However, for me it means that I have a week off from my teaching responsibilities. Maybe I can enjoy the beauty of some of the flowers that surround us here and maybe even have some opportunity for extra study and re-evaluating my life. I’ve found that one tends to do that more as he grows older.
One of the first things I’ve noticed is my lack of blog posts. My honest goal for this New Year was to post a minimum of one update per month. This week, by God’s grace, I will write about three different events that have happened in the past three months and “catch myself up”. This is probably cheating, but it will help me to have a one-per-month average by August.
This first blog has to do with a project I’ve committed myself to at the beginning of the year. This year crept in with the quiet sovereignty of God. I’ve noticed that each New Year seems to hold less excitement than it used to. Is that good or bad? This year I spent the free days before school studying Matthew 24. Many things seem to be happening in the world now that point to the end of the world, at least in my mind. So I’ve been challenged about looking into what Christ said about “the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world.” Matt 24:3
Before I was finished with the study I had a deep desire to memorize some verses during this next year based on the seven points that Christ makes in his answer to the disciples’ questions. If what Jesus says is true, especially in the area of apostasy, and I see it happening right now in the church, then I need to be aware of (watching for) everything that accompanies the end times. And, if the return of Christ is near, then what kind of person ought I to be?
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of
persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking
for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens
being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heart? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore
beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be
found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
II Peter 3:11-14
So here we are … believers in a Godless world … waiting for our Savior who will come and make things right. So how do we “occupy until he comes?” Several parables answer that question. We are to be as alert as virgins waiting for the bridegroom! As watchful and responsible as servants waiting for their master to come back from a trip! Being aware of the signs that signal Jesus Christ’s return is a great motivator for righteous living, and since the opportunity and temptation to soil ourselves in the world is ever present, we need this kind of motivation to remain faithful.
I noticed this pattern (of continually becoming part of the world around us) while reading in the Old Testament this last year. In the history of Judah, a good king would briefly appear, turning the hearts of the people back to God. But no matter what good he did, it seemed like it was all torn down quickly by the next generation.
For example, Jehoshaphat was a king who did “that which was right in the sight of God.” However, he did not remove the high places. So when his son Jehoram became king he made the high places to become centers of idolatrous worship and “caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah thereto.”
Although he was confronted by Elijah the prophet and disciplined by God with a disease, and also a great plague on the people, he did not repent. God eventually raised up several nations that warred with him. His family was killed, his nation ransacked, and he died from the disease still unrepentant.
When Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, came to power he followed in his father’s footsteps. He was eventually judged and killed by Jehu whom God had raised up to execute judgment upon the house of Ahab who was allied with Ahaziah.
When Ahaziah’s mother saw that her son was dead she had all the royal seed killed so she could continue in power. However, one faithful daughter of the king saw what was happening. She quickly moved the youngest baby boy and his nurse to safety in the house of God under the secret protection of Jehoioda the high priest. He was a godly man who desired that his people turn back to God.
When the baby boy turned seven years old, Jehoida the priest in a coup d’ etat replaced Queen Athaliah with the boy King Joash. Under the counsel of Jehoida, King Joash repaired the house of the Lord and began the difficult and long journey of bringing the nation back to God. It seemed so easy to plunge the nation into idol worship earlier. It is like doing bad is running downhill, and doing good is running uphill. The end of this story bears this out.
Jehoida the faithful priest finally grew old and died. His body was barely cold in the grave when the princes of Judah began whispering in the king’s ear. And King Joash listened. Within a short time the people left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served groves and idols. God sent prophets to them to bring them back again to the Lord but they wouldn’t listen.
Finally one day the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoida the priest. He confronted the king, and the king was so hardened that he commanded his servants to kill him in the very temple that the king had worked so hard in his youth to repair.
Jesus referred to this story when he was confronting the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees:
Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and
scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of
them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from
city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed
upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of
Zechariah son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the
altar.
Mat 23:34,35
Before the year was over the princes of the people were destroyed by a small army from Syria. And King Joash himself was assassinated by his own servants in his own bed. What a sad story!
As a person grows older it seems that the pull of the flesh becomes greater. I’m sure it has something to do with just plain growing older. It becomes harder physically to do anything and the temptation is strong to stop fighting against the constant pull of gravity. Maybe that is why David cried out:
O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: And hitherto have I
declared thy wondrous works. Now also when I am old and grayheaded,
O God, forsake me not; Until I have shown thy strength unto this
generation, and thy power to everyone that is to come.
Psa. 71:17, 18
So my prayer this year will be the cry of David’s heart … that I will remain faithful in my “time of old age” in view of the fact that Christ is coming back.
Cast me not off in the time of old age;
Forsake me not when my strength faileth.
Psalm 71:9
Just for the record, here is the Matthew 24 outline and the corresponding verses that I want to memorize in case anyone wants to join me:
A. Deception - Matt 24:4,5; 2 Tim 3:13; 2Thess 2:9-11
B. Sorrows - Matt 24:6-8; 2 Tim 3:1-5; Matt 24:6-8
C. False Teaching - Matt 24:9-11; 2 Pet 3:2,3; 2 Tim 4:1-4; Jude 3,4
D. Apostasy - Matt:24:12-14; I Tim 4:1; 2 Thess 2:3
E. Tribulation - Matt 24:15-22; Dan 7:25; Rev 12:11
F. Second Coming - Matt 24:23-31; I Thess 4:16-18; Titus 2:12,13
G. Watch - Matt:32-51; 2 Pet 3:10-14; I Pet 4:2,7; Jude 21-25
So here I am … propelled into another year. May I not be caught chewing my cud, or hating my job, or thinking of it as a year of “oughts” such as “I ought to have done things differently.” May it be a year of trusting in God’s grace to be faithfully watching for his return, and living to the will of God instead of the lusts of men.
That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to
the lusts of men, but to the will of God. But the end of all things
is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
I Pet 4:2, 7
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