apocalypse

December 23 . . . Two Days After My Supposed Last Day on Earth

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

It turns out that the Mayans were off a bit. More likely, the people who stay up late at night thinking about ancient Mayan calendars were off a bit.

The world didn’t end on December 21. There was no apocalypse. Nothing changed all that much.

There have been days when I’ve felt like my world was ending. Some days, I wished the world would end.

But today, I am thankful for another day to be alive and healthy and blessed. I realize more and more how each day is a gift, pure and simple. I don’t deserve it, I’m not entitled to it, and I’m not guaranteed the next one.

You wouldn’t know it sometimes by the way I gripe and complain about my slow internet or my lousy work hours. I’ve focused on what I don’t have for so long, it’s hard to retrain my thinking to what I do have.

We as a culture are obsessed with everything that we don’t have, everything we’re supposed to have, and how we can spend all our time and energy and money getting those things.

One of the most counter-cultural things anybody can do is to say, “No thanks, I have enough,” and be content. To be satisfied with what you have and not always striving for more.

So at least for today I am content. I have all my Christmas shopping done. I have things like food, clean water, shelter, transportation, and health that so many don’t have and work so hard to get.

I am blessed.

I still love what my pastor said. It goes like this. If God came to me today and said, “Greg, you’ve used up all your blessings I had for you and I have nothing left to give you for the rest of your life,” I could honestly say, “I’m good.” That’s contentment.

I’m not there yet, but I’m a whole lot closer than I used to be.

How about you?

It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

rem-album1

According to the Mayan calendar, the world ends tomorrow. Or more accurately, according to some interpretations of the Mayan calendar, the world will end tomorrow.

I seriously doubt that. Or as the English might say, “Balderdash!”

I’m 98% certain that Friday, December 21, will be just like any other December 21 in recent history. The streets around the malls will be ridiculously crowded and the lines in the stores will be out into the parking lot. As with any other day, Nashvillians will be out in force, driving badly and generally ignoring most of the traffic rules and regulations (and stop signs and red lights, etc).

I remember the famous words that Jesus spoke once that people have also tended to ignore. He said, “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake.For you do not know when the time will come” (Mark 13:32).

No one knows. Not the Mayans. Not John Hagee. Not Pat Robertson. Not any of those TBN preachers. Not you or I or anyone. No one.

Jesus said, “Be ready.” Live every day like it were the last one and like Jesus could come back at any moment.

Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today. Don’t leave any conflict unresolved. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t leave words to loved ones unspoken, thinking you will have another day to get all these things done.

Write that letter. Send that email. Make that visit. Speak the words, “I love you,” as often as you can to those who need to hear it from you.

Yeah, these predictions about the end of the world make as much sense to me as the lyrics to that old REM song “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” I just know there’s a part in the song where everybody yells “Leonard Bernstein” for apparently no logical reason. We should all randomly do that tomorrow. For fun.

 

 

An Ode to the Last Twinkie on Earth

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

If you skim the headlines, you may get the impression that the twinkie, that perfect little concoction from Hostess with no actual food ingredients, is going away forever. You might be one of those who are hoarding up on the tasty little snacks in anticipation of the demise of Hostess and the inevitable zombie apocalypse.

I myself bought two boxes.

But before you give in to despair, read a little closer. Twinkies aren’t going away. In all likelihood, some other company will buy the rights to the brand and start making their own twinkies. And they will be just as bad for you and just as loaded with preservatives and ingredients that you can’t possibly pronounce as the current incarnation. And they will be just as tasty.

If, God forbid, twinkies should cease to exist, then the unthinkable might actually happen. No, I don’t mean an invasion by zombies or a crisis of cataclysmic and global proportions. I mean you and I might just have to start eating healthy. Egads.

The Trouble With Tribulations

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

 

Before I start, let me throw out this disclaimer. I am not an expert on eschatology and I don’t by any means have Revelations figured out. I think when it comes to millennial and tribulation views, there are wise and godly people on all sides of the spectrum. I’m just offering my own thoughts on the topic, based on the sermon I heard today.

The pastor says that when he comes to a problem, he wishes God would pick him up and toss him over to the other side where he can breathe a huge sigh of relief that that problem is over. God isn’t like that. He walks you to the very problem and proceeds to walk with you through it so it never has dominion over you ever again.

I think when it comes to God’s people and tribulations, the pattern is that God doesn’t protect his people from them, but rather through them. Revelation 14:7 talks about the multitude clothed in white robes who have come OUT of the tribulation. You can’t come out unless you first go in. So many blessings are given to those who endure, not those who escape.

Again, I’m not trying to be dogmatic. There’s a whole lot about Revelation that makes my head hurt and makes me want to lie down for a while. But I do know that the main point isn’t when we get raptured or how the timeline works, but that in the end Jesus does come back and set everything right. The happily ever after ending isn’t just at the end of fairy tales and children’s stories. It’s at the end of the Book of Revelation, too.

I like the old joke that goes like this: I’m a pan-millennialist because I firmly believe that everything is going to pan out in the end. And I have Bible verses to back that up.

 

Reminders from Revelation

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I’ve been loving the sermon series on Revelation from Brentwood Baptist Church, as well as the companion Wednesday night Bible study. Here are a few of the highlights I’ve taken in so far.

1) Revelation is primarily a book written to persecuted believers to give them encouragement that Jesus has already overcome and the victory is already theirs if they hold on a little bit longer. Like I heard it said, we as followers of Jesus don’t fight for victory, but from it.

2) Revelation is a book saturated in worship. The setting of the book is a heavenly scene of ultimate worship. To focus on the symbols and what they mean is to miss the main point that God puts everything right again and the good guys win once and for all.

3) It’s not ultimately about when the end will come or who the anti-Christ will be or what the mark of the beast will look like. Ultimately, it’s about the Lion of Judah, the root of Jesse, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, Jesus, and how he has already overcome.

You can read commentaries about the book. I’m reading one right now. But if you really want to understand the book, read the book. Sit down and read all 22 chapters in one setting.

You can even read the ending first if it will help.

 

Why I’m Lovin’ the Book of Revelation

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I have been reading through the Book of Revelation, as well as reading a commentary on it. It’s in the Bible, so I’m supposed to love it, but I really do love it. I have a list of reasons why:

1) The Lord of the Rings nerd in me loves all the dragons and beasts. It’s very sci-fi.

2) I love the fact that even in the midst of total chaos on earth, there is unending worship in heaven. There are actually creatures whose job is solely to give praise and thanksgiving to the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

3) No matter what happens below, God is still on his throne. From Revelation 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, God reigns over the universe and is in complete control.

4) For those who are living through hell on earth, who suffer hardships and persecutions, there will be and end to sorrow and pain and misery and one day God will put everything right again.

5) God rewards those who endure. It’s not about a 100% success rate. It’s about showing up and trusting that God knows what he’s doing. You keep showing up and keep trusting, regardless, and you win the prize.

6) Heaven will be more than worth it, not for all the streets of gold or jeweled gates or all the cameos by all the famous Bible characters, but because Jesus is there. The one we’ve waited for all this time will be there, waiting for us.

7) It won’t be the end. It will be the true beginning. Like C.S. Lewis said in The Last Battle, history will have only been the title page and the preface, but heaven will be the book that you never want to stop reading, the one where each chapter is better than the last and which never ends, but goes on forever.

See? It’s not such a scary book after all. Once you strip away all the arguments about when the tribulation comes in and what the millennium will look like and what all those numbers mean and you get to the core of the book, you find Jesus is already on his throne and he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

That’s why I love this book!

There Be Dragons in the Book of Revelation

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

I started attending a new Bible study led by Mike Glenn, pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church and lead teacher at Kairos on Tuesday nights. It’s all about the mysterious book of Revelation. Yeah, that scary book at the end of the Bible before you get to the maps.

It’s really not about how things are eventually going to turn out one day. It’s about how they already are. It’s not about how one day Jesus will ascend to the throne, but how He’s already there.

I confess I’ve missed the point of the book in the past. It’s not about who the anti-Christ will be or what day the end will come. The reason John wrote the book was to encourage believers who were facing intense persecution by a very hostile and anti-Christian government.

It’s about how evil forces in the world will try to rise up against God and His people, but how God in Christ has already overcome the enemy. The outcome is not in doubt. Jesus has already won the battle at Calvary.

The best takeaway from tonight’s study was that this book was written in worship to communities of worship about whom to worship. Not Caesar, but Christ.

Revelation is a reminder that the ending to my story is already written and it is a happy ending. No matter what I’m currently facing or how hopeless my situation seems sometimes, the best really is yet to come.

So I suppose I really will be spending a lot of time in that last book of the Bible. I could read all the commentaries and bible study guides and Tim LaHaye books in the world, but I’d be much better off just reading the book itself. Only God’s Word is living and active. Only God’s Word is God-breathed.

There will be more about those dragons and seven-horned beasts and other special guest appearances from the Book of Revelation in blogs to follow. I’m looking forward to it.