A Little Clarification

My last post generated a lot of interest. I am quite amazed. There seemed to be a lingering question that I would like to address. Billy D asked it first, then Heidi asked it in a very much more feminine way, and then Micah talked about actually going through a disaster and being prepared for one.

I want to make a distinction between what Micah is saying, my directive, and Heidi’s directive. What Micah said and I whole-heartedly agree with is preparing for the short-term disaster. It would behoove us all to try to be as prepared as we could be for those situations. Birdie and I have discussed this on a number of occasions, and we are going to try and be prepared for those kinds of occasions. Several years ago when we lived in AR there was a severe ice storm the day after Christmas. This affected most of west AR and east OK. Power was down in places for weeks, we lost ours for about a week in an all electric home. It was cold, and miserable, for the first couple of days we tried to live in our home but even with the fireplace the house could not be kept warm, we stayed in the living room but temperatures in the house never got above the 50s. The interesting provision came with Birdie’s stepmother being extremely ill. She was taken down to a hospital in Shreveport and Birdie’s father told us to at least stay at his home. While we still did not have lights, we did have gas heat, a gas stove, and hot water. That was a blessing.

BTW Birdie’s stepmother almost died in Shreveport and they brought her back home to AR and while in another hospital ICU in Fort Smith, A young doctor noticed her electrolyte imbalance and realized what a number of other doctors had missed. She was suffering from a rare autoimmune disease called Addisons. They corrected the electrolyte imbalance and it was like seeing a person rise from the dead. To this day we are grateful to G_d for having that young doctor there at the right time and place.

Ok I got off on a tangent there but back to my main point. While preparing for short-term disasters is a good thing my directive and Heidi’s are directed at the long-term disaster that could befall the church. I think that the fact the G_d is preparing people like Heidi and her family to be the providers for those in need and those called to live lightly and depend upon the Lord for their daily provision is a sign that the persecution will come. For some reason I have been called to be a leader of some kind in all of this, and while I have at times questioned why I was chosen, I have accepted the call on my life. My directive though is to teach and to preach, and I cannot do this while working on providing for the physical needs of those I am in charge of during this time of persecution. So I am told to rely on Him. He will provide for my family over the long term. So basically each one of us is being prepared for some aspect of what is going to happen and what their role will be. I find that to quite comforting indeed.