Less on Rapture and More on Vision

Less rapture and more vision for the future. Though we live in end times, God still wants us to be positive. Why? Because this shows our enthusiasm for the Coming of the Lord and the New Jerusalem. Yes, there is a lot of discussion and books out there today about end times and the 'rapture'. As I wrote earlier, in my own reading of Revelations, the rapture happens for some through death followed by resurrection and for some who are resurrected instantly - raptured.
For many of us, thinking about end times is not something we like to do or want to do. So, what should we do? What does God want us to do?  He wants us to be prepared. He does not want us to be surprised. He does not want us to stop living and hoping that the future is ours, because it is.  He wants us to have vision for the future, to hold fast to our faith and have a vision of His coming and promise of the New Jerusalem.  We need to demonstrate this faith to our family our children and community. He does not want us to get caught up in the daily blemishes that pop up. What does that mean? These are the nagging imperfections we see when we look in the mirror and why they are and how they got there and if someone else is to blame. Didn't Jesus say "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eyes and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye"? Matthew 7:3. We are all guilty of sin. We are guilty of sin and we see them as blemishes on our faces and we are also guilty of putting them on others by saying unkind things to mark other people as being less than who we think we are.  We are a comparing culture. We don't like the unsightly. We don't like it when our neighbor leaves his/her garbage cans out too long. We don't like when someone does not recognize our efforts to beautify the neighborhood or get the job done and we get angry when they don't get the hint and do the same.
We are sinners. We blemish ourselves through bad choice and we try to blemish others to make ourselves own blemish seem less and or to feel better... to hide the blemishes we have. Praise the Lord that God sent His Son so that when the Father looks at us (at our blemishes) He sees His Son. We must repent - rethink those blemishes we see. We have to be more understanding of others and forgiving. In understanding there is love and in this way we can love ourselves and our neighbors/brothers as we understand/love ourself. Having such view on life here in this fallen world lifts the blemishes and allows us to have a vision of the New Jerusalem.