Discerning the times

2 Tim 4: 5 - But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

In one of the final letters, Paul advisers Timothy, his prodigy, to observe certain discipline in the ministry and in his life. The reason why Paul advises Timothy to do so is becasue :

• verse 1 - God's soon coming judgement
• verse 1 - Christ soon appearance (coming)
• verse 3 - Rampant unsound doctrine
• verse 4 - Misguided teachers who teach what the people want to hear.

Does in not sound very much like the times we are living now?  

All the signs around us, warn us that we are the door-step to rapture. Christ soon appearing is nigh and so is His judgement. Billy Graham, the  evangelist that has spoken to more people than anyone else in known history and who turns 95 this month,  recently said, " There’s a great deal to say in the Bible about the signs we’re to watch for and when these signs all converge at one place we can be sure that we’re close to the end of the age,...and those signs, in my judgment, are converging now for the first time since Jesus made those predictions.” If we think that the soon coming of Christ is still in the distant future, we probably are ill-informed, simply ignorant or totally out of touch. We better wake up. Its very much nearer than we think. Look at the sings around us. A leading scholar on Biblical prophesy Paul Mcquire said - “Consider the earthquake warnings, the potential volcanic eruption of Yellowstone, the Japanese tsunamis and the radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster traveling across the ocean and contaminating the food supply here on the West Coast, along with massive tornadoes the size of which we’ve never seen in human history,”  The King is coming!

The kind of sermons and messages we hear today, are mostly on prosperity, grace, motivation and living the abundant life. If you speak about sin, suffering or judgement, you are frowned upon. Such topics belong to the outdated, the uneducated and the unrefined. "We need to speak to the needs", "We need to love them". Rarely do we hear the hard hitting Elijahs, the Jeremiahs, the John the Baptists or the Ravenhills. But there are teachers who know what the crowds need and they speak what they want to hear. That's exactly what Paul was warning Timothy about. "they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." Surely the crowds love such prophets and preachers. We look at sin and instead of condemning it, we camouflage it into a weakness, something that God will overlook. "You don't even have to ask for forgiveness..." Where is Christendom heading for today?

In spite of the negative attractions, Paul encourages Timothy to do the following: 

• Keep your head (don't get discouraged)
• Endure hardship (they will come) 
• Do the work of an evangelist (preach the uncompromising gospel)
• Discharge all the duties of your ministry (be faithful to what has been entrusted to you)

In so doing, we can say like Paul in verse 8 -  "Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."