Tragedy

Yesterday was a day of the most horrible news.   First of all the hostage taking in Sydney and the three people who lost their lives there - and then the awful school shooting in Pakistan .  Kids in green school blazers identical to the one my own 12 year old wears to school every day.  130 young lives ended in a hail of bullets and madness. And many injured and traumatised - we cant just pass on by and become immune to the horror of these events or we cease to be human.  And yet we cant dwell on them either or we start to live in fear and become so depressed we dont want to get out of bed in the morning.

I'm not one to harp on about the ' end times'.  It seems to me that people have been convinced they have been living in the end since the day after the resurrection !  It is easy to look at what is going on in the world and believe that things are the worst they have ever been.... and perhaps statistically that is true.  Statistically more unborn babies die now than they ever have.  But then statistically more are being born than ever have been too.  Yes there are wars and rumours of wars... but havent there been wars and rumours throughout the ages?   Its certainly true that the gospel has reached to the ends of the earth now and the unreached people groups are pretty much reached, which is one of the

indicators that the end is nigh.   But I was reminded again the other day that to the Lord ' a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day  ( 2 Peter 3:8)   God doesnt operate within time.  He is outside it in eternity.  Everything is ' now' to Him and He can reach into any moment of our timeline to intervene.  If you take the 2 Peter verse literally, to God it's only two days since Jesus was born!  And it could be a while before Jesus comes back again.  Or it could be tomorrow.  Who knows?

Advent is about being ready.  As we look around at the state of the world , the persecution of the church, the financial crises in the western world and the heartbreaking poverty in much of the rest of it;  as we consider Ebola and human trafficking, global warming and the advance of Isis it is not surprising that so much of the world believes God does not exist or that if He does He is not interested in us.   But the response of the church should be to cry out  COME LORD JESUS.

Its a shame, but it's true, that we human beings don't tend to ask for help until our backs are really against the wall.  It takes a world war before a prime minister or a king will call a country to prayer.  It takes a personal crisis before we call out to God and make Him promises if only He will step in with a miracle to help us.   The world is no different.   Things are going to get bad and I think God will let them - because His aim is to came back and rescue every single one who calls on His name - and He wants as many as possible to be calling out for Him.  Let's face it , as a world we desperately need redemption, forgiveness and a chance to start again without any of the ugly, selfish, wickedness which so easily takes hold of us.  Only Jesus has made this possible.  So Come Lord Jesus.   Come quickly.