Another Beautiful Day in Paradise

I have a friend that each time I call and ask how he is doing facetiously replies, “Just another beautiful day in paradise.” One’s status is always relevant. We may be sick, but we could be dying. We may need money, but we could be in total poverty. We might be discouraged, but we could be depressed. It might be raining, but we could be in a violent storm. We may be in a nation that has jumped its moral rails, but we could be in Iraq. We may be in the last days with great deception, apostasy, and wickedness in the secular realm, but we could be a clueless or apathetic, nominal Christian.

Therefore, as burdensome as prophetic knowledge can be in this period, I’m grateful that I know what’s going on. I fell pity for the ones who have purposely blocked out reality of the era by focusing on frivolity. One such friend remarked, “I relieves the stress and helps me not to worry.” Certainly there is a benefit to taking a short break from the weight of constant burdens. However, most professing Christians take a short break from their frivolous activities to think about God. That’s perhaps the only time they consider the last days. Are they strong enough to endure?

Leonard Ravenhill once said, “Many of us are hunting mice – while lions devour the land.” That’s because many professing Christians have trained for and become mice hunters. Mice hang out in the frivolous stuff. But where the lions roar, there the real battle exists. Reality is that the lions roar in Paradise. However, they are not in Paradise found, but Paradise lost. This life is about a war between real and surreal. It is about a multi-millennial story about a great war between God and Satan. The focus of the contest is the souls of humanity.

That war is rapidly coming to a close. However, as it is with all wars, a climax will occur. After Satan blasts this world with all power, signs, lying wonders, and all deceivableness of unrighteousness, there will be a war to end all wars. At the pinnacle of his power over the earth, he will be totally defeated by the King of kings and Lord of lords, Christ Jesus. Coming in flaming fire with all power in heaven and earth, my Lord Jesus Christ will wreak vengeance on and put an end to all evil and the wickedness of humanity.

So we must focus on what is important. It is important to recognize the signs of the period, to be prepared to endure, to be strengthened to overcome, and to be victorious over every work of darkness. We cannot accomplish those goals without prayer and enduring the faith-building trials. Further, we need to feel the stress of the time we are living in and by increments adapt to it. We must not make the mistake of avoiding it until explosive reality brings it on us all at once. That would be a crushing burden that offers no hope for survival.

So while we enjoy another day in Paradise Lost, hopefully we will be aware that Christ will restore Paradise to more glory that it originally had. To enter that Paradise and become its eternal citizen should be our fervent pursuit. He said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.” Heaven is as real as the Garden of Eden. If you believe Genesis, you must believe Revelation. The latter closes with a beautiful and eternal day in Paradise.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”– Revelation 2:7