Sound The Midnight Cry

“The Next Shoe To Drop”

As I listened to the radio while running errands around town, I heard three commentators over the course of fifteen minutes mention the same phrase: "the next shoe to drop.”

This phrase means “to await an event causally linked to one that one has already observed.” In the form “drop the other shoe” meaning “say the next obvious thing.”

The saying is derived from the following joke: A guest who checked into an inn one night was warned to be quiet because the guest in the room next to his was a light sleeper. As he undressed for bed, he dropped one shoe, which, sure enough, awakened the other guest. He managed to get the other shoe off in silence, and got into bed. An hour later, he heard a pounding on the wall and a shout: “When are you going to drop the other shoe?”

The year of 2008 is coming to an end but we have seen several ‘drops’ left in its wake.

• The price of oil skyrocketed to almost $150 a barrel only to fall to below $36 by years end.
• The price of gold rose to more than $1000 an ounce, only to retreat to the $600+ range (it is now headed back up and should continue to do so).
  
• Employment numbers dropped as tens of thousands of people have been laid off from jobs.
• The stock market fell more than 50 percent as financial titans collapsed and billions of dollars were wiped out almost over night.
• Hedge funds financed by the wealthy of investors around the world imploded as world commodity prices plunged and the dollar sank.

The result has been that people are hoping the change in the political landscape will bring the change they desire, but in the back of everyone’s mind is the thought, “What will be the next shoe to drop?”

I don’t have a crystal ball to look into to see the future nor have I had any special revelation or vision from God. However, the one thing that I do have is God’s Word as expressed to us in the Bible.

The disciples of Jesus wanted to know the signs of His coming to establish His kingdom. Jesus clearly articulated the events pointing to that day and they are as clear as the happenings reported in our daily newspapers.

As we have just celebrated Christmas and the remembrance of Christ’s first coming, I’m reminded of the fact that for every prophecy that told of His birth there are seven times more concerning His Second Coming. And that my friends, will be the “next BIG shoe to drop!”

“I’m Tired Of Fighting”

Those were the words of a CEO of a startup company that quit a few days before the launch of his new company.

It’s hard for me to imagine someone going through all the planning and struggles necessary to start a new company and then quitting right before it begins. One can only surmise what he went through that would bring him to that place.

It reminded me of a 1910 speech given by President Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. In that speech he stated:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Of late, I’ve noticed a number of news articles referring to issues that when mentioned in conversations, people tend to pull back or roll their eyes as if to say, “Please, let’s not bring those subjects up. I’m tired of hearing about them.”

This week, Newsweek magazine published a lengthy article stating that the Bible supports homosexual marriage. The author’s position argued that “opponents of gay marriage often cite Scripture. But what the Bible teaches about love argues for the other side” as if the subject is one-cancels-the-other proposition.

On the heels of that article comes a Chicago Public Schools administrator stating that a homosexual-friendly Chicago public high school is “necessary for the well-being of students." Her basis was simple: the “Social Justice High School – Pride Campus” is necessary because “the issue (of homosexuality) is out there.”

“It’s out there” because there are those who are so set in changing the laws of the land to make it more than “out there”—they want it everywhere! But when you mention it to Christians, they have heard it so much that they have basically thrown in the towel.

A prime example came this past week when Richard Cizik resigned as vice president for governmental affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals, an organization representing 45,000 U.S. churches from 59 denominations. The reason: he revealed to National Public Radio his view of same-sex unions had shifted. People do and say all kinds of things when they are “tired of fighting” for what is right.

Last week an article appeared on an Australian news site stating how women in Papua New Guinea's Highland region are killing their male babies to end a tribal war that has gone on for more than 20 years. One of the tribal representatives stated, "All the womenfolk agreed to have all babies born killed because they have had enough of men engaging in tribal conflicts and bringing misery to them." Their reasoning: “If women stopped producing males, their tribe's stock would go down and this would force the men to end their fight.”

The Apostle Paul wrote, “Fight the good fight of the faith” and “never tire of doing what is right.” This is not the time to give up or to become calloused to the issues of the day.

Paul reiterates for us, “We are pressed on every side…but we don’t give up and quit!” Good words to live by!

“Romper, Bomper, Stomper, Boo”

Okay, I know I’m dating myself by pulling this one out! Millions of children from the 1950’s through the 1990’s though will understand that it refers to the chant from the popular syndicated children’s program “Romper Room”.

At the end of each TV show, the hostess gazed through a large, hoop (empty mirror frame) with a handle and would recite the show's signature chant: "Romper, bomper, stomper, boo. Tell me, tell me, tell me do. Magic mirror, tell me today. Did all my friends have fun at play?"

With the chant spoken, the Romper Room hostess gazed through the empty mirror frame and recited the names of the lucky children whom she pretended to see watching the program (a different list of names each day). Of course, the hostess really couldn't see the children, but to the kids at home (including yours truly), listening for their name to be mentioned, they knew that they were someone special, at least in the World of Romper Room.

Well, if I pull out the “bible prophecy” mirror, I don’t have to pretend as I see Russia, Syria, Turkey, Iran and Israel.

This week we see that Russia has not only signed a nuclear agreement with India to build four nuclear plants, it is rushing to finish Iran’s Bushehr reactor. They are offering nuclear engineers and scientists top money to leave for Iran at short notice. Hmmm, I wonder what they know that we don’t?

It was also reported this week that following Syria’s refusal to allow UN inspectors access to three suspect research laboratories, Western agents recently carried out a daring covert operation to collect water samples from the Orontes river in Syria where it drains into the Mediterranean, Their discoveries confirmed the suspicion that Syria has gone back to the plutonium project which was cut short when Israeli destroyed its reactor at Al Kibar in September 2007. Their discovery tied in with a separate report reaching the nuclear watchdog board that Iran and North Korea were frantically drafting in nuclear specialists to help Syria revive its plutonium reprocessing project.

We also learned this week that Turkey’s energy minister, travelled to Tehran to negotiate a gas agreement with Iranian government officials. Turkey has become a hub for oil supplies from Central Asia to world markets with the help of a major pipeline that brings crude from Azerbaijan to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea. This makes it a major player in future energy plays and secures it position as written in Ezekiel 38-39.

Lest we forget Iran, it has a part in the Syrian and Turkish events.

And last but not least, reports came this week that Israel is drawing up plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities and is prepared to launch a strike without U.S. backing.

Meanwhile at home in the U.S., every eye is focused on the financial crises and the transition of the incoming president. Add to that the consumer mindset of the Christmas season and most Americans are oblivious to these incredibly important events happening in the rest of the world—including most church folk.

It reminds me of another time many years ago: “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.”

So much was happening that first Christmas; so much is happening this one too! Can you see it?