Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. ’ ” And they said, “That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.” —Jeremiah 18:11- 12.
Isn’t it interesting how little things have changed since Jeremiah penned these words some twenty-six-hundred years ago? Though we find God’s foretelling of the end of all things in both the writings of the Old Testament prophets and in the New Testament book of Revelation, many people today seem to insist, “Nah, that’s not going to happen. We’ll just keep doing our own thing, and whatever feels good, we’ll do it!”
But what God foretells, He fulfills, and we would do well to have the heart of Jeremiah concerning the revelation of disaster we find in Scripture. Eternity is real, judgment and hell are real, and so is God’s unwillingness that any should perish.
I have posed this scenario to my church several times: What if somehow God revealed to you that the rapture of the church would occur tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. and that the ensuing time of hell on earth would soon follow? What would you do differently between now and 11:00 a.m. tomorrow? I believe we live in just such a time and must live with a sense of urgency as never before. Like Jeremiah (who is known as the weeping prophet, BTW), we must plead with people to repent and come to the Lord.
I once heard a pastor say, “If you believe that Jesus could come back for His church at any moment, then act like it!” I couldn’t agree more. Today is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2), and today just might be “the day”—or maybe tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. Therefore, whatever you would do if you knew that for sure, today is the day to do it!
The Lord has foretold a coming disaster upon this Christ-rejecting world, and all that God foretells, God fulfills. Someone needs to hear about Jesus from you today!
Excerpt from “Body Builders” now available on Amazon.
