The end is near

Are you thinking the end is near? Some think so. I don’t know if the end is imminent, but I think that we are seeing strong birth pangs

Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains

Mark 13:8

We are certainly feeling the pains, aren’t we? It hurts quite a bit. If you haven’t given birth, you don’t know from experience how strong the pains can be. They get closer and closer together before you give birth. You want to fast forward to the birth and skip through the hours of labor, but you can’t. It’s a process.

So why hasn’t the Lord come back? Well, we are very impatient, God is not. He is extending grace to give people time to repent. We think that things should be done on our timetable, but does God work on our timetable or His?

So what do we do while we wait? We abide. We repent. We confess.

6No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.7Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s^b seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

1 John 3:6-10

So now is the time to get right with God; it’s the time to repent. Either we are growing in Christ or our faith is growing cold. There’s no coasting with Christian faith. If you are not investing time and energy into your faith, that’s a big red flag. If you don’t open your Bible, pray, and fellowship, what evidence is there of your faith? Are you looking spiritual or are you looking more like this?

19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy,^d drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do^e such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

Galatians 5

Hopefully you can’t identify with these. But you see this every time you turn the TV on or look on social media, you see this.

No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

1 John 3:6

Yet we are not without sin…

8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1

So what can we do?

And now, little children, abide in Him.

1 John 2:28

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Romans 2:12