As we move into a new year, 2012, and we watch the world as we once knew it, changing before our eyes, it causes us to stand up and take notice. You have heard me make this comment before which I heard Seth Godin say, but it bears repeating. “People are waiting for things to get back to normal, but things are never getting back to normal.” I whole hearted agree with that statement.
Iran is boasting that by April or May of 2012 they will have five nuclear warheads; Israel is planning a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities possibly before Christmas or right after the 1st of the year; the United States along with the UN has placed sanctions on goods and services coming out of and going into Iran; Russian and China have sided with IRAN and threatened retaliation against any nation that attacks her; the new veri-chip human tracking chip is now ready and can be implanted in every human being as a tracking device and is already being implanted in pets as a way of tracking their movements; and a number of nations, including the US are on the verge of economic meltdown.
We have watched as natural disasters, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, famines and floods have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in 2011 alone. And, mark my word, we haven’t seen anything yet. Just this week, the man who fired shots into the White House, claimed that he was Jesus Christ who has returned to earth.
One incident, standing alone, would not have much significance, but when you combine all of these worldwide events happening simultaneously, reading the local and international news is like picking up the Bible and reading portions of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation. I personally believe we are living in the days of Christ’s return as foretold in Matthew 24.
4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ 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. Knowing this makes our churches “vision statement” so much more important to me. Let me quote it for you again, “Reaching as many people as we can, as fast as we can, by all the means that we can, to create as many full devoted followers of Christ that we can.”
I have a burning desire within me to reach the lost at any cost, I hope you do to. I have a burning desire to help those who become a part of our church family to live lives fully devoted to Christ. Why, because Jesus is coming.
I am not saying he is coming in 2012 nor am I being a date setter like some of those we have read about in the past because I know what the Bible says again in Matthew 24;
36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son but only the Father.
But we can look around us and realize that the things that Jesus spoke about are coming true;
37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
Today people are giving little thought to spiritual matters and they are just going through the daily routines of life. That is a sure sign of his approaching. But, verse 42 – 44 must be our watch word for the days and years ahead;
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Let’s not be caught unaware, but let us watch and pray and in the year ahead, let us diligently be about our Fathers business because our family, our neighborhood, our city, state, and nation need Jesus more than ever.
Pastor Rick
