The black hole

“So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief^G570.” (Heb. 3:19).

Unbelief—G570 apistia, faithlessness, that is (negatively) disbelief (want of Christian faith), or (positively) unfaithfulness (disobedience): - unbelief.

Faith—G4102 pistis From G3982; persuasion, that is, credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly constancy in such profession; by extension the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself: - assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, …having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin.” (2Pet. 2:1,14). “Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough.” (Isa. 56:11).

In deep space, a black hole is really a voracious neutron star that has such high density that it sucks in everything in its vicinity; even light cannot escape it. Therefore, we see nothing when we look at a black hole.

Sin, self-indulgence, self-exaltation, once it begins, cannot cease. It is an uncontrollable cancer to the soul, mind, and body. Nothing can stand in its way. It devours everything in its path, like the devouring locusts that live to eat, instead of eating to live. “The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them…. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief…. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.” (Joel 2:3,9,30).

What caused this devouring plague of sin? Loss of love. Separation from the God of love; letting pride fill in the empty place of all-powerful love; refusing to reverence His Law with loving obedience. We desired to be gods, to be sole lords in charge of our life. And then, after having a taste of godship, everyone since born from Adam has been disconnected from the source of power over self, our Creator Father. Every child of Adam has an inbred love of self, and is easily “drawn away of his own lust, and enticed” with temptation. (Jas. 1:14). And after continually blessing us on this fantastic Earth, God asks from a broken heart, “Wherefore say My people, We are lords; we will come no more unto Thee?” (Jer. 2:31).

“So the LORD alone did lead him [Israel], and there was no strange god with him….

Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.

But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” (Deut. 32:12,14,15).

“Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.” (Isa. 59:2-7).

“They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

Their feet are swift to shed blood:

Destruction and misery are in their ways.” (Rom. 3:12-16).

Every one of us has this dreaded condition. “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” (Rom. 7:24, 25).

Nothing short of atonement with God, reconciliation with Him can remove the devouring curse of sin. Without seeing Jesus, so that His Spirit can work in our hearts and minds, we cannot satisfy our gigantic cravings. We have a God-sized hole in our heart and only God can fill it. We have a God-sized vacuum that nothing material can satisfy. Every earthly pleasure that does not involve the Creator only makes the breach bigger. We are all addicts; we strive and eek out some pleasure from a substance, and it only blunts the sensitivity to pleasure, making pleasure harder to have the next time. The substance can be socially accepted or unacceptable. The substance can be a street drug made naturally from a toxic plant or from Drano. It can be a prescribed pharmaceutical, or something over-the-counter. It can be a hard drink or a soft drink. It can be a cigarette or Marijuana. It can even be a naturally derived chemical that the brain produces under abnormal, fanatical religious exercises. Since Eden, and coming to us from the dimmest reaches of prehistory, false religion has been the opiate of the masses. False religion says to God, I will reverence You, but I will not reverence Your laws.

Something must fill the void where our Father should be. And those things are killing us. Even food can kill. Overdose of food? Continued abuse of food does kill. Our stomach and other organs were never meant for abundant intake of food. The beloved father-in-law of a friend of mine died from stomach cancer. She remarked to me with a loving sigh, “He was obese. He so much loved to eat!” But, love for him couldn’t prevent his obesity and death. Was that love?

We have a lack, an emotional deficit, which most play off, pretending that it doesn’t exist. But, the fact of the lack of reconciliation with God is plain to see. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matt. 7:20). We wear our idols in public. We play the part of the king who had no clothes, thinking everyone sees us like we imagine ourselves. Then, some innocent one forgets his proprieties and blurts out the truth about our lifestyle. And we run to hide in shame, or reprimand the messenger.

The false prophets that Peter was writing about pretended to have the perfect peace of heaven. Babel meant, “the gate of the gods.” Nevertheless, their lusts were uncontrollable. They were so miserable that they couldn’t eat enough rich foods. Their obesity was proof of their disconnection from the true God.

“(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)” (Phil. 3:18,19).

The false prophets/teachers couldn’t breathe in enough smoke from a toxic plant. Their sunken cheeks and lifeless eyes were proof of their empty soul. They couldn’t drink enough alcohol. Their red nose was proof of the living death of alcoholism in which they were trapped.

If a solution for this pandemic does not appear, the whole religious community will be caught in a prison from which there is no escape. “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” (Rev. 18:2). In that day, the religious community searching for the illusive peace of God will encompass the world’s masses. “All the world wondered after the beast.” (Rev. 13:3).

The above symptoms don’t happen by accident. “As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.” (Prov. 26:2). Normally we aren’t born obese, a drug addict, or an alcoholic. The condition of sin we are in may be one we partially inherited; but it is also one from which we wouldn’t let God deliver us. Mat 17:20  “Jesus said unto them,... If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?” (Gen. 18:14). He still offers victory to us. “The Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort” (2Cor. 1:3) can free us from every hopeless dungeon. And it all starts with being loved again.

“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” (Heb. 12:15). We are born with a root of bitterness, and due to that bitter root we defile ourselves and everyone around us. Christ was the only one of us who was born without that root of bitterness. He alone was born wholly connected with God. “A body hast Thou prepared Me” (Heb. 10:5), wonderful thought! Yet, even though inheriting a sinless nature, Jesus would not take His divine birth for granted. He actively, purposefully strove to stay connected with His Father, as if He had a sinful nature like those He came to comfort and save. None of us will ever be tempted like Jesus was, as His Father would test His Son in proportion to the exalted state of His Son’s character. No one is exempt from God’s drive to see perfection from His children; even His only begotten divine Son was not exempted. “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered.” (Heb. 5:8).

We must let the Son win our hearts and walk with us as we walk in step with Him. He alone can mediate our deliverance from our gods and idols. No man comes to peace and acceptance with God and to freedom, except through His Son. His life on earth is the veil through which we can come into the Father’s presence. Nothing else avails us of victory over the sin that so easily besets us.

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” (Heb. 12:2-4).

He will get us from earth to heaven. He will boost us up to Mount Zion to stand in God’s presence. No one has to pick himself up by his bootstraps. But, we do have a work to do. We must prepare the way for our King. We must flee our idols. The world of idolatry is the great siphon that robs God’s people of desire for the holy One. Everything that disdains holiness is to be disdained. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” (Prov. 9:10). “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.” (Prov. 6:20-22).

Everything and everyone associated with temptation must be avoided. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” (Isa. 59:19). “The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.” (Isa. 17:13). “Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.” (Isa. 30:22).

It’s time to prepare for the Latter Rain of the Spirit of God.

“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway^H4546 for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” (Isa. 40:3-5).

H4546 mesillâh - causeway

The “King’s highway” ran from Egypt through Israel northward along the coast. It was wide enough to support Pharaoh and his entourage or an enemy army. It could have conveyed the millions of children of Israel delivered from Egypt.

“And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand.” (Ex. 14:8).

In the Latter Rain, this spiritual highway will carry the 144,000 and a great multitude which no man can number, when the people of the Lord will one day finally decide to give up feeding off of the empty self-indulgence offered by this world. He will bring them out of this Babylonian slavery with a high hand. Surrender to obedience to the laws of God will give new life to God’s people.

“Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.” (Heb. 12:12).

“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.” (Isa. 35:3).

 “I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.” (1Tim. 2:8).

They will serve the holy God alone, as He revealed Himself in the writings of Ellen White. We will be resting in our new liberty from the Spirit of the Father and Son, even unmindful of the surrounding dangers, as Israel went out with a high hand when they were freed from their slavery.

If Jesus is with us, even a wilderness is a banquet. With Jesus talking to us, we have no more appetite for our old idols. With Jesus’ righteousness in plain view, we see the idols’ foolishness, and forsake them.

“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

The beast of the field shall honour Me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen.” (Isa. 43:19,20).

“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.

Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; He will come and save you.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” (Isa. 35:1-8).

“And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.” (Isa. 11:15,16).

“Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” (Job 28:28). “The knowledge of the holy is understanding.” (Prov. 9:10). Let’s make for ourselves straight paths by ridding ourselves of everything that keeps us from doing things together with Jesus and spending time together with Him, listening to Him and talking to Him. And Jesus will more than compensate our troubles to get to Him. He will come to us and make rivers in our wilderness. We can hide His Law in our hearts; but He must make His Law take root deeply into our love by the water of His Spirit. Then, victory over sin commences.

“He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to Him…. If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father’s which sent Me.” (John 14:21,23,24).

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.…

If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples.

As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love.

If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” (John 15:4,5,7-10).

We will have the Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit and turn our desert into a Garden of Eden.

“Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month…. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and My people shall never be ashamed. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit.” (Joel 2:23,27-29).

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you.” (Acts 3:19,20).

It’s time for a reformation and revival. Let’s make a covenant with Jesus to begin to get up to speed with the will of God.

O Jesus I have promised
O Jesus, I have promised
To serve Thee to the end;
Be Thou for ever near me,
My Master and my Friend:
I shall not fear the battle
If Thou art by my side,
Nor wander from the pathway
If Thou wilt be my guide.

O let me feel Thee near me:
The world is ever near;
I see the sights that dazzle,
The tempting sounds I hear;
My foes are ever near me,
Around me and within;
But, Jesus, draw Thou nearer,
And shield my soul from sin.

O let me hear Thee speaking
In accents clear and still,
Above the storms of passion,
The murmurs of self-will;
O speak to reassure me,
To hasten or control;
O speak, and make me listen,
Thou guardian of my soul.

O Jesus, Thou hast promised
To all who follow Thee,
That where Thou art in glory
There shall Thy servant be;
And, Jesus, I have promised
To serve Thee to the end:
O give me grace to follow,
My Master and my Friend