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This title describes a reality, but it doesn’t circumscribe exclusively to an external reality related to acts that occur and that we can see, but also to an internal reality, the internal state of people, when there is shaking in each one of them.
Since the 12th of January, 2010, Haiti has been the center of world attention thanks to the total destruction and death that the earthquake has left in this country.  Panic, lack of understanding, fear, uncertainty and questions without answers are the common denominator of a great percentage of society world-wide.  In the midst of this distressing scene the church of Jesus Christ should “understand the times” and act with the wisdom of the Lord.




1. PROPHECY YEAR 2009:

In the prophetic word of YEAR 2009 SIGN OF THE TIMES, the Lord spoke about the change of the nature of the times.  Upon observing that the start of year 2010 is confirming this change with extreme colds, destructive snowfalls in different parts of the world, the aforementioned catastrophe in Haiti, and similar happenings such as these, we can affirm that the entire world will continue experiencing many extraordinary events like the Lord has already announced.  However, the most relevant point for us as the Church of the Lord is not to get caught up in what will come, but to know how God wants us to act for the good of humanity.




2. HOW TO INTERPRET WORLD EVENTS:

There could exist a debate in our minds about trying to determine if the catastrophes and natural disasters that have happened and those that will continue to happen correspond to God’s judgment or not.  It is common to associate judgment with the execution of a punishment.  In order to correct this erroneous association it is necessary to define what judgment means. In order to do so, it’s necessary to make it clear that we are using the term judgment in a broad and inclusive way, to refer to all of the legal proceedings that are carried out in a case and that include just as much the PROCESS in itself as the SENTENCE determined by the judge.  Based on this affirmation, we define judgment in the following way:  The process by which a judge evaluates a case and analyzes the evidence that has been presented to him in order to deliver a corresponding sentence, decision or verdict; this ruling can be favorable or unfavorable for the defendant. 
Even though it might seem that this idea of judgment is exclusive to the justice practiced in human courts, it is the same procedure that God uses to analyze men’s actions, to evaluate them and to deliver a sentence.

a)  NOAH – Genesis 6:5-7, 11-12 (NIV):  
These passages describe with clarity that God established a judgment over         humanity. Nonetheless, his judgment was not arbitrary and without grounds, it was the consequence of the evil and continuous perversion of man. Verse 3 shows how in an instant, “God changed the nature of the times for mankind”, shortening mankind’s existence on earth to a maximum of 120 years. Once the great flood was over, when Noah came out of the ark and offered and presented an offering to the Lord, one can see how God made a sovereign decision in his heart about the future of humanity by saying: “…Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination in his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done” (Genesis 8:21, NIV).
Just mentioning this divine declaration allows us to determine that independently of God’s sovereignty in establishing judgment, He commits to never cursing the earth again nor destroying all living creatures completely, due to the wickedness of man.

b) NINEVEH – Jonah 1:2; 3:1-4, 5-10 (NIV):
The case of Nineveh shows us again that when God establishes a judgment, He does it with justification, since all the city of Nineveh had given themselves to evil ways. It is notable to observe that when Jonah went to Nineveh to declare the Word the Lord had given him (3:3-4), the king recognized the people’s evil and did not dare to defiantly demand of God “that He should forgive them”(3:9), rather with a humble attitude the king waited for God’s decision regardless of what it would be. The result was that by repenting from their hearts and by imploring God for mercy, the people received forgiveness and pardon from God’s judgment (3:10).

c)  GOD’S JUSTICE:
Taking into account what was described before, it is clear that God’s heart looks for the welfare and salvation of man, which is also confirmed by the Spirit from the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel when saying: “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the sovereign Lord. Rather am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? Because he considers all the offenses he has committed and turns away from them, he will surely live; he will not die” (Ezekiel 18:23, 28, NIV).
When reviewing the Old Testament and seeing the Lord commanding His people to destroy the idolaters and all those who rejected Him, could one believe that the God that is described to us in the Old Testament is not the same as the one presented in the New Testament? Could this be true?
The answer is an OVERWHELMING “NO”. God is Love; however, the fact that He loves us does not mean that He would ignore or put aside justice. For this reason, even before the earth’s creation, God himself came up with a plan to execute His justice with respect to sin. This plan was to send Jesus Christ to Earth to punish Him as if He would have been sin itself,  as a way to condemn sin in His body, by carrying in Himself the sin of the whole world (see Isaiah 53:5-6, Romans 8:3, II Corinthians 5:21).     
Even though Jesus Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension happened in a determined period of time in human history, His work transcends that specific period of time, because it was done in favor of all human beings of all the times. Upon this foundation, the Word affirms that Jesus Christ has authority to judge the living as well as the dead (see Acts 10:42; 17:31; II Timothy 4:1; I Peter 4:5-6, NIV). It is clear that the sacrifice of Jesus was done in favor of the entire world and for all ages. It is thanks to this majestic and transcendent act of unimaginable love that God’s justice was satisfied, and for which man was not destroyed by the Lord. John 3:16-19, 36 (NKJV): Even though it might seem redundant, it is important to note that God’s justice is “just”. God has done everything on His part for man to be saved; however, those who reject Jesus Christ and God’s demonstration of love through His works, is choosing to condemn himself, remaining under the wrath of God. In this way, it is confirmed that God IS LOVE and every act of judgment that God establishes comes from his pure justice, and it is THE SUBSEQUENT CONSEQUENCE of man’s deliberate decision to surrender to evil and to despise what God offers him.

d) IRREFUTABLE PRINCIPLE:
Romans 1:18-23, 25; 2:14-16 (NIV): When God created man He put in him His principles, conveniently equipping him by giving him a “spiritual instinct” (conscience),  to prevent him from falling into idolatrous practices that would make him turn from the true God and in this way lose communion with Him. These biblical passages assert that “… what may be known about God is plain to them, BECAUSE GOD HAS MADE IT PLAIN TO THEM” (v.19, emphasis added), so that “…men are without excuse” (v.20).
This irrefutable principle of God’s is evidence that it is unacceptable that man would attempt to excuse himself by saying that he did not find the true God because the Gospel was not preached to him, or because he is a “victim” of being taught to honor and practice his ancestor’s spiritual and religious traditions, or by stating that he is an atheist. A clear example that God has made Himself known to man is Abraham, who being a native of Ur of the Chaldeans where polytheism was practiced, learned to discard “other gods” and to find the true God WITHOUT THE NEED FOR ANYONE TO PREACH TO HIM ABOUT GOD.

e) For all these reasons mentioned so far, we do not doubt that God establishes judgments in order to determine a sentence for the actions of human beings.
Nonetheless, beyond the Lord’s decision to establish a particular judgment, human beings will always suffer THE CONSEQUENCES of their decisions. Although a given situation does not occur because of God’s judgment, the actions of human beings will always have consequences anyways. It is possible that while human beings are suffering as a result of their actions, they could also be subject to God’s judgment by receiving an unfavorable sentence; but it is necessary to understand that both are the CONSEQUENCES of their wickedness.    
When a society rejects the Lord, it is left to the mercy of its choices and of the consequences that will come upon it, because the decision of rejecting God is leading it to embrace the devil himself as “its god”. What can we conclude then? That regardless of whether people stray from God consciously or unconsciously, they will endure the consequences of surrendering themselves to the destructive government of the devil.  Satan pays back very badly, Jesus said it clearly when he referred to him and his destructive works by saying: “The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy” (John 10:10a, NKJV).

3. UNDERSTANDING WHAT WILL COME:

Isaiah 24:20-21 (NIV): It’s determined by God that the earth is on a path of destruction that is greater all the time and that the weight of her sin will catch up with her, since even the army of Satan and the kings of the earth will be judged by the Lord. 
What we are observing now are signs, samples of what the world will suffer from here on.  Upon considering everything that is happening and everything that will happen we can fall subject to a dangerous game of trying to develop an intellectual wisdom that is unproductive and foolish, that tries to interpret the “why” of all these things, of even the most profound divine plans.
I Corinthians 13: 2 affirms that even though the Lord might give us the privilege of receiving a revelation that enables us to determine if what has occurred in each nation is the judgment of God or not, the important thing for us does not lie in trying to have this knowledge, but in knowing how to express the love of the Lord in an evident way on the earth, as children of God.

4. THE RIGHT SPIRIT:

One of the most significant considerations that we could make is: What is our role as God’s children, faced with the suffering of the nations as a consequence of their rejection of the Lord?  Should we help them?  If we do, won’t we be interfering with the Lord’s plans?
There is a story that describes the experience of Jesus with two of his disciples when He wasn’t received well in Samaria that expresses: “And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?’ But He turned and rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.  For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.’ ” (Luke 9:54-56, NKJV).
Erroneously, James and John concluded that because of the attitude of not receiving Jesus, the Samaritans were deserving of a manifestation of God’s wrath, by which they should have been annihilated.  What Jesus is confronting in his disciples is not their way of acting, but, “the spirit that drove them to act this way,” because it did not reflect God’s love and the demonstration of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.  For that reason, the same Jesus finishes his rebuke by teaching them that He hasn’t come to lose human souls, but to save them.  Even being disciples and apostles, James and John did not know which spirit they belonged to, and were thus unable to reflect God correctly.  We should be conscious of the fact that there is an immense pain in the Lord’s heart for every kind of human suffering. 
Jonah 4:9-11 (NKJV): This story allows us to see a picture of what it means to not know “what kind of spirit we are from”.   
 The first was his condition of BEING SENT (APOSTLE), and the second, his condition of PROPHET, because he went to Nineveh sent by God with a prophetic word of blunt and decisive judgment.  However, his condition of apostle and prophet didn’t save him from being mistaken in his spirit, mind and attitude.  Even though Jonah’s success upon preaching to Nineveh was so resounding that the entire city repented, Jonah didn’t capitalize on this powerful act to allow his spirit, mind and attitude to be transformed by the Lord so that he would be an expression of God's heart.  He was a sad reflection of an apostle and prophet that was unable to correctly reflect God.  It was the Lord who had to teach Jonah how the Spirit of God is and how great his mercy is.




5. EXCLUSIVELY FOR CHILDREN:

When Jesus gave what we could call “the first seminar of the Kingdom”, there was present a multitude of people and the disciples (see Matthew 5:1, NKJV). 
They all heard the Lord when he started by saying: “Blessed…”(Matthew 5:3).  Indeed, this “first word” expressed by the Teacher describes the permanent state that could be experienced and enjoyed by those that complied with the conditions that Jesus was establishing, and that not only conformed to hearing the words. 
“blessed”, must know that to become so, the Lord provided irreplaceable parameters and did so in a specific order.  He did it in a way that the first condition cannot be ignored or passed over; on the contrary, it’s the irreplaceable and fundamental “door” to entering the Kingdom of God.  This condition is to be “poor in spirit”.  A person poor in spirit is he who recognizes himself as a sinner and admits his profound need for God, because he can’t help himself but through God and he cries out for divine forgiveness.  This forgiveness applied to his life makes him a child of God and allows him to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  In this way, he becomes a disciple of Christ, and as such is truly “blessed”, because he is completely equipped to practice each one of the Lord’s teachings.




6. THE MERCY OF THE KINGDOM:

In the example of Jonah analyzed before, it becomes evident that the spirit of mercy that should have driven him was absent.  Contrary to the experience of Jonah, Jesus emphasizes the importance of mercy upon saying: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”(Matthew 5:7, NKJV).  It’s as if the Teacher were looking to rescue the spirit that should have been present in Jonah, and that should characterize every child of the Kingdom. 
When defining mercy in a practical manner, we can affirm that it is a feeling of love and kindness towards those who suffer and it is evident in acts of kindness.  Witness Lee summarizes it as such: “To be just is to give to someone what they deserve, while being merciful is to give to someone more than they deserve”.
Any person can carry out acts of mercy, but true mercy can only be exercised by children of the Kingdom, because they have experienced God’s mercy in their lives, and for this reason can be merciful with others. 
Matthew 9:9-13 (NKJV): The Pharisees felt irritated by the close relationship between Jesus and the publicans.  They were too blind to see that the attitude of Jesus towards the tax collectors was really an expression of mercy. 
Where did the blindness of the Pharisees lie?  In the fact that they considered themselves “so righteous and pure”, that they couldn’t understand that their neighbor (each publican and sinner) needed an act of mercy that would heal them and not an act of judgment that would condemn them. 
To judge the needy instead of showing them God’s mercy is religiosity.




7. OPPOSING JUSTICES:

Matthew 5:20 (NKJV): Jesus establishes an intimate relationship between justice and the Kingdom of God.  He bluntly emphasizes that “…unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven”.   That’s to say that the entrance of God’s Kingdom has a “door” called justice, and without the conscious practice of this justice that the Lord requires of his children, the “door” to enter into the Kingdom doesn’t exist. 
It’s important to note that for the Jewish society of that time, the practiced justice by the Pharisees was the highest model to follow.  However, Jesus taught his disciples that they should aspire to a greater justice, because the Pharisee’s justice wasn’t of the appropriate standard.   This affirmation of Jesus was shocking because it completely undermined what the people considered to be the highest level of justice. 
It’s because of this fact that Jesus contrasts the justice practiced by the Pharisees with the justice practiced by the disciples.  The Pharisees rigidly carried out God’s law; hence the justice they practiced consisted of righteous and just acts according to their criteria, which they showed publicly.  By submitting “to the letter of the law” they tried to make it look like they were following divine rules, doing the right thing, but not with a right heart.  For the Pharisees, to practice justice was the objective in and of itself.  Jesus is categorical in affirming that whoever practices this justice, WILL NOT ENTER the Kingdom of Heaven.  On the contrary, the justice practiced by the children of the Kingdom is GREATER, because it is evidence of the nature of God that lives in them, and that their acts of justice come from their love of justice and to ensure the welfare of their fellow man.  This type of justice is not satisfied with only the fulfillment of righteous acts, but it OVERFLOWS in a tangible demonstration of the Father’s love through his children and also shows them as worthy of the Kingdom of God.
The level of justice that the Pharisees understood and practiced was something “merely external”, a product of a human interpretation of the divine law, through which they limited the true meaning of doing justice to the “completion of righteous acts”.  On the other hand, the justice of the Kingdom of God is totally different, it implies that he who performs acts of kindness, intimately loves kindness; he who does acts of holiness, loves holiness; he who works for the good of his neighbor, loves his neighbor. 
Hebrews 1:8-9 (NIV), confirms that “the Son” loved justice and hated evil.  Therefore, “the children” prove to be like Him because what they possess deep inside is reflected on the outside as their works come from loving justice and despising evil, showing in this way that they possess the same essence of the Son’s nature.
’s Kingdom.  But in addition to that, the spiritual understanding expands when seeing that the Kingdom’s gate is opened by the new birth and the super abundant practice of the kind of justice that demonstrates our status as God’s children.




8. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY:

Luke 6:27-28, 36 (NKJV): This is part of the ample teachings of the Kingdom that Jesus was imparting, and from which we can extract some fundamental principles for those of us who have the privilege of being God’s children:

• LOVE OUR ENEMIES
• DO GOOD TO THOSE WHO HATE US
• BLESS THOSE WHO CURSE US
• PRAY FOR THOSE WHO SPITEFULLY USE US (MISTREAT US)
• BE MERCIFUL

To love, to do good, to bless, to pray and to be merciful are fundamental principles of the Kingdom and their significance is such that they should be practiced for the good of even the worst enemy.
The constant practice of these principles is not a result of a learned behavior, but because we are children like the Father, it should flow naturally. How does the heavenly Father treat all men, even the evil and the unjust? The answer is simple and at the same time powerful:

“…he makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mathew 5:45). The way God behaves appears to be imperfect to the human mind because it seems unfair, but for God it is perfect because it expresses His nature. For this reason, Jesus demands His disciples to be perfect like their heavenly Father (see Mathew 5:48).
The children are not “perfect” due to human effort so that they can practice these principles, but by their likeness to the Father, through which they project their lives and their works.  It is important to note that Jesus considers God’s children only those who are and behave like the heavenly Father, because by behaving in this way they show that the nature that dwells within them, and for which they live and behave, is PERFECT.
Being aware that Ephesians 2:8-9 says: “…for by grace you have been saved through faith…NOT OF WORKS, lest anyone should boast” (NKJV, emphasis added), it seems that there is a contradiction with Jesus’ statement: “…that you may be sons of your Father in heaven” (Mathew 5:45, NKJV), which refers to the requirement of doing good works. However, in these two truths there is nothing contradictory.
It is true that the condition of being God’s children is received by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, but it is also true that being God’s children is shown through works.  If the practice of these five principles is absent in the life of someone who considers himself to be a child of God, he is deceived and his status as child is “theological” but not experimental, and therefore is not genuine. What was said by Jesus does not allow for shortcuts since there is NO OTHER WAY to express divine affiliation.
There is no better way to summarize this than by what was expressed by the Lord Himself by saying: “Let your light so shine before men, that they see good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Mathew 5:16).

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