Week Eighteen, 2019
SIGNS OF THE END TIMES
By Florida Senator John Grant (Retired)
You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 Timothy 3:1 NLT
Men have been predicting the end times for centuries even to the present. Who knows? Only God himself knows, but we certainly can look for signs…. difficult signs. Paul gives us some suggestions as he writes to Timothy and makes some suggestions of some pre-end signs to look for.
After reaffirming that the end will come, he paints a societal picture. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying its power.
He warns us to have nothing to do with such people, but he gives us behavior patterns to look for two millenniums in the future. Don’t these social patterns sound familiar in today’s world?
Just look around and see self-centeredness, greed for money, pride, parental disobedience, ungratefulness, lack of self-control, conceited pleasure seekers and more. We see an increasingly secular world that seems to have lost its moral center.
Whether it’s legislation around issues such as gay marriage and transgenderism . . . or the debates around what religious liberty really is (and whether it even matters) . . . or the popularity of the “new atheists” like Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan . . . or just the way our neighbors and co-workers look at us if we mention that we agree with what Christ said about salvation, relationships, or truth . . . we’re in a new era.
It was one thing to move toward a pluralistic society where we lived among those who looked and thought differently than us, and who disagreed with us on some of our closest-held beliefs. Now that’s not good enough. We’re currently experiencing the intolerance of intolerance. Christians with “traditional” convictions and understandings of sexuality and marriage are seen as “bigots”—churches are being viewed as “hate groups.” Our beliefs are “hateful,” and our positions are “backward.” Welcome to the age of unbelief.
I don’t know when the end time is coming, but I sure see increasing social and spiritual signs. Have we lost sight of our salvation? Have we forgotten God or never known Him? The signs are increasingly evident.
The second coming of Jesus Christ is the greatest thing that is to happen in the near future. The world is presently self-destructing and the stability of the past is rapidly disappearing. So many are wondering just what is going to happen next. No one seems to know how to fix the problems we have in the world any more. A cataclysmic ending of our world involving finances and destructive forces are surrounding us and many are now searching for how they can escape what they see is coming ahead.
Are you ready?
***
SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES
The average person has 30,000 conversations per day. Men 20, women 30, we spend a fifth of our life talking.
— o —
Eighty-five percent of everyone over the age of fifty has some significant blockage in the arteries of their heart, without experiencing any symptoms. That is a scary. Prescription for Life
— o —
Blood from the heart is carried through our bodies by sixty thousand miles of arteries, plus veins. The condition of the arteries determines how well the body is supplied with all it needs to function at 100 percent. As those arteries become damaged by certain cholesterol particles, the walls begin to respond by developing a battlefield to fight those foreign bodies, and either plaque buildup or inflammation results in a clot. Both events can cause the blood flow to either completely stop or become markedly decreased. The downstream area becomes starved for oxygen. If the heart is involved, a portion of the muscle quits working and the remaining fibers are called on to carry an extra load of pumping your blood. The result is a less effective pump. Prescription for Life
— o —
We must speak biblical truth with biblical humility. When we convey the impression that we think we are better than others or are judging them, they are understandably resistant to our message. “Speaking the truth in love” is the mandate of our day (Ephesians 4:15).
— o —
Jesus is clearly popular in our culture. Barna Research reports that 73 percent of Americans identify as Christians. According to Gallup, that’s far higher than the percentage of Americans who identify as Republicans (26 percent) or Democrats (30 percent). Census data shows that Christians outnumber any racial demographic in our country. However, while nearly three in four Americans say they are Christians, Barna reports that only 55 percent attended a church service in the last six months. Other studies show that only 23 to 25 percent of us attend three Sundays out of eight.
Clearly, Jesus is more popular than the church today. What can you and I do about this?
QUOTES YOU CAN USE
The God of the mountain is also the God of the valleys.
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. Winston Churchill
Marriage is not a destination. It is a journey.
Desire is of the mind; commitment is of the heart. Dr. Richard Furman
What you think is living is not living.
The height of the palace shows the depth of the pit. God will allow you to have bad experiences when you are in the pit so you can experience good things in the palace. Jonathan Evans