It's the right time to talk of last things. Part One.

Greetings friends and companions.

Ever since I have been a Christian, and I am sure you have experienced the same thing, we have all heard people saying that this sign or the other surely points to the imminent return of Jesus. I have dismissed most of them because they were usually referenced to this or that person being the anti-Christ.

The Bible says we can not know the day or the hour, only the season. Granted many things tend to say we are in the season of Christ’s return; that forces me to hope he would return today, but live as if it might be many years away.

There is one verse though in the Bible that gives me pause and in my thinking lends more credence to the thought of Christ’s return that any. Matthew 24:12 says - And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

All one has to do is pick up a newspaper or read on the internet from any news source the evil that is adrift in the land. Whole families are slaughtering each other; it’s not just a criminal here or there. Fathers and Mothers are murdering their children wholesale.. These things are happening on a daily occurrence. If these things and things like them are only the signs of the beginning of the last days then God have mercy.

The thing that is important is not to get caught up in some fever pitch of looking for this or that sign; that is something the devil would love to have happen. What needs to be done is simply continue going about the work of God we have been called to do and continually live lives that point to the love and grace of God. That is our true calling.

When I first started writing blogs about ten years ago I wrote one specifically on the last days. I give it to you now. Be blessed. Brad

Who is this King of Glory?

What was it like in those days 2000 years ago when God was preparing to invade humanity with Himself? Was it like today? Were there people going about their daily routines with a sense that the world was about to change irreversibly? I think so. Luke’s Gospel gives an account of two people, Simeon and Anna, who were in the temple and saw Jesus when Joseph and Mary presented Him as required by the law. The Holy Spirit told Simeon that he would not see death before the coming of the Messiah. Anna spent her life in the Temple praying and fasting and telling others about the redemption that was coming to Israel.

There is a sense today that we are living in the end times, that the return of Jesus Christ will soon be here. We temper our anticipation with the knowledge that the Gospel must be preached to the entire earth before that day comes, but still deep down in our hearts, we know. Forces of evil are raising their heads in the world, people are becoming more deceived than ever that evil is good, and science is giving men the ability to control and manipulate life in a way that is reserved for God alone. The tower of Babel is rising again.

What are we to do then? Run here, do this, do that? No, of course not. Life on that scale is meaningless and without purpose. What we are to do is so simple it passes us by, but it stands out every time we look into the face of another. These days, these last days, we are simply called upon by God to love. When we love unconditionally, and to love as if every person were Jesus himself, we are in many ways like Simeon and Anna, faithful in pray