Diane and I plan to attend a showing of the Jesus Revolution movie today. I have been anticipating seeing this movie since I first heard about it. I am sure it will have great meaning for us both. Diane and I were in the middle of the Jesus Revolution starting back in 1968 right on up through to its end. Diane was at Mary Washington College when this revival was still going on, and she became a fired-up Christian there. I was at home working in a hardware store to make money to pay my way through tech school located in Washington DC. We saw each other every now and then and went to a Youth for Christ, or Youth with a Misson, revival meeting in Smith Moutain Lake Va, (you may have seen a picture of us sitting together) That was our first taste of what was really happening with young college people then.

Eventually, we married, in 1972 and after some moving around we ended up in Charlotte working for a Christian Television Network. I was a cameraman and lighting guy, Diane was an AD (associate director) and we had the same boss. Sam, came out from Californian where he attended Calvary Chapel, and the Pastor was Chuck Smith. Sam being in TV like us told me, a few days ago, that one of his first jobs when he got to California, was to video songs performed by Love Song.

I remember being in the studio in Charlotte, with no TV lights on, and our musical guest was at the piano rehearsing for his music segment that would be on the live program the next day. I was practicing “trucking” wheeling my camera around while on a tight shot of our guest who just happened to be Churck Girard one of the founders of Love Song. Sometime after that Dan Peek came and sang for us. Dan was a member of America and he is considered one of the Pioneers of CCM, Contemporary Christian Music. I met Russ Taff, and others who played a big part in the music at that time.

It didn’t seem like such a big deal then, maybe I didn’t recognize the significance of some of the things Diane and were part of, including this huge move of God and the Holy Spirit that started some years earlier, that is my opinion anyway. It was a huge awakening to the things of God. And it is happening again. Some folks say this time is the last time. When you add this move of God to the other things going on in the world it could very well be the last worldwide revival and then the end shall come. I can’t say for sure, but it does feel like it. If it is, then a whole lot of people are not going to like it one bit. Some folks just want no part of God, not the living one. Maybe if they are religious then they don’t mind God and Jesus in the historical sense, but no, don’t want, don’t care for miracles and emotional transformations of people’s lives. I know that for a fact. My family was not liked much at one church we were members of when we embraced God’s move and became a part of this revolution. We were asked to leave.

You see, it says in the Bible, that Jesus told his disciples, and he was always talking to his future disciples at the same time, that one of the signs of the coming end of the world would be that his people would suffer persecution for His name’s sake. Some would be ostracized, (been there). Many would be arrested, and some will be killed. This is already taking place in many parts of the world. All those things are happening here in the good ole USA now.

Is the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord close at hand? I don’t know. I am not a last-day prophet like some of the preachers Diane and I met during our time in Christian TV. They tried their best to solve the riddles of Matthew 24, the book of Joel, and what Isaiah said about the very last days. There is no doubt we are closer than ever, just because of the passage of time.

Larry Norman said many years ago in one of his songs “I wish we'd all been ready”.

How close are we? I don’t know. Ready for what? That I can answer. Be ready to have your faith tested so that if you have to make a choice like many in the past, and now, between your faith in Jesus and having your life taken away, you will not deny the Lord.

I am reminded of a story I read recently, and I think I read it many years ago as well. It took place sometime in the early 1970s in Romania. Romania back then was a communist dictatorship under the iron hand of the dictator Ceausescu. Christians were being prosecuted as enemies of the state. One morning a young boy was sitting at his state-run school desk when the military arrived outside. A few soldiers came into the school and demanded that all go outside. The children were forced to line up single file abreast in the snow. They stood there in the bitter cold. An officer threw a Bible onto the ground and demanded that all the children come and spit on it. The young boy stood there terrified. He was so scared that he could hardly move. He asked himself as a child of God, how could he do such a thing? His friend, a young girl, who stood next to him was also a believer. The officer singled her out and demanded she do what he ordered.

She walked over, got on her knees, picked up the Bible, and kissed it.

The officer immediately, with no warning at all, pulled his revolver and shot her in the head. Then all the soldiers left.

The young boy’s life was spared but his good friend was gone.

Why do these things happen or should I say continue to happen? If time is that short will things like this happen more? Yes, they will. I know it’s coming. I don’t know when. Are we there, at the end yet? Maybe and if they come for me for being a believer, I hope there is enough evidence to convict me. Let me not deny the Lord to save myself. Until that day, if I am still around, I will rejoice in this move of God.

Psalms 37

Of David.

1 Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong;

2 for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.

3 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

4 Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:

6 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.

7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways when they carry out their wicked schemes.

8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.

9 For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.

10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.

11 But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.

12 The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them;

13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.

14 The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright.

15 But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.

16 Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked;

17 for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.

18 The blameless spend their days under the LORD’s care, and their inheritance will endure forever.

19 In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.

20 But the wicked will perish: Though the LORD’s enemies are like the flowers of the field, they will be consumed, they will go up in smoke.

21 The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously;

22 those the LORD blesses will inherit the land, but those he curses will be destroyed.

23 The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him;

24 though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.