The Gathering Storm

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="002a11c3.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Home Page"><U>HOME</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Book Page"><U>BOOKS   </U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Articles"><U>ARTICLES </U></A>  </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id7.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tapes"><U>TAPES</U></A>   </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Spiritual Warfare/Occult "><U>SPIRITUAL WARFARE, OCCULT   </U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sexual Abuse Issues"><U>SEXUAL ABUSE ISSUES</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id11.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Exposing the Darkness Seminar"><U>***EXPOSING THE DARKNESS SEMINAR***</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="guestbook"><U>GUESTBOOK</U></A><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial Rounded MT Bold" > </FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:greid@elp.rr.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:greid@elp.rr.com"><U> <img src="HTMLobj-920/aniGif.gif" border="0" align="bottom" width="67" height="50">  </U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> The Gathering Storm</div> <bR> <div> <B>Many of life's difficult and painful things are not sudden, but slow events: bankruptcy, divorce, terminal illness.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>But we are not shielded from the many devastating sudden tragedies, either. We are geared to “eat, drink and be merry.” When sudden tragedy hits, we are…unprepared. Jesus said, “…until the flood came and took them all away.” Because they ignored Noah, the eccentric, annoying, divisive boat-builder, they were  swept away in a second.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Jesus wept a heartbreaking warning over Jerusalem. They ignored him and in 72 A.D., it all came to an end for them.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Elijah warned, “Choose”. Then the fire came.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Lot was warned, and escaped. His wife looked back and died.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>It is not an accident that the last book of the Bible is the Revelation of Jesus, a book packed with dire warnings, cataclysm and prophetic endings. No wonder it's the least-preached book!</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>It's amazing how much of the New Testament letters are words of warning and preparation. “Wake up! Don't be deceived. Be sober. Expect hard times. Be ready!” Not much about how to succeed, get wealthy or lose weight. The New Testament books are preparatory warfare books. If they needed them then, how much more now that we see the end of all things approaching?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>But there is so little of that anymore. I had a dream yesterday. There was once a man not long ago with a powerful prophetic voice - Keith Green. He was unashamed to weep, to preach truth no matter what the cost. He died in early 1981, and in my view, no musical voice has come to fill the void.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>In my dream, he was on stage, and I was in the church crowd. He looked out - and wept. I was suddenly hit with a conviction - a grief - that was so strong that I hung my head in shame and wept. I woke up sobbing.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Where have our tears gone? We do not weep for the lost. We do not weep for the broken, the rejected, we do not weep tears of sorrow over our own spiritual lukewarmness.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Even though the church is becoming infected with sin and compromise on every side, we do not see it, because we are content and we do not want to be disturbed. The dream I had reminded me of one of Keith's lyrics:</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>The world is sleeping in the dark</B></div> <div> <B>But the church just can't fight</B></div> <div> <B>Because it's asleep in the light,</B></div> <div> <B>How can you be so dead</B></div> <div> <B>When you've been so well-fed?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I truly believe Satan's greatest accomplishment is not making believers sin but in making them NUMB. “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion.” </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>My tears come because I hunger for a fiery word - of conviction, of revelation, of truth - truth that COULD make me weep, and cry to God for more, for full surrender of my complacent life.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> My call to ministry came in 1973 when I received a recorded message from David Wilkerson called, “The Vision.” I listened with fear and awe as he related how God kept him up several nights revealing what was coming to the world and the church.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Among other things, God showed him the Soviet Union would collapse. That was ABSURD in 1973- Now, the young grow up in a world without it. Mocked, reviled, David's vision has nearly all been fulfilled, including God showing him a demonic “baptism of filth” was coming on the earth (this was before the internet) and a “persecution madness” that was going to come against believers here in the states. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>My reaction to that message was to fall on my knees in holy fear and cry out, “God, make me ready! I surrender ALL to Your service!” Within 3 months I was in Bible School preparing. The rest, you know.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Over the years, every single moment of radical change in my life has come just as “The Vision” did - through a fiery, heaven-breathed Word. I rarely hear such words anywhere, though somewhere ,they must be being preached.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Instead, the only time I see believers emotionally stirred seems to be through almost nursery-rhyme little stories designed to tug the heartstrings toward God, Mr. Rogers-like stories. We tell kids fluffy stories and end up with fluffy, spiritually weak kids.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>That is NOT the Word that overwhelms us and changes us radically. We are nearly dead we are so numb and we do not need feel-good-about-God fixes, but jarring, transforming TRUTH.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>As I have said before, the storm is on the horizon. The riptide of secular antichrist hatred for everything righteous or Biblical which reached a near boil last year has receded -  to plan, To organize. And to begin to time the triggers they have already placed within the educational system, the courts, the media and the special interest groups such as the ACLU, the NEA and the Gay Alliances - and within a generation of non-thinking children and youth - timed to go off and retake lost territory and silence once for all the mouth of believers who dare to believe in Biblical truth. By and large, our children are not prepared for the onslaught they will face. My obsessive drive to teach Kids the Word of God is driven by this understanding of the coming storm.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>How do we prepare for this coming storm?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Teach the Whole Truth. It is time to consider stopping giving people - and ourselves - “bite-size snack” messages and begin real, comprehensive, equipping lessons that will provide believers with real tools to combat the lies.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Teach our kids to STAND. Most kids are too timid or intimidated to challenge the growing antichristian, anti-Bible ridicule and politically bent attacks by students, teachers and professors that pass as “education.” (No wonder 87% of Christian kids lose their faith after entering college!)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>When we were in High School, we were on fire for Jesus, and we did not know that we should not talk. You could not have stopped us! A Methodist minister who taught Comparative Religion was teaching that the Bible was a myth and that Jesus was just a good man, not the Son of God. Respectfully but firmly, a Christian friend and I raised our hands and challenged him. We made his class MISERABLE for him. While today, we'd be afraid of being considered “disruptive”, then we were simple exercising our free speech rights and making sure HE didn't use the class to brainwash and hoist his antichrist opinion on students instead of doing what he was paid to - TEACH OBJECTIVELY. Our kids should be so equipped; and if they get ridiculed, harassed and get into trouble, good for them. Let's support them. There's plenty of Christian legal centers that can help kids challenge the kind of antichrist attacks that are so prevalent - and growing - on campuses against Christian kids.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Teach our youth Biblical truth on relevant issues that they WILL be challenged on: Evolution, the occult, abortion, homosexuality, premarital sex, etc. We're too focused on “how to date”, “self-image”, etc., keeping our kids INWARD and self-focused. We have GOT to break the siege mentality - the “let's just stay very still and hope no one notices us” fear-based way of conducting ourselves in this world. Having kids Biblically equipped on specific things will be a necessity if we want them to survive and THRIVE. Even now, some middle schools have “diversity and tolerance” weeks where kids have to sign a pledge to support and ACCEPT the gay way of life! One has to ask what in the WORLD that has to do with education. It is in fact SOCIAL ENGINEERING and kids are a SOCIAL EXPERIMENT for the National Education Association and others. And the fact is, a number of kids won't even TELL their parents about such a pledge. Often they are encouraged NOT to.  (Kids love secrets.)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>We need to avail ourselves of the excellent resources such as Dr. Kent Hoeven's Creation series  (</B><A HREF="http://www.drdino.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.drdino.com"><U><B><U>www.drdino.com</U></B></U></A><B>), Exodus International's Biblical and restoration ministry for those seeking out of homosexuality and equipping believers to be informed and ready to teach the truth on this volatile issue (</B><A HREF="http://www.exodusinternational.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.exodusinternational.org"><U><B><U>www.exodusinternational.org</U></B></U></A><B>). David Limbaugh has written an excellent, chilling and in my view MANDATORY book called “Persecution” which documents the social agenda to silence believers and what to do about it. If we are willing to invest in vital instructional tools for our kids, they are out there.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Get educated and prepared.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I'm alarmed by what kids are telling me goes on in schools. Same-sex couples making out in hallways. Teachers who share “drinking recipes” with their students, teachers who flirt with students, as well as students who are carrying on clandestine affairs with their teachers, teachers who are introducing all manner of occult and sexual garbage into the class that has NOTHING to do with the class curriculum. There has never been a more crucial time for parents to be hands-on. Talk to your kids about every class, every subject and every teacher. Find out what kinds of plays are done, what kinds of in-school activities and clubs and workshops are being carried out. It is a MISTAKE to believe the educational system has your child's - or your - best interests at heart. The NEA has made our kids a social experiment. YOU pay for the schools. YOU pay the teacher's salaries. You have a RIGHT and a holy OBLIGATION to be involved and informed about every detail of your child's education. And be courageous enough to take it to the mat if need be, knowing that many educators merely consider you uneducated and ignorant and irrelevant to your child's education.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>A Return to Evangelism.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>When I first became a Christian, the importance of telling others about Jesus was a given. You shared Him at work, at schools, at social functions, in the streets. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Now we've left that to a few evangelists, largely restricting our sharing to an occasional invitation to church. I am sure this is not what Jesus intended when he said, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Never has there been a more crucial time to teach others to SHARE Jesus, for only when people come into the Kingdom can true change occur both individually and socially. For the last two decades, Satan has succeeded in making most Christians into quiet, compliant little sheep who “keep their religion to themselves.” Satan fears greatly the spread of Jesus' truth. I pray for a return to the evangelistic imperative given to every believer and that once more, the righteous will be bold as a lion.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Time is getting short; now is the time for a renewal of the holy fear of repentance, the eminent place of the powerful Word of God, and to cry for a fiery, furious fresh Word from Heaven.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Now is the time to use any and all tools to equip this generation, so that when the storm hits, they will stand like steel.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Gregory Reid</B></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>