When I first became a Christian more than fifty years ago, many people were talking about the end of the world. Movies and books were doing very well financially. The end of the world, sometimes called the Apocalypse, was the subject of conversation for many people, especially youth hearing about it for the first time. More than fifty years later, it’s still the subject of many conversations. People everywhere look around and say, "It all lines up this must be the end!" Of course, people throughout the ages have thought this. People under Roman domination in the first century. People during the First and Second World Wars thought the same thing. What made them think this way were worsening situations and terrible events around the world. I recently read an article that made me think about this, so let's revisit a passage from the book of Revelation, the same passage from our last devotion, one that will help us think about the Apocalypse in a different way:

Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. (Rev. 1:17–18)

What do you think about a coming Apocalypse? Does it make you afraid? Books and movies, articles on climate change and the heating up of wars in the Middle East, AI and ethical issues associated with that, medical "breakthroughs", and global terrorism have many people hopeless and living in fear. I recently read an article by Russell Moore, who wrote, "There’s nothing more hopeful than running out of hope and finding, on the other end of it, that there’s a Voice saying, "Fear not, I am the First and the Last, and the Living One. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades." You and I (and approximately 10 billion other people) live in a fallen world. Day after day it demonstrates its fallen-ness. We don't know when the end will come or how it will play out.

But we do know who is at the end of it all, Jesus, the first and the last, the Living One. He's the One who loves sinners with unending, relentless love, the One who invites us today and every day to come into His family and sit at His table. When the end comes, whether for the whole world or just for you and me, Jesus will be there to welcome us into His loving arms...and that's very Good News!