Unlike any other of The Lord’s creations, I believe humans are tremendously blessed with an unlimited ability to imagine — in 3-dimensional pictures and videos! Sadly, it is a travesty that the overwhelming majority of us abuse this incredible gift, by imagining creative ways to sin against the very Person who blessed us with it.
As if to point our imaginations in an acceptable direction, He uniquely captured and preserved a long series of historical events in His Book, The Bible. Collectively, those events paint a clear, panoramic perspective of what He deems as highly acceptable and utterly detestable human behavior. Moreover, He uses those historical events and panoramic perspectives as a vast springboard from which to project His uniquely knowable view of future events — events He personally guarantees WILL transpire over the remaining ages of human history! Imagine that~
So effectively, The Bible is Heaven’s Imagination Book. And guess what? It is designed to trigger deeply personalized, flexible imaginations! I can never perceive what you imagine, nor can you perceive what I imagine when we read the same passage. Depending upon the nature and quality of our personal relationship with The Lord, His Spirit speaks to us — through conscience and through our personalized, flexible imaginations. Imagine that~
Reflecting on this, it dawned on me that we may tend to use our Bible-inspired imaginations to ‘major on the minors’, possibly missing the MOST SIGNIFICANT matters upon which The Lord might desire us to focus. The clearest example may be the primary commission of the 3rd-age church — Gospel evangelization. Have you noticed that the majority of Apostle Paul’s writings do not center on that point? Rather, they focus on running the Christian race in a manner worthy of The Lord’s high calling. 1
Ponder this: The Bible paints clear pictures of substantial degradation of righteousness on Earth during the closing years of each historical, and predicted future age. Genesis 6 summarizes that point as the 1st age was about to end. The Old Testament provides similar insights as the 2nd age closed. Numerous prophecies describe how this current age — and the 4th and 6th ages — will conclude. 2
Yet The Bible is uniquely silent about how The Millennial Reign age—the 5th age of human history, will end, apart from stating that satan (i.e., his full kingdom of devils and demons) MUST be released from the bottomless abyss into which they will have been cast at the close of the 4th age, or start of the 5th. By that, The Lord may have silently invited us to imagine how that age might end, based on human nature and history, and the iterative patterns He has revealed and predicted for the other 5 ages of human history on this current version of Earth. 3
Given this context, and overwhelming evidence that we may be transiting the closing part of this current age, when the fruits of evangelization may have significantly dwindled, what might possibly be the best focus for us NoW?
I perceive it is preserving the Lord’s pending harvest from spoilage! During the Covid pandemic, news reports spiked across the West about Christian defections—lukewarmness, backsliding, apostasy, and the rise of so-called ‘nones’—former Christians now professing no faith. My intent is not to dive into that morass. Rather, it is to suggest that ‘majoring on the minors’ might need to give way to what I call, ‘majoring on the miners’!
Curiosity piqued??
Stay tuned for Part 2
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1 See: 1 Corinthians 9:24 and Philippians 3:14
2 See what I imagine: Age-ending Stock-taking (Series) and Mid-ages Musings (Series).
3 See: Earth’s Next Versions (Series).
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