I recently had this dream...
I was being given 3 magazines; one was about animals, the other about money, and not sure about the other. They were great magazines and I had bunched them up to buy them. The person said I will give them to you for free. My shock for these magazines since they were expensive. I remember questioning, "FREE?? REALLY?" It was at that moment the person held the magazines by the ends and said an awkward statement, "Well that should be enough to keep your eyes open." As I stood there staring at the hand of this man I noticed he was holding the edge of the magazines allowing just the corner to peek out. And I began repeating the strange statement...enough to keep my eyes open...
As the days draw closer to the calling of those who have put their trust in Jesus, the message of being ready will be ever increasing. Many things will begin happening the Bible says in Matthew 24:6-7: "And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don't panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won't follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world.." Many of these things have been going on for year; wars, famine, disease, plague. But, during the last season prior to the Lord's return it will be ever increasing.
The funny thing is, everything in life seems normal. Life is continuing on. But if we take a step back, and look at the amazing occurrences happening in our world today....The earthquakes that are larger than they have been and so close together. Some experts say the "Big One" could happen at any time. Famine has poured out across the world. I have read of some countries putting rations on food while other are without so they have begun making dirt cookies and they have become the new staple in the marketplace. Disease and illness are everywhere. The new statistic for people to die because of cancer in America is 1 in 3. Financially, our country is working on loans and does not have enough money to keep itself afloat. We are depending on other large countries like China to help us remain in business because America's economy is the backbone to the global economy; if we go bankrupt, the world will as well. Such sad news. And the worst is we have not even scratched the surface to the true problems we face in our society today. This is just a general view.
What now?
Are your eyes open?
Can you see this happening?
Can you see the despair in people's eyes?
Can you see everyone grasping onto things that bring them happiness because they have no hope in anything else?
Do you see people desperate for a change?
God has said in HIS word all this will happen. But we often ignore. We can explain all these events as acts of nature. But what is it really? The world is keeping us so busy...we can barely keep our eyes open to what is really happening and accepting the world's reasons for all these events. The truth is we are going down a dead end road. A road that is leading us to the world's total destruction.
It has been said that the person with the most toys wins...But I ask you...what does it matter if we can't take anything with us when we leave this life? Should we keep our eyes so focused on financial status, academics, employment title, that we fail to see what is happening? Are we keeping our eyes open for the spiritual things happening all around us?
Sometimes I find myself looking at my own situation so closely, I fail to keep my eyes open looking at the bigger picture. I just see what's in front of me, which is usually laundry! I become so involved in my own situation that looking out and thinking about our coming Savior seems unfathomable. Daily schedules and maintaining some type of order in our home becomes such a daunting and time consuming task, I often find myself not truly praying, or reading HIS word with a passionate heart, rather out of duty. My eyes are not really open but rather squinting. God wants our eyes open and our ears listening to HIS word, to the truth of HIS love. Matthew 11:15 says, "Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!" We need to read, hear, and understand not out of duty, but out of love.
Keeping our eyes open and our hearts ready to hear and understand the truth of God's word, understanding those who have put their hope in Jesus will be raptured. But if you are just doing the minimal, making the Christian life a routine, are you keeping your eyes open? If you are just waiting until this season of life is over and then you will start to go to church or begin to read your Bible, or pray more regularly....Are you keeping your eyes open?
I challenge you today to not just do the minimal; just enough to keep your eyes open. Dive in, wholeheartedly, making your eyes wide open to see HIS truth unfold. God does not want you to miss it!
