Suddenly Everything Will Fall Apart

When will this pandemic really ease, or better yet...END? As of this Memorial Day weekend, no one really knows. Things are reopening gradually; however, normalcy, whatever that means in the future, is still some distance away. Predictions vary depending on the news source. We must be careful of returning too quickly and with too much complacency.

The second coming of Jesus is described in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-9 (MSG) with similar terms:

 Don’t think, friends, that I need to deal with the question of when all this is going to happen.

You know as well as I that the day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars.

He won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would.

About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other.

“We’ve sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!” Suddenly everything will fall apart.

It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman.

But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this?

You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day.

We live under wide open skies and know where we stand.

So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others.

Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart.

People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us!

Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it.

Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.

God didn’t set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our Master, Jesus Christ.

He died for us, a death that triggered life.

Jesus won't call ahead for an appointment. The heralding trumpet blast will surprise us all. As God's people we must be ready and confident, but never complacent. Let us live under the wide open skies he created for us. Let us know where we stand. Let us walk out into the daylight dressed in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.

1 John 5:13 (MSG) sums it up beautifully...John states, "My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he’s listening. And if we’re confident that he’s listening, we know that what we’ve asked for is as good as ours."

God continually creates SURPRISES!

So don't be caught off guard by the surprise ending. Our lives may seem as though suddenly everything will fall apart, but it will be just the beginning of that amazing eternity we are promised...

And It. Starts. Right. NOW!

More Questions

Any list of questions that can only be answered when I finally arrive at or inside heaven's gate is bound to be as endless as time itself. Here are a few more of my personal queries for eternity.

Who warned Jochebed? (Exodus 2:3) We know why Moses' mother put her baby in a bullrush basket on the Nile. It was to save him from Pharaoh's decree threatening to drown all Israelite male babies. There was no electronic warning system...no Amber Alert that Moses was in danger. It is easy to believe what occurred was simply God's plan to save the man destined to lead the enslaved people from Egypt to the promised land. Did Jochebed dream it or have an angelic messenger appear to her? It happened that way to others in the Bible, but we have no answer to how it occurred this time.

What became of the ear? (John 18:10) In the Mount of Olives garden on the night Judas betrayed  Jesus, Peter fought the mob. He drew his sword and wacked off the right ear of Malchus, servant of the high priest. Luke 22:51 relates that Jesus, "touched his ear and healed him." Trivial though it may sound, did Jesus pick up the sliced-off ear lying on the ground and restore it to the man's head. It is just as reasonable to think the Lord simply touched the spot where the ear had been, and all was made whole. If that were the case, was the original ear still in the dirt or...what?

Did Thomas actually put his hand in my Savior's side? (John 20:27 NIV) Jesus told the doubter to "reach out your hand and put it into my side." The King James version asserts a bit more dramatically that he was to "thrust it into my side." That effort by Jesus to make Thomas a believer again did not go unrequited. Thomas immediately exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" I can suppose he said those words from his knees." I'd only be guessing.

As with my previous blog Questions, there are no definitive answers to any of these. There are no solutions at all...only cognitive apparitions in my mind's eye of why or what might've happened. I do enjoy imaginatively pondering some of the unwritten details. It is fun and gives me joy.