Shaken.htm

Shaken

The covenant God made with man is an unshakable foundation that stabilizes your life. About his word God says, The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. Our hope and future are based on our beliefs that God, Jesus Christ and His kingdom shall stand forever.

For the average person life goes on with little concern about death. Preparing for the eventuality of death has a low priority because we seem to be geared to live and not perish as all life does on earth. None the less, one day will come in the near future when everything we can see, smell, or touch will be come to an end.

God controls the environment of earth and the things that man can not tame such as the path of the clouds and where it rains. When it hails, don’t men seek shelter like other living things of instinct? What stops the average man from swimming more than a hundred yards from the shoreline? What prevents man from going to the moon or walking on air? As long as people have lived the earth, the sun rises in the east, day and night and the seasons of Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, has continued year after year. When men can change the flow of time and the environmental effect on man that God created they can break the covenant God made with man.

From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. Isaiah 46:11

I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Matthew 5:18-19

God has a plan with a favorable conclusion that no one can prevent and it is revealed in the following passages.

The Lord works out everything for his own ends - even the wicked for a day of disaster. Proverbs 16:4

How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed. Revelation 6:10-11

God has a number in mind. Those slain because of their testimony wanted to know the same things we want to know such as when God was going to return and what he has promised to do for the saints. Everyone has the question - How long? How much longer must we endure this world? When are you coming? When will all this be over and we can live in a perfect world? These are things almost every Christian asks during his walk with Christ. For those slain over the testimony of their relationship to Christ the answer was simple. When the number of those slain for the gospel is reached then God will shake heaven and earth to gather his elect.

Will God shake heaven and earth like a salt shaker to sift the salt of the earth from the world?

The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls - never to rise again. In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below. They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days. Isaiah 24:18-22

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. Isaiah 13:13

All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree. Isaiah 34:4

The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Revelation 6:12-14

What is common in the verses above is an earth shaken event that will occur in when God decides to judge the inhabitants of the earth. Shaking brings about a specific and desired condition. By shaking you can either mix a blend of components of separate one thing from another.

"They will be mine," says the Lord Almighty, "in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not. Malachi 3:17-18

Is there such a thing as a sieve of morality that all Christians are sifted through that God may refine men into holy beings? Like flour that can be sifted to separate the ground flour from the lumps, God is going to separate those who serve God from those who do not.

The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 13:47-50

God has spoken of a sorting of men when he returns to separate the good from the bad. Will God come in the manner that Christians expect him to come? Will ecstasy be an emotion that we experience on the day God comes to be glorified in his people?

Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. "Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 1 Kings 19:11-12

God can do more than we think or imagine possible. God’s presence will be horribly intimidating to the wicked because they know only a part of what God has planned for those who refuse to accept him as their Lord. Instead they will attempt to hide from his wrath calling for the mountains and rocks to cover them. People who do not serve God will tremble so much that they will not be able to stand before the Lord.

Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper. But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant, the Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire. Isaiah 29:4-6

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" Revelation 6:15-17

They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end. Psalms 102:26-27

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives. 2 Peter 3:10-12

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; nd the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. Isaiah 13:13

Christians have been taught that there will be no more sin, no more death, no more tears, no more crying, no more grief, no more pain and no more suffering such as we faced on our time on earth. Christians wait for the day when God will wipe away all of our tears. God’s people will bask in God’s love, grace and redemption acting like a calf released from its stall. They will sing a new song to the Lord and begin an eternal life in glory. Christians have the idea that the coming of the Lord will be glorious, and ecstatic because of what Christians have been taught about his coming.

"This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the Lord Almighty. 'The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' declares the Lord Almighty. 'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the Lord Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the Lord Almighty." Haggai 2:6-9

The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken - that is, created things - so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, Hebrews 12:27-28

In the verse above, God refers to the things created which I have come to believe are men. In our pilgrimage on earth we have the choice to know God and his Son that he sent to save us from our sinful nature. Christians have accepted Jesus Christ into their lives and have become citizens of the kingdom of God through a choice made by God. We also find that to satisfy God’s desire to build a kingdom of kings and priests that are holy and acceptable to God, we have to change. Regardless of your professional career, there is more to accomplishing the final result than meets the eye. Christians represent the things that can not be shaken and those things that remain.

In your pilgrimage, have you found that there is more to being a Christian than meets the eye? Do you know what pleases God and then do the things to please God? In review of the things that will happen during the coming of the Lord I found that there is more involved than being snatched by God’s angel and being taken to meet God in the air. The latter part of the verse above talks about being thankful and worshipping God in an acceptable manner. Do we have the reverence and awe of God that he wants?

Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:10-11

Thank God, his coming will be as the days of Noah when Noah’s family and the animals destined to be saved had entered the ark. The door was closed and the rain began to fall. When Lot and his two daughters reached Zoar, fire and brimstone fell on Sodom and Gomorra. When God’s elect were in a place of safety God’s judgment suddenly fell upon the wicked.

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