It’s NOW the time to help others with THEIR oxygen masks. You have been wearing yours, right? You have been taking care of yourself, right? You have been staying awake, right? How about looking less and less at worldly things and more and more at the Lord? Remember the adage, “Put on YOUR oxygen mask first!” WHY? So that you will be OK – especially while helping others to get THEIR masks on and all get thru the tough times. Yes, if WE ARE ABLE to think clearly, we can be ready to help. We must stay awake and of sober judgement. Jesus always told His disciples (and us) to be awake and ready.

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

Speaking of JUDGEMENT, so what will happen after we, believers in Jesus, are “caught up together” – aka raptured? Jesus said “I am coming like a thief.” – and so who will help the others with their oxygen masks then? Hmmmm…

I have been thinking that in addition to us witnessing for those in the here and now, we must do whatever we can for the ones we may or may not know who are going to be in this “great awakening” after the rapture. They will have no one here to guide them except for those who realize “real quick” and are then forced to become martyrs for Jesus. So, like life insurance that helps our immediate families when we are gone, how will we leave oxygen masks and reminders of the blessings from the Lord that help our descendants and people we don’t even know when we are gone.

God will love them, but who will teach them? Hmmmm…

In Moses’s time, God’s commandment states His desire to be worshiped and not have the people practice idolatry. Moses warned the people to not mess with God – don’t try to climb or even touch the mountain where God came down in a cloud of smoke – and God Himself told the Isrealites (thru Moses) of His jealousy and His ability to bless (or punish) His people. “… for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Exodus 20:4-6

Jesus is the lifeblood to our lives and our eternal lives. Do we help others here and now – AND do we have the ability to help those after the rapture? I hope so. If a great awakening is coming, how will they hear Jesus’s words for themselves? Can we help keep the generations going in LOVE? If it comes to a point of us being gone – what are we leaving behind as witness and encouragement? Perhaps it is best that we simply do our best today – we KNOW the Lord will LOVE the generations to come – especially if we LOVE HIM.

Jesus is coming like a thief in the night, He will steal believers and we won’t want to miss the trumpet call from our Lord. So let us also leave some life insurance – let us be devoted to God and keep His commandments so that His Love will sustain a thousand generations. And let us remind ourselves that we are not to keep God all to ourselves.

Amen

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Exodus 19 and 20 at this link: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+19-20&version=NIV

Revelation 16:15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) Matthew 24:43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 1 Thessalonians 5:4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Matthew 24:3-44 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time. “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. “Immediately after the distress of those days “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.  Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. The Day and Hour Unknown “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2024&version=NIV