Matt 23:11-12 in the Message...Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you'll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.
This is so important, simply being Yourself... imagine if you could just throw out all pretension, dispose of the mask you wear for others, just be the person that the Lord created you to be. Use the abilities and gifts the Lord has given you, without trying to make yourself seem bigger and more important. Aren't you special enough as the Lord Made you, without trying to be anything else? Did He make a mistake when He made you the way you are?
Matt24:4-32 or so, Jesus is talking about the end times. v4-8 talks about the deceivers and rumors and wars... He says its just normal things, all through history we will hear about horrible things, but verse 6 says When reports come in of wars and rumored wars, keep your head and don't panic. This is routine history; this is no sign of the end.
I've seen and heard so many times about the End of the World and all we should do to prepare, but hmmm it just keeps going... not to say that the end isn't coming, but I think its pretty significant that Jesus said..Don't Panic!
Rapture issue coming up... so if you don't agree with me on this one...sorry...
Again this is straight from Jesus, so I have to give it a lot of weight in this issue....
v 30; 30And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.31And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
the Message says it this way...30-31"Then, the Arrival of the Son of Man! It will fill the skies—no one will miss it. Unready people all over the world, outsiders to the splendor and power, will raise a huge lament as they watch the Son of Man blazing out of heaven. At that same moment, he'll dispatch his angels with a trumpet-blast summons, pulling in God's chosen from the four winds, from pole to pole.
and NIV “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
Jesus is pretty clear that when He returns its going to be HUGE... all the world will See, and Then He will call His people together.
The "thief in the night" does Not refer to sneaking in under cover of darkness, He is using the illustration that it will be Sudden and people will not be prepared... not that He is going to make it a covert operation!
Along with this point, the other passage we have all heard in support of the rapture, one taken and the other left... but let's look at what He said Right before that ...
verse 38 Jesus says it will be like the days of Noah, everyone partying and having a good time and Then verse 39 look closely at exactly what He says 39And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
When Jesus was talking about being taken in verse 39, Who got taken? It was the ones not prepared, the ones Not in the ark... the one's Not following God!! So, does it make sense that in the very next sentence He would be talking about taking someone Else? Doesn't it follow that He would be saying, those taken in Noah's time and those taken in the coming of the Son of man would be the SAME guys?? I doubt Jesus would have made such a confusing statement as to refer to the ungodly being taken in one sentence and the Godly being taken in the next sentence...at Least not with Some kind of explanation of His intent. It just does not make sense to confuse the taken as two different sets of people, the godly and ungodly. Jesus surely would have realized His disciples would not understand the jump from one group to the opposite group.
Its probably a good thing that no one read this cause I bet this would have a few people really up in arms!
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