THE TIME IS NOW

Admittedly, I feel we’re at the stage of the journey that reminds me of when Jesus moved His ministry to Galilee. For about a year and a half, He worked mostly in Judea, with little to show for His efforts. People there were heavily influenced by the religious leaders of the day, none of whom would acknowledge Him as the Messiah. But when John the Baptist was taken prisoner, Jesus understood it was time to take it to the next level.

The Lord decided to work in the coastal cities of Capernaum and Bethsaida, and as He did, His message was “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Yes, Daniel 9 had now come true, and the end of the age was at hand.

Similarly, after working hard and praying harder for so many months, “the time is at hand to believe in the gospel.” The new development with Direct TV carrying the meetings is a huge question mark full of possibilities. We’ve implemented and continue to work on ways to reach those untold thousands that would watch without us knowing.

But I must give you a brief report on the just-finished Astonishing Discoveries in the Land of the Bible archaeology series. If you tuned in eight days ago, you might have panicked just like we did. The production team at the Media Center always does a test an hour before they air something live. When they noticed our team in Nashville was not calling, they called at 6:05 inquiring about it. The person that answered misread the clock, thinking it was 5:05 and simply said it’s not for another hour. That was interpreted by the person in California to mean the entire broadcast was an hour later, so he set the server for 7:30 CDT instead of 6:30 CDT. When 6:30 came, we started and thought we were live—625 churches had opened their doors to this event!

Lo and behold, no archaeology program was on. So, the churches started to call us, frantically. Nashville called California to get us on satellite, but it took an extra six minutes because of the new server. So, 16 minutes into the program, we were finally on. As you can imagine, a number of guests and members had left by that time, which is extremely unfortunate yet understandable.

How does one analyze such a far-reaching human error, something these professional people just don’t do? Our leadership team believes perhaps the Lord does want to surprise us with unexpected good, because we’ve met our share of difficulties and discouraging mishaps. I’d like to think that God’s power will be perceived as even greater when compared with so many things going array (many of which I did not write about in this blog).

The truth is that at in Nashville at least, people responded to the meetings very well. We had over 200 guests come, although we wished for more. But many told us how they are planning to be back for the main series next week. The meetings were an encouragement to the members as well. And one evidence that things went well in spite of that first night disaster is the fact that we had a major spike in the order of Bibles and other resources for the meetings, in addition to new churches signing up.

So, here are the matters that urge earnest prayer by everyone who loves God and His mission:

1.       Pray for the Blimp. A large blimp is circulating over the Nashville freeways with a 74-foot long banner written in bold letters: PROPHECIESDECODED.COM. This is unusual advertising and a bit costly, but our hope is that a number of the 100 to 200,000 people that will see it decide to register and show up. Pray for good weather, and perhaps the opportunity for the city press to notice and write about it, thus giving us more exposure.

2.       Pray for the Handbills. The handbills will begin to arrive in people’s homes as early as tomorrow (Friday). There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pieces all over the country we pray angels go with to impress people to respond. Pray that those most ready to receive the Three Angels’ Messages will be deeply impressed to attend. Pray that all the participating churches may have encouraging numbers on opening night.

3.       Pray for the Church Members. Here is our greatest need for prayer. Evangelism is hard work, no matter how you slice it. And enemies do not only come from the outside, but, sadly, often from the inside. Pray that the Spirit of Jesus may overpower selfish and worldly interests by members in every church that wants to do evangelism. Pray that the devil be not allowed to take advantage of members’ lack of love to others. Pray also for the strength and courage of the often few dedicated members who are and will be involved in NET outreach. And pray for neutral members to get off the fence and decide to help other members, even if love for the lost is something they have yet to experience.

4.       Pray for the Music. We have secured the musical ministry of a number of good people, such as Committed, Charles Haugabrooks, Jennifer LaMountain, and Steve Darmody, among other artists from the Nashville area. Our prayer is that each song will be something the angels would sing along, and that the Spirit may use music for salvation. Pray for Gale Murphy as she coordinates all this.

5.       Pray for the Social Media Efforts. Facebook, You Tube, Vimeo, and other social media outlets is what we’re using to try to get the word out, especially to millennials (young adults). Please pray that a number of them can respond to the invitation to come to the church, not only to watch it at home. When young people look to God to fill their empty hearts, God’s miracles in their lives are nearly instant and often explosive.

6.       Pray for the Nation. I have asked the Lord to move in our division in some way that people may perceive searching Bible prophecies may have answers for them. Remember that Adventist meetings for the weeks following 9/11 a decade ago were full of searching people. I’m interested more in people seeking for lasting solutions than in curiosity seekers, but the Word sown in always better than the Word not sown.

7.       Pray for Me. As Paul plead before the Ephesians, “pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,” (Eph 6:19) I ask you the same. A number have told me they are doing so. We knew a year ago that this would be an all-consuming project. Yet, I still planned to have some of August and some of September to work and revise my messages. Well, that time has come and gone, used with even more urgent matters. But Jesus can still help me. May His message and His love shine through and through.

Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for NET 11. The time is now. Let’s storm heaven so God may open its windows and pour out a blessing beyond our expectations.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel”

(Mark 1:15)