When I awoke this morning to the sound of thunder and lightning, I thought of the day of the Lord and how it would be, seeing the times that we are living in today. A dark cloud looms over the world, with the wickedness of men becoming greater and greater. As when God was recreating the earth in the Book of Genesis: “darkness covered the deep.” Man’s rejection of the true God and his Son (the word of God) has brought us to the turmoil that we see. It is as the prophet Amos prophesied, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11).

Look at the U.S. since 1963: the Supreme Court made the ruling removing BIBLE READING AND PRAYER RECITATION FROM PUBLIC SCHOOLS, thus rejecting God. Our schools are now infested with teen pregnancy, sex, drugs and murder. All evil that man can think of is going on in our schools, even with police monitoring the halls. In 1955, when my mother was about to graduate high school, she and my father got married. As a married woman, she wasn’t allowed to participate in the graduation ceremonies, and it wasn’t even a shotgun wedding, as I, the eldest of 4 brothers, was born in 1957.

Now, our schools teach sex education to our children and that sex before marriage is natural. There is no light or real knowledge taught, and the rest of the world is no different. “Darkness has covered the deep.” John told us that light shined in darkness, and darkness comprehended it not. As in the first 1000 years of man, God let man eat of the tree of knowledge, and Adam and Eve knew they were naked. The first day “God said, Let there be light and there was light (knowledge)” (Gen. 1:3).

God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Here we are today, and darkness is all around us (John 1:5; 2 Cor. 4:6).

I ask you a question today if you are a believer and you desire the day of the Lord, what do you think that day will be like? Once again I go back to Amos, where he is talking about those that desire the day of the Lord (Christians). He prophesied that it would be darkness and not light, even very dark and no brightness (Amos 5:18-20). How can that be? If we are Christians, believing and having the word of God, how can it be darkness for us? If we look at the parable that Jesus spoke of in Matt. 25, in which he describes the kingdom of God as ten virgins that went to meet the bridegroom, five of them were wise and the other foolish. They all had lamps (the word of God), but only the wise took oil in them. I have heard some say that the oil is the Holy Ghost, but Paul compared the Holy Ghost to wine, saying “be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). And the 120 in the upper room seemed drunk to those that saw them spill out into the street. So what could the oil be? If we look at the candlestick in the tabernacle or in the temple, the oil is what caused the lamps to burn. Without it there wasn’t any flame – no light.

Having the word of God doesn’t mean that we have understanding in the word of God. We can read the Bible, and unless God reveals the true meaning, we are still in darkness. How many bible schools or academies are there today where students are learning from man’s teachings and not the Lord’s? Paul told Timothy that in the last days, there would be perilous times, and he lists how men would be. They would have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof, and though ever learning, they would never be able to come to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 3:1-9). They have not brought oil in their lamps; and they are asleep in darkness with the Bible sitting right there on their night stands: the true knowledge and understanding of God’s word being darkened and hidden. They are like the lawyers that Jesus spoke of in Luke 11:52: they have taken away the key of knowledge. They wouldn’t enter in themselves, and kept those who wanted to use the key of knowledge from it, keeping them in darkness also. Jesus said, “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light” (John 12:35-36).

The light of God shines down on us when we are born again, and His light and understanding begins to illuminate our new life in Christ. This in no way means we have come to the fullness of this light. Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.” The job of a newly born again believer is not to try to win souls to Christ. It is rather to learn and walk in the righteousness of God as it is revealed from faith to faith, as the light that shineth more and more unto that perfect day. (Rom. 1:17; Prov. 4:18). Each step we take in our faith should lead us to that day where we can put away childish things and become a man in Christ, no longer having need of milk, but growing to adulthood and partaking of the meat of the word (Heb. 13:1-13; Heb. 5:12). (Even so, as adults, we still need a glass of milk now and then.) We need to use the whole Bible, not just the New Testament. Isaiah 8:20 says that those that use only the New Testament “have no light in them.” They have not come to full age in the Lord, as Paul said, “every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe” (Heb. 5:13).

Where are the preachers today with the light of knowledge in the word of God? What church can you go to in the world and hear anything more than Jesus saves? Jesus told us that the coming of the Son of man would be like Noah’s day before he entered the ark. Noah knew the flood was coming for seven days before it came. God told him to get into the ark, and that the flood would come on a specific day. On that day, the flood came just like God said. As for those that did not get in, Jesus said “they knew not till the flood came.” Why do preachers tell us today that we are not to know the day when Jesus is to come? It is because they have neither meat nor light in the Word. But someone will be out there who is a preacher of righteous­ness and warned of God, to give all those that have the breath of new life in Christ Jesus “meat in due season,” (Matt. 24:37-39, 45-51).

What will the LAST DAYS be like? Most preachers believe we are not to know anything. They just keep looking up to the skies, for “He can come at any time” they say. When Jesus ascended up and was taken into a cloud forty days after His resurrection, His disciples stood there looking up, thinking that He would come back as He had done in the past forty days. Two men stood by them in white apparel saying, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). They were not in darkness. They were told what to do, and they did it. The disciples went back to Jerusalem, waiting for the power of the Holy Ghost to come. They were not just standing around. Before the Holy Ghost came, Peter had meat in due season for them. He knew that Judas needed to be replaced. Then the day of Pentecost was fully come, and I want you to hear that, fully come. All those Jews knew when the day of Pentecost was coming; and, they were prepared for it. When it came, it was not like a thief. The disciples in the upper room knew it was coming, too. They just didn’t quite know what the experience was going to be like. Peter saw what had happened and said “this is that which was spoken of by the Prophet Joel,” the light of God’s word being revealed unto me.

The preachers of today keep their people in darkness, telling them that Jesus can come at any minute. They say that Jesus could come even before they finish preaching or before morning. They tell us that we are not supposed to know the day or the hour. How does this make sense? We are not to know, but we know that He can come any minute or any day now. They have their people looking up, and not looking for Him to come. God’s people should be looking for Jesus to come, but they have been sung to sleep by this lullaby. They are in a deep sleep with darkness all around them, with the word of God (their lamps) gone out. The whole subject of not knowing the day or the hour gets me. I hear Christians rejoicing they do not know anything. If you really look at what is said in Matt. 24:35-36, Jesus was telling us about a time when the earth would burn and pass away, not about His coming. We will know when He is to come, both the time and the season. Noah knew when the rain would start. And seven days before, he gathered his family and all the animals into the ark with food (the word of God) for everyone and every animal that got on the ark before God shut the door.

In Jesus’ parable, a cry is made at midnight. Those who have oil with their lamps trimmed will get in. To them who “look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:28). The day of the Lord is a day of Darkness and not light, but Paul thought we were not in darkness that that day should overtake us as a thief (1 Thess. 5:4). Yet, Christianity is asleep, not coming to the fullness of what God wants of it.

Christians cannot see that our time of visitation is near, and God asks, “Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?” (Job 24:1).

The cry is going out today, “Blow the trumpet and sound the alarm in His holy mountain.” Why do God’s people need an alarm clock if they are awake? Because the day of the Lord is at hand and all people will tremble and be afraid. A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: the great day of the Lord is near, even the voice of the day of the Lord. That day is a day of wrath and distress against the fenced cities and against the high towers. (Joel 2:1-2; Zeph. 1:14-18.) On Sept. 11, 2001, we entered the thick darkness, hastiness and desolation, and the Christians of the world rolled over and went right back to sleep. Then, in Sept. 2008, the bottom fell out of the economy, and we are still asleep. Homeland Security has risen up to take our freedoms. Those viewed as radical Christian are now called a threat, and still they sleep.

Where is the cry that came up to God from His people like Israel’s cry from Egypt? The people that are called by His name will awaken and hear the voice, and go out to meet the Lord, protected behind the door, as on Noah’s ark. We are well into the night and our Lord’s Day is almost here. We should reject the unfruitful works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ our example, not letting the flesh have control of us. (Rom. 13:11-14) “This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7).

Hear the alarm and the trump of God; awake and get the sleep out of your eyes. Jesus is coming! Will you be ready when Jesus comes? Are you truly born again, washed in Jesus’ blood? Are your garments spotless, are they whiter than the snow? Will you be ready when Jesus comes? It is my goal to be ready with my lamp shining. May I see you there with your lamp burning also? God bless and keep you is my prayer.