Friends, have you ever been on a cruise?  You arrive at port and are overwhelmed at the enormity of the vessel you are about to board.  Then, you check in (along with 5000 of your closest friends!), board your luxury liner, find your cabin and build your nest!  As instructed, you show up for life raft training and then listen for the big blow of the ship’s mighty foghorn.  At that sound, everyone rushes on deck to experience the sendoff, as the giant vessel moves slowly away from the pier and out into the harbor!  In only a short while you are sailing the ocean blue with no land in sight, and you get your first glimpse of the immensity of the sea!

 

Welcome aboard our cruise ship!  I’ll be your activities director for the duration of our trip as we set sail on the vast waterways of Bible prophecy!  Indeed the sea is enormous, but our ship has been assigned a specific sea lane.  Thus, we need to get our bearings.  We need to know where we’re going and how we’re getting there.

 

This week, we will chart our course by identifying three objectives.  Like a ship without a rudder, we would soon be lost at sea without a means of guidance.  Our objectives will keep us on course and provide the guidance we need to navigate the ocean of prophecy that lies before us!  Just as you cannot see the entire ocean on a single cruise, we will not see or hear all there is to know about Israel’s history, current events, or the last days in this study.  But I’ve planned exciting excursions for you each week and we’ll explore all we can!  So, all hands on deck…I just heard that foghorn!

 

The objectives of our study:

1. Exhort the Body of Christ (including ourselves) to be ready for His coming! (1 Peter 1:3-5, 13-16)
2. Exhort the Body of Christ to action!  (Or:  ”Don’t just sit there…do something!”)
3. Provide a framework from which to view today’s events through the lens of Scripture.

 

While we’re at it, I hope you will develop the habit of praying for the peace of Jerusalem.  (Psalm 122)

 

I’ll share more about those objectives this week and will provide you a very clear, literal diagram of God’s Plan for the End.

 

Stick with us as our ship shoves off from the dock!  Bon Voyage!