The End of all things is near. Part 1

By Rebecca Vickery

The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.  If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.  1Peter 4:7-11

However your eschatology looks, the end of all things is nearer today than it was when Peter warned of it being near.  He did, of course, remind us that God was not slow to bring about his promises (as some understand slow to be) but instead that God was patient, not wanting that anyone who was supposed to come to faith to perish.  At any rate, we have some good instructions for the times.  

We are to be sober minded so that we can pray.  This might mean we have to spend less time taking stuff into our minds that will make it harder to pray.  For some that might mean spending less time surfing through reels on Facebook or Instagram, Tik Tok or other social media.  It might mean less time taking in Fox News, or CNN, or other media machines.  It might mean you don’t keep drinking or having substances that might make sober thought literally impossible.  Whatever it is, we are to be alert to pray.  How is your prayer life?  What would our world be like if believers everywhere took time to pray for our neighbors, our families, our friends, our communities, and our nation?  What would that look like for the kingdom of God?  Revivals and entire movements have started with believers on their knees.

Love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  What a beautiful thought.  I don’t know how that works in the fabric of our reality, but if I my love can cover over a multitude of sins, I want to love well.  Again, what would the world around us look like if we loved so well that they could know we were Christians just by seeing it.  I believe that our capacity to love is one of the biggest ways that God’s love is made visible in this world.  And yet sometimes in American Christianity, we justify stingy love.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength, AND Love your neighbor as yourself.  Believers, we have been given a love that can never run out, so that we can share it with the world.  
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  And from Hebrews13:2 Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.  Won’t it be neat to get to heaven to find out that some of the times we have welcomed guests into our home, we were entertaining angels unaware?  Sometimes in our hurried schedules, we forget to think about showing hospitality, but we ought to be interruptible.  We ought to be those who hear a knock on the door and don’t hide in the basement, but instead open the door and say, won’t you come in?  I think in this way we could transform our neighborhoods.  And if we show hospitality, we will have more opportunities to know our neighbors well enough to pray effectively for them.

And while I am encouraging you to show hospitality, let me add a personal note.  September marks our 6 year anniversary of having started attending Daybreak.  I have been to many churches before this one, and I have greatly appreciated being welcomed into such a wonderful Church that offers hospitality frequently to others, and without grumbling.  To those of you who serve in the kitchen, and in the areas of hospitality, I say, thank you.  You are seen, and appreciated.  

Dearest friends, no matter if the time left is years, decades or any other number that God sees fit, we would do well to follow the encouragements in 1 Peter 4 and the verses I have started.  For more understanding of the rest of these verses, stay tuned for Part 2 of, The End of all Things is Near.  

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