Devotions

DEVOTION BY MARK FUGATE  

It’s What We Know That Matters

The next installment of the Left Behind series – the rise of the Anti Christ hit theatres this past weekend. I’m all for biblical themes in movies especially in today’s culture but I’m afraid that this movie just like it’s predecessor will lead to some interesting theology.  The end times is a topic that many discuss even outside the Church.  Books with apocalyptic titles are selling like hotcakes.  Hollywood churning out these movies either predicting the end of the world or catastrophic events or children who have spent time in heaven and then came back to describe their journey. Author Richard Erdoes points out…..

  • It is no longer only the sandal clad hermits and oddballs walking the streets with signs proclaiming the end of the world who think that this puny planet of ours might not survive….Perfectly sane people, among them scientists, Nobel winters, predict human kind’s demise due to overpopulation, famines, deforestation, pollution, or depletion of the earth’s ozone layer. Whether you are a bible believer and look for Jesus to end it all – or you have a different view – the truth is everyone knows the end is in sight.

Revelation is not a crystal ball to interpret the future – it’s a trumpet call to stay faithful to Jesus.  Now I have my views of the four horsemen, and the 7 seals and 7 bowls and 7 trumpets and how they work together like a puzzle.  Who is the anti Christ and why is the number 144,000 mentioned.  What about the seven angels with seven plagues or the beast, the dragon and the warrior from heaven.  Who are the two witnesses.  Again all things that we can study together – but the truth is many of those things will remain unknown.  It’s what we know that matters and we know what God says in Revelation chapter 2.

  • Revelation 2:10 – Be faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life.

When I look around at a world who gives no thought to the return of Jesus and no thought to the truth they are lost without him – I find it ever more important to simplify an end times message.  Try this on for size – God’s Team Wins – Pick a Side – Don’t be Stupid.  I don’t know how He will come.  I don’t know when He will come, I don’t even know why he would come, but I do know – He’s Coming.  

Marks Sig