Dec. 31 – Thoughts on Malachi & Rev. 22

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

Jesus is coming soon.  In the face of 2000 years of Him NOT coming, hope is all we have to bring us through.  And so we have to keep reading these passages again and again, because they are our hope.

When Jesus comes, he will judge, but for us that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.  For us, that judgement will be a cleansing and a refining, two processes that do not punish but purify.  Both of these processes remove the parts of us that we hate, that are not of God, that make us less than what we are supposed to be.  These processes remove our sin.  And this is the promise of God for us.

And it is coming soon.  So we need to understand the urgency of our evangelism and our mission.  Time is short to tell others about the goodness of God, and there is nobody to do it but us.  So here at the end of the year, at the end of the book, do you hear the hopeful message?  And hearing it, do you believe it?  If not, then I pray that it will sit with you until you do.  If so, then you cannot sit with it without sharing it.

This world needs, more than anything else, this message of Hope.  You’ve read it all year.  Now it’s time to do something about it.  Every month, find someone else to tell this amazing story of hope.  It it’s the same person every month for 12 months, keep telling it until they believe.

Jesus says, “I am coming soon,” and we pray it is so.  But until then, tell the world.  That is all we have to do.

Maranatha.  “Come, Lord Jesus.”

Amen.