Everyone Loves A Parade!

The annual Rose Festival Parade is about to begin--a big deal for the "City of Roses" aka Portland, Oregon. The parade is televised now so you can see it on your flat screen from the comfort of home, but there's nothing like actually being there, among the crowds, curbside.

Tension is palpable as viewers, some having waited along the route all night, strain for the first glimpse of the floats, marching bands, horse brigades, Royal Rosarians, and Rose Festival Court. Children listen eagerly for  vendors hawking hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, Cracker Jacks. Excitement is in the air!

Believers feel that same sense of anticipation as we wait for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The wait can seem interminable, but parading before us are the signs of His coming:

• Nations rise against nation
• Famines, pestilences and earthquakes occur in various places
• Believers experience persecution
• False prophets arise, deceiving many
• Lawlessness abounds
• Love grows cold
• The Gospel is preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations

Furthermore,

• Men love themselves and money
• They are proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God
• They have a form of godliness but deny its power

The signs are many--the Big Parade, the one we're waiting for, is just around the corner. If we hush, we can almost hear the trumpet blast. This is not a parade for bystanders--it beckons everyone from the sidelines. Jesus is coming again and will take us to heaven. Will you be among us when the saints go marching in?

"For God so loved the world

that He gave His only-begotten Son

that whoever believes in Him

should not perish but have

everlasting life."

~ John 3:16