Journey to The Journey

In 2002, California pastor Rick Warren released a book entitled "The Purpose Driven Life." In the book, Warren proposed to answer life's greatest question by presenting God's five key purposes for human life (worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission). The book became an international phenomena, was translated into over 80 different languages, and sold over 30 million copies worldwide by 2007 to become the best-selling non-fiction hardback book in history, according to Publisher's Weekly. To put that number into perspective, that equates to over 16,000 copies sold per day over a 5 year period.

The Bible makes two things abundantly clear...Jesus is coming back to judge the world and make all things new again, and no one knows (or will know) when he is coming. In our final lesson this week from Matthew 24 (verses 29-51), Jesus himself drove that point home to his followers. So, what does this mystery surrounding Christ's second coming mean for us as believers today?

The "Abomination of Desolation" as discussed in the book of Daniel and referenced by Jesus in the section of his Olivet discourse that we studied this week from Matthew chapter 24 is an often debated topic among scholars and theologians. Whether Jesus is referring to the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70AD, a future event during the end times, or perhaps even some combination of both is difficult to say with certainty.

In this week's sermon from our sub-series through Philippians, we discussed some foundational points of Christian doctrine aimed at understanding Jesus' divinity so that we could better understand and appreciate his humility. This was the Apostle Paul's purpose in this portion of his letter to the Philippians. In directing their gaze upon the person and work of Christ, he was pointing them to something greater than themselves.