Unless a journey you begin has an end, by definition, you are a hobo. With each ending, there is the promise of a new beginning, and that paradigm of a new adventure makes the end of a journey bittersweet.
Spend enough time on one topic, and you can’t help but feel
like you don’t want it to end. There’s always a new layer to plumb, always a
new angle from which to view a situation, and in reality, the study on the last
days of the church could have continued another six months without letting up.
There’s a profound difference between coming home and
spending a night in a motel on your way to somewhere. Personally, spending a
few months focused on one theme and meditating upon it is like coming home from
a hard day’s work. You know what you will find, and you don't have to wonder if
there are bed bugs or other creepy crawlies hiding somewhere in the shadows.
It’s home. Everything is as you left it, where it should be, and there are no
untoward surprises to be had. The sense of familiarity brings about both
comfort and rest, the likes of which cannot be replicated by anything other
than being home.
I write every morning as much for my edification as anyone
else who happens to read my musings. Doing so allows me to view the topic at
hand more deeply without the need to rush through it just to check it off a
list. Our duty as believers remains to read the Word, know the Word, and live
the Word, not in some haphazard fashion, but as something we prioritize consistently
in our lives.
When we spend more time dissecting, parsing out, and trying
to interpret the machinations of foolish souls, wondering what they meant by
pet dinosaurs in heaven or whether only the young will have access to ice cream
land once we enter in, than we do going to Scripture and allowing it to feed
our spiritual man, we are doing ourselves a disservice and wasting the one
resource that cannot be purchased with either gold or silver.
Our time here on earth is a one-way journey. You can’t turn
back the clock or go back to when you were young and tell yourself all the
things you shouldn’t do along the way, and more often than not, it takes a few
gray hairs before you have those life-changing epiphanies some people speak of.
Everything in the life of a temporal being is judged by time. How much time
we’ve spent on earth, how much time we have left, how much of it we redeemed,
and how much of it we squandered.
The wisest man who ever lived once wrote that for everything
there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. In every man's
life, there is a season of growing and maturing, and then there is a season of
testing, a time in which you apply the things you’ve learned along the way. If
we do not take the time to grow and mature when we have the opportunity to do
so, when the testing comes, we will be ill-equipped to endure and overcome it.
Some of you disagree with my conclusions regarding the season
of sifting and testing the church is about to enter, and you’ve made it known
repeatedly, boisterously, and vociferously, but I am beholden to the Word, and
it must have the last word even if what it says does not elicit visions of puffy
clouds and overfed cherubs.
This is not an ego thing. It’s not about being right.
Honestly, I wish I was wrong. I’m all for seeing true revival sweep the land
because that would mean it was preceded by true repentance of heart. I just do
not see its promise anywhere in the Bible within the context of the last days,
whether of the church or of the world. Persecution, hardship, maniacal hatred
of Christ and His followers? Yes, those things are all enumerated within the
pages of Scripture. A great awakening? I haven’t found it, and believe me, I
looked.
The study on the last days of the church has come to an end.
It is currently being made into a book since some of you have requested it.
As I said, one journey has ended, and another will begin
shortly. As promised, we will tackle the book of Job as our next in-depth
study. Until we start this new journey, I will be posting some stand-alone
essays and thoughts. It won’t be long, but anyone who’s ever tackled the Book
of Job knows it’s not a lighthearted fare.
2 comments:
My most sincere thanks to you for your two "The Last Days" series. Walking through these with you has been an eye-opening blessing. Some days I felt the "ouch" in your words but thank God for His much-needed hard truth for the days ahead.
I'm excited for the book! I don't have a notebook or, screen big enough to truly enjoy your writings.
Too, I often like to reread the words that resonate with my spirit. The book will be a blessing.😊
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