Watch!

I read in a friend’s note today that he heard that the world would be different tomorrow. I don’t know what that meant, and yet it is true every day. One day, houses stand with pretty flowers. The next day, all may be changed. I’m not a person who likes change. There is something comfortable about sameness, and I do like comfort. I want a mild temperature, shirts without tags, a certain genre/volume of music or silence, and to know the plan, especially the plan for the day. I'd also like to know the long-range plan.

I don’t think much about history, yet sometimes my gaze turns backward many centuries. Some countries have been in existence for thousands of years and some for a few. I consider all the far-reaching changes in those countries over human history. I think of the various empires: Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, and German among others. They have risen and fallen. The United States has been here for less than 250 years, so we are relatively young. I wonder if we can last for thousands of years if Jesus waits.

The United States has been blessed as a nation I believe primarily because God was the Founder. Unfortunately, in less than 250 years, we have come to the place where we have moved away from Him. A few days after the attack of September 11, our leaders stood and sang “God Bless America.” Eight years later, our president reports that we are not a Christian nation. In Sunday School, we studied the book of Judges and learned the results of such choices.

So what kind of changes might we expect in our world? In our nation? I read today that the media reports that Christianity is no longer relevant. That media welcomed the Easter season with a funeral for ‘Christian America,’ and greeted the Christmas season by proclaiming it a holiday without Christ?

The blog I was reading then said that the day is soon coming when the percentage of true believing Christians in America will indeed drop by a tremendous amount. I was startled and bewildered to read that. Oh, surely not! I read on. . ."It won't be a decline of 50%, 60%, or even 70%. At the rapture, 100% of believers will turn up missing. And best of all, the decline won't take years to happen, it will occur in a blink of an eye." Then, I could agree with a smile.

I am reminded of Mark 13, No one knows that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It is like a man going away. . . and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Therefore, keep watch.

I don’t know how or what or when, but I do know who, so I’ll join Mark in exhorting, “I say to everyone: 'Watch'!”