Luke 21:9 But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
I hear and see much resentment in the community of believers over current events. “Surely the end is near.” We tire of the bad news. We see Christians slaughtered and beheaded and wish for Christ to come again and put an end to all this. This is our wish, this is our hope, this is our prayer. “But the end is not by and by.”
“I don’t know how it could get any worse.” Then it does. We want to see prophecies happen, we just don’t want to be the part of it that is painful. We look to the Word and pick at prophetic hope like it is a menu board where you can order dessert without the appetizer. God is a God of order, and prophesy must happen in order.
Verse 12 begins with “But before these things”. Then a list of painful events are listed. You can look to history and hope that these things have already come to pass, but turn on you international news, they are still happening today. So where do we fit in history?
Ephesians 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
We are preaching the Good News in the face of bad news. This will happen until the end of the church age.
“But the end is not by and by.”
WOW, thank you for the exhortation for us to be content in our “timeline”. I have to quote an old servant of the Lord, Harry Hayhoe. He drilled into my soul this comment, “if you could pick a time to be born, you couldn’t have picked a better time than right now, because God has picked this time for you”! Also, we as young people, were encouraged by Clifford Brown, a great teacher of the Word of God, to read Fox’s Book of Martyrs as a book that shows us that Christian persecution is not new, nor will it cease while the Church is still here.
It is a real privilege for me to go on for our Lord Jesus with a smile on my face and a song in my heart, knowing full well that I am here, in HIS time for HIS glory , and when HE desires, will take me home in HIS way. PTL!!! Thank you Lord Jesus, and thank you Larry.