****Please read the scripture from the Bible first as this is God's Word****

Which "one day" does your life focus upon? What day in your future do you most think about and prepare for? We must focus our present lives on the day when Jesus will come. What do I mean by that? Think about what day you long for right now. Is it a wedding anniversary, for kids its birthdays and Christmas, and some long for the day they grow up and leave for college, and some people long for the day they retire and so forth. What if Jesus came tomorrow? Would you be prepared? Would have maybe made some different choices in the past week, or month, or year?

You see its not about if Jesus will come again, its about when, because he is coming. We have to be prepared, and live like He is coming! We get so caught up with the distractions of life, like the TV, Basketball games, Football games, entertainment, and things of the world, that it removes our focus away from Jesus. I think as Americans we are inclined to be more lazy and selfish in the fact that we have so many luxuries that we want everything in life to be easy. The fact is that this life isn't about ourselves, it is about glorifying the one who created us. Even churches have lost focus, and made it like a contest to see how many people they can get going to their church, however they are using things such as rock concerts and parties and things that appeal to the lust of man to do this, when the only reason should be that we want to go to worship our Savior Jesus. The term "Christian" is thrown around pretty loosely today, however the term means "little Christ". That's a pretty big title to fill, however we if we call ourselves Christian, we ought to live and be Christian, and to be Christian is no easy task. Our sinful nature discourages us from being true Christians. Being a Christian is simply acknowledging that we are sinners and we need a Savior that is Jesus Christ who can cleanse us with his shed blood on the cross, and there is nothing we can do to otherwise for the forgiveness of our sin.

We see in Revelation that the world is on the cusp of judgment and chapter 11 is about the second coming of Jesus. Our almighty God, is holding back right now and allowing us this age of grace. In verse 15 of Revelation chapter 11 we see the seventh angel about to sound his trumpet. The number seven may be significant, but without getting into to much detail, it would appear this is a number of completion, as in the 7 day creation. It means this is the final judgment that will finish God's plan, a day of completion. As the angel sounds the trumpet we see the day of transformation of the rebellion of this world to the Kingdom of God.

In verse 16 - 17 we see that this will be a day of worship. The four and twenty elders are representative of the church of true believers, as they fall to their face and worship God for is almighty power which will endure forever and ever. This is they day we ought to long for, the day we are with God in heaven, worshiping him and rejoicing.

In verse 18 we see that this will be a day of action, wrath and reward. We see that the nations will be angry. Why you ask? Why do people hate Jesus? Why do people hate God? One of the most common reasons is that people in their prideful states don't want to be told they are sinners. I can agree with this because I used to be one of them. I have been granted mercy and grace as I have come to know the Lord, and pray for those who don't know Him, because the judgment and punishment of the earth in the future will be unimaginable. However God will reward those who fear Him. What do I mean by that? The best way I can give an illustration is a broken family who goes to church and pretends all is okay and acts a certain way in front of their peers at church when in fact they are anything but the way they act at church. They fear what man will think of them and how man will judge them. We need not fear man, we must fear our God, and obey our God with loving hearts. Christianity is anything but easy, and Christians aren't here to judge, we are merely honest to admit we are broken and need God to fix us, more specifically we need Jesus our only high priest and Jesus only to cleanse us of our sin.

Are you living like Jesus is coming?

posted by Ben at 9:07 PM