In A World Of Competing Interests, God Remains Faithful
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(1) As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. (2) And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith. (3) But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. (4) We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. (5) May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.’ (2 Thessalonians 3:1-5)
In our nation and our world today, there are a lot of competing interests. Some are simply innocuous; ‘chili with or without beans’, or ‘Ford or Chevy’. I’m certain people have their choices in this manner (I prefer chili without beans, making it ‘sloppy Joe’-like, and ‘neither’ as we have two Kia Fortes). Not all of us will agree and I’m certain there are no ecumenical crises if we differ in our opinions of such things.
There are unfortunately, those whose interests are not Godly and carry great weight in the secular world. Though ‘wokeness’ seems to have taken a back seat recently, it still holds great sway over many people. European nations have taken a ‘meek is weak’ approach in their apparent self-destruction by allowing Islamic refugees to come into their nations in such great numbers the native populations are becoming outmuscled and outnumbered and their cultures are slowly swept away.
The natives are being ‘cancelled’; their voices are not permitted to speak against their nations’ actions or policies, though their opinion about wanting to sound ‘impending doom’ is warranted. Here in the US, the early 2020’s saw such ‘cancel culture’ for those who spoke to defend Christian principles in regards to ‘woke’ agendas regarding gender and sexual preferences. Those who spoke against illegal immigration were labeled ‘racist’ though it is evident of the damage such immigration brought to our European partners.
We also were hit with a plague, and both natural and man-made disasters had and still have struck us, as seen in the destruction of the island of Jamaica recently. Yet, for the Christian, in spite of many who attempt to shut down our voices or persecute the Church as a whole, we see our Lord still Faithful and still on the throne.
Our Lord is indeed faithful; sometimes it seems like He may have ‘took the last train for the coast’ (that’s a lyric from the song, ‘American Pie’). Some may hear from the skeptics “where is your God now?” with regards to today’s problems; the continuing shutdown, the rioting and protests against our laws, and global turmoil with wars and disasters. So where is our Lord, now that we need Him?
Jesus is of course where He always is; right now, at the right-hand seat of Father God, in control over all things and all realms. The Holy Spirit is also where He always is, indwelling within each of God’s children who accept Jesus as Lord. Unlike those ‘wicked and evil people’ (those who do not believe in Jesus as our Lord) we do have Faith, and we have confidence that our Lord not only will overcome these things but He will have His church overcome this, as well. He always has, every time! Now is the time to press the skeptics on the fact we know where our Lord is – He is with us, protecting us and is preparing us to broadcast His Gospel.
Yes, some of us in Christ will pass away due to these plagues and troubles, and some will suffer terrible tragedies or interruptions that may cost us time or treasure or possessions or jobs or health. Remember that we are the Lord’s, and He may use our tragedies (and how we react to them) to communicate the Gospel to others. It can be big or small; one very small and inconsequential tragedy occurred in our household a few years ago; I broke the cover of our new garage light I had just installed while moving around a shelving unit I had finished building.
My spouse heard the breakage (they all do, am I right?) and at first was bit distraught, but I looked at it and proclaimed, “Well, praise the Lord we have a garage light for me to break the light cover in.” (Also, the light still works, so it wasn’t a ‘shocking experience’ – and yes, the broken cover is still there.) We recognize the fact that it was a Faith moment, that we need to be thankful we are blessed with a home (and a garage) while there are many without a roof over their head – and many of those without a roof love the Lord, too.
In a more macro and serious level, if a Christian passes away due to any tragedies or troubles, praise the Lord that He is with Christ now, and share that the passed Christian and our Lord would want this to be a time to share and lean on Christ – to persevere and demonstrate that our Lord reigns. Things that we see as tragic disasters may be Heaven-sent to improve us and prepare us to better serve Him.
It was tragic for Charlie Kirk to be publicly assassinated, but as terrible as that tragedy was, his death created a surge of young people flocking to Christ and coming to a better understanding of Christianity and conservatism – away from wokeness and secularism. I’m sure all Christians believe it was tragic that the Jewish and Roman governments persecuted, tried, then beat and crucified Jesus. But it ended up (with His Resurrection) the BEST thing that ever happened! Don’t let these current events get you down, Jesus got back up and so will we.
