MESSAGES END TIMES LIKE THESE
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the
inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at
hand;” Joel 2:1
I have great interest in the young people of the church. I listen to their concerns and
their struggles. What is almost synonymous among the young growing up in the
church including myself is that we have felt a need to go out of the church and live it
up as soon as we are of age. I have a co-worker who is of the same faith. He is 26 years old. He explained to me that growing up in the church you hear so much or too much about last day events, don’ts and laws so much as so that young people don’t get the opportunity to hear about how to grasp that personal intimate relationship with Christ. He stated that when people are new in the church, they have that love and excitement similar to when we begin a new and exciting hobby or develop a new relationship.
But if you have been in the church all of your life, you don’t get to experience that newness. So I began to ponder this. And I can see it clearly. Then I heard a sermon that reminded us of the three angels’ messages (Rev. 14:6-12), which are given to the last day remnant church, the church that still keeps the commandments of God. In it
describes how we are to worship God and it also warns us of a coming judgment.
This message is not for the entire world to share or proclaim but for God’s remnant
people. Then I thought about how the young people and old would comment on “scaring people to repentance”. How the church warns about coming doom and destruction.
So I stumbled on the next in Joel 2:1. Here the prophet tells us in the last days to
proclaim loudly to the church (Zion) so much so that the people will tremble for
Jesus is coming soon. My conclusion is this. End Times like these, we are asleep. Jesus is coming soon. We don’t want to be bothered. We are having a good time. We want to feel good all the time. If we hear something that makes us uncomfortable, we are upset and ready to cry, “give me love”, “give me grace”, and “give me smooth things”. “Stop trying to scare me.” Then we down the church and preachers. We are not realizing that the church and preachers were given this message; this particular, distinct and “set aside just for us” message to proclaim. We are not like anyone else. Our messages need not be like anyone else’s.
Within this message we do find urgency. We find fear and trembling. We find a
coming judgment. But Jesus has never hid his grace from us in all of this. With the
world and it’s wickedness, he could have just let us live in our wickedness, suddenly
come through the clouds without any warning what so ever, and allow us all to just
perish. But instead in His Word He gives us warnings and we don’t even appreciate
it. He says, go and tell others about me. He says go and tell them that I love them and I want to save them. He says to go and tell them that there is a great deceiver and a
liar that will be destroyed soon. Tell them I have come and died and am victorious
over this deceiver.
Tell them that this deceiver and liar have caused so much heartache and pain that I will destroy him and everybody that follows him. God is just and he gives everyone a fair opportunity to choose once they have been exposed to the truth. But the truth must be exposed first. The good with the bad. The fact is that we were given the whole truth. We must share it. At this time as the earth is wrapping up; we are all going to have to choose to accept the message of the three angels. It is in the Word of God so it is relevant. How could we ever think that it wasn’t? Let’s trust in Jesus. He is our deliverer. He will protect us and sustain End times like these. He will use us and equip us End times like these. He will cover us. He is our refuge and our fortress. We need not be afraid End times like these.
R. Denise Johnson