I must confess.  I have never read any of the "Left Behind" series of novels or seen any of the films based upon the books.  Reason?  I grew up watching that movie.

Regularly in church we heard teaching, complete with end-time charts and really compelling stories about "the last days."  We knew which modern day nations were Gog and Magog (look in Ezekiel 38 and 39).  We heard that the limestone for the third temple in Jerusalem was already being quarried in Indiana and being shipped to the Holy Land.  We were warned against sinful forms of entertainment.  Because what if we were out dancing when Jesus came back?  Etc, etc, etc.

This Sunday (May 6) I will be introducing a two-part sermon that Mike will build upon the following week.  It is audaciously entitled, "The Real End, Parts I and II."

Neither one of us have the definitive understanding of the real end-time scenario.  The title is part hype and part tongue-in-cheek spoofing of ourselves.  But we are both very serious about the content of what we will be sharing these two upcoming Sundays.  At the core of what we will be sharing has to do with what the Lord says in the Bible about the future of this real world (earth, that is) in the end-times and beyond.  Here is a hint of where we are going (following the Bible's revelation to us)--we don't believe we are escaping this world, or that God is getting ready to just blow the whole thing up and ship us all out to heaven.

So what if Jesus returns between Part I and Part II?  Well then I guess I missed it.

Pastor Rick