Raise Your Hand if You are Sure!

This post is likely to provoke. I woudl encourage you two readers to skip down a few posts and read up from there to sort of set the stage a tad before diving in the deep end unless you are an accomplished swimmer.

Here at IHOP-KC we are in the middle of our National Children's Equipping Center (CEC) Conference. It wraps up tomorrow night after a day full of Daphne Kirke and her family. This will come after a very intense day of messages by Allen Hood to start to the day, Folks like Randy And Kelsey Bohlender in the middle and wrapping up with home grown Dana Candler. It really has been a day for the ages in KC.

I have been fortunate to be the head (or is it only) usher for the conference. I hand out the notes, greet people as the y arrive, tell the parents that really, truly, everything is OK and yes, we do this 24/7 365, that is we pray and worshp. Today I was blessed with a another task, the chore of being the recorder extrodinaire for one of the breakout sessions hosted by the Bohlenders on Teaching End Times to Kids.

Did you hear the sound of metal crashing in your head as you read that?! Yes, I said teaching end times to kids. This isnt the "repent, for the end is near" speech you hear from the whacko on the street corner. Granted there is a touch of validity to said whacko, but this is more intimate, more meat and potatoes (perfect for an Alaskan) and could not have been more timely.

Here is a question that the better session leader (Mrs B. :) posted.

"How many of you were saved because you knew it would keep you from going to hell?"
99 % of the room raised their hands. Here is the problem. That isnt a sustaining motivation. In fact, I challenge both of you readers to show me in the Bible where Jesus used it as motivation for His disciples.

Did Jesus say, "I will save you from hell, because that is the goal in the end of the age"? Or was He calling us to reign with Him in eternity, forever? I tell you, there is a lot more to this stuff than I ever knew. It doesnt matter WHEN Jesus comes back. The point is that He is, and what are you going to do abot it right now. Nothing you say? You say it isnt important to ponder what is going to take to be the pure spotless bride he is longing for?! What if half of what the Bohlenders said today is right? Then what?