Journey into Forever

"You will hear wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed." Matthew 24:6 Watching the news gets scarier and scarier every day. Terrorist attacks. Governmental intrusion on privacy. Man against man on every level. Drugs, abuse, neglect, children mistreated and hungry. The list goes on and on. Being almost 60, I think I can safely say the world is a much darker place than it used to be. And yet, according to Matthew 24:6, we are not to be alarmed. Easier said than done. Max Lucado, in Chapter 13 of "Fearless" reminds us that life is a dangerous endeavor. There are so many "ifs" in our lives.....if the average temperature rises, if government spending isn't slowed down, if, if, if.....predictions of global calamity are everywhere. We worry about things getting worse......and yet Jesus tells us in chapter 24 of Matthew that things WILL absolutely get worse. Not only does he talk about wars, He mentions famines, earthquakes, Christian persecution, hatred, wickedness, love growing cold, and false prophets. He tells us these things must happen before the end. Must happen. He tells us in verse 6, amid all of these events, not to be troubled ('alarmed' in the NIV). The Greek word He used for troubled is throeo (thro-eh'-o), which means loud racket,uproar, outcry. He's not really telling us to not be concerned, because that is normal. What He's telling us by the use of this word is, to quote Lucado, "don't freak out". One area that frightenes me as much as any are the false prophets Jesus warns us about. A friend and I were discussing this topic a while back, and we wondered about 'discernment'. People seem to flock toward 'what their itching ears want to hear' whether or not that person is in line with the Bible. Lucado points out one such 'false prophet', Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda. This man clains to be Jesus reborn. He teaches that there is no sin, and that those who follow him can do no wrong. Matthew 24:24 says: "For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect." I'll bet you can also think of examples like this who are very famous today. Mega churches with large followings. Everyone speaking about the "wonderful church". Lots of 'flash' and even 'miracles' performed regularly. But Lucado gives us one key point to look for....is this person directing others to Jesus? Is the Bible his guide for everything? If not, get out "while you still can". Secondly is calamity, of which Christians are going to fare the worst. As a matter of fact, they already are. If you Google ( or bing) Christian persecution you will find all kinds of statistics about Christian persecution today. The numbers are staggering. According to an article in Reuters by Tom Heneghan, at this time about 100 MILLION Christians are persecuted in the world today. The top 3 countries for persecution are Syria, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia. I get information from 'The Voice of the Martyrs' and some of the things I read about what Christians endure are hideous. That organization says more Christians have been killed for their faith during the last century than all the previous centuries combined. I don't know about you, but I think we are getting frightengly close here in America. Belief has become something to be ridiculed, not something to respect. It seems it gets worse every day. We could spend the rest of this post and many more listing the scary, difficult things that are happening and will happen in this world before the end. We could terrorize even the most optomistic. But we have to realize, if we are true Christ-followers, we know the end of the story. We may go through 'hell' before it ends, but it WILL end and WE WIN. Lucado points to Psalms 37:7 " Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes". (NIV) Although we have to face the truth about what is happening in this world, we can't be full of gloom and doom either. What can we do as we wait and watch? Stay in the Word. Communicate daily with God. Spend time with other believers. Worship Him. He will provide us comfort. It has to be some comfort to know God knew about everything that would happen before it occured. It's in His plan. Jesus told us "These things must come to pass" (Matthew 24:6) God has it all in control. He knows what He's doing. And since we KNOW who HE is and what His Son did for us, those of us who follow Christ can rest assured about one thing. When it's all over, when the 'fat lady sings', we will be with the One who loves us so much He planned everything in advance for us. We're safe. We're secure. We're on a Journey into Forever.....where we will forever be with Him. Worth anything, don't you agree?

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