To My Flock at Marion:
The Future
As Christians we believe and rely on the Word of God, or at least we should. The quote, “I know not what the future holds; but I know who holds the future” is attributed to Homer. I do not know “who” Homer was thinking of, but I know that Jeremiah had the Lord in mind when he wrote, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29: 11). Our hope for the future does not come from knowing what the future holds; it comes by standing in the Lord’s past faithfulness. Standing in what we know; what we have seen. Repeatedly we see the Lord telling His people to remember what He has done in the past to give them hope for the future. The Lord shows us His faithfulness to give us things to hang our faith on. Remembering how he carried us through difficult times in the past gives us courage to face today’s troubles. If we forget His past faithfulness it is easy to lose hope for the future. We need to remember that the Lord has purposed to “give you a future and a hope.” If you belong to Jesus you have a bright future, but the faith that we need for today must come from our past experiences with the Lord. What has God delivered you from? How has God been faithful to you in the past? I want you to look at just one aspect of this; look at the people that God has blessed you with throughout your life. Every one of us has at least one person that we can point to in our lives that has been used by God to help us and show us His mercy. At least one person in your life pointed you in the right direction.
There is a quote that says, “Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.” As Christians who should be grounded in God’s word, we have access to some of what the future holds. Scripture tells us that in the last days perilous times will come, and there will be wars and rumors of wars. Just as the world reaches a crisis point, Jesus will come to rapture His people. The Bible tells us much more about what the future on earth will look like after that, and it is a terrible picture that does not even need to be discussed unless you have not committed your life to Jesus. Rapture is when Jesus will pull His people out of a dying world before things get really bad. We will be taken up to meet Jesus along with all the saints that came before us; this is our future, and God’s word makes it very clear. Let me take a moment here to speak to those of you who might be reading this and thinking to yourselves, this just cannot be true. God in His great love and mercy died on the cross for all of mankind so that all might have a future with Him in heaven. There is only one thing that can keep you from that future: rejecting the sacrifice that Jesus made for you. God will honor His word and give a wonderful future to those who have accepted His Son Jesus the Christ, the Savior. If you do not make that choice you will be left behind to live in the world of your choosing.
So as followers of Jesus, what should we do in the meantime? We might think to ourselves that it would be nice and very convenient if Jesus would come back right now. After all the world does seem to be spinning out of control; we have had plenty of wars and right now as we face a plague and are stuck in the house, wouldn’t this be a good time for Jesus just to take us home. Well, there is no bad time for the rapture to happen from a Christian’s point of view, but that can’t be our focus. Our scripture for today points us to the mission that Jesus has called us to. I invite you to open your Bibles and read 1 Peter 2: 19-25. I would call your attention to verse 21 that says this, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps.”
Listen to this story: The good people of Central Congregation Church in Topeka, Kansas, could never have imagined their pastor doing such a thing. Dressed as a tramp, Pastor Charles spent the week wandering the streets, his tattered coat offering little warmth against the cutting wind. His thin-soled shoes pounded the icy sidewalks; store to store he sought work and asked for help during the blizzard. For almost a week, he drifted through the streets, seeking a kind word. He spied several of his parishioners, but they didn’t recognize him. Finally he found a job shoveling coal for fifty cents a day.
The next Sunday, imagine the surprise on the faces of his listeners as he described his adventures and challenged them to begin walking as Jesus had walked. He wanted them to exhibit the compassion of Christ. Out of his experience, Pastor Charles Sheldon wrote one of history’s best selling Christian novels, In His Steps. This book posed the famous question, “What would Jesus do?” Peter tells us that we should follow in His footsteps, the footsteps of Jesus. We need to ask ourselves these two questions. The first one could be asked whether you are a Christian or not. Where is your daily walk heading? If you have not made a decision to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life then your daily walk is leading you closer and closer to tribulation and eternity separated from God. This should scare you to death, or at least to consider your rejection of God’s mercy. This question is an important one for Christians as well. Our daily walk needs to be heading in the right direction and with purpose. Every day we should be looking to what we can do to be more like Jesus. The second question is a little more challenging: Are you in step with Jesus? Not just, are we doing something, but are we doing what Christ would have us do. Are we in step with His will for our lives? Are we looking to God’s word daily and spending time in prayer asking for His direction? Our future is bright and we know the glory that awaits us, but it should not be our intention to get to the future by standing still. There is work coming! Will you be ready for the future?
In Christ’s Love and Peace
Pastor Bob
2 May 2020
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