Nothing To Fear

2 PETER 3:3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, "Where is this ’coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

Oh, boy! He’s gonna preach about the rapture.....again. Well, kinda. We look around the world today and see chaos. Un-Godly people, sin running rampant. Seems like that man of lawlessness has already been loosed, doesn’t it? There are a lot of scarey things out there today, but we Christians don’t have anything to fear!

There was a newspaper headline recently stating that, "Everything is spinning out of control." The underlying sentiment seemed to be that we should pin the tail on the worst issues going on in the world today. Quite frankly, there may not be enough tails!

Then to add to the distress, The New York Times printed an article, "Are you ready for the next disaster?" All natural disasters in the last 6 to 12 months have been preceded with headlines such as "unprecedented" or "record-setting." We just had a hurricane in South Texas this week. This may sound depressing but keep listening. It isn’t just gloom and doom.

Today, prices are skyrocketing and home values are abysmal. Fannie May and Freddy Mac...airline costs, college tuition, and health care are becoming unaffordable. There seems to be no answer for our oil problem. Iran wants to kill everyone, it seems. They are even causing trouble for the Saudi’s now. They want to wipe Israel off the map. They call Israel little Satan. You know what they call the U.S.? The great Satan! If they want to wipe Israel off the map, imagine what they want to do to us!

If they continue in their devolpment of nuclear weapons, Israel and the world community will have no choice but to attack Iran. If Iran is attacked, they will virtually close down the Strait of Hormuz, which is where as much as 40 percent of the world’s crude passes thru. If this nation has to go without oil, well.................

Both U.S. presidential candidates want to add a sense of order to all of this and have their own solutions. No one has the slightest idea if any of their suggestions will make things better or worse and if God is maneuvering the world for His greater purposes, what world leaders do or say matters very little.

We live in an age of risk assessment and risk analysis, when doomsday scenarios have become daily anxieties, and planning for improbable but world-changing events has become a focus of disaster policy. Yes, we actually plan for disasters TO happen....not IF they will happen! Now with renewed jitters about a post-election terrorist attack, government officials are urging us to plan for the next catastrophe. Nobody said it would be easy to be born for such a time as this!

There is a lot for us to be concerned about, isn’t there? For those that are unsure of their future, it should scare them........to life! But I have good news today, and maybe a different perspective on the "end of the world". Let’s think of it this way...Maybe what the 21st century is all about is the great unraveling of some things long taken for granted.

The Bible indicates in out text that right before the Lord’s return many things will spin out of control. Most scoff at such suggestions as predicted in II Peter. And it does not help to have church pulpits totally silent on issues that relate to the predicted "end-times" and some of the things that will unfold in those days.

I maintain the unbelieving world cannot connect the dots when it comes to much of this. They will blame it on man-made global warming, whoever is in the White House, Rush Limbaugh, and a host of other issues. It is difficult, if not impossible, for the unsaved world to arrive at a satisfactory answer to life’s great mysteries. While this is not a suggestion that the unsaved world has no hope, they surely do not have the "blessed hope"