Week 21 Day 1
Finding God in the Mysteries of every day
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Luke 21 10 Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
12 “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name.
The true task of any student of the Bible is to glean from the text the specific meanings and applications to the moment in which they are living. This of course presumes a study of how this text may have been understood to represent and speak to the context in which they were spoken or written.
The apocalyptic text written above presumably from Jesus’ own mouth is rather frightening. On the one hand we have all the dire warnings of other scriptures against sin, but here we have the promise that truly following Christ is a dangerous path indeed. Not only will the fabric of life be torn apart by the vagaries of politics and meteorological and geological disasters, as if all that were not enough, the disciples of Christ would be subject to persecution, imprisonment and the ostracism of the communities in which they had been nurtured.
So, how does this apply to you and I today? First, as with any apocalyptic text there is an intrinsic warning about being prepared in everyway possible for what is surely coming. Second, there is a call to shore up the resources of our will to accept and be prepared for the inevitable. Third, to exercise extreme faith in the face of the coming end and witness to the love and forgiveness of Jesus the King.
Larry M Lawrence- Mysteries 