I have a dear Mother-in-law who loves all of her six children, their spouses, and all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  She always makes everyone feel welcome and plans a big family reunion for every other year or so, just so everyone can get together to see each other a little bit.  But, my wife and I have one little gripe about her, which is that at every get together she is always planning the next one!  She never seems to be able to rest in the current moment and fully enjoy and participate in the union we ARE NOW experiencing.  I am concerned that this very same thing can be said of multitudes of Christians who wait for and earnestly desire our LORD to return.  Many of us are so busy predicting the next big event that we have become useless to him now.  Our focus on the future literally prevents us from being useful to him.

This reminds me of the following Scripture: 

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed,  [21] nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”  Luke 17:20-21 (ESV) 

Several months ago I withdrew from a long-time on-line fellowship of Christians who have been earnestly seeking the LORD’s return for many years.  Their postings have become so silly and speculative that one can barely find even a scrap of spiritual food there to digest anymore.  Those that manage the site routinely exclude solid food while publishing pap that famishes the already starving that come to their pages.  I am afraid the same can be said of some other ministries that once fed quite a bit of good food.

Christianity is a NOW religion.  Our faith should show itself in what we do now for our families and those in the community.  Those who continue to read this site’s postings of the commentary on the Book of Revelation will begin to walk in this new paradigm of living now.  Our friend and brother (F.B.) very ably shows us that the purpose of Revelation is to provoke God’s people to desire to practice righteousness.  Practicing righteousness is all about living life now.  God does not give us increased revelation in order to cause us to speculate endlessly about the future.  He gives it so that we can enter into his rest and have abundant life NOW.

Brethren, I have heard hundreds of predictions concerning the LORD’s coming, various theories of who The Antichrist is, and when the great battle of Armageddon will occur over the past thirty years.  Without fail, EVERY ONE  has been wrong, and many prophecies were given by those who call or think themselves God’s prophets.  If these men and women had devoted themselves more to God’s truth that can be ascertained with certainty, then fewer of their sons and daughters (spiritual and natural) would have found themselves in sin, divorce, and wrecked relationships.  Brothers and sisters, let us not speculate.  Let us live in truth and according to truth.