Reading Through The New Testament – October 6, 2016 - 2 Timothy 3 The last days.

Just today over lunch my father-in-law was telling me about a Christian radio program he was listening to in the car.

“They talked about the ‘last days’ and all the signs that we might be in them.”

I rolled my eyes.

Being a child of the 80’s I’ve lived through many fads — Bible codes, christian apocalyptic movies, and the Y2K bug. I’ve spent many nights awake at sleep overs talking about the end of times and revelations and so on.

I remember going to a movie with my church called “Omega Code” where the final scene is the Jesus coming back in the year 2000.

I’ve lived through 2012.

Harold Camping.

Hearing Obama is the anti-christ.

And so on and so on.

I’m a little spent if I can be honest. I turn off when these conversations come up. I have my pat line I give whenever it’s posed to me if I think we’re in the end times.

I say “Every generation since Jesus thought they were the last generation”… Then I wonder why every generation seems to think they’re so special, or that times are worse than the years before. My grandparents had WWII, My parents had the cold war, and I have ISIS…

But today I read 2 Timothy 3…

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”

Wow, that does sound like the time we live in isn’t it? It does to me.

But, I want to talk about the end times that produces in me something better than a superstitious fear and turn me into an apocalyptic detective declaring who or what are signs we’re in the last age.

Paul is describing the fruits of the age of the world. The way people act when they are grounded in a world that will pass away. He’s talking about the things people do when they’re faith is in a passing kingdom.

They love themselves.

They love money.

They’re proud.

Disrespect their parents.

No love.

No forgiveness.

Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

We may or may not be in the last days, I don’t know. But, here’s what I do know. When Jesus comes back, I don’t want to be like the people described here. I don’t want to be found loving things that fade away. I want to be full of love, forgiveness, and have an inheritance that isn’t in a bank. I want to an inheritance of people that I loved and helped to find peace in Jesus.

I want to be a person of the Kingdom of God and not the kingdom of this world.

The best part about speaking about the end of the world is that we are acknowledging that this is fleeting, it is passing, and it will crumble.

That’s a good reminder.

Be a person who’s life is grounded in heaven.

Who loves God, not money, and has a treasure that no apocalypse could take away.