People everywhere are going about their lives in the same manner as they did yesterday, rising at the same time every morning, working a certain number of hours, coming back home and repeating the same as other evening and then off to bed…again. Then they wake-up the next day and do the exact same thing as every other day. So I ask the question: “What would you change in your day if there were only a few months left?” Please don’t misunderstand, this works the same way for the “saved” as it does for the “unsaved.” Tough question, right?
How about this one then, “What would you do differently, if you knew the Rapture was to take place in a few months?” I ask this, not trying to predict anything, just asking you how would you change, what would you change or would you change anything at all? Now the two differences are always on the table to be considered. The first consideration is always about our physical death because we are always more concerned about ourselves than anyone or anything else (where do you think that phrase), “It’s all about ME” comes from?
There is one other consideration to make when faced with this, “How much time do I have left?” Let’s look at this way, say the doctor walks in after an examination and says to you, “Well I have bad news and then I have some…really bad news.” I doubt seriously, you’ll be concerned with him saying, that because your diabetes is so far off the charts, you’re going to loose a toenail. You would probably be more attuned to hear him say, “Well you have squamous cell carcinoma of the lungs so badly that you are considered stage four already and you have about three to four months before you blow up and die!” Am I not right?
Of course, if that is or was your diagnosis, your first thoughts would be too outrageous to consider! Shortly thereafter you would more than likely settle down to an extent and begin to look at your “bucket list” and begin to make some real changes. The reason being, you have…maybe…three to four months left to live and you need to get done all those things you have always wished for, but never felt you had the time for. All of a sudden, time is of the essence! Consequently other hindrances no longer matter, cost, distance, whatever it may be. You’re going to pack in as much as you can and live like there is no tomorrow, because the doctor has already told you…literally…tomorrow may not come. There is suddenly this palpable “urgency.”
Now! Let’s say the doctor comes in and says to you, “Oops…we messed up a little here, you don’t have months left, you have between three to seven years!” Yeah, I know, the first thought would be to shoot the doctor in the face with a bazooka for the heart attack and the stroke you just had in the last ten minutes. But, now you feel…relieved. Three to seven years sounds a whole better than three months right? I mean, we’re talking a lot more than ninety days left. At the same time, would this experience give you a more personal insight as to what you think is REAL and what is not…for you that is. Does this make you rethink your “bucket list?” Will it bring you closer to your family and friends, or how about your salvation and relationship with Christ?
“Wait-a-minute-hold-it, let’s not go off half-cocked here,” you begin to say to yourself and others, as you tell them your story for the day. Maybe your “bucket list” isn’t all it was first cracked up to be. How many of you, would have dropped to your knees and thanked the Lord for the time you have had here, for your family and friends, whatever the case may be. Would you be more thankful for three months, as compared to three to seven years, or the other way around? Come on now, this says a lot about you and what you really feel is important in your life. It is worth considering. Lets change the scenario a bit, okay?
Let’s say you had a dream, where God came to you and said, “You have three months to live” or lets say HE said, “You have three to seven years more to live and that’s it.” Which one would you choose to hear? (Drum roll please.) Yeah, I know, it would depend on so many things that it would be difficult to consider, right?
Now you’re thinking to yourself, “Well, if it’s just a matter of time that we’re talking about here, I’ll take the three to seven years. I mean, if I’m in good health and all things remain the same and all, and hmm…yeah! I’ll take the three to seven years!” I doubt you would be surprised to hear any of the disabled, the medically infirmed, the cancer patient in stage four complain about more time, am I right? I think, you would be more surprised to know there are many who would choose the ninety days! Strange concept…or what?
Okay, let’s change this again─just one more time. Let’s say God told you in a dream that the Rapture of the church of Jesus Christ was to take place in roughly three months and then the Tribulation would follow? Now how would you feel? Would your perspective of life here on this earth change any? (Ah-oh! A quasi-strange or surreal twist is a foot, might be one of your thoughts…am I not correct?) Please remember now, I am NOT making a prediction. I am simply asking some important questions, okay?
If we turn the projector back, say, anywhere between fifteen to fifty years, things were very different. If these questions were asked back then, it would have been this: (even in churches), “Well…umm, if God had said this, then…umm…God would do what God wants to do and…umm…that would be that!” There was not the urgency back then…or was there? “Well, we didn’t have all these earthquakes and tsunamis or all the volcanoes erupting all over the place; global warming, seas rising, people hating everyone else! You know! We didn’t have all the “Signs of the Times” as in, the “End of Times,” right? Or were they just less frequent back then?
Let’s be clear here, “less frequent” is not the same as “none at all.” Less frequent just means no one really paid any attention to these things…back then. There’s this strange thing, taking place now days as compared to the years before. Let’s take a look. We see all the death and dismay taking place, almost every day now, something is always happening somewhere in the world. It is so common now days, it is no longer a front-page news item any more. How strange is that?
Fifty years ago, “Oh Wow, there was a 3.5 magnitude earthquake!” Today, if we read of a 3.5 earthquake in, say California, “Yeah…well…they have them all the time. No big news there. Or maybe, “Yup…we had a 3.5 earthquake here, but we know it’s caused from fracking so…no big deal.” What? No big deal? An earthquake is an earthquake, regardless of magnitude. Something is changing, something is happening. We are seeing REAL change taking place and all we can say is, “No big deal?”
It is this iconic, “It’s all about ME” thing that troubles me. If it did not happen to you, then it’s “NO big deal.” WOW. What a statement for anyone to have. Then again, that is a statement that describes the times in which we live and says so much about the person that stated it. That 3.5 earthquake broke a few special dishes, but as long as the dishes yours then it’s, “No big deal.” That is insane!
Daniel 2.32-33:“The head of the statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.”
Daniel 2.40-43:“Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. And in that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have the toughness of iron, and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. And in that you saw the iron mixed with clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.”
2 Timothy 3.1-5, 7: “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
1 Timothy 4.1-3:‘But the spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. By means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.”
Matthew 24.5:“For many will come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and will mislead many.”
Matthew 24.11:“And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many.”
Matthew 24.6:“And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.”
Matthew 24.7:“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.”
Matthew 24.8-9:“But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of my name.”
Matthew 24.14:“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations,and then the end shall come.”
Yuppers! All of that is happening today for sure, but how many are paying any attention, as in being, signs of the times? Here’s what is strange to most, even some born-again Christians: We are in these times right now. All these predictions, known as prophecies have been in the Bible for more than 4000 years! And still…FEW…are paying any attention. Is ignorance truly “bliss?”
Luke 21.34-36:“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so thatday come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
Well, there it is! I didn’t say those things; God said it in HIS Holy Word─the Bible. Now considering all the things taking place all around the world today, I am more inclined to read the news KNOWING my redemption is drawing nigh. How about YOU? Are YOU able to decipher the “writing on the wall?” Do YOU see that that time is short? Are you on the wall, waiting and watching for your Lord and Master’s coming? If you haven’t figured it out just yet, time is SHORT.
When YOU are weighed in the balance and then measured, will YOU be found wanting?