"Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house." Matthew 24:17
As Jesus left the temple, after announcing to the teachers there all the woes that would come upon them, he told the disciples to look at the buildings. He said all the stones would be torn down.
The disciples wanted to know when it would all happen. They wanted a sign of his coming.
He told them to beware of the fake Messiahs. He says the signs will be wars and rumors of wars. He speaks of famines and earthquakes. He who stands firm will be saved in the end.
Jesus wants everyone to understand that Christians in Judea are to flee to the mountains. We are to leave the roof and the field without taking anything with us.
Over and over we see signs of the end. Quakes like the one this morning in California. Quakes here and there. Wars everywhere like in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Ukraine. We hear now of Iraqi Christians seeking shelter in the mountains. But is this the end time? That's just it. The Bible tells us that nobody knows or will know.
It will not be announced that morning that this is the day. It will just happen. And our job is to walk away from everything and to be faithful to Jesus until the end.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Not On The Outside Anymore
"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit." Matthew 21:43
Some passages of the New Testament have always bothered me. They are the ones where Jesus assures any non Jewish people that he did not come to earth to save them. He tells us more than once that he came to save his own kind -- the Jews.
I find it more than a little hurtful that he implied, through a non Jewish woman, that we were curs that receive his attention like scraps under a table.
Therefore, I find Matthew 21:43 a refreshing change from his usual words. In this scripture he seems to be telling the Jews that they will lose the kingdom of heaven to a people who will produce its fruit. Certainly Christianity produced worldwide fruit, multiplying and growing through until this day.
Now, I don't feel so badly, Jesus. Maybe we Christians are "a people" of whom you spoke.
Some passages of the New Testament have always bothered me. They are the ones where Jesus assures any non Jewish people that he did not come to earth to save them. He tells us more than once that he came to save his own kind -- the Jews.
I find it more than a little hurtful that he implied, through a non Jewish woman, that we were curs that receive his attention like scraps under a table.
Therefore, I find Matthew 21:43 a refreshing change from his usual words. In this scripture he seems to be telling the Jews that they will lose the kingdom of heaven to a people who will produce its fruit. Certainly Christianity produced worldwide fruit, multiplying and growing through until this day.
Now, I don't feel so badly, Jesus. Maybe we Christians are "a people" of whom you spoke.
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