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When I was a child (and I spoke like a child), I wanted to purchase a Reader’s Digest encyclopedia of the paranormal and the occult. I had the money, and I wanted to buy it. What’s more, my father didn’t dissuade me. All he said was, “Are you OK with spending so much time trying to understand the ways of evil rather than trying to better understand God? If you want to buy the book, it’s your decision, but think about it.” I bought The Little World of Don Camillo instead, and it helped me to have a better, more joyous, relationship with God.
Looking for Lucifer
By Falvo Fowler
A while ago, I received an e-mail about the coming of the Sunday law. But you know what? There’s very little I can do about it, and circulating such notices seems to be for the most part a bit ridiculous. In a world that’s going crazy with weird weather patterns, technology that gives us more work and shorter deadlines, increased poverty, and mutating diseases, we still have way too many people fixated on the coming of the Sunday law.
Could it be that this fixation can at times blind us to God’s bigger picture?
Now, don’t get me wrong. Knowledge is important, but there is something called information overload. And if our entire ministry is funded by the popularity of great beasts and persecution, then what becomes of the love and grace of Jesus Christ?1 We aren’t supposed to scare people into God’s kingdom. Rather, we are to help them value and understand the need we all have for that love and grace.
The love of God is best demonstrated by our actions, our behavior. I was talking with a young pastor who told me about an evangelist who was quite approachable during the program, but as soon as it was over, he was another person. He could preach about end-time events like he was a concerned friend, but afterward, he didn’t seem to care about anyone. All he was interested in was the number of people he could credit to his list of baptisms.
Therein lies the problem.
We are so intent on looking for Lucifer in the culture in which we live and in events that will lead to the destruction of this earth, that we fail to see the need for building toward heaven. The religious leaders of Christ’s time were so intent on knowing more about the Messiah’s coming that they failed to recognize Him in action. The similarities today are startling.
Why do we look for the signs of the end rather than live the life God has given us? It’s almost cultic, or suicidal, when all some of us are concerned about is the end of the world. Our calling, as believers in the true God, is to act, to go beyond the words and the signs, by becoming involved in our local community and the world at large. We are called to be stewards of both the earth and its inhabitants.2
Matt 24:45–7 states: “ ‘Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions’ ” (NIV).
There is more to prophecy than the end times. There is living today for a better tomorrow. And a better tomorrow is us in heaven together.
That better tomorrow starts today, this month, this year with us doing what Christ called us to do: love God and love those around us, in both word and deed.
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1. God’s love and grace do not mean “come home; all is forgiven; now you can do what you want.” Rather, being saved by grace brings with it a responsibility for one’s behavior. Many well-intentioned individuals shun grace because they do not understand that God’s grace creates in us a desire to obey His commandments and to follow His will for our lives.
2. Stewardship is more than just contributing our tithes and offerings. It is a commitment to living a God-centric life.