Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my
name, claiming, "I am the Christ," and will deceive many. You will hear of wars
and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but
the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of
birth pains (Mt.24:4-8).
The church of today might be referred to as a "sleeping giant." Perhaps we can see
a truth in that statement when we consider the
influence the church has on the world today--or lack thereof. That is not to be critical,
but to say that the direction of influence seems to be
heading in the opposite direction.
The world has definitely become the greater influence on society and on the church.
In Matthew 24, Jesus tells of the condition
of the earth toward the end times. He speaks of political and social unrest, He speaks of
earthquakes, famines, nations rising against nation, and so called "spiritual
leaders" claiming to hold the answers--claiming to be "the Christ." As
Jesus explains these events, He compares them to birth panes to illustrate the frequency
and intensity of the occurrences. As the end draws near, the events will become closer and
closer together, eventually leaving no rest time between catastrophes. The intensity of
the events will be of, shall I say, "Biblical proportions."
There is a point wherein a women
who is giving birth is waken from the deepest sleep by the pains of the onset of labor. As
many can attest to, it does not matter what time of the night it is--two, three in the
morning--when the pains hit hard and the  baby's birth is now a soon to come reality, mom's
not going to truly rest until the baby comes.
Looking at the world today can make one
wonder, "What is it going to take to wake us up?" How troubled
is this world going to have to be before the church comes up out of its slumber to seek to
deal with the surrounding circumstances rather than ignoring them? How frequent and
intense will the events have to be to snap us out of our complacency, wherein we do life
as usual--chasing after careers and creature comforts--blatantly closing our eyes to the
inevitable coming reality?
The end IS coming. And it would
be better for us if we see that as a reality now rather than waiting until it is upon us.
Life is not about making a living and surrounding ourselves with the people, places and
things that please us. And until we stop chasing after the American "dream" we
will remain a people, and a church, in slumber.
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