If I Disappear (A Note for the Rapture)

If some day, I disappear along with thousands or millions of other people around the world, please read this note carefully.  It will explain everything.  I don’t know for sure if this is going to happen in our life time.  There is a chance that it won’t be for hundreds or thousands of years.  However, there is also a good chance that it will be soon.  An awesome website called Rapture Ready inspired me to write this letter almost three years ago, and it has been sitting on my computer unused.  Now that I have a place to share it, I thought I should- in hopes that it will lead many to Christ, both before and after the rapture.  I understand this is one of my longer and more serious posts, but I promise it is so worth it!

If tons and tons of people are gone without any explanation, specifically people who professed faith in Christ, please don’t worry about us.  Regardless of what theories people try to come up with, it wasn’t an alien abduction.  It isn't a secret society in hiding.  It wasn’t a mass suicide, kidnapping, or disease.  It wasn’t a science experiment gone wrong.  What happened is called the rapture.  It’s predicted in the bible.  Jesus promised almost 2,000 years ago this would happen.  For those of us who are gone, it is a very good thing.  We are with God right now.  What happened was God taking all of His children, true born again Christians, to Heaven with Him before things get really bad here on Earth.  If you are reading this right now, please know that God hasn't forgotten about you.  He didn’t abandon you.  He still loves you.  He compelled my heart to write this letter for you because reading it will be the most important thing you have ever done.  He led you to read it because it will change everything for you.  It will give you another chance.  This letter will explain what has happened, what is going to happen over the next few years, and how you can be saved.  It isn’t too late for you!

If you are wondering how I knew this was coming, it’s simple.  I read the bible and trusted that what it said was true.  God promised numerous times throughout the bible this would happen.  Although He didn’t tell us the exact date it was going to take place, He gave us signs to look for.  These signs included certain wars, crimes, and historical events.  These events were predicted in the bible thousands of years ago; and recently, they actually started happening!  Once I realized a lot of bible prophecy was coming true right before our eyes, such as Israel becoming a nation again in the 1960s, I talked about it with some friends and decided I had no choice but to write this letter for anyone who is left.  Only God knew the exact time that this would happen, but we had hints.  Many of us thought that it could be soon. 

You are probably confused and upset.  The world is most likely in complete mayhem right now.  You may feel like God has abandoned you.  You may wonder why you weren’t taken too.  You may be thinking “I led a good life.” or “I am a good person.”  You may be nice to everyone.  You may do a lot to help others.  You may even go to church, believe God exists, and call yourself a Christian.  So why would you have been left behind?  The bible gives a very clear answer to this question.  Let me explain:

No human is perfect.  We all sin and fall short of the glory of God.  In other words, we all do things wrong.  Even if we try to be good people, we still mess up.  You’ve probably never physically murdered someone, and you may do a lot to help others.  That really is great, but you still sin.  The bible gives us a large list of sins- these things include lying, not obeying your parents, using God’s name out of context, and holding grudges against others.  We have all sinned before.  The bible says the wages of sin is death.  In other words, the sin in our world and in our bodies is the reason we're not immortal and can't live here on Earth forever- which was the original intent.  It also says when we die, there are only two other places to go- Heaven and hell.

The bible says God is perfect.  It also says Heaven is a perfect place for perfect beings.  No sin can enter Heaven.  It just can’t.  God is perfect and has to be separated from sin.  That would be bad news for us humans, because all of us have sin in us, so we would all have to be forever separated from God/Heaven.  If our sins are separating us from Heaven, we would have to go to hell forever when our lives on Earth are over to pay the punishment for our sins. 

If this is making you scared or angry, don’t worry.  There’s good news too.  God loved us so much that when we strayed away from Him, He had a plan to bring us back.  He sent His perfect Son, Jesus, from Heaven to Earth to take our sins away.  Jesus took all of our sins upon Himself and was willingly tortured and killed by being nailed to a wooden cross to take the punishment for our sins for us.  He paid the penalty so we wouldn’t have to pay it forever in hell.  Then, on the third day after His death, God raised Him from the dead- defeating sin!  He was the only one who could do this, because He is perfect.  Anyone who receives this gift will become a child of God and have a clean record once and for all.

Having your sins washed away and paid for once and for all is a free gift.  Just like with any gift, you have to accept it.  If a friend buys you a gift and you turn them away instead of taking it, you don't get the gift.  Jesus’ gift of being saved from sin is the same way, you just have to accept it.  The reason is, love is a choice.  God can't force us to love Him.  It's also a free gift, so you also can’t work for it, deserve it, or earn it.  The bible says doing good deeds, going to church, and reading the bible can’t even save us from sin (though those are all good things).  You just have to accept what Jesus already did for you.  To do that, you just have to believe it and repent.  Repent is a word that literally means “change of mind”.  In other words, confessing that your old ways were wrong and turning your heart and your mind to God and His ways.  Even if you mess up later, all of your sins, even your future sins, are paid for and gone forever.

 Does that clear up why you are still here on Earth?  It is either because:

A) You didn’t believe in the existence of God or weren’t sure about His existence enough to look into it and accept this gift.

B) You believed in God's existence, but thought doing good things or participating in religious events would get you to Heaven.  You didn’t understand that your sin was separating you from God and how to have them erased.  You believed that people could get to Heaven without being saved.

C) You didn’t accept Jesus’ free gift by believing all of this and turning to Him.

Are at least one of those things true about you?  If so, you still had your sinful nature, which prevented you from going to Heaven just yet.  God took everyone He could, because things are about to get pretty bad here on Earth.  It isn’t too late for you though.  You can be saved right now, and then when your life is over, you will go to Heaven too.  Do you want to do this right now?  If you have believed this and repented, you are now God’s child.  You are a Christian (someone who belongs to Christ).  You are free from sin.  You are His forever.  You can ask Him to put His Holy Spirit inside of you to lead you and guide you.  Your spirit has been born again- this time into God's family.

So, you may be wondering where to go from here and what will happen now.

Let’s start with what happens next.  According to the bible, the anti-Christ is going to take over the world; but not in the way that you may think.  He won’t look like a terrifying evil demon.  He'll probably look like any other person.  He will likely be a world leader of some sort and claim to want peace.  He is a liar.  I don’t know what his name will be.  Many people will make speculations saying it is the current US president, rulers in other countries, a leader of a cult or false religion, etc.  I don’t know which of these theories are true or false, but here is how to know who he is: Most Christians believe there will be a peace treaty made with Israel.  The anti-Christ will somehow be involved with this and become the one world leader (leader of all countries).  He will claim to be doing this to bring peace.  Many people will adore him and think he will make things better.  There will also be a one world religion, meaning one religion will be implementing throughout the whole world.  It will be a false religion, not Christianity. 

Now, here is the very important part: DO NOT TAKE HIS MARK!  At some point, it is going to be required that everyone gets a mark or symbol of some kind of their arm, hand, or forehead in order to purchase food and survive.  This may be a micro chip, a tattoo, or something similar.  Just to be safe, whatever mark they try to put on you, DO NOT TAKE IT!  It is the devil’s mark.  Once you take it, you cannot be saved.  Even if they threaten to harm you or arrest you, don't take the mark!  Even if they refuse to let you purchase things you need or get a job, don't take the mark!  No matter what, don’t take it.  Nothing on this Earth is worth it.  There also might be a widespread disease.

Many Christians believe the anti-Christ will try to convince people he is God or the Christ (meaning the One sent by God to save us, which we know is actually Jesus).  He is going to try to prove this, and many people will believe him.  He may even perform miracles and signs by the power of satan to get the world’s attention.  No matter what he does, says, or tries to “prove”, he is a liar.  Don’t believe him.  Jesus is the only true Christ and Savior.

So what should you do until Jesus returns to Earth and takes all of you new Christians back (which most people think will be about 7 years from the time we disappeared; but please don't be discouraged if we're wrong and it's actually longer)?  After you've become a child of God, start by reading the bible and praying daily.  Talk to God just like you would talk to a friend or a (good) parent.  Pray for guidance and wisdom to know what to do.  Pray for strength.  Thank God for saving you and leading you to find this note.  Pray for the people who are not yet saved.  Also, get a hold of a bible quickly.  It’s possible they'll become illegal or stop being sold.  Search churches and houses of those who have disappeared and gone to Heaven.  If you don’t know where to read in the bible, start in the book of John and go from there.  If you look in the front of the bible, it will show you which page each book starts on.

If you can, help others to be saved too.  Tell them what you’ve learned and help them to find bibles.  If you can, even make copies of this letter and share it with them.  I’m not going to lie, things are going to be hard; but you can do it.  God is with you, helping you every step of the way.  He loves you and is on your side.  Don’t be afraid of being killed, because then you will be in Heaven.  Many people in the bible were killed for their faith, so you are not alone.  You may still be left with some questions, but just focus on what you know, pray without ceasing, and read the bible daily.  God will take care of the rest.

Love,
Megan

Additional informaiton:

There is speculation that all children will be taken along with us too since they are too young to choose to be saved- so God will automatically save them when the rapture happens.  There is another theory that only the children of Christian parents will be raptured.  I don’t know if either of these theories are true, but if all (or many) young children are gone, consider these as reasons why.

Also, there are few Christians who believe the rapture is only a spiritual rapture, meaning only our souls are taken and our bodies will be left behind.  I don’t think this is what the bible seems to say.  I think our bodies will be taken with us.  However, if thousands or millions of Christians all over the wold suddenly die at the same exact second and I am one of them, consider that this as a reason why.

On an opposite note, if I ever disappear alone or with just a few people, this is not the rapture!  Please look for me and treat it as a crime or accident!  The real rapture will include all true born-again Christians in the world at one time. 

Last, if you are reading this letter in present time before the rapture has happened rather than after, I want to encourage you to get right with God now and not wait!  You don't know how long you have, and this is eternity we are talking about!

My Shining Star

Being a sponsor to 3 little girls who communicate exclusively through letters means I enjoy getting mail just a little too much sometimes.  No, I mean like at around 8 o'clock every night, I start getting excited to wake up and get the mail the next morning.  It's a bit ridiculous really.

One morning last week, I went out to my mailbox to find an envelope from World Vision.  I had a moment of excitement until I realized it was not, in fact, a letter from my sponsored child.  Instead, what I found inside was a birthday card to sign and send back to be delivered to my Sulmi for her upcoming birthday in June.  Attached to the card were also these adorable paper glasses that made everything look like stars when your child puts them on.  The card said, "You are my shining star." 

I was ready to use this to write a post about birthday letter ideas when I realized I had never properly introduced Sulmi to all of you.  I mentioned her in posts about how God led me to sponsor Melania and Aura; but since Sulmi's sponsorship happened first, and before I started this blog, I never actually shared the story of how this all came to be.

One day in 2011, I was at my local Christian book store.  I was 17 years old and a new Christian; and I'd spent so much time at this store that the employees knew me by name.  On this particular day, I was talking with Jim, the very nice man who worked there and always teased me about being at the store almost as much as he was.  At the register paying for my things, Jim showed me their World Vision display and asked if I would like to sponsor a child that day.  I looked at the beautiful baby girl whose packet was on display and my heart sank.  She was precious.  You're probably thinking, "Wow, that's great, but that's the shortest story ever."  Unfortunately, that baby girl was not Sulmi, and I did not sponsor her that day.  I explained to Jim that as much as I would like to sponsor a child, I was still in high school and didn't have a job at the time.  This was the truth.  As I left the store though, my heart turned inside of me.  Looking down at the bag of things I had just bought for myself and my friends, I was convicted.  I may have been a full time student who wasn't consistently working, but God was always providing money for me one way or another- babysitting jobs, birthday gifts, etc.  As I sat at a nice restaurant with my mom for dinner that night, I stared at my steak dinner and thought about all the little things I could be sacrificing to sponsor a child.  I felt sick...not with guilt, but with awareness of the extreme needs of those I had ignored for way too long.  I was an evangelist at heart, but God was convicting me that He also cares about loving His people through providing their physical needs.  Not even being able to finish my meal, I went out to the parking lot and cried. 

I couldn't get back to the store that day to sponsor that baby, and I knew she would likely already have a sponsor by the time I could.  So, I spent the next few months researching different child sponsorship organizations and praying for God to lead me to the right child.  Then, in March of 2012, I attended a Casting Crowns concert with my mom and a few close friends.  At the concert, they had a World Vision presentation.  I was not planning on sponsoring a child that night, because I hadn't decided on an organization and was leaning more towards sponsoring through a smaller program.  Not knowing this, my mom raised her hand during the presentation to choose a child's packet for me- knowing that I had been planning to sponsor and thinking that we could share the child and the sponsorship fees.  At intermission, my mom handed the packet to me and this was the face I saw:

There was no turning back.  She was mine.

God brought Sulmi's packet all the way from the World Vision office near Seattle to a concert in Pittsburgh, put her packet in the hands of the woman coming down our isle at the concert, and had my mom pick up her packet out of all the children in the pile.  He knew what He was doing the whole time.  He had the perfect child in mind for me from the very beginning.  I was able to simply be still and let His will come to pass.  Now that Sulmi is a bit older, I wrote her a letter recently to share this story with her.  In the letter, I shared Jeremiah 29:11...

"For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD...."

God knew His plans for Sulmi and I.  He perfectly ordained them from the start.  More than that, He always has a plan in any and every situation.  We can rest in that.

For the record, I did not end up sharing Sulmi with my mom.  The second I laid eyes on her, I knew I was going to keep her all to myself. :) 





Big News!

I am posting today to officially share the news that I will soon be traveling Honduras in June to visit my soon-to-be-14-year-old sponsor child, Melania!

I will be leaving for this week-long journey on June 6 with a team of about 15 other sponsors.  On this trip, we will be visiting several child sponsorship centers run by local churches, spending an entire day ministering to our own sponsored children and their families and taking them out for a fun day at a beach, and sharing the gospel with everyone we meet.  I am beyond excited to see what God does in this next chapter of the amazing story He is writing.  I know He has big things in store.