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One cannot stop what The Most High has set into motion, nor should one even try. All things, this included, are a part of His design, and will come to pass. Our duty is to hold onto our faith, and pray that "Thy will be done, o Lord, on earth, even as it is in Heaven." Know that when these dark days have passed, the fullness of His plan will be complete, and all the misery will be undone...

Or, as the ten faithless spies said,

25And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. 26And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land. 27And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. 28Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. 29The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. 30And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. 31But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. 32And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. 1And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. 2And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! 3And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. 5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. 6And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: 7And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. 8If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. 9Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. 10But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. 11And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?

My generation grew up under the shadow of The Bomb, with the realistic expectation of "Atom Doom." Then, almost overnight, God took down the wall. Suddenly, the people just quit believing in the communist reason for living. And they wanted to hear about Jesus. Today, the largest evangelical church in Europe is a Pentecostal congregation in Kiev.

And the "prophecy experts," those who sought to use God's Word like a steaming heap of entrails, as a toy for predicting the future -- did NOT come to repentance, fall on their faces, and renounce their evil and occultic practices. No, they instead scurried around, like roaches when the light comes on, desperately seeking new antichrist candidates to grovel / cower before. New excuses for impotence, for fatalism, for the failure in their own lives.

21But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. 22Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 23Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: 24But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

You can cower in your corner, playing with yourself, drooling over your pretty maps of imaginary futures. Others feel called to make a difference, and believe that the God who called them to serve Him is a God of victories, a God of power, a God of wisdom, a God who intends to bring all nations under the gentle yoke of the Christian gospel.

The decision to shrink back, to expect more of antichrist than of God, is not cost-free. Evangelical Christians in America are losing around 90% of their own children, in part because they have no hope to offer their offspring other than personal mystical experiences. A navel view can't substitute for a world view, no matter how much you feague it.

At this point, two major world systems spit proud defiance in God's face: Islam, and the state religion of the USA, a smug secularism. God has plans for both. Which will topple first? I passionately yearn to be in on what God is up to, in either case. If Islam is the next proud empire of defiance to fall, well, my Turkish lessons are coming along, so God may find a use for me among that presently-Muslim people group. If secular humanism is God's next idol for destruction, well, I have an application pending with an emergency management firm, and ten years' experience as a volunteer fireman.

Either way, Jesus is Lord, and He has significant things for me to do for His glory. I am excited to see what happens next! And pray I may be equal to the opportunities God has prepared for me.