Are You Close to the Line?

Our lives are a series of seemingly trivial choices that add up. Why do I harp on some trivial things? Even I think they are trivial. But these trivial decisions add up. Having a Big Mac is not a big deal, but after a lifetime of Big Macs...see where that gets you. In my case it had me lying on a table with tubes stuck in my belly as they removed cancer. 

This is a quote from a novel I am reading, Jim Butcher's Cold Days. The hero had aligned himself with evil, for all the best of reasons, at least it seemed so at the time. 

Murphy said quietly. “No one just starts giggling and wearing black and signs up to become a villainous monster. How the hell do you think it happens?” She shook her head, her eyes pained. “It happens to people. Just people. They make questionable choices, for what might be very good reasons. They make choice after choice, and none of them is slaughtering roomfuls of saints, or murdering hundreds of baby seals, or rubber-room irrational. But it adds up. And then one day they look around and realize that they’re so far over the line that they can’t remember where it was.”

How far over the line am I? I see areas where I might be. After the excesses of the holiday season, New Year's is the traditional time to think about such things. I suggest you do so. Not all of our cultural traditions are bad. While I do not expect any of my readers are "over the line," I think each of us, through drifting along in life without much thought, are a lot closer to the line than we realize. Most of the big sins in our lives often begin with neglect. 

Here are some Bible verses that might be helpful. 

Galatians 6:7 ESV 

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

Matthew 24:42 ESV 

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

The example of Sodom is interesting. Ezekiel 16 tells us what their sin was. 

⁴⁹ Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.

Coming to a Town Near You? That is not the sin I was expecting. 

Sodom had neglected the poor. They did not know that God was coming. What have we neglected--both individually and nationally? Can we be so sure that God is not coming for the US in the same way He came for Sodom?

Not much you can do about the nation. But think about what you have neglected personally. Try not to neglect that next year, the little decisions add up. 

We Are Doomed

This is an absolutely true statement, we are doomed. But that was true the moment we were born. The real question is what will you do in the period in-between? Will you let yourself become obsessed with politics and the coming even worse economy? The Beloved Editor of the Prophecy Podcast blog, Pam Dewey, has been writing about these issues on her own blog. Here is an excerpt from the 23rd. (!) in a series on this:

And yet—there really are not widespread devastating conditions as yet in most of the country. Just worrisome “trends.” Unless we as Christians are able to come to a sense of inner peace in these relatively “good times,” we are going to be no use to ourselves and others in the bad. I’m suspicious that many of my troubled friends are not really troubled just by “current conditions.” A significant proportion of people who consider themselves Christians seem to be victims of life-long issues of discouragement, doubt, fears, anxiety, and more—totally outside of any added obsession with partisan politics. Given the large number of Bible passages that admonish believers to not worry, to trust God, to have faith in His plans for them, I am also suspicious that this isn’t just a modern affliction. It seems to be a timeless one, touching people in every generation since Jesus walked the Earth in the first century.  

The emphasis in the series is that there is no reason to be upset about current events as things have always been bad. (This is my waggish summary.) In this post she talks about WWII, and that even in such disaster, it is possible to hope for a better tomorrow. 

While my posts tend to be pessimistic, I try to mix in what you can do to make things better. Pam’s posts tend to be optimistic, but she mixes in the reality of our current situation. I think both approaches have validity, but my approach seems to be draw out of the prophets, while Pam’s approach seems to be drawn from some of Paul’s letters like 1 Thessalonians 5:

¹⁴ Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. ¹⁵ See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not despise prophecies. ²¹ Test all things; hold fast what is good. ²² Abstain from every form of evil.

Where Did These Cats Come From? Pam!!!! So if you want a dose of “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks” mosey on over to one of Pam’s blogs (or become her daughter’s friend on Facebook). If you want a dose of “Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil,” stay right here.

But please Pam, fewer cat pictures!

Behold He Comes In Judgment

Fox News Sunk in GriefDo I want the disasters I perceive as coming to occur? I do not. While I usually try to avoid clichés like the plague, I’m still convinced that “the handwriting is on the wall,” “the die is cast,” “we have been rode hard and put away wet,” “in the long run we are all dead,” or whatever cliché one might wish to proclaim.

I was rereading Vox Day’s Return of the Great Depression and he quoted a Japanese poem written on the death of the God Emperor’s son over 1000 years ago:

     My Prince’s Palace
     Would for truly a thousand years
     Be glorious;
     So thought I,
     Now sunk in grief.

No, I do not look forward to this “return” of Jesus. But God is not mocked, what a nation sows, that it shall also reap. I too am sunk in grief.

Behold He Comes ...