Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Acts 25-26
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 17:22-37
Jesus (to His disciples) Days are coming when you will wish you could see just one of the days of the Son of Man, but you won’t see it. People will say, “Look, it’s there!” or “Look! It’s here!” Don’t even bother looking. Don’t follow their lead. You know how lightning flashes across the sky, bringing light from one horizon to the other. That’s how the Son of Man will be when His time comes.
But first, He must face many sufferings. He must be rejected by this generation. The days of the Son of Man will be like the days of Noah. People were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage. Everything seemed completely normal until the day Noah entered the ark. Then it started raining, and soon they were all destroyed by the flood.
It was just the same in the days of Lot. People were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building, and carrying on business as usual. But then came the day when Lot left Sodom—a different kind of rain began to fall, and they were all destroyed by fire and sulfur falling from the sky. That’s how it will be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
When that day comes, if you’re on the housetop, don’t run inside to try to save any of your belongings. If you’re in the field, don’t bother running back to the house. Remember Lot’s wife. Turning back is fatal for those who do so. If you try to hold on to your life, it will slip through your fingers; if you let go of your life, you’ll keep it. Listen, on the day of the Son of Man, two people will be asleep in bed; destruction will take one and the other will be left to survive. Two women will be grinding grain together; destruction will take one and the other will survive. Two men will be working out in the field; destruction will overtake one and the other will survive.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
I was just thinking about what normal meant in Noah and Lot’s days and what normal means today. God sent the flood to destroy all humankind except Noah and his family because of what was normal for the people around Noah. He sent fire and sulfur falling from the sky to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah destroying those two cities and the plains where they existed because of what was normal for them. God said they had become a stench to Him because of their evil practices so He wiped them out.
Jesus at various times during His ministry warned of the coming wrath that will come because of the evil that will sweep across the earth. Well, I think we are just about there. Take a look at our normal today. Our selfish desires have driven us to the point that anything is okay. We tolerate aberrant behavior and call it everything but sin. We even let our government dictate that sin is okay and encourage us to support it.
Surely not, you say. Just take a look around you. Read the papers and the laws that have sprung up in recent years that fund actions and behaviors that clearly go against God’s word. What else would you call it? Sin has run rampant in our country and around the world. Revivals are unheard of in our land today. Church attendance is down and many services are pretty shallow, more entertainment than worship. Message tickle our ears with things we want to hear instead of the words we need to hear to convince and convict us and help us realize our fallen state.
I think Jesus saw the same signs in Rome and Jerusalem and Galilee. The degradation has continued. We keep sliding further toward our own destruction because we fail to give God the worship He is due. We forget that He is God and we are not. We try to satisfy that God-sized hole in our heart with everything but Him. It won’t work, but we try. But just as in Noah’s day and in Lot’s day, God will finally decide enough is enough. He will finally decide His children do not need to suffer under the hands of evil people anymore. He will finally decide He has given enough grace and will call an end to time.
It will happen in an instant, Jesus says. You won’t be able to climb down off the ladder if you’re working off the ground. You won’t be able to make it to the house if you’re out working in the yard. You won’t have time to go anywhere or do anything because His coming will happen faster than you can blink. As fast as the speed of light, He will come, take His own, and be gone. it will all be over. Judgment will come. Your standing with God will be fixed at that point and He will judge you for what you believe now, not that day. Everyone will believe on that day. Everyone will bow before Him on that day. Everyone will acknowledge that He is God and Lord and Master on that day. But if you don’t believe before that time, it will be too late.
Like in the days of Noah or the days of Lot, normal was evil. Normal opposed God’s laws. Normal tried to substitute things other than God to satisfy a spiritual need only He can satisfy. Normal then sounds a lot like our normal today. We live in a dangerous time. Not from the threat of the evil around us, but because if your heart is not right with God, there might not be much time to make it right. The flood came without warning. People wanted in the ark then, but God had shut the door. Fire and sulfur fell from the sky and there was no where to run.
We don’t know what it will be like when God comes again, but it will be fast and violent and there will be no escape for those He does not take with Him. Get ready now.
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