Your Pastor May Be Preparing His Message As You Read This....Won't You Join Me In Praying For Him?

             As the story goes.....and as I have related so many times in these posts of over twelve years....someone once asked Martin Luther something like this...."Father Martin....if you knew that Jesus was coming back tomorrow.....what would you do?"....upon which Luther answered...."I would plant a tree."
            On the one hand we are to act as if the years will continue to keep on rolling along....as we make plans for our children's education....or for our retirement....and even that we might elect godly men and women to our governments both local and national. I planted a tree a few months ago....and my wife and I contribute to a college fund for our grandson....and I will continue to vote....Lord willing of course....for sane God-fearing individuals.
            Trivia question....what television detective would often say...."I could be wrong.....but I don't think so."? Hint....it wasn't the monk Martin Luther. I myself am closing in on forty years of studying prophesy. This study has evolved greatly over the years....as in the beginning one tends to run with prophesy....but as the decades roll on....and maturity hopefully sets in....one tends to walk very slowly....realizing the limits of what God has revealed....but also realizing that this is still God's Word....and there is a purpose.
             Looking back on everything that has transpired in the twentieth century....right up to today....Israel included....an at times demonic technology included....as well as the violent world that we see before us just as in Noah's day....any 'fanaticism' would be in a fanaticism to at all costs....and in spite of all evidence....deny that the world is about to experience God's wrath. That's right....the real fanatic today isn't the one saying Maranatha....it's the one who refuses to even consider God's warnings in spite of all the evidence from His Word that He must surely be near in His return.
             The specifics of the Lord's return are in God's Word....they are just not revealed as of yet....although at times it's as if one can see the fog dissolving right before our eyes....and we shouldn't want it any other way....for God's timing is always perfect. We can at one time be a people who outwardly appear as normal as all the rest as we make plans for the future....but at the same time we are not to be 'normal' in our hearts and in our hopes....as we live and work and try to be an influence to our culture....but always and only as pilgrims on their way to the Celestial City.
             Tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day....will you join me even now in praying....as so many pastors are working on the message they will give....that God's Spirit might open their eyes as to the specific needs of the sheep with false prophets all around....that they will bring to us both law and gospel....sadness at what has happened but joy as to what Jesus has promised....both hope and warnings....to both comfort yet awaken?