Today’s Readings: Psalm 99; Malachi 3:1-5; Matthew 24:15-31; Jude 1:17-25; Psalm 112
As a child in the late 1970’s, I remember being fascinated by the work of Hal Lindsey. I was fascinated with his work because the leaders of our youth group at the time were obsessed with him. As I look back on that phase of my childhood, I’ve realized that I wasn’t so much fascinated with Lindsey’s work as I was freaked out by it. In case you aren’t familiar with Lindsey’s work, he was an individual that was totally preoccupied with predicting the end times. He took isolated pieces of Scripture and pieced them together in an attempt to do so. No one ever bothered to explained to me why someone who would consider him/herself a biblical literalist would ever waste his or her time trying to predict the exact date of the end times and Jesus' return when Jesus himself was quoted in the Gospels as saying, “But of that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36 from the New American Standard Bible). I wish now that my youth leaders would have put their energies in a different direction. Instead of putting their energies into trying to scare us into being ready for the Son of Man's unannounced return as spelled out in today’s reading from Matthew, I wish they would have invested their energies into encouraging us to regularly live in ways that would be pleasing to God so we would be ready whenever the Son of Man reappeared. The difference between the two approaches might sound subtle to some people; but to someone like me, that difference would have helped tremendously. As I think about that difference in approaches, I realize we could take the same principle and apply it in to the way we approach Christmas. We could ask ourselves this Advent season, "Am I living my life by trying to frantically prepare for the arrival of the Christ-child on a specific date (i.e. December 25), or am I living my life in such a manner that I would be ready to receive the Christ-child each and every day of the year? Til next time…
As a child in the late 1970’s, I remember being fascinated by the work of Hal Lindsey. I was fascinated with his work because the leaders of our youth group at the time were obsessed with him. As I look back on that phase of my childhood, I’ve realized that I wasn’t so much fascinated with Lindsey’s work as I was freaked out by it. In case you aren’t familiar with Lindsey’s work, he was an individual that was totally preoccupied with predicting the end times. He took isolated pieces of Scripture and pieced them together in an attempt to do so. No one ever bothered to explained to me why someone who would consider him/herself a biblical literalist would ever waste his or her time trying to predict the exact date of the end times and Jesus' return when Jesus himself was quoted in the Gospels as saying, “But of that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36 from the New American Standard Bible). I wish now that my youth leaders would have put their energies in a different direction. Instead of putting their energies into trying to scare us into being ready for the Son of Man's unannounced return as spelled out in today’s reading from Matthew, I wish they would have invested their energies into encouraging us to regularly live in ways that would be pleasing to God so we would be ready whenever the Son of Man reappeared. The difference between the two approaches might sound subtle to some people; but to someone like me, that difference would have helped tremendously. As I think about that difference in approaches, I realize we could take the same principle and apply it in to the way we approach Christmas. We could ask ourselves this Advent season, "Am I living my life by trying to frantically prepare for the arrival of the Christ-child on a specific date (i.e. December 25), or am I living my life in such a manner that I would be ready to receive the Christ-child each and every day of the year? Til next time…
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