Good morning…
“Hey Sue,” she emailed at 8:23 pm last night. “I am being so blessed by reading your blogs. My daughter and I were talking this afternoon about the devastating destruction of Notre Dame. She asked me is this another sign of the ‘end of times’ read about in revelation? I would love to hear what you have to say about this relating it to Scripture. Hope all is well.”
I sat silent with her question, waiting before responding. Her email was on my mind as I prayerfully drifted to sleep around 10:15 pm, with news images filling my head of the majestic cathedral engulfed in flames, sacred spire toppling over, Christian believers and non-believers mourning the fragility of this universal symbol of refuge and solace.
God woke me at 1:32 am, so I climbed out of bed and onto our couch to cozy up with my blank journal, black pen, and sleepy dogs. “God, how would You answer this question, accessing the power of Your Holy Word?” I sat still to listen, wanting God’s peaceful perspective to shine through our darkness.
The Son of Man will soon come in the glory of his Father and with his angels to reward all people for what they have done. I promise you that some of those standing here will not die before they see the Son of Man coming with his kingdom (Matthew 16:27-28, CEV).
“So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return” (Mathew 25:13, NLT).
“But the exact day and hour? No one knows that, not even heaven’s angels, not even the Son. Only the Father. So keep a sharp lookout, for you don’t know the timetable. It’s like a man who takes a trip, leaving home and putting his servants in charge, each assigned a task, and commanding the gatekeeper to stand watch. So, stay at your post, watching. You have no idea when the homeowner is returning, whether evening, midnight, cockcrow, or morning. You don’t want him showing up unannounced, with you asleep on the job. I say it to you, and I’m saying it to all: Stay at your post. Keep watch” (Mark 13:32-37, MSG).
So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:6-8, NLT).
So remember and take to heart the lessons you have received and heard. Keep and obey them, and repent [change your sinful way of thinking, and demonstrate your repentance with new behavior that proves a conscious decision to turn away from sin]. So then, if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you (Revelation 3:3, AMP).
Then I climbed back between the bedsheets at 2:56 am, aware somehow that God’s lesson was not complete. When I woke at 7:40 am, one more Scripture poured out, like the final spray of the hose shedding life-saving waters on the embers at Notre Dame. God’s lesson returned to the place the LORD had begun teaching, stepping back just one essential verse, shifting our focus from “out there” to “in here.”
What will you gain, if you own the whole world but destroy yourself? What would you give to get back your soul? The Son of Man will soon come in the glory of his Father and with his angels to reward all people for what they have done. I promise you that some of those standing here will not die before they see the Son of Man coming with his kingdom (Matthew 16:26-28, CEV).
We can focus on the flames ravaging a man-made structure or we can focus on the flame of the Holy Spirit within. Our soul, our True Self, the unique seed of God implanted in us is designed to grow up into fullness over our lifetime. Cultivating this God-given seed-of-Self is our lifelong task. Jesus, the Son of Man, will eventually come back to check on the small seed of God tucked in our unique soul. Has it grown? Has it flourished? Implanted inside us before the day of our birth, has the tiny seed of God blossomed into a gigantic tree, with such big branches others can nest in its shade (Mark 4:30-32)? As intended since the beginning of time, has our True Self produced seed for the sower and bread for the eater (Isaiah 55:9-11)?
I sense God shifted our focus this morning as the light of day wakes to shine on what is left of the sacred structure of Notre Dame. We do not know when Jesus will return to check on the seed of God tucked into our soul at birth. We are not supposed to know. The how, the when, and the why, that is the Father’s business. God knows what God is doing. Working from within the heart of us, caregiving people, God is in the process resurrecting new life from death. Do we trust this truth wholeheartedly, even in the stench of burned out ashes?
Our single focus is on God, witnessing the incremental growth of the True Self our Creator tucked within our soul before we were born. We are asked to attend to it, to shepherd it, to watch it gradually grow, as we are called to do our part in God’s life-saving venture. God lives in each person given breath, not in a building, as Acts 17:24-25 (NIV) reminds: The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
Listen with me to God’s whisper: “Keep watch. Stay at your post, watching Me restore, redeem, recreate. Do not fall asleep on your job of being My witness. Patiently watch Me grow up from within you one unique piece of My healing puzzle.”
I sense the LORD leading us forward: “Access the Holy Spirit power I am breathing into you right now, and be a key witness as I expand from inside-out the gifts I intentionally placed within you. Tell people nearby, a bit further away, to the ends of the earth about the life-saving progress I am making on earth, producing through My people shade and shelter, seeds to sow and bread to share with every person around the globe, for all generations.”
And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true [they are accurate, incorruptible, and trustworthy]” (Revelation 21:5, AMP).
Join me in keeping our focus on our living LORD this day, this Holy Week, this Easter morning. The God of our universe has a mysterious way of resurrecting new life out of the death of what was, again and again, more and more. We are witnesses to God’s expansion, in and through us, reaching beyond to the ends of the earth. We are not predictors. We are not forecasters. We are just everyday witnesses to our Creator lifting up new, abundant life from the ashes of death.
Might this be God’s final, evolving answer?
…Sue…
