04 September 2022
Sometimes the message is just a feeling. I struggle to put it into words.
Yesterday was frustrating for me. It makes no difference why, personally, only that you get the picture of a situation that refused to cooperate. The world conspired to prevent everything I knew was good and right. I went to bed out of sheer exhaustion, with no sense of triumph or even that I had at least tried. My dreams were haunted by the specter of past failures, where I allowed some weighty obligation to slip up on me without having done the minimum to prepare.
I was startled awake by a crash of thunder. The forecast rain chances were quite low, and here it was pouring rain with flashes of lightening. The doom had come. Except, it wasn't me. It wasn't about me at all. The Lord was showing me the world around me.
In human terms, that 25 year estimate for global disaster seems like a very long time. You can get a lot done by then. But it won't matter. You see, a human sense of accomplishment means nothing against eternity.
I recall countless conversations with my fellow college preacher-boys. In those days, we all had been taken with the sense that Christ was coming back any day now. That much I agreed with, but I had some reservations that even I didn't understand at the time. These young men of mission talked about how they hoped the Lord would allow them to marry and have a couple of kids so they could feel fulfilled as a man before His Return. I didn't buy into that.
Sure, I've done those things. I got married not long after graduation and my children have their own children, but all of that misses the point. Jesus did come back, though not in any physical form. It was the same as in His own day on this earth; His followers were too focused on the imaginary glories of a new kingdom among men. But His Kingdom came in the hearts of men, and it looked for all the world like they were going to miss it entirely. They finally picked up the call after His Spirit fell. It's like that now again. Yes, our Lord has returned in the power of His Spirit for another round of building a kingdom of hearts. He's been restoring the same things He did during His time in the flesh.
These days I read about what some of those college preacher boys are doing with their education and their lives. They boast in the college alumni letters. Some are pastoring monster churches; a few have built marvelous academic careers and are about to retire. Several are missionaries coming home now from storied years on the field. I wonder if they still sense that His Return is nigh. I ask in the silence of my own mind if they saw what I saw, that Jesus did return, just not in the sense they were expecting in those days.
When the solar disasters come, how much of what they have accomplished will survive? We talk about laying up treasures in Heaven, but I'm not sure that's where their investments went. All of that is just the human accomplishments. I'm not saying they weren't faithful to their callings, but the Bible makes it painfully obvious that our real treasure on this earth is the Covenant, not the accomplishments that humans can measure. So far as I can tell, not a one of them has built up the Covenant. I see the Harlot Church riding the Beast, but not much of the Covenant.
My flesh is tormented by all the might-have-beens and missed human opportunities. But when God moves to wipe out civilization in the next two decades, none of that will be remembered. What will survive is faithfulness to the Lord. Clinging to the Covenant is what lays up treasures in Heaven; that's the fruit our Lord wants to see. My flesh is lying about what matters. The flesh of those other preacher-boys lied to them, too. I took a different path. While my flesh is unhappy with the choices I've made, my heart is full of joy. I've been faithful to my convictions.
As long as my flesh lives, it keeps urging me to just do something, even as this body is coming apart and refuses to serve any more. The honest truth is that my flesh cannot do any more. Those days are gone. And yet, my Lord speaks in the quietness of my soul, telling me that I've been faithful, and to stay the course until He comes to take me Home. He allows me to see the glowing vision of His Covenant alive on the earth, the one thing here He built that will stand when all else is wiped away.
The storms can't destroy the Kingdom of Hearts. Yes, when He finally does Return, every eye will see Him. But He's been quietly urging us to get ready for a very long time, and His Spirit stirs any who will hear His call: Build the Covenant, not human kingdoms.
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