It's Time to Wake Up!

So it's 2 in the morning here in Nicaragua, and I am having trouble sleeping.  Part of it might have a little to due with nerves.  The other part is the need to write and share what I feel in my heart.

The past few days here have been very interesting.  We had a 6.2 earthquake on Thursday afternoon and since then we've had over 1,000 (maybe even 2,000 now) tremors and about 4 classified earthquakes. Most of the seismic activity is coming from Lake Managua close to an active volcano, Momotombo, and an inactive one, Apoyeque.  Right now, the capital, Managua, is under extreme alert because the fault line that was responsible for a huge earthquake in 1972 is active again. It sounds really scary, and for the people that are close to where the activity is going on, it is scary.  However, here is Leon, we are safe and only feeling the affects of what's going on there.  I really don't think anything will happen here, but there's a good chance of something in Managua.

I have been thinking about a lot of things the past few weeks before this all happened, and since these earthquakes started, I have been thinking more.  One thing that I've been thinking about is the lunar eclipse that's going to occur tomorrow morning.  According to an article I read, tomorrow's lunar eclipse aka "blood moon" is going to be the first of four to occur this year and next.  This one happens to fall on the Jewish Passover.  The second one will fall on the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, and in 2015, the same pattern will occur with the other two blood moons.  Read the article that I got this from:  http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/469228/Four-blood-moons-Does-alignment-of-Mars-Earth-and-Sun-mean-the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh

So like some other people, I have been thinking about the references in the Bible to the blood moon and how it is a sign of the end.  Revelation 6:12:

12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,

Joel 2:10:
10 Before them the earth shakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine.

Now, with all this earth shaking, I am starting to wonder if the blood moon is related!  I'm not saying that the end is coming this year or the next, but I believe like Jesus told us in Matthew 24:8 that "all of this is the beginning of birth pains."

The other thing I've been thinking about is my personal spiritual life and the message that God has given to me and what I feel lead to share now.  Just a couple of weeks ago, I was preparing my Sunday school lesson and reading about Mt. Sinai and what the people of Israel had to do to prepare themselves before the LORD descended on the mountain.  Exodus 19:10-11 says, “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow.  Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.”  I kept thinking about that the people were commanded to wash their clothes; it just was interesting and stood out to me.

Not deferring from the subject, but lately I have been dealing with a lot of frustration and some depression about different things.  A lot of it is that I can't do the things I used to do before being a mother. Don't get me wrong; I love being a mother!  It's just that I don't get out of the house much, and I can't do much ministry because I have to stay home to take care of the baby.

But really, all my frustrations and disappointments come from one simple attitude:  my wanting to control everything.  Control is right up there with making an idol of oneself; I’m trying to be god and not wanting to submit to God’s will and His control. What else is frustrating about realizing this is seeing the wrong attitudes I have within me and not being able to change.

So, I have been pretty upset with myself and some days really depressed.  Long story short, I didn't really talk to anyone about it except Luis.  I had an opportunity to talk to one of my friends here about it, but I was too ashamed to talk to her about what all I was feeling. 

It just so happened that this past week this particular friend had a dream about me.  She said that in the dream Luis and I showed up to her place in our car.  When I got out of the car, she saw that I was dressed completely in white and that my hair and make-up was done up.  She said I looked so beautiful, and she got closer and started complimenting me.  When she got close, she noticed that my eyes were sad and it looked like I had been crying but tried to cover it up with the make-up.  She also noticed that the edges of my clothes were dirty.  Then, she started telling me, “Carmen, don’t be sad! God is your Comforter! You’re not alone! He’s with you and hears you when you are in your room.  He wants to free you.”  I started say, “I don’t know! I don’t know!”  Then, the dream ended.

I was astounded and in awe when she told me this.  I had not told her about any of my problems.  God was speaking to me through her!  He was answering my prayers and my cries to Him and reminding me of my worth in Him.  He is also answering my prayers of being freed from the things that live within me.

I keep thinking about the way I was dressed in white and, again, references to the Bible.  

Revelation 6:11:
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.

Revelation 7:14:
Then one of the elders asked me, ‘These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?’  I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’  And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

According to the Bible, the white robes represents the purity that we have in receiving the forgiveness of our sins and being "washed" in Christ's blood.  In the dream, I am dressed in all white but the edges are dirty.  My friend that had this dream told me that it represents something that's within me that's unresolved, or sin that I have not been freed from.  In other words, it’s the things that I haven’t handed over to Christ.  I haven’t figure out what it could be exactly except for maybe my wanting to control everything and my lack in trusting in Him.  But I am working to draw myself to Christ to figure out what that could be and to have Him cleanse me of it!

Revelation 3:1-6:

These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Friends, I wanted to share all of this with you, because it is time for all of us to wake up!  We need to be earnest and REPENT and come to Jesus!  We need to wash our clothes and get ready for His coming because He will come like a thief!  

Malachi 3:2-3, “But who can endure the day of his coming?  Who can stand when he appears?  For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launder’s soap.  He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.”  

Let's repent now instead of the day of His coming! Come to Jesus because He cares for you.  Our cleansing is not that we need to be called pure but that we are set free from the bonding of sin.  Many of us that are Christians say we believe in Christ and say that He is our Lord, but we still act as slaves to the darkness by refusing to repent and turn away from our sins and actually make Christ the Lord and Master of our lives.  We have to take up our crosses daily by crucifying the sin and disobedience that lives in us to the cross of Jesus.  Just like we take a shower or wash our own clothes, we have to continually come to repentance in Christ until the day He takes us home.

I hope that your eyes and your ears are open to this message and that you won't "Be ever hearing, but never understanding;be ever seeing, but never perceiving."(Isaiah 6:9). I hope that you come to know the fear of the Lord and as much the power of His mighty love for you.  He is a just God and cannot let unjust and rebellious acts go unpunished but He is "a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love." (Nehemiah 9:17) Call out to the One who loves you and ask for forgiveness, healing, and cleansing!

Thank you for reading. I pray you are blessed by it.  Please continue to remember us and Nicaragua in your prayers.
10 Make the heart