To create a new family

7:56 p.m. Today's project was to prepare for, set up, gather and finally enjoy Heidi and Pavel's engagement party at Smokey Canyon Bbq.

I realized there was no way I'd have the concentration to work on edits for Galatians, so I went straight to my daily devotions with a sense of purpose pervaded by peace. The scripture portion for today was Luke 17, and my focus became Jesus' description of His Second Coming in verses 22-37.

Verses 26-31 in the New Living Testament read thus:

When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah's day. In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all.

And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business--eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building--until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. Yes, it will be "business as usual" right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

For some reason, maybe the different translation, I was just fascinated by this passage! Today was just like any other day here in Riverside, other than the two trips I made to CVS to get pictures developed and buy picture frames, plus one trip to Ralphs for Woolite rug foam and frantic housecleaning for the Kruckenberg-Ilie pre-dinner get-together at 4:30. But everybody else was just contentedly going about their business. Knowing the date is 9/11, and many friends on Facebook were posting our whereabouts ten years ago today made the identically beautiful blue sky a bit more eerie, I suppose.

But overall, today could be the day the Son of Man takes His church out of the world and begins the seven years' tribulation and the earth's inexorable march to judgment. Jesus is coming back!

Of course, like many people, our family is involved with buying (daily necessities); selling (Mary Kay); and in pre-wedding festivities, just like the people in the former days of Noah and Lot. The difference is that for our two families and the entire group at the dinner, there is no fear or dread of judgment. That is because we have each made a commitment to Jesus Christ, and live for Him daily. We look expectantly to His coming to take us to heaven whether by death or by Rapture. And because "it is not God's will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9), we witness to anyone God leads us to share with. We don't want anyone to choose eternal death--we want them to choose eternal life!

The Kruckenbergs and the Ilies say, with Joshua (24:15) "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."