Thursday, March 10, 2011

Signs

It's getting late...and the clock which had been humming is now ticking loudly.

It seems to me that signs of change and perhaps the big shift in everything - the return of Jesus to the earth - is especially close.

Now, don't stop reading. I have not become "strange," or paranoid, or sensational. No, at this season I ponder more deeply and have mellowed considerably. (I recently read some of my early sermon notes and could see the fire with which I preached the return of Christ...and that was 40 years ago...something towards 15,000 days ago. I feel more filled with perspective now, rather than shaped primarily by zeal.

In recent months, however, it seems like things with great portent are happening all around us, things that at minimum make for great change, and at max, might bring us to culmination of things in the return of our Lord. (Will these changes be synergistic as they intersect?) Are we in fact, surrounded by the beginning of the final groans? The fusion that occurs prior to the explosive release of a new age?

Four "signs" I list:

Sign #1.
The great changes afoot in America: the spiraling debt, the boomer generation moving into retirement (with its impact on leadership, health care, income, social security and more), the moral decay and loss of fear for God Himself. (Have you considered how much TV fare has changed in just the past 5 years?)
America has stood very tall for christian principle and freedom in past generations and provided protection and assistance for so many nations of the world. What will happen if this erodes and there is no longer this influence for good?

Sign #2.
With our seeming demise, the rise of other nations is already being talked of in the press: China, India, Brazil and others...signals at least a shift in world politics,tensions and responsibilities. It is soon going to be a whole new chess board, with moves and responses yet undefined.

Sign #3.
The global simmering of radical Islam and the upheaving consequences that can come with teeming numbers of people (men, women, children) who are willing to become personal bombs in the midst of civilized enterprise. (See the recent video: Kamal Saleem A Muslim Cries Out to Jesus.)

Sign #4.
The continuation of the information revolution: the webb, google, blogging, facebook, texting and more. This is greatly reconfiguring relationships, privacy, education, availability, time, innocence and more.
"Every eye" seeing Jesus on His return, used to be (in my mind) one of the end-time "miracles." Now the multiple, readily accessible ways this could happen seem almost to be a logical, "of course" word rather than a miraculous one.

One thing is most certain - the journey ahead will not be predictable and quiet. It will be a turbulent, change-filled, anxiety-possible era. (The implications of this for the church are many...perhaps the focus of a future blog.)

But on a personal level....

We must walk close to One Who is not going to be surprised by anything or deterred from His master plan for the universe.

We must stay close to One Who is able to calm any storm.

We must be willing more and more to heed the call: "Deny yourself, and take up your cross, and follow Me."

Time now to "sign" off.

I welcome your feedback.

What if.....

1 comment:

Bev Stych said...

Thank you for your thoughts on these times we live in. Often I think of (and speak of)a teaching you gave on this subject many years ago. I remember that you advised to steer clear of messages that produce fear and to stay close to Jesus. Timeless wisdom I would say!