You might think current world events would be enough to bring down even an eternal optimist. You would be wrong.
It isn’t that I’n not bothered by horrific things happening in the Middle East. I’m aghast at man’s brutality to man. And to child. I take seriously the scary statistics about how soon people with these radical lifestyles could actually become the majority in many nations.
I consider these things, and I pray about them. And, I try to make good decisions in the day-to-day scariness of normal life. But, I am not depressed about the state of the world or the outlook of our future.
Because, I know how the story ends. I don’t know when. And I don’t know how. But I know someday God really will remove all evil. He will take out all the bad guys and leave behind only those who want to live in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Then, “man who is of the earth will cause terror no more.” Psalm 10:18
God gave us a foreshadowing of this when the people of Israel found themselves trapped between a deep sea and a raging army. No way out. No hope of escape. But God told them to “stand still and watch.” Because He was about to wipe out the enemy in one giant wave.
“And you will see them no more forever.”
Maybe He won’t drown all the suicide bombers or ISIS fighters. Maybe He will convert them. But, either way, God will win.
And we will see the bad guys no more. Forever.
Come Lord Jesus.
I just read a Rachel Held Evans book. In part of it she visits India and meets Christians who live in poverty and with AIDS. Meeting Jesus, as they themselves would say it, made them so glad at heart that she realized her own troubled spirit about why God allows some of us to be born in wealth and some in poverty, etc., might be backwards. Perhaps the poor really are more blessed. In the same Bible, it is said we should rejoice when we share in his sufferings. I don’t say that off-hand, because my heart breaks, too, at the news. But it helps the heartbreak to wonder if maybe, beyond what I can understand, their hearts were full to know they were living as Jesus lived, willing to die for the cause. At least, I have to believe, he was with them until the very end in a way none of us can imagine. I certainly hope so anyway. And I hope the same for their families.
I just read again today about the stoning of Stephen, Serenity. I think you are right. The Bible tells me so.
Standing still and watching in great expectation!
Yes!