OUR TIME IS UP

The cool thing is that if you are a true Christian believer, God will take care of you in the wilderness for 3½ years while all those things that Jesus told John about are happening. And that's why I'm glad I'm here, because I am a believer and I wouldn't want anybody but God taking care of me.

I've learned a lot of things since I've been here. The bad people who I told you about earlier, have a mark that they want you to take. They put it in your right hand or in your forehead. They won't let you buy or sell anything if you don't have it, but if you take it, then you belong to the devil and you won't go to heaven. I'd rather starve than belong to the devil. He wants to own everyone in the world. He won't own me.

It's a funny thing. I look around at all the people who are here in the cave. Some people used to be very important people to the world. Some were lawyers, doctors, business people, and some are just regular folks like me, only adults. Well everyone is pretty much the same now. God doesn't care if you're a big shot, or just a little person. It's what is in your heart that counts to Him.

You can see the people who used to be important, they think a lot. When we first got here, they talked a lot, like they still wanted to be as important as their old jobs made them think they were. Like the Bible says, at the end, people will be eating and drinking and buying and selling and planting and building, just as if the world is gonna go on forever. I know those same people are now thinking that they wasted all their life trying to be important in a way that wasn't important to God.

God takes good care of us out here. Just when it seems like there won't be enough food, or firewood or water, something happens and it all works out fine. It always reminds me of the story where Jesus fed thousands of people with just a few fish and a few loaves of bread, and there was still leftovers.

I pray a lot now. I didn't used to. When we first got here, I thought I was going to die of boredom, but there was more to learn and do than I thought. We made a sun dial, because there aren't any clocks. We play games with rocks, like you would with marbles, and sometimes it's more fun than video games. There isn't a TV or radio. There aren't computers or refrigerators or microwaves. It's the wilderness.

Sometimes people have gone to get things for us. I don't know how they get them because nobody here has the mark, but they come back with different kinds of things every time. Some people just couldn't take it here, and after a while, they went back and took the mark, just so they could eat more or buy cigarettes or something. I'll never take the mark, no matter what. They'll be sorry.

Jerry doesn't like it here. He's always fighting with his Mom and Dad and never wants to do any work. He sure acts spoiled now. Now that he can't have things, he wants everything. I tried to talk to him but he keeps telling me he just wasn't cut out for this kind of living. I explained to him that it will all be worth it in the end, but he won't believe it. He stares off into space more than ever now. I pray that he doesn't leave and take the mark.  

Paul is a different story. His Mom and Dad were almost never home before the End Times began. He was always either home alone or spending the night or weekend somewhere. Even though people thought he was going to be trouble here, he surprised them. He was just so scared because things were so weird the day that Zeke disappeared, that he didn't know what else to do.

I've known Paul all my life, and even though sometimes he was rowdy, he has a good heart. I don't think Paul even believed in Jesus when we first got here, but he's definitely a Christian now. Maybe Paul is the one that Jerry's Dad was talking about, because we've spent a lot of time together just talking since all of this started and Paul is like a different person. He sure knows how to fend for himself and he loves to work around the cave and the camp.

Neither one of us had seen our parents for a while now so we kind of felt like we were supposed to stick together. Paul started reading the Bible with me more and more and we've learned more since we've been here, than we had in all our years of school put together. Paul even teaches some of the younger kids Bible stories every afternoon to give the parents time to rest or do work that they can't do with the little ones under foot. I had to stop him once from putting rocks in his nostrils to make them laugh, but he'll be alright.

Lots of people are still out there without the mark, but didn't make it to the wilderness either. Some will die because of their belief in Jesus, but they will go to heaven. The people who don't ask forgiveness for their sins, will go to a place called the Lake of Fire, forever.

Jerry just told me a little while ago that he's going to leave and take the mark. Paul and I tried everything to change his mind, but he just doesn't want to listen. When I showed him the part in the Bible about the Lake of Fire, he just rolled his eyes at me and walked away. His Mom and Dad and Jesus are going to be so sad. I'll pray about it even more. God gives all of us the chance to choose. I hope Jerry will choose God.

God said that His people will be tested. I think that's because He wants to be sure that His angels will not trade Him for anything. That's why He sent the Great Flood in Noah's time, is because a bunch of the angels traded being in Heaven with God to come down to the earth and be bad. And satan, well, satan was God's perfect angel, once upon a time. But then, he decided he wanted to be better than God. He's so jealous of God, that he goes around the world doing everything he can to try and win people's souls from God.

The wilderness is a really good test. People think they are really strong, and they can really make you believe it with their words, but will they do anything for God? When Moses led God's people through the wilderness, it was for 40 years. They disappointed God many times. I'm not going to disappoint Him. Whoever believes in Jesus through the End Times and doesn't take the mark, gets to live forever with Him and God. I think 3½ years isn't a long time at all compared to forever.