Will You Miss the Rapture?

Growing up, in the church in the 1980’s I had the delightful opportunity as a ten-year-old to see the Christian movie “A Thief in the Night.”  If you haven’t seen this cinematic masterpiece, it essentially depicts the terror and horror that many Christians believe will take place in a 7-year period known as “The Great Tribulation,” which happens after God has taken Christians out of the earth in the “Rapture.”  

Why anyone thought it would be a good idea for me at ten years old, to watch this movie is beyond me.  I still remember how the scenes of people getting their heads chopped off for not taking the “mark of the beast,” kept me awake at night for months.   

I also was terrified by the scenes depicting people who thought they were Christians, but who for some reason or another weren’t considered good enough or faithful enough to be taken in the “Rapture.”

There even was a Pastor who was left behind.  

I guess his theology wasn’t quite perfect enough!

The thought of being “left behind” literally gave me nightmares!  I remember getting up at night and sneaking over to my parent’s bedroom to put my ear up to their door to see if I could hear them breathing. 

Because I knew that if Mom and Dad were still here than I was OK!  

I knew that there couldn’t be any better Christians than my parents. 

One day my Mom took me to get my sweet mullet trimmed at the high-end beauty salon known as “Fantastic Sam’s.”  While I was getting my hair cut she said that she was going to run down the street to another store for a few minutes and be right back. 

After my haircut was finished, I remember vividly standing there at the huge glass walls holding my orange balloon and Fantastic Sam’s complementary comb, waiting for my mom to return. 

I don’t know how long it took for her to return, but in my mind, it felt like an eternity!

My mind began to race and I was sure of what had happened.

THE RAPTURE HAD HAPPENED AND I WAS LEFT BEHIND!

My mind began to race as I pictured my head being chopped off for not taking the mark of the beast!

Just as I could picture the guillotine’s blade coming down, my mom’s car pulled up!

I ran out to the car crying, “Mom, Where Were You?”

(I know my mom will fell horrible reading this blog. Don’t worry mom, after many counseling sessions, I am now able to forgive you for abandoning me!  Just kidding, love you, mom!)

I tell you this story for a reason.  I had this distorted perception that I had to be good enough for God. 

Matthew 5:8 says “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.” 

I thought I was a good kid, I went to church my whole life and prayed and “asked Jesus into my heart” at five-years-old. 

But when you look at the definition of “pure” it means “blameless, innocent, and unstained by guilt.” 

I thought I was good, but I knew that I couldn’t possibly be that good. 

I pictured God like a judge who was constantly grading my behavior to see if I added up or not. 

Like he was Simon Cowell on American Idol, and after my best performance he would say, “That was just horrible.” 

I had been taught that God loved me, but I wasn’t sure that he liked me!

My problem was I didn’t understand what had taken place when I put my faith in Jesus as a child.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 

When we place our faith in Jesus he exchanges our sin for his perfect righteousness!

Once the exchange is made, when God looks at you, he sees the sinless perfection of Jesus!

1 John tells us that “If we are afraid it is because we haven’t fully experienced God’s perfect love.”  He also says that we can “face God with confidence on the day of judgment.” 

As a child,I was afraid of God because I didn’t fully understand what Jesus had done for me.

It has taken me a long time to begin to understand the grace of God, but I now understand what forgiveness really means.

I don’t have to be afraid of God, and neither do you!

Regardless what your theology is about the end times.  Whether you are pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, pre-millennial, post-millennial, or amillennial doesn't matter. We are probably all wrong!  What matters is that you find forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ!

The Ridiculous Way We Pray!

I have been around Christians and Church my entire life and I am intrigued by our idiosyncrasies.  I am especially fascinated by the way that we pray.

We say things like:

“Lord, I pray that you would put a hedge of protection around us.”

“God, help us to be Jesus with skin on today.”

“Father God, I pray that, Jesus, you would help us Lord, to have a good day, Father God.

We say that Prayer is simply talking to God, why do we say such weird things when we pray?

What is a “hedge of protection?”  Do we even know?

No, we just heard someone else pray that and so we pray it.

What does it look like to be “Jesus with skin on?”  Is there a Jesus without skin on, walking around?  I think that would really freak people out.

Why do we feel compelled to say varieties of God’s name in every sentence of our prayers?

How odd would it sound to you if you heard me talking to my wife like this?  “Dianne, I just want to ask you, Dianne, if you could make me some food, Dianne?” 

Why do we bow our heads and close our eyes when we pray, when Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven when he prayed? (Matthew 14:19)

Before you think that I have appointed myself as the prayer police, I must admit that I am sure that I have done all the things that I have just described when I have prayed. 

The reason that I think that we say odd things when we pray is two-fold. 

1         1.      We pray the way we have heard others pray.

2         2.      We are nervous when we pray.

     1. We pray the way we have heard others pray 

It is natural to repeat the behavior of the people around us. 

The first time I heard my kids pray over a meal and say, “Lord bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies,” I had to laugh!

Why would a six-year-old kid ask for God for “nourishment?” 

Is this something they would naturally ask for? 

No, they were repeating what they had heard me pray. 

I then asked why I prayed that way.  Because, I heard my parents pray that way, who heard their parents pray that way, who heard. . . and so on.

3        2.   We are nervous!

I think that we are nervous for a couple of reasons. 

First, we are talking to the creator of the universe.  That’s pretty intimidating.  I think that’s why we lean towards saying God’s name a thousand times and making them too formal.

Second, when we pray with others around, I think we want to sound spiritual and impressive.  But the result is that we just sound weird.

I remember reading about Moses and how he talked to God like a man speaks with his friend, and I realized that I don’t talk to God that way.  My prayers sounded like I was talking to a scary God a million miles away.  I decided a long time ago, that was going to change.

Many years ago I was hanging out with a teenager, who loved to skateboard and had recently committed his life to Christ.  His prayer sounded something like this:

“God your so stinkin cool.  You are so totally Rad.  I wish that we could just hang out and go skateboarding sometime.  I know that you would have to be so amazing at it.  I mean you like totally walked on water.  Anyways, My Mom and Dad hate each other right now and are talking about getting a divorce.  Would you change this for me?  That would be so totally awesome.  I love you.  Peace Out!”

That was someone talking to God like he was his friend! 

I decided to start talking to God like that!      

I John 4 says “God is love.  And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.  So we will not be afraid on the day of judgement, but can face him with confidence.  Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.  If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love him because he first loved us.”

All that we do is a response to what God has already done for us! 

Through Jesus we can come boldly come to God the Father!

Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants but friends.” 

What if we stopped talking to God like he is our master and started talking to him like he was our friend?