The End Times

The End Times

Wow! We must have had the best Word on the Street the other night of
all the ones we've done. The Hot Topic was "The End Times." When we
first introduced the HT mostly everybody had a look on their face of
disinterest in the taboo and gloomy subject. The most obvious
rebuttal was submitted by Radiance Lewis (oops, did I bust her out?
Lol). Radiance said, "I got too much to work out in the here and now
for me to be trying to think about the End Times." The truth is that
when we think about the end of the world, the book of Revelation,
and Armageddon we tend to tense up for fear of the unknown. Think
about it: the knowledge that causes you to be fearful is formed by
what you heard somebody else say, imagined yourself, or have seen on
a movie. (Because if we all had first hand info from reading
Scripture we'd be excited). God reveals the end verbatim in the book
of Revelation because He wants us to know exactly what will happen
and how it will happen. If we don't tense up we tend to respond like
Radiance; we have too much going on here to even consider there, but
Paul said …

2 Corinthians 4:16-18
16Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is
decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17For
momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of
glory far beyond all comparison, 18while we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are
eternal.

It is natural to have an earthly, temporal, here-and-now focus, but
Paul admonishes us towards a heavenly, eternal, unseen focus. The
question arises though: "What is the eternal weight of glory?"
Or, "What is the unseen eternal hope?" These along with other
questions like: "What is the Rapture?" "How will the earth
end?" "Explain the judgment?" What will heaven/hell be like?" All
these questions were answered in detail on Friday and will be
answered this week via Street Signs. During W.O.T.S. we were all
blown away by God's word and what He reveals about eternity. Would
you believe that when it was over every single person who thought
they didn't want to hear that HT was in awe at just how relevant it
was. Even Radiance (somebody pray for her, lol) said that's exactly
what she needed. The point is that when her attention was taken off
of the pain, confusion, and frustration of now and redirected to the
promise of eternal glory that will swallow up earthly problems . . .
Radiance (and all of us) could deal better with the here-and-now.
Know why? Because in the grand scheme nothing really matters at all
(somebody say preach Lauren Hill).

RevDH
PS If you want the realest pick me up … Read Revelation 20-22. The
first 3 verses of Rev. 1 says your eyes are blessed for even reading!