Chicken-Little Christianity

I am asked a lot about the end times. Everything from where is the United States in prophecy, to is Obama the antichrist? To answer most of the questions requires little effort. I personally have never found the United States listed as a specific nation in the Bible, and quite frankly, concerning the antichrist, they said the same thing about Khrushchev and Kissinger.

The real issue for me has more to do with the fact, “Are we ready for His coming?” One of the most penetrating questions I believe that Jesus ever asked in found in the Parable of the Persistent Prayer in Luke 18, when He asks, “nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

Don’t quote me, because I don’t think I am a prophet, but I do wonder about that question in Luke, and several others that point to our readiness rather than Christ’s. In fact these are what I pray about and what I wrestle with these days. “Is the bride ready, is she spotless, is she ready.” And, “Are we more anxious to get out of here or to see revival before He comes.”

I will never forget what a friend said to me many years ago, when he challenged me by asking, “How can you disciple a planet you are so intent on leaving?” That one rattled my cage and shifted my paradigm then, and still does.

I have always heard that Christ would return when man would be in the process of destroying himself. I can honestly say it sure feels like that is happening most of the time. But on the other hand I have never felt such open doors and such clear invitations from the Holy Spirit to be bold about the proclamation of the Gospel and the discipleship of the nations.

Sure times are tough. And as Americans, we have never seen things exactly as they seem right now. But to the world, all of these shakings seem to mean something different.

Muslim Ministry

Having just returned from parts of Asia that are becoming, if not already extremely Muslim, instead of feeling oppressed and overwhelmed, I felt so empowered, so impassioned and prayer-filled to preach, proclaim and persist in my faith in Yahweh, not Allah, and to be ready to “give an answer for the hope that lies with me.”

In Kota Kinabalu, East Malaysia, which is a Muslim nation, I heard the voice of Islam, loud and clear. The mosques, that seemed as big as the mega churches in America, broadcast their calls to pray five times a day on their speaker systems. It was so loud it sounded like my neighbor’s stereo in Ocean beach where I live.

Yet, I also met so many Christians who know of Muslims that are coming to faith in Christ, and I even heard this one radical statement from one brother, “imagine the harnessed prayer power when revival comes to their nation, and the followers of Islam come to God and pray to Him using their disciplines of prayer, in their prayer centers currently known as mosques.”

Chicken-Little Christians

It seems like too many of us are waiting for the worst to happen as a prerequisite for the return of Christ. Waiting for more “doom and gloom,” and the proverbial “boot to drop,” we seem to be anxious for everything to fall apart as some kind of deeper motivation to make Christ come back.

Maybe there is another way to expedite the return of Christ. Matthew 24:14 states, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

There it is! Let’s worry more about getting the message out, rather than hoping the mess we are in will get messier. Let’s throw ourselves into the preaching of this incredible message of the kingdom. Let’s commit to take the gospel to every man, to every people, to every tribe, to every tongue, and to every nation, and then Christ will return.