The Tears Were Unrelenting

It happened about six years ago. But the event that preceded it has a much longer history. Around fifty years.

The account of these happenings may seem strange to you. Whether it does or doesn’t, it happened nevertheless.

The first occurrence was around 1971. I was a pagan. A former drug user. I use the word “former,” because I no longer hung with that Friday night, drug-using crowd. They were back in the Midwest. My friend and I were visiting San Francisco at that time, The Mecca for hippies. Before we drove down there from Washington State, the Lord had sovereignly made Himself known to me in two separate incidents. However, I was very ignorant. Light had come into my life, but I was still wandering around in the dark. So, despite those two incidents, I bought a few foolish, evil books at a physic bookstore when we were there. While I was sitting in the shotgun seat of my friend’s old pickup truck, a wind stirred up in an old, dried-up bush next to house at which we had been staying. The Lord made Himself known to me in that event. He spoke just one word to my heart:

Trouble.

In my ignorance about almost all things Christian, I knew that the Lord spoke to Lot out of a whirlwind. I had heard it in a rock song performed by the group, Sea Train, entitled Job’s Song. The lyric was, “And from the whirling wind, God Himself spoke.”

The Lord knew that I knew that.

He spoke that word “trouble” to me, but I didn’t know what He meant. It didn’t seem that He was saying that I was in trouble. I was, but that would soon change, and He knew it.

Eventually, thankfully, I became a Christian after two more sovereign acts. These wonderful things were necessary because my heart was hard and dark. I was a lost, sinful man.

However, after those early days, sometimes when the wind would blow, I would get a sense of trouble that gave me a fuller understanding of what He had said that day in San Francisco. That understanding was that judgment was coming. These experiences led up to the event six years ago, the incident I mentioned earlier in this article.

Laurie and I were helping her dad’s widow, Esther, sell or give away the contents of her house, years of accumulation. She was moving to a small, retirement apartment. A Craig’s List connection had just left with his treasure, and I was standing on the small concrete porch outside the front door of Esther’s home. Across the street was a house that was nicely landscaped, and in the front yard was a large deciduous tree. As I was standing daydreaming, a wind blew up in the tree. The sense of coming judgment in that event was so strong that I broke down and wept. I went back inside the house, and the tears were unrelenting. It was a good cry. A holy cry. However, I cannot express specifically why I was crying. I saw no vision. I experienced no horror or terror, just that judgment was coming. It was true and a reality that was inevitably to come.

So, I am telling you what was made known to me. I am compelled to do so.

When Isaiah wrote about the time to come when “the lion will lay down with the lamb,” he wrote,

“He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked” (Isaiah 11:3b–4).¹

This is reinforced by the Apostle John:

“From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Revelation 19:15).

Judgment is coming. That is the real, hard truth, as true and durable as God Himself and His eternal word. I firmly believe that the Lord is withdrawing His hand of restraint in preparation for the return of Jesus. The world, morally, is getting darker, and it seems there is no turning back—unless there is massive repentance. And that is what we should pray for.

Father, please be merciful to us and forgive us. Please give this nation the gift of repentance. We have sinned against You. Please help us. We are blind and in darkness.

¹All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (2016). Crossway Bibles.

Gif courtesy Edge images.