Riders on the Storm

What's so stinkin' frustrating is that if the Storm is real, we shouldn't know anything about it until it's either done or at least significantly in progress. So a real Storm looks exactly like no Storm at all until it hits.

But how does one go about making decisions and living life without having seven heart attacks, three nervous breakdowns, and and conniption fit twice a day every day?

As a Christian, I think I can contribute a little from my experience. I was raised with a very real expectation that Jesus would return at any moment. At any time, the skies could part, the trumpet blow, and the Christians all get rescued, while the rest of the world would then plunge into the Tribulation.

But we still got on with our lives. We served Him however we could in real, "down to earth" ways, while we waited. We tried to live every day so as to be worthy of Him.

Of course, now I've moved on from Rapture form of that belief. But I still do believe that He will return. Many say, "Where is the promise of his coming?"

But I say, "He shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose Kingdom shall have no end. ... I look for the Resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come."

Whether He comes today or not, we pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That is, "Come, Lord Jesus! But if you do not come, nevertheless, give us the strength to live according to your will and be worthy of your coming."

We still strive to serve Him daily, and do our best to work toward the manifesting His Plan. We wait for His return, but we know that He will come when He comes: We ourselves cannot hasten it anymore than we can delay it. But we certainly cannot get "inside information" about it. He Himself said, before He departed, "No man knows the day or the hour" that He would return.

This desire of ours for the Storm, for all to be put right, for the wicked to be cleansed from our land, and the righteous (among whom we deem ourselves) to be exonerated and glorified -- this is a good and right desire. This is the desire of the whole creation, which "groans and travails in earnest expectation until the sons of God should be revealed." This hope and yearning is, of course, properly anchored in Jesus Christ and the Day of Judgment, but it is not wrong to hope for some preview of that in our own land as well. (As with that Storm, however, we should be careful that we are not erring by judging ourselves to be among the righteous, when in reality we may be cleansed out ourselves!)

This is in fact the same hope and longing that the Jews have lived with since even before their Messiah came (for He is the Messiah for whom they wait).

Ironic, of course, that they missed (and continue to miss) His first coming, and the Kingdom that He brought, because He came in a way that they were not expecting -- they were expecting precisely that He would cleanse the Roman world, destroy the wicked oppressors, and set King David on the throne of Israel again. They were expecting Him to come "with clouds". That is: riding on the Storm.

So when He came as a Lamb, instead, not owning anything, having an ignoble birth, and calling not for armed rebellion but for personal repentance -- that is, to cleanse the heart instead of the government -- well, we all know how that went. Those who believed in Him were bitterly disappointed when the Romans nailed Him to a cross, then sealed Him in His tomb.

Of course, we know it didn't end there. And we know that He did indeed cleanse off the Temple and the Holy Place within that generation. Ironically, He did so by means of the very Romans that those who didn't understand Him hated.

And here we are some two millennia later, still waiting for the final Storm to cleanse out the "Romans". (Side note: We assume, of course, that we are necessarily not among the "Romans" to be destroyed. This is hubris.)

Many have hoped in Mr. Trump, or the military, to do this. Or in Mr. Biden and company to do it in the other direction (identifying the Trumpeters as the wicked ones).

Ultimately, though, salvation is of the Lord, not the government. "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the LORD our God."

"I'm from the government, and I'm here to save you" has been the mantra not only of the Democrats, but is also the fundamental "ask" of those of us who call for the military Storm! I'm not saying it's wrong to long to see the land cleansed. I'm saying let's be honest with ourselves about what it is we're actually asking for.

A Christian ought not say, "Even so, come, Lord Trump." (And for those of you reading this from the Left, a Christian also ought not say, "Come, Lord Biden!" or "Thou hast come, Lord Biden!")

We ought not put our hope in any "Lord Mr. President".

What ought a Christian to say? The same thing we've been saying for the last 2,000 years: "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

Let us "occupy 'til He comes." With what occupation? Well, with repentance, of course! Let us prepare ourselves for that Storm.