I came to Christ in 1982. You may come to Christ today? It was a very easy time to come to Christ when I did....for there were multitudes doing the same thing....plenty of fellowship....and very little cost of discipleship. We knew....we were told....we read in Scripture....and we believed....that God was going to judge America and the world real soon. It seemed serious at the time....but in retrospect....we were babies that had decades to grow up. We were as in the beginning of Jeremiah prophesying....as it took forty years for his warnings to come to full fruition.
You are in an entirely different situation. You will have to mature right now. Initially you might think that we had it better....for we got to watch our children grow up. You will most likely see the Lord return as your children are growing up. We might have been graduating from college...with time to work on our dreams. You will be as those in December of 1941....dreams one moment....defending America responsibilities the next. We knew that persecution would come....tribulation....chaos and confusion and delusion....and it is just about here....but you will be thrown right into this.There are very real benefits for you....believe it or not. We may not have been persecuted....and our cost of discipleship may not have been high....but we did not have the benefits either. We did not bring glory to God as we should have....because we had time to play around with our entertainments. I have to look back in regret and remorse....ashamed....at many years wasted as a believer in Jesus Christ. You will not have to do this.....for it will either be sink or swim right from the get-go.
There is no luck or lack of luck here. There is no chance. I could look back to an earlier age and say the same thing that you might say....for in that age....they may have had an entire life of a hundred years to live....and never saw what we are seeing and what we are about to see today....for even as bad as World War II was....it will pale to living as the Antichrist takes power. God put those believers there....He put me were I was....and He put you where you are.
Whether it be that person from a bygone era....or me....or you....we will all praise God beyond anything we might even think we are capable of when Jesus returns in power and majesty and glory! We are equal in that none of us chose salvation. None of us deserve God's mercy. One may have lived a hundred years of relative ease....and another might be thrown into the storm right away....but both for eternity will be thankful for one thing....the same thing....the day that God chose the most undeserving....and the most unlovely....to mercifully and lovingly rip out our dead heart....and replaced it with a living heart....then given a call that could not be refused....have our name written in the Lamb's Book of Life....been adopted as a child of God....with a renewed mind to understand what happened in that manger in Bethlehem....and on the hill outside Jerusalem....and in that tomb....and on the mount where the risen Jesus ascended to the Father....and in that upper room where the Holy Spirit came....and today given the faith to look for His glorious return in righteous judgment....having been forgiven....to be with Him forever!
