Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All
these are the beginning of birth pains. “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Matthew 24:7-14
Beheadings, Ebola, California earthquakes, Ferguson, ISIS,
Hamas… the world’s going mad before our very eyes. It all seems to be unraveling at an alarming rate. Everywhere we look we see despair, cruelty, injustice and heartache. Just when we are tempted to throw up our hands and declare all is lost, these three words in Matthew remind us of what is true, “and this gospel”…
It changes everything. Everything. The one who stands firm will be saved. The gospel saves. It doesn’t make you better. It doesn’t make you happy. It actually saves you. And in this saving, it compels you. Because, once it saves you, you’re different. Once it saves you, you want God’s glory more than comfort or security or popularity or you fill in the blank.
C. T. Studd, a wealthy Englishman who sold everything to take
the gospel to China and India wrote these words shortly before he died:
Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The
time for waiting is past! Should such men as we fear? Before the whole world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only in our God than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ.
And this gospel… This is why we go. Go with us. Don’t wait.
Don’t fear. Trust.
