(An introductory excerpt from The Bay-Glade Chase)
In the book of Genesis, God outpoured from the heavens a merciless rainfall, which lasted forty days to eliminate all unrighteous beings from the face of the earth. The rainbow, a divine trademark designed by the handicrafts of God, is a recurring symbol in nature that derives from the global flood and reminds humanity that the LORD God will never again flood earth to its entirety. He always has and will be good, holding steadfast to His promises. In Revelation, the apex of Christianity was proclaimed under the umbrella term for the last days on our present earth, coined as the ‘end times’. They are a physical and spiritual prelude to what will be the pre-prophesied rapture of the church.
Only God knows what lies ahead for His subjects still residing on Earth whilst experiencing what may be the physical and spiritual hellfire of the end days. That’s why it’s necessary for man to prepare his heart and mind in these pre-apocalyptic centuries to ensure his righteous appearance before the Father. For now, we still have time; time to sever and re-splice the ties between our minds and our spirits. Into which realm has man foreclosed his eternal residence? Heaven or Hell? So, in my mind, there was also a global flood. Rivers of fire cascaded from the heavens and the wedding feast was imminent. And of course, to the “convenience” of my people, we were subject to innocent blame for a phenomenon that wasn’t ours. How did the church respond? When I was dreaming, their response was something like this…
I always knew the end days would come. Still, I thought the millennia and these last few centuries were just its commencement, if that! Little would anyone expect for the end times to pounce on us like a panther and his voracious appetite for destruction. No wonder Jesus said He’d be returning like a thief in the night! ‘Prepare your households, prepare your hearts,’ I remember the pastor would say. Those six words were like a universal truth for God’s people, His real people. Not until the checkpoint of my adolescence did I realize that meant not just becoming born again in the Spirit, but to also have a heart that is right with God.
To live in a world that is so political, so fragile, and so elaborately broken, is a challenge for the evangelical. I don’t intend to necessarily tell people how to live their lives, because when you say “tell,” they become hyper-sensitive and perceive it like you’re forcing them to live a certain life. That’s not what I’m saying. I however would love to help them in that I am subtly guiding them, or merely pointing them in the direction of the right life. Everyone is flawed. I am too. The virtuous DNA of humanity has been branded with the original sin deriving from the fall of Adam and Eve. By default, you and I are naturally exempt from living a sinless life since it is humanly impossible. We can, however, strive for and perform the most sinless and righteous lives as we can since that is how God wants us to live in spite of our innate wrong-doings.
And now that Revelation is off to the races with a robust commencement of persecution and radically lessened freedom of speech, my tears slowly have come to comprehend the severity of the condition of man’s spirit. Some have wavering beliefs. Others can’t decide whether or not they’ll knock on Heaven’s door. There are those whose front doors of their hearts have become worn-out by Jesus’ repetitive and still patient knocking. The only good solicitor to the soul is Christ, nothing else out-offers or satisfies like Him. Many don’t believe in God whatsoever, and hundreds of thousands know their names are penned across the Book of Life; they rejoice with every living breath until their time comes. Fortunately for myself, I happen to associate with the latter.
Survival is now the sole vocation (so we have decided). Most of us resent it because we’d rather die than be confined to such a heightened, yet simplistic lifestyle. We’re very fortunate to be alive, whether we think so or not. The brain flies with every new tailwind, but the heart was born with its own everlasting dogmas. And so, for this cognitive dissonance that we face, we must disregard it because there are still opportunities for our first vocation, the divinely-justified universal truth that man was to become fishers of other men. So, I set out of Florida beach with my bait; survival on the kingdom’s behalf.
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