Armaggedon
I am not going to be ready for it when it comes.
“So when you see the desolating sacrilege standing in the holy place, as was spoken of by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains; the one on the housetop must not go down to take what is in the house; the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath. For at that time there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, 'Look! Here is the Messiah!' or 'There he is!'-- do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Take note, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, 'Look! He is in the wilderness,' do not go out. If they say, 'Look! He is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. "Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see 'the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven' with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. - Matt. 24:15-31
I tend to stay calm in a crisis. I keep my wits about me and try to work out what needs to be done.
The key is to think quickly and be prepared for anything.
In a crisis, there are people who bark orders and point where you should go, but who is to say they know what to do? They just decide they are in charge.
The main question is do we hunker down and wait to be saved, or do we run?
Evil might seek us out and kill us in our safe rooms, but nature is not so deliberate. Nature sends its winds and rain where it will, and it is the rising waters that do the damage.
When the end comes for everyone, as the reading tells us, there will be those who try to deceive us, but if we stand our ground, hold our faith, we will be scooped up and saved.
That's not easy to do, especially if we don't know the end is coming.
However, it sounds like we will know. This will be the big one. This will be the time we beat our chests and curse ourselves for not having been better stewards of our faith.
Maybe what we should do is think about these things.
Each time it rains, or when the fires rage and the clouds darken, when war comes for us, we should think of this as the possible end of all time and ask ourselves what we believe.
Are we being as true as we can?
If not, there may still be time to change.
More to come...