I have been hearing all these references to the end of the world happening on May 21st, so I googled it and found TONS of people citing some 89-year-old guy who says the rapture is going to happen that day.

He is wrong. Why? Because Jesus told us no one would know when that day was, not even himself! Only God the Father knows, and He certainly hasn’t not put a secret code in scripture to tell us when it is – that would contradict Himself.

Jesus is coming back, but I highly doubt it’s in a couple of days. Even so, we should all be living as though it could happen in any moment!

Read Matthew 24:3-44:

³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

⁴ Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.

⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 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.

¹⁵ “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’^[a]spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. ¹⁸ Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. ¹⁹ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ²⁰ Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.

²² “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. ²³ At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. ²⁴ For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ See, I have told you ahead of time.

²⁶ “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. ²⁷ For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ²⁸ Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

²⁹ “Immediately after the distress of those days

“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’^[b]

³⁰ “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth^[c] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.^{[d] 31} And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

³² “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ³³ Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it^[e]is near, right at the door. ³⁴ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

The Day and Hour Unknown

³⁶ “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,^[f] but only the Father. ³⁷ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

⁴² “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³ But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

I came across this video on Facebook tonight. I love how the author was able to put all this into such an artistic form without compromising the message.

Luke 7:12-13: As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out-the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry” (NIV).

Photograph by Adi Nes (http://www.wexarts.org)

Genesis 16:6b-11, 13: Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away.
The angel of the LORD found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied.
The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.”
And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means “God hears”), for the LORD has heard your cry of distress.…”
Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the LORD, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?” (NLT)

There is no way that two different devotionals (sent to my inbox this morning) could feature two different passages, and yet the same theme, by coincidence.

I think most people have a need to be seen. There is a quote from the movie “Shall We Dance” that I think sums up this innate desire perfectly.

In case you’re reading this at work and can’t watch the clip, I’ll write it out here: “We need a witness to our lives. There’s a billion people on the planet… I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things… all of it, all of the time, every day. You’re saying ‘Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness’.”

Of course, Susan Sarandon’s character is missing something very important in her observation. Despite the billions of people on this planet, one life means a whole lot. God sees us. God cares about everything. God is our witness.

What makes the passages above even more important is that they are about women.  Women were not favored by society by any means in biblical times. They did not have as many rights and they were rarely recognized. That God the Almighty and Jesus the Messiah would approach these women and address their pain as individuals, at a personal level, probably amazed these women, though it certainly was not out of God’s character. I imagine Hagar’s heart leaping with joy as she exclaimed, “You are the God who sees me!” Perhaps she realized that she did not truly know God as well as she thought she did, and that is why she asked, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?” After all, she was not looking for God in the wilderness, was she…

I love these verses… as I type this my heart is light and I’m ready to jump out of my seat with excitement. GOD SEES ME! Doesn’t that feel good to let that truth sink into your heart? Maybe you are a stay-at-home-mom like me and you feel invisible sometimes, as though you are just a pair of hands taking care of your child’s needs. Maybe you are working in a job that does not match with your degree and you feel like you’ll never get your big break and be noticed for your skills. Maybe you’re waiting for that solo, but you feel drowned out in the chorus. Whatever your situation, let this truth sink in: GOD SEES YOU. He knows what you are going through and he cares.

Redefining “Woman” and Remembering My Purpose

I have been reading through a very convicting book this week called “Girls Gone Wise,” by Mary A. Kassian. In defining what the Bible means when it talks about the wise woman, Kassian doesn’t mess around. Instead, she presents a powerful comparison between the Proverbs 7 wild woman and the Proverbs 31 woman.  I expected to identify with the Proverbs 31 woman, and how foolish I was to think so. As I have been wrestling through each chapter, I have found that I have much more in common with the wild woman of Proverbs 7 than I would care to mention.

Somewhere along the line, I decided I was good enough. I started comparing myself to the “worst,” instead of holding my heart up into the light of God’s word. As a result, my heart looked clean and my life looked pure. Only… it wasn’t. Not even close. As I have studied God’s standard, I have realized how much I have gotten off track. I have forgotten my purpose. I have fallen into sinful patterns without even noticing. Comparing myself to God’s standards instead of the world’s has revealed a rebellious, self-indulgent spirit that I did not realize was within me. It has been the ugly reality behind all the bad habits I have been unable to kick.

One chapter of the book dealt with priorities, and that was one that really knocked me off my feet. I have always looked to my intent, what I want to get done, rather than what I actually do, to measure what is important to me. That is backwards! You really do make time for what is important to you. If something is not really important to you, you won’t do it. It was hard for me to look at my daily habits and come to terms with the fact that my priorities are way off.

Here is a passage from that chapter:

As gross as it is to really look your own sin in the eye, I have been trying to do just that. I don’t want to gloss over my sins anymore. I don’t want to justify them by comparing myself with those who are doing “worse.” There is only one standard I should be aspiring to, and that is the standard that is laid out in scripture. I am looking forward to rearranging my priorities and watching God change my heart. I know that as he works these false practices and views out of me, that the result will be something really good. Not just for me, but for my family as well. God has a purpose for me, but until I correct my wrong thinking and behavior, I’m going to miss out.

I would highly recommend reading this book. You might be shocked by how you stack up!