In 2012, we were assured that Jesus would be returning! For the years prior, each was lived while walking on eggshells. I remember in 2009, the movie 2012 we watched during our high school Easter production.
Man were we scared out of our skins! The movie speculated what was to happen in 3 year’s time! As a result, there was an altar call for students to give their lives to Christ. Throngs ran to the front.
Students lived in fear for the next few years.
Eventually 2012, arrived. I was to sit for my ordinary level leaving exams. O how we looked for the Lord’s face!
But, true to human condition, when the year had gone half way, and no catastrophic events had happened, the students began relapsing. Others waited for December, and when no Jesus showed up, most returned to their old ways!
Fear had led many to the path of righteousness! But it could not keep them there! It should have been love! 1 John 4:18 says perfect love casts out fear. Yes we were having new converts, but eternal life is knowing God, and His one true son Jesus. (John 17:3)
Knowing involves intimacy; (just like Adam knew Eve, and they had a son). We can’t expect fruit — we can’t expect great exploits, if men stop at confessing with their mouth that Jesus is Lord. That is like entering a gate, but staying outside the actual house. You might be safe from the burglar; but you won’t be shielded if the rains come! Therefore, there is more to salvation than merely escaping hell.
Eternal life isn’t escaping hell. It is knowing God and His son! Escaping hell is one of the bi-products, or by the ways that comes with the knowing…
I came across a Christian influencer whose love for God was evident, but daily, he posted content with captions such as: It could be your last day on earth! Have you told someone about Jesus?
Jesus could be returning tomorrow! Have you given Him your life?
Now there is no way someone is going to be excited to share the gospel, if the idea that they could be dying tomorrow has been planted in their mind. And about Jesus coming ‘tomorrow’, using ‘soon’ is a better suggestion. Nevertheless, the world is so used to that line that we need to abandon it. We get even scorned that since the New Testament days, we have threatened of Jesus’ coming and yet millennia have passed. We must either rely on the Holy Spirit’s help to convict men of their sin, or for Him to use the Jesus’ return card but with it, bring a lot of gravity in the sinner’s mind.
We need more Priscillas and Aquilas to correct preachers in their speech. In Acts 18, this couple was referenced. They worked with Paul in the tent making business. And when an Apollos — though eloquent and mighty in scriptures — came on the scene, he only knew John’s baptism. He didn’t know about the baptism of fire!
Acts says he had taught the things of God accurately, but Aquila & Priscilla taught him MORE accurately (verse 26). This emphasizes to show that there is always more to learn about God.
For example, to my first reference; the Bible says, the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all the ends of the world (all nations), and then the end shall come … (Matt 24:14)
Has the gospel reached all these nations? I firmly believe — not yet. So basing on that, I can’t use the line ‘Jesus is returning tomorrow.’
On the other hand, God has promised long life to us, as per the previous blog (Consequences of Ignorance). Therefore, I can’t cajole men or twist their arms by sentencing them to an early death; saying they’d die tomorrow (though we have heard some cases as those)! Using such a line will instead provoke more hatred from some recipients of the gospel;
Thus we must receive and employ the tongue of the learned for everyone at a particular time! To speak the word in due season to them that they might not perish eternally even if they might physically. (Isa 50:4)
And basing on that, I pray for you, and for me as well; that God will continue to teach us His way, and His word, that we may have the right words to use when we go out on mission. That His spirit of revelation and knowledge will give us what to say in that moment; backed up with power that we might have both transformation of the sinner, and also edification of the Apollos-like saint!
And that we will front the love of God at the battle front, as we win more souls and grasp them over from darkness to light! For His glory! Amen and amen.
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Ephesians 1:17-18 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints …
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