Wake Up And Smell The Coffee – By Grant Phillips – http://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips211.html

My parents loved their coffee when they were alive. I’ll never forget waking up in the mornings to the smell of coffee brewing on the stove. As the coffee smell wafted through the entire house, it was like an alarm clock that pleasantly tickled the nose and woke us up for another day. I didn’t drink coffee at the time, of course, but I so enjoyed that aroma. Coffee just hasn’t smelled that good since, probably because back then it was percolated. My wife and have a Keurig coffee maker, and I’ll have to admit; it’s fast, convenient, and no clean-up. The coffee tastes great, but lacks the pleasant coffee smell of yesteryear.

Many today are still fast asleep and not waking up to the gentle nudges God is providing us to wake up. Did I say “gentle nudges?” I think “shaking” would have been a better term.

God is shaking us every way possible to wake us up from our slumber. He wants us to know that time is running out, and His return is imminent. Yet, many are just hitting the snooze button and ignoring the wakeup call.

I have never used the snooze button on the alarm, but many people do. I wonder how often they are late in arriving at their destination because of it. Those who ignore the alarms now may miss the event entirely. What a pity.

God is using many resources to wake us up to the urgent message of His return. Whether you look at governments and governmental leaders, people, lifestyles, religions, the Church, crimes, nature, Israel (especially), weather, economies, etc., He wants us to know of His soon return.

People have asked me how long I think it will be for Christ to return. What does “soon” mean? I have stated many times that only God can answer those questions. I will dare adventure a definition for “soon” by saying that it is imminent. That is the best I or anyone else can do. He can come at any time.

Let us not be so concerned about the “when,” but be more concerned about being prepared.

Many people today are prepared. They are called Christians. Yet, even many of them are going to be surprised when they are transferred to Heaven in the twinkling of an eye.

Many others think they are prepared, but are not. They think that just because they go to church, they are a Christian. Look, you could thread me on a fish hook, but that doesn’t make me a worm.

And then there are the masses who just don’t give a hoot about God or anything related to Him. I can assure you, they are not ready.

For more than forty years now, great Bible prophecy teachers have been warning a dying world that Jesus will soon return. Some have died and gone on to Heaven while others are still here trying to get people to listen. More and more, people are turning a deaf hear, even many who say they are Christians.

It is tragic that Satan has used some real dunderheads to attempt predictions as to when Jesus will return. This has turned many off to the Truth, and now they just laugh off the message that “Jesus is coming soon.” Others consider the message to be the same as the “little boy that cried wolf.”

“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” (Luke 17:26)

Noah preached to the people of his day for 120 years that the flood was coming, and no one believed him outside his own family. I image they all mocked him and got sick of his messages, just as people today are mocking and hating the message. Obviously they never repented or we wouldn’t be finding aquatic fossils on mountains tops. What did they do?

“They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17:27)

Someone may ask, “Does that mean Jesus won’t come for another 80 years or so?” since He gave Noah’s generation 120 years to repent?” I don’t know.

Consider this though. He gave Sodom and Gomorrah no warning that I am aware of, and destroyed them the day after He informed Abraham of His intentions.

Also, He told of His First Advent to earth as man’s sacrifice about 4,000 years before it occurred.

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

So, when will the Second Advent (His return) take place? Only God knows, literally.

To me, of all the signs the Lord gave us, and there are many, the two most important ones are the reestablishment of Israel as a nation, number one, and the apostasy that will reign in the last days. A voluminous load of signs are available, but these two are so important, they’re top heavy.

Nothing but a colossal miracle from God could have ever set the Jews back in their own land and made them as powerful and successful as they are today. I do not exaggerate. No power could have given them victory over the attacks against them since 1948, except the hand of an omnipotent God, the God of Israel. Only God could have brought any of this about.

Apostasy, as prophesied, rules the day. Apostasy, in my thinking, is an attitude basically of, “I don’t care one way or another.” We are neither cold or nor hot, and this is the Church that is being referred to! Jesus was speaking to the Church at Laodicea. This is the seventh Church period of the ages. It is the last age. We are in the last days of the Church.

I realize that it is easy for people to get lethargic about looking for Christ’s return. We keep hearing it and hearing it, but so far, nothing has changed, but even our lethargy is a sign.

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after 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 the creation.” (2 Peter 3:3-4)

Jesus said, “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” (Matthew 24:42)

The coffee is on the stove. The aroma is working its way throughout every room. It’s time to get up. Don’t hit the snooze button. Wake up and smell the coffee.

Grant Phillips

Email: grantphillips@windstream.net

Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com

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