Are We Ready?

As is obvious when you notice the posting dates on this blog, I don't just make posts constantly simply because I'm in love with expressing my opinion on something every day.

However, over the past few weeks, there are things that have played on my mind and heart that I feel compelled to share with you. I have been interested in the subject of "End Times." My most recent posting about watching the Eastern sky expresses my thoughts on being ready for Christ's return at any time.

Over the past week or so, I have re-read "Revelation," as well as the comments of Jesus in Matthew 24. He warns us about false prophets, but he also warns of a great tribulation before He returns.

Have "Revelation's" four Horsemen already begun their assigned tasks? In the last century the world suffered a major plague in the early 1900s with a Flu epidemic that wiped out millions of people world-wide. Then with World War I and World War II millions more people were wiped out with horrible deaths from conventional bombings, gassing, firestorms and nuclear bombs as well as bullets. I find it so difficult to believe that with all the documentation that's available that there are people who do not believe that the Holocost against Jews, Gypsies and others happened.

Millions of soldiers, sailors, airmen and innocent civilians lost their lives due to the fighting. Some families lost all their members and entire bloodlines were ended. Since then we have had Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanastan, Iraq and countless wars including Iran/Iraq, Pol-Pot's genocide in Cambodia, recent and current turmoil in various portions of Africa, and the on-going war between Israel and her Arab neighbors.

There has been drought and famine in areas of Africa and Southeast Asia with starvation on a scale that is almost unbelievable.

Earthquake activity seems to have picked up in that past decade.

All of this can be scary or it can be exciting. We followers of Christ look forward to His return. However, I sometimes wonder if we are indeed ready for it. In America we have been conditioned to have everything go our way, without suffering in any way. There are churches that teach that as Christians we will always have everything taken care of for us. If we only will donate to our church, we'll be rolling in the money and that God will return much more money than we give. Many people have been conditioned that we "deserve" to have it all.

In Matthew, Jesus talks of tribulation before He returns. When we look around us today, there is a lot of turmoil in the job market and housing market. People are either losing their home because of job loss or if they are still employed, they are one paycheck away from losing it all.

If we have been expecting to "have it all" and not be affected by hard times, will we lose faith when it all starts to fall apart?

This morning in my devotional time I read Amos 8:11-12. "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord God, "When I will send a famine on the land. Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and from north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they will not find it."

With a potential financial meltdown, will donations to churches and other ministries dry up? Will the potential "Fairness Doctrine" that many Democrats want to re-instate for broadcasters bring about an end to Christian radio as we know it? Will churches in the U.S. be told what they can and cannot preach so as not to offend someone with the Gospel?

Are we ready for potential hard times that will make us need to go underground as many of our brothers and sisters in Christ in China and across the Muslim world must do? Can we hold up and hold out for Christ? We need to be ready. Keep encouraging each other. Share the gospel with non-believers but we should be polite, patient, encouraging, not defensive, and be sincere.

I recently saw a video of comedian/magician Penn Gillette sharing a story about a man who had seen his show and gave him a bible. Gillette, an avowed athiest who, even though he wasn't swayed by receiving the bible, said that he was not at all offended by the man's kind overture. Gillette said that if you're a believer, you must share your faith. I love his quote "How much to you have to hate someone to not proselytize?"

We must share His love and we must stay strong in our faith. Let us not fight among ourselves over our individual church doctrine when our central message is that God so loved the world that He sent His only son to die for our sins.

WE MUST BE READY AND WE MUST STAY STRONG IN THE FAITH. DO NOT FALL AWAY. Pray for each other. Pray for those who don't believe. Pray for pagans, pray for Muslims, pray for Jews, that everyone will come to know the love that God has for His creation by giving us Christ. STAY STRONG. BE READY.