Practically speaking, blogging is the most illogical activity considering the current situations closing in. There are major transitions our family is undergoing that require a lot of effort in a little bit of time. I look forward to sharing with you these exciting goings-on, but that’s for another time. So much is required, but I am experiencing a moment of quiet, and while I allow my ruptured eardrum to heal (stillness is the name of the game), my heart is burning within me and I’m about to spill it all out. It’s one of those times where I see things so clearly, I’m only hoping I can clearly communicate. I would very much appreciate your balancing input.
After reading Luke 12 this morning, I experienced a great amount of fear and joy. Joy that the end really is near. Jesus really is coming back, and if not in my lifetime, it could be in my children’s lifetime. What am I doing to prepare them for His glorious coming? At risk of sounding like a crazy preacher, the Fear of the Lord descended upon me. He really is coming back. Really.
I’ve personally observed pockets of Christians who seem to be embracing this reality and are going after that “pearl of great price.” Nothing seems to be more important than readying themselves, their families, and others for Jesus’ second coming. These people are not a people wallowing in doom and gloom, but are a people of hope, joy, freedom, and love. They are secure in their salvation and their joy comes from relationship with Him and the promise of a perfect eternity together, no matter what temporary hardships meet them on this earth. But they are not in denial of the current state of this world and are active partners with their Redeemer to bring about even more redemption to the world. They do not passively sit, waiting for the world to go to pot and feeling any effort to bring about change would be futile. They recognize the battleground is not against flesh and blood, but against the evil spiritual forces at work, and they do most of the warring on their knees. This is my tribe. I want to align myself with these people.
I’ve also been in the camp of Christians who truly want to be about the Kingdom, but seem to have a hard time really living it out. They’re pretty content with the way things are, they don’t feel things are in that dire of a situation to be all that active and “extreme,” and are just trying to be good people. There isn’t much joy, but there is confusion.
As Christians, we know what’s good and what is sinful, according to the Bible. Or at least we should. We know getting drunk, gossip, sexual immorality, selfishness, greed, and even gluttony is wrong. We try not to drink too much, be too selfish, and we have internet firewalls that catch most of the bad stuff, but hey, we’re not fully redeemed yet, and stuff is going to slip by, right? I don’t think these people are trying to be lazy Christians, I think they just might not be “interpreting the present time,” amongst other issues like Biblical illiteracy.
The fact of the matter is this: Jesus is coming back. Yeah, most Christians are saying, “No duh, I know, I read the Bible. What a cliche thing to say. He’s been ‘coming back’ for over 2,000 years.” He might not come back in our lifetime, but He might in our children’s, or the generation after that, or after that, or after that. What are we doing to prepare them? How are we modeling this readiness? How are we spreading the word so more can be saved?
Sure, there is tension on this side of the New Testament. We are redeemed, but can still sin. But are we using this tension as an excuse, or are we moving forward in our redemption and speaking and acting in our freedom from sin and death? I know we are saved by grace and not works (thank the Lord), but I am also familiar with the sobering parable of the sheep and the goats. The time is here! There is no time for dabbling with the devil. Or have we forgotten what the devil looks like and what our Savior is capable of doing in our lives? With Jesus, our addictions, brokenness, and sicknesses can be healed.
I know I’m not saying anything new, yet not much seems to be changing. This is all coming from one who has been redeemed from the fear of man, the fear of death, the fear of pain and discomfort, and lots and lots of fear, and who has been forgiven of gossip, slander, selfishness, and lying. Yet physically I’m currently struggling with sickness, knowing God could redeem my health, too. There’s that tension. I know the gate is narrow, but I want as many of us as possible to get through it. It is time to really examine our lives, priorities, and thoughts. He is coming, and that will be a glorious day for some and a damned day for others. What will it be for you and your children and their children?
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March 24, 2009 at 7:15 am
regina murphy
Wow Katie! That was such a good post! I have been thinking similar thoughts lately. With my dad dying, I began to think about how he really wasted no time. He was not afraid to get up early and stay up late to do the Lord’s work. And he NEVER complained. Not once in my entire life did I hear him complain about his situation, even though he had a lot of hardship. He followed so faithfully and told everyone about Jesus. Now I look at myself and think about squandered opportunities and what my legacy will be in my family, my home, my marriage, my church, my community, and the Kingdom. Did I really walk it out? Did I live out the love of Jesus? Everyday? Every moment? Why not? What was more important to me than Him? Was I only concerned with myself and my relationship with God, or did I help to draw others to Him? I want to live every moment as if it could be the last, because it very well could. One day, and very soon I believe, Jesus is coming back for us. I don’t want Him to find this bride in the arms of another. Thanks for your thoughts, they are inspiring and challenging.
Love, Gina
PS – I’ll be praying for your ear. 🙂
April 5, 2009 at 7:45 pm
nicole
yes Katie, He is coming, and it is so very near. The stage is being set and as the Lord stated in the OT knowledge will increase Daniel 12:?. He was referring to knowledge about what the prophesies were speaking of. We now have actual events unfolding during our lifetime that are bringing to life these prophesies. It does bring on a tent mentality and a sense of evangelism and a readiness to shed the things of this earth to enter into His kindom. YEAY!
April 13, 2009 at 10:26 pm
kemi rupert
hi, you don’t know me, but i have heard of you often through Debbie Gillentine 🙂 i’m Rick Rupert’s wife (Jeremy knows him). I loved what you wrote on. That has been heavy on our hearts as well. I say heavy and yet i totally know what you are talking about when you wrote…These people are not a people wallowing in doom and gloom, but are a people of hope, joy, freedom, and love… and yet there are some that only get to the point of confusion.
Praise Jesus that you are being filled with his life and reality 🙂 I definitey agree that as I stop the thinking/mentality that this world is so “tasty” I find such freedom and life in being his slave 🙂
Press on! Seek Him! Stand firm to the end! And may our children grow up passionate about our Lord and Saviour!
Jesus touch my sister! Heal her ear. Meet her even more in this time. Pour yourself out on her!
In Jesus’ powerful name!
blessings,
kemi
April 24, 2009 at 5:28 am
Allie
After all the earth shaking today, I needed to be reminded and re-encouraged by this post. Thank you for heeding His call and preachin’ it! I am very grateful.
Blessings!
Allie
April 29, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Kimberly Bass
Jeremy (and Katie)
My heart aches, moans and groans in rythym with yours. In a good way. In a joyful way. But too, as you said – with holy reverance. I feel like the deepest part of me is crying out in ways I cannot even always vocalize or quantify with words… just somehow a “knowing” that He is near. He is coming. And that whether my lifetime or my children’s, my job is to watch, pray, and love. I am not always successful. Some days I find my finite mind and heart so distracted with the “muchness” and “manyness” that the world throws at us. Its easy to get wrapped up in such an upsidedown kingdom as the one we live in. In better moments where I remember that so much of the “here and now” is in direct afront to what is “now but not yet” – I feel my heart untether itself from what most only know to call “the rat race” and lift my eyes, my heart, my mind – body – sould heavenward. “I won’t let what will one day rot – rule the eternal within me”…
Being a parent has been such an adventure. It has rekindled my passion and faith in ways I never thought to even anticipate! I want my kids to have “eyes like Dove’s” (song of songs). Doves can only see straight ahead… they have tunnel vision… I want to teach them that kind of sight and devotion.
I can’t help but feel my heart tremble these days when I turn on the morning news. Its a mixed bag… I simultaneously seem to feel a deep cry for mercy rising up out of the depths of me, and yet a strange sense of hope and anticipation. Wars. Rumors of wars. Famines. Brother turning against brother. Nation against nation. Apostacy of the faith. Light growing lighter, dark growing darker. Strange weather. Its all there… right in Matthew 25. “as in the days of Noah”…. “like a woman in child-birth having contractions”. Mercy Lord. Have Mercy!
“we don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you!”
Oh Papa! Give us the eyes of Doves!