May 22, 2011 – The morning after.
I had to stop myself yesterday from mocking those that believed that May 21, 2011 was the day Christ was returning to earth to rapture the Church (according to the “prophecy” of Harold Camping).
Up until then, I’d laughed at all of the jokes and even cracked a few of my own. Then the Lord challenged me:
“Do you know how much faith one has to have in this age to get rid of everything in their entire lives in preparation for My coming?”
Sure. That faith was misguided at the very least and absolutely a distortion of the scripture. That’s obvious—we’re still here. But the sheer magnitude of the deception is what got me to examining my own life.
As followers of Christ, we are supposed to be living our lives in earnest expectation of our Savior’s return. The disciples did and while our earthly purpose is directed toward each other, our spiritual posture should always be heavenward. So while giving up my car and my job and all of my savings on the basis of one man’s unvetted prophecy may not be wise (and are likely things that God could care less about), what about my pride, my ego, my selfishness, my time and money to those less fortunate?
As I watch and read about people giving up their entire lives and spending their last minutes trying to reach the world, I had to ask myself: What have I really sacrificed for the cause and coming of Christ?
See this is the thing: Inherent to the scripture that clearly states that “no man knows the hour” (Matthew 24:36) is the fact that Christ could return for his church ANYTIME. Yes, there are signs. Earthquakes and wars, etc. But the minute and hour is undesignated. So you would think that Christ-followers would be in a perpetual state of preparation, sharing the love of Christ with others, and sacrificing our fleshly desires? Yet if I’m honest, cars and savings are the easy gives for me. My pride on the other hand? Giving that up has long been a struggle.
No, many of us ACT like we have all the time in the world to get it together. We live our lives carelessly as if we do know Christ is coming back—in our minds, a long time from now. And in that case, the only difference between those who believed the May 21, 2011 lie and us is that they shared their date with the world and we act as if.
Ouch.
Here’s the truth: Today, there are millions of people who have had their faith crushed to near non-existence by the enemy. As believers, do we call them stupid, ignore their brokenness, crack our jokes, and wave them away as hopeless and undeserving? If so, shame on us.
Or do we do the hard work of sharing the truth of God’s word and restoring them?
Your thoughts?
Tracey
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