Before reading further, I would like you to stop and pray
for anyone suffering from loss and injury due to the recent brutality of
shootings, wars and other tribulations caused by hate.
Now read and ponder what Jesus told his disciples when
they asked about his return, what many now call the Second Coming.
Matt 24:4-14 NKJV
4 And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed
that no one deceives you. 5 For many
will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of
wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass,
but the end is not yet. 7 For nation
will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be
famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of
sorrows.
9 "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and
kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will
betray one another, and will hate one another.
11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the
love of many will grow cold. 13 But he
who endures to the end shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a
witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
We have had wars and murders since man’s fall and removal
from the Garden of Eden. We can’t blame it on the tool used to commit the
crime. It can’t move unless a human uses it and then it will do exactly what
the human decides. We can blame it on man’s selfishness and lawlessness. Our
desire for the individual rights over all else and then segregating by color,
race, creed, financial station, etc. has us in a broken state of affairs. Even
in the church we have groups saying their way is the right way and everyone
else is wrong. There is a cacophony of voices out there wanting our attention
and many are just giving us feel good about yourself lip service.
We have entered the age of false prophets and loose
morals. This leads to a very destructive disease, the loss of love for God and
others. We must be first and then we bother with others. When things don’t go
our way we want to blame someone and find some way to protest the outrage. We
think we are entitled to having it and doing it our way. This is no way of
showing love. You cannot show love to others if you are only thinking of
yourself.
I have a great many friends and family who are not living
as Jesus says. Many who are not sure they want to know Him because of all the
false prophets out there. I don’t blame them because at one point I was in
their shoes. However, once I understood who Jesus really was and accepted Him,
I was finally free to be myself and learned to love despite the differences. I
have people telling me I’m a Christian that they will listen to even if they
don’t agree. Maybe it’s because when I wasn’t a Christian, the ones I did
listen to showed me love and did not make me feel Bible thumped. They loved me
anyway and still were able to tell me about Jesus. When I accepted Him, they
were the ones I ran to for a church. They were the ones I stuck with when their
actions and words kept lining up with the Bible and if they did not they had
the guts to admit they made a mistake.
What voices are you listening to today? Have you set your
goals so they are all about you or are they about helping others? Are you
immediately retaliating due to some wrong done to you no matter how big or
small? Or are you showing love that can convince people to be better? Are you helping spread the hate mongering and finger pointing that tears us apart or are you breaking the cycle?
I pray
that you chose Jesus and endure with Him to the end no matter what comes your
way. God’s Word should be our weapon to change the world.
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