A fascinating piece appeared in The Wall Street Journal concerning the skill levels of new hires. Or, rather, the lack of skills, even in fields such as engineering.

Firms are taking in new graduates only to discover that while they might know much, they can’t actually do anything, not even basic things that every engineer is supposed to know. The reason is that most of these kids have only done Zoom classes. They have no practical experience.

Think of this. The freshman class of 2020 got hit with virus mania in the spring, and in-person classes ended. Their sophomore year was awful, just staring at a screen. When they came back, if they did, they had to wear masks and get jabbed and jabbed again. Their junior year was more of the same nonsense, with off-and-on classes but seriously truncated experiences. Then they graduated.

So much for college. So much for the six figures of debt they accumulated in these years. And so much for learning by doing.

It all serves as a reminder. Skills come from what we do, including screw-ups, failures, adaptations, and gradually getting better at something, anything, whatever it is. Without hands-on experience, the only skill you learn is rote memorization and gaming the system. To be sure, today’s college graduates are very good at that, but their skills are severely lacking in many practical areas of life.

What are young people prepared for? Maybe a Zoom job pretending to work in a management position—exactly the sort that’s vanishing as major corporations are desperately cutting labor costs by purging management of its outrageous excesses. It goes on daily. When CVS announced huge layoffs, it made it clear that there would be no losses among the people who are “customer facing.” Those people remain in huge demand.

But how many of today’s college graduates are even prepared to stand behind a checkout counter and speak coherently to people, much less handle money or deal with scanning codes and the like? Not many.

I’m sure you have noticed this in general since the onset of the digital age, when everyone was tempted by the idea that we would migrate to the cloud and dispense with the burdens of physical reality. It turns out to be one of the greatest lies ever told. The costs are huge.

Real skills are what make the world work. We’ve got an entire generation, or maybe two, that simply lacks skills we once took for granted.

Let’s just consider one example: ironing clothes. It so happens that I’m a real expert in this skill, at least as compared with most other people I know. This is because I worked in clothing stores for years and learned under real experts. I developed the skill myself and now do all that’s involved without thinking about it.

But, yesterday, I was ironing a white cotton shirt and began to think through all that could go wrong but didn’t go wrong. There are so many variables. Steam or not? Starch and, if so, how much? What’s the right temperature setting? How does one know if the fabric is getting too hot and on the verge of being scorched?

Should the sleeve have a crease? And what of the cuffs? And do both sides need to be ironed or only one? What’s the best way to navigate around buttons without accidentally popping them off? How can a collar be positioned on the ironing board in a way that’s most effective and efficient? How long should ironing a shirt take—5 minutes or 25 minutes—and what’s the reasonable expectation?

It might all seem easy by description, but it simply isn’t. I’ve spent years screwing up every aspect of this process. I’ve scorched collars, broken buttons, creased cuffs, and clumped up the starch. My skills improved gradually over time by virtue of making errors. And this is with only one type of clothing. Taking on a wool suit introduces a full range of other problems.

Honestly, I can’t think of anyone I know under the age of 30 who knows how to do any of this. As a result, most people don’t iron at all. They just mill around with rumpled clothing or only wear stuff that requires no ironing at all. The skill itself has experienced a cultural atrophy, so far as I can tell.

But that’s just the beginning of it. Real expertise takes years and stakes that are much higher. Engineering is an obvious case, but there are less obvious ones. There’s a butcher in town of whom I’m in complete awe. He runs a bone-cutting machine that’s the meanest and most potentially vicious thing I’ve ever seen. Someone will order a rack of ribs, and he grabs a big carcass from the refrigerator. He throws it on the machine and shoves it this way and that, moving the bones and meat with incredible expertise.

I watch him because it’s at once terrifying and wildly impressive. It seems like he’s hardly paying attention and moves like lightning through all meats: chickens, goats, lambs, or anything. It’s awesome. And consider: one wrong move, and he would be missing a finger, a hand, or an arm. Just observing his work makes one’s heart race. It’s utterly beautiful.

You think you’ll never need this skill because others have them. Fine. But real skills are needed in everyday life. Cooking is an example. Just making a burger in a skillet isn’t as easy as people think. You have to know how to shape the meat, and it depends on how lean the mince is because that determines how it will respond to the heat.

You need to know how hot the skillet should be. You need to know when to deglaze the pan so that the sugars in the fat will adhere to the meat and become more delicious. You need to know when to take the burger out of the pan with knowledge that it will continue to cook as it cools.

None of this knowledge comes from ebooks or screens. It’s simply not possible to learn to cook this way. Even recipe books are of limited value. You can’t just follow a list of ingredients and cause a dish to magically appear.

For years, I baked bread. I started in college to use the resulting loaves as a tool in bartering for services. I did this because I was poor. It mostly worked. More importantly, I gained a life skill. Perhaps, I followed a recipe early on but gave it up quickly. I haven’t looked at a recipe in many years. I’ve taught others to bake bread, but only by showing and doing. It isn’t possible to learn how to knead dough by reading about it. It’s something that one has to do.

The loss of skills is having a profound effect on our lives. Sales of older homes are taking a dramatic dive simply because there are no workers available to do the necessary repairs. The few people out there who know plaster repair, wiring, or roofing are too expensive, and the wait is too long. Instead, people are buying new or just renting.

It’s true in car repair, too, which is why you have to wait a week or longer to get even the simplest task done. The loss of skills is even affecting the vaunted transition to green energy. If there aren’t enough engineers who can do things, it simply can’t happen.

And, yet, the economic transition away from bloated management structures back to doing actual work is happening very quickly, leaving an entire generation raised on TikTok and Zoom at a loss. We somehow managed to rob millions of the ability to be useful to others. This is true regardless of how many degrees they carry.

From 2020 to the present, people without actual medical skills, but rather only theories plus force, took over public health in most parts of the world. Look at the mess they made! This is what happens when abstract knowledge overrides real experience. You can destroy the world this way.

How to repair the problem? Start small. Iron a shirt. Make a hamburger. Clean a bathroom. It doesn’t matter what it is precisely. Just be useful, and see just how hard it truly is.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Watchman Research Media

Copyright © 2023 Jeffrey A. Tucker Author

Isaiah prophesied that a king would come who would reign like no other. Details of his reign are given: his birth; his ministry in ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’; his lineage, from the line of Jesse; his anointing to do God’s work. Anyone who doubts the validity of Christ’s claim to kingship needs to look back to the accuracy of Isaiah’s predictions.

For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from the [latter] time forth, even forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:6-7).

Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God with us) Isaiah 7:14).

In scripture we find the word “Mashiah” which means “anointed one”. The term was applied to the High Priest (Leviticus 4:23); the King (2 Sam 1:14) and also prophets of God (Psalms 105:15). It speaks of these men being set apart by God for God, and with the power of God helping them. However, at a later date we find Daniel predicting that after the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem which was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, a period of time would pass after which the Messiah (meaning Anointed one) would come (Daniel 9:25).

In this prophecy he uses the word “Messiah” as a title. This caused the Jews to speak freely of the one to come as The ‘Messiah’. Scripture reveals that the one to come will be the supreme Anointed One. He will be the one who fulfills the offices of prophet, priest and king, which were only shadows that pointed to Him.

Biblical prophecy (including Messianic prophecy) is unique amongst all the religious books of the world. It covers a vast period of time and includes all the nations involved in the history of Israel. The prophecies reveal God as the only God of history.

He is the Master of all events and can work through both good and bad to bring about His purposes. One example of this perfect mastery of all events is seen in Micah’s prophecy foretelling the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. Micah went on to say that the King is going to come from the little village of Bethlehem:

But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you are little to be among the clans of Judah; yet out of you shall One come forth for Me Who is to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth (origins) have been from of old, from ancient days (eternity) (Micah 5:2).

Beth means ‘house’ and lehem means ‘bread’, so the name literally means ‘house of bread’. It was this little village that supplied corn to Jerusalem, as well as lambs for sacrifice. The above prophecy refers to Christ is seen from Matthew 2:1

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men astrologers from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, Where is He Who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east at its rising and have come to worship Him.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Herod conferred with Jewish hierarchy about their prophecies to ascertain Bethlehem from Micah 5:2.  The Jews and wise men would have been familiar with Daniel’s prophecy (9:25-26) and known the timing was upon them for the Messiah.

That it Might be Fulfilled

Matthew refers to the Old Testament more than any of the other Gospels. One of his favorite sayings is ‘that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets’. This is seen in particular in Matthew’s birth narrative.

He takes a long time explaining why Jesus was born in Bethlehem–because the prophets had predicted that Bethlehem of Judaea would be the birthplace of the king. During the time of the Roman Empire, several special taxations were ordered. Under the rule of Caesar Augustus one of these taxations was levied for years before the birth of Jesus. The Jewish people protested against this order, yet were overruled. However this delayed the enforcement of this taxation order for four years, bringing us to the time of Jesus’ birth.

Under the order Joseph and Mary were required to be present in Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-7) and so prophecy was fulfilled. Mary and Joseph later returned to Nazareth, thus fulfilling Messianic prophecy that stated the Messiah would be called a Nazarene (Matthew 2:23).

Yet this would be crucially important for Jews wondering if this was the Messiah God had promised long ago. “Behold, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel—which, when translated, means, God with us (Matthew 1:23).

Matthew is keen for readers to understand that the prophets spoke of the birth to a virgin, the slaughter of the innocents, the flight into Egypt and the return to Galilee. The phrase ‘that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets’ occurs 13 times in the story of Jesus’ birth, where Matthew quotes Micah, Hosea, Jeremiah and Isaiah.

From the very beginning, Matthew focuses his readers’ attention on Christ’s ancestry in the royal line of David, describing how his birth fulfils prophecy and has the marks of God’s involvement, heralded by archangels and welcomed by an angelic choir. While Luke includes the shepherds, it is Matthew who records the worship of the child by wise men from the east.

The Wise Men

Most people are familiar with the Wise Men who followed a star to Bethlehem. Whilst they have been commonly regarded as Gentiles, it is more likely that they were descendants of the Jews who had been left behind in Babylon after the Exile.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen, from David to the Babylonian exile (deportation) fourteen generations, from the Babylonian exile to the Christ fourteen generations (Matthew 1:17).

They had remembered the prophecy of Balaam that a star would arise out of Israel to be the King of the Nations. I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but He is not near. A Star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall crush all the corners of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth…. (Numbers 24:17).  So when the wise men or astrologers from the east saw His star in the east they followed it. Their presence in Matthew’s birth account says much about the importance of Christ’s incarnation.

It is interesting that there will be signs in the sky because the sky responds to significant events on earth. This doesn’t mean that when Wise Men followed the star, it proves astrology is all right. Astrology believes that the position of the stars influences a baby at the moment of birth, but at Bethlehem, it was the position of the baby that influenced the stars!

The Beloved Physician Luke

Luke was a doctor by profession – the apostle Paul refers to him as ‘the beloved physician’ when writing to the Colossian church. Because of his medical background, he was able to bring his considerable skill as a writer and physician to search out diligently and follow all things closely and traced accurately the course from the highest to minutest detail and record what actually took place, even when it was outside medical knowledge or ability.

The birth of Jesus, for example, is told from Mary’s angle. She made her life available to Jesus Christ and she was willing to trust God’s plan for her life. Here was a young girl around 13-14 years old, who is approached by an angel, and he tells her that she is found grace with God and she will become pregnant and will birth to a Messiah she will call His name Jesus (see Luke 1:30-32).

Here again, Matthew’s birth narrative says:

And her promised husband Joseph, being a just and upright man and not willing to expose her publicly and to shame and disgrace her, decided to repudiate and dismiss (divorce) her quietly and secretly. But as he was thinking this over, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of (from, out of) the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus (the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua), which means Savior, for He will save His people from their sins that is, prevent them from failing and missing the true end and scope of life, which is God (Matthew 1:19-21).

In first-century society, this would be a total disgrace! That’s why Joseph had decided to divorce her quietly and secretly. And yet, Mary basically says, Here am I. Do with me as you please.” Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done according to what you have said (Luke 1:38).

Many times, we wonder what the will of God is for our lives. Let me suggest that you simply say, “Lord, I am willing to obey, even though I don’t completely understand what it is that You’re asking me to do.” That is what Mary did. She didn’t fully understand what the angel Gabriel was telling her, but she obeyed just the same. She took a leap of faith. This is the attitude God looks for in His servants: childlike faith and obedience.

Luke also gives further details of the virgin birth, Jesus’ circumcision, and mentions the swaddling clothes or diapers – all the kind of things a doctor would be interested in. Some doctors are sceptical about anything which is outside the natural, physical realm, but God used a doctor to report the supernatural!

Medicine had been developing for 400 years and doctors received careful training. Luke needed to be observant, analytical and careful in his records – skills which he also uses in giving intimate details of the conception and delivery of Jesus Christ.

And this will be a sign for you by which you will recognize Him: you will find (after searching) a Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (Luke 2:12-13).

Luke also records the involvement of the shepherds in witnessing and broadcasting news of the birth of Jesus. He records that Mary and Joseph brought pigeons to the temple for sacrifice at the birth of Jesus. This was the cheapest possible sacrifice allowed under Levitical law (see Leviticus 12:1-4).

And when the time for their purification the mother’s purification and the Baby’s dedication came according to the Law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord—As it is written in the Law of the Lord, Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be set apart and dedicated and called holy to the Lord (Luke 2:22-23; see also Exodus 13: 1-2, 12; Numbers 8:17).

The greatest miracle that has ever taken place happened when our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, left His throne in glory and choose to born in a cave in Bethlehem. He could have been born in the most elegant palace on this planet, but instead He was born in a stable in Bethlehem which was cold and damp.

He could have had aristocratic parents who boasted of their status. He could have heard the finest clothes from the most exclusive shops. But He had none of that. Instead, Jesus chose to humble Himself and became poor that through His poverty we might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Our Savior did not come as a Monarch draped in gold and silk, but as baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.  He went from the glory of God to a stable filled with animals. Someone has said that history swings on the hinge of the door of a stable in Bethlehem. Jesus took His place in a manger so that we might have a home in Heaven.

As you enjoy your Christmas today with your loved ones, take time to contemplate what Christmas is really about. It was the day Christ Jesus came into the world to bring us salvation, the most wonderful gift anyone could ever have-and it’s completely free!

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He even gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him (John 3:16-17 AMP).

The most wonderful and most powerful miracle opened the way for the miracle of rebirth –when you are “born again” When you are “born again”- your whole life changes because, just as Jesus came into the world, he comes into our hearts. He came not to condemn us, but to save us from eternal damnation.

Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!

God created a special sinless blood in a very special and involved manner. 800 years before Christ, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah predicted that: Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God with us) (Isaiah 7:14 AMP).

In the Old Testament, the rules provided for a Jewish lady after giving birth to a son or a daughter was:

When the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb a year old for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering to the door of the Tent of Meeting to the priest; and he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who has borne a male or a female child (Leviticus 12:6-7).

Did Mary observe this law as required in the Old Testament? The Gospel of Luke tells us that she fulfilled this law:

Then it was time for their purification offering, as required by the law of Moses after the birth of a child; so his parents took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. The law of the Lord says, “If a woman’s first child is a boy, he must be dedicated to the LORD.”So they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord—“either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” (Luke 2:22-24).

The Blood of Jesus Christ saved Mary just as it saves all those who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The medical profession tells us that the mother’s blood does not pass the placenta, therefore had Mary’s sinful blood flowed in Jesus’ veins there would be no salvation. She is described as a chosen human vessel to incubate God’s Son and bring Him into the world.

Jesus, Himself prophetically tells us that: Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired, but instead You have made ready a body for Me…… Behold, here I am, coming to do Your will, O God—to fulfil what is written of Me in the volume of the Book (Hebrews 10:5-7).

The life principle which flowed in the veins of this Child was sinless blood; it was human blood as the life of heaven is not blood but the spirit; His DNA was made up of earthly chromosomes from his earthly mother and perfectly created chromosomes from His heavenly Father. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ was fully human and yet fully divine.

Throughout His life, He showed us both sides of His deity. The human side of Him was subject to temptation, remember temptation is not sin. For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning (Hebrew 4:15). The Bible also tells us he learned obedience through His sufferings:

In the days of His flesh Jesus offered up definite, special petitions for that which He not only wanted but needed and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him Who was always able to save Him out from death, and He was heard because of His reverence toward God His godly fear, His piety, in that He shrank from the horrors of separation from the bright presence of the Father. Although He was a Son, He learned active, special obedience through what He suffered (Hebrews 5:7-8 AMP).

Jesus’ Family Misunderstood and Doubted Him

When Jesus was young, Joseph and Mary must have given Him similar treatment to that which they gave to their six or more children. Probably when Mary called the children for dinner, she called their names-Yeshua, James, Simon, Joses, Jude, Judas, and Salome to come for dinner.

The Bible tells us when Jesus grew, He became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him. His parents went to Jerusalem every year to the Passover Feast. When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual. After the celebration was over, they went home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t miss him at first, because they assumed he was among the other travellers.

But when he didn’t show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they couldn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there. Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. His parents didn’t know what to think. “Son,” his mother said to him, “why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere (Luke 2:45-52).

Now when his parents were looking for Him, He didn’t even offer an apology. When a Jewish boy reaches 12 years of age he is able to perform a “Bar Mitzvah.” From that time on he is considered a man. At this age, he becomes responsible for his own choices or behaviour. He’s reached an age of accountability.

Up to the age of 12, the parents are punished when a boy does something wrong, but from then on he is responsible for his own choices and for keeping God’s commandments. This sheds further light on the reply Jesus made when Mary found him in the temple. He actually said: But why did you need to search?” He asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they didn’t understand what He meant.

Amazingly when they returned to Nazareth, he was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart. The story reveals that Yeshua knew who He really was, even at the age of 12, but Mary had never told Him who He was. In fact, the Bible doesn’t record Jesus calling Mary “mother.” It seems that Jesus almost dissociated Himself from His mother until the cross.

An example was when a wedding was held at Cana in Galilee. Jesus was there with Mary and His disciples. They ran out of wine and Mary went to Jesus and said: They have no more wine.”Jesus said to her, Dear woman, what is that to you and to Me? What do we have in common? Leave it to Me. My time (hour to act) has not yet come (John 2: 3-4 AMP).

At another time, Jesus is speaking at a public meeting when He is told His mother and brethren were outside, apparently wishing to talk to Him. But He replied: Who is My mother, and who are My brothers? And stretching out His hand toward [not only the twelve disciples but all His adherents, He said, Here are My mother and My brothers. For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother! (Mathew 12-46-50)

One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again. Soon He and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat. When His family heard what was happening, they tried to Him away saying, “He is out of His mind” (Mark 3: 20).

As Jesus was teaching about the unclean spirits as recorded in the Gospel of Luke chapter 11, a certain woman in the crowd took the opportunity to express her thanks to Mary who brought Jesus into the world. She raised her voice and said to Him, Blessed (happy and to be envied) is the womb that bore You and the breasts that You sucked! But He said, Blessed (happy and to be envied) rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey and practice it! (Luke 11:27).

When a person moves into a born-again relationship with Jesus, fellow believers (including relatives) often become closer to them than to non-born-again relatives. The Bible tells us that His immediate family didn’t know what to make of Him because they did not believe in Him either:

After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He wanted to stay out of Judea, where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death. But soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!” For even his brothers didn’t believe in him. Jesus replied, “Now is not the right time for me to go, but you can go anytime. The world can’t hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of doing evil. You go on. I’m not going to this festival, because my time has not yet come.” After saying these things, Jesus remained in Galilee (John 7:1-9).

Imagine living with someone for 30 years and they suddenly go around saying they are the Messiah who the prophets wrote about, what would you think of that person if his identity is not revealed to you? It can’t be easy and we shouldn’t blame them. After all, even His disciples, some of whom were possibly His cousins deserted Him on the eve of the Crucifixion. When the real clash came with the powers of darkness, we saw every one of the disciples fail in that hour-in spite of all their surrenders, their vows, and their devotion to their Master.

When Jesus was dying on the cross and shedding His blood on the cross for His mother Mary and others who will put their faith and trust in Him, He saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing near, said to His mother, Dear woman, See, here is your son! Then He said to the disciple, See, here is your mother! And from that hour, the disciple took her into his keeping, (own home) (John 19:26-27).

As Jesus’ earthly brothers didn’t believe in Him, He handed Mary His mother over to John his beloved disciple. But despite this unbelief and disdain, two of His brothers James and Jude became one of the writers of the New Testament.

It is recorded that when Jesus died on the cross, his brother James was so deeply upset and full of regret about what he had said about Him and how he had teased Him that he said he would never eat food again. He would have fasted until he died, except that three days later Jesus appeared to His disciples and James personally. From that moment on, James called himself a bond slave of Jesus Christ.

Mary Was Chosen by God

Apart from Mary being mentioned as one of those who were at the prayer meeting before the Day of Pentecost; that is the last we hear of Mary in the Gospels. You never hear her name again. She prophesied that all generations would call her blessed but not “virgin” Mary because she had other children with Joseph after Jesus. He was the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us. They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him (see Mark 6:3).

Mary was chosen by God as the woman who would bring Yeshua into the world to fulfill His divine mission of salvation for all humanity. The angel said to her that she would become pregnant after the Holy Spirit came upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her like a shining crowd; and so the holy (pure, sinless) Thing (Offspring) which shall be born of you will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:30-33). Mary believed these words and acknowledged her role when she cried out with a loud cry, and then exclaimed:

My soul magnifies and extols the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked upon the low station and humiliation of His handmaiden. For behold, from now on all generations of all ages will call me blessed and declare me happy and to be envied! For He Who is almighty has done great things for me—and holy is His name to be venerated in His purity, majesty and glory!

And His mercy (His compassion and kindness toward the miserable and afflicted) is on those who fear Him with godly reverence, from generation to generation and age to age. He has shown strength and made might with His arm; He has scattered the proud and haughty in and by the imagination and purpose and designs of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree.

He has filled and satisfied the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty-handed without a gift. He has laid hold on His servant Israel to help him, to espouse his cause, in remembrance of His mercy, even as He promised to our forefathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever (Luke 1:44-55 AMP).

In her book Treasures in Dark Places, Leanna Cinquanta shares a powerful, haunting story of an encounter she had with Jesus Christ. It’s worth recounting here because she came face to face with the suffering Messiah so clearly revealed to us in the prophecy of the suffering servant described in Isaiah 53:

Face-to-Face A new year had begun—1986. March arrived, attended by melting snow and warmer breezes after six months of Minnesota deep freeze. Cocky as ever, I aimed to enjoy another summer of mischief and pushing limits. But my plans were about to be invaded. The downstairs of our bi-level apartment behind the airplane shop consisted of kitchen, living room and Mom and Dad’s bedroom.

Upstairs were two rooms. Mom’s sewing machine and my art materials occupied one. The other, situated nearest the stairwell, served as my bedroom. In my room a narrow walkway separated my bed from a cot where my friends slept when they stayed overnight. The night of March 27 began like every other.

After an uneventful day at school, I had pitched my backpack on the couch, grabbed a cookie and made a beeline for the barn to ride my horse. After supper, I burned through my homework then studied horsemanship books till bedtime. Around five o’clock in the morning I awoke. Premature rays of light filtering through the window sufficed to reveal slightly more than shadows in the room. Teenagers love to sleep late, but the responsibility of feeding the horses had molded into me a habit of rising at 7 a.m. Nevertheless, 5 a.m. was too early.

Turning over on my back, I stared indignantly at the ceiling. Sleep had departed for good. Two long hours of tossing and turning lay ahead. Prone to the typical teenaged negativism when life didn’t cater to my wishes, I breathed a swear word and muttered, “This sucks. Why did I wake up so early?” “THERE’S SOMEONE IN THE GUEST BED.”

A voice had spoken out of the darkness! An audible voice! “Who is in my room?” A man’s voice? Oh my gosh! Someone had gotten into my room! Terror shrieked through my bones, immobilizing me, freezing my heart. No, I was not dreaming! A moment earlier I might have still been drowsy, but now I was fully and widely awake. I flipped over onto my stomach, and my saucer-wide eyes strained into the blackness—the far corner of the room from whence the voice emanated. No figure. No movement.

But it was so dark, anyone could be there. Anything. Would someone—or something—emerge from the shadows? I waited, fists knotted with the blankets, my heart not daring to beat. When nothing moved or appeared, the words I had heard began to register. . . . The voice had informed me, “There’s someone in the guest bed.” Almost too frightened to look, I found my eyes turning toward the bed barely a foot removed from mine. What I saw injected a shot of adrenaline. Before I could think, I was cowering back against the wall ready to scream.

There was a hump under the blankets! My heart jackhammered in my throat. A thousand terrors tumbled over themselves as I realized again . . . This is not a dream! This is real! Questions swirled. Who is in my room? How did a strange person sneak into our house? Did we forget to lock the door? What might this person do to me? The figure lay motionless, as if asleep. What is it? I thought. Human? Not human? I had on occasion watched a scary movie, and now visions of monsters crawling out from under people’s beds rushed at me in dreadful imagery.

Raw terror sucked my skin corpselike and clammy. A scream pushed up into my throat, obliging release. I had to do something. I could not remain passively sitting here on this bed. Eyes riveted on the mysterious sleeping figure, I began to creep over the front end of my bed toward the door of the room. The bedsprings squeaked. I froze, eyes riveted on the hump in the guest bed. No movement. I placed one foot on the floor, then the other. Gingerly I stood. The floorboards creaked. I froze again, certain that whatever was in the bed would come roaring to life.

Step by step I inched my way across the room to the light switch. I stood there with my hand on the switch. If I turned the light on, the sleeper would awake. That possibility was too scary. I didn’t turn on the light. The logical action I suppose would have been to go downstairs and rouse my parents. Instead, after standing there for a long, tense moment, I found myself slinking back to my bed. Taking great care to make no sound, I climbed back over the front of the bed and pulled the covers up so I could pretend to be sleeping.

There I cowered, waiting and watching. The figure moved. Swallowing another urge to scream, I stayed still. He sat up on the side of the bed. There my fear ended. The person was Jesus! Artists picture Jesus as a stately Caucasian blond or brunette, head and shoulders above the rabble, with blue eyes, a spotless white robe and a halo over His head. That is not how I saw Him. Being of Jewish descent, He was average in stature with black hair and olive skin. But I could not tell whether He was handsome or homely because of the state in which I saw Him.

Right before my eyes, I saw Jesus in His time of suffering. His face was bloody and bruised and His eyes blackened from repeated beatings. Blood caked His hair and trickled from wounds on His head. His clothes were tattered and blood-soaked. According to history, Jesus was beaten 39 times with a bone-laced whip. This instrument of torture had shredded not only the garment, but also His flesh.

With vehemence far eclipsing my former terror, now a revelation exploded through my being, igniting every sinew and synapse. Truth like an injection shot into my soul. Questions were obliterated and three grand and indisputable facts blazed neon-bright in my vision:

GOD EXISTS.

JESUS IS REAL.

THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD.

In that moment I knew that were I the only person in the world, He would have suffered this for me. He endured this for every person, no matter how good or bad. This knowledge exceeded a mental persuasion.

A surgical implantation had been sutured into my soul, a laser operation straight from the supernatural realm. Usually, if you do wrong and hurt someone, the person is angry with you. But in the bruised and scarred face of Jesus, there was no condemnation, no anger, but pure forgiveness and compassion. I could endure only a brief look in His face. My mind swooned.

Every muscle felt like water. I am . . . in the presence of God. God in the form of a man . . . and He has suffered terribly to purchase my freedom! The reality of it swirled in my mind and my body went limp. I fell on my face on my bed, weeping. The intensity of that moment is unexplainable and beyond words.

My tears arose not so much from anguish as from awe and reverence, the single possible response for a mortal when found in the presence of the Holy One. But they were also tears of grief that such divine beauty had to be so marred for my pardon. Then something happened that drove the experience still deeper. He touched me.

He reached out His hand and laid it on my right shoulder. “My child, don’t cry.” His voice was gentle but strong. My arms trembled as they lifted my torso from the bed. It’s too much for me, I thought. I cannot look into His eyes again. But I knew I must. Like magnets, they drew me. He had more to show me, more to impart.

In His countenance, so tortured and yet so selfless, I beheld a love that no human can imagine. But enthroned upon that love, a still higher revelation now pierced my soul. His sufferings’ accomplishments exceeded personal pardon. A victorious light shone from His battered face, an aura of triumph and glory, the persona of One who has conquered all and now reigns supreme. The suffering He had endured constituted the price to rescue the world.

I was witnessing the battle scars necessary to break the power of evil. In a communication superseding words, buoyed up with a joyous lilt like the song of angels, I heard Him declare, I’ve broken the power of darkness. The citizens can be set free forever. Then His love was flowing into me, washing over me, waves of splendour engulfing my soul.

Placing my left hand on His while it rested on my shoulder, I felt the hole, where His wrist had been nailed to the cross. This is not a dream! My mind swooned again with the repeating fact. This is real. I am not asleep. This is real. I am face-to-face with God! Awe and reverence once more overcame me. I gazed upon the One who had suffered for our freedom, the One who conquered death.

For love, He had subjected Himself to this unfathomable suffering—love for me, to ransom my life. I gazed into the eyes of a being who embodied self-sacrificing beauty, a being for whom no word but one could suffice. . . . He was . . . holy. The weight of it overpowered me. Unable to contain or bear up under the glory of His presence and the dreadfulness of His pain, I again fell facedown on my bed weeping.

Golden rays kissed my tousled locks. Daylight! As if ejected off my mattress, I found myself on my feet. Knees shaking, I stood between the two beds. The whole encounter rushed back before my eyes. Mottled bright spots of sun beaming through tree branches outside the window illumined the guest bed.

It was neat and perfectly made. It bore no visible sign of the presence who had lain there a few hours earlier. But for me, the bed was now sacred. I feared to touch it. Something was different. Something had changed. For a long, strange moment I stood gawking about the room, not daring to move a muscle. Against the wall stood my dresser, deep chestnut-varnished oak with great round mirror above.

There were my three Breyer horses, the only childhood treasures I had managed to confiscate the night we had picked up and left Arizona. My half-finished mural of a great black steed still leaped over the mirror and the paintbrushes lay atop a nearby stool, awaiting my next bout of artistic inspiration. “I am alive.” I dared to draw a tremorous breath. “And this is my room. I am on Planet Earth.”

But I felt so other, so strange, like a worm that goes to sleep in its cocoon and wakes up a butterfly. Like my operating system had been rebuilt and reprogrammed. With these thoughts another terror crept over me. Had I undergone a physical transformation? Had I become something or someone else?

The image of Alice in Wonderland drifted into my mind, and I impulsively touched my body, examined my hands, my arms. “Flesh. Alive. Me.” I dared another breath. But what about my face? With terrified eyes I stared across the room at the mirror. A few paces would reveal the dread answer. My legs trembled. What would I see in the mirror? Had I metamorphosed into another person, or—creature? Sick with fear I summoned enough courage to step in front of the mirror. Whew! I still looked like me.

But I didn’t feel like me. I felt sparkly inside, a crystal vase from the dishwasher squeaky clean. I must have eaten breakfast because if I hadn’t my parents would have inquired as to my manner of illness, but I could not tell whether I ate cereal or pancakes or eggs. During those few minutes downstairs I learned, to my further awe, that today was Good Friday. I had seen Him on the very day when followers of Jesus commemorate His death. Throughout my uneasy time in the presence of normal humans, I kept checking my body and worrying. I felt like a light bulb, as if the brightness

brightness within was glowing through my skin. Surely others could see it. What if my parents exclaimed, “You look different!” What would I answer? If I had attempted to speak I would have stammered. The world reeled. I feared to walk, certain my steps would resemble a plastered wino. I have to get away! my mind cried. Let me find a place alone, secluded, and attempt to process this.

Withdrawing to my room, I opened my paint cans, climbed on my stool and dabbled at the mural. Downstairs, Mom had the radio on, as was her habit while cooking. She usually played a Christian station, which I had trained myself to ignore. But now my paintbrush froze in midstroke when Petra’s “The Coloring Song” wafted through the air and into my ears. The lyrics vividly described how the blood had flowed down the face of Jesus, God’s own Son. “The only one that can give us life,”

He shed His blood to make my sins white as snow. A jolt like electricity buckled my knees and I toppled from the stool. The words of the song paralleled what I had seen, and the reality of it hit me with the force of a tsunami—God is real. Jesus is real. He is fearsomely and wonderfully real, and I saw Him face-to-face.

I had been allowed to witness Him in the throes of the greatest act of love ever performed in the history of the cosmos, the act that defies nature, and confounds reason—the cross.

When I read this in Leanna’s book, I believed this to be a genuine and real appearance of Jesus Christ, who is alive and still reveals Himself. The same Jesus who appeared to Leanna in tattered glory in her bedroom on a cold Minnesota morning in 1986 desires to reveal Himself to you and me in a deeper, more intimate and more remarkable way.

Jesus visits us not to harm us but to reveal the depth of His indescribable love. The question is: Will you allow Him to reveal Himself to you?

Back in 1921, a missionary couple named David and Svea Flood went with their two-year-old son from Sweden to the heart of Africa—to what was then called the Belgian Congo. They met up with another young Scandinavian couple, the Ericksons, and the four of them sought God for direction. In those days of much tenderness and devotion and sacrifice, they felt led of the Lord to go out from the main mission station and take the gospel to a remote area.

This was a huge step of faith. At the village of N’dolera they were rebuffed by the chief, who would not let them enter his town for fear of alienating the local gods. The two couples opted to go half a mile up the slope and build their own mud huts.

They prayed for a spiritual breakthrough, but there was none. The only contact with the villagers was a young boy, who was allowed to sell them chickens and eggs twice a week. Svea Flood—a tiny woman of only four feet, eight inches tall—decided that if this was the only African she could talk to, she would try to lead the boy to Jesus. And in fact, she succeeded.

But there were no other encouragements. Meanwhile, malaria continued to strike one member of the little band after another. In time the Ericksons decided they had had enough suffering and left to return to the central mission station. David and Svea Flood remained near N’dolera to go on alone.

Then, of all things, Svea found herself pregnant in the middle of the primitive wilderness. When the time came for her to give birth, the village chief softened enough to allow a midwife to help her. A little girl was born, whom they named Aina.

The delivery, however, was exhausting, and Svea Flood was already weak from bouts of malaria. The birth process was a heavy blow to her stamina. She lasted only another seventeen days.

Inside David Flood, something snapped in that moment. He dug a crude grave, buried his twenty-seven-year-old wife, and then took his children back down the mountain to the mission station. Giving his newborn daughter to the Ericksons, he snarled, “I’m going back to Sweden. I’ve lost my wife, and I obviously can’t take care of this baby. God has ruined my life.” With that, he headed for the port, rejecting not only his calling, but God himself.

Within eight months both the Ericksons were stricken with a mysterious malady and died within days of each other. The baby was then turned over to some American missionaries, who adjusted her Swedish name to “Aggie” and eventually brought her back to the United States at age three.

This family loved the little girl and was afraid that if they tried to return to Africa, some legal obstacle might separate her from them. So they decided to stay in their home country and switch from missionary work to pastoral ministry. And that is how Aggie grew up in South Dakota. As a young woman, she attended North Central Bible college in Minneapolis. There she met and married a young man named Dewey Hurst.

Years passed. The Hursts enjoyed a fruitful ministry. Aggie gave birth first to a daughter, then a son. In time her husband became president of a Christian college in the Seattle area, and Aggie was intrigued to find so much Scandinavian heritage there.

One day a Swedish religious magazine appeared in her mailbox. She had no idea who had sent it, and of course, she couldn’t read the words. But as she turned the pages, all of a sudden a photo stopped her cold. There in a primitive setting was a grave with a white cross-and on the cross were the words SVEA FLOOD.

Aggie jumped in her car and went straight to a college faculty member who, she knew, could translate the article. “What does this say?” she demanded.

The instructor summarized the story: It was about missionaries who had come to N’dolera long ago…the birth of a white baby…the death of the young mother…the one little African boy who had been led to Christ…and how, after the whites had all left, the boy had grown up and finally persuaded the chief to let him build a school in the village. The article said that gradually he won all his students to Christ…the children led their parents to Christ…even the chief had become a Christian. Today there were six hundred Christian believers in that one village…

All because of the sacrifice of David and Svea Flood.

For the Hursts’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, the college presented them with the gift of a vacation to Sweden. There Aggie sought to find her real father. An old man now, David Flood had remarried, fathered four more children, and generally dissipated his life with alcohol. He had recently suffered a stroke. Still bitter, he had one rule in his family: “Never mention the name of God-because God took everything from me.”

After an emotional reunion with her half brothers and half sister, Aggie brought up the subject of seeing her father. The others hesitated. “You can talk to him,” they replied, “even though he’s very ill now. But you need to know that whenever he hears the name of God, he flies into a rage.”

Aggie was not to be deterred. She walked into the squalid apartment, with liquor bottles everywhere, and approached the seventy-three-year-old man lying in a rumpled bed.

“Papa?” she said tentatively.

He turned and began to cry. “Aina,” he said, “I never meant to give you away.”

“It’s all right Papa,” she replied, taking him gently in her arms. “God took care of me.”

The man instantly stiffened. The tears stopped.

“God forgot all of us. Our lives have been like this because of Him.” He turned his face back to the wall.

Aggie stroked his face and then continued, undaunted.

“Papa, I’ve got a little story to tell you, and it’s a true one. You didn’t go to Africa in vain. Mama didn’t die in vain. The little boy you won to the Lord grew up to win that whole village to Jesus Christ. The one seed you planted just kept growing and growing. Today there are six hundred African people serving the Lord because you were faithful to the call of God in your life…

“Papa, Jesus loves you. He has never hated you.”

The old man turned back to look into his daughter’s eyes. His body relaxed. He began to talk. And by the end of the afternoon, he had come back to the God he had resented for so many decades.

Over the next few days, father and daughter enjoyed warm moments together. Aggie and her husband soon had to return to America—and within a few weeks, David Flood had gone into eternity.

A few years later, the Hursts were attending a high-level evangelism conference in London, England, where a report was given from the nation of Zaire (the former Belgian Congo). The superintendent of the national church, representing some 110,000 baptized believers, spoke eloquently of the gospel’s spread in his nation. Aggie could not help going to ask him afterward if he had ever heard of David and Svea Flood.

“Yes, madam,” the man replied in French, his words then being translated into English. “It was Svea Flood who led me to Jesus Christ. I was the boy who brought food to your parents before you were born. In fact, to this day your mother’s grave and her memory are honored by all of us.”

He embraced her in a long, sobbing hug. Then he continued, “You must come to Africa to see, because your mother is the most famous person in our history.”

In time that is exactly what Aggie Hurst and her husband did. They were welcomed by cheering throngs of villagers. She even met the man who had been hired by her father many years before to carry her back down the mountain in a hammock-cradle.

The most dramatic moment, of course, was when the pastor escorted Aggie to see her mother’s white cross for herself. She knelt in the soil to pray and give thanks. Later that day, in the church, the pastor read from John 12:24: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” He then followed with Psalm 126:5: “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.”

This is an excerpt from Aggie Hurst, Aggie: The Inspiring Story of A Girl Without A Country Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1986.

Forsake not the assembling together …as you see the day approaching.

The good old days are not coming back. However, Jesus IS.  His return for His Church is imminent. We are now a bit past the end of the sixth day, 6000 years since Adam was created. The rapture and the seven-year Tribulation period are imminently upon us. The New World Order’s brief kingdom and lasting infamy have been thoroughly prepared and ready to descend upon this unsuspecting generation.

A couple of articles ago, I mentioned that a digital currency is being rolled out this year. We all noticed the recent bank failure in the last couple of days in California as well as the news that other banks could fail as well. Certainly, a designed failure of the banking and currency system is required to coerce people into using their new digital currency. This will bring about the New World Order  Beast system. Are you watching?

By all evidence, the jab, the required shot will soon become the mark of the beast. Without the shot that also gets you ID Chipped, those left behind after the rapture will not be able to buy or sell in the new digital money system. If you cannot wave your chipped hand over the scanning machine at the checkout, you cannot access your digital account. You cannot buy or sell unless you swear allegiance to the AntiChrist as God.  Your digital account will be cancelled. You and your family will be hungry,  homeless and hunted.  So, don’t miss the rapture!

So no, writing your congressmen will avail you nothing. Most of them have already been clued in and are on what they see as the winning side.  Protesting in the street will merely identify you as those troublemakers to be refused access to this brave new world.

All of the tech to implement this new system is already in place. The Patriot Act era year 2000  gives these plotters the quasi-legal authority to do whatever they want. “They” have been planning for this day for generations. Those elderly among their top leadership just cannot wait any longer. Their natural time has about run out. They all are heavily deluded that they will become immortal gods and will live forever once this New Age of digital cyborgs begins to replace the elite of the human race.

The next step in their plan is to spread another man-made enhanced virus and then bring out their new treatment plan that will also have the tracking chip.  This device looks similar to a one-inch square band aide. However, it has tiny barbed hooks on the underside which secure the patch onto the person, giving them their daily dose of this “faux vaccine.”

As it says in the Bible, this “mark” is both On and In the right hand or forehead!  Why this location? Because only these two locations are always exposed to the air. This heat difference exposure between the body and the outside air is necessary to power the tiny chip thus embedded in the back of the hand or forehead.  Think of this device as the microprocessor chip in your computer. This is the beginning of making people into cyborgs.

Once the person’s body has been altered by this gene editing biological software, a person is no longer completely human, they can no longer be saved by Jesus’ shed blood. Remember how that Noah was the only person left whose genetic makeup was still completely human? That had been and now still is the goal of the demon indwelt people.  This thought should make you gasp and your blood run cold when the reality of this situation sinks in.

This device was first announced a few months ago and is in human trials today.

Why is today the day; the last final days, weeks or months before the rapture of the church and the AntiChrist’s kingdom? I’m glad you asked that question.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQsoScAALlg]

As I alluded to at the beginning of this article, we are at or even a bit past six thousand years from Adam.  There are only seven days or seven thousand years in God’s plan for mankind.  Abraham came at the end of the second day, era two thousand years after creation and two thousand years before Jesus.  Jesus came at the end of the fourth day.  Jesus will come back at the end of the sixth day, and reign in the millennial kingdom on the seventh day, the Millennial Kingdom.

The sixth day may have already ended, and we may be in double overtime!  Our ancient calendar is not exact. J Jesus died in the year thirty AD. The year 2030 will be two thousand years from then.  The context of  Jesus’ comment in Matthew Ch 24 about “no man knows the day nor the hour”  was concerning the exact day of His second coming,.

However, No, we really do not know exactly the day Jesus will be coming for us in the rapture.  He did say, however, that we are to watch faithfully.  Revelation chapter three states that while the world will be surprised, we the faithful watchers will not be surprised, we will know when He is coming. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees that they could discern the weather, but were blind that they could not see His coming. Even so, everything around us shouts that Jesus coming is IMMINENT.

Why we are the final generation

Ezekiel chapter thirty-six God is telling the land that was long desolate that He would bring His Hebrew people back to the land after centuries in exile. Ezekiel chapter thirty-seven tells The Hebrew people that He would bring them back to His land Israel.  In Ezekiel, chapter four, verses four to six, He tells His people they would be chastised 430 years because of their sins. The chastisement began in 606 BC.

In Leviticus chapter twenty-six, God also states that “if, after a time of chastisement my people do not repent, I will multiply the chastisement seven times.” After returning from Babylon captivity, the Hebrew people did not repent.  So now the 360 years of chastisement left after Babylon was multiplied by seven times.

This resulted in 2520 Hebrew years of chastisement, and also dispersal into the nations a generation after they killed their Messiah. This was a total of 907,200 days.  In God’s provision, the Hebrews re-established their nation In Israel 907,201 days after the return from Babylon. This was May 14^th, 1948.

How long is it from 1948 to the end of the sixth day from Adam? Somewhere around fifty years, How long is a generation? Biblically, Psalm 90:10 says between seventy to eighty years at the most. So, therefore, the second coming should be somewhere around eighty years after 1948, or about 2030.  Our Rapture should be seven years before that. So yes, we should be very close…  Are you paying attention?  Are you faithfully witnessing to all the lost people around us?

There are different levels of rewards or status in heaven. Our rewards in heaven depend upon our faithful works down here in our generation.

Daniel 12:3 KJV: And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever

© 2023 Lewis Brackett – All Rights Reserved

Jonathan Edwards had written a sermon that he felt would make an impact upon his church. He promised God that he would keep an absolute fast (no water) for three days before preaching the sermon. He spent His time praying for God’s power upon the sermon.

At approximately four o’clock on Sunday afternoon, two hours from ending his fast, Jonathan Edwards began to choke and gag. He knew he couldn’t preach, and he felt he would die from choking. So he violated his fast and drank water.

That night he was a broken man as he ascended the steps to the pulpit. He was devastated in his lack of self-discipline to carry the fast through until sundown. Holding a kerosene lamp in one hand and the sermon in the other, he read Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God. And the Spirit of God poured forth on his listeners, so much so, that they grabbed the post of the church, thinking they were slipping into hell.

That sermon began the First Great Awakening and revival swept through the 13 colonies. It wasn’t the fast that God had used, God anointed the brokenness of Jonathan Edwards so that one sermon touched Colonial America.

His famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was taken from Deuteronomy 32:35:

To Me belongeth vengeance and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

He preached this sermon with power from on high, and Eleazer Wheelock who was with Edwards, reported that before Edwards was done, these “thoughtless” people were “bowed down with an awful conviction of the sin and danger.” The people were consumed with conviction as the Holy Spirit revealed their hearts to them. Knowing the terror of the Lord” (a thing seemingly forgotten in our day both by pulpit and pew)” Edwards smoldered with holy wrath. Impervious to any consequences of such severity, he thundered these words from his pulpit:

The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and His arrows made ready upon the string. Justice points the arrow at your heart and strings the bow. It is nothing but mere pleasure of God (and that of an angry God without any promise or obligation at all) that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.

To utter truth like that with tears and tenderness takes an anointed and therefore fearless and compassionate man.

But in the hearts and minds of the hearers, there must also have been some prevenient grace at work. Apart from this, men would have rebelled at this stern sweep of power on their souls. As it was, before Edwards’ spiritual hurricane, the crowd collapsed. Some fell to the earth as if pole-axed. Others, with heads bowed, clung onto the posts of the temple as if afraid of failing into the nethermost depths of hell.

As pastor of one of New England’s largest, wealthiest, and most socially-conscious congregations, Edwards had a rare perception of the needs of his flock. He also had a heart of great tenderness for spiritual health. Let’s go to the woods where Edwards is alone with his God. Let’s creep up behind that old gnarled tree and listen to his broken prayer:

I have had very affecting views of my own sinfulness and vileness; very frequently to such a degree as to hold me in a kind of loud weeping, sometimes for a considerable time together; so that I have often been forced to shut myself up. I have had a vastly greater sense of my wickedness, and the badness of my heart, than ever I had before my conversion….

I know not how to express better what my sins appear to me to be than heaping infinite upon infinite, and multiplying infinite by infinite. Very often, for these many years, these expressions are in my mind, and in my mouth, Infinite upon infinite….Infinite upon infinite!” When I look into my heart, and take a view of my wickedness, it looks like an abyss infinitely deeper than hell.

I have greatly longed of late for a broken heart, and to lie low before God…it is affecting to think how ignorant I was, when a young Christian, of the bottomless, infinite depths of wickedness, pride, hypocrisy and deceit, left in my heart.

In one of the revivals, Edwards recognized a certain amount of deception among some of the people, an action that would grow as the revival did. He made it very clear that with the acceptance of Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit, a life ought to be quite changed.

If a person confessed Christ but continued unabated in sinful ways, Edwards was apt to note that as a false confession and would not count the person among the number saved.

To him, as it is written in James, there had to be outward signs of a changed life from inward salvation. The work of the Holy Spirit went beyond convicting the sinner of the need for repentance and Christ. Edwards wrote that:

For the people, it was a “dreadful thing” to think of being outside of Christ when hell awaited them daily.

The Spirit also burrowed into the hearts of believers. An example of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit is the story of an elderly woman in her 70s, who had spent most of her adult life under the solid teaching of Solomon Stoddard. Reading about Christ’s suffering for sinners; she seemed to see it for the first time. She wondered how Stoddard could have missed such a wonderful concept, and then realized she had heard him many times.

She understood how ungrateful she had been to sin against God and such a loving Savior, even though everyone vouched for her as one of the pious and good women in the town. But she was so overcome with the conviction in her heart through the Holy Spirit that her family thought she was dying.

The revival reached its peak in April 1735. Edwards recorded an average of four conversions daily during this portion of time. Entire families were saved, and at least as many more repented of backsliding and committed themselves anew to the Lord.

Edwards wrote the book A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in response to the requests for more information. The book made it into the hands of two elderly men of God in London, who re-published it there, in what was practically the capital of the world at that time.

Publishing the Narrative was a fateful decision, for God would use it as a spark for His Spirit elsewhere. With that London publication, events in New England gained worldwide attention.

Iain H. Murray wrote:

It was possibly the most significant book to precede the great evangelical awakening on both sides of the Atlantic.

The book went through twenty printings and influenced groups of men who desired just such an act of God—including John Wesley, who wrote of it in his journal, and George Whitefield, who would put feet to his faith.

Space and time forbid writing more about this flaming revivalist. The question is: Lord, what will it take to break me?

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is acknowledged to have played a role in one of America’s First Great Awakening and he experienced the first revival in 1733-1735. He is also known to be one of America’s greatest intellectuals and philosophical theologians. He wrote many books including The Life and Times of David Brainerd, which continues to be published today and which has inspired thousands of missionaries and generations of believers.

It has been reported by one historian that in the larger world of the rapidly growing colonies, the church of Jesus Christ was already well into spiritual decline. It was nothing like modern America, of course, but gone were the days of tightly knit bands of fervent believers who were seeking refuge from English persecution. More and more, immigrants were coming for the economic hopes of fertile and cheap land, and less for their unconditional devotion to Christ.

Most people in a colonial town such as East Windsor were church members, often attending every Sunday morning and going through the rituals. But a decreasing percentage had Christ in their hearts. For them, the church was more traditional than being part of the body of Jesus. And the more people who immigrated from Europe, not from persecution, the more the churches were diluted of committed Christians…… They could still give correct answers to the catechism, but their hearts were fixed not on God, but on land and trade. The decline naturally manifested itself in community life, also.

The Puritan ways had all but disappeared and were increasingly being mocked. Many pastors saw this trend and the problem, but they did agree on the solution: the power of God to revive the spirits of the people, starting with their spiritual leaders. We have to understand that the only religion in those days was always referred to as Christianity. There was no other. And therefore, for this pouring out of the Holy Spirit, Jonathan Edwards and many others prayed diligently.

E.M. Bounds in his book Weapons of Prayer writes:

Jonathan Edwards must be placed among the praying saints—one who God mightily used through the instrumentality of prayer. As in the instance of the great New Englander, purity of heart should be ingrained in the foundation areas of every man who is a true leader of his fellows and a minister of the Gospel of Christ and constant practice in the holy office of prayer.

A sample of the utterances of this mighty man of God is here given in the shape of a resolution which he formed, and wrote down:

Resolved to exercise myself in this all my life long, with the greatest openness to declare my ways to God, and to lay my soul open to God—all my sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, and everything and every circumstance. We are not surprised, therefore, that the result of such impassioned and honest praying was to lead him to record in his diary: It was my continual strife day and night, and my constant inquiry how I should be more holy, and live more holily.

The heaven I desired was a heaven of holiness. I went on with my eager pursuit of more holiness and conformity to Christ. The character and work of Jonathan Edwards were exemplifications of the great truth that the ministry of prayer is the efficient agency in every truly God-ordered work and life. He himself gives some particulars about his life when he was a boy. He might as well be called the “Isaiah of the Christian dispensation.

There was united in him great mental powers, ardent piety, and devotion to study, unequalled save by his devotion to God. Here is what he says about himself:

As a boy, I used to pray five times a day in secret and spend much time in religious conversation with other boys.I used to meet with them to pray together. So, it is God’s will through his wonderful grace, that the prayers of his saints should be one great and principal means of carrying on the designs of Christ’s kingdom.

Pray much for the ministers and the church of God. The great powers of Edward’s mind and heart were exercised to procure an agreed union in the extraordinary prayer of God’s people everywhere. His life, efforts and character are exemplification of his statement:

The heaven I desire is a heaven spent with God; an eternity spent in the presence of divine love, and in holy communion with Christ.

At another time he said:

The soul of a true Christian appears like a little white flower in the spring of the year, low and humble on the ground, opening its bosom to receive the pleasing beams of the sun’s glory, rejoicing as it were in a calm rapture, diffusing around a sweet fragrance, standing peacefully and lovingly in the midst of other flowers.

Again he writes:

Once I rode out in the woods for my health, having alighted from my horse on a retired place, as my manner has been to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view, that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God as Mediator between God and man, and of His wonderful, great, full, pure, and sweet grace and love. And His meek and gentle condescension. This grace that seemed so calm and sweet appeared also great among the heavens.

The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception, which continued, as near as I can judge, for about an hour. It kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated, to lie in the dust to be full of Christ alone, to love Him with my whole heart.

As it was with Jonathan Edwards, so it is with all great intercessors. They come into that holy and elect mind and heart by a thorough self-dedication to God, by periods of God’s revelation to them, making distinctly marked eras in their spiritual history, ears never to be forgotten, in which faith mounts up with wings as eagles, and has given it a new and fuller vision of God, a stronger grasp of faith, a sweeter, clearer vision of all things heavenly and eternal, and a blessed intimacy with, and access to God.

Here is a conscience summary of the Edwards from the pen of Leonard Ravenhill:

Jonathan Edwards achieved greatness as an American preacher-evangelist, principal of a college, mystic, and revivalist. For us to see Jonathan Edwards ascend his pulpit today, a candle in one hand and his sermon manuscript in the other would cause a titter in the congregation. His tongue must have been like a sharp two-edged sword to his attentive hearers. His words must have been as painful to their hearts and consciences as burning metal on flesh. Nevertheless, men gave heed, repented, and were saved.

A thin crust, a very thin crust of morality, it seems to me, keeps America from complete collapse. In this perilous hour we need a whole generation of preachers like Edwards. ‘Oh Lord of hosts, turn us again; cause Thy face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved.’

Contrast this great man of God with his contemporary. This again is from Ravenhill in his book Sodom Had No Bible:

There was an atheist named Max Jukes and a godly man named Jonathan Edwards. Max Jukes, the atheist, lived a godless life. He married an ungodly girl, and from the union there were 310 who died as paupers, 150 were criminals, 7 were murderers, 100 drunkards, and more than half of the women were prostitutes. His 540 descendants cost the State one and quarter million dollars. But, praise the Lord it works both ways! There is a record of a great American man of God, Jonathan Edwards. He lived at the same time as Max Jukes, but he married a godly girl. An investigation was made of 1,394 known descendants of Jonathan Edwards of which 13 became college presidents, 65 college professors, 3 United States senators, 30 judges, 100 lawyers, 60 physicians, 75 army and navy officers, 100 preachers and missionaries, 60 authors of prominence, one vice-president of the United States, 80 became public officials in other capacities, 295 college graduates, among whom were governors of states and ministers to foreign countries. His descendants did not cost the state a single penny.

The Bible says: “The memory of the uncompromisingly righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked shall rot” (Proverbs 10:7 AMP).