ARE WE THERE YET

The above title was a familiar phrase when my daughters were young and I was driving our family to a specific destination. They just couldn’t seem to wait much longer. With that often repeated question ringing in my ears, I was running out of patience myself. I have found that many parents have experienced the same situation.

“Are we there yet?” is not a new question, by any means. It’s probably been asked by others time out of mind. It’s probably been asked by Christians over the ages; when it looked to them that Christ’s return was imminent.

It didn’t happen then, and it hasn’t happened now; well yet. We just weren’t given the information necessary to know the when exactly as (NASB) Matthew 24:36 states, “But about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” But some signs of the times were offered to us via the scriptures, and it seems like we are looking at that beginning as we read in Matthew 24:6-8 “And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains.”  The real fireworks, these real perils and deceptions will continue to get worse. They may even have begun as it says in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 “For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.”

Before we get completely consumed with hypotheticals about ‘end times’ events, let’s consider what it is our God wants us to be doing, regardless of the times we are in. A previous Pastor of mine, Lowell Meyers, was the first to introduce me to the statement, “that the unregenerate man may not be as bad as he might be, but he is as bad off as he can be.” That is an absolute statement and it is absolutely correct. There isn’t a more important time to be helping souls to accept Christ than now. Especially if times are short. What are some of the things God has told us about living in this world with a Christ like heart.

In Matthew 5:45 He tells us, “so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”  Why does the sun and the rain fall on the just and the unjust alike.” Because of God’s abiding love for His creation, that’s why. Man is fallen and yet in Romans 5:8 we find “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Some of us repent and come back into a right relationship with Him through Christ’s sacrifice. However, many remain unrepentant and want to think they are in charge over their own lives. Others have been deceived into believing a lie from some other source and not from the one true God.

Yes, the rain falls on all of his creation. Through his love for all mankind, God desires that all mankind should repent of their sins. 1 John 4:10 states, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” By believing that through Christ’s sacrifice we can return to a right relationship with God one can begin to see Truth and goodness as 1 John 3:16 explains, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters.”

No one can justify an idea that God wants anyone to die separated from His Love, this idea needs to be repeated often enough until we fully understand it. No, some men choose to remain separated from God of their own free will, whatever they use for an excuse or reason. God honors that choice and doesn’t force people to love Him compulsively, being compelled to do so wouldn’t be love.

Being compelled to become a Christian isn’t a truly loving act. People who believe in free will are repulsed by the idea that God is a puppeteer.

We also read from Colossians 1: 17 “He (Jesus Christ) is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” But that is not equal to pulling everyone’s strings. God want’s people to reciprocate their love back to Him freely. This is where Christians need to do their part. There is no sitting on the sidelines and watching. Anyone who is fearful of rejection for spreading the good news (the Gospel) needs to read  1 Peter 2:6-7 “For this is contained in Scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, And the one who believes in Him will not be put to shame.’ This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for unbelievers, ‘A stone which the builders rejected, This became the chief cornerstone,’” If our cornerstone was rejected by some/many, we can expect no less if we communicate the Truth to those who reject that Truth.  God’s Word, both in the person of Jesus Christ and the scriptures we read are the way to real life and real spirit. We can see the darkness all around us; we can feel it trying to gain footholds of doubt to sway us to complacency and inaction in these times. But Psalms 23 reminds us, we who are in Christ, “we will fear no evil.” We also have been given the strength necessary as Ephesians 3: 16, 17 says, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,” will never quit.

Since we’ve been rooted and grounded in love, our job then is to share the gospel at every opportunity. Letting the unsaved know the truth of Hebrews 9: 28 “so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” If I might be so bold to make a non-scriptural add-on here, “without compulsion.” How else could it be, but free, for those eagerly awaiting Christ’s return. So in a sense, it makes sense to ask the question, “Are we there yet.”