I'd like to challenge you in this post. I hope that it makes you a little uncomfortable. I hope also that as I type that it makes me uncomfortable because something is amiss in the American church. Are we really looking forward to...even yearning for the return of Jesus Christ in power and glory? What is your answer? I submit to you that just about all of us would hesitatingly say yes but quickly follow that up with well thought-out reasoning on why twenty or thirty years from now is a more likely scenario.
Surely the church of the first few centuries would not hesitate and would be disappointed if twenty or thirty years seemed to be a possibility. I submit to you also that many persecuted Christians around this world are closing their eyes and hoping that our coming King returns even before morning.
Our very human nature certainly comes into play here for we are surely frail in many things and the topic of this post is one of them. For that young mother and even that first time grandfather or grandmother it is hard to disassociate for even a moment with the joys that God has given in the births of these children. This also is natural and good and wonderful! I am not saying or even inferring that God is sorely displeased as we enjoy the fruits he has bestowed upon us. I'm saying that it would be for our greater benefit and a future joy unimaginable to us if we saw more clearly the spirit engulfing this age and what may lie ahead...very near ahead.
So it might make one uncomfortable to ponder upon what is happening right now to multitudes of our brothers and sisters in Christ? Secure as we might be in America, and that security is eroding every day, we are not alone in this world. Christianity is under assault almost everywhere in one form or another. Even as I type, the horrors of severe and even mortal persecution are testing these children of God to the very limits.
Meditating on this question will not be easy, particularly if studying God's Word is added to it, for what one would find is that if our King is indeed at the very doorstep then what would precede His return here on earth was enough to make prophets of old weep and become sick as they were given glimpses of those days.
Ultimately, God wants us to be aware of these things and he Has promised to be with those who go through them. Indeed, He has warned us through his Word not to be taken unawares. My inferences here in these posts are simply that we all should incorporate this part of Scripture into our memory banks, and study enough so that we are not taken by surprise....should.....this world soon meet face-to face....its Creator and Judge!
Surely the church of the first few centuries would not hesitate and would be disappointed if twenty or thirty years seemed to be a possibility. I submit to you also that many persecuted Christians around this world are closing their eyes and hoping that our coming King returns even before morning.
Our very human nature certainly comes into play here for we are surely frail in many things and the topic of this post is one of them. For that young mother and even that first time grandfather or grandmother it is hard to disassociate for even a moment with the joys that God has given in the births of these children. This also is natural and good and wonderful! I am not saying or even inferring that God is sorely displeased as we enjoy the fruits he has bestowed upon us. I'm saying that it would be for our greater benefit and a future joy unimaginable to us if we saw more clearly the spirit engulfing this age and what may lie ahead...very near ahead.
So it might make one uncomfortable to ponder upon what is happening right now to multitudes of our brothers and sisters in Christ? Secure as we might be in America, and that security is eroding every day, we are not alone in this world. Christianity is under assault almost everywhere in one form or another. Even as I type, the horrors of severe and even mortal persecution are testing these children of God to the very limits.
Meditating on this question will not be easy, particularly if studying God's Word is added to it, for what one would find is that if our King is indeed at the very doorstep then what would precede His return here on earth was enough to make prophets of old weep and become sick as they were given glimpses of those days.
Ultimately, God wants us to be aware of these things and he Has promised to be with those who go through them. Indeed, He has warned us through his Word not to be taken unawares. My inferences here in these posts are simply that we all should incorporate this part of Scripture into our memory banks, and study enough so that we are not taken by surprise....should.....this world soon meet face-to face....its Creator and Judge!
