Daily Bread 12-6-18

Mark 13:4-8

4 Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?

5. And Jesus answering them began to say Take heed lest any man deceive you:

6 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.

8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in diverse places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

ref. - Jer 29:8 - For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophet and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.

In this time the people were being told all sorts of things and being led in many different directions. Men wanted to be prophets so they told the people many things that would come to pass in order to gain the favor of the people. they gave them much false promises and false hope. But when these things did not come to pass the people grew weary and faint and they went looking for something else. No different than the way that todays so-called Churches are operating. They say, "Come here, Christ is here! or Christ is there! And they plant false hopes in the minds of those who will follow them in an attempt to lure people and souls into their grasp. There are great promises made and a "life of ease" is promised. Gut what the word of God really tells us is that if we want what the world wants we will struggle around every corner. If we do not allow the Spirit of God to transform us we will be a part of the great struggle that the world will face. As a matter of fact, the world is facing it today. And also the things that the word of God promises us, if we are in love with the world, will not be so good. We are already seeing the signs of famine and war, earthquake and pestilence across the land but are we allowing this to affect us? Are we worried about those things to the point that we are disallowing God to work in us? Have we forsaken him in our love of life, wealth, and the ways of this world? The word of God tells us that all of these things are going to happen. It also tells us to "Take heed to ourselves". This being very important because our beliefs will be tried, our faith will be tested, and the very things that we live for, as Christians, will be stripped away if we are not ready to stand strong. If your goal is to lose 100#, you have to be willing to struggle and form your diet and your exercise pattern to reach that goal. What goes on in between the start and finish, if you have your eyes on the prize, are not as difficult. You are not looking at right now you are looking at the end result. Same being if our salvation is built upon the gospel of Christ that guides us to eternal life. All of these things are going to go on around us people, and even those that we think are close to us are going to try us and tempt us and push us. But in Jesus Christ we can see that all of these things can be overcome if we are looking towards the goal. The beginnings of sorrows is when we let these things that are occurring around us cause us to lose sight of the goal. The we take our eyes off of eternal life, we will put them on something else. This will only cause more and more suffering on our part a we will have been caught up by the world. The word of God says that this, the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be published among all nations before the end shall come, and the time is drawing nigh. It is high time for us to be looking towards the goal and the end result and focusing on our way to that goal. Our focus should be on Jesus Christ. God will take good care of us but we must let him and submit willingly to his direction that we have in Jesus Christ. The world will change but our Lord will remain the same until eternity!! Have a great day!