GREAT THINGS TO COME!

I have been asked by many Christians and non-religious about my views on our troubled world.  Sometimes, without even knowing who I am or what I think, through the years some have jaunted me for being one of those ‘gloom & doom’ Christians, someone always waiting for the world to end.  Hmmm….Where do I begin with those misconceptions?

They don’t know me at all!

Everywhere I go and meet some very interesting people, there’s usually a sense of ‘something’ ahead.   Fear and hopelessness are prevalent everywhere, or total denial.  That’s not me.  I would be hopeless if I didn’t have faith, but I don’t have to fear because of what’s REALLY ahead – something eternal and NOT of this world, way above and beyond the stuff going on here.

I read all kinds of news.  I read the right, the left, local and world-wide news sites (you’d be surprised how much you learn going on right under your nose in your own country that you never hear about on your own news channel), the conspiracies, the rumors, the alternative news, the Christians, the …………..well, everything. And it seems to be always in the negative. Almost.

Do I believe everything I read or hear?  NOOOO!   I know most of it is biased rewritten, manipulating garbage meant to commandeer the public and control the masses (for good or not).  Do I read it every day?  Another big NOOOOO!  It gives me horrifying nightmares.  That also gets depressing so I have to take media breaks, too.

So why do I read it?   The way I see it is simple – It’s good to know the temperature for some basic preparation of the day and peoples’ hearts, but it’s all beyond my control.  Is it to see what is going on out there?  No.  It’s not what I’m doing, but what we as supposedly civilized human beings are all doing.

This is what I’m about:

PARADISE (MINUS THE WORLD’S MANY CATASTROPHES)

I want it back to where it was in the beginning, or what is to come.  How is that a bad thing? This isn’t me reporting all this bad stuff but the news, our friends, family and personal experience of others.  This is about how the world has become – the destruction of our planet. There are those who argue that natural mayhem hasn’t actually increased, but in fact our exposure to the news about the occurrences has increased.  I seriously disagree.  Based on the increasing earthquakes alone, and add to that the continuous awakenings of long dormant volcanoes, mudslides, sinkholes, tsunamis, major hurricanes, storm surges, storm cells with F5 tornadoes, drying lakes and rivers, polar vortex and other odd weather shifts, etc., no one can deny that things have gotten weird.

People say, ‘Our earth is dying, Mother Earth is menopausal or just not happy, greenhouse effects, judgment is coming, etc. etc.’

Enough already!!   Whether I like it or not, and regardless of what others say about them, the fact is we are in BIG TROUBLE…..

….unless we do something collectively.  And it’s so simple and free.

GIVE ME FREEDOM (INSTEAD OF PERSONAL ENSLAVEMENT)

Bondage is everywhere. It’s in our global economy with long hours at work or local homeless; lazy people collecting benefits of all kinds and living off the government from our hard-earned dollars (not to include those unemployed but WANT to work, the elderly or genuinely disabled); porn, ignorance through low-grade or no education at all; the sin we crave to watch or listen to in entertainment of all kinds; idolizing those who portray it with popularity and lots of wealth (along with pro-athletes); addictions; lack of love and empathy; desensitizing mind control through media, etc. It is rampant, or addicting, usually insulting, and always a huge waste of our little time and money.

But I’m the ‘gloom and doom’ type?   I’m not without sin, but I’m also not justifying anything nor am I jumping in feet first into a lot of that just because it’s the ‘in’ thing to do or watch or say.  Nor do I worry about what was prophesied long ago if we continue to forsake God.

Actually, I don’t like talking about a lot of that stuff unless it’s to talk about how to get out of that prison, or to be renewed into something much less harmful or stressing.  I like to talk about good things, like the fruits, the good things we can do, what’s being offered to us freely, what’s kind and true and healing.  Think of how things may be if we concentrated on those things instead of mayhem.

ETERNAL LIFE (INSTEAD OF WORLD’S FASCINATION WITH DEATH)

I promote and talk about eternal life. I don’t promote death as cool, want to feed into that, make money from the fascination, nor do I want to be desensitized to it like many do.  Of course we all die, that doesn’t bother me.  I just can’t understand why it’s exciting to watch a very dramatic, bloody, horribly painful death for entertainment purposes when the real thing is going on around us every single minute.

Everyone knows someone who has some sort of terminal cancer (even children); other diseases, suicides, genocide, persecution because of faith; overdoses of something; travel accidents; natural disasters; wars; killing our next generation before they are born; pedophiles who rape, enslave and/or murder our babies; ongoing mass die offs of our animals/fish; and those crazies who kill someone else (or several strangers) because they’re angry about their own life.  There are so many more ways we die but it’s made to look ‘fun’ on the big screen and we pay gobs of money to see it.

But I’m the one accused of the doomsday outlook.  I don’t want these bad things and neither does God, but we can’t be ‘partying’ and ‘chilling’ all the time.  There’s work to do.

Most folks have some kind of ideal about the afterlife and the peace they will come to finally rest in, somehow.   There are those who think we will come back as something else and try to get it right the next time (who would want to come back to all this?).  Others who don’t believe that and they just – well…………..stop there.  There’s nothing to anticipate for them.

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING

Some wise people have said that this life is just practice.  To an extent I have to agree.   I do know what’s coming and I’m ready.  It’s not the horrible stuff listed above either.  While I look forward to GREAT THINGS, my mission in this natural life is supposed to be telling the good news of WHAT that is, something from God and it’s not of this world.  (Thank God for that because somehow we’d find a way to destroy that too!)  It’s salvation.

What can I do about all that?  Only a couple things.  Prayer is first, but also to do what the Lord commanded me to do- spread the message everywhere of His love for us, His grace for us, His gift of redemption through Jesus – and only Him.   The rest is out of my hands, out of my control.  He will take care of that other bad stuff in a supernatural way when He says so.  Meanwhile, I will enjoy the simple things in life, keep smiling and moving forward, love and visit those I know, enjoy all the great things I will get to witness God to do in this world, and enjoy some of what’s left that He created after I try to make life a little easier as much as I am able.

By NO MEANS does that mean I should be lazy and do nothing but watch the clouds.  WE ALL SHOULD BE DOING THINGS to help mankind with our energy and knowledge and strength to make life less lonely, painful or hopeless, for as many folks as we can.    That’s just human kindness regardless of what you believe or not.  We own NOTHING that will come with us after death, and it’s all to share in life and help with other people.

Why do I do this kind of work, despite the protests and ridicule I often get to my face and behind my back?  I want the world to know what it’s like to walk with God, and how He loves all.  How we (collectively) push Him out of our affairs and life does hurt Him, but not as much as we are hurting ourselves now and eternally.

Let’s put it this way: In the whole history of our existence, we were never able to pull together and get it right all by ourselves, and if we could have – well, we wouldn’t have made such a mess as this!

What can we all do?  Simple.  Repent and believe.  Now.  There’s no other way.  God has something so great for us.  Don’t pass up on that!  (Most don’t know that or they just don’t want it.) Admit it, Believe in, and Confess you need the King of Kings as your Savior, and He waits for you!  He’ll work with you and through you, and He’ll do the rest.

I don’t believe in gloom and doom – not at all!  The best is yet to come!

 

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,

that you may know that you have eternal life, 

and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.  

(1John5:13)