Matthew 24:23-31

Matthew 24:23-31 
The Message (MSG)

  Every once in a while, you'll hear a group predicting the end times.  They'll be loud and vocal, and 100% of the time (so far), they've been wrong.  Other times, you'll hear people wondering if we are in the end times.  There are certainly things happening in the world around us that would seem to point that way, but perhaps that has been true for centuries. 
  Make no mistake -- when Jesus returns in his glory, you won't miss it.  It won't be covered on page 11 of the newspaper, hidden for only the curious to find -- the entire world will see his glory, and will recognize who is the true King of Kings.  There will be no doubt who reigns and who will reign.
  I don't know that we can ever be truly ready for such an event, but we can prepare our hearts and pray for the Holy Spirit to be at work in our lives, teaching us and showing us how to live as though Jesus Christ is the only thing that truly matters.  The beautiful thing about the Christian life is that when we life like only Jesus matters, we are taught how to love and treasure and serve one another, because that's how Jesus lived.  When we live like only Jesus matters, we change how we value our things -- we see them as tools to love and to serve, not things to accumulate.  When we live like only Jesus matters, we don't ignore the world, but embrace it as the broken and valuable place that it is.