Matthew 24-25

I will have to admit that end times stuff is not one of my favorite reads in the Bible.  Maybe because in 50 years (especially during the early 1970's) I have heard so many predictions and have seen so many timelines that I tense up as soon as someone even mentions that we might be in the last days.  BUT, Jesus does talk about what it will be like during those last days, and what our response to it should be.  That is where my thoughts are going today.

If I had to summarize the teaching of these two chapters it would be:

1. Watch - make sure you know what is going on around you
2. Be ready - never assume that we have lots of time to make sure we have connected with God through Jesus Christ.  Being ready doesn't mean to simply have a stock pile of food so that we can hide as Christians in persecution.
3. Get busy - It is wrong to sit back and wait for Jesus to come again.  We are to be a people who get our hands dirty using the things God has given to us and caring for the people around us.  I call Thursdays my "Matthew 25 Day" because this is the day that I try to do the parable of the sheep and the goats.  
4. Endure to the end.  Don't allow what is happening around you to make you quit. 

That is what comes to mind for me as I read this morning.  How do you respond to the end times talk in the Bible?