"the stars of the sky fell to the earth…"

“Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” – John 11:24-26

“For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

“And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” “We who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air.”

We live in a blessed generation. I believe we live in this generation, the only one in the history of humanity with human beings who will never die. Yesterday I was reading of martyrs from the early church who with joy were fed to wild animals, who were stabbed and sawn in two, who were used as human candles for the Roman Empire. I read of Felicity who being pregnant and not able to be tortured for her faith did pray that she might give birth so that she could endure torture and death for the sake of Christ and how she did give birth. When the soldier stabbed her she grabbed it and plunged it into her own neck. With joy they died. I am glad I am not an unbeliever. I am glad I understand such an impossible joy. Not like the martyrdom of Muslims who crave a legion of virgins to fulfill their pleasures eternally but a real martyrdom for a real Messiah and a real living God Jesus Christ.

I remember when I was in Israel overlooking the temple mount at night. I asked God what he wanted me to do in life and the LORD spoke to me in the Spirit. “Do not ask what I want, what do you want? and he showed me a desire for fatherhood.” And later as all the desires of my heart were fulfilled coming from very specific prayers. A wife a daughter and then three daughters then a son, how my cup has overflowed. How I should have been dead from depression, from anxiety and most of all from alcoholism and apathy. I have struggled, I have experienced internal war with a very real devil. I battled the devil and the demonic until I lost all fear. Until my sword was soaked with the blood of demonic lies and my body wounded by malevolent spirits. Yet the grace of the LORD remains. Every morning his grace visits me even when I am sick and full of shame his grace never ends.

For some reason, the LORD chose me. Not to be the hero of a galactic story but the LORD found me on the side of the road of life and he Knew me. He plucked me from the darkness of nothingness and gave me a name. He saved me from myself and from the path that leads to the abyss and he pointed me to the light. I may never get a martyrs death and I don’t deserve anything I do get. I ask only for forgiveness for my very real and ever present sins.

We aren’t saved because we are good. We are saved because God is good. We aren’t saved for anything we did right in life but because Jesus did everything right. The glory is not for ourselves and all crowns will be thrown at the feet of Jesus Christ. I do believe we are the generation who run out of time. The generation who slam into eternity, when the empires of men fall apart and crumble at the feet of God and the unbelieving unrepentant world slams into the Empire of the Christ and His millennial reign. We are about to leave, we are about to turn into light. Children in their parent’s arms will be ripped away by Glory itself. All truth’s will be revealed, all sin will be conquered and all wrath will be exorcised from the Earth. What remains will be no war, only peace, no weapons only health and the healing of the nations. Our Christ is about to smash the shell of disbelief and show his wounds to all doubting thomas’s. Blessed are we, blessed are you the doubting Thomas’s who were given such a grace to live to see us disappear. Although you enter the Tribulation unbelieving and dangling over the fires of hell God has given this generation such a grace that you will get to see. You will see us change and go to God in the twinkling of an eye we will not die but we will not be here. Blessed are we, who enter the wedding supper of the LAMB while the door remained open. No human being is hopeless who still draws breath, no one beyond saving. Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ before it is too late and if there is a rapture, see and believe. Turn to Jesus. It’s almost time. Maranatha!