The Time of the End

Do we live in the end times?

Yes, I think so. The signs about us certainly seem to encourage that conclusion. More than 50 years have passed since the restoration of Israel. Knowledge has multiplied and continues to multiply at an incredible pace. Wars rage around the globe with more and greater ones looming on the horizon, roiling and churning like angry clouds steadily coming our way. Famines, droughts, floods, earthquakes, and other calamities also seem on the increase. And without question, sin has so enveloped the planet that it seems we are closer than ever to "the days that were before the flood" (Matthew 24:38). Yes, I really do think we live in the end times.

Or do I?

I mean, I give the intellectual assent of that first paragraph, but does my life show the urgency and focus of one living at the trailing edge of history?

"Written in the book"

What a tremendous promise and comfort God offers to His faithful people in Daniel 12:1 -- we "shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book"! After the trials and testings of this life, deliverance comes to the redeemed. As we go through this life with the Master, we can anticipate entering into "that holy city, new Jerusalem" which shall be opened only for those "which are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Revelation 21:2, 27).

Is your name written there? Read these next verses and be sure!

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3:36). "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). "He that hath the Son hath life" (1 John 5:12). Those three statements may be brief but they are also sure. Jesus is the only way. Walk with Him in newness of life and your name is written in His book.

"He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels" (Revelation 3:5). "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 10:32). Be true to the Master in word and deed, and He will leave your name in His book. Furthermore, when you stand before God Himself, the Lamb shall speak for you!

Being an overcomer can look very difficult. Well, looks are not deceiving this time, because victorious Christian living is difficult. It's a battle, in fact. But the only wise God our Saviour " is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). Amen!

"They that turn many to righteousness"