Under the Blood

April 22

"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

"Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.

"Utterly amazed, they asked: 'Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!' Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, 'What does this mean?'

"Some, however, made fun of them and said, 'They have had too much wine.'Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: 'Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'” (See Acts 2:1-13)

Are we living in “the Last Days”? Some people, believers in Christ and non-believers, are sure that we are. The violence, the cataclysmic events that seem to be escalating at a rapid pace are, they say, sure signs of the wrath of God that will soon swallow man and his sin into oblivion.

Others say man has always been violent. They point to the Romans and their horrific imposition of their will upon subjected peoples. They point also to the Huns and to the Muslims who have left a stain of blood upon their page of history. Christians are faulted for their treatment of the Jews as well as for the Crusades which were waged to claim the Holy Sites, where Christ lived and healed and died and rose, for Christian control.

People of the religions of the world have proven again and again that even men of faith in a great Being fall short. It is as Jesus said, "There is none good; no not one," Romans 3:10.

On the other hand, some believe that earthquakes and tsunamis and natural weather cataclysms are cyclical; that there is nothing happening today that hasn’t occurred many times over on our volatile planet. Indeed, many believe that the earth as it is today, rather than being spoken into existence by the Word of God (see Genesis, chapters 1 and 2 and Psalm 33:9) was formed out of significant violent upheaval.

If the evil of the day, both natural and human-generated seems worse, it’s because the news travels with such rapidity. Or is it? The reality is that no matter how the end of days occurs, no matter when it happens, there is a final day coming for each of us. Are we prepared to meet it? Are we prepared to see our Maker face-to-face?

There is one and only one way to be able to stand justified before our Holy God and that is under the blood of Jesus. May we place ourselves under that cleansing flood so that no matter whether He rends the heavens when His foot shall stand again on the Mount of Olives (see Job 19:25, Zechariah 14:4 and Acts 1:11) and He raptures us to Himself, or whether He taps our shoulder and takes us home individually, we will be found in His presence ever-more.