It does feel good to be done with the activities of the day. To repeat several earlier statements, Sunday night is one of my favorite times. This does not mean there was no joy in speaking, leading or visiting today. It only means now the time is here to start looking toward next Sunday. There was time for exercise with the usual three mile run/walk. This will be more interesting now that summer is upon us. It could wait until after the evening agenda but the day feels much better with going in mid afternoon. We had a good meeting of one of our committees tonight. Baptists often catch flak for our structure but we had a terrific exchange of ideas. This is one way we can be at our best when dealing with issues. Soon it will be time for the monthly stimulating of the economy at my house. In other words, it's time to pay bills! It still escapes me how my money goes to various companies that received bailout funds. Oh well, perhaps it is all part of being a good American.

This morning we began a summer series of sermons on eschatology. I still need to devote time this week to fleshing out the various dates and topics. What is eschatology you ask? My simplest definition is it means God is in total control of the issues related to life and death. It is a branch of biblical study that relates to the second coming as well as topics on the afterlife. We will be talking about what happens to the believer at death. We will discuss various Bible texts about heaven and hell. We will look at the future of the believer also. For example, we will look at our earthly and eternal bodies and what that tells us about life now. We kicked it all off today with a look at Matthew 24. My goal was to provide a bit of an overview on how we approach the scripture as a whole. How do we separate the hysterical nonsense of some preachers from the divine reality of the return of our Lord?

We wrote about a week ago concerning the need to be true to what the Bible says. Too many preachers use the Bible to back up their ideas when it comes to eschatology. They may not twist the text but they tend to make up the rules of interpretation as they go along. You may not know that there are guidelines to follow when it comes to interpreting the scripture. This was my area of interest back when I was doing doctoral study. There are "rules" for understanding the many different genres in the Bible. You do not read the poetry of the Psalms the exact same way you would read the historical truth of the gospels. This does not at all mean that one book is better than the other. It does not mean at all that using these principles is an indication someone does not believe in God's word. They are ideas there to protect us from making real mistakes when it comes to understand what God says. Far too many people are guilty of going far astray from the simple truths of the Bible. My aim this morning was to set the stage for how we will approach the rest of the messages.

The message of the second coming should not confuse us nor lead us into false complacency. We have way too many people living with the baggage of a bad theology because they heard a weak sermon in the past. Our Lord tells us that the reality of His coming should be a means of motivation for healthy spiritual living. Our confidence is not to rest on teachings that often change with the publishing of each new book. We do not look to politics nor geography to find clarity on eschatology. As the old hymn says, "Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness." That is a given not just for our salvation but also for our final destination. We may not always understand all the details of the return of Jesus. But we can be sure we know Him now.

Bro. Trey