In These Final Hours
Matthew 25:1-5
1 "At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. As I was praying for us all this morning, the Parable Of The Ten Virgins came to mind; half of them were prepared, half were not, but all of them were asleep. Every time I read those words over the years, I wondered how that applied. Serious Christians make genuine efforts to be paying attention, and that shows. For all that, Scripture cannot be broken, so there is something there that isn't obvious. In that way, the Parable Of The Ten Virgins is rather like a plant of some kind coming up, but the gardener won't know exactly what it will be until it gets big enough to recognize...
The people of Rapture Ready, and this does fully include myself, agree that the Rapture will be the definitive announcement of the beginning of the Tribulation. Yet we are seeing the world around us sliding into a sink of depravity, confusion and a shocking failure of leadership that we didn't honestly think could happen, especially in America. We just didn't think that lawlessness could become as widespread as we are actually seeing it unfold before our very eyes! From the climate to the crime rate to our political and church leadership, we are absolutely stunned at how fast things have gotten so weird. We honestly thought we had been building a better society than we see around us. How could we all have possibly been so mistaken??? I think, right about now, we are all at least somewhat numb with shock, wondering how so much effort to build this nation under God seems to have become anything but...
If we look carefully at the whole Parable Of The Ten Virgins, the Lord is clearly not disappointed that any of them were asleep, so the five wise virgins with oil in their lamps didn't disappoint Him. So the Christians who have been taking the Bible, prayer and serving the Lord seriously haven't failed. The fact that the five wise virgins were called wise in the first place illustrates that this group had been doing their job. So we are not failing, even though that might not be how it looks this morning... Yet some very strange teaching has been creeping into the church at large, and leaders who it seems should have known better, seem instead to be falling for some very strange deceptions. How and why is this happening?
Christians, by nature, don't go poking their noses into pagan practices, therefore Christians, by nature wouldn't know a whole lot about those things. No sane person, let alone a Christian person, would go into the bars and private clubs my homosexual late best friend blundered into when he "came out". So Christians, by default, had no idea what could possibly go wrong if a lesbian got elected Mayor of Houston for example. Christians had no idea how much could possibly go wrong when, in an effort to love our enemies as instructed in Scripture, decided to try tolerating homosexual behavior and other inadvisable lifestyle practices, we tried to love others... Many, many well-meaning people tried to give peace a real chance by permitting others around us to live in peace, rather than batter them with condemnation as was once done in the first half of the 20th century. It seemed like a good idea to some people back in the 1970's and 1980's when enough of the real depravity was still restrained, and nobody guessed what the depraved were actually capable of. But the Lord knew... He knew the whole time... I think He had to let all this happen, so that when the time comes, no one will be able to get in His Face and accuse Him of being unjust in judgment. What we are seeing in these bizarre new age and gay pride agendas, and in the Muslim militantism as well is the fulfillment of Romans 1:25-27 while the Holy Spirit is not only still active on Earth, but being poured out as never before, exactly as God promised He would.
So, dear brothers and sisters, and be of strong heart and bold faith. Yes, we were all sleeping, and we were all taken by surprise by the evil that had been hidden until these last hours. That’s OK, we can hear the Bride Groom coming with His friends singing and playing music as He approaches to claim what is His. There is still time to trim our lamps and make sure we are ready. Things are not as out of control as they look, and the Lord God will highly exalt His Son Jesus Christ through the great harvest of all who are truly His! He Will Triumph, His Holy Light will Blaze in these darkest of hours...
Behold, He is coming and will not tarry...
Amen... Come Lord even so...
May the Lord bless you as you seek to serve Him.
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