End Times

DEVOTION – END TIMES

“Dad, it’s time for supper!”

said a little girl who was sent to the basement by her mom. “Tell her I’ll be right there,” he said, “there are only two minutes left in this football game.” But with one team making every effort to stop the clock, the coaches using every available time out, and frequent commercial breaks, it’s amazing how two minutes can stretch into twenty. More amazing still is the level of intensity, effort, and focus on the part of the players when they know that the game is on the line, with the clock running out. Every coach must wonder, from time to time, how to get that level of play from his team during every minute of the game!
Both Scripture and our own observations make it plain that we are, right now, in the final minutes of an epic contest. It isn’t a sporting event, but rather the consummation of all history, just prior to the return of the Lord Jesus on the Last Day. The tell-tale signs of the last times are upon us—wars, rumors of wars, love growing cold, increasing wickedness, disregard for God’s Word, and false teachers abounding (see, for example, Matthew 24 and 2 Timothy 4). Read More »God’s “Two-Minute Warning”

DEVOTION – ADVENT

 “And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”  (Mark 13:37)

“Place your order today to receive it by December 24.” Modern shipping services are pretty remarkable. Most orders we place online arrive on our doorstep three days later. If we’re in a real pinch, we can pay extra and receive that package by the very next day. Using our smart phone or computers, we can even track those Christmas gifts we ordered and learn the day of their arrival. The more important the package, the more we want to be aware of when it will arrive.

Each Sunday, the church keeps tracking another, more important arrival—an arrival that will change everything forever! “He shall come again to judge the quick [the living] and the dead” we confess to one another in the Apostles’ Creed.Read More »On Watch

DEVOTION – SECOND COMING

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”  

(Hebrews 10:23-25)

Semper paratus is the motto of the fifth branch of our military, the U.S. Coast Guard. It’s a Latin phrase that means “always ready.” Through extensive training in meteorology, naval safety, communications and rescue operations, members of the Coast Guard keep themselves prepared for adverse conditions on the sea. They must always be ready to handle their own ship in dangerous situations, to assist disabled vessels in a storm, to intercept and arrest drug smugglers, and to repel enemies from our coastlands.Read More »Semper Paratus

Elvis Presley sang “Home is where the heart is.” Computer techies would suggest “home is where your Wi-Fi connects automatically.” Poet Robert Frost said, “Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”

How about you? Where is your “home?”

After being gone from “home” with my wife to the Canadian Rockies recently, I know how great it is to be back “home” in the USA.

“Home” is where we live. It is where we have been, where we can get comfortable, where we are.Read More »Heaven is Our Home!

Premillennialism, postmillennialism, and amillennialism—these are words that tangle the tongue, and concepts that twist the brain. If there is one thing humans seem to be adept at doing, it is complicating simple situations. God tells us in straightforward language in Genesis 1 that He has created the heavens and the earth, but man invents evolution as his origin. The Lord tells us to simply believe and trust in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ and we will be saved, but man adds his own works and efforts in order to assist God in the work of salvation. Jesus plainly taught that He will bring this world to its conclusion when He returns to gather all believers to Himself, but man says, “Not so fast!”Read More »Complicating a Simple Ending

A large percentage of Christians today are Millennialists, eagerly waiting for Christ to return to establish a thousand-year reign on the Earth. This expectation also includes false teachings such as a “rapture” of believers and a “battle of Armageddon” (to name but two).

This millennial outlook concerning the end of time is not supported by Holy Scripture. As all other false teachings, millennialism robs Christ of His glory and His believers of comfort and peace.

Which glorifies God and gives believers comfort—anxiously watching the Middle East as one looks for signs to indicate Christ’s return to the region, OR simply trusting the eternal Son of God’s promises that He will come without signs or warnings?Read More »Readiness for Christ’s Return in Glory