Bible Verse of the Day Wednesday January 11th, 2023

 Matthew 24:3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

I'm sure that we all remember the Y2K scare; the experts predicted all sorts of computer failures at the end of the twentieth century. We all got up the morning of January 1, 2000, to find that our computers were still there.

Harold Camping (July 19, 1921-December 15, 2013) predicted that Christ would return and the Rapture would occur on May 11, 2011, of course, May 11 came and went, and Jesus had not arrived yet. He had previously predicted it would happen on September 6, 1994, but that day came and went, with his false prophecy coming to naught. People were eating, drinking, marrying, and being married. I am not trying to cast a shadow on Mr. Camping's memory; there have been thousands of false prophecies about the second coming of Christ Jesus as early as the first century AD. This false prophecy occurs even though we are told so very clearly in God's Holy Word that we do not know the day or hour of the return of our Lord and Savior (Matthew 24:36).

We are given a crystal-clear directive from Christ Jesus on preparing for His second coming. Jesus tells us we should "watch" and "be ready." The question is how we know we are ready for His coming. True repentance and total surrender to Christ would be an excellent first step, then a sincere striving to reflect His light to the world around us (Matthew 24:42; Matthew 24:44). The bible tells us that His return will happen in the "twinkling of an eye," this will be some fraction of a millisecond. We will not have time to say, "wait, Lord, let me put down this glass of whiskey," or "please, Lord, just give me a few more minutes; I need to witness to someone" (1 Corinthians 15:5).

The apostle Peter tells us that His coming will be like a "thief" and that we should live holy and Godly lives. However, we cannot live this kind of life alone; we must accept Christ Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Savior (2 Peter 3:10-11). We should set our focus on living for God while we wait for the blessed hope of the appearance of Christ Jesus, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords (Titus 2:13). Live each day like tomorrow's the day Jesus will return, and you will then be ready no matter when the day comes.

False prophets are easy to spot when there is a prediction of the second coming of Christ Jesus because it is evident in his Holy Word that no one knows the day or the hour. However, that is not what false prophecy is limited to, and we should be able to spot these false prophets and their heresy. If we are not familiar with God's Word, it will make the job of these false prophets, these wolves in sheep's clothing, much more manageable. A false prophet brings forth any message, supposedly from God, that is contradictory to His Holy Word. There is only one way we can be sure the message we are receiving from someone is a legitimate message from God or a message from Satan knowing how to find the truth in God's Holy Word.

If the word got around that a particular church had meetings that could lead one to the most significant material treasure in the universe, there would probably be a standing-room-only crowd, with folks waiting at the doors for a chance to come in and hear this message. All you could glean from that message of how to obtain the greatest material treasures would be a temporary fix because when this short time we have in this life is over, those treasures would be worthless to you.

Instead, you find a message about obtaining the most incredible gift Humankind could ever have because it lasts for an eternity. For those that already know this, this is preaching to the choir. However, if we lead one more soul to Christ Jesus, it would be worth it all. Let us pray and ask God to help us focus on those lost and not yet familiar with Humankind's greatest treasure, Eternal Life.