I don’t know an exact day, but I do think it’s extremely probable it will be this year, highly likely to be this month…even within days. The sense of anticipation, of longing – it just keeps getting stronger and stronger. And it’s not just me. Every one of us who is awake and watching is feeling the same thing. It’s SOON. We’re going home soon.
I could cry, just typing that. Soon I will be face to face with the person who loves me most in the world, who loves me unconditionally, even before I was even born. The person who was thinking of me, two thousand years ago, while he was dying a horrific death to pay my penalty for everything I would ever do in the future. Thinking of me, loving me, while he died to set me free and give me a future of eternal joy and happiness.
It’s so impossible, and so unlike anything found anywhere else, in any of the world’s religions. God, all-powerful and all-knowing, chose to set aside his power and knowledge in order to take on the flesh and frailties of a human being. Born into the world he created as a helpless baby, he suffered everything we suffer, was tempted as we are tempted. He intimately knows and understands how loss and rejection rips through you, how illness and stubbed toes, impatience and anger feels. He went through all of it, but because he was still God, he remained sinless and perfect.
So perfect that he was able to lay down his life, go willingly to the worse death the ancient Romans could devise, in order to be a sacrifice in our place. He took the punishment we all deserve, because we all have sinned. You might say, “Well, I’ve been a pretty good person. I haven’t killed anyone, or slept with a married person, and I’ve tried to be nice to other people and I give money to the Red Cross and even do some volunteer work.”
But Jesus said that whoever is angry with another person commits murder in his heart, and whoever looks on another person with lust commits adultery with them, for it is a person’s heart where the sin first happens. If you’ve ever lusted, or been angry at someone for cutting you off in traffic, or lied about something you’ve done, it is the same as if you had committed murder. There are no small sins. They all destroy. If they don’t destroy another person, they destroy you. And the penalty for sin is death. Eternal death.
There is only one way to be free of guilt and sin, and that is for the debt you owe to be paid. Imagine you did a crime, and after the court sentenced you, someone in the audience stood up and said, “I will pay the penalty for that crime. Even though I am completely innocent of it, I will pay the fine, I will go to prison, I will even take the sentence of death onto myself. Just let my friend go free. Because I love her.”
This is what Jesus did. The only perfect man to ever walk on the earth stood up in the only courtroom that really matters, and took our sin onto himself. And he did it out of pure love.
He loves us. Every single person this earth is so important to him, and so loved by him, that he was willing to give up everything in order to save us. And not only that, but he wants to live with us in perfect companionship, in the perfect place he has made for us, forever.
I can’t even express you to how much I want to feel his arms wrapped around me. Imagine the person you love most in the world. Now imagine you have been separated from him/her for a very long time. You get the most amazing letters from him, filled with love and humor that make you love him more every time you read them, and once or twice you’ve gotten a phone conversation where you’ve heard his voice. He sends you gifts, perfectly chosen things that are always exactly what you need or want. When you are in trouble, he sends help.
And he promises that one day, he will come back and pick you up, and take you to a place he’s been working on, a place he made with just you in mind, and the two of you will live there forever in perfect health and perfect happiness. This is Jesus. And this is what he’s given me, and what he’s offering you.
So many people say, “Well, that sounds nice, but believing in God is like believing in Santa Claus. I just can’t do it.” Have you asked him if he’s real? I mean this sincerely. Have you? He promises that anyone who seeks him out, will find him. All you have to do is ask. Other people say, “If what you say is coming happens, then I’ll believe.” I hope that’s true. But even if the world as we know it ends this weekend, as it very well could, you have no guarantee that you’ll be here to see it. Every minute 108 people die. You might be one of them. Or, when the Rapture happens, you might not survive it. When we go up, wrath is coming down, and I believe it will utterly destroy America. There will be a worldwide earthquake, and the sun will dark and the moon will turn to blood. There will be tsunamis, and, I believe, the outbreak of WW3. In one hour, everything will change, and nothing will ever be the same. By the end of seven years, most of the world’s population will have died of famine, war, lack of drinkable water, earthquake, volcanic activity, meteors, and disease. The world has seen nothing remotely like what’s going to happen; it’s going to be utterly unique in all of history.
And it’s just about to happen. Soon. The dominoes are all set up, everything is in place, exactly how the Bible said it would be, down to the last detail. Thousands of prophecies, made thousands of years ago, describing our current political and geographical alliances, our technology, our mindset and culture, our recent history. It’s too exact to be coincidence. He’s coming. The person I love more than anyone or anything is coming to take me home, and I pray that you change your mind about him before it’s too late.
Out of Eden 