So… We are still here.

As most of you have likely noticed, we are still here… There was no rapture event last night as was predicted. Earth is still spinning as usual… For you and I at least that may be true… But guess what? Over 50,000 people were faced with their eternity overnight. For them it was a very real occurrence.

Though I firmly believe that Jesus will return to take his people home, we are clearly told in Matthew 24:36;

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”

So if no one knows, I am going to take that to mean that “no one knows” that is why I take all these predictions with a grain of salt. In fact I am staunchly against them for several reasons.

Firstly, it directly contradicts the Bible.
Secondly, when these people are shown to be either crazy or liars it reflects badly upon all Christians and ultimately upon God himself.
Thirdly and finally, it has a tendency to remove our urgency of preparation.

What I mean by that is simply the fact we become complacent because we perceive Jesus’ return to be afar off, but our sense of urgency should not be tied to the second coming. There are two important points our urgency should be tied to…

The first is wrapped up in the first statistic I shared, over the last 8 hours, statistically, over 50,000 people have died. We will be looking at the same kind of numbers for the next 8 hours as well, and eventually you and I will be personally taking part in that statistic (lest of course we are translated). Far or near, our eternity is sealed at the time of death (or at the close of probation for those alive at the end of time) at that point there are no second chances, so one must be sure what their wagon is hooked to before we get there

The second is the fact that who we are is a composite of our past decisions if we reject the idea of accepting salvation, or even delay it, we form a synthetic, predisposition to unbelief, and if one persists in this, an individual may not even be capable of making such a decision the next time it is presented, thus the urgency we should feel.

CS Lewis, an amazing mind put it this way… “Taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a Heavenly creature or into a hellish creature” we should not delay to make changes we are convicted of, as we risk our own capability to change.

The second coming of Jesus is sure, and I cannot wait for it, but I welcome you all to join me in planning your life as if it were a decade away and prepare your soul as if it were tomorrow.

The Mordecai Theory: Living Behind Enemy Lines

I am scheduling this to post  as I begin my sermon tomorrow (11am, May 7, 2011). Rather than copying all my notes, to make it more useful if anyone wants the material this post will be somewhat of a synopsis of the sermon and the full transcript you will find available as a pdf download.

In this Sermon I have drawn four secrets for “living behind enemy lines”(Earth during the great controversy) and getting out alive, right out of the book of Esther.

• Wait Diligently – Do not grow weary doing good – Galatians 6:9/Esther2:21 – 23
• Do not compromise – Never go against your convictions – Hebrews 10:26/Esther 3:1 – 6
• Let the Spirit use You – Do the bidding of the Holy Spirit – Esther 4:12
• Leave it with God – Let Him fight your battles – Exodus 14:14/Esther 7:5 – 10

Having established these good examples for us to follow. It is then important for us to look to Jesus because of the strong parallels between the story of Esther and the Great Controversy itself. Really this is not the Mordecai Theory at all. It is, in fact the Jesus Reality. Mordecai was a type of Christ, the whole story blesses us not only with a Microcosm of the great controversy but the Living example set for us by Jesus, which was pointed to by the life of Mordecai.

To know more… download the 8 page version: The Mordecai Theory