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The Beginning of Famine

by Jerry Ousley  
7/04/2014 / Christian Living

A few years ago we had a terrible wind storm in our area. It happened after dark. Straight line winds gushing to eighty miles per hour swept through leaving a path of destruction as devastating as any tornado. We were fortunate, losing three trees in our front yard, but they all fell in a manner that they did little damage to property (I think the worst that happened was that the top branches of one of them fell across our neighbor's fence. But it was just a wire fence and after cutting the limbs away we just straightened it up).

We were sad that we had lost the trees because it had been one of the reasons we liked this house so much all the shade in the yard. I took the next day off from work to clean up the mess. While doing so I made an amazing discovery; inside each of those trees worms and bugs had eaten out the centers. While they looked healthy enough on the outside they were slowly dying on the inside. No wonder they didn't have the strength to stand against those high winds! They were on their way out (or should I say down) anyway!

Seeing all those bugs and worms that had worked our trees over made me to think about the prediction of famine in the book of Joel. In its description Joel also described the working of predators on their crops that led to the famine. In Joel 1 the passage lists four different types of insects or worms that contributed to the destruction, (1) The palmer worm ("Gazam" in Hebrew meaning "the knawer") (2) The locust ("arbeh" in Hebrew meaning "the swarmer") (3) The canker-worm ("yeleg" in Hebrew meaning "the licker") and (4) The caterpillar ("chasil" in Hebrew meaning "the consumer"). What one of these left the other ate until nothing remained.

There are some terrible famines in the world today, particularly on the continent of Africa. Even though many of these have been brought on by bad leadership, war, and cruelty, our hearts go out to the poor and innocent victims of these famines and we are compelled by Christ within us to do what we can to help.

But there is another famine that is sweeping the world. It is a spiritual famine. False religions continue to grow at rapid rates, not only in other countries but right here in the good ole' US of A as well. Many of these false religions are hostile against Christianity and many murders and acts of cruelty have taken place in the name of religion.

That is one thing. What is even more alarming is the fact that the spiritual famine has begun right in the confines of the Church as well. Subtly we see more and more movement that converts worship into entertainment. If you have listened to this program or read our articles for very long you know that we firmly believe in using every tool available to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We should be like Paul and strike a chord where the interest of people lies. There is no wrong in that.

What is concerning is that many have taken this concept too far. In effort to reach the masses and get more people inside our buildings we have wonderful programs utilizing the arts, but are they actually winning souls into the kingdom of God? Are they merely filling pews and chairs without transforming lives? We must seek God about this problem because if we don't we will continue seeing the work of the palmer-worms that knaw their way in promoting pleasure-seeking, yielding to the world, compromise and even doubt in the very God whom we are supposed to serve. We'll see the locust swarming through causing neglect in prayer, devotion and substituting pride for humbling ourselves before God. We'll see the canker-worm licking its way through creating hypocrites, and destroying our lack of compassion leaving selfishness in its place. And we'll see the caterpillar devouring the attitudes and, yes, the very souls of men leaving them hard-hearted, cold and consumed in sin.

We must stop this famine. But there is only one way and that is to let the healing begin in us. We must first take a stand, recognizing what is going on. We must renew ourselves in the Lord and then one by one, begin lovingly winning over our brothers and sisters in Christ. We can beat this famine but it only come when we realize what is going on and first stop it in ourselves.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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