From the Editor

I know it may sound ridiculous, but last month my 12-year-old son received a credit card application in the mail. What made it all the more humorous was the fact that the company sponsoring the credit card was none other than General Motors. I guess I found that rather ironic—wasn’t it General Motors that had recently needed to borrow $19.4 billion from the U. S. government in order to avoid bankruptcy? And wasn’t the U. S. government the world-leading capitalist country that, itself, has had to borrow over $2.5 trillion from Communist China, in order to prevent global financial collapse? So, I now ask the question—why was a company that was borrowing billions of dollars from a country that is borrowing trillions of dollars from another country, now sending my 12-year-old son (or anyone else, for that matter) a credit card application? Shouldn’t someone be asking some questions?

Satan is the father of lies. It is his aim to make us all think everything is okay when, in fact, things are in deep trouble. Just as in the days of Jeremiah, one of Satan’s favorite techniques is to say “Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” Je. 6:14 When catastrophes happen, people can tend to start thinking more about God. Satan knows that; he also knows he can easily control people when he plays on their lusts and passions.

Well, it would seem that Satan is in his heyday. This year we have seen entire western countries go “out of business.” In the news, haunting pictures from Detroit, Michigan reveal a former icon of American industrialism now reduced to shambles. Yet, the world goes on as if nothing is happening—and they send my 12-year-old credit card applications.

For the church, this is a day of opportunity. As the false structures of this world begin to topple, there will be those who “wake up” and realize they cannot put their trust in them. Thus, we must continue with our commission to harvest souls. However, we need to be on guard, lest we too become ensnared in putting our trust in those things which are quickly passing away. Our trust is not in “the economy,” but in God, who feeds the sparrows. In John’s revelation, we read that we will one day sing the triumphant “song of Moses” in heaven. Re. 15:3 In that song, Moses prophesied of the demise of worldly nations, and the triumph of God’s kingdom. The following is a part of that song:

For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? To me belongeth vengeance and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. De. 32:28-35

Yes, brethren, “their foot shall slide in due time.” Will we find ourselves singing with that triumphant throng, or will we weep and wail with the merchants when things unravel? If our hearts are singularly devoted to the only Lamb of God, we need not fear as the world fears. The nations of this world have nothing for us. We already know the end, so let’s make sure we’re awake and ready when their securities fail. But let’s also make sure that we have something superior to offer them when they do.

In this issue, we take a look at what we do have to offer a world out of control: the good news of deliverance into another kingdom, one that will never go belly-up. Next, we have some testimonies of how grace worked in three individual’s lives, empowering them to do what was right in the sight of God. For the sisters, we include an encouraging article about teaching little ones to sing. And for those sisters who have a calling to singlehood, we have a testimony from one who only recently came to realize just what a high honor that calling really is.

Then we turn our attention to us men, with some biblical instructions on modesty in the way we dress and act. And finally—amid various other poems and short exhortations—we take a peek into a book about a little-known revival that occurred in what is now the Czech Republic.

May your heart be lifted up with this issue of The Heartbeat of the Remnant! ~Bro. Dean

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