations of science is so marvelously increasing in these last days that man is seeking to find a natural cause for everything he sees and hears. This false science is termed higher education, and men are lifted up in their own human importance, extolling their own natural abilities, full of all they see and hear.
The forces of nature are under the direction of an Eternal Agency. Science, in her pride, may seek to explain strange happenings on land and on sea; but science fails of tracing in these things the workings of Providence. The Bible makes clear that God, as Creator, is in command of nature and can therefore allow or prevent droughts.
When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them: (1 Kings 8:35)
Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.(1 Kings 8:36) (see also 2 Chronicles 7:13,14)
BAAL WORSHIP
The Bible reveals why droughts are nothing new. It is because nations that began with God's blessing have often rejected God's laws and forsaken his principles of living. Even, the people that He chose to represent Him to the world frequently turned to Baal worship and practiced its abominations. The worshipers of Baal claimed that the treasures of heaven, the dew and the rain, came not from Jehovah, but from the ruling forces of nature. Their ceremonies were noted for licentiousness. They involved unrestrained, degrading sexual acts. Male and female prostitutes took part in degenerate activities too obscene to mention in this article. The sexual orientation implanted in human nature by God was distorted and replaced with perversion. In the public worship of Baal, the most shameful scenes were acted out which tended to familiarize the human mind with vileness and depravity. Does this sound like anything familiar to us who are living today in 21st century America ? Is it true that one of modern America's most media-focused obsessions is sexuality, sexual orientation and just sex in general ?
CAUSE AND EFFECT
In His mercy, God allowed droughts to plague the people until they were awakened from their carnal slumber and realized their folly. The apostate tribes of Israel were to be shown the folly of trusting to the power of Baal for temporal blessings. Until they should turn to God with repentance, and acknowledge Him as the source of all blessing, there should fall upon the land neither dew nor rain. After a few months the earth, unrefreshed by dew or rain, became dry, and vegetation withered. As time passed, streams that had never been known to fail began to decrease, and brooks began to dry up. A year passes, and yet there is no rain. The earth is parched as if with fire. The scorching heat of the sun destroys what little vegetation has survived. Streams dry up, and lowing herds and bleating flocks wander hither and thither in distress. Once-flourishing fields have become like burning desert sands, a desolate waste. The groves dedicated to idol worship are leafless; the forest trees, gaunt skeletons of nature, afford no shade. The air is dry and suffocating; dust storms blind the eyes and nearly stop the breath. Once-prosperous cities and villages have become places of mourning. Hunger and thirst are telling upon man and beast with fearful mortality. Famine, with all its horror, comes closer and still closer. Yet notwithstanding these evidences of God’s power, Israel repented not, nor learned the lesson that God would have them learn. They did not see that He who created nature controls her laws, and can make of them instruments of blessing or of destruction.
The second year of famine passed, and still the pitiless heavens gave no sign of rain. Drought and famine continued their devastation throughout the kingdom. Fathers and mothers, powerless to relieve the sufferings of their children, were forced to see them die. Yet still apostate Israel refused to humble their hearts before God and continued to murmur against the man by whose word these terrible judgments had been brought upon them. They seemed unable to discern in their suffering and distress a call to repentance, a divine interposition to save them from taking the fatal step beyond the boundary of Heaven’s forgiveness.
GOD TRIED TO FREE HIS PEOPLE FROM BONDAGE TO SIN
The apostasy of Israel was an evil more dreadful than all the multiplied horrors of famine. God was seeking to free the people from their delusion and lead them to understand their accountability to the One to whom they owed their life and all things. He was trying to help them to recover their lost faith. For stricken Israel there was but one remedy—a turning away from the sins that had brought upon them the chastening hand of the Almighty, and a turning to the Lord with full purpose of heart. To them had been given the assurance, “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people; if My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:13, 14. It was to bring to pass this blessed result that God continued to withhold from them the dew and the rain until a decided reformation should take place. When His people repented and were willing to receive the spiritual rain of the Holy Spirit that would moisten their sin dried souls, then God would bless them with literal rain to moisten the sun dried earth.
AMERICA IS MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES TODAY
The accumulation of many things which minister to lust and ambition has brought upon the world the judgment of God. The apostasy today is similar to that which overspread Israel in Elijah’s day. In exalting the human above the divine, in the praise of popular leaders, in the worship of money, and in the placing of science above the truths of revelation, multitudes today are following Baal. Many are substituting for the oracles of God the theories of men. It is taught that human reason should be exalted above the teachings of the Word. Even in many supposedly religious circles the Bible is subjected to personal interpretations, human opinion and doubt. False worship and lack of divine power to resist and overcome sin are seen in many churches. In many places, the topic of God's amazing grace and its enabling power to deliver from sin is not even discussed.
The worship of human reasoning and opinions as well as worship based upon misguided interpretations of the Bible are unifying those who reject the love of God in preparation for the false worship described in the book of Revelation. All forms of worship that exalt human reasoning and ability while catering to the human senses leads to worship of the creature rather than the Creator; man worship. This dry, unsatisfying experience leaves the heart open to any influence that appears to give relief from the emptiness. Only Jesus Christ, who is the fountain of life, can quench the thirst of the soul with the water of life.
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8)
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(Revelation 13:18)
God is calling for America and all the world to the pure, elevating and life transforming worship of Him as the Creator Who loves the world and gave His only begotten Son that none should perish.
Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. (Revelation 14:7)
Is your name written in the Lamb's book of life ? Is Jesus Christ your deeply personal Lord and Savior from the power of sin ? Do you realize how much God loves you ?
If you have not done so already or if you have backslidden toward the world and are now worldly...please in the name of Jesus awake and stay alert if you are awake.
Please...surrender your heart to God while there is still time; surrender your thoughts and feelings to Jesus Christ the one who loves you and died in order for you and I to be able to obtain victory over all sin and selfishness in our lives...God loves you..God wants you...Not just to be forgiven...Not to play church, but to truly become Christ-like before you die so that you can be prepared to enjoy eternity with Him. A Christlike person is the only kind of person that could enjoy heaven and the only kind of person that could be trusted in heaven.
Pray like this - Father in heaven, I am a sinner and I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins. I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior right now and I ask you to give me a new heart. New motives, new desires and new purposes that will be in harmony with your law of 10 commandments. I thank you and praise you for the forgiveness of my sins and for causing me to be born again right now, In Jesus, name, amen.
1. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/26/usa-drought-idUSL2E8IQEN020120726
2. http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/highlights.aspx
3. child poverty - http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/07/26/252846/child-poverty-soaring-in-the-us-report/
4. 100 Million in Poverty - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/us/census-measures-those-not-quite-in-poverty-but-struggling.html?pagewanted=all
5. http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/34snapmonthly.htm
6. Romans 1:22-32
7. 1 Kings 17,18
8. Deuteronomy 11:16,17
© 2012 Tyrone Keels