"But know this: There will be terrible (stressful) times in the last days..."
Has it really been 57 years since this day? I was 12 years old, coming from my 6th period P.E. class, headed toward Fred Rogers classroom and a date with Physical Science, when we were told about the President. I heard the words, but I don't think I truly understood what they meant.
"The President has been shot".....I was too young to have an informed opinion about President Kennedy. My parents had voted against him, so I can't say for sure how much their view influenced my view. I just knew that this young man who was President had been killed. It was only the year before that he had taken us through what became known as the Cuban Missile crisis. News casters told us that we were at the brink of Nuclear war with Russia. Pretty heady stuff for a twelve year old to navigate.
Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years. These kind of events seem to happen with great frequency during the 60's.
Viet Nam: guys I went to school with joined up and shipped out. Some never made it back. They will perpetually forever be 18 years old. We always checked the paper each week to see if anyone from our neck of the woods had been killed.
There were more assassinations as Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were brought down by angry men who thought they could stop the voices of these two men.
Nixon brought us "Peace with honor"......declared himself to not be a crook....and then resigned because of the Watergate fiasco.
Time marched on and I grew older. But, as Dylan said, "The Times They Are A Changing"
In the midst of all this madness, a little ol' movement began in California that came to be known as the "Jesus People" movement. Truth is, it was a revival of a generation that was lost and wandering searching for something they didn't even have words for. But men such as Chuck Smith, Keith Greene, Ken Gullickson, Gunner Payne..........and yes, my spiritual mentor, John Wimber, all were raised up by God to be a voice to this generation. And what a voice they were.
So here we are in 2020....do you think maybe the times are stressful now? I would say yes. But there is a truth today that has stood the test of such times. That truth is the simple fact that Jesus is who He claims He is...and He will do what He has claimed He would do. that has not changed.
So what was the purpose of all this collective history review? To say that today, like yesterday, I will keep my eyes, my heart, my mind and my focus on Christ. I will listen for His voice, I will confirm it through His word, and I will do what I have heard him say do.
I will not fear the world around me.
I will not bow my knee or heart to worship anything or anyone except the only one worthy of such. Jesus.
Think on these things.
God on you....
mbb
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