The End is Near

We’ve seen those walking the streets in silent protest with a cardboard signed painted with the words: The End Is Near

Their message is one of warning because they perceive something and feel they must warn everyone. Anyone. Why doesn’t anyone else know what they know? Is anyone listening? Does anyone really care?

A long-time ago a radio program started broadcast what many thought was live coverage of an alien invasion. As the news swept the nation, fear swarmed! Huddled around old fashioned tubed radios, a nation listened with anticipation. Will we survive?

Through the year we’ve watched many seasons of challenges come and go. Virus. Wars. Elections. Riots. Goliath-styled challenges left us shaking in our boots. Sticking our heads deep in the sand because we just can’t stand the idea of what’s happening!

Through it all we keep hoping for change. When the season is over, and surely life will get better. Next year? New beginning?

Right? Perhaps. Today I can only share… The end is near.

What’s Next?

Throughout the Bible we find a nation and individuals wondering that very thing. What’s next? I think we t’aint seen nothing yet. Adam and Eve face their first night out of the Garden. Noah and his family secure in the ark as the storm begins. Lot fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah into the wilderness. Endless stories of thousands of years.

Catch my drift?

Through the billions of lives and thousands of years, history tells us innumerable times that humans have struggled with this question. The unknown of the night, the fear of the new day, and the recent memory of the struggle.

For the body of Christ, this should be one of the easiest questions to answers.

I don’t know about tomorrow, I just live from day to day…
I don’t borrow from the sunshine, For it’s skies may turn to gray
I don’t worry o’er the future, For I know what Jesus said
And today I’ll walk beside Him, For He knows what lies ahead
Many things about tomorrow, I don’t seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow, And I know who holds my hand.

Songwriters: Ira F. Stanphill
I Know Who Holds Tomorrow lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

Foundational Thought

Just as we worry about today, tomorrow and the future, we need to secure our foundation. If we have faith even as small as a grain of mustard seed, you can move mountains (Matthew 17:20). Mountains? Well, if you struggle with this idea, Luke tells us the same thought will move a tree. (Luke 17:6)

Your faith can accomplish what you need!

Can you trust your faith?

It depends. Are you trusting in yourself? Or, do you trust in God? The psalmist talks of those who trust in their riches (Psalms 49:6), some in their ability to fight back (Psalms 20:7), but time and again he tells us to Trust In God.

In one of my favorite verses about Trust, the psalmist lays it out clear:

“The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
my God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.”  
Psalms 18:2 (KJV)

A goodly portion of my trust formula comes in how I define the one I’m trust in! In this same chapter we are told that God prepares us for the battle. Trust doesn’t mean I do nothing, rather, it means I put myself into the equation.

“He teacheth my hands to war,
so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.”  
Psalms 18:34 (KJV)

Read the whole chapter. Faith comes from trust, but trust puts me INTO the equation of handling the problem. You do not simply trust and do nothing, unless God instructs us to do so. Trust builds my faith, and my faith shows my trust. Sometimes I’m busy about the Lord’s business. Other times I’m simply waiting in the wings for to come out fighting!

Is The End Near?

Preparing to move further into the future we never saw coming, what does your faith and trust say about you? Are could it simply be we need to be waiting for God’s plan to unveil? Or, are you busy shoring up the walls of your life to be better prepared for the day you are called into the battle?

Is the end nearer today than when we first began? The Apostle Paul warns the church in Rome of this very thing.

“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep:
for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand:
let us therefore cast off the works of darkness,
and let us put on the armour of light.”  
Romans 13:11-12 (KJV)

There is no time like the present. Now is your time to prepare. Your faith has been in reserve, but untested. Let’s trust. Put your faith into action. The end is near.