In the Last Days . . .

What a weird world we live in. Many churches announced early in the year that 2020 was going to be the year of vision (get it?, 2020?) But God seems to have a sense of humor. We don’t have a clue about what comes next. We were planning a missions trip to Costa Rica this summer. Now we aren’t sure if we are allowed to travel to Ohio. School was let out, and we don’t know if students will be let back in. 

This summer I have been preaching about living in a world full of lies. We are to be people of the truth, and yet we are surrounded by lies. On some subjects we aren’t sure what is a lie and what is the truth.

And, in these last days, the rules keep changing. We have found that you can be held accountable for something you may have said 40 years ago. CEO’s and journalists are resigning their positions because someone found their high school yearbook. A person can be fired from a corporation, not because they did anything illegal, or even unethical. They can be fired because something they believe, and have admitted to believing, is found to be offensive to some aspect of the consumer marketplace. Oh, it wasn’t offensive two weeks ago, but someone decided that it is offensive now. 

So what does this mean for Christians? It means that, if we talk openly about what we believe, we will soon be accused of all manner of hatefulness and bigotry. Let’s just review a few of things that Bible-believing Christians (is there any other kind of Christian?) believe.

• Jesus is the only Door and Shepherd to heaven (John 10). “Neither is there salvation in any other” (Acts 4:12).
• After death, there is judgment, and we will assigned to eternal life, or eternal death; to heaven, or to hell (Dan 12:2; Matt 25:46)
• God is the Creator and Designer of heaven and earth. He created humans as male and female (Gen 1:27). He designed marriage as a relationship between a husband and wife, to be lived out “so long as you both shall live” (Matt 19:4-6).

Let’s remember, we are God’s ambassadors, commissioned to speak the Gospel of grace that we have heard from Him, and we are not responsible if the world approves of our (His) message.