End Times? And?

Lately I've been hearing a lot of talk about the "End Times." Prophecy is being fulfilled as fires rage up and down the West Coast of America; the Golf Coast was ravaged by Hurricane Harvey with an untold amount of damage, clean up, and restoration; Portions of the Caribbean were completely leveled by Hurricane Irma just a week and a half after Harvey, with the entirety of Florida in it's trajectory; Mexico experienced an 8.0 earthquake killing 30+ people; and North Korea is still threatening North America with nuclear weapons and now EMPs.

And this is just a small portion of events taking place in the Western Hemisphere.

"God has turned his back on America!" "The world is coming to an end!" "End times are here!" "Jesus is coming soon!"

"God's judgement is falling on Texas because they voted for Trump!" ...

Churches are preaching about the signs of the times, discussing wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, and nations pitted against nations as Jesus said would happen in Mark 13:5-8 and Matthew 24:5-8. They are reminding their people to keep a watchful eye, don't be caught sleeping when Jesus returns! Because, time is short!

And I see a lot anxiety, stress, fear, worry... over the condition of their own skin. The fact that in Christ, IF the end times are upon us, things are about to get a whole lot more uncomfortable. Persecution, death, natural disasters, man-made destruction unlike we've ever seen. Having flesh to worry about isn't going to be comfortable whatsoever.

But I look at these individuals in particular and wonder, could you be doing something better, something more effective than worrying about your own flesh? Wondering if you're putting the right dates to the right verses to the right news stories to make sure your end times interpretation is correct?

People are literally losing their lives, or facing complete destruction of life as they had always known it, and your biggest worry is are these really signs of the end times? Or maybe you haven't caught on to the disasters taking place around the world to millions of people and your manicured lawn is getting a little too long and that stresses you out?

Whichever your cares fall under, wake up! People are in need of hope! People are in need of the Gospel! People are in need of shelter, and hugs, and food, and the promises of God! People are dying waiting for the miraculous to happen!

A wise Pastor once told me, the worse things in the world get (i.e. Natural disasters, war, famine, riots, fake news stories...), the riper our world is for revival; the more ready the world is for a Harvesting of souls.

And if he is in fact right, and it's rare he's not, then there's no better time than the present to start opening your eyes to the people in front of you lining up for Hell, waiting for the Revival Power Jesus has placed in each of us to save them.

So let's recap quick. Maybe Jesus' Second Coming is right around the corner. Or maybe it's another millennia away, but as people do face real realities of very big crisis and destruction, use this time to get over your flesh and try out caring for someone else's for a bit.

Empathy will usher in permission to bring the Gospel to the lost. Your investment in others will always pay off as you welcome someone into the presence of God you carry.