I grow concerned, more so in recent years, that too much of what we do as Christians in the west is based on fear. Fear of tyranny, or invasion, or corrupt power structures, or really anything else. We must vote a certain way to protect our way of life and our freedom. We must stand in opposition before this politician comes for those we care about. Now, there is a certain wisdom to understanding what is happening in the world and using what power we have to push against the worst of it. I do not advocate for Christians to be removed from the real problems around us or to be complacent in the face of evil. I do, however, urge us all to do so from an understanding that the forces we oppose are not ultimately in charge of what happens.

It's easy to say that we do understand that. But do we really make our decisions about dangers with the understanding that no amount of violence from our enemy can actually harm us unless God allows it? Do we approach our economic state with the fundamental understanding that God will see us through for as long as He has us on this Earth, and no amount of stored money and goods and guns will keep us here even a second longer than that? Do we approach the world's systems with the understanding that God will judge them in His wisdom and strength?

Are we a people distinct and set apart, a people who live as though the ultimate power over all of life is God? Do we align ourselves with power structures to protect ourselves and our interests rather than letting God be our primary, and only, allegiance? Do we seek to protect and dig deep into systems that Christ will judge and destroy on His return? God will cast down all of the systems of this world that do not serve His glory. All of the nations will pass away, no modern economy will survive into the Kingdom, no protest movement will be necessary when the perfect comes. Let us hold these things loosely, let us not put our hope in them as the world does, let us never lose sight of the fact that God is in control and He will not share His glory with any body that demands our allegiance in this life.

Every time a witness in scripture is given a glimpse into the throne room of God, praise is being sung. Songs of praise punctuate events throughout the book of Revelation, they slip out of Paul's pen as he works through theological issues, they accompany the opening of the temple and the birth of Christ and His final major arrival to Jerusalem. God is praised constantly throughout scripture.

One thing I've tried to incorporate here is a hymn with each daily devotion. The text of the hymn rarely, if ever, makes any direct impact on what I end up writing. I only really even tell you what the hymn I read that day is because it holds me accountable to actually have one. I read it as part of my prayer time, and have been recently just going through my hymnal in order without much consideration about finding a hymn directly relevant to the day's texts (which would be very difficult anyway, since I do that stage before reading scripture and therefore don't know what a relevant hymn would even be). I'll be changing gears and doing specifically Advent hymns when that season starts soon. But the point is, I had to recognize that my life was not centered on praise, and one step I took in addressing that was making sure I spend some time every day actively worshiping God.

​I'm not where I need to be with praising God throughout my day, and I think this is something we should all ask ourselves once in a while. We are constantly told about the importance of maintaining an active prayer life, and I fully back that--we need to be going to God constantly and we need to be leaning on Him to do the work He has for us--but I sometimes grow concerned when we are not also told about the importance of maintaining an active life of worship. Of setting our eyes and minds and hearts on God, remembering His greatness, extolling His virtue. When we worship we join with a constant activity being poured out before God, we participate in the regular spiritual life of the kingdom beyond this world. Beyond that, we are reminded of who it is we are praying to, serving, and honoring. Prayer reminds us, among other things, that we can boldly approach the throne of grace; worship reminds us, among other things, that it is still very much a throne.

Recently, a man named John Allen Chau was apparently killed on North Sentinel Island after attempting to evangelize to the people who live there. I witnessed a great many responses that showed a very clear lack of understanding about what it is missionaries do and how they do it and even who they are, which has prompted me to start working on a post on missions. That will be finished at some point, but today's reading brought the whole matter to mind because of one very specific claim that was being made about missionaries. The statement that had been made, and showed up a few times, was that Christians (or at least Evangelical Christians) believe Christ cannot return until every people group is reached and therefore missionaries are actively attempting to bring about the end of the world.

Now, there's a lot to unpack there, and we really should start with the fact that what they're talking about is a very specific read of Dispensationalism that is not shared by all Evangelicals, and even then it is being somewhat misunderstood in this context. But this is a devotional, and the thought that came to mind as I was reading today in Revelation 14 and Jesus' prophesy about the destruction of the temple in Luke 21 and the rather violent promises in Psalm 110 and even a chapter of Ecclesiastes (which is always such a cheerful experience as it is) was about how much we really do suggest to the world that the end is our whole focus.

See, because, it is easy to read passages about angels reaping the Earth in which human lives almost seem to lose all individual meaning and forget to view it through the Biblical mindset that people matter. It's easy to read Jesus' words quoted above and just kind of take them as though He is reprimanding the disciples for appreciating the beauty in something that will not last. Even just the tone of voice used in the rare occasions I've heard this passage read aloud belie this innate sense that Jesus is really saying, "Don't bother with any of that, it's coming down anyway" rather than considering that Jesus may also think it's beautiful and maybe, just maybe, He's mourning what He knows about it. We can see the promises of God to deliver the peoples into the hands of Christ as the final judge and king of all the world, and divorce it from the knowledge that Jesus defeats death on the cross and that God shows a consistent desire that none should perish. It's so easy for us to look at the world around us and cry with the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!"

We are told about the end for a reason. It is good that we know about the full extent and power of God's victory. It is good to view this world with some awareness of what awaits us in the age to come and how our actions today impact that. But we are not told about the end so that we can spend all our time there. We are told about the end so that we can live our lives appropriately now. We can have hope now because we know that Christ has taken the victory and that it will be fulfilled.

But what do we do? We talk endlessly about the end times. We invite people into salvation as though it applies to getting into Heaven but not as though it changes us now. What does the world see when we compare world leaders to the Antichrist and talk about this earth passing away as a shroud and do not broadcast that this religion is something that matters every day as we walk this Earth, and not just something that we sign on to now and then get to enjoy later? We are not pre-ordering salvation! We are being asked to lay down our lives, our entire lives, right here and now and let God decide what we will look like going forward. We are commanded to give everything over to Him and let Him decide how much of it will be given back and what we will do with it. How often do we invite people into that? How often do we take seriously that this might include dying for Christ, but it will absolutely include living for Him? And how often do we show that seriousness of purpose to the people around us?

​When we look at passages about the end times, or what is to come in general, let us be a people who read it seeking to know what that means for us today rather than sacrificing our today to dwell on the future.

Regardless of whether or not one believes we have a choice in becoming a Christian in the first place, the Bible is abundantly clear that the Christian life is made up of frequent and consistent decisions. At the core of most of these is actually just one question: will we prioritize God, or the world? The world, in this matter, can take a variety of forms. In Luke 9, Zaccheus is shown choosing to honor God over money, and the people watching are invited to choose to be where Christ is rather than submit to social norms concerning the tax collector. In Psalm 119:65-72, the author chooses to trust in God's purposes over comfort, safety, and riches. At the end of Matthew 10, Christ urges us to follow him even at the cost of one's own family, even if it puts us at odds with earthly authority, even if we lose our very lives. Conversely, Hosea 13:4-14:3 is a scathing condemnation for choosing to trust in earthly security over serving God, complete with a warning that if we will not know God as Lord, we will know Him as judge.

But consider the promise that comes with this! Christ proclaims of Zaccheus, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:9-10 NASB). To the church of Laodicea He promises, "He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Revelation 3:21 NASB). But more importantly, He promises throughout scripture that He will be with His people. Those who seek Him shall find Him, those who choose Him will have Him.

​In His strength, for His glory, let us find our joy in choosing God above all else.

This will be short, as I'm coming down with something and it is deeply affecting my mental clarity. I'll just give an overview and some passages and encourage you to read them further.

The primary thrust of today's reading was about God marking and protecting those who are His. Psalm 91 is a general promise that God is with His people, to ensure that no evil lays hold of them. The motif of staying safe and secure while terror rages around the people of God is also found in Exodus 12, where Moses begins in verse 21 to direct the people concerning the first Passover, in which the people were marked as God's and calamity passed over them to afflict the Egyptians around them. While specific interpretation may vary, Revelation 7 begins with the account of 144,000 individuals marked as belonging to God. In Matthew 18, Jesus condemns anything that causes one of His people, especially a child, to stumble; even if the thing causing one to stumble is their own body. But this is all contrasted with the cry of Job in Job 3, when he curses the day of his birth and asks why he was even allowed to grow old if this was all that was in store for him.

Was God not protecting Job? Well, yes, He was. The most overt thing is that God places limitations on what Satan can do to Job in chapters 1 and 2, protecting Job from the full scope of Satan's trials. More to the point, though, none of these passages suggest that hard times and great trials will not come. Matthew 18 especially focuses on the fact that things will arise to be a stumbling block in the path of His people. But God will rightly judge all those things which cause trouble for His people, and will deliver His people ultimately out of the full scope of evil's reach. We will endure some pain in this life, but the greatest weapons evil has against us will never prosper. If we are His, He will see to our ultimate rescue.