They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” Jude 18 (NIV).
Read anywhere on the internet these days and you’ll quickly find a story talking about how Christians are saying we are in the end times. That’s nothing new. There are dozens (even hundreds) of verses throughout the Testaments that talk about what will happen at the end of this world. That doesn’t even count this statement from Jude.
And we have talked about this many times before. Surely the people in Europe must have thought the world was ending in September 1939, when Hitler launched the Second World War. Their parents and grandparents must have thought the same thing 25 years earlier when a previous German Reich had launched the First World War. Ditto the American South in April 1865. Or the people of Milan during the great plague of 1629. Or the citizens of central Europe when the Black Death broke out in 1347.
When the end seems near, desperation can quickly set in.
And yet, even in those desperate times, scoffers gonna scoff. People will still be more interested in their own beliefs than in following Christ’s better way. We shouldn’t spoil for a fight but when the fight comes, we should be ready to stand, to witness. In a world where worldliness seems to count more than Godliness, we need to be ready in every moment.
Here in the world, it’s going to be a losing fight, at least in the way the world measures success. Jude and the other prophets foretold that evil would rise and fight against the Lord. That means it will target those of us who believe in Him. Yet, while we need to stand up for Jesus, we also need to remember that it is He who will do the fighting. He’ll fight through us; He will fight on His own against them for God’s own sake. He who calls us friend will not only defend with us: He will defend us. The fight may cost us everything here, but the eternal victory of Christ is already fore-ordained. There is no way He will lose.
That knowledge, too, is as old as mankind itself, going all the way back to Eden and that conversation between God, Adam, Eve, and the devil. The scoffers don’t want to admit this. In fact, the idea of it must terrify them. That’s too bad for them. Misplaced pride can blind us to so much that is better.
If these are the last days, let’s use them well. Live Jesus, talk Jesus, work to be Jesus for someone who doesn’t know Him. Witness kindly to the desperate scoffers. Jesus wants to call them ‘friend,’ too.
For further reading: 1 Timothy 4:1, 2 Timothy 3:1, Jude 19
Lord Jesus, come Lord and quickly. I’m standing for You.
This content may not be shared without consent of the owners of aspiringwriterdt.com. Please contact aspiringwriterdt@gmail.com for more information.
They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” Jude 18 (NIV).
Read anywhere on the internet these days and you’ll quickly find a story talking about how Christians are saying we are in the end times. That’s nothing new. There are dozens (even hundreds) of verses throughout the Testaments that talk about what will happen at the end of this world. That doesn’t even count this statement from Jude.
And we have talked about this many times before. Surely the people in Europe must have thought the world was ending in September 1939, when Hitler launched the Second World War. Their parents and grandparents must have thought the same thing 25 years earlier when a previous German Reich had launched the First World War. Ditto the American South in April 1865. Or the people of Milan during the great plague of 1629. Or the citizens of central Europe when the Black Death broke out in 1347.
When the end seems near, desperation can quickly set in.
And yet, even in those desperate times, scoffers gonna scoff. People will still be more interested in their own beliefs than in following Christ’s better way. We shouldn’t spoil for a fight but when the fight comes, we should be ready to stand, to witness. In a world where worldliness seems to count more than Godliness, we need to be ready in every moment.
Here in the world, it’s going to be a losing fight, at least in the way the world measures success. Jude and the other prophets foretold that evil would rise and fight against the Lord. That means it will target those of us who believe in Him. Yet, while we need to stand up for Jesus, we also need to remember that it is He who will do the fighting. He’ll fight through us; He will fight on His own against them for God’s own sake. He who calls us friend will not only defend with us: He will defend us. The fight may cost us everything here, but the eternal victory of Christ is already fore-ordained. There is no way He will lose.
That knowledge, too, is as old as mankind itself, going all the way back to Eden and that conversation between God, Adam, Eve, and the devil. The scoffers don’t want to admit this. In fact, the idea of it must terrify them. That’s too bad for them. Misplaced pride can blind us to so much that is better.
If these are the last days, let’s use them well. Live Jesus, talk Jesus, work to be Jesus for someone who doesn’t know Him. Witness kindly to the desperate scoffers. Jesus wants to call them ‘friend,’ too.
For further reading: 1 Timothy 4:1, 2 Timothy 3:1, Jude 19
Lord Jesus, come Lord and quickly. I’m standing for You.
This content may not be shared without consent of the owners of aspiringwriterdt.com. Please contact aspiringwriterdt@gmail.com for more information.
Practical Proverbs 