Peace and grace to each of you in the Great Name of Jesus Christ!
FINALLY, I have time to sit at my desk again and contemplate the truly heavy duty issues of life. We have been traveling nearly non stop since our recent adventures in Israel. Thank you all for your patience because although I have kept the articles coming, they have not been as regular as I would like. Thank you also to new readers in Senegal, Morocco and Guatemala. For those of you who have sent in comments or questions, I will do my best to answer them as soon as possible. Since there are several, I have decided to answer you privately by email or Facebook because otherwise I would never get around to my main goal of publishing articles about the "END TIMES"!
I began by saying I am contemplating the heavy issues of life. In truth I would rather not do that at all. You know the old church joke about what is really important in life; Did Adam have a navel or where did Cain get his wife? Admittedly I will never know the answer to either of those monumental questions but at least after all these years I can tell you which came first, the chicken or the egg! On the other hand, "what's on the other side of eternity" still has me stumped. However, I have chosen to try and understand Biblical prophecy which is no easy task and one that raises the ire of lot's of folks who disagree with your conclusions.
You know when talking about the "end times" through the lens of Biblical prophecy, it is difficult to do so without sounding alarmist or downright depressing. I understand full well that many folks would just as soon not dwell on what they perceive to be as negative issues. So, allow me to remind all of you that my goal is two fold; First and always foremost, is a desire to encourage each of you to study the Word of God for yourselves. Secondly, no matter how hard we try, the future predictions of the Biblical prophets cannot be changed. All that has been spoken by them WILL come to pass! Since we cannot change end times events as spoken by the Biblical prophets, how best then can we get through a (very hard) time that our world seems to be currently going through?
I believe the answer can also be found in a two fold truth; First, historically the church has never really grown all that much in "the good times". Rather, church growth frequently comes at times when things around us are the most difficult. Why? Simply because for many people, hard times cause us to seek the ONLY ONE who can get us through all those difficult times that human beings face as a part of life. That ONLY ONE of course is our Creator God who is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The ONE and ONLY God who eventually stepped into time and became a child through the womb of a virgin.
The second truth is that a time of severe hardship for the entire world is the very best time for Christians to get up and get going!!! As I travel, I see two very different kinds of followers of Christ. One is excited about their Salvation, the opportunities that it provides to help build the Kingdom of God and is being drawn closer to the Lord Himself!
The second kind is the one (of whom there seem to be many these days), who is down trodden, hopeless and miserable. They seem to have lost their JOY OF SALVATION. What happened to these dear ones? Now I don't want to paint with too wide a brush here because there are believers who are going through some extreme circumstances. Lost loved ones, horrible illness, devastation of some sort including the loss of family fortune or some other circumstance that the rest of us have yet to face. As a pastor of many years I know that we can all hit the valleys of our walk with God and sometimes it takes a while to climb back to the mountain tops. So, as I go on with this article please know that if you are going through a tough time, I don't want my comments to depress you or give you the sense that I am being unkind or judgmental about your particular life. I too have been in the valleys of life on more than one occasion. When those times come it is awfully difficult to "just perk up" because someone else says you should.
Still, I am concerned because there seem to be so very many believers right now who are just short of giving up! Hardly a day goes by that I don't meet someone who says something like "I am just sick of it all! I don't even want to read my bible anymore or go to church---it's just bad news everywhere---I just want to curl up and give up!" WOW! What happened?
Yes the news is bad everywhere you look PROVIDING you are looking at the world. If however your focus is on the Lord then things change perspective drastically. Jesus never told us that things would be easy. In fact He said just the opposite. If we are followers of Christ then we will most probably be persecuted for His Name sake. If not persecuted then certainly we will have to endure the problems of this world just like everyone else. The real question is, do we want to LOOK just like everyone else or do we want to EVIDENCE the salvation that has been given to us as a free gift of God, paid for fully and completely by the blood of the Only begotten Son of God?
So how do we get there from here? There is an old country saying that says "sorry mister, this here road don't go there"! Fortunately for followers of Christ, our road DOES GO THERE and we have the opportunity to tell others about it as well. That is called the Great Commission as seen in Matthew chapter 28:18-20. Where did we ever get the idea that telling others about our faith is just the pastors job, or the evangelists?
OK, so let me tell you a little secret that I discovered early in life. If our focus as an individual is inward, then all we will be able to see is our own problems. If our focus is outward, then we can clearly see that there are other people around us who need help. Been there and done that. My life has not always been easy either. Both my parents were alcoholics who died relatively early in life. I have had my share of both success and miserable failure. Many lessons in life I have had to learn the hard way. Today I am in my mid 60's and have a 17 year old son that weighs 33 pounds, is three feet tall, and can neither speak of walk. The average lifespan of children with this particular syndrome is less that 13 years old. I cannot tell you how much my wife and I love this little boy!
Our son Santiago with his little sister Alejandra
I could CHOOSE to be miserable if I wanted to. What I learned early in life however is that the CHOICE really is mine to make! I could decry the loss of alcoholic parents or I can thank God that through their lives I realized that I did not have to follow in their foot steps. I could constantly relive my failures or I can thank God that He has been there to give me wisdom and strength not to repeat them. I could cry myself to sleep every night because I don't know if I have a tomorrow with my son, or I can thank God that He allowed us to adopt this wonderful gift that He has blessed us with for today!
The CHOICE of how we walk through this life really is ours to make no matter the circumstances. That is not to say that dire problems are not in themselves often miserable because they most certainly are. I have friends who are going through cancer scares. Heart problems, prostate or breast, miserable diagnosis no matter how you look at it. What I admire about them is that through it all they have never lost their faith and never taken their eyes off the Lord. None of these people know if there will be a tomorrow---on this earth anyway! But what they do know for sure is that there WILL be a tomorrow and an eternity for them because they have not lost their JOY OF SALVATION!
I know, I know, it is easy to say. Don't you just hate those folks who say things like "Just jerk yourself up by your boot straps" and get on with life? Well speaking only for myself, I have never prayed for trials and tribulations. I would just as soon avoid all that stuff and just get raptured out of here so I do not have to experience physical death. It's not the stepping out of this life and into eternity that bothers me---it's the transition that scares me. It might hurt.
On the other hand, at this very moment I am alive and reasonably well and that is something to give thanks for. Once again to borrow a line from an old country song "I'm in pretty good shape for the shape I'm in"!
At this moment I can truly tell you that I have CHOSEN to find the good in life and those people who are around me. You see, all mankind was born in the image of God according to scripture. Honestly, as I am sure is the case with you, I have met those who I sincerely did not like. There are some just plain miserable people who are mean spirited or have devoted their lives to death and destruction. Can we find any good in that? Probably not, but speaking again only for myself, I am consumed with the idea that if I look hard enough, perhaps, just perhaps, I can find a tiny speck of gold in the worst of the worst. Either the worst person or the worst circumstance. Does that sound naive to you? Pie in the sky? Downright stupid?
Well perhaps so but I think that we as Christians can really make things better if we try. We have our Lord and Savior. We have the Word of God. We have prayer! IF WE CHOOSE TO DO SO, we have faith!
Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 10 is speaking about a time when the Word of God was read to the people and they wept because that had lost track of God's Word. If I had been the man of God on that day I may have been tempted to tell the people that they deserved it. Shame on them for loosing track of the Word of God. Go ahead and cry you rotten rascals!!!~
But that is not what the people were told! Ezra the priest told the people "Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; For this day is Holy to the Lord. DO NOT SORROW, FOR THE JOY OF THE LORD IS YOUR STRENGTH."
Do you know what Ezra was saying to these back slidden people? He was saying, Ok, now that you have heard the Word of the Lord, "IT MAKES THIS DAY HOLY!" Do not be sorry about that but rather go about your lives and live them normally but also don't forget the people around you for whom nothing is prepared. In other words provide for other people and remember that the JOY of the Lord is your strength.
Are you going through tough times today? Things falling apart in your life? Depressed because of the miserable state the world is in right now? Lost a loved one? Going through cancer or some other devastating ailment? Fallen out of church fellowship? Haven't picked up your Bible for awhile? Lost your JOY???
2011 is predicted by many far and wide to be a transition year of epic proportions. I will be writing more about that later. Lot's of folks out there believe that 2012 will signal a year of utter disaster. Personally I don't know about any of that and although I can certainly see some distressing signs of the times, I CHOOSE to walk through whatever is ahead of us ONE DAY AT A TIME, and to never loose track of my JOY IN THE LORD!
What will you choose?
I want to leave you today with a story that has been told and retold innumerable times. So much so that I have no clue who first told it. Earlier I referred to "The One and Only God who eventually stepped into time and became a child through the womb of a virgin"! Have you ever wondered (or been asked) why it was necessary for God to step out of eternity and become a man in the form of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ? Well first and foremost of course is God's desire to make payment Himself for the cost of our sins. But there is also another reason---------
The story goes like this this: One day a father and his young son were walking down the sidewalk. Suddenly they came upon an anthill spanning a crack in the cement. Hundreds of ants came single file out of the ground and followed each other around the anthill until they came to a discarded peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Each ant in turn took a small portion of the sandwich, got back in line and retraced their foot steps back around the anthill and down into the ground. The little boy wanting to help, drew a thin line with his finger through the anthill so now the ants coming out of the ground could see the sandwich and shorten their path by walking a straight line to the food rather than walk out of their way around the anthill. Still the ants ignored the easier way and took the longer journey around the anthill.
The little boy then carefully scooped up a few ants on his little finger and pushed them gently through the gap he had created in the anthill, just knowing that now they would lead the others through the straight path. However when the assisted ants reached the sandwich they immediately retraced their steps back through the anthill, got back in line and took the longer route once again.
Frustrated, the little boy looked up at his father and said "papa, I don't understand, I have shown them and shown them and still they go the harder way, what should I do to get their attention?"
The father thought about that for a moment and then said "son, I think the only way to get their attention would be for you to become an ant and to LEAD them through the straight path!"
Luke 1:30-31 "Then the angel said to her, "do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His Name Jesus"!
God bless you all,
Pastor Rance.
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