Filled with Fear or Fuelled by Hope! - Gospel Opportunities in Unprecedented Times!

Are you like me? Have you had many fellow Christians forwarding you articles, video links, blog posts, quotes and such like about how many events so far in 2020 are indicating its the End Times?

Well are we in the End Times?  

I don't know. 

We might be. 

But there have been other generations before us that have maybe felt the same at different times. And maybe there will be more generations in the future who will feel the same way.

Whether we are or not, we are meant to be living every day like Jesus is coming back today!  

As Christians, Jesus said in Matthew 24:6 that we should not be alarmed even if there are wars and rumours of wars as part of the 'end times'. However, I am so saddened that many of these links I have been sent seem to be written and compliled in such a way as to stir a sense of alarm. The music chosen as background to some videos has even been to build tension. 

Yet, what is the purpose meant to be of Christians being alert to the end times?

Is it so that Christians spend their focus 'warning' other Christians that 'the end times are here', which often seem to only engender further fear and anxiety? Does Scripture give us the book of Revelation, and passages like those in 2 Thessalonians, so that our fear will increase and we become almost addicted to such messages of impending doom so that we get almost get an adrenaline rush from end times focused social media posts? NO. The truth of Scripture is not there to increase the Christian's fear of end times, but fuel their hope.  

But I have read or received very many links (almost none!) that have been designed to fuel my hope in God and passion for sharing his gospel.

Here is where I think we are missing the point on 2 counts.

1. Knowledge of the end times is supposed to be fearful for only one group of people - the unsaved.  And that should spur us to be even more active and passionate about sharing the gospel. 

Any signal of the end times should prompt and propel our gospel sharing, but sadly the messages I'm receiving are not about spurring people on to the urgency of sharing Christ.

So I don't think we are getting the 1st foundational point of knowing about the end times - increased intentional gospel proclamation and disciple making.

2. Then secondly for the Christian, what is the purpose of knowing about the end times?…..Building hope.  We are meant to encourage each other and spur each other on in the knowledge that this world is not our home, we do not live for the temporary earthly successes but for eternal and spiritual glories. 

We are reminded that we can endure whatever is coming because we are not alone, we are indwelt by the Comforter, never forsaken, strengthened by his might, calmed by his peace…and thus face the future not with fear but with confidence and calm.  But I'm not seeing this. I am not being sent messages of confidence, calm and encouragement.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what are we doing?

COVID-19, African locust plagues, and years of drought may or may not be telling us the end times are immanent. But even if Jesus is coming soon, we are not meant to fear, but eagerly cry 'come Lord Jesus'. We shouldn't be engulfed with fear or stirring fellow Christians to fear. Instead we should be beacons of hope. 

And as we shine as beacons of hope, maybe others will ask us why we have so much peace, calm and confidence in the face of so much uncertainty.  Maybe instead of worrying more we should be witnessing more!

In fact 2 Chronicles doesn't tell us that drought, locust plagues and pestilence (disease) are signs of the end times, but are signs God's people need to repent!

Fellow Christians, what do we need to repent of ?  What do you need to repent of?

Have we failed to hear the message of Scripture for the purpose God gave it? Have we forgotten that any 'signs of the times' are there to prompt us to give more glory to God, to be reminded that we are in safe hands since he already knew about this before we even began to think about it? Have we been messengers of alarm to fellow believers and quiet to non-believers, instead of messengers of warning to non-believers and comfort and encouragement to believers?

Yes there are conspiracy theories, there are wicked realities in our world, there are sinful and selfish hearts, and there is a Father of Lies whose aim is simply to steal, kill and destroy everything that is good and glorifies God. Satan is out to mess up the world and let sin have its full destructive force. He is the angel of light and great deceiver and will trick many into following what look like his 'good ideas' but are concealing destructive goals. His end-times schemes are destructive, are anti-God and are deceitful. 

But Scripture doesn't tell us to spend all our efforts in telling and retelling and retelling fellow believers that the end times might be coming. We already know they are coming…we have been pre-warned, not to be filled with fear, but to be equipped and forearmed with hope which gives us greater urgency to live and share the gospel. 

We are not taken unawares, so we should not be shocked or worried. We are children of the winning King. We already know the end of the story. God has the last say. God gets the glory and we get to live with him forever.

We are not victims of what world leaders might be up to, even though we might feel the impact of their decisions. Rather we are victors with the One who has already won the Victory over sin. Whatever man's and Satan's schemes, God has the greater plan. God is still working his plans. It is a deception and lie of the Devil for us as believers to be weighed down, discouraged, worried or consumed in our focus or time with all that might or might not happen or when. Yes, let's be aware that the world is not just going to plod on forever, there will be end times. Yes, let's be strong clear voices of truth and light and the salt in the earth. But let's also keep it in perspective, and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and not the storm….or else like Peter, we will sink and not walk where Jesus wants us to.

So in this year of 2020 - what is your focus? Where are your energies? Has Satan got you diverted? 

Or are you propelled by the world's news into sharing the good news about Jesus more urgently than ever before?

Are you busy helping and encouraging others in their efforts to share the good news?  

Are you busy encouraging and building hope in the hearts of your fellow believers?

Oh how I would long to receive more messages or watch more videos that observe the sad and sorry state of our world and are thus filled with gospel urgency and passionate hope!

2 Thessalonians 2:16

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, 

who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 

comfort your hearts 

and establish them in every good work and word.

and the very next verse in 2 Thessalonians 3:1 (which encapsulates the goal of our ministry) should be the focus for our prayers and our work as we await the second coming of our King….

Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, 

Lessons from a COVID-19 Mushroom ...about Tests, Temptations and the Unexpected!

This year of 2020 and COVID-19 seems to be a roller coaster of the unexpected!

In chatting with a member of our family just yesterday, we talked about how from one day to the next you don't know if the laws will change, lockdown will be re-instated or what the next news broadcast will say. 

When the Unexpected Arrives

I had another little lesson on dealing with the unexpected just recently in the form of an unexpected arrival in our garden of….a mushroom! Yes, that photo above is of a mushroom.

In our garden there is a pathway area which is just plain dirt and nothing normally grows - even weeds don't grow there very often.

But just a few days ago, we noticed a 'bump'  or 'lump' of some kind had suddenly appeared in the middle of the dirt path. From a distance I wasn't sure what it was, but I did not think it had been there the day before.

When we went to do a close-up check, this is what we found!

Yes, definitely a mushroom. A lone, quite large mushroom. On a dry dirt path, in the middle of a dry cold winter! How bizarre.

It seemed totally out of place, in the wrong season, and like it had come out of nowhere…although it was plainly obvious that it had pushed its way out through the loose dusty dirt - since it still had 'dirt' covering the top of it. It felt like a strange mix of a surprise and the totally weird!….it was almost the definition of the unexpected. This thing was a sudden 'intrusion' and 'disturbance' to the quiet and peaceful smooth patch of dirt pathway, and from our perspective it was not meant to be there.

I wasn't sure whether to see it as a nuisance, annoyance, a danger, cute, ornamental, intriguing or delightful.  Should we remove it, wait and observe it, or enjoy its beauty?

But then I got to thinking….this is like so many unexpected things in life to which we can have a multitude of responses.

We can be initially shocked, or annoyed or angry or frustrated if we think the 'unexpected' is also undesired. Or we can be intrigued or delighted if the 'unexpected' is pleasurable.

But this little mushroom brought a mix of responses, and became a mini-example (on a low scale of course) of the first few verses of the book of James which talk about trials.

Responding to the Unexpected

Sometimes when the unexpected arrives into our life we wonder if it is something from God or from Satan. This is a factor, but there is another 'or' issue, and that is how we respond 'to' the unexpected.

The English words for trial, and tempt/temptation in James 1 are the same word in the Greek (peirasmon) and some translations translate it as trial and some as trouble and some as temptation. James says that such things are to be counted as 'joy' in James 1:2, but he also says that God doesn't tempt anyone (James 1;13). So how are we to understand this?

My mushroom which elicited a range of responses in me was helping me to gain some new light on this….along with a 'well-timed' sermon from our Pastor last Sunday!

Events in our lives, particularly those that are unexpected, may be difficult, but in one sense are 'neutral' in themselves. From Satan's perspective they are opportunities and vehicles to tempt us to succumb to sin. But when we come to them from God's perspective they are gifts in order to test and strengthen us as we resist the devil's temptation to sin and instead grow in faith in God.

When Satan sent unexpected difficulties into Job's life in order to tempt him to reject God (or as Job's wife said to 'curse God'), God's purpose in allowing them was not to tempt Job to do wrong, but to test and prove and thus grow and deepen Job's faith so that at the end of the process Job joyfully praised the Lord for how his faith had come forth 'as gold' (Job 23:10). Satan's purpose was to lure Job away from faith in God, as opposed to God's purpose being to strengthen and prove and show forth Job's loyalty and trust in God. 

A similar scenario occurred when Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit…. to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1). The wilderness experience was what Satan wanted to use to lure Jesus away from his Father's will, but God used it to prove that Jesus could not be 'lured' to sin and God's plan would be accomplished God's way.

Without God and his perspective, any 'trial' is going to be a time of temptation that is for sure. It will get us down, discouraged, disquieted and disappointed, and we are sure to respond with disobedience to God's commands and dishonouring of his name.

But with God in our trials, they are times where he is proving/testing our faith in order to strengthen it. 

In James 1:3 which says: 

'you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance',

the word used for testing is different from the 'trials' word. 

This time the word for test is 'dokimos', which means to test the genuineness of something. He is shining the light on whether we will be loyal toward him rather being lured away from him toward evil. So James is saying when we understand God's perspective on life, the various trials (peirasmon) we face don't have to fulfil Satan's aim for them, rather they are for the testing (dokimos) of our faith to the glory of God.

God does not lure/tempt us to evil and never sends circumstances into our lives to lure us to sin. Any pull toward evil is coming from Satan and the sin in our world and in our own hearts (James 1:14). God is about working for good and holiness and our growth in faith in him. 

God's reason to allow trials and temptations is the opposite of Satan's schemes in wanting us to be entrapped and tripped up.

Rather than Satan's purpose of increasing our worry and fear and destroying our faith and stopping us from glorifying God, God wants to build our faith, grow us in perseverance (James 1:2-5), have us keep our eyes fixed on him, be reminded of his faithfulness, and bless us with peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7)!

…and that is still the case even when the 'intrusion' and problems just gets bigger rather than going away, like what happened with Job, and with our mushroom!….to about 15cm/6 in. tall!

Its an Honour Choice

As I thought about my mixed reactions toward the mushroom - a bit negatively with annoyance with it being in the middle of the pathway, but then with the delight and joy of its beauty, quaintness, uniqueness, and the way it could point me to praise the Creator - I saw a parallel with our own 'trials' as human beings on this earth. 

In these times, we can respond by succumbing to the temptation to get annoyed, angry, disappointed or complaining about the 'intrusion', or we can view it as an opportunity to see what God may want to teach us through it, and how he wants us to focus on who he is and the gifts of  learning to delight and rejoice in new ways. Instead of thinking of the temporary here-and-now and perceiving them as disruptions to our schedules/expectations, they are meant to be viewed in the light of the eternal and create opportunities to delight in God and the trustworthiness of his plans. 

It's about a choice between our own honour or his honour.

In this way, whatever comes our way—even 'trials' filled with temptations and Satan's schemes—is not cause for despair, but opportunities that God has promised to enable us to endure (1 Cor 10:13). 

Thus, even in this season of a pandemic and all the other 'unexpected' circumstances of life, I am reminded (and a bit chastised) by what I need to learn once again from the emergence of this little mushroom:

God's purpose for unexpected trials is for his glory and our good….thus we can count them all joy!