Terrible times in the Last Days

Wednesday 18Nov09 2 Timothy 3: 1 - 5 NIV.

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.

I had always associated terrible times with disasters, famine and plague. Little did I know that there are other terrible things that will happen too. Today I got a foretaste of what such terrible last days feel like.

I came across a video available from a popular chinese video sharing site showing a small child, from China, smoking a cigarette and cursing occasionally in front of the camera. This child looked like he's of pre-school age and the video appeared quite recent.

This video lasted only about a minute, and in that short duration the child finished the entire cigarette! All through the video, he was seen drawing deeply from the cigarette and towards the final moments he looked like he couldn't finish the whole stick. His forehead started to furrow, he started to frown and he almost wanted to cry. I suspect that an adult was nearby, watching over the child who was coerced into finishing the entire episode.

It was a cruel and heart-breaking one minute for me!

But the terrible times did not stop there. This video was made available by a friend on his social networking page and all the comments posted by people who watched it were almost entirely similar . . . they were all AMUSED!

I was disgusted by the fact that none of my friend's friends felt sorry for the poor child. Virtually none of them noticed the cruelty. The terrible times now felt even nearer. It's no longer those people in the video. It's not far away in China. It's right here at our doorstep that we find cruel, uncaring and unkind people. It may even be our very own friends!

People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good v. 2, 3

The words in bold italics were emphasized by me. To see the terrible times around us, we don't have to wait for earthquakes, storms and fire to confront us. We don't have to come face to face with epidemics and famine. All we need to do is to open our eyes and look around.

People have gone increasingly brutal. More and more are without love, abusive, slanderous, without self-control. They are not lovers of good. Certainly not those adults in China who made the little child finish the entire cigarette in under a minute. And almost on par with them are those friends who watched the video and could only feel amused!

They appear to be:

. . . .treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. v4, 5

Dear Christian, we are living in terrible times. Let us look out for brutal people around us. They are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

Of falling rain, rising flood and buffeting winds

Sat. 14 Nov 2009, Mathew 7: 21 - 29 NKJV

. . . the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. v 25

It has been raining almost relentlessly over the last couple of days. The skies have been overcast and the sound of rain falling on the roof has continued through the night. The weather has been very wet indeed.

I am reminded of the teaching of our Lord Jesus at the end of his sermon on the mount, where he said that whoever hears those teachings of his and does them is like a wise man.

And that wise man built his house on the rock.

It suddenly occurred to me, while reading this passage, that, besides the rock, there was something else that had escaped my notice. It's the rain, the flood and the wind beating against the house! That is the essence of our Lord's teaching about the wise man's house.

His house could withstand the falling rain, the rising flood waters and the buffeting winds. When the storm had passed, the wise man's house remained standing.

It did not fall.

In contrast, whoever hears the teachings of our Lord in his sermon and does not do them is like a foolish man. He built his house on sand. And it could not withstand the rain, flood and wind.

And great was its fall. v. 27b

Dear Christian, I urge you to hear and also to do the teachings of our Lord Jesus, as he taught them in his Sermon on the Mount. Let each of us build our own house on rock, not sand.

Under falling rain, in rising floods and through buffeting winds, let it be said of us: we did not fall!