Daily devotion – battlefield not playground
2Th 2:6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
Paul in his letter to the Church in Thessalonica wrote of the coming Last Days and how evil would eventually be released in its full capacity throughout the world after the Church had been raptured.
The Church since its birth on the Day of Pentecost, has been in a battle, a war – Ephesians 6 – tells us and the hostilities are growing at an alarming rate. However, God’s plan and hold on the situation remains with the Church being used by God to pray and stand against the wickedness in high places.
One’s relationship with Christ or rejection of Him is the greatest decision that each individual has been given the freedom by God to choose. As a pastor, as a disciple of Christ, I grow weary however with those who seek to play Church. It reminds me of the Pharisees and other religious leaders who got all dressed up in the ‘religious robes’ but whose hearts Jesus said were like graves full of dead men’s bones.
Today is the day of salvation the Bible declares, and time is growing so very short when soon Christ will call His saints to be ‘snatched’ away from a world that is about to enter Tribulation. No one pretends in an I.C.U. room at the hospital. The doctors and nurses ministering in those situations are usually dealing with an individual who is hanging by a thread in their final moments here on this planet and then to an eternal destination only known by God Himself.
The prophet Daniel stood before a foolish king in Babylon who had played the fool and dishonoured God – his name king Belshazzar. Daniel said to him that that evening was to be his last alive on earth.
Let us see the events in Israel, the streets of Europe and even our own Sydney and be aware that time is shorter now than ever. No time for man centred play church! No, let us gather in humility, in reverence and bow our hearts before the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
Let us worship Him who alone is worthy and let us comfort one another with the knowledge of His soon return!