Revelation 6:12-17
The Day of Destruction
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| photo credit: SpaceShoe [Learning to live with the crisis] via photopin cc |
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”
Honestly, the first two verses of this passage read like a Hollywood end-of-the-world script. I don't think even Indiana Jones could survive these catastrophes; an earthquake that's off the Richter scale, the sun turning black, the moon looking like blood, stars falling from the sky enmasse, the heavens receding, mountains and islands moving from their places - who could live through that? What would you do?
I'll tell you what you would do. You'd do the same thing I'd do, the same thing that the Bible says the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty and everyone else - the poor, the man, the woman, the child would do if they were able. You would run for cover, but since the whole earth had been shaken, there would be very little cover. You'd find a cave somewhere and cower in fear for your life.
You'd wonder what was happening. What was behind it all. You couldn't explain it away as an evening newscasters might - terrorism, aliens, natural disaster. No, when this day comes - and it will come - anyone left huddling in those caves will know without a doubt that this is the judgement of God for all the evil that has been done on the earth.
They will beg to be hidden from the face of God. There won't be any debate about whether or not there is a God. No one will be arguing theology at that point. They will be on their knees, their head in their hands, wishing they has listened to their Mama's teaching about God. Wishing they hadn't slept through most of the Sunday sermons they'd heard. Realizing that skipping church to play golf or go fishing might not have been the wisest thing to do. Scripture will come to mind, regret will gnaw at their souls. They'll pray, they'll plead, they'll cry out to the God they've been ignoring all their lives, but will it be too late?
I don't know - I'm not God. I don't know whether there will be one last chance for them to surrender their lives to the One who loved them enough to send His Son, Jesus Christ to pay for their sins by dying on the cross. What I do know is that it's just foolish to wait until that day to wake up and realize that God loves us, that He wants to spare us from these coming events. He made a way if only we will reach out to Him and receive the gift of forgiveness. If only we will begin that amazing relationship with our Creator that not only gives us abundant life here and now, but promises that we will not see these catastrophes, because we will already be with Him in Paradise.
Please don't wait. Open your heart to God, now.
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