A Word for the Church: Don't Ruin Your Dinner

The first thing I would do when I'd get home from school every day was drop my bookbag by the table and head to the pantry for a snack. Little Debbie products were preferable, but more often than not, I had to settle for crackers or a piece of bread. I'd sit down at the table and munch away while I flipped open my notebook and began homework.

Sometimes, I'd head back to the pantry for snack #2. Here's the thing about mothers: God gives them a gift of miraculous hearing (likely at the same time as He gives them eyes in the back of their head) that snaps their focus into place as soon as they hear the refrigerator door or the pantry door opening. This miraculous hearing works even on the far side of the house.

Tamara, you'll spoil your dinner!

Pleeeeease?

No, you've had one snack already.

See, for whatever reason, in the United States, at least, there's a general consensus that the typical human should have three solid meals a day or several snacks throughout the day, but not both/and (at least, most health consultants will tell you this). In other words, I shouldn't be chowing down breakfast, snack, snack, snack, lunch, snack, snack, snack, large dinner, snack, snack, snack... bed. This seems like a recipe for a.) heartburn, and b.) massive weight gain.

On the opposite end, what happens when you don't get your food and you end up majorly delaying your eating time, or skipping it altogether? You get hangry (which is apparently an actual word now, defined by Merriam-Webster as "irritable or angry because of hunger").

So, it appears that there is a proper time for the body to receive food. The schedule will vary for each person according to their metabolic needs, but the fact remains: There is a schedule that the body responds to.

What does this have to do with Scripture? Great question. I actually skipped out of Exodus today, because I had started in Matthew and never got out of it. Matthew 24 begins a prophetic discourse from Jesus where He begins to talk about things that are going to happen, long before they ever happen. Some of what He prophesied has been fulfilled (the sacking of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon's Temple by the Romans).

Other parts of what He said have yet to take place in the last days when He comes again.

Here's something interesting that totally twisted my brain this morning, sparked by Matthew 24:38-41: "For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left."

In the mid-'90's, one of the popular songs we sang in our school's chapel services was a song called I Wish We'd All Been Ready, written and released by Larry Norman in 1970, which depicted a grim take on the rapture by focusing on those who had been left behind. The lyrics are clearly based on this passage in Matthew 24: Two men walking up a hill; one disappears and one's left standing still. I wish we'd all been ready, etc. The ringing theme throughout the song is: Too late. 

Now, I do believe, according to Scripture, that there will be a day when it will be too late (Matthew 25:10, for instance: "The virgins who were ready went in with Him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.")

But the clear picture in my head from Larry Norman's song was the one who is taken is the one caught up to be with Christ, and the one who is left is the one for whom it is too late. 

This was the brain twist this morning: "For the in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away." 

In this scenario, who gets taken away? The people outside of the ark. The people not saved from the waters. The people who chose to ridicule Noah instead of join him.

"That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other one left."

So... what if it's not as I previously thought that the ones who are left are the ones who are left behind... but instead... the ones who are left are the ones who stand there on that field or by that hand mill embracing the Lord Jesus as He returns to earth, bringing His kingdom with Him, in all His glory? Brain twist. I have never thought of it like that before. 

What if when Jesus says: "This, then, is how you should pray: "...Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," He meant that He is bringing His kingdom here? Now? Today? Yesterday? Always?

What if when Jesus says: "Give us today our daily bread," He didn't mean one day at the wedding feast of the Lamb when the old heaven and the old earth have passed away, but He meant right now. 

What if He meant us to live as though heaven were here right now? And that when He returns, He makes us new? What if "He Who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!'" (Revelation 21:5)?

Okay, but 1 Thessalonians 4:17 says: "After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with [the ones who have already died in Christ] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."

What if that meeting place in the clouds was like the return of the prodigal son to his Father (Luke 15:11-32)? "While he was still a long way off, his Father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to His son, threw His arms around him and kissed him," and then... He took his son back to the house where they killed the fatted calf and had a big celebration (Luke 15:20). What if... in the excitement, joy, and exuberance of this final, flawless, triumphant, joyous reunion, the Lord can't wait to put His arms around His people, to meet with us in fellowship, and He catches us up into the clouds as He brings His kingdom with Him?

I don't know, y'all, if this is sound doctrine. I think a lot of what we think and believe based on our interpretation of Scripture will turn out to be a little different from what we imagine on that final day. 

In the message at our outdoor service last week, our pastor said something that's stuck with me: "I don't know that God is going to vacuum us all up like some heavenly vacuum cleaner." There seems to be enough evidence in Scripture that He is coming to set up His heavenly kingdom in a new earth...

So, I'll leave you with that, to consider, to read about in Scripture, and to pray for the Holy Spirit's guidance in your interpretation.

Oh, that's right. I was going somewhere with my snack analogy and got all distracted by the brain twist. Here we go, back to Matthew 24:45: "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the Master has put in charge of the servants in His household to give them their food at the proper time?"

Too much snacking interrupts healthy appetite. A wise servant of the Master will manage the Master's household by giving the staff their food at the proper time.

This denotes wisdom on the part of the servant. Discernment. Knowing when to speak... and when to keep silent. Why? 

Because if the household is given too many snacks -- which may be okay foods and even mostly harmless -- then they'll miss out on their appetite for the core foods: the protein, the vitamin-rich vegetables. 

If the church is given too many "light" sermons, their appetite for the protein gets lost, protein like: Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Him.

It's not a popular message. Because people like their other ways. In all honesty, we sometimes push aside the uncomfortable idea that there is one Truth. And His name is Jesus. We sometimes ignore the fact that there will be consequences for those who choose to reject the message of the cross, because it's uncomfortable to remember that those who choose another path besides Jesus are separated from Him forever.

There's no heaven A for those who believe one way and heaven B for those who believe another. There is one Truth, one new heaven and one new earth, and there is a one-time separation between those on the right and those on the left, and I don't mean politically. 

We have got to get rid of this dulled-senses idea of this life is all there is.

It's not. Live your life today like the one that comes after is the one that counts the most.