The Second Coming

Nancy and I were just now talking about the Second Coming, specifically, the Rapture of the true Church. We are hope that WHEN it happens, those who are left behind should know they can still turn to Christ -- if they want to.

Problem is, of course, they might have so hardened their hearts that they will not want to. In fact, so many of them will gladly believe the nonsense in the news that aliens took us all away -- or some other crazy theory. After all, they will rationalize, there are plenty of 'Christians' still attending various churches of all labels.

Yet in His mercy, God warns us in 2021: "Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” . . . . . The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief . . . " (2 Peter 3)

There's good reason God's patience keeps telling us: TODAY is the day of salvation. 

Tomorrow might be too late.

Arise, My Darling

Arise, My Darling

 

One of my memory verses is Song of Solomon 2:10-13. As I rehearsed the passage the other day, my mind suddenly jumped to the Lord’s promise in John 14: “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:2-3, NASB)

 

Christian, would you like some GOOD news? And if you are paying any attention to current events, this is news that ought to make your heart sing with hope-filled longing: Jesus will return for us. He promised to do so.

 

That’s why when I meditated on the verse in Solomon’s Song, I could almost hear that trumpet. I hope this text speaks encouragement to your heart as you also wait:  

 

“My beloved spoke and said to me, ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the [land]; the season of singing has come; the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.’” (Song of Solomon 2:10-13. NIV)

 

Jesus calls you and me His ‘beautiful one.’ And He tells us to come along with Him. I can almost see the neighborhood in which my beloved Bridegroom is building my heavenly dwelling place.

 

And I am so ready to move in.

Fourth Sunday of Advent - Supernatural Warfare: Sandals on our Feet

 (You can watch this message on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/zxwwI6LQtzg   

I heard a message some time ago, during which the pastor referred to a song written by John Lennon of the Beatles.

 

In the decade of the 60s, Lennon, Ringo Star, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison were enjoying the limelight of near-worldwide fame. On February 9, 1964, the group made their American debut to a record breaking 73 million viewers on the Ed Sullivan show. A year later, in 1965, Lennon wrote these lyrics of one of the Beatle’s more popular songs:

 

Help! I need somebody, Help! Not just anybody, Help! You know I need someone. Help!

When I was younger, so much younger than today, I never needed anybody's help in any way. But now these days are gone and I'm not so self-assured. Now I find I've changed my mind, I've opened up the doors

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down. And I do appreciate you being 'round
Help me get my feet back on the ground. Won't you please, please help me?

 

Shortly before his murder in 1980, Rolling Stone Magazine interviewed Lennon. When asked about the background of that song, Lennon said the lyrics tell the story of what he was going through at the time. The famous Beatle, whose name was instantly recognizable in nearly every corner of the globe said this about the song:

 

“It’s just me singing [for] ‘Help!’ and I meant it… .  When ‘Help!’ came out, I was crying out for help. Most people think it’s just a fast rock’n’roll song. I didn’t realize it at the time . . .  But later, I knew I really was crying out for help.”

For the past three weeks we have been looking at a text in Ephesians chapter six related to supernatural warfare. Let’s listen to it again to remind ourselves of the context for today’s message:

Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one . . . .”

We have already looked at the evidence of the rapidly burgeoning supernatural evil all around us. We also examined the ‘belt of truth’ with which we are to gird our loins, the breastplate of righteousness, and the shield of faith with which we can extinguish the flaming arrows of the supernatural enemy.

Today’s message centers on our footwear in verse 15. I like the way the translators of the Christian Standard Bible render this section from the Greek. Verse 14: “Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, [and now verse 15]: and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace.”

The Scriptures speak of many different types of peace – being at peace with our neighbors, enjoying peace of heart, or peace of mind. It also talks about being at peace with God – and it is THIS peace that I want to focus on today – being at peace with God.

 

Most people probably don’t even think about being at peace with God. Nor do they even care. They’re too busy with their lives to think about eternity. You know people like that. I know people like that. But let me be quick to say this about those who hardly ever think of God – and much less in terms of being at peace with Him.

 

There was a time in my life when I lived for YEARS not giving God more than a passing glance. And most of the time, not even a glance. But then it happened, in the stillness of the night, when I was all alone and far from home and friends and family, God was able to break through my self-imposed isolation from Himself.

 

And, well, here I am today. 

 

You and I can never know what is going on in a person’s heart in the stillness of their night. Like was true in the case of John Lennon, when they are all alone and far from things that comfort them and distract them, God calls everyone to Himself.

 

He calls everyone to Himself because He is not wanting ANY to perish, but for ALL to come to salvation.  As Augustine wrote in his classic book titled, Confession, “God made us for Himself, and our hearts are restless until it finds its rest in Thee.”

 

I do not know if John Lennon ever recognized, even to the day he died, his God-designed cry for help was, well, God-designed. His lyrics were rooted in God moving in his heart to look to the ONLY one who could ever truly help him.

 

Which now circles us back to St. Paul’s point about the supernatural battle in which we are all engaged. He tells us to sandal up our feet with readiness to present to others the gospel of peace – that being the good news that you and I, and all the John Lennons of the world, can have peace with God.

 

The good news that anyone can be reconciled with God. We can be adopted into His own family of sons and daughters who’ve been purchased for Himself with the precious blood of His only begotten Son, Jesus our Savior, Jesus our Messiah.

 

The soles of the Roman soldier’s sandals were studded with what would resemble cleats. Those cleats – like those on the bottom of some athletic shoes which help the athlete maintain a firm grip in the dirt or sand – so the Roman soldier’s sandals had cleats which helped them ‘stand firm’ on the dirt as he did battle with an enemy.

 

Stability in the battle. That’s why Paul wrote to his protégé Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2: 15).  

 

When we do battle for our souls, and for the souls of others, we don’t want to be slipping and sliding into every wave of worldly philosophies and traditions as we fight. Spiritual truth ANCHORS us, it roots us, it steadies us in the battle.

 

The good news of the Cross is for all who, in the stillness of their night and in the emptiness of their own isolation, for all who wonder if there is any hope for them in God. Has He turned away from me because of the things I’ve done?

Does He even know my name?

 

There will be people you will meet every day who have asked themselves those very questions. And there will be people you will meet who, like the woman I told you about a few weeks ago who said to me when I asked her why she doesn’t love Jesus, she answered, “Because He doesn’t love me.”

 

You will meet people like that, people who think God doesn’t love them.

 

Child of God, listen! Put on your God-given sandals of the preparation and the presentation of the gospel of the peace we can have with God. We can have peace with Him because He has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus.

 

If you haven’t yet memorized this text in Romans 5, decide to do so: Hold it like a tight belt around your waist. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Please remember the Greek word translated ‘justified’ means in its fullest sense to be declared by God as being without guilt before Him. Paul continues in this fifth chapter of Romans, verse 8:

 

God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Romans 5:1-10)

No wonder Paul also writes to the Christians at Corinth: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”  (2 Corinthians 5:17-20)

 

Peace with God. The Scriptures make the promise from one end of the Book to the other. We can have peace with God, and God has given you and me the most awesome and awe-inspiring privilege to proclaim to the perishing that unfathomable truth.

Many of you know these words of Fanny Crosby’s hymn:

“Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; weep o'er the erring one, lift up the fallen, tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.”

“Rescue the perishing, care for the dying; Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.”

“Though they are slighting Him, still He is waiting, waiting the penitent child to receive; plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently. He will forgive if they only believe.”

"[Oh] Rescue the perishing, duty demands it. Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide; back to the narrow way patiently win them, tell the poor wanderer a Savior has died.”

Child of God bought with the blood of the Savior, do you think you are unqualified to rescue the perishing, the John Lennons of the world? Don’t let Satan trick you into selling yourself so short. If you love Jesus, if you serve Jesus to the best you are able, then God will use YOU to rescue them.

Remember, neither you nor I stand alone in this battle. We could simply read to someone the genealogy of Jesus from the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel, and the Holy Spirit would use even that list of names to draw someone to the Savior. We are not alone in this battle.

 

Again, St. Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome: “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!” (Romans 10:13-15)

 

Oh, may God help us to tell them what they need to do to have peace with God, to be reconciled with God. It’s so simple a message, a child can understand it:

 

We must tell Him of our sins. We must apologize to Him for those sins and ask His forgiveness. We must ask Him to help us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to serve Jesus the Messiah for the rest of our life. And finally, we must follow the Lord’s commandment to be baptized for the cleansing of our sins. I do not think you can find any reference in the New Testament outside of the gospels where salvation by faith is not always accompanied by baptism.

 

Now, back to the armor. As I have said before in this series, each piece of the Roman soldier’s armor was vital to his safety and the safety of his comrades-in-arms. Each piece was necessary to his ability to successfully wage battle against the enemy.

 

In the same way, each piece of our spiritual armor is vital to our protection and the protection of others. And our armor is also vital to our ability to successfully wage battle against our supernatural enemy.

 

Gird your loins with truth – God’s inerrant and infallible word. Read it. Study it. Memorize it. Tell it to others. Put on the breastplate of righteousness which God credits to us through the sacrificial atonement of Jesus the Messiah. Take up the shield of faith with which you will extinguish the enemy’s fiery lies and doubts and temptations and confusions. And put on your battle-designed shoes, prepared and ready to tell all the John Lennons of this world, “God loves you. God died for you, so that you and He might be reconciled forever.”

 

Next week we will continue our examination of this supernatural armor given us by God.

Learning to Appreciate the Tackles

 Does not wisdom call, and understanding raise her voice?” (Proverbs 8:1)

During the 1929 Rose Bowl, Georgia Tech and the University of California squared off on the California 30-yard line. Georgia controlled the ball. At the snap, Georgia fumbled, and California player Roy Riegels grabbed the pigskin and took off down field.

Suddenly, a roar rose from the crowd. Riegels didn’t know it, but in the confusion he had spun around and was racing toward the wrong goal. Not until another teammate tackled him six inches from the goal line did he realize his error.

Have you noticed life’s fumbles often happen that way? In the confusion of living, we get turned around and race in the wrong direction.

“Listen to the crowd!” We commend ourselves as we run. "I’m doing well!"

Oh, how wrong we can be.

Over the decades, I have grown so very grateful for God’s tackles. He loves me far too much to let me continue running unopposed in my error.

Through my study of Scripture, or listening to His word preached and taught, even by listening to hymn lyrics or the challenging words of other Christians, Wisdom cries out:  "Stop! You’re going the wrong way! Turn around! Repent while there is time!"

And, if necessary, God sends circumstances to tackle me before it’s too late. Better to be embarrassed six inches from the goal line than to cross it into disaster.

Over the years, I’ve learned – more than a few times I've had to relearn it – to thank God for those tackles, regardless of how badly they hurt.

Or for how long they hurt.

Which is why I have also learned to pray often that God will help me listen more closely for Wisdom’s call, because it is the voice of my loving Father drawing me away from the wrong goal – and back to Himself.

New Age, Same Damnation

 During this season of Lent, God has led me to preach a series of messages about the spiritual armor. St. Paul talks about it in Ephesians six. And so, precisely because we are in a deadly and daily spiritual battle with a supernatural enemy, I thought it necessary to say a word or two now about what is often called New-Age spirituality – which is really not at all ‘New Age,’ but is as old as the Garden of Eden.

I doubt anyone who regularly reads my posts even glances at the horoscopes in the paper or online. But perhaps some of your children or grandchildren do. I also doubt anyone who regularly reads my posts are even curious about so-called New Age practices, such as talking to the dead, seeking palm readers to guide them, playing with Tarot cards, Ouija boards, keeping crystals for spiritual help, and other paraphernalia.

But perhaps your children or grandchildren have dabbled – or dabble – in any of the above.

Make no mistake. All of those things are of the occult, and are directly related to demonic activity. And do not doubt this: All who play with that kind of fire WILL be burned.

God tells us repeatedly of the supernatural forces all around us – angelic and demonic. That is why He expressively forbade Israel in the Old Testament and Christians in the New Testament from being involved in even the most peripheral way with such things.

We must FLEE from those things.

Dabbling in dark things is nothing less than a slap in the face of our heavenly God and Father. It is nothing less than swinging the whip again and again at the back of the Lord Jesus.

That is why participation in ANY of those activities, whether horoscopes, Tarot cards, or anything else of New Age practices – participation REQUIRES repentance and a refusal to ever participate in them again.

Listen! We are in a spiritual war. A supernatural war. Experimenting with any New Age ideas and practices places us into the talons of Satan, whose sole purpose is our destruction.

Please, be strictly obedient to God’s commands. Warn your children and grandchildren of how offensive to God are any New Age practices.

Eternal life or eternal death is quite literally at stake here.

Third Sunday of Lent -- The Supernatural Warfare, part three

 

Third Sunday of Lent

Supernatural Warfare – part three

 

You can watch this message on YouTube: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFI3M17cMjk

 

Two weeks ago, we looked at the evidence of the growing supernatural evil all around us. Last week we began our look at the supernatural armor God has provided for our protection in this deadly spiritual battle. We also reminded ourselves that God never, ever leaves us alone in this battle.

 

The first piece of armor St Paul addresses in Ephesians six is the belt of truth. When Paul used that illustration, he was telling his readers that if we don’t hold truth close to ourselves, if we compromise or dilute God’s truth, then we open ourselves to mortal attack by that enemy – which is likely the reason we are seeing so much demonic activity in our culture.

 

In so many of our churches, God’s eternal truth has been terribly diluted and compromised, so much so that it is nearly unrecognizable. I have even had pastors tell me in private conversation that they do not talk about certain social issues in their homilies so as to not offend people in the pew.

 

That is one reason we spent so much time last week talking about that belt of truth. But now, on this third Sunday of Lent, as we continue to journey toward Resurrection Sunday, let’s look again at this text in Ephesians 6. Today we pick up at verse 13.

“Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” (Eph 6:13-16)

 

Let’s look now at two more elements of the spiritual armor: The breastplate of righteousness, and the shield of faith. We will look at the feet covered with the preparation of the gospel next time.

 

The word ‘righteousness,’ as used by the writers of Scripture, often carried the idea of thinking and acting according to God’s commandments. Virtue, virtue, integrity, moral purity, are godly principles.

 

The equation seems simple enough. Obey God’s laws – the more scrupulous the better – and you’ve got nothing to worry about. But God has something deeper in mind when it comes to Biblical righteousness.

The scribes and Pharisees were meticulous in their observances of the Law of Moses, as well as in their multiple oral interpretations of those laws by their scholars. In fact, the two major theological schools of Hillel and Shemmai both taught that oral traditions were as authoritative as the written laws handed down by Moses and the prophets. Their oral traditions informed them that if they followed those traditions and interpretations of the Law, God would consider them ‘righteous.’

Yet the Lord Jesus said during His sermon on the mount to the crowd of disciples, curious onlookers, and some religious leaders. “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom.” (Matthew 5:20)

 

I can imagine what the crowd thought to themselves: If even the holy men around us will not enter heaven, then WHO can ever be saved?

 

Who, indeed?

 

Here is what the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Philippi:

“. . . I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith . . . (Philippians 3:8-9)

 

The New Testament repeatedly informs us, Biblical righteousness is not defined so much by what we DO, but by what we ARE. And please pay attention to this follow-on comment: It is what we ARE that must translate into what we do.

 

That’s why anyone who claims to be a follower of Christ but still acts like he or she did before allegedly becoming a follower of Christ, then that person is a liar. Here is this word from John’s first epistle: (1 John 2:3-5) “This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. The one who claims, “I know him,” while not keeping his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in this person. But the love of God is truly perfected in whoever keeps his word. This is how we know we are in him.”

Painstaking observance of the law or of tradition alone saves no one. Why? Because sin is part of our inherited nature, written like some genetic code into our spirits that invariably lead us away from the Savior.

 

That was the lament of that great apostle, St. Paul. Feel this man’s passion as he cries out in Romans 7 regarding his sin nature: “For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. . . . For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want . . . I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good . . . Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? (Romans 7:15-24)

But thanks be to God, Paul didn’t stop at the end of chapter seven with the bad news. He moved on to the next verses we find in chapter eight. It is there that Paul shouts the good news about the righteousness that God imputes to us – the righteousness God credits to us – solely on the basis of our baptismal faith: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus – which mirrors what he wrote a few chapters earlier: But now apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been manifested . . . even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe . . ..” (Romans 3:21-22).

 

The faith in God’s promise related to our imputed righteousness is vital to the integrity of our spiritual breastplate – and to our shield of faith. Again, it is “By [God’s] doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption . . . .” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31)  

 

But if Satan can create doubt in your mind about God’s truth concerning what we already ARE in Christ, if he can insinuate uncertainty in the unalterable promises of God, then he will have created a critical chink in your breastplate and shield – and he will go in for the kill.

That is why girding ourselves securely with Biblical TRUTH is so important to the Christian. God’s truth produces a steadfast trust in Christ. God’s truth sets us FREE from fear that God has lied to us about any of His promises, or that His promises do not apply to us because of our past sins.

 

Which brings us now to that shield of faith.

 

The Roman soldier’s shield was often made of tough animal hide. It stood approximately 4.5 feet high and 2.5 feet wide. Before battle, soldiers soaked their shield with water which helped extinguish any flaming arrows fired at them by the enemy. The soldiers also formed parallel ranks as they marched toward the battle line, their shields protecting them from the oncoming army. But when a volley of arrows arced toward them in the sky, the first rank kept its shield in front of their body, while the second and subsequent ranks lifted their shields above the heads of the soldiers in front – forming something like a tortoise shell.

 

That is analogous to how YOUR shield of faith can protect those you love. Wetted by faith in God’s truth, your shield will extinguish the fiery arrows of doubts and fears and confusions and temptations sent against you from the enemy. At the same time, when you share God’s truths with those who are temporarily – shall we say – on the front lines, your words of Scripture, reinforced with prayer, will encourage, cover, and protect those who are under attack.

 

Now a word here about faith and truth and righteousness and what is often called new-age spiritism – which is really not at all ‘New Age’ but it is as old as the Garden of Eden.

 

I do not believe anyone here even glances at the horoscopes in the paper or online. But perhaps some of your children or grandchildren are so involved.

 

I do not believe anyone here – but perhaps your children or grandchildren are – I do not believe anyone here is even curious about new-age spirituality, such as talking to the dead, seeking spiritists to guide them, using horoscopes to inform their decisions, playing with Tarot cards or Ouija boards, keeping crystals for spiritual help, and other paraphernalia – all of which are of the occult, all of which are directly related to demonic activity, and all those who play with that kind of fire WILL be burned.

 

God expressively forbad Israel in the Old Testament and Christians in the New Testament from being involved in even the most peripheral way with such things. Dabbling in or using those dark things is nothing less than a slap in the face of our heavenly God and Father. It is nothing less than swinging the whip once again at the back of the Lord Jesus.

 

We are in a spiritual war. A supernatural war. Dabbling with or utilizing any of those New Age ideas and practices places us into the talons of the devil whose sole purpose is our destruction.

 

Participating in ANY of those activities, whether horoscopes, Tarot cards, or anything else of New Age practices REQUIRES repentance and a refusal to ever again participate in them.

 

That is why God gave us instruction about the Armor of God in this chapter of Ephesians – for our protection. Don’t leave any of that armor on the ground.

 

None of the Roman soldier’s armor was superfluous. Each piece was vital to his safety and the safety of his comrades, as well as to his ability to successfully wage battle against the enemy. In the same way, none of our supernatural armor is superfluous. Each piece Paul mentions in this sixth chapter of Ephesians is rooted in God’s truth and is vital to our safety – and the safety of others. Our armor, all of it, is also vital to our ability to successfully wage battle against our supernatural enemy.

 

We will look next at the other pieces of the Christian’s supernatural armor.

 

Too Busy

 St. Luke tells us that someone sitting at a meal with Jesus said, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.”

But the Lord’s response gave me reason to pause:

“A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, because everything is ready now.’ And yet they all alike began to make excuses.

“The first one said to him, ‘I purchased a field and I need to go out to look at it; please consider me excused.’ And another one said, ‘I bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’

And another one said, ‘I took a woman as my wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ And the slave came back and reported this to his master.

“Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here those who are poor, those with disabilities, those who are blind, and those who are limping.’ And later the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and the hedges and press upon them to come in, so that my house will be filled.

“For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my dinner.’” (Luke 14:16-24)

I believe the time is soon coming in which the true Church (‘True’ as opposed to the Tares among the wheat as described in Matthew 13:24-30) – the True Church will hear the trumpet of God and be carried away with Him in the clouds “to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

But as I came to this passage in Luke’s gospel, I had to stop and wonder, can I become so busy with the affairs of this life that I lose my longing for the next? Will the Lord Jesus rebuke me, as He did the faithful church at Ephesus, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love”? (Revelation 2:1-5).

Can it ever happen to me that I get to be so busy making excuses why I cannot do this or that for the Lord that I don’t even hear the trumpet? Could it ever happen to me that I stop ‘loving His appearing”? (see 2 Timothy 4:8).

These are not questions I should dismiss out of hand, as if such things could never be true in my case. I have too much experience with life’s twists and turns and tumbles to think I am immune to a creeping negligence of what should always be my primary focus.

Perhaps it is BECAUSE we are all susceptible to a creeping negligence, a slow drift from our mooring, that the writer to the Hebrews warns us: “Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith . . . .” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Fixing our eyes on Jesus.

“Richard,” I caution myself, “pay attention to those words. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Every day and through the day. No one else. Nothing else. He alone is the author and the perfecter of your faith.”

God is Sovereign

 As I read again through Luke’s gospel, this text caught my eye:

“Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all the people were on their way to register for the census, each to his own city. Now Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was betrothed to him, and was pregnant.” (Luke 2:1-5)

 

Joseph and Mary could not have been happy about this governmental decision. The 70-mile trek to Bethlehem from Nazareth was not high on their wish-list. After all, she was 9-months pregnant! And they weren’t traveling in the latest SUV.

 

No, the trip was not one to which they looked forward.

 

But God . . ..

 

We should always return to those words, ‘But God.’ In the face of disappointments and fears and a hundred ‘what-ifs’, our sovereign God is just that – sovereign over every circumstance and every facet of creation, the rich and the powerful, and the poor and the unknown.

 

In the case of Joseph and Mary, it was God who orchestrated the law that sent them on that grueling trip. Why did He so orchestrate it? Because the prophecy of Micah needed fulfillment. The Savior had to be born in Bethlehem. (See Micah 5)

 

The pompous Caesar Augustus likely thought it was his idea to implement the census – in much the same way as virtually all despotic political leaders in history – to this present hour – think it THEIR idea to implement whatever policies or rules they come up with.

 

Whether it’s a King Saul (1 Samuel), or King Cyrus (Isaiah and 2 Chronicles), or in this case, the Caesar – or any of the scores of other examples in Old and New Testament history, our utterly and eternally Sovereign God orchestrates events and people according to His unassailable will, purpose, and plan.

 

I memorized a text decades ago that keeps coming back to me when I consider the current events in America. The text is from the book of Proverbs: The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He pleases. (21:1)

 

Life often frustrates us. Frightens us. Annoys us. Confuses us. Angers us. During such times it often feels as if God is not in control of anything.

 

But our God is always in control. Total, absolute control. And as He used Mary and Joseph in His grand plan in the first century, so too God uses you and me – in all our frustrating and fearful and angering circumstances – He uses us in His grand plan in the 21st century.

 

Joseph and Mary did not want to travel the 70 miles to Bethlehem. They wanted to remain in Nazareth among family and friends for the impending birth of her first born. But God had an eternally more valuable purpose in His mind than to provide for their comfort.

 

Don’t you think the same can be said about His purpose for you and me?

 

Christian – trust God. Things might seem to be falling apart all around us. But they are not falling apart. God is simply orchestrating them into place according to His will, purpose, and plan.