Don't put off the fun until the end

Tuesday November 15th, 1 Thessalonians 5: 1 Now, brothers and sisters, we do not need to write you about times and dates.2 You know very well that the day the Lord comes again will be a surprise, like a thief that comes in the night. The Left Behind series has all but disappeared from the reading lists of Christians, but the dispensationalists are still alive and well. Harold Camping has predicted the end several times in just the last year and there is still talk of the world ending at the end of 2012 which in theory the Mayans predicted though they couldn’t see their own end coming. I find it interesting to watch all the clamor over when the second coming is going to happen. People study and study the Bible for clues, and friends of mine have moved to Wales, I assume because they consider that the end of the earth, to wait for the rapture. I guess they missed this verse. It is not a matter of figuring out when it will be so you can get ready, it is a matter of being ready, remember the story of the maidens and their oil lamps? It is a matter of being ready, not getting ready. Anything else is just trying to cheat, and quite frankly it doesn’t work. Trying to figure out when the end will come just seems like an odd approach to anyone who takes the Bible seriously. When will Christ come again? When you least expect it, which means you can probable take all those predictions and mark those times off as when the end is least likely to occur. Christians take the joy now, live the joy now, follow Christ now, allow their lives to be changed now, live as the children of God now. Christians don’t put all the fun off until the end. (maybe those who are trying to predict when the Lord will come are doing so because they don’t think being a Christian is very much fun. Sorry to hear that!?!) It is not a matter of getting ready, for in doing so you miss the point, it is a matter of knowing God loves you and living that each and every day.