Echoes From the Campfire

[Don Adkisson]

     “But to think and brood and grieve would be fatal. Let him watch and listen. Nothing in that wilderness was trivial.”
                    --Zane Grey  (Stranger From the Tonto)

       "Give ear and hear my voice, listen and hear my speech."

                    --Isaiah 28:23 (NKJV)
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Are we hearing?  Are we to the point where we are unable to hear?  For many, the ears have grown callused; they are hardened against the Word of God.  Read the letters to the churches in Revelation.  Look at what the Lord says at the end of each letter:  "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
       I hear the cry for revival among some circles, but then I look at other areas and I see the church compromising and being complacent with sin.  A preacher, with some common sense, has said, “Evil preaches tolerance until it is dominant, then it tries to silence good.”  Do you hear the voice of evil, or do you hear the voice of the Spirit?  Are you hard of hearing, or do you hear clearly the Holy Spirit speaking?  It cannot be both.  You cannot be of the world and of the Kingdom.  Let me pass on to you the words of Micah and Nahum.

          "You who hate good and love evil; who strip the skin from My people, and the flesh from their bones....  Then they will cry to the LORD, but He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, because they have been evil in their deeds.  Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who make my people stray; who chant 'Peace' while they chew with their teeth, but who prepare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths:  therefore you shall have night without vision, and you shall have darkness without divination; the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them."
                       --Micah 3:2, 4-6 (NKJV)

          "I will cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle."
                      --Nahum 3:6 (NKJV)

     Do I hear the voice of the prophet, of the preacher?  Where is the cry from behind the pulpit?  Yes, there are those who preach faithfully the Word.  Yes, there are those who are listening to the voice of the Spirit.  But as a nation...as a nation, whose voice is being heard?  We are living in a time where "everyone did what was right in his own eyes," (Judges 21:10, NKJV) and forsaking the Word of God.  Listen, the precepts, principles, and promises of God are forever, they are absolute, and they are not to be scorned or mocked.
     I believe we are living in the beginning of a time of judgment.  It has not fallen because of the faithful.  I recall the story of Abraham interceding for the people of Sodom, but there will come a time when evil overcomes the faithful.  The cry of evil will be louder, the people will hear and listen to it rather than the voice of the Spirit.  Now is the day of salvation!  People want something new so they are turning to the old ways of evil with a new name--Progressive...Woke.  Read the Bible, often we see that the "silence of God was the judgment of God." (Wiersbe)  Woe unto us when God no longer speaks.
     "Speak my Lord, speak, and I'll be quick to answer Thee..." (George Bennard)  "Behold, I am coming quickly!  Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown....  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Revelation 3:11,13, NKJV)

     D.C. Adkisson