We Are Accountable To Know The Time Of Our Visitation

Jesus wept over Jerusalem as he descended the Mount of Olives: “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, BECAUSE YOU DID NOT KNOW THE TIME OF YOUR VISITATION.” Luke 19:42-44 The armies of Rome attacked Jerusalem and destroyed it completely, leaving not one stone upon another. All was destroyed, and they dispersed the Jewish people throughout the world. "Because you did not know the time of your visitation..." Once again we are standing in a Biblical time, a time that has more written about it than was written about the first coming of Christ. Once again we are seeing Bible prophecy being fulfilled right before our eyes. Do you know "the time of your visitation?" Israel was held accountable to know the time of the coming of the Messiah, which they COULD have known had they been reading the Word of God daily, because MANY prophecies were fulfilled before their eyes in the things Jesus did. And likewise today - Jesus told us the signs of his second coming and WE ARE HELD RESPONSIBLE TO KNOW THEM AND RECOGNIZE THEM. "For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, 'Peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief." 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4 Those who are not in darkness are those who know the WORD OF GOD. It is the light of God's Word that keeps us in the light. So what ARE the signs Jesus spoke of? When asked that question, his first answer was this: "And Jesus answered and said to them: 'Take heed that no one DECEIVES you.'" Matthew 24:4 The first characteristic of the last days will be DECEPTION. And oh - how deception is everywhere! He went on to say there will be wars, rumors of war, earthquakes, famine and pestilence. Scoffers say, "oh those have always happened, that's nothing new." "...knowing this first, that SCOFFERS will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 2 Peter 3:3-4 No, they HAVEN'T always happened. Every generation has had its earthquake, or its war, or its famine, or its pestilence (disease) but the Lord said that what will characterize the final generation would be that all these things would happen IN THE SAME GENERATION! No time before us has had all these things happen in any one generation. But in THIS generation, every single one of those things are happening concurrently. Also, the whole subject necessitates one thing that no other generation since the resurrection of Christ has seen, and that is that Israel must be back in her land. After 2,000 years of dispersion throughout the word, Israel became a nation again on May 14, 1948. The restoration of dispersed Israel is the prophesied miracle taking place right before our eyes. This IS that generation. Just as the Jews at the time of Christ's first coming were held accountable to recognize him because of the many prophecies he fulfilled, so WE will be held accountable to recognize the time of his second coming. For the Jews, their refusal to recognize and receive him, their rejection of him, resulted in the total destruction of Jerusalem and their dispersion throughout the world. For those who refuse to recognize the signs of Jesus's second coming -- they will be plunged into "the Great Tribulation" which Jesus said will be worse than anything the world has ever before experienced or ever would again. “For then there will be great tribulation, SUCH AS HAS NOT BEEN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD UNTIL THIS TIME, no, nor ever shall be." Matthew 24:21 You do not have to be here when that Great Tribulation begins. Before it begins, believers in Jesus will be removed from the earth, just as Noah was preserved above the flood and Lot and his family were taken out of Sodom before the judgment fell. In Noah's day, only 8 people survived. And in Sodom, only 3 people survived. How many will recognize the day we're in now, and be saved? "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall ever be with the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 Jesus said to pray about this: “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy TO ESCAPE all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:36 Pray with me: Father, I'm starting to recognize the prophetic time we're living in and I sure don't want to be here when the Great Tribulation falls upon this earth. Jesus said to pray that I may be accounted worthy to escape all those things that will come to pass, and to stand before him. Father, I confess my sinfulness, I'm only too aware of that. But you gave your beloved Son to be sacrificed, to be the atonement for my sins, and I ask that Jesus become my savior and forgive my sins. I repent from being my own lord. I ask YOU to be my Lord and my Savior. I surrender all to you. Please receive me, Lord.