"So it will be at the end of the age." (Matthew 13:49)
There are so many, "so it will be at the end of the age," in Scripture. Four times in the NKJV of Matthew's Gospel alone our Lord Jesus speaks the words of our text, "the end of the age." It is coming as sure as anything in the universe. All of the Bible Prophets gave encouragements and warnings of the time to which all of history is headed. Some people spend great money and time preparing for their retirement, but so very little in preparing for, "the end of the age." Churches too spend much money and staff nerves preparing for their particular kingdom's future, but how much in the preparation of their people for, "the end of the age"?!? Some "spiritual" people will say, "But no one knows when that will be." Precisely.
At, "the end of the age," the reality of, "For whoever desires to save (literally, "protect") his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it," will manifest more intensely. Today in America there is the so-called Right and Left. The Left just hates the America they were handed and is fighting to change the cultural base. The Right, on the other hand is fighting to preserve "the American way of life." And many in the Right "camp," which includes many sitting in church buildings all across America every Sunday, are those who are no more interested in the Kingdom of Heaven than those of the Left. For Followers of Jesus Christ in any culture, however, it is going to be increasingly a choice between, "desires to save his [own] life," i.e., comforts, security, and, "the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ."
Bonhoeffer faced precisely this choice in 1933 when he wrote to his grandmother referring to the gathering storm in Germany. It is prophetic particularly for the American Church today.
It has become ever more evident to me that we are to be given
a great popular national Church, whose nature cannot be reconciled
with Christianity, and that we must prepare our minds for the entirely
new paths which we shall then have to follow. The question is really:
Christianity or Germanism? And the sooner the conflict is revealed
in the clear light of day the better."
Later when Bonhoeffer was asked why he did not work within this "popular national Church" for the survival of the Church in Germany, he said,
"If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in
the opposite direction."
Father, in Jesus' Name, I pray in these days that I will not "board the wrong train." Amen.
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Read a Main Reason For the 9/1 DC Mission: www.apf327.blogspot.com
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
