Tag: judgment

  • New Christian Thriller “Blood Falls” Available on Amazon

    New Christian Thriller “Blood Falls” Available on Amazon

     

    Arrow, Idaho, June 5, 2023 – The award-winning Christian thriller “Blood Falls” by Pam Thorson is now available for purchase at Amazon.com.

    Death stalks the streets. Looting and rioting decimate the cities. Store shelves sit empty as citizens hoard supplies and water. Nations seethe in unrest.

    The year? Pick a recent date. World events have rocked our planet, created palpable anxiety, and fueled new hunger to understand the coming Apocalypse as revealed in the Bible. Pam Thorson’s novel “Blood Falls” weaves Revelation prophecies and rich settings into a fast-paced novel of the Tribulation after the Rapture.

    “Blood Falls” is intended for a generation yearning for the Lord’s return in this tense hour of world history. It offers a real-world and Bible-based scenario of last days events presented through the lens of an engaging fictional thriller. Within its pages lies murder, mystery, end-times intrigue, and an unexpected twist. Spanning the Frozen Continent to the Lost City, “Blood Falls” will entertain, inspire, and challenge today’s reader.

     

    What Readers Are Saying

     

    I thoroughly enjoyed the book!

    “I’m usually hesitant to read end times fiction…so I approached Blood Falls with a measure of caution. Its mystery/thriller tone grabbed me from the first chapter.”

    Mark Brewster

    Pastor, Shepherd’s Rest Oasis/Life Impact Ministries

     

    I loved Blood Falls!

    “Thorson has crafted a very believable apocalyptic tale that had me scrutinizing news stories and current-day catch phrases. She successfully mixes intrigue, natural calamity, and character struggles with Biblical teachings on the end times. Blood Falls is a fast-paced, hard-to-put down story.”

    Ida Smith

    Author of “Guarding What Remains” and the “Neil Gatlin Thriller” Series

     

    About the Author

    Pam Thorson is a nurse, full-time caregiver, speaker, and author of four books. Her latest book “Blood Falls” earned a top award in the Oregon Christian Writers 2021 Cascade contest and a semi-finalist spot in the American Christian Fiction Writers 2022 Genesis contest. She is a regular contributor for the Christian music website cmaddict.com. Pam lives in the Northwest with her family.

     

  • Slightly Obsessed #249: Some Are Born to Weep

    Slightly Obsessed #249: Some Are Born to Weep

     

    Oh that my head were waters
    And my eyes a fountain of tears,
    That I might weep day and night
    For the slain of the daughter of my people!

    – Jeremiah 9:1

    It’s Okay to Cry

    He is known as the weeping prophet. Born in Anathoth, the son of a Hebrew priest, Jeremiah lived approximately 650 to 570 B.C. His ministry spanned the reigns of five kings of Judah: Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. 

        

    God called him from his youth to warn Israel of His anger at their idolatry and the impending judgment upon them if they didn’t repent. He suffered much for his obedience to God’s Word, persecuted by his own people. For decades his preaching fell on deaf ears.

     

    Then, as Jeremiah had prophesied, Jerusalem fell captive to a foreign king.

     

    Some are born to see and understand things beyond the natural realm of humanity’s senses.

    They feel pain deeper, sorrow harder over injustice, and hear the groaning of creation in a way most don’t.

     

    Those who don’t know what to do with the pain live in depression. Those who understand the source, hear the Word of God, and receive the work of the Comforter live in great power.

     

    These are the intercessors, the advocates, the men and women who follow after the heart of God.

    They see His tears. They hear His grief over a dying world. They weep with Him. They have the courage to see what the Father sees, to feel what He feels, to be His hands and feet and voice to a world spinning out of control. When others run from danger, they run toward it to warn and rescue the perishing.

     

    Their pain inspires them to positive action. Their suffering inspires them to love deeper, to speak the truth in gentleness.

     

    If you look out over your world today and feel like crying, it’s okay. In fact, it’s good. Some people, like Jeremiah, were born to weep. Let your tears wash away the self-centeredness that is common to us all and inspire you to prayer more, love deeper, and speak the Word in truth.

     

    Our planet is dying. Billions of people will die with it without ever knowing the Savior.

     

    It’s good to grieve.

     

     

    Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.

    – Ecclesiastes 1:18

     

     

  • Slightly Obsessed #225: Why Lightning Doesn’t Strike the Wicked

    Slightly Obsessed #225: Why Lightning Doesn’t Strike the Wicked

    But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

    But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

    But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

    – 2 Peter 3:7-10

    This morning the sun groaned a bit as she arose heavily from her bed behind the mountains that guard the valley where I live.

    The day was a bit shorter, the darkness longer. I sat at the computer with my first cup of steaming coffee and sadly skimmed through the news.

    Too much heartache and destruction met my eyes. It’s a good thing I’m not God. I would have torched us a long time ago.

    I understand, at least theologically, why He holds back His hand in judgment. Not only is He executing a plan conceived before the foundation of the world, His Creator-heart grieves at having to destroy His creation. He longs for every person to be saved from an eternity in hell. To that end, He endures the vulgarities, the blasphemies, the brutalities against His kingdom as His Spirit strives with the souls of men for their salvation. With the same humility exhibited by Christ at His sacrificial death, the Father remains quiet under the arrogant assault of sinners against Him and His kingdom.

    He knows what’s coming.

    Several years ago, a popular radio personality had a public meltdown in which he vehemently damned God. When questioned by his shocked listeners, he continued to curse. He crowned the diatribe by flinging a challenge at God to strike him down at that very moment. He smugly interpreted the silence that followed and his continuing existence as proof there is no God.

    He didn’t know the magnitude of grace that filled the silence.

    God could have quenched his life with a single word. But the Lord is not a capricious sovereign. He cares for humanity, all of it, depraved and so very lost as it is. The Lord holds open the door to heaven and waits for us lost sinners to find our way home.

    One day, the door will close, and that man will stand before the Judge of heaven and earth. He will remember the day that he cursed and challenged that which he did not understand. He will know why God did not strike him down. He will see the magnificent grace that took the abuse and offered forgiveness to the abuser. He will understand all he lost and all he could have had.

    Then, it will be too late. Today, the door stands open. Forgiveness awaits.

     

  • Slightly Obsessed #176: Why Noah Should Matter to Us

    Slightly Obsessed #176: Why Noah Should Matter to Us

     

    Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

    – Genesis 6:22

     

    Noah had already lived much of his life when God called him to build the ark.

    He was not a young man when the fate of humanity was placed upon his shoulders. It was a fearful assignment, an overwhelming duty. What God had told him in secret, he spent decades building in obedience to His word.

    We don’t know how much help, if any, Noah had building the massive ship. He certainly didn’t have power tools or a Home Depot nearby stocked with precut gopher wood and nails. There would be no hamburger drive-thru for him to pick up a quick lunch on a long day. There wasn’t even a hot tub in which to soak his old bones each evening.

    How impossible the task must have been, this thing that lay so heavily on Noah’s heart. How crazy he must have appeared to his neighbors and friends. How very alone he must have felt.

    There must have been many dark days when doubt raged, and he questioned his own ability to go on. The temptation to quit must have been very strong.

    But Noah knew one thing. He knew what God had told him to do. He knew he had to expend every fiber of his being in obedience, trusting God would give him the strength to finish. Nothing else mattered except that the last nail was pounded into the wood, humanity’s preservation complete.

    Thousands of years later, another carpenter walked the earth.

    His directive from God was much the same. Like Noah, His job would be a lonely one. There would be no relief from the duty, no release from the burden, no call from heaven to stop the judgment about to fall.

    When the last nail was in place, humanity’s salvation complete, He cried, “It is finished.”

    This is the greater ark, a permanent rescue and safe landing in a new heaven and earth. It is the one-way ride to eternal life through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the storm clouds gather around us, as the forces of destruction assemble before us, the door to deliverance stands open to anyone who wants to enter.

    But this door will not remain open forever.

    Noah’s friends and neighbors must have mocked him as he and his family made the last step of obedience and entered the ark. For a week, the little group waited inside, while God allowed one more chance for others to join them. As the door stood open, the world danced and ate and drank and caroused and wasted their chance to live. Then God closed the door behind Noah and his family, and judgment fell.

    A greater judgment is coming soon, more fearsome than anything we have ever known. Society laughs at Christ as she dances on her own grave. Her world is about to fall, but she seems not to care salvation awaits with its door wide open, a door God will close suddenly, in an hour of His choosing.

    As followers of Christ, we can’t know the hour or day of His return.

    But we can show others the door.

     

  • Slightly Obsessed #124: When Justice Comes Slowly

    Slightly Obsessed #124: When Justice Comes Slowly

    Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.

    – Ecclesiastes 8:11

    Be sure your sin will find you out.

    – Numbers 32:23

    He sat waiting just outside the circle of the streetlight, poised in the shadows like a viper in black.

    I happened to see him as I pulled up to a stop sign and waited for the traffic to clear. I was careful to signal and look both ways before pulling out onto the highway.

    Before I did, though, a shockwave of blue and red lights erupted in the night sky. The trap was sprung on a car that had just accelerated by me as I waited. I pulled out, switched lanes, and maneuvered past the police cruiser and the fast little red Corvette sitting in misery in its headlights.

    Swift justice is sweet—if I’m not the one in the hot seat.

    We all love to see justice served quickly. We just want it served on someone else. We’re hoping for mercy for ourselves. After all, we can come up with some good excuses for the bad decisions we make. Most of us tend to magnify the sins of others and minimize our own, and it frustrates us when we are caught in our misdeeds while others appear to skate unscathed past the rules. It’s especially frustrating when God seems to ignore injustice around us.

    There are at least two reasons God’s justice comes slowly:

    God does not take pleasure in punishing people.

    2 Peter 2:9 tells us “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” He holds open the door as long as possible before He shuts it. He gives us every chance to turn away from sin. He longs to show us mercy.

    Slow justice reveals our hearts.

    Will we serve God out of love, or out of fear? If He holds back disciplining us, will we praise Him for His patience or push the limits of our boundaries even farther?

    To what will our hearts be fully devoted, if given the chance?

    God alone is capable of perfectly executing righteousness with mercy. He sees the end from the beginning and the deepest motive of the whitest heart. He loves deeply and works endlessly to bring justice to His beautiful Earth.

    In His time.

     

    Though the mills of God grind slowly;
    Yet they grind exceeding small;
    Though with patience He stands waiting,
    With exactness grinds He all.

    – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

     

  • Slightly Obsessed #116: What Do You Battle?

    Slightly Obsessed #116: What Do You Battle?

    For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God.

    -1 Peter 4:17

    One flag comes down. Another goes up. And everyone has an opinion.

    Battle lines are being drawn everywhere as the States formerly known as United become a nation polarized by competing ideologies.

    Christians have, understandably, felt threatened by the increasingly hostile environment in which we live. The natural response is to fight back.

    But I can’t help but wonder if we are fighting the wrong battle.

    We’re up in arms against homosexuality, but we choose to look the other way when heterosexual Christian couples live together outside of marriage. We shake our heads at crime in the streets, yet we don’t know where our own children are. We decry abortion but sacrifice our own babies on the altar of our ambitions because we’re just too busy to care.

    Do Christians really want to throw stones at unbelievers from a house of glass?

    Yes, we must oppose sin and take a stand against evil. It’s important to fight for the faith. And what is faith?

    “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” – Hebrews 11:1

    The battlefield for Christianity lies at our feet, as we choose each day whether or not to believe what we can’t see; to follow a commander we’ve never met; to rout the principalities that threaten the sovereignty of God over our hearts.

    It’s so much easier to take on the enemy without than it is to challenge the enemy within, isn’t it?

    What do you battle today?

    Whatever it is, Jesus Christ extends His grace to you. He has promised to vanquish your enemy, whether it is substance abuse, sexual impurity, pride, lies, discouragement, or anything else that assaults your soul. He has paid a high price for your victory. Let Him win it for you.

    Open His letters and allow His Spirit to speak. He has promised to fight for us, and He has something to say.

     

    The battle is not yours but God’s.

    – 2 Chronicles 20:15

  • Slightly Obsessed #115: Before the Gavel Falls

    Slightly Obsessed #115: Before the Gavel Falls

    Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.

    – Ecclesiastes 8:11

     

    He asked the question, but his voice filled with mocking.

    The Canadian wondered why Canada hadn’t earned judgment from God for its decade of marrying gay people, given the loud warnings of impending judgment upon America for its recent approval of gay marriage.

    The implied message: Judgment isn’t coming.

    Judgment is coming, though not specifically because of the new fad in sexual orientation. The Bible tells us a day is coming when God will bring justice to this world, both rewarding the good deeds of those who loved Him and executing a sentence against the evil acts of those who didn’t.

    But for now, at this moment, we live in the age of grace.

    “After the flood, before the fire, you’ll find us in time,” Dogwood sang back in 1975. We’re still there, between the genesis of humanity and the revelation of Jesus Christ in all His glory. As the age drags on, God’s grace on the nations is seen by some as a sign of His weakness, His approval of their lifestyles, or His nonexistence.

    Because we haven’t been brought before the Judge yet, we think we’re free. Because God restrains His power, we think Him impotent. Like children testing our limits, we grow bolder when our misdeeds are met with His benevolence.

    As we lurch toward destruction, we slap away the hand reaching down to rescue us.

    We believe we can do this by ourselves. We don’t need a daddy or an advocate. It’s all under control.

    Until the day we meet the Judge.

    Thus I will punish the world for its evil,
    And the wicked for their iniquity;
    I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud,
    And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.

    – Isaiah 13:11

     

  • Slightly Obsessed #112: Silence of the Lamb

    Slightly Obsessed #112: Silence of the Lamb

     

    When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

    – Revelation 8:1

     

    Heaven is a busy place.

    At least, that’s what the Bible says. According to the Scriptures, it’s the true center of the universe, where angels regularly present themselves to God (Job 1:6; 2:1). Since there are ten thousand times ten thousand angels, it must be quite a process to acknowledge them all.

    There is at least one trouble-maker there. Job and Revelation 12:10 tell us Satan accuses believers before God night and day. Added to that are the millions of prayers of Christians rising to Him constantly. Revelation 5:11 speaks of the praise of myriads of angels and the elders around the throne. Heaven is filled with the sounds of praise, warfare, and prayer.

     All this, and not even a sparrow falls on earth without His notice.

    The book of Revelation foretells seven seals which contain judgments brought upon the earth in the last days. The seventh seal opens a horrific series of judgments heralded by seven trumpet blasts. Much death and suffering will come to those who have rejected God.

    God is reluctant to bring down His creation. Although mankind has turned against Him and committed the vilest acts imaginable, He endures the evil and offers forgiveness—even now. Today, the door stands open to life and an escape from the coming wrath.

    How He must hate to end the offering of grace! How long He has waited for us to repent. No one is beyond God’s love. He holds out hope for the soul who yearns to be pulled from the edge of destruction.

    At the last, when the door must close, the moment is so solemn that even heaven falls silent.

    Is this a time of mourning what must be done? Is it grief for all who will perish without hope?

    Or is God listening for that last voice who will call out His name?

     

  • Slightly Obsessed #069: Blood Moon

    Slightly Obsessed #069: Blood Moon

     

    The sun will be turned into darkness
    And the moon into blood
    Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.

    – Joel 2:31

     

    They predicted a bad moon rising.

    More specifically, a “blood moon.” I really didn’t want to awaken from a deep sleep to gaze at the skies. But I had asked my husband a few hours earlier to awaken me to see the lunar eclipse with him. So I stumbled downstairs to witness the rising of the blood moon everyone was talking about.

    The fitful night sky cooperated with us, parting the occasional sea of clouds long enough for us to get a good look at the spectacle. It would have been an interesting sight at any time, but this one had been propelled into the news by a book connecting the tetrad phenomenon (a string of four partially or completely eclipsed moons) with the Jewish Passover and end-times events.

    Scriptures from the book of Joel, Acts, Matthew 24:29-30, and Revelation 6:12 do warn of terrible signs and wonders in the sky, including references to the moon, as heralding the coming “day of the Lord,” the return of Christ. There is a problem, however, with connecting these Scriptures with a lunar eclipse.

    The Bible makes it plain that during the traumatic last days before Christ’s return, the blood moon will only be a part of a cataclysmic judgment executed upon a rebel world. The earth will be in complete turmoil, reeling from war, pestilence, famine, and disasters on an epic scale.

    Stars (probably meteors or asteroids) will fall to the earth. Much of the world’s water supply will be polluted. Many animals and people will die. There will be a great earthquake so powerful it will move islands and mountains out of their places.

    It will be a time marked by fear for those who rejected the gift of redemption offered by God through His Son, Jesus Christ. They will not be standing on their porches admiring the moon. According to Revelation 6:15, they will be running into caves and praying to the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb.

    If anything, last night’s display is a solemn reminder the grace of God won’t last forever.

    Today He is mocked and ignored by an arrogant generation. He waits in silence, holding out His hand and beckoning us to come to safety. But one day, without warning, the door will close.

    And God will judge with a heavy heart.

    The blood moon tetrad phenomenon is a beautiful display of God’s creative power. But if we’re looking for signs and wonders, we haven’t seen anything yet.