When Will He Return?
Matthew 24:3-14
New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
3 As
Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him
privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the
sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
4 Jesus
answered:
“Watch out that no one
deceives you. 5 For
many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and
rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must
happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the
beginning of birth pains. 9 “Then you will be handed
over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all
nations because of me. 10 At
that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each
other, 11 and
many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase
of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm
to the end will be saved. 14 And
this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a
testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24%3A+1-+14&version=NIV1984)
Anyone
who does not believe the Scriptures are relevant today has not read this
Scripture passage. You may say, “Well
for years people has been saying the end times are here and it hasn’t happened
yet!” Maybe you were like me, as a child
I sat through many sermons regarding the end times. We hear the phrase, “What if this were the
day Jesus returns?’ There was a popular
song one time about “Fingertips and Noses”.
The fingertips and noses of these special children were pressed to the window
as they peered out expecting Jesus to return.
Do you think those children were disappointed each time they looked out
and the Savior had not returned? No,
they just went back time and time again waiting for His return.
Many
times we look at this world and pray, “Come quickly Lord”. Yet as we read His word we find out that He
will come in God’s timing and things will get worse long before they get
better. We have seen wars and heard
rumors of wars. We have seen earthquakes
and famines in this world. When we see
and hear of those things we also hear of people coming to the rescue of many,
sacrificing their life to aid in the lives of others. I believe in the end times, there will be no
sacrificing of one’s self to help others.
I believe our nation and our world has become more and more a “dog eat
dog” place. We may hear of the
earthquakes but it may be that no one goes to rescue.
As
more and more hear the gospel of Jesus, I believe, sadly to say, that more and
more will begin to reject Him. They will
know the truth but will not recognize the truth. As we grow closer and closer to the end times
we need to equip the saints in a way worthy of our calling in Christ
Jesus. We need to make sure we have
trained, will train, and are training others to read His word, pray
continually, and put less and less of us into the equation. This will be our source of strength for us
and/or our children, or grandchildren.
I
believe that our nation along with other nations will begin not teaching our
children the way of the Lord (this is happening in churches and in homes). We will water down the Gospel to make it more
pleasing to the ear, or we will simply ignore God’s word (Is this happening?). Once this is done, the children will not be
able to continue the walk of faith and our nation and our world will fall to a
decline and we will be shocked when the Savior returns because we will not have
been looking for Him like the children mentioned above.
I
believe that our world will become as bad, if not worse than in Noah’s
time. People my disappear in the rapture
but I wonder how many will actually miss someone who has come up missing. I say this because the world will have grown
cold to the entire Christian population.
There
is an answer to doom and gloom and that is finding peace, joy, comfort and
strength from the Lord!
As
you seek Him, with your whole heart, remember that there will be many who do
not believe. Don’t forget to place Him above
all else things.
Be
ready to meet your Maker at the blink of an eye.
Seeking
Him with all my heart,
Sheila
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