Are You Ready For God's Final Air Show?

Have you ever watched an air show with a precision flying team like the Blue Angels? If you have, you watched impressive demonstrations of precision aeronautics. Just as you looked into the skies to watch the performances of those jet airplanes you need to realize something. There will be a day when God will put on a massive air show! But it won't be with high powered jets.

It will be the return of Jesus Christ to this earth!

"...he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "...they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

Just as there were times when the clouds obscured your vision of the planes performing their feats of skill, there are many things obscuring our vision of God too.

"The pride of your heart has deceived you...you who say to yourself, 'Who can bring me down to the ground? 'Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down," declares the LORD."

We deceive ourselves into thinking because we do not believe in God we don't have to worry about His judgment. But we are only deceiving ourselves! We can't avoid the ultimate judgment of God by saying we don't believe in Him any more than the pilots of the planes you saw could ignore the laws of gravity by saying they didn't believe in it!

When evening comes, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,' and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times."

We can forecast the weather (at least to some extent). But are we ignoring the signs of the end of the age that is rapidly coming upon us?

Do you recognize the signs of the times?

"...You will hear of wars and rumors of wars...Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will befamines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains...At that timemany will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold...And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."

This list of signs reads like today's international newspaper headlines! And every one of them is on the increase both in magnitude and frequency!

"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--having a form of godliness but denying its power."

My friend, if you don't see these on the increase every time you watch the news you're not paying attention!

No one knows exactly when Jesus' return will be!

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

The days will be like they were before the great flood in Noah's day. Prior to the great flood of Noah's day people were going about doing all of their normal daily activities. They were totally unaware of the impending disaster. But it didn't have to be like that for them and it doesn't have to be like that for you.
"...people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man."

Don't let Jesus' return catch you unprepared!

Although no one knows the exact time Jesus will return, Jesus did say in:

"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near,
right at the door."

Just as suddenly as the jets blasted past you during the air show you watched, the Bible says the return of Jesus to earth will be:

"...as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man."

A major public event!

Revelation 1:7 "Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him."

"The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"

But the return of Jesus to earth isn't all gloom and doom! Jesus Christ is full of love and compassion.

He isn't willing that anyone die without knowing Him and having an opportunity to repent and receive Him as their Savior!

"Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits--who forgives all your sins... who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion...The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love...he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions [sins] from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust...But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children--with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts..."