A Clarion Call – Part 1
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
Have you seen the evening news of late? Even worse, have you noticed the reality of the world we live in today? And I’m not just referring to the third world nations or, for that matter, to any foreign land. I mean the reality we face when we walk out of the house each day and go to work, to church, to school, to the market, anywhere.
The quoted text which kicked off our study begins with a mention of “the last days”. What is that? Well, we are living in “the last days”, dear friends. Ever since Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to give birth to the Church, the last days have been and continue to be. They will end when Jesus comes again to rule the earth at the termination of the Great Tribulation.
The Bible makes many references to “the last days”, or “the end times”, or “the last hour”, etc. For our purposes today it suffices for us to understand that the last days are now. It is generally recognized that, the closer we get to Jesus’ Second Coming, the more striking will be the signs of the last days or the end times.
Considering the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3, we mustn’t grow lax in watching and waiting for Jesus’ return at any moment. In theology textbooks this concept goes by the title “imminence”. Nothing needs to happen first, before Jesus can return. He can appear at any moment. His appearance is “imminent”.
You will notice there are a lot of sets of three periods (…) in the quote from 2 Timothy 3 above. This means that I left off some words where the sets of periods occur. The quotation is already excessive, so I eliminated some of the words to keep it from being even longer. I highly recommend that you read all of verses 1-7 straight from the Bible. You’ll see that I’m not trying to make it say something it really doesn’t say, and you’ll also be blessed to enjoy all the words.
Here’s the thing. In the course of my daily activities, I repeatedly encounter the reality of existence today, even as each of you do. The more we read our Bibles and pray, the more we become transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). This means that we stop thinking like the world thinks and instead think with the mind of Christ.
Hold that thought. We’ll return to it tomorrow. Jesus is waiting for us now. Let’s enjoy His company.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Have you seen the evening news of late? Even worse, have you noticed the reality of the world we live in today? And I’m not just referring to the third world nations or, for that matter, to any foreign land. I mean the reality we face when we walk out of the house each day and go to work, to church, to school, to the market, anywhere.
The quoted text which kicked off our study begins with a mention of “the last days”. What is that? Well, we are living in “the last days”, dear friends. Ever since Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to give birth to the Church, the last days have been and continue to be. They will end when Jesus comes again to rule the earth at the termination of the Great Tribulation.
The Bible makes many references to “the last days”, or “the end times”, or “the last hour”, etc. For our purposes today it suffices for us to understand that the last days are now. It is generally recognized that, the closer we get to Jesus’ Second Coming, the more striking will be the signs of the last days or the end times.
Considering the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3, we mustn’t grow lax in watching and waiting for Jesus’ return at any moment. In theology textbooks this concept goes by the title “imminence”. Nothing needs to happen first, before Jesus can return. He can appear at any moment. His appearance is “imminent”.
You will notice there are a lot of sets of three periods (…) in the quote from 2 Timothy 3 above. This means that I left off some words where the sets of periods occur. The quotation is already excessive, so I eliminated some of the words to keep it from being even longer. I highly recommend that you read all of verses 1-7 straight from the Bible. You’ll see that I’m not trying to make it say something it really doesn’t say, and you’ll also be blessed to enjoy all the words.
Here’s the thing. In the course of my daily activities, I repeatedly encounter the reality of existence today, even as each of you do. The more we read our Bibles and pray, the more we become transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). This means that we stop thinking like the world thinks and instead think with the mind of Christ.
Hold that thought. We’ll return to it tomorrow. Jesus is waiting for us now. Let’s enjoy His company.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
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