What if the end is really near? What if?

I grew up in the early 1970's. The preaching was that Israel had become a nation for the third time in 1948 and that a generation would not pass before Christ would return.

It was always being taught that he had to come back between now and 1988. So be ready for that. It also gave me a lax attitude on just what to do with my life. No huge goals. Just persevere until his triumphant return. It has been 23 years now since that disappointment. It had altered my life because I did not pursue some things that I could have. I have learned that a generation in the bible could mean up to 70 years.

Some people wonder why I do not get caught up in all the hoopla of Jesus' predicted return. Since Jesus left the earth physically mankind has been looking for his return. he will come back when he does. But what has God given every human being he has created?

Life. He has simply given us life. Getting excited about an event means to me that you are not excited about the gift he has given you. It's like looking at the box and pretty ribbon, opening it and then enjoying it for awhile and then looking around to see if there is something better.

God could have just said, hey, just created you! Wanna come live with me now? Fellowship with me now? Instead he gave us a life with a million choices. Many opportunities . In the midst of all of that he invites us to come through the perfect door of Jesus to have an ongoing permanent relationship with him.

There is an old saying. Bloom where you are planted. We are planted here on earth. Blooming is allowing God to live through you. Blooming is taking the talents that he has given you and growing them, nurturing them. You know, just as a father here on earth loves to watch his children grow up, be their best and follow their dreams....don't you think that excites the heavenly father too? It says in his word, for without faith it is impossible to please God. Blooming is using your faith and  your talents and living in this world, the life that he gave you. By not doing this, you are not being not only a good steward, but you also are saying this gift of life is not enough. It is saying you just want to go to heaven. Be done. No faith involved in that. How can God be pleased.

Sometimes when people see that someone isnt all there, not paying attention they say "Is head in the clouds or something?"

Unfortunately that is what happens in Christianity. The look for the life of blessings and bliss. They ignore God's mentions of the seasons of life.....Ignore that God says he will be with you in good times and bad. So thei head is in the heavenlies, even though they haven't been called home yet. How is God pleased by this.? The blessing of life here. So much to share, and yet the focus is on something such as a return when he resides in you right now?

The answer is simple. fellowship here and now in Jesus. Let him live through you. Dream dreams here and have visions here. A mission of faith by being what God would want here on this earth. The word says he who is faithful in little things is faithful in much. This earth is small compared to heaven, But we are still asked to be faithful here.

What If?

I watched a Christian movie called "What If". It was a Christian version of the movie "Family Man" with Nicholas Cage. It is always nice to see stories about how God mysteriously takes peoples mistakes and rights them and somehow in the end everything turns out the way it is supposed to turn out.

In the book of Joel it does say that God can indeed give you back all the years that the cankerworm stole. I do believe it is possible. But at the same time, if you have a vision in your life that you believe God has placed there, do not dismiss it. God gives us all we need, we just use the faith he gives us and each day is a little more vision with each step. A little more provision is found in each step we take. Nothing is impossible with God and him saying in your heart something. Gods' will is found in peace within any storm that ensues us.

If you feel like you have failed. If you feel like you have blown it, congratulations. We all have at one time or another. We can only smile and say...yes Lord. Then we can continue to flounder in our failure or we can pick ourselves up and meditate on the lord until we see the path he has. The door that he has indeed opened. But our eyes see what we wish to see, when his eyes can show us life, direction, healing and purpose.

But once we see it, we can go all gungh ho, or we can wait on him, for his instruction or his empowerment in it. Jesus said that the words he spoke were not his but the Father speaking through him. You can read about it in the Gospel of John. he also says there that the miracles he did was also the father doing it through him. That is waht abiding is. Stepping aside and allowing him to live through us. Paul came to that point when he proclaimed "that it was no longer he living, but Christ living through him".

Jesus said he is the vine and we are the branches, Our life isnt found in our own personal efforts. It is found in him. Its not who you are in Christ, that is a backward approach. It is who is Christ in you? That is where our answers are found. Who is he in me? I know who I am without him. Failed. Jesus said, I no longer call you servants but friends. Think on that. It changes how you perceive him looking at you. But he tells us that it is not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord. In Corinthians it states, where the spirit of the Lord is, is Liberty.

People miss out on his relationship and intimacy. They are always seeking his power and not his love. Without love, things do not matter. They are like straw quickly burning in a fire. Its worthless. 

In Matthew Jesus commented on people seeking signs and wonders with this:

Matthew 16:1 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.

2 He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, '[It will be] fair weather, for the sky is red';
3 "and in the morning, '[It will be] foul weather today,
for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern
the face of the sky, but you cannot [discern] the signs of the times.
4 "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign,
and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."
And He left them and departed. 

Think about that. If all your friends liked you for was what you could do for them instead of who you are...what kind of friendship is that?




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Is God's Family different than Earthly Families?

In a normal family here on earth, once born into it; you are a part of it. There is an old saying that you can pick your friends but that you can not choose your family. That is true. In the earthly families you would have to go to some very extreme circumstances in order to be thrown out of the family. But other than that, people know that life is a myriad of choices. Successes and failures.

The good earthly parents try and find ways to point their children in the right directions, They use logic, discipline, understanding and love all woven in patience. Just because one of their children is not as orderly, not exactly with the program does not mean they are not a member of the family. membership is not based on their performance, it is based on being born into that family. It is true with babies that were adopted into the family as well.

The Apostle Paul in his writings had a big problem with the church in Corinth. There was a lot of sexual immorality taking place. One of the problems when Christianity began and the gentiles were added was that the humanistic Gnostic thinking was that there was no sin in life as long as it was not hurting anyone else. Pretty much what is taught in today's world. Now what exactly did Paul say about this? Did he bring out the old sheep and goats' thinking?

What he did do was tell them it was wrong and implored them to stop doing that. He did not call them unsaved heathens. He called them babes in Christ. Isn't that interesting? Here were these people who had accepted Jesus Christ as savior back then and having sexual relationships out of marriage and the Apostle Paul did not disqualify their membership in the grafted in family of God. Instead he called them babes in Christ.

I am not advocating living an immoral life. What we do here has natural consequences, such as the break up of marriages, unwanted pregnancies etc. But the point made here is that Paul did not disqualify a person from being a Christian based on their performance. Instead he was pointing them in a better direction. Explaining what was wrong here. If they had by faith received Jesus Christ as savior, their faith had saved them, not their own ability to be good. It is all about what Jesus did and not about what we can do.

I think it can be summed  up by the parable of the late worker. You know the one where the worker came late and received the very same pay that the people who had been there and labored all day. Remember how upset the people that had labored all day had been? They felt disrespected.

Before I go any further, I will add Paul said that each day we need to offer ourselves up as a living sacrifice to God. Each day we should renew our minds. Meditate on the things of God. Allow him to live through us. For a plant to grow it needs attention. Our Spirit man inside us needs attention daily just as our teeth and body do. Its a natural progression.

We are all at different levels of understanding. Some are mature in some areas and not so much in others. our lives are pretty easy for people to view and scrutinize. Thats why we are told to what? Pray for each other. In a biological family, you would pray for your brother or sister in their short comings. You would hope for the best in their lives. It is the same way in your spiritual family. God is not looking for reasons to disqualify them anymore than you should be.

We live in a fallen world. It is easy to be deceived even in the slightest ways. There are many boxes out there that people live in. Cults such as this is the only bible. This is the only church. Our ignorance does not disqualify us. Our ignorance can disrupt us and rob us of many blessings in life. But that is not the same thing as disqualification.

God is not a man that he should lie, neither is the Son of man that he should repent. The word states he no longer calls us servants but friends. It also states that yes, we may be great parents, but he is the great Father. So much better than we can imagine.  We all have our ways. We all have strong points and weaknesses. Yet God tells us that our ways are not his ways. Even at our best we shall always come short of the Glory of Christ. Yet the good news is that because of what Jesus did, that God calls us righteous in his eyes, worthy of him.

The bible says we are righteous by faith. It says we are saved by faith and not by works lest any man should boast. The bible tells me that it is faith which pleases God. Not perfection. Not always doing everything right. Not being there from the beginning of the day working in the field. Does love mean perfection, or does it mean heart towards? Just as our own Children will fail, and we pick them up and dust them off and encourage them in Love...how much more do you think the heavenly father is at work doing the same thing?

God didn't just pop into our lives. he did many things over time to reveal himself to us. In that same sense he is always at work in our life as Christians, correcting us and blessing us. All things. Sometimes we get so selfish that no one can see the Jesus in us, but it does not mean that he is not there. It means we are spending a whole lot more time pleasing ourselves than we are allowing him to reign. We all do it.

If God is at work even in the most messed up Christians we know, shouldn't we as a brother or sister just at least say a prayer lift them up to see their father and take their eyes off of themselves? We aren't perfect. Our ability to do good versus doing evil is not what makes us right and separates us from the professing Christian who outwardly appears a mess. Our only righteousness is found in Jesus. That's it.