The Moment After …

Imagine yourself sitting at a restaurant with some friends one Sunday afternoon when suddenly two of your friends disappear.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, others in the same restaurant seem to have disappeared at the same moment.  You suddenly hear all kinds of commotion outside and see multiple vehicles colliding with each other as an out of control pilotless air plane is coming towards the very restaurant you are in.

Just as many cell phones start to sound indicating people trying to call, they all suddenly go dead.  You reach for your own cell phone as you try to find some safety in the place only to find no dial tone of any kind.  People are screaming out to those who’ve disappeared, others are panicking as they yell out that they’ve “been left behind”, and still others are either fainting or dying from heart attacks.  What is going on???

After a short period of time you slowly leave the place you’ve been hiding at to see what is happening.  As you do you see the carnage in the place from the plane crashing into the restaurant and tables overturned from people looking for those who disappeared.  You make your way out of the building toward your car that has been sandwiched in by multiple cars that have crashed into yours and others you were parked by.  It is evident that you’re not going to get anywhere fast with all the destruction and the dead and injured lying all around.  You still keep trying to use your cell phone to call out to someone, anyone, but to no avail.  Your cell phone is not detecting any signal and the battery is draining fast as it continually searches for one.

You squeeze yourself into your car and start it up hoping to hear something on the radio, something that would shed some light as to what is going on.  You quickly notice that the radio station you normally listen to is dead, and begin to scan for other stations.  The stations you find are filled with panic and adrenaline as people are trying to report on what is happening in the midst of their own turmoil.

You break down and just sob.  Your world has suddenly turned upside down, and not only yours but everyone else’s as well.  Your mind is racing, worried about your loved ones, both friends and family.  What’s happened to them?  Have they disappeared as well?  Are they okay or have they suffered injury or death as a result of what’s just happened?  What has just happened?  Is this just a local event, and if not how far does this extend to, the country, the continent, or the world?  Some are yelling that it must have been some alien abduction, some are saying it must have been some secret weapon that terrorists or some other foreign enemy have used against us, and there are some that just can’t stop sobbing as they repeat over and over again, “I’ve been left behind.”

After what seems to be forever, you decide you need to get home no matter what.  You put your car into gear and try to push yourself through the other cars that have you pinned in, only to remember that the parking break is still engaged.  You release the parking break and begin to give your car more gas to push through the cars.  After leaving some rubber on the ground with smoke billowing out from your tires, you finally break through and begin to navigate through the carnage making your way home.  As you do, you find it hard to see your way and you’re not sure if it is because of the tears in your eyes or the rain that is pouring down.  If you could just get home and hopefully find family there.

After a couple hours getting home, a trip that would normally have taken you 20 minutes, you find that your neighbor’s F-350 4X4 has found its way into your bedroom and the roof is sagging.  You enter the house drenched from the rain, and a place that would normally be a sanctuary of peace and security is now a place of anxiety and vulnerability.  The power is out and you just fall onto the couch sobbing.

You’re afraid, you’re confused, and you’re unsettled.  How could this have happened to you?  Normally brave and sure of yourself, you don’t know what to make of any of this especially since this doesn’t make any sense.  As you lay there sobbing a memory comes to mind, a memory of when you were just 10 years old.  You remember going to church with your grandparents and the many discussions you had with them, discussions regarding Jesus, giving your life to Him, and the rapture and tribulation period soon to come.  You also remember how that one Sunday morning your grandpa walked you down the aisle to receive Jesus because you wanted to, and the feelings of love and acceptance you felt after having done so.  Immediately your memory went to when you were 16, two years after your parents divorced, six months after your dog unexpectantly died, and a month after your mom died in a car accident.  You remember yelling at God one night demanding that He tell you why all this was happening.  How could God be so cruel?  Where was this love He was supposed to have?  You ask yourself why you should keep living for Him and can’t come up with one good reason for it.  You remember thinking, “if this is what serving God is all about, then you don’t want anything to do with Him.”  On that day, at that moment, you decided that you were not going to have anything more to do with God, or Jesus, or whatever name He went by.  “Is this why I got left behind”, you ask yourself.

So, what are you going to do?  You remember your grandparents telling you that there will be people that will get saved after the rapture and they would have to give their lives for Jesus, but what do you do?  For starters, you can get angry at God and spit in His face and curse Him with everything within you.  Or, you can repent for the life you chose without Him, asking for His forgiveness and recommitting your life to Him for the duration, even if it means your life.  This first decision will determine what you do from that time on as things are just going to get worse with each passing day.

After deciding to either get angry or despise God all the more, or to repent and surrender your life to Jesus once and for all, what are you going to do?  From what you can gather, you no longer have any family in the area.  Do you stay where you’re at and see what you can do, or should you try to make the treacherous journey several states away to family you’re not even sure are still there?  What are you going to do????

You know, you don’t even have to be in this position.  You can, even now, surrender your life totally and completely over to Jesus so you can be among those who disappear to a better place and a better life.  Time is short for the return of Jesus.  You can see it in the nightly news and even in the news reports from other news agencies around the world.  The stage is being set with the final pieces coming into place for the start of the tribulation period, and as many believe the Bible teaches the rapture of the Church will take place before the tribulation period starts, that means the rapture will happen any time.  Are you ready?  There is no time to spare.  Make sure you are ready for when He returns and you won’t find yourself in the position laid out earlier in this blog.  You don’t want to be left behind!!!