The End

"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."

Revelation 21:4

I love listening to little children put on plays, read poems and tell stories. They are so cute in how expressive they can be and often times the story they are telling just stops suddenly or has an abrupt ending followed by a smile and the word’s, “The End.” Usually the audience looks around like, “oh, I guess they are done” then applauds.

As both the news of and the Coronavirus itself have spread, so has fear and panic as people all around the world are listening and waiting for someone to say, “The End”, the virus is contained, the pandemic is over. The world is waiting to applaud together. I shared a message last night with our church family I titled, “Never Change What You Do Know For What You Don’t Know.” In a world of uncertainty it’s important to know that the Christian Fatih is a faith based upon facts, unchanging, unwavering facts. The most important being God loves you and is aware of what you are going through, is there for you and promises no matter what, He will never leave you nor forsake you.

We also know for fact that sickness and disease have been on the earth ever since the fall of Adam and Eve back in the Garden of Eden and as time goes on they get worse. But that’s not the end of the story! Your story and mine can end well if our hope and trust is in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord. We can learn a lot from history. We know from the study of history that every plague or epidemic that this world has ever known sprang up quickly, reached their peak over time and then declined and ultimately died out. Thats why we are living in a limited period of quarantine right now in the United States. Our hope by limiting our contact we will stop the spread of the coronavirus and ultimately  “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus so to speak so that it starts it decline.

Every plague, every epidemic in the history of the world looks like a bell curve. The plague begins, it goes up and spikes, it flattens over time out and then it declines. (The shape on paper resembles a bell, thus the name, bell curve.) The good news for us today regarding this most recent virus is, “this too will pass”. Are you aware that the Bible teaches us that sin, which is far more deadly than any virus we might face on this planet (Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”). Still, sin will eventually run its course and come to an end. The only vaccine so to speak is the shed blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s Cross. Every person who receives Jesus and repents of their sin will be saved the Bible teaches us.

We have our Bibles and we know how the story ends. Have read the back of the book? Most people who have read the Bible at all eventually couldn’t take it any longer and we skipped a whole bunch of books of the Bible and looked to see how it all ends in the book of Revelation. The good news is, we win! In the end no matter what happens, if we are in Christ Jesus we can't lose. Even if this coronavirus was to take my life, I'm going straight into the presence of God. I have God’s Word on it and so can you! Remember, death and disease don’t win, they don’t have the final say. The coronavirus is not the end of the story. Jesus has the final say.

One day, all of our pain, and all of our sickness, and all of our sorrow, and all of our sadness, and all of our stress, and all of our grief is going to cease. One day Jesus will say to all the hurts and pains we have ever faced, “The End.” And on that great and glorious day Jesus will also say,

 
“Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."

Revelation 21:5


I LOVE YOU!

Michael Osthimer

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