Dear Saints,
It is not surprising, considering the times we are living through, that my original article The Loneliness of the Saints: A Call For Community, has created the most interest amongst readers.
For some of us, the unusual oddballs, these lonely times of the soul are not so hard to bear because we were made by Yahweh to be soloists and lone wanderers in this battlefield of a world. Yet that is not how most believers have been made in the image of God. For even the Most High breathed life into angels and the race of man, creations with the innate ability to share in the wonders of Creation with Him. Likewise, even for those of us less socially inclined, to be and to share with others is a delight and blessing granted to us by our Maker. Without others around us, how do we love, how do we give ourselves selflessly for the sake of our neighbours, our families, our brothers and sisters in Christ?
Yes, we need relationships with others in order to follow the prime commandment of Christ, to love others as God has loved us.
And as believers, most of all we need fellowship with our fellow saints, so that we may be strengthened in our faiths by seeing the fruits of Christ’s Spirit at work amongst us, and so that we may exhort and aid the Children of God with our kindness and freely-giving generosity – for whoever helps the least of God’s children offers aid to the Lord Himself, and earns themselves riches in Heaven.
But the challenge of these last days is that in modern times the race of man has become so atomised, so divided into individual units with only the most tenuous of weakly gravitations connecting one person to another. So hostile and bizarre is the world of man now that many people have withdrawn into their family units or their small group of friends. Communities, any real communities, are mostly sad ghosts of what was once the natural and colourful coming together of people.
At the same time, and in equal measure, mankind has been transformed increasingly into the Image of the Beast through the social engineering – the mind control – of mass modern media. Transformed, essentially, into worshippers of SELF. Those who are still kind, who still think of their neighbours and others beyond their own SELVES, must wade against the ever-rising flood of narcissistic behaviours and triggered (programmed) emotions.
While the saints of these End Times find themselves even more against the grain of the world than ever before, they also find themselves more separated from each other too, for there are so many less of us than ever before – so many have fallen for strong delusions and vain riches. So many have ignored the invitation of the Lord’s Banquet, and sup instead from the poisonous cup of the Whore.
It is easy to think that because we are not being burned alive or fed to lions that we are not suffering as other saints have suffered. But this would ignore the depths of hell into which the world has fallen, depths which are hidden by the False Light of the media – depths which many saints have already suffered through without witness.
By greed and outright hostility, this world is being slain right under our feet and right over our heads. We are born into a dying world of inverted realities in which our ancestors would recoil in wide-eyed horror and disbelief, would weep aloud just from a glimpse of it – a glimpse, for instance, of those millions of unborn babies slain to Molech every year with their body parts sold for money. Yet because we were born into it, even few of the saints yet fully plumb the depths of the horror inflicted upon all of us, how crippled we are as a people, how bad the situation of the world truly is – for it is all presented to us like the air that we breathe or the stars in the sky.
Never before have the saints had to endure these things which we have to endure now.
Perfect Love
Getting through these times requires understanding these times. Recall how we arm ourselves against the Devil’s devices by being aware of them. Recall how love of truth is essential for escaping the Dragon Flood of lies. With a war ongoing for our hearts and minds, our morale and mental integrity is of greater importance than ever before. And awareness, consciousness, is one of the ways through which Yahweh gifts us with a sound mind. For instance, to fully recognise the madness raging around us is to recognise that we ourselves are not mad, but sane.
Another way that Yahweh gifts us a sound mind is through our fellowship with fellow saints, our brothers and sisters in Christ, in our efforts to aid them as they aid us, and to fortify each other’s faith. We can find great Peace in these things even in the midst of great turmoil.
But ultimately, to get through these times will require us to walk in the Holy Spirit of Truth step-by-step in absolute surrender, even if we likely do not know the aim of an action or where we are going. Through the tougher times we focus even more on each step of faith before us and little more. Each step forwards in the spirit, with our hearts towards God in every moment that we breathe.
It is by losing our lives that we will save them in these days ahead of us. By losing our SELVES – our vain hopes and expectations, our petty needs and desires, our delusions and lies, our busy thoughts – we turn more fully towards God and His will for us, and so can more easily hear in our spirit what He wishes us to do. If you are in difficult circumstances and suffering, and your prayers seem unanswered, then cast what you can upon the Lord, anything you have left of the flesh, of the SELF, find it (become conscious of it) and cast it away to be burned as incense upon the altar. Even your cares for the situation, throw them onto the fire. Lose your life in order to save it. Be SELF-less, act SELF-lessly, crucify your-SELF daily, and eventually you will hear His quiet voice again.
When we give our-SELVES wholly over to God in faith and hope of His promises, we find how the Father provides us with everything that we truly need, whilst removing from us everything which we do not need, everything which we offer to Him wholeheartedly as a sacrifice, even our cares and our fears.
Perfect love is to love God perfectly, to give your-SELF wholly over to God as a living sacrifice. This is where our sanctuary truly lies, with our spirits alive in the Kingdom of God and our flesh dying on the cross of the material world. Only the flesh can be harmed by this world and from the Enemy’s tribulations. In Christ our spirits are held safe from all harm. If you still despair, ask for what remains of your flesh to be burned away from you, cast it away with the cares of the world, and you will become safer and safer in the arms of the Lord until nothing can disturb your lasting Peace but Fear of God.
Perfect Love is the answer to all our difficulties. It is the only answer there is.
Have no hopes remaining for this world. Have no hopes that this world is going to get anything but darker.
Will there be any faith remaining when Christ returns? Yes, but only isolated lights in the overwhelming darkness. Until then we must have faith, and hold on.
The Lure Of Shinar
The following recording, The Lure Of Shinar, was sent from a friend in Christ and I would like to highlight it here on this blog posting for your attention. Please consider my previous words as a preface to what is being spoken here by this particular saint, Brian Klumpenhouwer, recorded at a recent Bible Study with a small Remnant of saints in Canada.
Brian is a long-time reader and supporter of Joseph Herrin’s works and these blog writings. His words here relate to the Loneliness of the Saints. I do strongly urge you to take the time to listen to his reasonings at this hour, for I believe they are for a wider portion of the Remnant to hear.
May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these last days.
Colin Buchanan
Parables.blog — Heart4God — Truthvine.net
A Little Housekeeping
Thank you for your patience with the changes we are making to Joseph Herrin’s websites. A special thank you is due to Tim Moores, who is handling the Heart4God move here to Parables and the large amount of work that this involves.
Really enjoyed this message.thanks Colin and Brian.
I have 6 children and 19 grandchildren and rarely see them or hear from them. It’s definitely due to who you serve. 30 years ago God gave me Joshua 25:15 and I have watched most of them choose the world.
And even in Churches we have rarely found connections. Victoria, Australia. Huge country not many true believers on our journey.
Thank you Tara.
And I am sorry to hear of what you say. The older we become the more acutely we notice the changes in modern times. The alienation. It is something that would horrify our ancestors, yet many now see it as normal.
You mentioned Joshua 25:15 “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
I was lead to read this just the other day.
I am thinking of starting a small forum/message board for the Parables website. A place where saints wherever they may be can leave and reply to messages. It would not be much, but it would be something, in this late hour. It is always good to reach out and talk with each other.