I've always been curious about the fact that other lands to which religious America considers heathen or third world, realize when the weather is turbulent or negatively unrelenting, they may have angered their gods, and they attempt to make amends or offerings or appeasements or something! Why not in America, why not? Religious America doesn't seem to make the correlation and if anything is mentioned, it's usually perceived to be offensive and Phariseeical. Americans for the most part, usually see the need for someone else to repent.
I was awakened very early Tuesday morning, the day after the big tornado went through Moore, Oklahoma and the day before the second anniversary of the Joplin tornado, both EF5s. As I prayed, many things raced through my mind. I found out that Oklahoma City had been celebrating Gay Pride the week prior and the weekend had been filled with "Gay Events." I, like so many, associate the gay agenda with Sodom and Gomorrah, and undoubtedly there is a parallel, but I believe there's more. It's hard not to consider the use of the rainbow with hands in the air as a sign of defiant disrespect, but saying the Son of G-d lived a perfect life and died so we could do what we want and argue about what to eat, is pretty disrespectful as well. . .
One of the very first e-mails I ever sent as I entered the world of technology was to Jerry Falwell after he had blamed the gays for 9/11, because I knew better, and he should have. The G-d of Israel doesn't punish innocent people for the sins of another, so there has to be more to this Weather of Biblical proportion. As I perused Facebook, a few more realities hit me.
Immediately, there were the usual anti-Obama, anti-abortion, and anti-gay posts, and of course the religious debates droning on and on between Paul's epistles and Torah but I saw more, for perhaps the first time. There were also anti-religious posts about all the issues in my previous sentence. As I read various posts and headline news items, it occurred to me, so many Americans are "right in their own eyes" and I'm talking about the devout and those claiming to believe, as well as the politically correct. The more I read, the more I realized, we have sort of taken on the role of ancient Israel, right around the time they were heading into Babylonian captivity. Wouldn't it be nice if it was just somebody else doing something wrong that I didn't want to do anyway? Rather than the sulfur rain of Genesis going through my mind, however; I kept hearing various passages from Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel raising up in my spirit.
Oklahoma has taken a "beatin" for years regarding tragedy. There was a similar tornado in 1999, just four years after the OKC bombing, then another tornado four years later, and the last couple of years have been fraught with drought. This is not at all to single out Oklahoma, as nearly all of the range and farm land, the Bible belt, has had horrific weather conditions. We haven't let the farmland rest. Every seven years the land is supposed to lie fallow and rest. We don't let anything rest.
Sabbath isn't even Scripturally observed by much of the mainstream religious and those of us who do "observe" it all have our very special rules of dispensation, a.k.a. excuses. Then there is the other extreme with all the extras, who have literally made work out of the day of rest. For the most part in American society, the seventh day of the week is a day to catch up around the house, go shopping, and be about ourselves. A far cry from the Scriptural instructions. There are many G-d fearing people who do not live agriculturally, but work on Sabbath. Jobs are not easy to come by in this economy and many careers are service oriented, so that's been "justified." I can't speak for anyone else, but the fact of the matter is, we as a society, do not stop our perpetual motion for Sabbath. No matter how we explain it, or excuse it, or make work of it, we simply don't stop our own activities.
Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. Jeremiah 17:22,23
Undoubtedly, from a Scriptural perspective, the week-end plans of Oklahoma City this particular week-end of Sabbath and Pentecost/Shvu'ot, was not a good judgment call on the part of the planners, but by the same token, the participants weren't laying any claim to the promises of keeping the Sabbath and Holy Day. Sabbath is the 7th day of the week, every week, and Pentecost/Shavu'ot is an annual Holy Day, so the odds of hitting this was 1 in 52. But clearly, the mainstream religious aren't faring well in their picking and choosing which laws to keep and which to disregard, either.
If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of YHWH, honourable; and shall honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in YHWH; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of YHWH has spoken it. Isaiah 58:13-14
I realize, homosexuality is referred to as an abomination and I'm not defending it. I would like to point out, however; that the term abomination appears over 20 times in the book of Proverbs alone, with one passage listing seven abominable offenses. In the twenty times the word, abomination appears, the entire book of Proverbs never addresses the subject of homosexuality.
I do not believe YHWH appreciates HIS Word belittled in regard to sexual behavior. Nor do I believe He wants His Word taken out of context. I also think He is very displeased at the presumption of new rules. I know He doesn't like pride, and Proverbs is quite explicit in the fact He has zero tolerance for mockery and foolishness. Calamity of Biblical Proportion is not just happening to a particular group of people, or to those committing just a particular offense in the eyes of others, it's happening across the country and around the world.
Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Ezekiel 22:26
Bible believers speak of being a Royal Priesthood a Holy People, but are we truly living as such? It is seriously time for those who are claiming to have a belief in the Creator portrayed in the Bible to see where we may have, indeed; angered Him. Lot did not pay for the sins of Sodom, Israel didn't pay for the sins of Egypt. Only one man paid for the sins of others, and He said, "It is finished."
It doesn't matter what we religiously stand against, if we're not busy about our Father's business, we're not following Messiah, which means we are not walking in obedience. The word for not walking what we're talking is: hypocrite.
But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness: they walked not in My statutes, and they despised My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and My Sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. . .Because they despised My judgments, and walked not in My statutes, but polluted my Sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols. Ezekiel 20:13,16
Now, if the G-d of Israel will do this to His chosen people, who in the world do we think we are?
Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am YHWH that sanctify them Eze 20:12
Keep in mind the only Scriptures at the time of Paul's writing was the Old Testament.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4
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