Friday, November 14, 2014
Mark 13:7-8 "... when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows."
THE SKY IS FALLING!
Don't be swept up in the Chicken Little attitude of the world that lies awake at night wondering how the world is going to end. The end is not yet. Christ tells us that this world will end and that it will end soon, but it will not end by the hand of man or by nature. It will end when Christ returns at the appointed time that God has chosen and not before. The signs are there. The end is coming. The only question is, "When?" and that is in God's hands.
Almost two thousand years ago the apostle wrote that "... our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand" (Romans 13:11-12). Christ declares at the end of the Scriptures, "Surely, I am coming quickly!" (Revelation 22:20). What does that say for us today? It means the same thing as it did when the apostle wrote those words in Romans: "It is high time that we awake out of sleep" (Romans 13:11a).
One of my aunts told me once that she never worried about Christ's return during the daylight hours because, she said, Christ said that He is coming like a thief in the night.
Of course, that's flawed thinking, for when it's nighttime here it's daylight on the other side of the world, and vice versa. But if you think about it, we don't need to worry about when Christ will return. Rather, take comfort in the fact that He will return. When He first came into the world, He came "when the fullness of the time had come," and He shall return at the appointed time.
For all the trouble in the world, we know that whether we die before Christ's return or He returns while we still live on this earth, we have no worries. Christ has taken away all of our sins and God the Father has adopted us as His own children. There is nothing to fear, for it has pleased God to give us His kingdom. Therefore, do not be deceived. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ... in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:35, 39).
