Matthew 24:22-31
(Use the link below to read the verses.)
One day this past week, just as I was leaving the office, the sirens went off. It was a tornado warning. We’d already had heavy rains accompanied by high winds. Now the sky was dark. The trees were still. It was all very ominous. But I wasn’t going to wait until 6:30 when the warning was supposed to be over.
During my drive home, I listened to the talk radio station. A local meteorologist was on the air. As the sirens were screaming to “run and hide”, he was warning everyone to “find your safe place”.
He went through the list. “If you have a basement, go there. If you don’t, go to a room without a window. And if you’re in your car”… you’re screwed. He didn’t really say that, but it’s what I thought.
He was on the air for over thirty minutes dispensing a message of fear; of impending disaster. Afterwards, the announcer on the following program shared how when he was a little boy he was so afraid of thunder that when he heard a loud clap, five seconds later he would throw up. It was like clockwork.
You’d think it was the end of the world. Maybe it was.
29 “Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. NLT
I’ve never been that interested in the “end times”. The guys who carry a sandwich board declaring the end of the world, are an oddity to me. It’s not that I don’t believe; it just seems irrelevant to right now. Following Jesus is difficult enough without worrying about something that’s been predicted since Jesus was on earth.
I think that the question to ask is, “Who is in control”? The answer is Jesus. Knowing that he is in control, makes life bearable; makes life meaningful; makes life hopeful. And when he does return, it will be apparent to all.
27 For the Son of Man will come like the lightning which flashes across the whole sky from the east to the west... 31 The great trumpet will sound, and he will send out his angels to the four corners of the earth, and they will gather his chosen people from one end of the world to the other. GNT
But really, it’s the beginning.
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