Endings and Beginnings

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Titus 2:11-14 says, “ For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,   Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” 

     Our  lives are full of endings and beginnings.  One thing ends and then another almost like it begins.  Pir ca;emdars indicate tjat tjos weel will be the last week of the yea, but a new year will begin on Saturday night at midnight.  I began grade school and then went  into middle school and then to high  school and then to college and the list goes on and on..  My life has been filled with a series of large events t hat suddenly find and end such as education.  While you never st op learning new things, t he process of accomplishing  a certain requirement stops at some point.  

     The elaborate sacrificial system  of the Jewish faith ended  on the day that  John the Baptist saw Jesus coming and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God which cometh to take away the sin of the world…”   The final sacrifice would be made for sin and as the above passage reminds us, it appeared to all men.  Life as wse know it will end adn t here will be a new beginning  as we await the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ which will be in one of two ways, either through death, or by the rapture, whichever comes first in our lives.  It will be God’s final call.  In a twinkling of an eye after that final call, God will use in the glorious appearing of his Son, the Second Person of th e Trinity Who will appear and whose feet will touch the Mount of Olives.  An earthquake will then take place causing a split in the earth from the Mediterranean Sea to the DeadSea causing  freshwater will finally have a route to the Dead Sea.  This glorious appearing of our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ, will place the believers in His presence.  It  will be another beginning that will last a thousand years, as referred to as the Millennium.  After it, another pause and another ending and another beginning that will find us in eternity with God.  There will be an absence of some things that will be quite a bit different such as the absence of sin, and the absence of pain and suffering and the absence of tears.  As our year ends and a new one comes about, perhaps we can say, “Perhaps this year in Jerusalem.” or “perhaps today, in Jerusalem.”  Praise God today as His plan rolls steadily toward its completion.