Sad or glad?

A friend of mine and I watched television last night. Our wives had gone to choir practice and we were bored. I had pre-recorded the news, 60 Minutes, and a couple of other news programs. After about an hour and a half of watching back to back to back horrible news about the economy, corruption, greed, drug related murders in Mexico, terroristic wars, threats from within and without including Iran and nukes, my friend got up and walked into another room and said to me as he was leaving, “I don’t like to think of it or talk about it much, but I really believe the Lord will be coming back soon. The world is just getting too wicked”

I turned it off. I could not take it anymore either. I used to study prophecy and was perhaps overly obsessed with it. I still retain enough knowledge of it, to say that pretty much everything that needs to happen, biblically speaking, has already happened save rebuilding of the temple on the site of the Dome of the Rock, and the Lord could come at any moment. We are told that no one knows the exact time of His return except God Himself, but we will know that it is eminent by the signs such as the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, moving towards a one world government, wars and rumors of wars, armies encircling Israel, etc.

In 2 Peter 3 we are told that in the “last days” scoffers will come walking according to their own lusts and saying “Where is the promise of His coming?” It goes on to say that they will ignore and forget that the world that once existed perished when it was flooded with water and that the heavens and the earth are reserved for fire until the day of judgment of ungodly men. In other words we as human beings are not very good at retaining “lessons learned”, even hard lessons like Noah and the destruction of mankind.

Specifically what we are facing is described in 2 Peter as follows: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works in it will burn up. Therefore since all of these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of the lord…”(Sounds kind of like a worldwide nuclear war eh?)

Hmmm Why should we want to look for and hasten all this doomsday stuff? In verse 14 we find the answer, “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” We are not to fear the coming of the Day of the Lord, we are to desire that it be hastened, because whenever it is over with and done, we will find peace everlasting and sin will be no more.

We should want to hasten it, but we should also be concerned with those who have yet to accept the Lord. Why does the Lord tarry? Because He loves the unsaved people in the world and is far more patient than my friend and me. We are to imitate the Lord and if ever we had a heart for the unsaved around us it should be now. God does not desire that anyone be left behind when He returns for His children prior to the end of the heavens and the earth. The Bible tells us that we should feel that same way, and if you know someone who is unsaved, you should be trying your utmost to convince them of the truth, because time is very quickly running out and according to further prophecy, soon their hearts will turn too cold to even entertain the idea

Why not join me today and try your best to find someone to share the Gospel with! Time is a wasting…

2Peter 3:8
But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some count slackness,
but is longsuffering toward
us, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to
repentance.