ABOVE: There are many such videos on YouTube. They will remind us why some cry louder than others with the words, "Come, Lord Jesus."
Flames engulf a newly-built church in India. Believers there accept it on some level. It doesn’t mean that they are not crying out to God for some sort of justice - and fast at that.
Across the world in the western hemisphere, many believers face a more subtle maltreatment on the campuses of high schools and colleges and in workplaces where they are in the minority. Legislators have tow a tight line in order to mix faith with government and the Establishment Clause is repeatedly invoked to block any sort of truly free religious expression.
It’s ironic because it was faith that prompted the entire idea of forming a region (North America) where one could practice his beliefs without concern of retribution.
I grew up with prayer in a parochial school and received steady religious instruction. My public-school friends did not. Today, that divide has been widening for decades. Santa Claus is the ultimate nondescript symbol as western civilization continues a full-slide into multiculturalism at the expense of Christianity.
Is it any wonder that eastern and western Christians are believing that they can quicken the pace of the return of Jesus? We hear many theories on how to bait Jesus back a little faster: 24-hour prayer, worldwide evangelism, intercession to turn Israel toward Messiah, scripture translation, using the internet and broadcasting, helping the underground church and so on.
It’s all understandable. Who wouldn’t want Jesus to hurry up when you are watching your church go up in flames?
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: The pace of the Second Return keeps all of the believers eyes looking up. Whether it’s a “get-me-out-of-this-mess” frown or a “I-can’t-wait-to-see-you-Jesus” expectation or a little of both, there is a truth to the saying, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” While there is no strategy that we can use to push Jesus along, there is a growing fervor amongst His people. Do you think such passion suggests that He knows what He is doing? His cue will come from His Father.
I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed…How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?…How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save?
Revelation 6:9-11 NKJV, Psalm 13:1,2 ESV, Habakkuk 1:2 NIV