On the Edge

Remember what I said yesterday about the book Left Behind keeping me occupied for a while? I was wrong. I settled down to read at 9:30 last night, and I ended up finishing the book at 2:00 AM. How's that for engaged?

But wow. Rarely do I find a book that so draws me in that I feel like I've been taken out of my room and into the environment the book depicts. Left Behind is uber-powerful, gripping, and soul-penetrating. I could identify with every character in the book, and the context of the actual story just makes me love it that much more. I love the message that it leaves me with. Even if you're not interested in following the saga to its conclusion, it will still leave you with the message of a sense of urgency. We don't know when Christ will return to the Earth or when we will experience the tribulation period foretold in Revelation, and it's not our place to concern ourselves with the time table God has set. Only He knows. But in the meantime, we need to live each day of our lives on guard, ready.

The day of the Lord will come like a thief, when we don't expect it. And yet as Christians, we should expect it. I want to be like Paul, who lived every day of his spiritually transformed life expecting Jesus to come back the next day. It's why his letters to the churches of Corinth, Ephesus, and Thessalonica were filled with that urgency. He wanted to make certain the people he witnessed to could stand right before God when He returned to Earth for his people. There is a sense of urgency in our Christian walk. An urgency to make certain we confess every sin and blemish that gets in the way of our journey. God forgives and forgets sin, praise Him for that, but He wants us to come to Him and admit we've messed up. If we live our lives like Bruce Barnes in this story, looking holy and blameless on the outside, but wallowing in lust and filth on the inside, where's the change? Where's the point in which we not only repent and ask for forgiveness, but allow the Holy Spirit to change our conduct? It's absent.

I immediately sympathized with Rayford, and to a lesser extend Chloe. Here is a man who for most of his life ignores his wife's pleadings for him to seek Christ in his heart, preferring to wrap himself up in other pursuits like work, airplanes, and other women. Then all of a sudden, Christ returns and takes His people, including his wife who believed. Rayford didn't accept Christ, but he couldn't ignore what he knew in his heart. He knew she had been taken into Heaven, and he had been left behind. He'd missed out. All of a sudden, his own pursuits that he thought were so important become meaningless, and he's on his knees in grief, desperate for another chance to come to know Christ. And he does. He later shares his newfound faith with Chloe, his 20-year old daughter. But like father, like daughter, she's very skeptical. She doesn't get scared off outright, but she tries to piece through it with human reason, logic, and analysis. Her skepticism is discouraging to Rayford, but he's determined to see Chloe accept Christ. Eventually she does, but it takes much time and prayer before she opens her heart to God.

So anyway, I thought Left Behind was a marvelous piece of work. I've already begun Tribulation Force, in which Rayford, Buck, Bruce, and Chloe, our four main characters, band together to stand against AntiChrist and the enemies of God as the world hurtles toward its darkest hour.

Song of the Day: SonicFlood - "Write Your Name Upon My Heart"

Verse of the Day: "Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone." - 1 Thessalonians 5:14