It is exciting, challenging and thrilling to watch videos of the “End Times”. And to see miracles – wow, that is really something! Don’t you think?
I knew a young man who loved watching videos and TV programmes about people who had experienced a miracle. Every evening he kept on watching these amazing things and drew his young wife and child along as well. His heart was full of the exceptional, to the point of by-passing the need to do anything else. He almost jumped up and down with glee thinking about them. He could forget about the disappointments at work that day and be transported into this wonderful world of which he never tired.
Another thing, perhaps even more exciting to him, were end times movies. The “Left Behind” series was one of them. It made life so much more worth living, thinking of all these great acts of God that would take place one day.
This man was in charge of a small fellowship. He loved to show videos of miracles, end times and other thrilling things at fellowship gatherings. He wanted to create an atmosphere of excitement and adventure.
Then one day a visiting pastor came to hold a series of messages at that little fellowship. The pastor learned more about the various members by talking to them, observing them and praying for them. The young man had strongly hinted that preaching about the end times would be desirable, but when the pastor took to the pulpit, he started preaching about the basic Christian walk. The young man was furious, the pastor did not do as he had asked!
Time after time the pastor preached about honesty – looking at yourself in the mirror of the Holy Spirit. Seeing yourself as God sees you; a man or a woman with a burden of sins which Jesus had taken upon Himself. The need to believe this and walk free. The crucial need to seek forgiveness and bestow forgiveness. To commit to the Lord in faithful service amidst the nitty-gritty. The courage to continue believing when all seemed to go wrong. The openness to confess all the little secrets that kept you from walking straight and having a sweet relationship with the Lord.
The pastor emphasized the need to lay down roots. To cultivate a strong faith in the Almighty God. To learn to put faith into action at work, at school, at home, during weekdays and on holy days, alone or in a crowd. To learn to listen when God was speaking.
The young man started finding fault in everything the pastor did and said. He started making up lies about the pastor and even believing in them himself. But the little fellowship started changing. The members started confessing extra-marital relationships, jealousy, envy, bitterness and a myriad of other sins. The Holy Spirit was able to work within that group. Simply because one person was faithful to God and did not give in under pressure. This person was finally thrown out by the young man and those who listened to him. But God had already begun a redeeming work in those who had repented.
It occurred to me that even good things, true things, biblical things can separate us from God if we make them more important than listening to and obeying God himself. Life is not full of miracles and end times thrills. In some way, these things which are a very real part of the Christian life, can become deceptive and allure us away from God’s purposes. The major part of our lives consists of ordinary people and ordinary things.
People who do not know the redeeming love of God, turn to drugs to be able to forget every bad thing or to have ‘highs’. Believers may sometimes use miracles and end times as their own special drug. Do not misunderstand me, miracles are great and end times will come, but what God asks of you and me is to be faithful in whatever is in front of us today. To grow in Him so that we can be ready and established in God to be able to stand when the end times do take place. We have a hope and a future, and it is enough for now.
“Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.” (Col. 2:6-8)
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