Final Days

Here it is…the last day of 2010. It's 11pm and the new year is about to begin. What will it bring?

There are so many uncertainties about that. The bible is true and it says that in the last days iniquity will abound. It says that men will be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God. We all know that this is happening right now, not only in our country but in countries all over the world. I believe there is trouble ahead, even for those of us who believe in and trust Jesus Christ as our Savior. Maybe that trouble will not be disastrous in this year, but in the year ahead, or the one after that. But no matter when or how terrible the bad news, there is always good news as well, isn't there?

I've been reading a book written by a Christian author by the name of Terri Blackstock. She has a series of books called the "Restoration Novels" that I have enjoyed reading so much even though I am not big on novels. Most of my reading of the past several years has been books on Christian doctrine or disciplines, never novels. I actually picked the first one up to try to figure out if a friend of mine might enjoy them as I know what type of novels she likes to read, and then I found myself reading the next one and the one after that as well.

What I have found so interesting about these "Restoration" novels is that the premise for them is a catastrophe that affects the entire world…and how people deal with it, some Christians, some non-Christians. Her Christian characters who are nominal Christians really, more influenced by monetary and material things than by the Word of God, find that they can no longer help themselves and MUST trust God completely for everything from finding food to eat, to keeping alive when once neighborly people become desperate and dangerous. It is very easy to imagine being in these situations that Ms. Blackstock writes of. Most of us have pondered these very scenarios in our minds from time to time, and her thoughts on how mankind would handle such disasters are very interesting and informative.

Yet, what I received the most from the 3^rd book in the series is her mention of the 139^th Psalm. For uncertain times are ahead of us, we all must surely be aware of that. And the Word tells us that the rain falls on the just as well as the unjust.

So, I thought I would remind us all of the complete and utter sovereignty of our God, remembering that He is still in control of our future, no matter what the pundits predict. He already has our days numbered according to His own plans for each of us. He knows our worries and our fears and how frail we are made. Yet He will never leave us who trust in Him. It is because of this that we know that there is nothing to fear in what the new year will bring. There is only the Good News of Jesus Christ ahead for those of us who have trusted in Him and walked in obedience to His Word. Note especially the underlined portions:

"O Lord, you have searched me and have known me. You know my downsitting and my uprising; You understand my thoughts afar off. You sift and search out my path and my lying down, and You are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have beset me and shut me in – behind and before, and You have laid Your hand upon me. Your knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high above me, I cannot reach it. Where could I go from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee from Your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me and the night shall be the only light about me, even the darkness hides nothing from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You. For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother's womb. I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works and that my inner self knows right well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret, intricately and curiously wrought in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days of my life were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand, when I awake, I am still with thee. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Have a blessed New Year!