It's Not Falling Apart. It's Falling Into Place

I've been a prophesy fanatic for about 10 years. It's not something I've learned or acquired. The Lord truly lit that fire inside of me. Probably because I was such a cynic. "Yes, but.."  "I understand that, Lord, but you don't see how I  see it". Everything was a "but" and "this is different". If you believe God's word to be literal and true, and I do, then you can not dispute the facts. There are no compromises. You come to understand that we, as fleshly humans, have allowed compromise into scripture. The facts are that scripture clearly tells us:

• what God has done 
• what He expects of us  
• what He is doing now
• what He promises & will do in the future
• He calls us to repent
• He calls us to forgive
• He calls us to turn away from sin
• He promises us that He will return for His church
• He will judge us
• We will be rewarded in heaven for obeying Him
• Those that deny Him will be in hell for all eternity

These are facts not fiction. I find them fascinating, exciting, and praiseworthy.

Somewhere along the way my generation decided that there was a grey area to life. Not all things were black and white. Children needed choices. I don't think we needed choices I think we, myself included, wanted freedom to sin.  Somewhere along the way our daughters generation decided that wrong is right and right is wrong. Somewhere along the line, we as a society, have confused love with sin. We have turned grace into a culture not a means to turn from sin and be covered in the blood of Jesus. Somewhere along the way, we as a church, have become hypocrites. We judge the body of Christ on their deeds, works, performance, financial status, and looks all in Jesus' name. Amen?

Jesus was radical. He loved the underdog and freely forgave sin. We have twisted that into sin packaged really pretty as "greasy grace" "tolerance" "love is patient". We've depended on counselors, new age books, therapy sessions, yoga, and "feel good" talk shows & retreats to solve our problems. When all of our problems are clearly solvable in a book that is black & white covered in the blood of Jesus. The answers can not be any clearer. Yet we don't like the answers so we have, as a society, created our own solutions.

Yesterday afternoon our community had the enormous privilege to hear Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Billy Graham, speak. I'll be honest I was surprised at the turn out. I expected 1,000's. There were 100's which was still awesome. However it was telling to me. A biblical Jesus--who wants ALL of us, A Jesus who will   turn our upside down world right side up, who calls us to acknowledge our sins, walk away from sin, who will judge our sin, who promises to rapture His saved people--is not a really popular message in our world. A Jesus who is "love"? Now that would draw crowds in the 1.000's.

Her message was clear. It was humbling. It was convicting. She told us that when we look around at our world "we think the earth is falling apart. It's actually falling into place for Christs return". He is coming soon. We must be ready. We can not be living a grace filled life until we remove the sin from our lives. Are we critical? judgmental? cynical? a liar? a cheat? an adulterer? an alcoholic? drug addicted? practicing a homosexual lifestyle? withholding forgiveness? harboring anger? harboring resentment? These are sins in the eyes of the Lord. Jesus does love us. He also calls us to repent. Pretty plain and simple.

The Lord knows every single hair on our head. He ordains our steps. Just as we expect our children to obey us He expects us to obey Him. Just as we know our kids are not perfect He knows we are not perfect. That is why He sent His son to die on a cross for us. Just as we know our own children will get it right some days and some days they won't. Yep, Jesus knows we are of the flesh. When we see our own children's true heart we offer them mercy and grace when they falter. Likewise, The Lord does so for us. When we see our children sinning we expect them to stop because they know what they are doing is wrong. When Jesus sees us sinning He expects us to do the right thing ,repent, and not do it again. When your children repeatedly do something you ask them not to do you warn them. The Lord has been warning our world for quite some time. When our kids ignore our warnings and do what they want too we punish them don't we? Why do we think that The Lord is not going to punish our world's sinful behavior? When our children continue to sin we still love them. Please make no mistake: The Lord loves us despite our sin. Just as we do with our kids  He expects us to correct the behavior.

Have we become like the world or Jesus? Do we make excuses for our sin? Do we label it something socially acceptable instead of calling it exactly what it is: sin. In order to have freedom in Christ we have to acknowledge our sin and ask for forgiveness.  He is coming soon. He will judge the living and the dead. I do not want to be left here. The world has already gone mad. Can you imagine a world with nothing but  sin and evil? Think it's bad now?

I don't know about you but I want to be in heaven. I want to spend every single waking moment with the angels and arc angels. I want to be in the throne room. I want to experience the majesty, magnificence and glory of the Lord. I want to forever be with my Savior, my Anchor, my Rock, my Promise, the Lion & the Lamb, the Prince of Peace, the Lord of Lords. Amen.

http://youtu.be/N2aerX_OZPo

"Never the less when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away"-2 Corinthians 3:16