The Signs of the Times

(photo courtesy of Samantha Campbell)

One of my favorite Christmas songs is “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas,” and when it starts to play on the radio stations, I get excited! Christmas is coming!! As a child, I remember seeing the first signs of the approaching holiday near Thanksgiving, and my heart would overflow with joy! Store windows started to have Christmas displays, and churches had nativity scenes on their lawns. Even the streetlight poles had decorations on them! The signs of the season were everywhere!! Christmas was coming, and I could hardly wait!

As an adult, I confess I feel the same excitement when the Christmas season nears. I love to decorate my home, attend the special church services, go shopping for gifts, and bake those delicious Christmas cookies that are so much fun to decorate, especially when I do it with my grandchildren! Each December day brings me one step closer to the 25th of the month when my family remembers and celebrates the birth of Jesus, God’s precious Son, by reading of Luke 2 together on Christmas morning. Later, we exchange gifts, and then we feast on a delicious meal together, enjoying the day with extended family and special friends. I love Christmas, and each year, around November, I start actively looking for the signs of Christmas because I know the moment I see the signs, the holiday will soon be here.

You know, the Bible also has an event coming to which I am looking forward with great anticipation and the signs are everywhere! That event is the return of Jesus Christ to rapture His church! There are over 1000 prophecies in the Bible, and approximately 500 deal with the return of Jesus have been fulfilled! There are NO MORE that need to be fulfilled before He returns! 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 states, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (The other 500+ prophecies will be fulfilled after the Christians are taken back to heaven by the Lord.)

Like Christmas, there are” signs of the times” all around us that seem to shout that “Jesus is coming soon!” Matthew 24 records Jesus as stating that the world would be similar to how it was in the days of Noah when He comes back. Genesis 6:5 states, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Mark 13:7 states, “And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.” Whether in a newspaper or a television news broadcast, there are always reports of wars and the possibilities of others. And the wickedness of the world is blatantly paraded for all to see! It doesn’t take a scholar to see that the descriptions in Genesis 6 and Mark 13 could easily be a description of our world today.

On December 24th, everything is set for the arrival of Christmas morning. There is nothing left to be done. That is how it is with the next Biblical event, when Jesus returns for His bride, those who have trusted Him as their personal Saviour. There is absolutely nothing left to be done except to wait for the shout and the sound of the trumpet! I can hardly wait!

Jesus is coming to earth again, what if it were today?
Coming in power and love to reign, what if it were today?
Coming to claim His chosen Bride, All the redeemed and purified,
Over this whole earth scattered wide, what if it were today?

(from “What If It Were Today?” by Leila Naylor Morris)

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” – John 14:3

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Are you listening for the trumpet?