Cyclone Sign and Some Other Stuff

Don't you love that title? Really got your attention, huh? I have really got to work on my title teasers. I need to warn you that this post is definitely 'linkalicious'....so beware..........

Anyway, another week has come and gone and my life has been pretty ordinary. Nothing earth shattering has happened in my life this week. Yet in Asia up to 500,000 people lost their lives to a cyclone. I have to admit, I really don't really know what a cyclone is (although it is the mascot of the high school my kids will probably attend). I assume it is in the hurricane family-- not really sure what causes it, but I know Who causes it.....someday we will know why (maybe sooner than we think). Five hundred thousand people. Hard to imagine that many people gone from an area. Children were left motherless, some maimed, hopeless, homeless, wandering and wondering why. Only God knows why.


Matthew 24:4-8


Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ, and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains".


I personally think that a cyclone that kills almost half a million people lands in the category of 'increased intensity of birth pains', don't you? Maybe I am wrong, but 500,000 people dying in one day due to natural disaster seems like a definite sign of the end times. Natural disasters are becoming more and more prevalent. If you question that fact, please see here. Jesus said that in the last days there will be earthquakes in various places, wars and rumors of war, and famines. Jesus told the disciples that they shouldn't be alarmed when they see these things, because they MUST happen. He said these things are the beginning of birth pains. I think that is such a funny analogy to give a group of single men, don't you? (What do men know about birth pains anyway?) But what better analogy to explain that the intensity and frequency of these things must increase before He raptures His church. Why did He say 'don't be alarmed'? Because even though these terrible things are happening all around us, those of us who are saved, know that we will be miraculously saved from the worst of it all.

We all say we are ready to go, but I wonder if we really are ready. I am not questioning salvation, but readiness. I wonder if we are ready to meet Jesus and I wonder if our work is done and our hearts are set on our eternal home or on the world. I wonder if we will leave this world with our work accomplished or will we leave it half done (can you enter into rest when you haven't even begun to work?). I wonder if we love Jesus enough to let go of what we love on earth. Are we clinging to tradition instead of the Cross - are we going to church because our parents did or are we stepping out to find our own faith and our own ways to worship? Do we treasure our position and status more than we treasure our God? Do we live like hell on earth and still hope for a mansion in heaven? I wonder if we are fitting the mold made by man (or ourselves) instead of conforming to God's standard of living. I wonder if we are holding so tightly to the world that God can't pry our eyes off of it long enough to make heaven our vision.

I wonder.