Kay Cude is a Christian poet who uses photos or illustrations as a backdrop to her poetry on major Christian themes. The following is used with permission. Click to enlarge. Here is the Artist’s Statement.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are so very enthralled by the beauty of this earth. Its splendor loudly declares it to be the handiwork of GOD THE I AM. How profound is His grace to share the wonders and workings of His creation with all mankind, the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:44-45). But as His redeemed Bride of Christ, we know this earthly realm is not our “home;” its final stages are playing out vividly before our eyes. We therefore live expectantly awaiting “eagerly our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:18-25; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) while this present earth and sin continue their measured steps into a final death throe.
We, the Bride of Christ, yearn for the many who do not know Christ to listen to our pleas for their salvation. These end times are a herald for false teachers and “religions” to present counterfeit and deceptive narratives of another Gospel (Mathew 24:24; Mark 13:22; Galatians 1:3-10; 2 Timothy 2:13; 2 Peter 2:1-3; Revelation 13:13-14), the Rapture (Harpazo, Strong’s G726 – harpazo; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18) and the Day of the Lord (Isaiah 13:6-13; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; 2 Peter 3:1-10).
Too easily “natural” man succumbs to error ignorantly, willingly or because satisfying the “flesh” is the only thing one knows and it is preferable and seems, sounds or feels “right.” Perhaps one has never heard the TRUTH that GOD or that He as Creator is Sovereign over all things, and is patient and loving and ready to forgive and reconcile man to Him through Christ. Or perhaps they don’t understand that man’s life was never meant to be separate from GOD and that their sin and futility initiated through Satan, the deceiver (Matthew 13:19; John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 11:3, 14; Daniel 8:25) can be voided through receiving Christ as Saviour (What Does it Mean to be Saved?” Ephesians 2:8-10″ https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-2-what-does-it-mean-be-saved-ephesians-28-10).
So while we speak of our catching away, we also speak warnings of the coming Tribulation.
I’m asked more often lately about what will happen to our pets when we’re raptured. Some ask about the animals we keep, being a farm community. My county abounds with cows, bulls, buffalo, mules, goats, chickens, sheep, pigs and more. I find the question fascinating, and also encouraging. I’m personally invested in the question, too, being an inside cat owner.
The book of Genesis tells us that we are unique in God’s creation, being made in His image and likeness. Also, though we and the animals have the breath of life in us, we were made to have dominion over the animals. Jesus died on the cross for salvation of his people, not animals, who as far as I know do not have a soul, at least, not an eternal soul. It is reasonable to assume that our futures will be different, being of different flesh and having had different roles on earth.
Believers of the Church Age will not go through the Tribulation. Let’s define the Tribulation period and the word wrath to help understand what this unique event and time period is for. Here are the verses:
The Tribulation’s purpose is stated in Daniel 9:24. God’s purpose for the Tribulation is to accomplish 6 things. It is actually a decree:
If you are reading this, then it means that the rapture occurred. The rapture is a term for the moment Jesus calls to His believers, resurrecting the dead in Christ and bringing the already living believers up to heaven to be with Him. Here it is in scripture:
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
Why did it happen?
We were living in what was called the Church Age, AKA the New Testament times. In Old Testament times the people lived under the Law (The Ten Commandments.) The Old Testament folks had faith, but the faith was that their Messiah would come. Jesus the Messiah had not come yet. But in order to demonstrate that faith in the future promise of Messiah’s coming, and to be cleansed from their sins, they had to kill an animal twice a day and sacrifice it. Why? The blood is the life. (Deuteronomy 12:23). “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” (Leviticus 17:11).
Then Jesus came, but the Jews didn’t recognize Him as Messiah, or those that did, rejected Him. When Jesus died, was resurrected and ascended into heaven, everything changed. Believers no longer needed to sacrifice because Jesus was the sacrifice. He shed His OWN blood for us! As a result of the Jews’ rejection of Him, Jesus has spent the last 2000 years building His church from Gentile peoples (Romans 11:25, Acts 15:14-17). Now the Church Age is over, He is returning His attention to the Jews, and now it is Judgment time for all of those left behind.
Why weren’t we taken?
You might wonder about people whom you thought were Christians who are still here. Not everyone who professed Jesus was truly saved. We cannot tell who is saved and who is not, but Jesus knows who is who. He took the true believers. Intellectual assent is not saving faith. Tradition is not saving faith. Church-going habit is not saving faith. Only true believers were taken. A true believer is described in John 6:29: “Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”God sent Jesus to die for your sins, as the eternal sacrifice to satisfy His justice. Sin must be punished, because it is a crime. Jesus took the punishment and paid the debt for all sins forever.
As a result, you would have been pardoned- IF you had believed! But you chose to reject Jesus’ pardon, during the now concluded Church Age, or you added to belief in Him with a man-made rules or tradition. So, you are here now. John 11:25 “Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” I hope the rapture convinced you to believe it! Repent now. Right now!
What will happen next?
Unfortunately, you are in for the roughest time that there ever was and ever will be. Jesus said “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. (Matthew 24: 21-22).
He is saying that if the Tribulation went on longer than 7 years surely EVERY person would die! The Tribulation is when Jesus will pour out His anger against sin and sinners. Christians who repented in the Church Age just prior to the Tribulation do not have to endure it because we took the pardon and believed in Him before the rapture, or before they died. So Jesus removed us from this terrible time. Jesus will send increasingly terrible judgments on the earth to punish sinners.
Starting now, ¼ of earth’s population will die in war and famines and diseases. Then another 1/3 will die, equaling half the globe’s population before the Tribulation is even half over! Your life is at extreme risk. If you die before asking Jesus forgiveness of your sins and becoming a believer in Him, you will go to hell forever. Sin is real. God’s judgment of sin is real. Satan is real. Hell is real. The coming Antichrist is real.
Everything in the Bible is real. Not any other book. Not the Mormon Bible. Not the Catholic Bible. Only the Christian BIBLE is truth!
What must I do to be saved?
You must repent. The jailer at Philippi saw the marvelous joy in Paul and Silas, even while they were chained in the lowest jail, and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you & your household.” (Acts 16:30-31). You have to believe that your sins prevented you from being raptured up to heaven and will prevent you from going to heaven when you die. Sins are your wrong thoughts, words, and deeds against God. Everyone has wrong thoughts, words, deeds, so that means everyone sins! You need to be sorry for them, and have faith in Jesus. King David was sorry, in Psalm 38:4 he said: “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.” Do you feel guilty for your sins? You should. They are crimes against a Holy God.
Do as David did: “I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.” (Psalm 38:18). God is so holy He cannot even look upon sin. He is offended by sin and will not tolerate it.
In so doing you acknowledge that Jesus is the only person who CAN forgive them, having lived a sinless life and shedding His blood as the pure sacrifice for YOU. Once you do this, He will forgive you and then He will send the Holy Spirit to you to help you understand the Bible. If you do not confess and come to faith in Jesus, the Bible will never make sense. And worse, you will be at risk from the lying delusion coming upon the whole earth.
What if I wait and see how things go before I confess and repent?
Don’t do it! A great delusion will come over the whole world and those who are not saved in faith by Jesus’ blood will believe the delusion. The Bible says, “The coming of the lawless one (ANTICHRIST) is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).
The Good News is, Jesus still loves you and wants you! If you repent and ask Him to forgive, He will. You’ll still go through the horrendous times, or even be martyred for your faith, but when you die you will go to heaven and live forever with Jesus. Your first step is to repent & believe, and you will be saved from hell. Also, you will then understand the Bible because the Lord will send the Holy Spirit to you to help you understand it. The Bible tells you what to do and what will happen next. The most important thing to remember is, JESUS LOVES YOU! Don’t mess it up again. Repent now!!!!!!!
I have pneumonia. I’ll be doing re-runs until I can clearly think and research. The essay below the line was published in October 2012 on The End Time.
A prefatory note: I’ve always been interested in prophecy. Jesus’s return has always been imminent. It was for Paul 2000 years ago and it is even more so for us. In my short time as a Christian, but having lived a long time as a pagan (through the 60s sexual revolution, the 70s feminist revolution, and the 80s decade of greed) it’s obvious that the veneer of civility and morality covering American culture is melting away like a snowflake on a hot iron. In addition, the more recent developments in evangelicalism with the high rates of biblical illiteracy, charismaticism, female rebellion, social justice replacing the Gospel, and the collapse of the Southern Baptist Convention (long thought to be a bastion of conservatism) the snowflake melting has occurred in the visible church as well.
It’s something to mourn, but nothing to be surprised about. Jesus will return soon and right every wrong. I’ve been warning of His soon return for 12 years and if I warn of it for another 50 years His return would still have been imminent.
Now on to the re-post.
____________________________
I’ve been reading Jeremiah 4, a tough, tough chapter. There are so many parallels between Jeremiah’s time and ours… So when I finished reading, I re-listened to John MacArthur’s sermon that he delivered in June 2011 about Jeremiah and his times, called, “Prophetic Message to an Ungodly Nation” and he compared it to our times. They are so similar it is amazing. I guess maybe not so amazing…because sinful people are still sinful people and pride is still pride and culture is still fallen.
I also listened to a sermon on Jesus as the Word from John 1. My favorite verses in the bible are John 1:1-5. So that was a good sermon to listen to, very edifying and beautiful. Stay in the word. Jesus is our rock to cling to.
Here is an essay by Dr. David Reagan on the topics of Urgency and Encouragement. I hope it encourages you as it did me.
—————————— Urgency
Dr. David R. Reagan,
Monday, October 29, 2012
There is a sense of urgency in the air. Our nation is on the brink of moral and economic collapse. The world is caught up in an insane frenzy of terrorism. The Middle East is about to explode. And the biblical signs of the times are shouting from the heavens that Jesus is about to return.
In the words of Charles Dickens, “It is the best of times, it is the worst of times.”
It is the worst of times because the depravity of Man is manifesting itself in the increasing rejection and blasphemy of God. The result is an exponential increase in violence and immorality.
It is the best of times because the collapse of society worldwide is the fulfillment of end time prophecies that point to the soon return of Jesus.
An Exciting But Challenging Time
We are privileged to be living in such an exciting and momentous time when we can witness the stage being set for the triumphant return of Jesus. But it is a time that calls for courage.
We simply must keep our eyes on Jesus, and we must remember that even if our nation has no hope, we as individual Christians have great hope.
But that sense of hope will prevail in our lives only if we consciously and determinedly live with an eternal perspective.
God is in Control
We must keep in mind that as the world falls apart around us, God’s Word says that He “sits in the heavens and laughs” (Psalm 2:4). His laughter is not prompted by a lack of concern. Rather, He laughs because He has everything under control, for He has the wisdom and power to orchestrate all the evil of Man and Satan to the ultimate triumph of His Son.
He has also promised that He will walk with those who are Christians, accompanying us through fire and high water (Isaiah 43:1-3).
And He has promised us an escape before the world totally collapses into absolute chaos (Luke 21:36). That escape is called the Rapture. When Paul revealed this escape in detail in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, he concluded by saying, “Comfort one another with these words.”
Additionally, we have the promise of the Millennial reign of Jesus to look forward to. What a day that will be!
Jesus will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords from Jerusalem. David, in his glorified body, will reign as King of Israel. We, in our glorified bodies, will be scattered across the earth to reign over those in the flesh. And the earth will be flooded with peace, righteousness and justice, as the waters cover the seas (Isaiah 2:1-4 and Isaiah 11:3-9).
The rapture will happen, and every day that passes makes it one day closer.*
There are some people who say that we should not say it is near, and they cite Mark 13:32, where it says ‘no one knows the day nor hour’. Or they cite 1 Thessalonians 5:1 where Paul said the day of the Lord will be as a thief in the night, a surprise. Or they cite Acts 1:7, where we are told we will not know the times or dates God has set by His own authority.
They are right.
If you meet up with anyone who knows the time, hour, or day, run, for they are false.
In Luke 12 beginning in verse 35 there is a section called “Watchfulness”. Jesus says, “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning,” and later in vs. 37 He says, “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.”
So when you try to relate the imminence of the times don’t let anyone brush you off from speaking of it with the old chestnut, “we do not know the day nor hour” (Unless you have just told them a day or an hour.)
Others claim that the rapture as a doctrine is made-up, won’t happen, and is a false thing to believe. People who say that use a faulty hermeneutic, and thus have arrived at a false notion of things. It’s sad, because hermeneutics is a moral issue, being that it involves how one handles scripture and how the result of that handling makes one think of the Savior’s character and promises. No, the Bride will not be enduring God’s wrath at the Tribulation and she won’t be dragged through the mud during the worst time on earth. Paul explained the rapture to his people at Thessalonica and said to be encouraged by it. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18).
I feel the time is getting very close. I see the geo-political platform of the pieces coming together, the days and years passing, and I want to say WAKE UP!” “BE READY!”
I know so many people who are not ready. I have a near relative who has passed on. It seems he was never ready and likely dwells in hell now. Do I want my loved ones or friends to die apart from Jesus? No. Do I want my relatives or friends to go through the Tribulation, which will happen after the Rapture? No. I don’t want even my worst enemy to face the living hell of God’s wrath on earth, nor His wrath in eternity forever. The burden for the lost is heavy.
The world’s depravity is worsening by the day, but we knew that already. Paul told Timothy that the deception of men would wax worse and worse. (2 Timothy 3:13). Jesus said that things would get worse, and love would grow cold. (Matthew 24:12).
While the Lord may choose to defuse the situation on the earth and everything go back to something akin to normal or at least less depraved, that is His prerogative in His timing, but would He? Though God could certainly pull everything back from the brink, it is not probable, based on the verses above. Genesis 6:5 says
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
That’s how it is, the longer man goes without God, the worse his culture gets. It’s always a downward spiral. See: Judges.
I would venture to say that many conservative television shows, and radio shows, and blogs, and podcasts, perpetuate the “what is this world coming to?” attitude. It’s not uncommon for talk radio hosts to spend three hours lamenting the decay of morals in the world. But we shouldn’t be shocked or dismayed. The world is coming to exactly what Jesus said it would come to, and this actually gives us a lot of hope.
We can be dismayed over a culture that is gross and depraved, as ours is in the United States, but if we are going to lament, let’s lament the destiny of those without Christ. This world is not our home. However, we can hope in Him, that all His promises are true. The world is getting worse, yes, Jesus said so. However He will return, He said so.
What this adds up to is the final decision. A person must decide if they will acknowledge their sins against Jesus and ask Him to forgive them, or not. Not doing so means they will be left behind when He comes very soon for us. The Bible says it’s imminent. Worse, the day of a person’s death is unknown to him, and if he or she should die without Christ, they will be lost forever.
There is no sin you have committed in your life that Jesus will not forgive! The only unforgivable sin is refusing His pardon for your sins. He loves you and wants to take care of you and bless you and treasure you. He wants to save you and lavish love on you and adopt you. Yes, YOU!
Though Jesus could settle the world and wait another 10-20-50 years, I truly think He will not. I really think that it’s close. I’ve been saying this for ten years and I’ll go on saying it for another 40, or as long as the Lord’s days of my life haven’t reached their number.
The good news is that, in spite of the wickedness which fills the world, the gospel of Jesus Christ will continue saving sinners! Yes, evil is powerful, but Jesus is more powerful! Yes, Satan prowls about like a roaring lion, but Jesus is the great lion slayer. Jesus encouraged Peter that the church would not be overcome, and would even stand against hell itself
Repent, for the kingdom of Jesus is at hand.
Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;e repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14b-15)
*A version of this essay appeared on The End Time in February 2012. It’s been edited and changed.
This post first appeared on The End Time in September 2012. I notice that my “Throwback” essays that I choose are usually prophecy. I am sad that eschatological topics have become marginalized, or too “controversial” to discuss. Many people avoid them altogether. This should not be so. They exist to orient us to our actual home, heaven, to excite us about the work we do now for when we see Him later, and to encourage us. (1 Peter 2:11, 1 Thessalonians 4:18).
I’m excited for what lay ahead and of course mainly to be rid of this body of death and sin no more! There are exciting times ahead, whether we enter into them through death’s door or through the rapture, we are all one day closer to it than we were yesterday. Be excited!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Imagine how excited JESUS is! I like to think that He is excited as any groom who awaits his bride would be. As the moment draws closer the more excited any groom becomes. He is eager, thinking of all the love He has for his soon to be bride.
Jesus is the ultimate bridegroom, so His love and excitement is superlative and perfect, excellently outpacing our excitement at His soon return!
I know we sense the nearness of the time. We know the rapture can happen imminently, it has always been imminent. But the time seems so close, and we’re excited to see our Groom.
Our Groom is even more excited to claim His Bride, I am sure!
Don’t you think so too?!
“And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” (Matthew 9:15).
The long dry spell of life without Him bodily on earth is almost over.
John the Baptist said,
“The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.” (John 3:29).
O, we long to hear His voice, but He longs for His Bride, and waits for the Father to tell the Son:
“GO GET YOUR BRIDE.”
“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
Be encouraged! We are one day closer to that moment than we were yesterday!
When men misuse the teachings of the Savior for their own evil ends it is a heinous thing to watch. It is written, “But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;” (2 Peter 2:12).
God means what He says. He will not be used, abused, or mocked.
Apostasy is a brutal condition, far worse than most Christians think.
—————————–
Often, the bible will predict owls to come to roost on places that are waste places, or ruins, or uninhabited. Same with vultures and eagles. The picture that had formed in my mind of reading the articles related to the snowy owls coming to roost silently all over the US was the verse of the angel at the end of the Tribulation calling the birds to feast on the dead. It is called The Great Supper of God
“And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God,” Rev 19:17.
This moment is after Jesus bursts back onto earth on a white horse with His saints following, and slays all those hundreds of millions assembled at the battle of Armageddon. The angel then calls to the birds to come eat the dead.
Ezekiel 39:17 at the end of the Gog-Magog war depicts God’s use of His birds
“Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood.”
—————————–
No matter how serious the news is, His constancy, His sovereignty, His plan, and His ways are Good. Even if you feel you do not have much to praise Him for, you DO! Seek ways to thank Him. He is active in our lives to the n-th degree. Nothing escapes His hand, from the most high work of salvation of souls, to the smallest sparrow’s needs. How much more, then, are YOU valuable to Him? (Matthew 6:25-26)
—————————–
Despite the Great Tribulation to come for the Jews, for the Middle East, for all those left behind who delayed their decision to repent and were not raptured, the LORD is merciful! He saves His people personally, from the first day to the last days invading Gog-Magog coalition. He says He will send mercy upon the Jews, look at this verse-
“I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD.” (Ezekiel 39:29)
He will pour out His spirit. POUR. Not ration it out. Not mete it out. Not distribute it. Not send it. Not give it. POUR it. When you pour something it means “To stream or flow continuously or profusely.” The Hebrew word in use here means translated, “to gush”. That is what I mean by the LORD being merciful. He gives so freely, so copiously. He is good and gracious. He has not forgotten His people the Jews, nor will He forget His sheep living now on a fallen earth with terrible sins all around.
—————————–
JESUS IS COMING SOON! He has always been imminent. I pray you live with that imminence in your heart and mind.
Brethren, examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith.
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you–unless, of course, you fail the test?” 2 Corinthians 13:5.
It would be devastating to fail the test. How do you know that you are in the faith?
Youtube offers endless hours of entertainment for those wanting a brief escape. My cousin posts a positive and humorous vlog every day, which I enjoy watching. Then I might browse videos showing funny antics of children or animals.
One Vlogger I enjoy is Don’s Family Vacations, who focuses a lot on tips for cruisers. I don’t enjoy traditional large ship cruising, but I enjoy his tips anyway. He’s kind, engaging, and the information about the Cruise Ships is interesting.
He stresses in several of his vlogs that the Cruise Ship always leaves on time. If you attend an off-ship excursion, be sure to arrive back at the dock before they take in the gangway and cast off. They will leave you behind.
This is from Cruise Critic:
Far be it from us to take joy from another’s misery, but we admit there’s something inherently amusing about passengers sprinting the length of the dock — often to the mocking cheers of those already onboard — when they realize they’re late getting back to their cruise ship. Usually these aptly named “pier runners” are lucky. They throw themselves across the gangway, and the doors close behind them. Others, however, aren’t so fortunate. Mistakes happen, in spite of the best-laid plans; if you find yourself still on dry land while your ship is sailing off into the sunset, it’s not the end of the world. Check out our tips and advice for how to avoid missing your ship, how to prepare in case you do miss it and what to do if your cruise ship leaves you behind.
Sometimes I go on Youtube to watch short vlogs of people running to catch the ship, always in vain. I look at the pier runners as the ship steams away, thinking about their predicament of being in a foreign country without resource. It must be scary to arrive from your excursion to an empty, deserted pier! Cruise Critic did say,
What must those people with unfortunate timing think? How awful to be left behind. According to Don of Don’s Family Vacations, they must somehow get home using their own money and resources. Once the passenger has missed the ship, the Cruise Line is not responsible for them any longer.
I laughed along with the observers in these videos, until I remember that once, I’d been a pier runner too!
My husband and I took a cruise that wasn’t a cruise. We traveled as passengers aboard an icebreaker/ferry/cargo ship in Upper Quebec and Labrador. (Relais Nordik). At that time, there were few roads connecting the villages that dotted the shoreline of this large Province, and the boat acted as ferry, mail boat, grocery delivery, and human transportation from one port to another. In between the towns after Sept-Iles, there was only tundra.
Back in the 1990s when we were aboard, conditions were primitive. The sole aim of the ship was to transport cargo and passengers, not to cater to people boarding the boat as a cruiser. We slept in a quadruple bunk room, ate with the crew, and played cards or watched the scenery because there were no on-board activities. Now, the Ship has nicer cabins for people who want to take the route as a cruising passenger, they suggest shore excursions, and provide dinner seatings with set tables and everything! It’s still rough and tumble though. The ship is still mainly a ferry. Due to variable and potentially rough conditions, the cruise line disclaims a specific return time shorter than a 36-48 hour window, lol.
The run went from Rimouski to Blanc-Sablon, and included Anticosti Island
I collect shells. At one stop, we walked the beach and I noticed that Canada grows some giant scallops! The shells cast up on the beach were 3 to 4 inches across. I got absorbed looking at all the shells on the beach. I saw some species I’d never been able to collect, and there were other species I wasn’t familiar with. Time passed.
Gradually I noticed that it was quiet. Too quiet. Everyone had left! Oh no!
I ran as fast as my short legs could go, and I saw the ship with engines on and lines casting off. The crew was trying to take in the gangway but my husband was standing on it and wouldn’t let them. I got up there and ran up the ramp and they withdrew the gangway and we were off. That was a close one!
They said that on this route, if we’re left behind, we’re supposed to knock on doors of the few homes until one of the homeowners takes pity on you and lets you sleep there till the ship is on the return route. When the ship returns you can get back on and resume your journey. Depending on where the ship left you behind, it may be 2-4 days until it returns.
As I hustled up to the ship I was wondering what I would do if I was left behind. I had a nasty knot in my stomach and I was breathing hard, and it wasn’t just from the running! I was almost left behind to dwell in a unfamiliar land
It makes me wonder even more about the people who will be left behind when the real ship sails. The real ship I’m talking about is the Ship of State, the Church. Paul said in Romans 11:25,
I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in,
The term ‘full number’ is from the Greek pleroo, and means full number, completeness. The word was usually used in reference to a ship and its full number of crew. Admiralty law at the time banned any ship from sailing until the full number of necessary sailors were staffed to man it.
What will it feel like to be left behind for those people in the world who aren’t saved, and have some familiarity with Christianity? Maybe they’ve heard someone give the Gospel, or know of the rapture and left behind from the books or movies. The devastating feeling the cruiser has in the pit of their stomach when they’ve been left behind at the pier will be magnified a million-fold. You’ve been left behind on earth. There will be no running to catch the ship, for it will disappear in the blink of an eye. One moment here, the next…gone.
There is a solution that will ensure your participation in the rapture. When it sails will it have you in it? The solution is to repent of your sins. Ask Jesus to forgive them, and lay your life down at His feet. Once you trust in Jesus as the Savior King, then He will consider you not an enemy any more but a sheep in his fold.
Don’t be a pier runner.
Here are some fictionalized versions of what the rapture might look like.
Phil Johnson, GraceLife Pulpit pastor and Executive Editor of Grace To You, also the editor of John MacArthur books, tweeted this:
Accepting the challenge, I searched it. Ahem. These were a few of the results-
It’s the same on Goggle when you do a regular search.
We don’t read the news and match to the Bible, but instead we read the Bible and then understand how our sinful actions in today’s news repeat the same old sinful behaviors of the past. We know that judgment of those actions came then and will come again. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Shall we pray to our patient but wrathfully righteous God? May we pray for our nation to call out to Him in abject apology for thrusting Him aside and instituting false gods? We are a nation in dire need of repentance. Otherwise, we know the rest of the story…and there are still so many to be saved.
Read the Bible, be a Berean! We need truth more than ever in these falling away, lying times. Meanwhile, enjoy His provision, whatever it may be. Today it’s the rain, tomorrow maybe the longed-for job? A dinner invitation? A powerful sermon? God will provide what we need when we need it. Our Father will feed us, even as He does the birds, and are we not more valuable than they? 🙂 (Matthew 6:26).
I think about the rapture every day. I know that evil men wax worse, and that each succeeding generation gets more sinful. I know that we are closer to the rapture today than we were yesterday. I can’t wait for the rapture to happen, but please don’t set dates. Just be ready to explain to anyone who asks about the hope we have within us. (1 Peter 3:15)
the-end-time.org 
You must be logged in to post a comment.