by David Brenneman
It's with some sense of excitement and maybe even trepidation that to write this morning I do.
My Dear Reader:
Jesus is real, Jesus did live 2,000 plus years ago.
Jesus IS going to come again, and no it's not a myth, not a legend, not fiction.
I am excited about the prospect and always have been since my earliest memories of my life with Jesus as my Savior, even from before I knew Him as that. Whether or not I am to be believed is irrelevant. My earliest memories are of being with Jesus when I was the most terrified as an infant.
My life has been different from most people due to much different obstacles to overcome physically. I just know that it was God who made me this way on purpose for a purpose.
I am finally on track, as of yesterday, to begin writting my book on what all God's done in my life in the last 22 years.
Things to come for this world aren't going to be pleasant. The Bible is very explicit on that. Much has yet to happen but what days in which we live is clearly spelled out. Everyone is trying to do what's right in their own eyes. Just as it was in the days of Noah that Jesus said it would be like. People would be marrying and being given in marriage, just like it was in the days of Noah. When Jesus does return, much in deed will happen so fast that people won't have time to deal with it. If you thought that the massive changes to the way of life that have happened in the last few years were something...oh you haven't seen anything yet.
When Jesus comes, the first thing will be the graves of people all over the world who have bodies in them that belong to those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus will burst open. Yes, you heard that right. When we read in the letters to the Thessalonians and other Churches we know full well that those who are dead in Christ will be the first to get a new glorified body that can never undergo decay as their first body did. Sin will no longer have an impact on it.
Secondly, those who are alive today who have believed in Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior will be vanishing faster than you can blink an eye. Global catastrophes will happen on a scale never seen by anyone alive. The only others who have ever seen that kind of global devastation would have been those who were alive in the days of Noah.
Nothing that I have written here today will be at all disputed by any who are left behind. The writers of the Bible wrote of it long long ago. Jesus was asked in the book of Luke about what would the days be like when He did return.
Your search for success in this life, your search for personal happiness in this life, apart from a right relationship in Christ Jesus, will net you nothing. What good, even as it's written in the Gospels, does it get you to gain the whole world you desire and yet lose your soul? What would you ever try to give God in exchange for your soul? There's nothing! Your good deeds done outside of a right relationship with Jesus get you NOTHING. Being a good guy or good girl, get you nothing. Not hurting even a fly will get you nothing. Being a good person gets nothing. Nothing covers the sin you were born with apart from the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
When millions of people all over this world vanish, when the global earthquake that happens about that same time happens, people will be in a panic unlike anything ever attempted to be shown in a movie or on television. Those who are left behind will be crying out for Jesus to come back. That they want another chance. No chance will be given to them. They indeed might still find salvation in Christ Jesus but they won't be immediately taken up to be with Him.
Things to come for this world include huge financial hardship. Physical loss from famines, floods, earthquakes. The Bible also says a global leader will arise to try to reign in the chaotic world under his authority and leadership. The thing is...the world will go after him. They will listen to him and they will follow him. But that won't even be the hardest part...those left behind will be demanded to worship him. You either worship him or you don't eat or hold a job or anything pertinent in the life of those alive.
You, my Dear Reader, do not have to go through all this literal Hell on Earth. It will indeed feel like it. You see, what has been described so far isn't even close to what it will be like in harshness. In those 7 years that follow great disasters, judgements of God, will be hammering this world. The book of Revelation spells it out. Things like 100 lb hail stones slamming the planet. Things like water being turned undrinkable. Billions will be dying. Not millions, billions. This so-called world leader will convince people that it's not of God and that by following him people will be ok. Yet remember this: The word of God has never, ever, been broken.
Sin has consequences. We're born into it and only by faith and trust in Christ Jesus alone for salvation, can it be atoned for. Only through what Jesus did on the cross to wipe out the penalty for sin, can we stand in the right before a Holy God. Only those who have will never see the horrors to come. Being a good person is and would never be enough. Hate to break it to you but there's literally billions of people in Hell who all thought their good deeds in this life would have spared them from the torment in which they will spend eternity living out.
Jesus, in this very moment, is still in the business of saving people.
Jesus, in this very moment, is standing before you with arms wide open, ready to receive you.
Jesus, in this very moment, is more than able to still save one more.
Jesus will stand up from Throne, all of Heaven will know exactly why, and then His return will happen. His return date and time were set by His Father's own authority.
My prayer for all who read this is that any who have not turned to Jesus for salvation yet would. Success in this life means nothing when after you die you spend all of eternity suffering, paying, for your own sins. All the money in the world cannot wipe out 1 single sin.
All the good you could do in your life will not remove 1 single sin.
I didn't know exactly what I would be writing today, in this morning, but I do know now that someone needed to read this. Someone reading it is looking for something more in life than the disappointment life has been to them. Jesus came to give us life, and not just life, but life more abundant. That book I spoke of writing, it's going to be my sharing of all the great things that God's done in my life, that I can remember, for others to read. By all rights I ought to be dead, but by his Grace and Mercy, I am alive today in Christ Jesus. I have a purpose, and it includes both living and sharing what great things He's done in my life and living out my purpose in Christ Jesus.
Jesus loves YOU enough to say "I will take his or her place. I will take the punishment due them on Myself. I will because I love them that much."
My Wife and I walked through a cemetary yesterday to clean up a few family headstones. I shared with my Wife of a dream that I have had a few times of us doing that on a not so dissimilar day. When in that dream I heard that great trumpet sound and we saw the graves bursting open and within a second of seeing that happen we left to be with Jesus.
Salvation is as near to you right now as it ever can be...
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