The End of the World.

Matthew 24:4-14
4 Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 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.

The "end of the world" discussion has been a pretty big deal for the past year or so now. It's a huge controversy as the Mayan calendar suggests that the end of the world will occur at the end of 2012. Is the whole 2012 thing a lie? I mean there's a movie about it, so it must be true, right?

Well, I don't know of anyone who can give you a definite answer except for God. He knows the end of time, but of course he's not going to come up to you, tap you on the shoulder, and tell you when the end is in sight. He wants you to live. Have you ever thought about how you would live your life if you knew how much longer you had to live? Thing would be much different, that's for sure.

With the recent major earthquakes around the world, it's no wonder why people think that the end is near: Haiti, Chile, and Indonesia...along with a couple other countries had significant earthquakes. The thing is, while I do believe the earthquake in Haiti caused a sort of domino effect with various faults around the world, I really don't believe that we're seeing any more than we've seen in the past.

Just about every minute, the earth is shaking from at least a minor earthquake. There are hundreds each day, with only a fraction that are noticeable to humans. Typically, the world experiences one major earthquake every month. That makes sense because Haiti's quake was in January, Chile's was in February, etc. However, great earthquakes, which are those of 8.0 or higher, occur about every one to two years. Prior to Chile, I don't remember one that was above 8.0 for some time.

I just think that with the media's constant coverage whether on the television, on the internet, or in the newspapers, more information is being released to the general public. We're demanding. There has likely not been an increase in numbers.

So many people have asked me whether I think this is the end. Jokingly, sometimes I come out and say it upfront. I'll say something along the lines of: "What's going on with the world?" Then, reality will kick in and I'll say: "There is no telling when the end will be, but I believe this is only the beginning of the end, as scripture indicates." I like to think of natural disasters as God's way of managing the earth. He has his reasons that are not easy to explain.

The bottom line is that I don't believe it's important to think about the end of time. Don't let anyone deceive you. Focus on God. Live in the now with Christ. Understand, believe, and live John 3:16 before it really is...THE END!