Phyllis Beveridge Nissila
IN THE MIDST OF CHAOS…
By all indicators, we’re getting close to something BIG.
Planetarily speaking.
It’s a heyday out there for conspiracy and reality theorists, geologists, cosmologists, eschatologists, and everybody who has read or watched, in recent months, (what’s left of) serious news features.
Jade Helm 15, New Madrid and San Andreas fault lines, Agenda 21, ISIS, and incoming Planet X are just a few trepidation triggers, a strange apocalyptic brew.
Preppers push 72 hour backpacks and solar generators (amid myriad other survival essentials). Doomsdayers and prophets touch up sandwich boards displaying warnings and crowd real and virtual street corners. Countless hoard silver, gold, freeze-dried food and what hope is left, while the normalcy bias fast frays at the edges.
And the call to be sober-minded, discerning, and observant sounds louder and louder from both secular and spiritual realms.
Oh my!
What to do? Choose 2:
- Panic
- Insert head in sand
- Run around like a chicken…
- Watch another episode of some mind-numbing television show*
- “Keep calm and carry on”**
- “Look up…for your redemption draweth nigh”***
Answer key, below.
…THE MIND OF CHRIST
And yet (take a deep breath, here), my fellowship group and I keep reminding each other, even considering what is likely ahead, God’s Word remains true (correct answer: 6 ), while doing one’s best to “keep calm” (correct: 5 ).
(And for extra credit: a sense of humor.****)
But seriously, we needn’t despair.
Consider the encouragement of the “sound mindedness” that is our inheritance in Christ Jesus, no matter what conspirators conspire and dread descends:
God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7 NIV).
But, how does that work?
As usual, the details are in the definition: “sound–sophronismos, self-control; properly, safe-minded, issuing in prudent (“sensible”) behavior that “fits” a situation, i.e. aptly acting out God’s will by doing what He calls sound reasoning.” [1]
But how does one discover what God’s will and reasoning is?
Study The Believer’s Field Manual–sixty-six power-packed, truth-ignited, dead-raising, hell-bending, Satan-defeating, mind-freeing books in the historical, literary, and spiritual anthology called the Bible. The Book of Proverbs, in particular, is specifically dedicated to helping one discern the difference between wickedness and wisdom—how to identify/avoid the former and employ the latter.
Even Jesus, when approached by the Tempter after the forty day sojourn in the desert, successfully deployed the weaponry of the Word breathed by the Same Who spoke what was not into what is starting with just four words: “Let there be light.”
Imagine the combined potency, in those 66 books, of 1,189 chapters, 31,173 verses, and 807,361 words…
A preacher I was listening to just this morning has a “burden” to call believers back into “alignment” with God as we face the serious and perhaps even deadly days ahead. “Get into (God’s) Word, His will, and His ways,” he said. [2]
I would add only: ASAP.
~~~~~
*I confess to being a Food Network junkie, myself. But, then, who knows? All those episodes of “Chopped” might help me cobble together something nutritious and tasty with what remains after the SHTF…
**British government poster, 1939, created to keep the populace calm before the imminent storm of WWII.
***Luke 21:28
****Why did the chicken cross the fault line? Because the road got swallowed up in a sink hole…
[1] ] From Strong’s Concordance, Greek lexicon, # 4995.
[2] Rick Wiles, trunews.com
Picture from the public domain.
pnissila 
Enjoyed the chicken chuckle! 🙂
And there’s more to, “Let there be light…” In Biblical Hebrew, those same words from Genesis 1:3 read: יְהִי אוֹר (transliterated as, ‘yehi or’), and literally means “be light”. In other words God didn’t wish it, or hope it would eventually happen, He commanded it! And what does it say happened after He issued that command? It happened! Light! Psalm 119 equates His word with light: “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”
I am reminded of this verse from Isaiah 55:10-11:
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
His “sent” word has power! Woohoo!
Your post just ignited me, thanks for posting and for allowing my comments. I appreciate all you do!
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I love the Hebrew scholars’ contributions, here. And once again, thanks to YOU!
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Excellent, thanks. Today’s world seems to be such a thick mire of muck, no matter what direction we look in. Except when it comes to the author and finisher of our faith, good word.
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You’re welcome. We can’t forget to keep our eye on the prize, right? But we will, I think, need all the reminders and encouragement we can get as the “days” progress. I hope to edify.
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