The world is filled with calamity and no one is exempt. For those of you who have noticed, God is shaking everything that can be shaken, literally. Many of us are being pulled along by the bridle and the bit but it's time to get in the race and pick up the pace.. And those of you who believe Jesus is going to come and save you in the nick of time while you are busy doing other things, I am afraid you are mistaken for Jesus is coming for those who are looking for him.
Jesus is going to present to Himself a church that is glorious and without spot or wrinkle. And as believers go, many of us spiritually look like something the cat drug in. But the Bible says in 1 John 3:2,3, "We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.
And everyone who has this hope in Him "purifies himself", just as He is pure."
You have read where it says, "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." What happened in the days of Noah? I will tell you what happened. God gave Noah a plan, a blueprint but Noah had to do the work and build the ark and then God provided the flood.
We just read "everyone who has this hope in Him "purifies himself". You see, God provides the plan but we have to do the work. You say you have faith and that's enough but James 2:14 says, "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? Verse 17 says, "faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead.
Remember the first scripture we read? "Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself". Many of us are waiting for God to do it but just like Noah, God gave him the plan but Noah had to do the work.
Jesus gave us the story of the 10 virgins. Five of them had their lamps filled with oil and five didn't care until it was too late. Jesus said, "the kingdom of God does not come by observation". That's right. It comes by revelation through the Spirit of God and that comes by the word of God and prayer.
It's time to get in the race and pick up the pace.
With radio, television and the internet not to mention game-boys and other sorted forms of entertainment, people spend billions of dollars and hundreds of man hours on ways to pass their time. Yet, James 4:8,9 says, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.…" I would dare say that many of us are doing exactly the opposite of what God's word tells us to do. We want to laugh, don't we?. We want to relieve the stress of the day so we buy a six-pack, pick up a movie or two, go home, sit back and relax.
"You have no idea the kind of stress I am under!" you might say but you're going about it all wrong. These are coping mechanisms. God doesn't tell us to cope, He tells us to hope, and hope purifies. All those other things tend to just clutter up our lives. We need to stop deceiving ourselves. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church. and quit listening to the lies of the devil.