To offset all the bad news: Christ in You, the Hope of Glory
IT’S WORTH CONSIDERING
Sunset at North Pole
It’s time for another break from all the bad news. Every so often, we need to take a giant step back and look at the big picture. While I want you to know what’s really going on in the world, followers of Jesus must remember that history and world events really are going somewhere. Just as it’s darkest before the dawn, the dark days ahead will give way to a life infinitely better that we could possibly imagine. Review the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24 & 25) and you’ll conclude that God has not abandoned the world despite all its wickedness. After judgment comes a new creation. The perfect conditions of the Millennial Kingdom will follow the dark Day of the Lord. God’s ultimate goal for mankind is restoration, not obliteration.
For those of us who have chosen to follow Jesus, this earth is not our home. We’re just passing through. We must not think of our “homecoming” in terms of this world. The trials we face in this world are only temporary. One day, they will seem like nothing in light of the eternity we’ll have with our Lord. We must remind one another that we’re not home yet.
AS I SEE IT
While it’s good to take a larger view of our earthly problems, we still have to get through them, and I believe we have some tough days ahead. As we approach the Day of the Lord, things will get worse, not better, but I believe this will be a blessing in disguise. Around the world, the most vibrant and powerful churches are those that have undergone serious persecution. As I’ve said before, the underground church in China, which boasts of nearly 200 million members, will not consider a pastor to be worthy of the position if he hasn’t spent at least three years in prison. They say, “America has seminaries for the training of pastors. China has its prisons.
While I’m not looking forward to persecution, I know that it will be good for the
courtesy of persecutionblog.com
Church. It will weed out the wheat from the chaff and cause true believers to put feet on their faith as never before. People will grow spiritually out of necessity, and church services will suddenly become less structured and more meaningful. So, where’s the good news in this? It’s all predicted in the Bible as well as how we’ll do. Despite the things the enemy may throw at us, we will overwhelmingly conquer in these things through Christ who loves us (See Rom. 8:37). What a promise! What hope! God will not only see us through the trials; we will overwhelmingly conquer!
How will this happen? The short version is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (See Col. 1:27). Picture a glove. By itself it is powerless to do anything. Insert your hand and the glove is as powerful as your hand. Everything possible to the hand becomes possible to the glove, but only to the degree that the glove is prepared simply to clothe the activity of the hand. Here’s the point. We are the glove. Christ is the hand. We have the power of Christ available to us, but we’ll never use it until we realize how powerless we are without Him.
Why wait until things get really bad to utilize the power of Christ? Why not start now? We don’t have to wait to start overwhelmingly conquering. We just need to start seeing things through Christ’s eyes, exercise the mind of Christ, in the power of Christ. Granted, it’s easier said than done, but it is possible, and God has already provided us with everything we need to pull it off. Let’s do it!
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
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