John the Baptist came ahead of Jesus, proclaiming the arrival of “the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie,” (John 1:26). This message is again being proclaimed as the hour of our redemption draws near. We are living in the most exciting time possible for true believers in Christ! The signs all over the earth today are exactly what the Bible predicts they will be in the time of harvest. Jesus is coming soon! Now is the time to call all people to repentance! Now is the time to be sure your house is not built on shifting sand!
“Comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
A voice of one calling: ‘In the wilderness prepare a way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.”
(Isaiah 40: 1-5)
As John the Baptist cried out in the desert, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 3:2), today we are called to heed the word of God and turn our hearts toward Christ. “Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the very door.” (Matthew 24:33). Awaken complacent Christians and dial up your spiritual awareness because the hour is late! “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28).
Jesus declared to the disciples, “For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:17). Similarly, in the last two thousand years many devout Christians longed to see the things we are witnessing today but did not see them, and hear the things that we are hearing today but did not hear them. We are living in a profoundly unique time in history!
Christ is returning soon! The time is short and you have one chance to get this right. The Bible says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21). Look toward heaven and place your treasure in God’s mighty hands – materialism cannot save you. If you died tomorrow, you couldn’t take anything with you. It is all just temporary. God illustrated this to me by allowing my house to be broken into three times in one year and most of my possessions disappeared. It became blatantly obvious that life would go on without the things I had thought I needed in my life.
A THIEF IN THE NIGHT
Everything in this world will be destroyed one day. For those who don’t believe, that day will come upon them like a thief in the night (2 Peter 3:10, 1Matthew 24:42-44). “But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.” (1Thessalonians 5:4). For believers, this day ought to be a day of hope. In 2 Timothy 4:8 Paul writes, “Now there is in store for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”
We are called to reach the lost. Jesus said, “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:4-7).
History is about to repeat itself. Just as it was in the days of John the Baptist, many today are proclaiming that the return of Christ is near. The signs are all around us and there is a feeling among God’s people that the time is short. Acts 2:17-21 points to our generation:
“In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Holy Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
Your young men will see visions,
Your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
And they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above
And signs on the earth below,
Blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
And the moon to blood
Before the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
ESCAPE FROM JUDGEMENT
Just as God provided an escape from judgement through Jesus’ sacrifice in our place, on the cross, he will provide an escape from the coming anarchy and outpouring of his wrath on the world through the rapture. “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.” (Revelation 3:10). Again, in Luke 21:36 we are told, “Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”
Jesus came into this world as a humble man. He never taught violence, nor did he turn away from the meek and the sick. He had compassion on everyone, and his message was a message of love. There are no laws against anything he preached. Yet he was given the death penalty that was reserved for the worst criminals and his followers were martyred and hated for his sake. Throughout the Old Testament God’s prophets were killed. Mankind has a long history of rebelling against God. Today the majority of civilization denies him, and his followers are persecuted still.
Have you ever contemplated this? Have you ever considered the severity of the depravity in the human heart? Man’s freewill is the vehicle that facilitates the demonstration of the depth of our Creator’s love for us. The depth of his patience, grace, and forgiveness. Yet humanity has abused freewill to rebel against its Creator!
Mankind has the audacity to say that a good God would never condemn people to hell or that suffering is evidence that God doesn’t exist. God doesn’t condemn us to hell. We opt to put ourselves there by choosing not to accept redemption through Christ. Mankind is responsible for all the evil in the world, not God. We were given a choice. Ever since that fateful day in the garden of Eden, we have continued to not choose God – to choose anything but God.
Given the same choice, would you have chosen differently than Adam and Eve? Would I have? Not one person in the history of humanity can boast that they would have chosen more wisely, other than Christ himself. And it was us who sent him to the cross! He bore the punishment that we deserve. We are Barabbas who was released when Jesus was condemned. We are so blatantly guilty that we cannot even muster a defense.
Instead of owning our mistakes, we humans have conjured up stories to try and explain God out of existence. As knowledge has increased, our fabrications have become more far-fetched and so far from truth that it is truth itself that is now perceived as incomprehensible. So much so that today many even deny the existence of truth. How has man benefited from this? Today, people are more confused than ever.
There is no utopian society. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Communism doesn’t have the answers. Socialism doesn’t have the solutions. Democracy seems to be in the pursuit of dystopia. The answers aren’t found in our universities either. Secular philosophy is so busy inventing post-modern euphemisms to placate a dysfunctional society, that all it can show for its efforts are more questions. Civilization today is ripe for the picking by any persona that claims to have the perfect response to all the challenges we face. The red carpet has been rolled out and all the antichrist has to do is step onto it.
In a world where good is called evil and evil is called good, the antichrist will be welcomed. Today mankind wants to be God. Society wants to define right and wrong for ourselves and determine our own destiny. The antichrist will woo the population with the promises of peace and safety and security in a deception so grand, most won’t even know what has happened until it is too late. They will gladly receive his mark and agree that man has finally got it right. He will usher in a new world order. It will be hailed as the deal of the century. A peace treaty that will solve the conundrum of the middle east. He will be welcomed. The nations will not be able to stand against him.
Paul said the spirit of the antichrist is already here. Call it the “lie”, “the ways of the world”, the belief that all the religions of the world serve just one god in different ways, abortion isn’t killing, you can choose your own gender, pedophilia isn’t sexual immorality, humans are descended from apes…. the list goes on and on. When we buy into the value system of the world, we have rejected Christ.
The world is perverse, slanderous, violent, callous and self-serving. It is evil. It is everything that pours out of the hearts of men and it isn’t aware of its own iniquities. Jesus said the end will be just like the days of Noah. They were eating and drinking and going about their business and they didn’t take that big boat seriously. The word of God is being preached everywhere but the world today is more interested in who’s wearing what dress in Hollywood or what time the big game starts than the well-being of eternal souls.
THE SIGNS ARE EVERYWHERE
The signs are everywhere that what is foretold in God’s word is being fulfilled in this generation. Israel is a nation again and continues to exist against great odds. The nations are aligning themselves just as was prophesied long ago, and the threat of another world war is looming over us. Knowledge has greatly increased, people travel to and fro (Daniel 24:4), and there is a great falling away in the church. Weather patterns seem to be more extreme and earthquakes more severe and many young people fear for raising a family in the future. The hearts of many have grown cold and the gospel of Jesus Christ is being preached throughout the world. Never before in history have all these things been present and they are all converging at the same time.
God stands alone by predicting it all and it is recorded in the pages of the Holy Bible. God’s promises are good, and believers will escape all these things. For those whose hearts lead them to investigate, the answers are found in scripture. You don’t have to worry about the future. You don’t have to worry about what will happen. The world stands condemned but you are not of the world. You have a home waiting in heaven, prepared by Christ. The victory has already been won. We already know the outcome. Jesus said, “it is finished!”
Just as John the Baptist proclaimed the coming of Christ to the people of Judea two thousand years ago, that same message reverberates across humanity today. We are on the threshold of God’s harvest from the earth. He is about to gather his elect from the four winds. Never before in all of history, have we ever been surrounded by a more abundance of signs that the coming kingdom of God is so near, as right now.
Greet each new day with the anticipation that Christ’s return is imminent! God is pouring out his Holy Spirit today as a wake-up call to everyone. Whether you are a believer who is unsure of the future or someone with a sincere desire to answer existential questions, Jesus is the only one who will provide assurance of the truth. His name is higher than any other name under heaven. Ask Christ to forgive you for all of your sins. Ask him to come into your heart and dwell within you. He will do that for you today, and you can experience the peace that transcends human understanding – right now. Let him change your heart and prompt you to spread his love and change the world.
The heart of God beats for his people. He wants his children home. Jesus wants his bride home. The time is shorter than you can imagine! The fields are ripe for the harvest. Lift your gaze from your preoccupations and focus on Jesus. Remember the narrow road and the small gate. The array of signs is everywhere!!! The immense glory of God is about to be fully revealed! Listen for the sound of trumpets. Lift your head, for your redemption is near!!! Praise the Lord!!! So be it!!!
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