“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars….”

Teaching my kids to drive also involves teaching them to pay attention to the signs on the side of the road, the ones above the road, and the ones painted on the road. There is really a lot to process. They must get the basics down before being able to process that a sign is there. The signs are spaced out early and not close together until a destination gets closer. The closer it gets, the more frequent the signs are placed until the signs are nearly screaming at them.

I can’t help but think that is what the Lord is doing with us. He is beginning to place significant events all around us. I can almost imagine that He is screaming at us from the heavenlies, from the storms, and from the quaking of the earth saying, “Look up here! Look around you! This is significant! I love you and I’m coming soon. Get ready!”

Harvey. Irma. Jose. Whether its tornados, earthquakes, or hurricanes there’s an undeniable intensity and frequency with these earth-shaking events. Is it global-warming? Can it be explained in other ways? Fracking, etc? Possibly.

What we do know is that Jesus is coming again a second time, and He urges us to pay attention to what the Scripture says about those times while expectantly anticipating the Great Day of the Lord. Certainly, many of the end time passages are hard to understand. They are written to veil the details to a degree, yet the Lord wants us to be watching, reading Revelation, and having a heart to understand. He does not want us to be caught off guard or in denial of the tribulation ahead or of His return but rather to be ready and eager to meet Him.

How do we interpret the Scripture on this topic? I’m not trained enough in apocalyptic writing to answer for veiled passages written with intense imagery, but what I do know is when it can be taken literally and as a straight forward natural read of the text, then that’s what you do. So, the sweet passage given in Matthew 24, and paralleled in the other Gospels, needs to be read and understood just as they are written. That’s enough information to know an awfully lot. What about Revelation? Read it. “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near” (Rev. 1:3).

So, dear sister, pay attention. Be in God’s Word. Lean deeply in Him. If we are seeing the beginning of the signs of His return, we are privileged that the Lord has placed each of us here for this time. You are where you are for such a time as this.

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” Luke 21:25-28.