The One Who is Coming Soon

 

Friday, May 27, 2022

Then the angel said to me, “Everything you have heard and seen is trustworthy and true.  The Lord God, who inspires his prophets, has sent his angel to tell his servants what will happen soon.”  “Look, I am coming soon!  Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book.”  I, John, am the one who heard and saw all these things.  And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.  But he said, “No, don’t worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers the prophets, as well as all who obey what is written in this book.   Worship only God!”  Revelation 22:6-9

Last words in an important story are often the point of the whole story.  The Bible is (if you count sales as any kind of indicator) the most important story told…ever.  While being fantastic in its claims, it is not fantasy.  While it has poetry, history, and prophecy, it is not a textbook, nor is it a wishbook of sectarian doctrinal dreamers.  Rather, the Bible is God’s book; it is His story, His divine character and plan revealed to humans.  It is God’s warning and promise of what He has done in the past, and what humans and the entire universe will experience in the future, for all eternity.  And every bit of it centers on John’s last statement in this last chapter of God’s book:  Worship only God!

So what does it truly mean, to worship?  In the most basic sense, worship has nothing to do with sitting in church on a Sunday morning, unless the sitter is doing so to flesh-out his or her inner conviction that God is truly worthy, and to do less than openly-declare that worthiness would be like ceasing to breathe.  To worship is to breathe-in the life-altering conviction of the one, true, living God, the One who so-loved every part of His creation, he died a sinner’s death on a cross, that we might receive and live-in His presence, uncondemned and eternally significant.[1]  To worship is to exhale that breath with our vow of allegiance to the One who loves us so perfectly and completely.  To worship sincerely is to faithfully breathe in-and-out that way with every moment of your life, in every movement and purpose your being possesses, with integrity and unselfishness.  It means you live with nothing else occupying first priority in your mind and desire.  This is the essence of what John recorded in the final three sentences of this holy book:

He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!”  Amen!  Come, Lord Jesus!  May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s holy people.  Revelation 22:20-21

For You Today

Revelation’s final word:  The One who is to be worshipped is coming to impose His will and way upon His creation…and the best word for those who would receive Him when He gets here is grace.  Standing in His grace means accepting His will for your life, and worshipping Him, breathing-in-and-out every moment as a testament to His love.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Note John 3:16:  “For this is how God loved the world:  He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

End of the Track

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Wednesday, November 21, 2018

“The day is coming when you will see the sacrilegious object that causes desecration standing where he should not be.”  (Reader, pay attention!)  “Then those in Judea must flee to the hills.  A person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack.  A person out in the field must not return even to get a coat.  How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days.  And pray that your flight will not be in winter.  For there will be greater anguish in those days than at any time since God created the world.  And it will never be so great again.  In fact, unless the Lord shortens that time of calamity, not a single person will survive.  But for the sake of his chosen ones he has shortened those days.  “Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There he is,’ don’t believe it.  For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.  Watch out!  I have warned you about this ahead of time!  Mark 13:14-23(NLT)

This passage is filled with urgency.  It’s like advice to the people scrambling to get out of the pathway of the wildfires:  don’t stop to pack, or even pick up a toothbrush, and, omigosh, is that woman about to go into labor?  When you’re on a locomotive, and the end of the tracks is clearly in front of you, you do not spend a moment emptying the trash bucket in the rest room … you get off that choo-choo RIGHT NOW!

Of course, scholars would explain that Jesus was speaking of the immediate future (70AD), when persecution for his group would blaze; these things did happen, just as the Lord prophesied.  But there is a second meaning corresponding to this warning; in Scripture[2] the second coming of Christ is preceded by a great “falling-away” as people reject God’s authority, leaving worship and obedience to the Word of God as empty as most churches these days.

Historically-speaking the church has always been positioned in Advent; it’s not just a season on the calendar, but rather the constant hope of all Christians.  We are awaiting the grand re-entrance of Christ, returning to rule the nations.

Now, that is a well-known Christian doctrine, that one day (an unknown day, except in Heaven), the risen Messiah will return to earth to set everything in its rightful place.  Preaching during Advent takes on a tone of expectancy, not just the celebration of His first arrival in a manger, but the urgency of an imminent breaking-in; the King could come at any time!

But notice the very end of Mark’s remembrance of Jesus’ warnings:  don’t be deceived!  With urgency arrives the possibility of frantic behavior.  That is so opposite of what Jesus told his disciples:  I give you peace … and it’s so different than the world’s idea of peace; I give you my peace that overcomes whatever craziness life can throw at you.  Here’s how the apostle John recalled what Jesus said:

“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart.  And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.  So don’t be troubled or afraid.  John 14:27(NLT)

Frantic people move around from place to place, church-to-tent-revival, to prayer gatherings and prophecy seminars … all in a frenetic attempt to gain some new insight or hear some new and more fascinating angle on when the second coming will happen.

Friends, that is exactly how deception becomes a possibility.  Jesus’ instructions to the disciples, (including us) is to be unafraid.  That means our “job” is to live-into, and rest-in the peace He promises.  You cannot do that running from one brand of church to another, or frantically-searching for some new doctrine, or better way.  Life in the Kingdom is lived-out one moment at a time, largely in the ordinary, everyday tasks that connect us with people who are real, with diapers being changed, going to work, cutting the grass, helping a neighbor with a leaky faucet.  That’s hardly sensational-sounding, but this is the way Jesus said it would be:                              

“Two men will be working together in the field; one will be taken, the other left.  Two women will be grinding flour at the mill; one will be taken, the other left.         Matthew 24:40-41(NLT)

Now, all that said, common sense in the peace-gift Christ gives us, also tells us to be adventists – Christians who understand that the times always point to the imminent return of our Lord. 

And the condition of contemporary culture couldn’t be riper for that harvest!

For You Today

Many years ago, I received a gift of a little gold lapel pin that looked like a trumpet; it had two words:  Perhaps Today!  Perhaps!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] 2 Thessalonians 2:3

When the Lion Roars

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Devotion VIDEO here

The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who can but prophesy?  Amos 3:8^(NLT)

Amos had the unenviable task of strolling into Jerusalem with bad news.  Jerusalem, that holy city of God, the place of King David, and the center of the universe for the rule of God, had sinned by forgetting the God they had been called to serve.

And Amos was but a simple man, a shepherd from the tiny village of Tekoa.  A southern boy called to speak the Word of God to the rulers of the temple in Jerusalem. 

Who among my Methodist colleagues would covet that appointment?

Amos was not alone; Jeremiah, Noah, Nahum, Elijah, Elisha, and the list goes on!  And, now that we’re in Advent season, the name of the Baptist, John, the cousin of Jesus, will come into full view as he prepares the way of the Lord. 

All those prophets were charged with announcing God’s Word and will. 

It’s called prophesying – preaching – sermon – standing in the gap…and, by a hundred other titles it is the same thing:  putting God’s people in remembrance that God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.  He is holy, loving, fearful, judging, forgiving, creating, sustaining, life-giving, cross-bearing, people saving, and the all-consuming LORD of his universe! 

He is God!

When THAT lion roars, who can but tremble.  And, for a preacher, you must speak what He has put in your mouth.

It’s not hard to lose focus – to forget that God is in charge, especially in a week when there has not been a day that passed without another killing or more news on the terrorists. 

We are in an extraordinary time when life is being treated as if it has no value whatever.  From cradle to senior life is tossed towards the dumpster, and the Lord Who gives life cannot be pleased.

News cycles run their course, and I have to remind myself to not dwell before the altar of CNN or NBC nightly news.  To do so mounts an accumulative depressive toll on this old man’s already tired brain.

God, in His mercy, helped me develop a quiet spirit for the mornings that mitigates against the fear and hopelessness that is our “news of the world”.  Every morning I begin with God’s Word, asking the Father to enlighten (and sometimes just lighten) my mind and heart and soul.

This morning I read from The Revelation:

“You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power.  For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.”  And they sang a new song with these words:   “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it.  For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.  And you have caused them to become a Kingdom of priests for our God.  And they will reign on the earth.”  And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang:  “Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.”   Revelation 4:11, 5:9-10, 13^(NLT)

God’s created beings have been killing each other since Cain picked up the first loaded rock.  

It will continue for a season – just as long as God permits. 

For You Today

Let us never lose sight of the angels praise in heaven to the One Who is worthy of blessing and honor and glory and power…though it seems the heavens are silent and the Prince of Darkness is having his way…when next The Lion roars from His throne, all preaching and men’s power will cease.  In its place will be trembling, judgment and salvation; it will be the Day of the Lord.

Think about that out on the Rocky Road today…and have a great day!

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[1] Title image:  Robek (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons