Worthy points, imho:
I look at it kind of like the labor before the birth. You know generally when it’s time but you don’t know if this or that pain is just a twinge, false labor, or labor that results in the birth. I’m doing what I can in this world to treat this as a twinge that we fight through so the rest of the wait can be comfortable. But I’m watching because this could be the final delivery. If so, there will be a lot of pain first, and my family and I need to be prepared for the fiery ordeal that leads to the full delivery.
It’s really in the Lord’s hands. If the world is to go on and my kids have a future I can live with that. If it gets bad but we know the deliverance is near, I can live with that. The harder thing would be to think that there would be extreme suffering that doesn’t end in deliverance. I guess ultimately we’re delivered at death also so our suffering always ends in deliverance. It’s just hard to know whether to invest in this world when you don’t know if it’s on the way out.
My husband and children are all Christian and faithful in studying the Word so I know we’ll be protected spiritually. I’ve been working hard on the issue of the lawlessness I see. Where lawlessness abounds, love grows cold, hearts grow hard, and minds close shut. Giving in to the lawlessness is like letting the weeds take over the field. You can’t get a good, healthy crop that way. So if people are going to be saved we’re gonna have to pull the weeds.
There will be a time when people CANNOT believe. The progression into depravity will be complete and the hardness of heart will ensnare everyone who doesn’t yet believe. I don’t know when that time will be here, or if it’s here already, so I just have to keep on trying to pull weeds and sow seeds wherever possible. The rest is in the Lord’s hands.
That reminded me of this one. When I read it, I had a firm sense the contray world view Hunt and McMahon describes was already here.
The Old Paths
http://www.thebereancall.org/node/8018
"Why wouldn't the Israelites want the "good way" and "rest for their souls"? Why wouldn't they "hearken to the sound of the trumpet," i.e., want to hear what God has to say? Let me suggest one reason that could certainly apply. They were so far removed from doing things God's way that they couldn't relate to the "old paths." Furthermore, their idea of "good" was not God's good, and the "rest" they sought after was not the rest of God. Doing their own thing for their own selves for so long may have pushed God's way well beyond their interests and comprehension. This condition was not unique to ancient Israel; we also see it in the church today...."