End of the Track

[1]

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.

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] 2 Thessalonians 2:3

Two BILLION!

Friday, June 6, 2014

“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)

In the world of professional sports nothing much surprises me anymore.  Donald and Shelly Sterling have owned the L.A. Clippers basketball team since 1981 when they bought the franchise for about $12 million.  They’ve found a buyer for $2 billion….TWO BILLION!  That’s like, two-thousand million. 

I’m just about speechless!  (Nobody at our church would believe that).

It’s not that a group of buyers are willing to pay that much.  The cost of a sports franchise reaching nine zeros goes along with the big business genus; big business costs big bucks.  What I have a hard time getting my mind around is how the sports and financial business is so much bigger in all this than integrity and fidelity. 

Consider what started the firestorm that is the Sterling-NBA headline squabble:  Donald Sterling was recorded uttering racial slurs in a (supposedly) private conversation with an African American woman he was pursuing.

Sterling, a white, lawyer-billionaire who has little respect for his players (who are mostly African-American), was cheating on his wife, chasing a black woman whose integrity was tied to a digital recorder.  The National Basketball Association was pushing to get the Sterlings out of ownership while the Sterlings threatened lawsuits.  

So, there you have it, Los Angeles drama at its finest:  sex, racism, legal posturing, money and headlines. 

Where is Integrity?  Where is Fidelity?  Where is Respect?

Or it just big business, power and unrestrained hedonism?

Sounds like the rarefied air of the fast-lane version of the American dream is more nightmare than sugar plums.

Where is peace of heart, soul and mind in any of that?  Answer…absent! 

By contrast, Jesus did not stutter when he told the disciples that the world (and all of its riches, power and fame) cannot give you a single cubit of peace.  But his gift is genuine peace; it’s a heart that is calm and a mind that is opened to life abundant. 

And the fact that God’s gift of free will to us allows us to choose what we will pursue in life sets-up the Garden of Eden all over again for each of us.  What will it be?  Shall we respond like mesmerized sailors to the siren calls of the mermaids of modern culture, where you’re promised bigger, better, more and more…all you ever wanted or dreamed of?

Or does your inner being require something more substantial?

For You, Today…

There’s a better gift for you waiting in the wings; peace He gives!