I am trying to have a quiet and gentle demeanor, but my inside is full of anticipation, and I must halt myself, and ask forgiveness if I feel rage inside.
I am angry that so many are not in the Ark of Jesus. I'm angry that on a personal level, we haven't achieved that unity of spirit that I was longing for all these years. We are far from the perfection and holiness that God requires of us. If I went to get counsel from a counsellor, I'm sure I would be still found wanting. The idea, of them requiring me to change, or for me to come up with the solutions that are deep within me, would cause me to boil. The other day, a dear young person, a friend of Deborah's posted that 'life is what you make it". I wrote back saying I lived longer than you have, and it is just simply not true, but that I love her enthusiasm, and zeal.
Like the Aposlte Paul says, we still do the things that we know we shouldn't. I for one eat more than I need. I'm an emotional eater I suppose. When I ask for help, I get ignored, and that drives me to food. I have to be busy, but then I earn the disdain of my better half. I'm told to slow down, but I know that the consequences of that is apathy, and eventually death.
We thought by moving farther from a hospital, about 10 years ago, I would hear fewer sirens. I was wrong. My ears continually hear sirens on the roads. Though my street is removed from a main intersection, but it seems like night and day that is all I hear. I feel lonely to the core. I'm sure it is simply because, some people who claim to be Christians, have never studied prophecy, or have no fear at all of the Judgement of God that is coming. I told a lady traveling to Mexico on the 1st of November, that I recommend she doesn't go, and she insists on going, in order to preserve her timeshare. She is in her early 80's and has been a pastors wife, but has never heard the word rapture before. Others say, they lived long enough, and they will believe in these catastrophic events when they see them. Here is an article with cartoon illustrations.
Will He find faith on the earth?
A fascinating, almost haunting thing for me that Jesus said is this: “When the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)
it’s going to get so bad on earth before His
return that He asks this question of whether or not there’ll even be
faith left on the earth at His return.
The circumstances in
which Jesus made this statement were not at a time when He was talking
about His return to earth at the end of this age. But it’s clear that He
is referring to that time. If He is omnipotent and omniscient, why
would He ask a question like that? It’s almost like the feeling is that it’s
going to get so bad on earth before His return that He asks this
question of whether or not there’ll even be faith left on the earth at
His return.What is the context of all this? At the beginning of Luke 18, “He spoke a parable to them that men ought always to pray and not to faint.” He went on to tell about the woman who kept coming to a judge in her city to get justice for a wrong done to her. Jesus said the judge was unjust and didn’t fear God or man. But finally he just wanted the woman to stop bugging him about the matter so he tended to it. Then Jesus asked His listeners, “Won’t God answer His own elect who cry to Him daily?”
It’s all about prayer and having the faith that God will answer. If that unjust judge took action just because that woman kept after him, won’t the God of heaven hear and answer the prayers of His people?
But then Jesus asked, “When the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
It sounds like, by the time of His second coming, things will have sunk to such a depth that He implies that it’s questionable if He’ll even find faith in those on earth at that time. Why? Here are a few other verses from the Bible that bring light on that time and seem to indicate the dire straits the world will be in then.
In Matthew 24:12, where Jesus was speaking about the time just before His return, He said, “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold.”
Boundless iniquity and a growing lack of love throughout the earth.
Then in II Thessalonians 2:3 Paul said about the second coming of the
Lord, “that day shall not come except there come a falling away first.”
A falling away from faith in God throughout the earth. Maybe you
haven’t fallen away or you live in a community where faith is still
vibrant. But on a national and international scale, faith in God has
declined dramatically in the last century or so, especially throughout
the nations of the Western world.But these are just the beginning of sorrows. In II Thessalonians 2:3 that I quoted above, the full verse says “That day shall not come except there come a falling away first and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” This is something that’s not happened yet but it may happen in our lifetimes. Here and elsewhere the Bible predicts that, in the very last days before the return of Jesus, a devil-possessed dictator will briefly try to rule the world in a new one world order.
The
people this dictator will fight against the most are the people of
faith, those with faith in the God of Abraham, you and me. In a sense
there is good and bad news. The good news is that the Bible makes clear
that this man will have a time strictly limited by God. Repeatedly in
Daniel and Revelations this time is given as a 3½ year period.But the bad news is that during that time there is going to be “great tribulation” such as the world has never seen (Matthew 24:21). It says this Antichrist will “wear out the saints of the Most High” (Daniel 7:25) during that 3½ year period. Other verses indicate that there will be people of faith on earth who will “be strong and do exploits” (Daniel 11:32). But by the end of this 3½ year period, the Bible says this Antichrist will have “scattered the power of the holy people” (Daniel 12:7), just before the return of Jesus.
Maybe that’s why Jesus asked that question, “When the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
It’s going to be the toughest time in the history of the world for the
people of faith. But a thorough reading of Scriptures indicates there
will be those who will be transformed at His return, whose bodies will
be instantly changed from our present nature to the supernatural bodies
that we’ll have for eternity.Will He find faith on the earth? The answer seems to be yes. God help us all to hold on to our crowns and to keep the faith unto the end, whatever that will be for each of us.
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