How to Live in the End Times

Thoughtful words from Jonathan Cahn --

  According to biblical prophecy, the end times will be marked by the increase of evil, but also by the outpouring of God's Spirit. It will be marked by both great good and great evil. 

Thus the end-time believers must aspire not only to goodness, but to greatness. 

They must seek to become great in faith, great in love, great in righteousness, great in prayer, great in purity, great in worship, great in zeal, great in hope, great in goodness and great in God.

      The end times will not only be marked by great evil but great good.

      As evil moves from bad to worse, the righteous must move from                goodness to greatness.

                               ****************

[Are we there yet? I think it's about time we were getting ready!]

God's Makeover

From C S Lewis --

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house.

At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you know that those jobs need doing and so you are not surprised.

But presently He starts knocking the house about in such a way that hurts abominably and does not seem  to make sense.

What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here and putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.

You thought you were going to make it into a decent little cottage, but He is building a palace.

He intends to come and live in it Himself."

 

Once Forever!

 "By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy."  Hebrews 10:14

What could be more amazing! God, because of the sacrifice of His perfect Son, declares us perfect forever.

The human priests had to stand in the temple and offer sacrifices regularly, even daily, to atone for their own sins and the sins of the people. But Christ's sacrifice was one time only and gave forever forgiveness!

Our debt -- PAID IN FULL!!!

At the cross, Jesus took all our sins, our filthy rags, and clothed Himself in them, but gave us His righteousness to wear!

He exchanged His perfection for our hideous evil. When God looks at us now, He sees us clothed in Jesus' own perfection. Literally, He sees no sin, only His Son's goodness. We have already been declared perfect in His sight.

As He looks at us and sees the righteousness of His Son, we will never be more perfect than we are now -- in position. 

Now His intent is to lead us into righteous living, so our lives will reflect our royal position.

2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us that we "are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord."

Josiah became  King of Judah at age 8 -- officially his position with all that title and honor entailed, but he had to grow into kingship before he could reign. 

That's like us --we have a lot of growing to do! Someday our lives will reflect our position -- what God has chosen us to be.

"He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy"!

....made perfect...being made holy...

It's Worth the Wait!

 Waiting for God's help in time of trouble is hard. We usually want to pursue our own solutions first, leaving God as Plan B! Even as we pray for God's will and help we are often already figuring out our own ways to proceed. Now that's really dumb! I should know!

The Israelites responded like that when they were threatened by their enemies. They sought help from the Egyptians instead of turning to God. Read about it in Isaiah 30.

"Woe to the obstinate children who carry out plans that are not Mine...who go down to Egypt without consulting Me..."

God tells them what to do instead in verse 15: "In repentance and rest is your salvation; in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it."

"In quietness and trust," God tells them.

Then Isaiah adds: "The LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore, He will rise up to show you compassion...blessed are all who wait for Him."

Do we every consider that? Our Father wants -- longs -- to show us His grace and mercy. He is eager for us to come to Him!

BLESSED ARE ALL THOSE WHO WAIT FOR HIM!

Waiting is hard, but it is worth it, and it pleases God!

Father, help me learn to be patient. I know You are a good and loving God whose ways and timing are always perfect. How could I ever doubt Your love and faithfulness and wisdom? How could I ever forget that? Forgive me, my dear Father. Amen.

Understanding Truth from Narnia

Here's another provocative thought from C S Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia

From The Magician's' Nephew

In this passage Digory has just foolishly and disobediently helped the wicked witch to enter Narnia.

The Lion, Aslan, calls the Narnians together.

"You see, friends," Aslan says. "That before the new, clean world I gave you is seven hours old, a force of evil has already entered it, waked and brought about by this son of Adam."

They all turned their eye on Digory, till he wished the ground would swallow him up.

"But do not be cast down. Evil will come of that evil, and I will see to it that the worst falls upon Myself. In the meantime, let us make this a merry world. And as Adam's race has done the harm, Adam's race will help heal it."

                                         ******

I am so moved by these words from Aslan: "I will see to it that the worst falls upon myself." And He did. We see it pictured from the beginning of Genesis (re-read Genesis 3:15 - our protevangelium) all the way through the Bible to the closing chapters of The Revelation. 

The worst fell on Him, by His choice. 

He would rather die than live without us. And so He did. But we must  help heal the damage while we are here. Someday, maybe soon, He will take us to our new home, where no damage can ever be done again. Maranatha!