The Nearness of God

Does it seem like God is far from us sometimes? As the world appears to be crumbling around us, it can seem that way. If it were not for the sure word of prophecy, we might cave in under the pressure of the perils of this world.

I watched a movie on TV last night called "I am Legend" starring Will Smith. It is one of the post-apocalyptic tales of the near annihilation of humanity by a man-made virus that got out of control. Only a few people were immune. One thing that struck me was when a young woman looked at Neville and said that she could hear God and knows He sent her to him. He scoffed at her, but she said now that all the noise of society was silenced, He could be heard more clearly if only we would listen. At the end of the movie, just before Neville blows himself up with all the mutants to save her life, he looks at her and says, "I'm listening."

We grew up watching films that predicted a doomsday scenario and always laughed them off. They're not so funny anymore. In the 1970s "Soylent Green" showed a future where food would be so scarce the government would recycle dead people to feed the living. Who can forget Burgess Meredith in the Twilight Zone episode where New York City is demolished by a nuclear blast and he rejoices over the piles of books at the library? Or when the same actor stood up for the Bible against a repressive regime in the episode titled "The Obsolete Man"?

I'm sure all of you can come up with movie titles that were once thought to be unrealistic that now don't seem so far-fetched. There was even a television series called "The Prophets of Science Fiction" that showed just how prophetic some authors from the old days were.

When we think about these things, it is good to know that the coming of the LORD Jesus is at hand - especially His coming for His church before He returns with His bride. We can rejoice while those who reject Him have no such hope. His coming for us is our Blessed Hope. That hope will sustain us through the difficult times ahead.

We must keep our eyes on Him, stay awake, and keep on the alert. We must be in the world and not of it, knowing our citizenship is in heaven from where we await our Savior. Incline your ears to the Master's voice as we wait to hear those words, "Come up here."

Keeping on the lookout!

“And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being" - Acts 17: 26-28a

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. - John 14:1-3