Have you ever looked around, especially in the current political climate in this country, and wondered to yourself “What is wrong with people? Is the world getting worse and worse?” Or have you asked yourself or others, “What can we do about it?” If you have asked such questions, I have an answer for you. 

Yes, the world is going to hell in a hand-basket! 

No, there is nothing you can do about it.

This planet, our terrestrial residence, is a temporary place. It is not meant to last. There is really no need to treat it like a sacred temple, or a being worthy of our protection. It is just a floating rock on which God created humans. The important part of this creation is the humans, not the rock. 

Because of the trajectory of humanity from the fall to the end, everything is coming unwound. The evil and godlessness that has plagued this world for millennia is now being distilled down to raw truth. From God comes life and eternal bliss, from godlessness comes death and destruction. The choice is and has always been ours. Each one of us has decided, or will soon decide, to follow God or we will decide to follow ourselves. Those are really our only two options in life.  My will or Thy will? This is the eternal ongoing question that determines all of life. 

There is a time coming when all decisions will have been made and at that time God will adjudicate all of creation as he has promised to do. How will the evidence stack up in our lives that either proves that we served Jesus or that we served ourselves? This is not a mysterious unanswerable question. It is a poigniant and easily determinable analysis. What decisions have we made that have honored God versus what decisions have we made that really honored only  ourselves? It is only those of us who have done the math on this question and have truly grappled with its truth who are in any position to realize that we are in trouble without the loving grace of our savior Jesus. 

God is not asking us to fix anything that is broken in this world, except souls. Politics, Hollywood, the economy, healthcare, our legal system, or what ever; it does not matter what is wrong with the world. It only matters who we save out of this world. 

As a Pastor in the UMC, I am trying to focus on realigning my priorities as well as those of my family and church, so that we can accomplish this one task and one task only. Are we truly prepared for the end? Are we doing everything in our power to help prepare others for the end? 

Lord, please help us before it is too late. 

I have a warning for you. It may be the most astute and critical warning that you will ever receive. It is more important than that of “Smoking will kill you!” or the shrill, ear-piercing noise of a fire alarm. Failure to heed this warning will certainly lead to a fate worse than death. If you continue to ignore this truth you will be destroyed and everything you love will be destroyed. However, if you pay attention to this warning and make adjustments in your life accordingly, you will have a wonderful and successful life free from the worry and trappings that most everyone falls into. Are you ready for it? Here it is.

THE DEVIL IS OUT TO GET YOU!

If you are like two thirds of Americans who, according to Barna Research Group, as reported by The New York Times, do not believe that Satan really exists, then you may desire to dismiss this warning out of hand. You may even decide to stop reading and assume that I have nothing good to say on this subject. But, I encourage you to hear me out. 

Satan’s purpose in life is to thwart God’s will, or rather to try. We know, with confidence as children of our Almighty Father in heaven, that God’s will cannot be thwarted. God wins in the end, but that does not mean that Satan will not do everything in his power to reek as much havoc as he can in the meantime. 

In short, God’s will is that all that He has created will bring to Him the glory that He deserves. He loved us, and so saved us from sin through Jesus on the Cross, so that we can love him back. When we love him well, meaning that we deny ourselves and put God and others before us, God gets an optimal amount of glory. Satan just hates this! Satan wants the glory. Stealing glory from God is the original sin. That is what got Lucifer kicked out of heaven in the first place and it is what got Adam and Eve kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Stealing God’s glory is what every single person in the history of mankind has been guilty of ever since and it is really the essence of every sin that we are guilty of as rebellious humans. 

Satan’s purpose is to trick us into being accomplices in his effort to steal the glory that rightfully belongs to the Lord of the Universe. And he is really good at it. 

Every single one of us humans would be slaves under the Devil’s spell if it were not for the active and loving work of the Holy Spirit in the world. The only thing that can keep us from being glory stealers who are controlled by Satan is we are held within the arms of Christ, our Savior. When we follow Jesus, Satan can’t touch us. However, if we only BELIEVE in Jesus we are not safe. Even Satan believes in Jesus. We must be Disciples of Jesus. We must live our lives everyday striving to live into the example that Jesus has set for us. We must go wherever it is that Jesus goes and do whatever it is that Jesus does if we truly want to be FOLLOWERS of Jesus. 

Life is only worth living within the safe and secure arms of our Lord Jesus. In the arms of Jesus we have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). We also receive, as gifts from God – Faith, Hope and Love (1 Corinthians 13). These are the things that make a life worth living. Outside the protective arms of Christ we are vulnerable to the attacks and lies of Satan where we find death and destruction at ever turn. 

Look around at this world we live in. Can you see the Devil at work? Look at the media; look at Hollywood; look at Washington DC; look at all of the people you know who do not know Jesus. The Devil is having a field day all around us. Now look at the people who have a relationship with Jesus. Observe the people whom you know to be strong people of faith. Are they safe from the Devil? Can you see Jesus in their eyes? 

The Church has much work to do, for Satan is picking off our neighbors, our friends, our family members like a wolf picks off sheep. The Gospel of John says that Jesus is the “Good Shepherd.” We need to be like Jesus.