Yeah! We still have a chance to minister the Gospel!So I rode around town and I didn't see any corpses surrounded by vultures (Matt.24), and I still feel the battle going on within myself with sin...so we likely still have some growing up to do into the fulness of Christ by means of loving on some folks and serving God and others in God's world, this world. We haven't fully inherited the earth yet, God is not all and in all. Pray God that hearts and minds will be open tomorrow as the Gospel of the Kingdom is proclaimed and we pray not only for the one who misled and those who were hurt by it, but also for a renewal of wise, passionate and biblical seeking of the Kingdom.
Ending the world...againGod has ended the world before...the corrupt world of Noah, the world of corrupt Jerusalem, the world of corrupt Rome...He doesn't like doing this...it's the result of our violence towards one another...it actually says in the scriptures that having to do this grieves Him to his very heart! God give us the wisdom to understand the things that make for peace.
End times stuff...I do believe the scriptures when they say that when the final enemy, death, is defeated in the heavens, in a final act of loving humility the Son will step down from His exalted place, what a joy it will be to be caught up to greet him! and then he will become subject with us to the glad, wise order and rule of the Father, in the twinkling of an eye... 'the renewal of all things'...beautiful beyond belief or imagination! The complete filling of creation with it's Creator as the waters cover the sea, also known as the Great White Throne judgement, where EVERYTHING will be set right at last and God will be all and in all. The Christian hope fulfilled, a New Heavens and New Earth, where Righteousness dwells. We are to be today, as His redeemed, a living testimony to this grand resurrection, a light in the world. We have this testimony in ourselves as His New Creation.
The End...Really?Yep, I believe that the 'the End' will come and we will be 'in heaven' and 'heaven will be in us'...covered and saturated, actually 'the End' is near...always. I believe this not only because the scriptures show God referring to himself as the Beginning and the End, but because of my experiences with the trinitarian God after having believed the Gospel in faith. The God-breathed scriptures pointedly remind us that He is the source of and purpose of everything, he is God (the sovereignty) over all things seen and unseen.
As far as 'the End' being near St.Paul puts it like this in Acts 17: God placed different peoples in different lands and in different cultures all over the world in hopes that they would seek Him out like a child seeks his Father...but how could we find Him? He's in heaven and we're here? Well, the bible doesn't see heaven and earth as two separate places, but as two interconnected realities who were meant to be married and become 'one flesh', whose connection was broken. This is why Jesus tells his disciples to pray that 'His Kingdom come, His will be done on Earth as in Heaven.' We who are called are simply,revealingly and blessedly a microcosm of that grand narrative in our own personal relationship with Him.
Like any broken relationship that was meant to be, this separation has led to all sorts of pain and suffering and wounds, for creation and Creator (that's a convo worth having...the God who needs time to heal...crazy but that's what we see in the scriptures time and again, like a wounded lover seeking after His adulterous bride). Yes, our God's heart can be grieved and broken. But like a Father or a Husband, He pursues us desperately desiring our love and relationship.
Here's some more good news, Paul reveals a mystery to us today as he did to the western culture of his day, 'God is not far from any one of us."For in him we live and move and have our being."..and the human race, we, are His offspring. WOW! How do you respond to that! Looking forward to the End! He loves us and it's actually a new beginning!
My cousin pointed out what the Prophet Isaiah says about the coming of 'the End':
On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The LORD has spoken.
(read Isaiah 25 in full for context)
This is what we see also at the end of the book of Revelation, the last book of the canonical bible. So we see what will be snatched away from the earth like chaff...'his people’s disgrace' that is all sin and it's consequences, every demon,devil and wicked spirit...all things corrupted and corruptible and every tear it all caused, wiped away. Judgement is about setting things right. Jesus has done this ultimately at the cross and this judgement is implemented every day by the working of the Holy Spirit (John 16v7-11) in the lives of real people in real ways all over the world in Christ and in the lives of those who belong to Christ, that is, those people Christian's serve. Sometimes that outworking is difficult and costly. The fruit of the Spirit is beautiful and worth far more than silver or gold, but the transformation process required to produce it from us, in our state of being, can be like a woman in labor.
So for those who know the Lord, He sends us out tomorrow and the next day with joy, being led forth with peace; and the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before us,and all the trees of the field will clap their hands! Blessed are the feet of those who bring good news! The End is near.
