I'm stuck in the house today....to use that aphorism....so I'll use the time for a little ruminating. Here is the understatement of this new century.....'these are not normal times!' Like it or not....you are the generation....and I am of the generation.....that will usher in the Second Coming.....and everything associated with it. This is our December 7, 1941 moment....in spades! We cannot just say....as we always do....'just trust in God'....when we not only are not fully aware of what the Lord's coming entails....but are not even particularly interested. The prophesied delusion alone should send chills down our spine. Whatever we 'expect' to happen....we can just throw out the window....because God's normal way is to demonstrate to us just how unaware we really are....if we do not pay attention to His warnings....which is why we need this time right now to prepare and change.
We are anything but a peculiar people....no more than the progressive liberals are a peculiar people. We are more tribal than set apart for the glory of God. We are more in transition than on pilgrimage. We are more patriot than Christian. We are in slumber mode....when everything around us should be flashing red lights and alarms.
I have been an observer and commentator of sorts on life in America and politics in general for almost a half century. This that we live in today is the quintessential perfect storm. AI alone is a potential monster villain. The Cuban Missile crisis was a cakewalk compared to what is happening now.....and we are a nation unprepared....and from all accounts....with possibly nothing in reserve when we will need it....with a division right out of the warnings of Jesus that that house cannot stand. Every area of life is volatile....all seemingly hitting at once....natural disasters are intense and increasing.
Yet with all of this....we in the church refuse to change. A little introspection would show that we are also our own enemy. The bible studies need to reform....and the sermons need the gravitas of God's glory....which should be normal....but is long gone in America. We should be in the Old Testament prophets every day....and the Psalms....and searching out every clue in the New Testament on how we should be looking to the Lord's return.
All of this will come....for God's mercies are as sure as His judgments....but we will look back and realize that we should have seen this coming.....we should have prepared better....we should have jettisoned the trivialities of life....we should have sought the glory of God instead of our own glory.....and we should have been in one perpetual mode of examining ourselves....not only making sure that we indeed have been born again....but praising God for giving us this new life....this new heart....and this new mind that every day sees His glory more and more! We should of....we should of....we should of.
Addendum: Folks....did Paul and the other apostles desire the imminent return of the Lord....or not? Read their words. How do you interpret these passages if such would not be the case? I think that if you look closely you can see even in men like Billy Graham and John MacArthur....and Piper and a growing majority of these men that we have come to trust....that they know that the Lord may be at the very door. Billy Graham was a couple of decades into a heightened awareness when he passed away.....as I believe was R. C. Sproul. MacArthur is pushing the envelope. Piper is downright focusing on the return of the Lord. This isn't the fringe folks. There is hyperactivity today in the demonic....as there was at the first advent of Christ....which you can see all over the news....and was present in the actions of Stalin and Hitler. It is the same with the heightened expectation and the hope of the Jesus returning in power and righteousness judgment and glory.
