Matthew 24:29-35

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

²⁹ “Immediately after the distress of those days

“‘the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

³⁰ “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. ³¹ And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

³² “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³ Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. ³⁴ I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2024:29%20-%2035&version=NIV1984)

How many of us have prayed, “Come quickly Lord!”?  The time to pray that prayer is during the days mentioned above.  I am sure with all the distress of the day, those who know the Lord will be praying this prayer and will really mean it.  I think of the Apostle Paul who said in Philippians 4: 21  “For to me, to live is Christ^(A) and to die is gain.” (http://www(.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%201:21&version=NIV1984)

I really do not believe we have seen even a taste of the distress that will take place.  The Scripture in the last blog clearly tells us the distress of those days.  I do believe there will be Christians living in this time because there will be people who are persecuted and hated.  Some believe that these will be the Christian that receive Christ during the tribulation.  Some believe that Jesus will rapture His people before this tribulation just as He rescued Noah from the disaster of the flood.  I will not say, I believe it could happen either way because God is God and He can do anything He sees fit.  What I do know is that if people remain on this earth during part of the tribulation or even all of it, it will be because Christ wants all to have the opportunity to believe in Him.  He wants His power and greatness to be revealed and if that means Christian need to be here to proclaim it, He will have them remain.  Because one thing is for sure, He wants all men to come to Him, not by force, but from a desire deep within them, to want to know Him. 

We see that today, people being hated and persecuted today in parts of the world.  Christians, those who love the Lord are imprisoned, sentenced to death, excommunicated from their families, and the list goes on.  Just because we in America only get the occasional joke about Christianity, we have not truly suffered persecution, YET.  A day will come and it is drawing near, that any religion other than Christianity will be accepted in America.  I truly believe there will come a time when our freedom as we know it today will be gone. 

For those who are being persecuted today, I wonder if they are like Paul, they are taking every opportunity on this earth to spread the Gospel.  They are talking to their jailer, inmates, anyone who will listen about the saving grace of Jesus Christ our Lord.  A few years ago a popular Christian radio host was calling Christians to get in touch with their political leaders to help stop the persecuted Christians in other parts of the world.  I clearly remember him saying, “This is a no brainer”.  This sparked me to try to contact this person but of course could only get through to the organization which tried to defend him and did not really listen to what I had to say.  It is my firm belief that it is not the government that we need to call upon to help the persecuted Christian.  Our God is much greater than any government.  He wants us to depend on Him and not anyone else.  Those who were being and are being persecuted are not unnoticed, our God is giving them the strength they need, He sees their sufferings and He hears their cries.  Let God be in control, pray to Him that He will deliver them from their distress and that He will give them strength through the power of the Holy Spirit.

What are we to do?  We are to spread the Gospel too!  Whether we see these disasters in our time or in our children or grandchildren’s time, persecution will occur, even here.  All of the talk about the space junk and the alignment of stars and the rotation of the earth always makes me think of these verses. Movies and even television shows are predicting the earth to be full of disaster after disaster.  Things as we know it will be no longer.  The ease of the technology age will possibly be gone.  When I read of these times, it is a bit scary to me because I don’t want any of my family to have to suffer through these times.  Yet, I know that God is in control and He will give them the strength that they need to survive if indeed they have to suffer for His name sake.

Jesus told the disciples these words, the disciples experienced pain, suffering , persecution, and even death for Christ, yet they did not see these days.  Those of us living today have seen much of these things that Jesus has talked about.  We still have people living that fought in World War II.  We have seen other wars and continually hear of rumors of wars.  Even in America there have been arguments about whether we should give God credit for the making of our great nation.  I don’t know if this is the time or not but my prayer today is that if I am to endure any of this or if my family does, that I and they will do it with the power and strength from the Holy Spirit, that through all pain and suffering that His name will be glorified through us, just as the glory shone in Stephen as he was being put to death.

Seek Him so that when you need to run, you will run into the arms of Jesus.

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila