The situation grows dire. North Korea has launched a missile over Japan. Harvey is wreaking havoc in multiple states. America has become more and more divided. Conspiracy theories abound about various subjects. There are mini wars being waged by ISIS. The slaughter of Christians grows in various countries. There are groups furthering the cause of taking freedoms away from anyone they disagree with. Finland is killing babies as a way to eradicate children with Downs Syndrome from their population. As you can see, these are just major stories. The minor ones are there as well. But then we knew this would happen as the Bible said it would. The bad news is that the world and those who live in it have to get much worse before Jesus comes back. The good news? The world is getting worse daily. Yesterday I learned of a movement in California to give prison time to people caught misusing someone's chosen identifying pronoun! The think police aren't doing such a good job. Why? Because they are thinking. Something God has never intended. In Jeremiah 29 God tells Jeremiah that the people were doing things that he didn't believe his people would do. So, God told Jeremiah to stop praying for the people. Jeremiah's response is: "I cannot not pray for them!"
What to do?
The Christian today really is missing the boat in bringing about change with those around them. The ideal is that we spend out time on earth serving God and God alone. When we seek to do only his will, we put aside our will. We, Christians, have a problem whenever we start thinking outside of what God wants. That's one of the reasons we have over 200 kinds of Baptists in the world and more denominations than we can ever use. The Christian church has become a dialed in "what people want" affair. Don't like what the pastor said? Change churches. Their doctrines convict you? Go to another church where they don't. Someone disagree with you? Leave them in the dust. We live in a do as you please when you please and how you please society. That's what we've made the world to be both inside and outside the church. Never mind the physical wars where people are losing their lives. Mind the church where people are routinely being told that they aren't sinners in need of a Savior. So, what's the good news?
The Kingdom of God has come! Jesus has come! His birth, life, death, and resurrection has brought the Kingdom of God to anyone who surrenders their life to Jesus. We have the Kingdom of God within us in the person of Jesus. Thus Paul can say, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me." Can you say that? Jesus repeatedly used nature as an example of life in Christ. He talked about how the tree that produces no fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire. If you read your Bible, you know he said this. He tells us it's better to go maimed into life than to live with the sin within us. If you read the Bible, you know this to be true. Jesus said that we will be persecuted and all kinds of evil set upon us should we have him living in our lives. If you read the Bible, you know this is also true. While the picture may look good in your world...it's not supposed to. We are to be the sentry in the tower shouting warnings to those who are around us. Without the sentry, God has to find other means to bring in the lost. He's asked you and I to love his Son and to bring that love to the world that hates us. Remember, it's always your choice.
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