Thursday, March 4, 2010

Signs anyone?

I went out to get my newspaper (which is the same as saying the sun came up this morning), and I was shocked at how cold it felt. Winter had dug its way deeply into my bones by the time I got back to the house, which only meant at 10-yard walk.

I got back, poured a steaming cup of coffee and opened the paper. Adds fell out, which is good for the industry but still makes me wonder if I did the right thing in retiring. On top was the Home Depot add, which among various hammers and such was an add for spring flowers for planting.

Has all this stuff come apart? It's the fourth of March and it's still in the 30s, and unfortunately that's temperature, not age.

Where are we now in the calendar? Do we need to rethink the days of Winter? Will Summer bring us 100 degree days beginning in May?

There are earthquakes galore, tsunamis (which means I've learned to spell it if that's the correct spelling) and just plan bad stuff all over the world daily.

What is going on? Do I need to cancel my life insurance and put it on the lottery?

The Bible talks of these things with anguish.

In Amos' prophecy, we read of a time when the Lord's wrath will come: "Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it mourn? the whole land will rise like the nile: it will be stirred up and then sink like the river of Egypt. In that day, declares the Soverign Lord, 'I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your religous feasts into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads.'

Now, if we read the context of that selection instead of merely diving into scripture on a cold March morn, we see that is a day of judgment against the land of Israel for numerous mistakes in judgment. Some were keeping the religious festivals but not in spirit. Their main intent was to make money and religious holy days kept them from it. So God is saying, there will come a time when I will send my wrath. Clearly that is different than anything that could be happening today.


In Matthew's gospel we read of Jesus teaching on the Mount of Olives above the city of Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley. He says, "so if someone tells you, 'look, the Messiah is out in the desert,' don't bother to go and look. Or, 'Look, he is hiding here,' don't believe it. For as the lightning lights up the entire sky, so it will be when the Son of Man comes. Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near. Immediately after those horrible days end, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give light, the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of heaven will be shaken.'

Again, this is Jesus talking about the end of days. Clearly that is not talking abut anything that could be happening today.

As there was a beginning, with God speaking the world into life, so there will be and ending.

Man, it's cold out there today.

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