Heard a great sermon today about "The End". This much-feared "end" has been in the news a lot lately...actually for the last several months. I've watched my fair share of conspiracy theory videos, a lot of them sounding very similar to doomsday movies like "2012" (cataclysmic earthquakes & weather patterns), "Deep Impact" (asteroid hurtling toward Earth), "Knowing" (solar flares that incinerate Earth) and "Outbreak" (flu virus gone haywire). There is no limit to these types of films and I actually enjoy the disaster film genre...always have.
But here's the thing that happened a few months ago...so many of the conspiracy theories started sounding eerily similar to some of these story lines...and actually even plausible. I did find myself beginning to get concerned. And when thoughts of stocking up on water or food or moving to a farm in the middle of nowhere so we could survive the coming, inevitable apocalypse began to consume my thoughts, my loving, all-knowing (as in He already knows what's going to happen!) merciful Saviour gently reminded me of a few things:
- He hasn't forgotten me, my family or where we live.
- Just exactly in whom or what am I placing my trust?
- There will come a day when to survive and still be around for what's coming won't be the optimal choice.
- And if my heart and thus my focus, is on meeting Him some day and living with Him for all of eternity...then something that speeds up the inevitability of that day can actually be a good thing, right?
I used to tell people that I wasn't afraid of death, but I was afraid of what I'd have to go through to get there. That's no longer the case. This has been a slow awakening for me that's probably taken about a year to process through and become at peace with...so if you're not there yet and you still fret about death, pain, etc., give yourself some grace, talk to God about it and allow Him to give you His peace.
See the thing I keep trying to bring out in so many conversations and even on these blog posts is that this world is not our home. We were never meant to die, be buried and that be the end. We were meant to live forever with the One that loves us most. As authors like Gregory Boyd and Eugene Peterson have reminded me in the last few months, the promise of Heaven is why early Christian martyrs (or even martyrs in this century) could go to their deaths singing, praising and worshipping their risen Lord...because they absolutely knew His resurrected life meant their own lives would endure forever as well. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, right? And Paul reminded the early church time and again that our focus was to be on God, not our circumstances. Peter even wrote that, "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials." (I Peter 1:6)
So today when the pastor began to ask how we feel about the thought of "The End", I wanted to shout "Yes! Come Lord Jesus!" And as he attempted to ease the fears that undoubtedly were present for many of the congregation, I too was challenged by his reminder that the best thing we can do is to be ready.
We remain ready and watchful, yes. But we also remember that no matter whether the date is 12-21-12 or 1-1-3000, every day we are one day closer to the return of Jesus Messiah. When that day comes, everyone will be sorted and will spend eternity in one of two places. And you know what...we were meant to have a happy ending. You know it in your soul, right? Happy endings resonate with us for a reason, don't they?
The "spiritual urgency" is for those of us who know about the happy ending...we are commanded to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19) Whether we want to stare it in the face or not, the clock is ticking. I'm not trying to be an alarmist, just facing the facts.
But many times the road seems long and the struggle to climb the mountain of obstacles seems far too difficult to climb, that's when, as Eugene Peterson writes "We are apt to think (who has time for preaching)--until, in the middle of the battle we find our courage flagging and our commitment wavering, and realize that the world is not primarily a place where information is stored and retrieved, but a moral and spiritual contest in which we are embattled. Then we are grateful for a proclamation from some midheaven pulpit, telling us again what God says about what is happening, turning information into command or promise, translating moral memories into spiritual urgencies (Revelation 14:6-13)." Reversed Thunder
"Spiritual urgencies"...that's what I was reminded of this morning. How easily I am lulled into forgetting this. Today, I am "grateful for a proclamation...telling (me) again what God says about what is happening." And what He says is happening is urgent...spiritually urgent.
Yes! (Amen!)
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