How should we then LIVE?
We should live “ready” for Christ to come at any moment (Lk.21:34-36) but “working diligently” as if he may not come back in our lifetime. We should avoid extremes (over-preoccupation with a sneaky rapture vs. trying to create heaven here on earth).
To quote Tony Campolo, “Any theology that does not live with a sense of the immediate return of Christ is a theology that takes the edge off the urgency of faith. But any theology that does not cause us to live as though the world will be here for thousands of years is a theology that leads us into social irresponsibility.”
1. Live with full devotion to the Lord. Be prayerful and watchful. Love him with all your heart and develop a close relationship with him. Many “nominal” believers will be shocked on that day (Mt.7:21-23). Don’t be caught without “oil” (Mt.25:1-13). Be spiritually awake, refusing to allow lethargy or apathy into your heart (Mk.13:32-37. Rom.13:11-12. 1 Thess.5:1-10).
2. Live your life in light of eternity. What we do in time echoes through eternity. We have only one life to life. This is not a dress rehearsal or a practice run. This is the real thing so give it all you’ve got. Run to win! Use your gifts, talents and abilities for the benefit of others (Mt.25:14-30. 2 Cor.5:10-11. 1 Cor.3:1-15). We will be rewarded for faithfulness with what we have been given, not because of the gifts we received or the positions we held. “Live and do” not “do and live”. Because in Christ “you are” loved and forgiven, do good works, but not “in order to” be loved and forgiven.
3. Live with an evangelistic edge. Make heaven’s priority yours. Be stirred to a spirit of evangelism. Build relationships, take risks, look for opportunities, share your faith and invite people to church and to Christ. Hell was not designed for people.
Life is short, live wisely! Know God’s will, seize every opportunity and invest your time in things that count for eternity (Eph.5:15-17).
I have a good friend who I love to visit. However when I leave her house I am poluted because she smokes and for several hours I am unwell. I feel tired, worn out and physically ill. I could choose not to visit but she is a good friend. This is in contrast to me living in the world. It also polutes me yet I can not choose not to visit. I want to use the gifting God has given me but I feel so poluted that often I just want to stay away. The more I develop my relationship with Jesus the more poluted I feel when I have to go to work, parent children, interact at shops, pay bills, talk to neighbours, live life etc…. I know Jesus will return at any moment and at the same time his return may be in another 2000 years. I suspect all the attention of End Times is a cry from humanity which is saying enough is enough. The tension of living in the great ‘inbetweenity’ is poluting me. I’m doing the best I can, whilst knowing I could do much better but unable too for reasons I do not understand. I not asking to be rescued, as Jesus is my rescuer, I just need to know if I was alone with this tension.
Richard – you are not alone. Obviously the HS is alive and well within you becuase you are are conscious of your own inability to do anything that is pleasing to God (in atonement for your sin).
This awareness is good, and do not lose it, but at the same time remember that God loves you “Just as You are”, and you are justified by faith in Jesus.
Mate, stand with your head held high as one adopted or grafted into God’s own family as a child.
Richard B your post dragged me out of my blog retirement:) Your honesty is so refreshing. I agree with Scorpaena Grandicornis (Lionfish) that the acute awareness of our sinfulness is actually a good thing and a sign of maturity in Christ. The more we get to know the Lord and delve into the Scriptures the more aware we are of our own nature. The closer you stand to the mirror the more you notice every speck on your face.
It didn’t really dawn on Isaiah that he had a dirty mouth until he was standing in God’s presence in a vision (Isa 6:5). When Peter came to terms with the reality of Jesus’ sovereignty and divinity, he cried “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8)
The tension of ‘inbetweenity’ that you describe is resonated in Paul’s words:
And also
It seems that we are wired to long for the everafter because it is our ultimate destination. The ‘tension’ is the intuitive part of us that alerts us to eternity.
I think what you’re describing was captured by Oswald Chambers in the last century, though he expressed it in slightly different words.
So NO you’re not alone!
Great message by Josiah today, I picked this article up from Bloomberg, I think it is something we all need to take note of: It demonstrates the effects on the ocean food chain of an increasing carbon dioxide level, What does the scriptures say about the condition of the oceans and the life therein before his return?
Fishermen Say Carbon Dioxide Having ‘Really Scary’ Ocean Effect
Share Business ExchangeTwitterFacebook| Email | Print | A A A By Daniel Whitten
Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — Jeremy Brown, a fisherman from the Pacific Northwest, is pulling things from the ocean he says are so disturbing that he came to Washington to warn U.S. lawmakers about it.
“This is not overfishing, this is something far larger,” said Brown, one of 10 people who met with lawmakers and legislative aides this week on behalf of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, a San Francisco-based group that advises seafood producers on fishing practices.
The group said the ocean is becoming more acidic because of carbon-dioxide emissions that are damaging coral reefs, decimating populations of tiny animals at the base of the food chain and eating away at the shells of clams, mussels and oysters.
“Every so often we snag a piece of coral on the gear,” Brown, of Bellingham, Washington, said in an interview. “It doesn’t look healthy, the color has gone out of it. The evidence is that we have instabilities in the system, and this last year was really scary.”
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of a United Nations scientific advisory panel on climate change, highlighted ocean acidification this week in remarks at the global conference on greenhouse gases in Copenhagen.
World trade in seafood products is valued at $100 billion and feeds 3 billion people, according to the fisheries partnership. That production is threatened by rising acidity, caused by the ocean absorbing more carbon from the atmosphere, and by the effects of agricultural runoff, said Mark Green, a professor of oceanography at St. Joseph’s College of Maine in Portland, who accompanied the fishermen on the trip.
Collins, Murkowski
The group met with Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and aides to other coastal senators during a three-day visit.
Small snails and other tiny animals at the base of the food chain are disappearing at alarming rates, jeopardizing the health of pink salmon and other fish that feed on them, said Green, who lives on Maine’s Peaks Island.
“What we see with ocean acidification, we are seeing on time scales that are far more rapid than any sort of changes we are seeing on terrestrial systems,” said Green. “People who weren’t able to agree with climate-change science will have an easier time accepting the science on acidification.”
The U.K.-based Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership reported in April that acidification has increased 30 percent since the start of the industrial revolution, a rate faster than at any time in the last 65 million years
More acidic water eats away at clam, oyster and mussel shells, said Mark Wiegardt, who raises shellfish larvae in Tillamook, Oregon, and sells them to commercial harvesters.
“The shells stop growing and the acidic water literally dissolves the calcium of the shells,” Wiegardt said.
Wiegardt said he has seen an 80 percent cut in production in 2008 and a 40 to 50 percent drop this year.
Here is a link on global pollution. View the graphic pictures and pray.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34115253/ns/news-picture_stories/displaymode/1247/?beginSlide=1
The Bible is clear only when the Gospel of the Kingdom is preached will the end come… we have preached man-made doctrines for so long; we wonder why the world hasnt being turned upside down in comparison to the 12 disciples Jesus had;
Kings talk Kingdom- Christians talk Christianeze to the distaste of much of the world because its expressed differently based on doctrines. We dont know the time or hour-
But in Mat 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
It points out one Gospel – inorder to be an effecive catalyst to usher in the end one Gospel must be preached. Why Jesus says in Luke 4:43- that I must preach the Gospel of the Kingdom for this reason was I sent.. didnt mention faith, grace, cross, blood etc No just Kingdom this government that was promised and propheside by old testament prophets .. yet the message changed.. even the 1st Church in Acts 1:3 preached on Kingdom. Apostle Paul preached Kingdom 3 months and 2 years (acts 20:25, 28:31) yet today not a scratch….
In Church we talk Kingdom yet fail to seek it as he commanded in Mathew 6:33- you cannot appropriate that which you dont understand- you dont understand because you dont obey his commandmment do earnestly seek, pursue knowledge of this most important subject. In fact if most preachers looked at Mathew, mark, Luke , John again they will discover all Jesus preached was the Kingdom of God and there was power- evidence this Kingdom was here now…
When we preach another Gospel we are walking on dangerous ground but who has heed to the warning? today in most CHurch we accept anything and everything because of title, affiliation and they all say we preach truth then who isnt?
When your concept is wrong , so is your conclusion and when thats wrong so is their theology… its time to get back to what Christ preached not what he said or done….
Excellent series Mark – solid & straightforward – love it!