Part 1

Hebrew thought is cyclic while Greek thought is linear; most of the tours we take around the country have been linear, like Greek thought; you start at one point and travel in a line to the next point, always moving forward.  In fact we kind of had taken an attitude of “always go forward, don’t turn around or go back for anything.”  We’ll this tour so far has been more like Hebrew thought; going around and around, like cycles.  Our long-held traveling attitudes are being challenged!

Driving into Williston, North Dakota was like, what I believe, the California gold rush must have been in 1849.  Every manner of humanity has converged upon this new “gold rush’; the oil and gas fields in northwestern North Dakota.  I asked a native resident what she thought of all this activity and she said, “I don’t like it, not at all. The people this new “rush” is bringing are not the kind of people I want in my state.  It’s true, businesses are growing, stores are expanding, lots of housing is being built, more schools are opening, but the churches are staying the same; do we see the churches growing? No!  That tells me the kind of people that are moving into this state.”

Later I thought about her comments as I watched the mass of humanity flow in and out of WalMart; and then it hit me, what an incredible missionary opportunity was this oil and gas rush of northwestern North Dakota.  As an American it is hard, though, to wrap one’s American brain around the concept of North America as a mission field.  We are so rich and increased with goods and have apparent need of nothing, that to think of America like one might think of Borneo or Malawi or Mongolia is a mental stretch. But it is right in front of us; the prostitution, the drugs, the alcoholics, the homeless, the gangs, the spousal abuse, the neglected children; every sign of a people group in need of a Savior.  And who is there to tell them if not you!

In the 1990’s statistics for the Christian community of North America were released that stated that out of every dollar raised for Christian activity, $0.97 was used in the established American Christian community, i.e. church buildings, television and radio evangelism, media printing and distribution, etc. $0.02 of every dollar was sent to established missions and only one cent of every dollar raised by Christian organizations was used for establishing new mission work.  Is it a far stretch to say that money raised for Christian activity is being poorly utilized?  American ministries gobble up impressionable, gullible, believer’s generosity and to what avail?  Abortion is rampant, Satanism is boldly uncovering its ugly face, homosexuality is being mainstreamed, children are being denied good, solid Christian counseling, and now in California boys can use girl’s bathrooms and vice versa if they wake up one morning and suddenly declare that they feel like the opposite sex of what God made them.  I’m sorry folks, but America has become a nation in need of a missionary movement.  Once the head, the greatest believing nation on earth, sending missionaries to the uttermost corners of the world, we are now the tail, in desperate need of what we used to be!

I know there is a large population of Believing “preppers” in this country; people preparing for the worst with stocks of food, medical supplies, ammunitions and various other assorted paraphernalia like carts and tents and backpacks, water purification and so forth.  They are finding “isolated” properties and preparing these places for their “hideout” in times of trouble.  But I will say to you that Y’Shua said while it is light to WORK, for the darkness is coming when no man will be able to work.  It is not dark yet people!  We have a work to do.  What is this work?  It is letting the light of Y’Shua, His love and compassion, His Rivers of Living Water flow through us.  It is going to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and letting them know, through your life that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, that it is drawn near to them.  Y’Shua told us, His disciples, to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, cast out demons, freely we have received, now freely give.

Y’Shua is returning, and I believe it is soon, but we must get out of “seven year” thinking which is,  “Y’Shua is coming within the next seven years so why bother, not enough time,” thinking.  This kind of thinking keeps us from being all we were created to be so we can then do all that YHVH calls us to do.  This kind of thinking causes us to run and hide.  This kind of thinking makes us apathetic and lethargic about the things of YHVH.  This kind of thinking makes us argumentative.  This kind of thinking will bring about a fulfillment of Matthew 24:9-14. “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

Y’Shua told us to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. He told us to take no thought for tomorrow.  He told us not to worry. He said love not your life unto death, that is don’t be afraid to die for Him; a glorious reward awaits the one martyred for Y’Shua.

Rev 12:11  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.