Japan is a Prophetic Sign for CHRISTIANS...not for the world

This morning I heard the Lord say:

"What you see and hear coming out of Japan is a sign for Christians. Many think it's a sign for the world, but there is a clear message coming from this for you and all who believe."

Some of those signs I believe are:

• Be ready for you know not the day nor hour. It happens suddenly. Destruction. Death. Tragedy.
• Stay righteous before God for that day...repentance will be lost in the turmoil. Be prayed up.
• All preparations of man are nothing in the face of ultimate turmoil...your only shelter is in GOD
• Consider what the scene would be if this happened in LA, Chicago or Detroit. Would you see what you see in the way people react in Japan in these cities or would there be looting and rape.
• What has been preached as the Gospel of Jesus has had little effect on the culture. When people are in pain and strife their true character emerges. When there has been catastrophes in the USA the culture has shown itself to be lacking, even where the Gospel has been taught well.
• The Japanese will never accept the claims of Jesus when they see the witness of what it has wrought. Who you are speaks so loudly they can't hear what you say.
• Why would the Japanese want anything you have to offer other than music and movies for entertainment when everything in your so called "Christian Culture" reeks of self promotion and division?
• You do not understand that they see you as grossly inferior to them culturally and for reasons that are demonstrated by their response to pain and suffering compared to ours

Church of Jesus. Your message is lost to the world because you are lost in the World. Until you demonstrate transformation of your culture you will remain powerless and useless to the propagation of the great commission in the world. What discipling can you do to a lost generation in Japan who cannot accept what you say because of who you are?

A story from Japan that came out of this recently: A man needing water went into the grocery store to buy water. There were ten left on the shelf. He grabbed all ten and went to check out. Then he thought, "If I take all ten, there will be none left for anyone else". He put back Eight and bought two. I know what would happen in the USA. I know what happens on Black Friday after Thanksgiving. Casualties of greed every year.

Images of looting after Katrina, gangs, mobs, riots, destruction are fed to the world muting anything the church might try to say.

This is a sign to the Church. IF we fail to break down the dividing walls of US and THEM, if we fail to become ONE we will have no power to offer anything to anyone.

It's not about compromise. It's about ceasing to see others as OTHER.

And helping them see YOU as US.

IT starts with you.

Or we will remain impotent tolerating evil in our churches in America.

I had such a sense of God in this. You can judge the word for yourself. IF we read the signs in the Japanese reactions to the quake and Tsunami, we can become what we are not now.

We should be the Signs and Wonders to a lost world. We aren't there yet....I have hope.