Maranatha

When I was a young Christian in the Navy, my ship was stationed in Hawaii.  It was the early 70s and there were quite a few Jesus Freaks around.  I even lived in a Christian commune for a while.  Many times we greeted each other saying, "Maranatha Brother." or "Maranatha Sister."  The picture above is a song titled "Maranatha" from the 70s I use to listen to.  Click on it to hear the song.

I don't hear that word at all now but in the 70's it was very popular.  Maranatha is Aramaic for "The Lord is coming" or "Come, O Lord"   It is found in 1 Corinthians 16:22.  I think it strange that in the 70s we really had very few signs of the Lord's second return or the rapture, but we really expected to see the rapture at any moment.

Today people are not talking about how close the rapture might be.  For the most part, churches are not preaching about the second coming of Christ.  The signs are everywhere.  It looks like the Ezekiel 38 war of Gog and Magog is about to erupt any day now.  Russia, Iran, and Turkey, who are in the prophecy, are at this very moment building up armies in Syria and getting more aggressive against Israel.  There have been signs in the heavens, more earthquakes, and weather anomalies then ever before.  These and so many other signs point to this being the last days but Christians are not taking it seriously. 

Did you know that the times of the Gentiles is over?  Luke 21:24 says, "And they (the Jews) shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."  The Jewish state of Israel took all of Jerusalem in 1967.  At that time the age of the Gentiles was done.

Every day there are more prophecies being fulfilled. Why are we Christians not excited?  Why are we not looking up to Heaven in expectation?  Satan knows that his time on earth is short.  He can tell because he can discern that God is fulfilling prophecies.  Since Satan's times are short, he is creating chaos, fear and death everywhere he can.  There is so much evil working in the world because Satan knows that Jesus is coming soon.

WAKE UP!  "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."  Romans 13:11

Maranatha!  Come quickly Lord Jesus.