“For Such A Time . . .”

This photo from their Facebook post is but one segment of work being done in Haiti that has a small monetary support from our church – and lots of prayers. This last week, a newsletter mentioning this work also mentioned another ministry work, “Sewing for Souls”, which teaches sewing skills.

That touched a chord with a mission-minded group in our church, “Together We Can Change Lives”, which had had annual fund raisers for specific mission projects. We took the idea from the newsletter and called another missionary to see if it could be adapted to their ministry. The missionary laughed out loud, explaining that they had been praying for a sewing machine so they could teach sewing to help people in their mission.  Our funding was such that we could purchase a sturdy machine, needles, thread and even supply some material.

We also saw God’s hand in the line of letter, thoughts, phone call and actions that answered a missionary’s prayer. The path began before the missionary’s prayer. That tied in so beautifully with our Sunday School’s study in Esther – the book’s central verse:

For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? (Esther 4:14 KJV)

Had the newsletter been simply a request for the mission’s need, had we thought “what a neat idea” and let the idea slide, had we not previously held fund raisers, had the missionary not prayed for a sewing machine – there would be others who stepped in, and while we would not have been destroyed, we would have lost a huge blessing.

Along that same line, I listened to Michael Curry’s message Saturday morning – and multiple millions around the world did, and will continue to discuss it. In that message is the fact that God showed redemptive love through Jesus. Love cannot change the world without God, but God’s love changed the world and is able to change each individual still in this world.

Do you see God’s hand in getting this message around the world through the rare event of a prince’s marriage? It would have been so easy to ask a minister to keep Jesus’ name out of the program, as so many schools have asked of students, to keep from offending.

Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. (Matthew 11:2-6 KJV)

John’s purpose in life was to introduce Jesus – then he doubted. He was imprisoned, probably knew the eventual outcome. That would raise doubts – haven’t you had some? Jesus didn’t give a yes or no answer. He listed results. These weren’t promises, these where results of specific actions.

Well, what I’ve seen this past week comes so close: “… and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” I am not offended by the actions or the message Jesus gave to all who will hear. How do you feel about it?

My View of “A Short Story . . .”

Decades ago I ran across Vladimir Soloviev (1853-1900) and his "A Short Story of the Anti-Christ," from his "Three Conversations", published in the year of his death. Forty years ago it was fascinating. Today it is even more so, since some of what he wrote occurred in my lifetime:

As a natural consequence of this fact, the old traditional organization of individual States was everywhere deprived of its former importance, and the last traces of ancient monarchal institutions gradually disappeared. Europe in the twenty-first century represented an alliance of more or less democratic nations -- the United States of Europe. The progress of material culture, somewhat interrupted by the Mongolian yoke and the war of liberation, now burst forth with a greater force.

Change a name to “European Union,” delete the reference to a “Mongolian yoke”, and look where we are a hundred years after this was written. Look a bit further – two paragraphs below in his Story:

Humanity had outgrown that stage of philosophical infancy. On the other hand, it became equally evident that it had also outgrown the infantile capacity for naïve, unconscious faith. Such ideas as God creating the universe out of nothing were no longer taught even in elementary schools. A certain high level of ideas concerning such subjects had been evolved, and no dogmatism could risk a descent below it.

Is the idea that God created the universe out of nothing even discussed in any school? Or has a “high level of ideas concerning such subjects evolved” – as our former President’s concept of biblical truth evolved?

Even though the link to “A Short Story of the Anti-Christ” takes us to a Catholic book site, I would encourage reading it for what does appear prophetic – and the obvious mistakes in it, made when viewing the future with mankind’s perspective.

I will give away part of the ending:

Here, Father Pansophius wished to end his narrative, which had for its object not a universal cataclysm of creation but the conclusion of our historical process which consists in the appearance, glorification, and destruction of the Anti-Christ.

POLITICIAN - And do you think that this conclusion is so near?

We don’t know the conclusion’s timing, Jesus said no man does.

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. (Matthew 24:36 KJV)

There are clues – and Soloviev used examples of them in this short story. I believe Paul had written a good description this very time:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:1-5 KJV)

Yes – some of these descriptions have clung to mankind for millennia, perhaps as strongly as today. But all of them? All at once? We still have the same questions that Jesus’ disciples asked:

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? (Matthew 24:3 KJV)

Read the rest of that chapter for His answer – and the rest of the Bible for answers for all when it was written, all mankind through the ages, for us today, and for whatever generation actually goes through the “end of the world.” Until then, just make your peace with Genesis 1:1, John 1:1, and John 3:16. After those three, continue reading.