What Are You Hoping For?

Those who are trying to adjust themselves to the morality of the world are riding on a roller coaster. People are afraid of offending just about everyone but the Christians. New words are used to describe sinfulness. New justifications are made for it. It is approved, adopted and made a part of the mainstream. You must be an intolerant person if you don't join in. In fact, you must be a hater of all that is really good as approved by the politically correct police.

So, I ask the question: What is the world really hoping for?

The world is hoping for all heaven and no hell.

Many of the people in the world don't want to believe there are any consequences for anything that is done unless you are a murderer. (Somehow I think murderers will make an appeal to being made that way and get away with it someday.) One tv show actor said that death was like you were before you were born. He exclaimed, "And that wasn't so bad, was it?" He is saying that the non-existence we supposedly had before birth is the same for us when we die. That is refusing to believe in anything after this life. Of course, that ignores any judgement but doesn't explain any problems with our own consciences when we do evil.

The culture we live in wants to believe that there is a heaven and that everyone will go there. "Everyone is good," they say. They say it over and over. I wonder if they read the news. There are some genuinely bad people in the world. How do they miss that? Are these "bad" people going to their heaven too?

Of course, having a standard for heaven or hell means there must be a judge who determines what that standard is and enforces it. Maybe the world should think about that

The world is hoping that there is never again another Christian revival.

We all know what that means. It means that a majority of people would repent and stop doing things which the Bible has declared as evil. The world has convinced the Christians that we are only making mistakes when we sin. No sin is called sin anymore. We say that we made a mistake when we stole the money from the bank. We made a mistake when we lied, committed adultery, murdered or said something hurtful to another person. I guess we made a mistake when we failed to love and forgive others too. Sin has been removed from the Christian language because the world does not want to be reminded that walking with God requires holiness.

A revival among Christians would startle the rest of the world. It would show them that Christ changes people and is relevant in the world today. It would bring light into our society and reveal these "mistakes" as sins against God. It would force people to change their definitions of what is real.

The world is hoping that Jesus never returns.

What would happen if Jesus returned today? Believers would eject from the world. Others might wonder what happened to them Many people might already know. They would be left behind without the ability to leave immediately. 

It isn't only the world who hopes Jesus never returns. Many believers have fallen so in love with this world that they don't want Jesus coming back anytime soon. They still have money in the bank, things to buy and places to go. They have things they want to do more than they want to see Jesus face to face.

But Jesus return would certainly be a show stopper. The world would have to question if it needed a course correction. It would have to question what it was calling moral and immoral. It would have to question judgement and eternity. The world is making no plans for any of these. They are hoping that the stories of Jesus are fictitious. 

Hebrews 9:27-28 (ESV)
²⁷  And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, ²⁸  so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

By the way, I am praying for revival and hoping for Jesus to return today. What are you hoping for?