Lawlessness

Good Tuesday morning! Okay, the holiday shopping madness is over for the year...what do you mean, only just begun?! It seems kind of odd to us that all of the madness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday is only the beginning of the holiday shopping season. People have been hurt over the last item in the store on Christmas Eve just as often as the first item on Black Friday. We can bemoan the cold material heart during what should be the warmth of Christmas, or we can spread some warmth ourselves to combat this coldness of heart we see. Shine a light out into the darkness! Shine the light of Christ to those most in need of it. Some will flee farther into the darkness, that is true, but we must continue to shine for Christ.

I'm guessing that by now you have heard the tales from the past few days, so I won't repeat them to darken the morning. One thing we must remember is that Jesus did warn us that the love of many will grow cold in the last days. I think the verse is Matthew 24:12 - "And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." Let's see...quick check of Blue Letter Bible and, yes, I am not quite right as usual. I remembered 'will increase', but Jesus said 'will be increased'. A minor difference or something profound? What I remember would be prophecy enough, but the words of Jesus speak of a bit more. For lawlessness to be increased speaks of an outside pressure or opportunity, such as a breakdown of civil government. In our case, perhaps because someone foreclosed on it. I'm trying to make light of it, but it isn't all that funny. One day we might be surprised how quickly things get lawless even in the communities we think we know.

This week in our life group Bible study, we begin the part of Revelation where we start to find out what will happen in the end. Oh dear! How bad does it get? Very bad... for the world. For us? We have a great hope arriving soon and all the lawlessness of the end times cannot stop Him from coming for us!

Love your neighbor today! Bucky