You know you’ve thought about it at least once, maybe even once this week. If you’re a believer in relationship with your Heavenly Father, God, through the work of His One and Only Son, Jesus, and if you’re reading your Bible with any regularity, then you’ve noticed current events too strikingly similar to events described by Jesus and the apostles and prophets to be mere coincidences.
“For there will be greater anguish in those days than at any time since God created the world.
And it will never be so great again.
In fact, unless the Lord shortens that time of calamity, not a single person will survive.
But for the sake of his chosen ones he has shortened those days.
Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There he is,’ don’t believe it.
For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.
Watch out! I have warned you about this ahead of time!
At that time, after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great power and glory.
And he will send out his angels to gather his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.
Now learn a lesson from the fig tree.
When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near.
In the same way, when you see all these things taking place, you can know that his return is very near, right at the door.
However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself.
Only the Father knows.
And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard!
Stay alert!”
Mark 13:19-29, 32-33 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mrk.13.19-33.NLT
We may certainly be living in end times and we should definitely always be prepared as Jesus commanded because we don’t know the day or the hour of our Master’s return. One thing is certain, no matter where on earth you currently dwell, we are one hundred percent on a crash course with judgment as a nation, and as people of God, we should be interceding like the prophets of old. Lord forgive my sins and the sins of my people. It always starts at home.
“Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2ch.7.14.NLT
Instead, do my prayers invite the rebuke of the One who gave His life for me? We are no different than James and John calling down curses on the people of Samaria who refused hospitality to Jesus when they learned He was headed to Jerusalem. We may as well be praying, “let the end come, Lord, and catch them unprepared and unaware.”
“When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?”
But Jesus turned and rebuked them.”
Luke 9:54-55 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.9.54-55.NLT
Our intercession should be more in line with what Jesus taught, forgive us as we forgive others who sin against us. (Matthew 6:12)
“Either way, Christ’s love controls us.
Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.
He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves.
Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view.
At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view.
How differently we know him now!
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.
The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ.
And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.
And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us.
We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.14-21.NLT
“Help us, O God of our salvation!
Help us for the glory of your name.
Save us and forgive our sins for the honor of your name.”
Psalms 79:9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.79.9.NLT
“But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.
But when God found fault with the people, he said: “The day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.
This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt.
They did not remain faithful to my covenant, so I turned my back on them, says the Lord.
But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete.
It is now out of date and will soon disappear.”
Hebrews 8:6, 8-10, 12-13 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.8.13.NLT
“In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood.
Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.””
1 Corinthians 11:25 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.11.25.NLT
“It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own.
Our qualification comes from God.
He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant.
This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit.
The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.
Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold.
But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth.
And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ.
But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord.
And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
2 Corinthians 3:5-6, 12, 14, 16-18 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.3.5-18.NLT
Heaven Changes Everything -Big Daddy Weave https://youtu.be/z3mpo2VEDaI
Every Hour -David Leonard & Josh Baldwin https://youtu.be/Ltrt-PhnuOY
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