Thought for Friday, 30 June 2023

 Matthew 24:35-36 NIVUK

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words

will never pass away. The day and hour unknown. ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Several years ago, Johnny Carson had Billy Graham as a guest on The Tonight Show. At one point there was a lull in the conversation and Johnny said, “You know what, Billy? I bet if Jesus ever came back to earth, we’d do Him in again!”

Billy Graham leaned forward in his seat, and said, “In the Bible we read that Jesus WILL someday return to earth again. The first time He came in love. The next time, He will come in power. And no one will do Him in!”

The time is coming when Jesus will return and we can be assured of this, Jesus is the one who will be ‘doing things in’ things like wokeness and wickedness and all things of the evil one who is now gaining power among those who have rejected almighty God and His Son, Jesus Christ.

I read in a reflection recently about most of those who do not believe in God are people who choose not to believe. They hear what believers have to say but they do not want to listen, Satan already has them ensnared.

Of course, there are those who have not yet listened to Satan, those are the ones we are tasked with teaching. They need to know about the truth of the gospel, before they are lost in the wilderness of the evil one. Ideally, we should be trying even with the ones who do not want to know. Everyone deserves a chance to know the Lord.

We can teach by how we live our daily lives, if we live according to what Jesus taught people notice and pay attention. When the occasion arises, we can speak about what Jesus means to us and why.

Can we really be a friend to people and keep Jesus as a secret to be protected from everybody else? We cannot say, I know Jesus and I don’t care who else does,” that would mean we do not know Jesus at all.

When Jesus returns will we be able to say we did our utmost to bring our fellow man/woman to Him, or will we be making excuses as to why not?

 

Prayer

Lord Jesus, let us be ready for Your return, whenever that may be. We look forward to the day and we pray that we will have impacted on many others to come to You before then. We pray also that You would urge more people of belief to stand firm in Your ways, against the outrageous things happening in the world now. Amen