Read a great post this morning by David Wilkerson. He was quoting a Puritan preacher from the 1600s warning London of perilous times ahead. He called for repentance, for people to lead their families to a place of safety – not a compound, a bunker, or a cave in the wilderness, but eternal shelter in Jesus. No matter what befalls us here in this world, He has promised in Him we are more than overcomers. At times He is the protector in the fire, and in other times He gives us visions of heaven as the rocks fly and our spirits return to Him. In both cases, we have Him and He is glorified.
Our greatest tragedy should be the prospect that we could deny Him, not to suffer at the hands of men or from circumstances. I do not fear that He would not forgive this failure, but the terrible grief of having done so. I can’t imagine the broken heart of Peter with one look from Jesus after he had cursed and denied he knew Him – to keep his own skin safe. But he had to be broken from trusting his own strength, his own promise of “I will never fall away.” We cannot promise things to God. We can only trust His.
Yet Peter’s position in the Ark was not affected by this failure. When the door of the ark is sealed.. you are in or out. Your safety depends on the strength of the ark, not your ability to keep it afloat. Theoretically, Noah could have exerted a great effort to somehow climb out and jump, but is this a discussion we need to have? People seem to spend more time arguing about how to stay in the Ark than calling drowning people into it, but that’s because we’ve invited so many in with one foot only and told them it was fine.
Growing up as an Adventist, our lives were overshadowed constantly with the belief of the coming “Time of Trouble”, as we called it, when God would test the whole world and divide those who served Him from those who served the enemy. The dividing line would be the Seventh-day Sabbath – and all who did not remain loyal to this holy day would receive the Mark of the Beast – causing all to worship on the false Sabbath – on Sunday. We were taught that we would be hunted and many killed for not complying with “Sunday Laws”. Every disaster or political crisis created a buzz of conversation about how soon the Sunday Laws were coming. My ark of safety in God was a day, and I wasn’t sure I would be strong enough to make it through. The right Jesus was the Sabbath Jesus. The only way to know if we had Him or not, was the day. To abandon the day was to reject Him. And to fail was to be lost forever.
For much of the world, this tribulation is already here, and growing drastically each day. The line in the sand is already drawn and many are being hunted and killed for being on the side of Christ. He is the Sabbath test Himself. Will we trust His love and finished work or not? Will we trust someone or something else? Will we trust ourselves? I’m sure the temptation is large for those already suffering in the cauldron of man’s hatred.
My expectation of persecution coming to America someday (maybe soon) has not changed all that much – only that now I have total assurance in Jesus alone and not in my allegiance to a shadow observance, or my own ability to be strong. The world system does want your adoration and trust. It’s screaming for it, sometimes forcefully, sometimes seductively. But if your ark is a day or a law, or anything other than Christ, you may have already been taken in while looking to a false sign of reassurance. We have to go much deeper than external appearances – past the shadows – to the heart of who we love and trust the most.
Wilkerson’s article can be read HERE
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