As I pondered that exchange again on my walk this morning, it dawned on me that my joy in giving was only a faint reflection of His own joy, the joy of a Father who loves to give good gifts to His children. I began to realize that when I take His gifts for granted, I’m not only not being appropriately grateful, but even more, I’m depriving myself of the special way God designed us to become more fully united with Him.

After my walk I did the next two things in my morning routine. First, I opened My Utmost for His Highest to today’s reading. There Oswald wrote, “If we give way to self-pity and indulge in the luxury of misery, we banish God’s riches from our own lives and hinder others from entering into His provision. No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it obliterates God and puts self-interest upon the throne.”

Self-pity, of course, is the destroyer of gratitude. It implies that God has deprived me of something I’m convinced I should have. But it actually comes down to a matter of faith. Do I believe God is in control of my circumstances? And if so, can I accept that my circumstances are actually His good gifts? Not that they’re always pleasant or easy. But if God is truly my loving Father, then He has wisely chosen these circumstances for me today.

As most of us who have walked with God for many years discover, God often has to take from us the things we are convinced are required for our happiness. While this may seem unloving at the time, it can bring us to understand that a deeper kind of love is being expressed—because we then begin to value what He values, which is our closeness to Him. In Oswald’s words, “When God is beginning to be satisfied with us, He will impoverish everything in the nature of fictitious wealth, until we learn that all our fresh springs are in Him.”

After reading that, I turned to my regular Bible reading. There in Psalm 100 I read this. “Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” There it was again. Quite simply, thanksgiving is what brings us close to God.

Last weekend my children gave me several gifts for Mother’s Day. They were simple items, but they knew me well enough to know what I liked. I was grateful for the gifts, and of course I was grateful for the givers as well! But I was also grateful in a different way when I realized they had experienced joy in giving something to me. I wanted them to feel that joy, so I made a special point of thanking them for choosing these specific things.

Giving/gratitude/joy. These are somehow all wrapped up together. Our culture offers a different triad—greed/demands/discontent—and somehow it deceives us into thinking this is the real route to happiness. But once we come to know God as our Father, we soon realize that this perspective has nothing to do with Him. Rather, His nature is one of lavish generosity, but His goal in giving is always to draw us closer and closer to Him.

So yes, I experienced real joy in receiving. There was an even deeper joy that came with giving. But perhaps my greatest joy came when I realized this morning that when I gratefully receive His gifts, my Father in heaven experiences whatever sort of joy a divine Being feels. We know His love is stronger than ours, His peace is deeper than ours, and no doubt His capacity for joy—especially the joy of giving—is far richer than anything we can now comprehend.

These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:11)

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A blackened sky, a chilling wind—
But darker was the fear within
The hearts of those who loved the Man
Who hung upon that cross
Their dreams of kingdom destiny
Now fled before reality
And as His blood fell to the dust
It seemed that all was lost

They did not remember
How could they remember
His words of promise, voice of love
The power that He’d told them of
His everlasting sovereignty
Enthroned upon eternity
They did not remember

But silently the morning sun
Drove shadows from an empty tomb
And crept into the weary hearts
Of those whose hope was gone
A resurrection victory
Transforming human history
Fulfilling ancient prophecy
Through heaven’s living Son

And then they remembered
Oh, how they remembered
His words of promise, voice of love
The power that He’d told them of
His everlasting sovereignty
Enthroned upon eternity
Yes, now they remembered

Two thousand years have come and gone
Each generation struggles on
Consumed with sorrow, hate and fear
Confused by endless lies
But through the agonizing noise
There whispers His compelling voice
The glory that He promised us
Will one day fill the skies

So let us remember
We’ve got to remember
His words of promise, voice of love
The power that He told us of
His everlasting sovereignty
Enthroned upon eternity
Yes, we must remember

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Nevertheless, there is a cost to be paid. In Luke 9:57-62, we discover three very specific sacrifices we are called to make if we are truly to be followers of Christ, “fit for the kingdom of God.”

Relinquishing Refreshment

Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.”

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

God created us with basic physical needs, including the need for sleep, food and water, and a safe environment for our bodies. But the path Jesus walked was one of great self-sacrifice. He had no home, no bed of His own, no storehouse of food, no savings in the bank. If we would choose to follow Him, we too must be willing to lay aside our comforts and physical securities.

It’s no coincidence that this was the first test Jesus faced in the wilderness. After forty days of fasting, He was hungry. Satan then challenged Him to “command a stone to become bread.” It was something Jesus could definitely do, and certainly His hunger was intense. The thought of eating something pleasant may have echoed from the very roots of His humanity. It was the same thought that had gone through the minds of Adam and Eve.

But Jesus knew life comes not from what we eat, but “by every word of God.” God had not given Him permission to feed Himself. Instead, He waited without refreshment until the time when His Father’s angels would bring Him food (Matthew 4:11).

Relinquishing Reputation

Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”

But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”

What was at stake was the man’s reputation. Of course a good son would care for his own father. If he left that undone, his family and community would be horrified. How could Jesus expect him to endure such misunderstanding?

When Satan asked Jesus to worship him, the enticement was all the world’s glory. Apparently it was Satan’s to give, for Jesus did not question that. But He knew worship was due to God alone. He also knew that in the proper time God would place His Son in His rightful position of honor. Rather than grasping for that honor prematurely, Jesus had already “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant” (Philippians 2:7).

Relinquishing Relationships

And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”

But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

All the third man wanted was to say goodbye to his family. How easy would it have been for Jesus to wait those few extra moments. Instead, in what seems a very harsh response, He described this “looking back” as something that would make the man unfit for the kingdom.

“If you are the Son of God,” Satan taunted, “let’s prove it! Your Father will certainly take care of you. He’s already promised you that.” Satan knew the Father loved His Son with an intensity that was beyond all comprehension. Surely the Father would not allow His Son to die. Surely He wouldn’t….

Understanding Our Cross

When Jesus challenged His would-be followers, He was only asking them to accept sacrifices He Himself had already chosen. Earlier (in Luke 9:23) Jesus described this price of obedience with stark clarity. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

We often miss what He is asking. A man might think his cross is his work, or perhaps his nagging wife. Those aren’t crosses—those are part of the curse. A woman might think her cross is having to live with a lazy husband, or perhaps some kind of physical pain. But these are also the result of the curses placed on Adam and Eve. Life is filled with hardships and suffering.

I believe we take up our daily cross when we deliberately choose to deny ourselves those good things which we could in fact have, things our culture would even tell us we have a right to have. Consider Jesus’ example in the wilderness, where He denied Himself the bread, the glory, and the demonstration of His Father’s loyalty. Those were all things He had a right to receive, but which He deliberately refused to take.

Understanding His Cross

In a very real sense, Christ’s first testing prepared Him for the far more difficult cross He was to face at the other end of His ministry. This time He wasn’t in a wilderness, but a garden—the garden of Gethsemane. According to Matthew, Jesus prayed the same prayer three times: “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Why did it require three prayers? We cannot of course answer with certainty, but perhaps these agonizing decisions of relinquishment represented Jesus’ willingness to once again lay down the three things He personally most longed to preserve.

The first thing He was being asked to endure was the merging of every kind of physical pain imaginable. This included fatigue, hunger, thirst, cold, the stabbing wounds of the thorns, the torn flesh from the scourging, the searing pain from the nails, and of course the slow, torturous death from suffocation or heart failure. Every source of refreshment was removed from His human body in those last unspeakable hours.

The second price He was being asked to pay was that of His reputation. He would be put on trial and accused mercilessly of crime and fraud. He would be mocked and spit upon. He would be nailed to the cross naked before the world. But even deeper than these humiliations, the pure Son of God would somehow have imputed into His being the vileness of all humanity’s sin. In that hour, the holiness which was His very nature would be completely defiled.

But the third price He was facing may well have been the hardest. Jesus knew that in the final moments of His suffering there would come a point where His Father would turn away from Him. We can never comprehend this severing of the most powerful bond which ever existed, the actual separation of the Eternal Father from the Eternal Son. It was a pain so deep that it caused Jesus to cry out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

These three relinquishments were the cross of Christ. He endured them willingly because He had chosen to submit to His Father in all things. We must realize, however, that had Jesus not accepted the will of His Father, laying aside His own deep human desires, we would all in fact end up bearing the cross of Jesus. We would all one day suffer eternal physical torment in hell; we would all one day live in an existence of complete humiliation; and we would all be separated not only from our earthly loved ones, but from God Himself.

Taking Up Our Cross

As the result of His obedience, our crosses are now much lighter. Still there is a daily cross which each of us who would be His disciple must pick up and carry. We find it in those occasions where our human nature would demand its own wellbeing and where it must be deliberately, even forcefully, denied.

An easy-to-understand example is the matter of eating. God truly intended us to gratefully enjoy the food He provides. But unless we are able for a period of time to say no to the craving of our stomach, we won’t be able to follow our Master when it might cost us a few meals.

While we must hold lightly to our legitimate sources of physical refreshment—and be willing to lay them aside as God requires—in other areas we may be called to deny our desires completely. In particular we should refrain from any mental or emotional refreshment which is not consistent with God’s nature. There is a weariness of soul that would drive us to a vast array of secular distractions and amusements. The authentic follower of Jesus will turn instead quickly and only to Him (Matthew 11:28-29).

The “cross” of a relinquished reputation may be harder to discern. Most of us instinctively protect ourselves from the judgments of others. The excuses for our failures, the quick diverting of blame, the impulse to establish our value through name-dropping or other subtle boastings—how easily these become part of our conversations. From another angle, we may hesitate to speak of Jesus in those situations where it might invite rejection or scorn.

Are we truly willing to be despised for Him? Are we willing to accept ridicule or persecution, perhaps even from our own family and friends? These are not rare possibilities, but promised realities. “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you...for the Son of Man’s sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!” (Luke 6:22-23).

The final cross is always the hardest. We are able to bond deeply with those we love because God designed these ties to communicate the realities of His love for us. How then can Jesus make this disturbing statement, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26)? How can the One who commands us to love also tell us to hate?

The answer lies in the next verse: “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” The cross is actually a crossroads. We can either turn right or left, or we can “come after” Jesus. On the right and left are what appear to be other viable choices offering safety and happiness. Ahead, we face death. We are asked to yield up our rights, our rest, our pleasures, our reputation, our relationships…in essence, our very identity.

If this were only a one-time event, our sense of the heroic might carry us across the line. But instead we reach this place daily, even hourly. The question always is this: “Will I choose something else over Christ?” You see, our gods are those things to which we give our money, our time, our energy, our thoughts, and our emotional attachments. Our theology may be impeccable, but if something delights us more than Jesus, then we have given ourselves to another god.

The solution, however, is beautifully simple. In His death and resurrection, Christ has fully provided everything we need. As we come to know Him, we discover Him to be our provider and protector, our great comforter, and the giver of refreshing rest. As we come to know Him, we discover our complete and unwavering value in His eyes. Finally, the sufficiency of His love enables us to release all human ties as the means of our emotional and spiritual support.

Then out of these hundreds of points of dying there arises new life, life that brings with it great freedom, joy, and the capacity to serve others through the overflow of grace we ourselves have received.

The call of Jesus is the same to each of us. “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also” (John 12:25-26).

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I would contend, however, that authentic church leadership is far more than these. Authentic leadership is a miracle, the infusion of something supernatural into ordinary human beings. Paul says in Ephesians 4 that church leaders are God’s grace gift, His chosen means for equipping saints to gradually bring the church to the full stature of Christ.

If this is so, then it follows that authentic leadership itself would be characterized—or at least increasingly characterized—by the qualities of Christ. I’ve chosen here to examine, not Christ Himself, but the apostle Paul, who I believe modeled as a human leader what Christ-like church leadership should be. In his second letter to the Corinthians, I have found evidence for seven key indicators that Paul faithfully reflected the nature of his Lord in his relationship with the church.

Humility

There can be some confusion over what it means to be humble. Our first inclination may be to see it as the result of being shamed—either by others or by our own self-accusation. But godly humility is something quite different from humiliation. True humility comes from an accurate understanding of our place and purpose in God’s plan.

Paul first understood that whatever strengths he had were not of his own making. “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God” (3:5). He also realized that the hardships in his life were designed not only for his own benefit, but also for their usefulness in the lives of those to whom he was ministering. “Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation” (1:6).

This kind of humility actually brings a person to a place of strength. By contrast, pride (the absence of true humility) is an indication of deep insecurity. Paul calls this out quite clearly. “We dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (10:12).

Paul reveals his secure humility in a number of ways. Above all, he understood this truth: “For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord approves” (10:18). But even in the tangible realities of his life, he had come to see what was truly most valuable. “I will not boast except in my infirmities...lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be” (12:5-6).

Why was this man to whom had been revealed the mysteries of heaven not inclined to boast? It was because he was deeply concerned that he not be “exalted above measure” (12:7). As he famously had learned, “I take pleasure in my infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (12:10).

Authentic Christian leadership exists to the extent that a person reaches the place where he can honestly say, “I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (12:15). This is the heart of Christ, reaching out through a cleansed and seasoned vessel to nurture and nourish His people.

Courage

A second key characteristic of godly leadership is courage. Again, this is something other than human bravado or even human nobility. Most leaders respond bravely when they have a sense of themselves as being needed, either by people or by some cause or purpose that deserves defending. While these motivations are not wrong in themselves, God calls His leaders to a unique sort of courage—courage that depends not on their strength or wisdom or ability, but solely on His.

Paul understood that the intense challenges he met regularly were the means whereby he had learned to draw upon God’s strength rather than his own. “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead” (1:8-9).

There is reason to believe, based on these verses, that Paul may actually have been stoned to death in Lystra (Acts 14:19). And God did indeed raise him up—from being dead or nearly so. But more significantly, Paul soon returned to that very city to encourage the believers who lived there. That, my friend, is courage of the supernatural sort.

Wisdom

The wisdom needed by God’s leaders comes only from a profound and persistent interaction with Him. Knowledge can accrue through our studies, but wisdom is situational and is lived out in the realities of life. We are wise based on what He gives us in the moment for the need of the moment. A wise person knows he had no resource apart from the Spirit, but he also knows that in the Spirit he is thoroughly equipped for every circumstance and challenge.

Paul says it this way. “For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you” (1:12).

Yet this is not to say that wisdom doesn’t have real content. For example, Paul speaks of his understanding of forgiveness—not only what it entails, but also that unforgiveness is a specific tool of the enemy. “Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2:10-11).

Another face of wisdom is revealed in the honest recognition that we ourselves are responsible for our holiness. Because God has revealed what is holy, and because He has offered the needed empowerment, the component that remains is our own determination to bring this grace into our actual lives. “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (7:1).

Finally, wisdom is simply a full commitment to the priority and indispensability of God’s truth above all competing arguments or enticements. Paul puts it quite simply. “We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth” (13:8).

Compassion

Compassion carries the heart of Christ to those who need Him. It’s not so much that we should seek the elimination of pain as an end in itself, but rather that we seek to bring the sufferer into contact with the true Comforter and Provider.

Paul’s rich understanding of this process dominates much of this letter. In the opening chapter he describes the Father as the “God of all comfort...who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (1:3-4).

There is of course a part of compassion that brings censure or discipline. We find this in Paul’s first letter as he confronts the church’s tolerance of sin in their midst (see 1 Corinthians 5:1-5). But even here, he is not merely focused on removing sin, but rather he desires to impress upon the people what full compassion looks like. “Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you” (7:12).

In the final count, Paul says, “The love of Christ compels us” (5:14). This compulsion is so strong that it visibly permeates every component of Paul’s leadership. He has personally experienced the startling and life-transforming power of Christ’s love in such a way that it has become the defining quality of every interaction he has with the church. “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you” (2:4).

Endurance

Christian leadership is tough. If it isn’t, there’s a problem somewhere. Our enemy is very alert to effective ministry and has no hesitation to press against it, often using a sinister arsenal of temptations and hardships. Paul is the first to testify to this reality, and he does so often throughout his letter.

As we mentioned earlier, his time “in Asia” was particularly challenging. “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life” (1:8). Later he provides a formidable tally of his sufferings—but accompanied always by the reality of God’s sustaining grace. “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (4:8-9).

The stunning thing about Paul’s capacity to endure—beyond its mere existence—is his profound understanding of its value. For him, the trials were so precious that they brought him to a place where he could honestly claim, “I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation” (7:4). What did Paul know that all Christians leaders should also come to realize?

Probably the greatest truth that sustained him was his confidence that suffering is of value to God, so much so that it will gain the sufferer rich rewards. Paul puts it this way: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (4:17).

But another value he found in his hardships was his awareness that they provided the context in which God’s approval of his ministry was confirmed. “But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses” (6:4). Again, this is exactly why he could tell the Corinthians, “Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation” (1:6).

Christian ministry has no place for the promotion of personal comfort, pleasure, safety or honor. To be sure, God graciously grants these things to His people as He sees fit. But the model of Paul, of the other apostles, and most especially of Christ before them, is a joyful self-denying and self-dying that rises out of the understanding that it is in the crucibles of suffering and affliction where God’s greatest glory is revealed.

Honesty

Honesty is an openness before God that welcomes His correcting. It refuses to manipulate or coerce, trusting that God will accomplish his purposes without us adding our schemes to His ways. If we speak and live out His truth, people will be drawn to the God He actually is—or they will reject the actual God. Misrepresentation of God in the church is one of the greatest deterrents to Kingdom growth.

Paul understood these realities, and made it a point to mention them in his letter. “For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity” (1:12). Later he adds, “For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ” (2:17).

This is key—that leaders realize their every word or deed stands “in the sight of God.” They aren’t allowed to hand in carefully-crafted reports to their superior officer which might mitigate any slips of the tongue or trips of the feet. Only a person who stands with a heart bared before God is qualified to represent Him in this world as a leader of His people.

Again, Paul is our model in this regard. “But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (4:2).

Submission

Authentic authority exists only in the context of authentic submission. People safely follow Christian leaders only when those leaders are truly in submission to the One who is over them. Christ called a proper understanding of authority and submission “great faith” (see Matthew 8:8-10), and it is the centerpiece of the church’s functioning.

In Romans 1 Paul describes himself as a “bondservant of Christ.” He’s not the only New Testament writer who takes this label—Peter, James and Jude also open their letters with the same claim. A bondservant voluntarily places himself under the authority of someone, and these men considered it a point of recommendation that they were effectively enslaved to Christ.

It was this very submission that qualified Paul to speak with authority to the churches. His highest desire was not that the church be accepting of him, but rather that he would remain in the favor of God. “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him” (5:9).

Paul recognized that his ministry needed to accurately emulate the heart of God. At one point he uses three separate terms to describe his calling. First he says, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (5:20). Next he says, “We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain (6:1).

Finally, he describes his identity simply as a “minister of God,” validating this title “by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, and by sincere love, by the word of truth [and] by the power of God” (6:6-7). Paul in essence had become transparent, allowing the character of Jesus to be visible in and through him.

And while Paul often speaks boldly in his letters as one who has the authority of Christ, in this letter it seems he is deliberately qualifying the nature of that authority. He makes a key point early in the letter: “Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand” (1:24). Then twice he describes the authority God has given him as being “for edification and not for destruction” (10:3, 13:10).

This then is the test of authentic submission and authority, that they result in the edification of believers and the glory of God. Christian leadership, at all levels, reaches outside itself, seeking to provide a smooth and healthy conduit between those who follow and the Christ who is to be followed.

Paul concludes his letter with some expressions of love for the church in Corinth that well summarize the essence of godly leadership. Hear his heart—and Christ’s—in these words:

“And I will not be burdensome to you; for I do not seek yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved....Now I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray, that you may be made complete” (12:14-15; 13:7-9).

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Complaining and grumbling are mentioned nearly fifty times in Scripture, and it’s never a positive thing. Consider the story in Numbers 11. The Israelites had been freed from Egyptian slavery and were now journeying through the desert toward the land God had promised them. But after perhaps months of eating nothing but the miraculous manna God provided, they were getting tired of it.

We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!

God’s response to their complaining? He would send them quail to eat, but it wouldn’t be pleasant. His verdict, delivered by Moses, was this:

Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the Lord who is among you.

Oh my. And yet how many of us would grumble if we had to eat the same thing three or four meals in a row?

Ephesians 4:29 gives us an important admonition. “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” The Greek word for corrupt, sapros, refers to something that is rotting or putrid. My complaining never imparts grace to those who hear it, but instead it poisons their hearts—and often their words as well.

There may be times when our negative thoughts are related to a condition of depression. Experts tell us this can be physically induced and thus should be medically treated. While this could be the case, far more often our complaining has nothing to do with our brains or bodies. Rather, we have been led to believe we have a right to happiness, produced by a life that matches our desires. When those expectations are not met, we rebel.

Rebel? Isn’t that word a little strong? After all, shouldn’t we grieve when our health fails, when our finances collapse, or when someone we love dies?

But grieving and complaining are very different things. Grieving is the proper response to the loss of something valuable. If we don’t grieve, we didn’t really value it. On the other hand, complaining normally represents the loss of something we are convinced we deserve. Essentially it says to God (and to those around us) that He has sinned against us.

It’s not a good attitude to have.

God is calling us to a higher walk, as Paul writes in Philippians 2:14-15.

Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

Complaining is easy...and it even feels good. It can bring a pleasant sense of camaraderie when a group of us find things to grumble about together. Or we may hope our complaining will pressure someone to make our lives better. Or we think it helps to at least “get things off our chest.”

As I look out my window today, I see trees coated in ice. Large branches lie scattered about on the ground. Like thousands of others, I have been experiencing the miseries that come with the loss of power, long cold days, and the inability to go anywhere. Yet amazingly, I have had no desire to complain.

Is it because I’m better than others...or maybe because I have a cheery personality? Actually, neither of these is true. What is different is that I’ve learned something important about the faithfulness of God that has given me an entirely different perspective on hardship. When a challenge has arisen as a result of the ice storm, instead of worry or self-pity, my response has been to watch how God will deal with it.

This doesn’t mean I should not do something myself in response to the challenge, or that I should never ask for help from others. But what actually matters most to God are my attitude and my words. And when I refuse to grumble or complain, I’ve consistently seen Him either resolve the situation—sometimes in really surprising ways—or else He has given me grace to endure it.

But behind what may seem too simplistic to be true lies a long season of practice, and also an understanding of God’s purposes. Unlike we often assume, God is not mainly interested in our physical well-being—He is more interested in His own self-revelation. He wants us to know His power and holiness and love. And the only way we truly come to comprehend anything about His nature is to experience it in the specific details of our lives.

This is why I can choose to approach each hardship, not with dismay, but as another opportunity to see the hand of God displayed. But this decision isn’t some sort of technique that conceals my greater desire to have the problem removed. I honestly desire not only to know God more fully, but I also find great joy in the awareness that my trust actually pleases Him (Hebrews 11:6).

So my counsel is this: begin to listen to your words. Do they represent trust, or do they imply that God has been unfair? Of course, we usually blame someone other than God for our discomforts. But if God is truly sovereign, then behind these human sources, the government—or even “mother” nature—stands the choice of God to order our circumstances as He has.

This isn’t to say our challenges aren’t real or significant. Sometimes they can even be life-threatening. But if we truly believe God is who He says He is, and if we are truly redeemed followers of Christ, then the same miracle-working power we read about in Scripture is available for us in our day.

Don’t miss the opportunity hardships provide to see God’s strength and love displayed to you in real and personal ways. What’s more, He actually wants to use these very trials to shape you into the likeness of Christ—who, as we’re told in Isaiah 53:7, never opened His mouth to complain.

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During His lifetime, Jesus not only experienced the normal challenges of earthly existence, He eventually endured the most extreme trials and sufferings imaginable. Yet even though His physical appearance became “marred beyond human semblance” (Isaiah 52:14), He remained in a very real sense a perfect human being.

There is, however, another advent, another coming, that we would do well to seriously consider—and I’m not referring to the second coming of Christ. Rather, the God of the universe has actually come to each of us individually, if we are in fact indwelt by the Spirit through regeneration. But unlike Jesus, whose body was sinless, the Spirit has humbled Himself even further by now living in bodies that retain the corruption of our fallen natures.

While none of us can go back in history to offer the Christ child a more appropriate place to be born, we are now very much responsible for the condition of the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. In 2 Corinthians 6:16, Paul described our bodies as “the temple of the living God.” A few verses later he admonishes us to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

Think about it. If we are actually a temple, and if it’s up to us to make our bodies a fitting residence for the Spirit of almighty God, then this should be a very high priority in our lives. Yet while this may seem to be an overwhelming assignment, I think it can actually be summarized fairly simply. After all, God is calling us to holiness, which is nothing more than the absence of sin. All the other glorious virtues are His to produce in us, once sin gets out of the way.

The first important step in this process of cleansing is for us to gain a clear understanding of the specific sins that linger in our fallen nature. We’re probably aware of (and avoiding) the big ones, such as fornication or adultery or murder. But the Scriptures are filled with lists of other sins we may not take seriously—or even recognize as sin. Some of these would include envying (James 3:16), complaining (1 Corinthians 10:10), foolish talk (Ephesians 5:4), and loving the things of this world (1 John 2:15).

While the Spirit can help by bringing a certain sin to our attention, we do well to become very familiar with the Scriptures so we understand the reality and seriousness of what He is pointing out. But the next step is critical. Normally when we’re confronted with something in ourselves that we know is wrong, we are tempted to pursue one of two options. Either we find someone else to blame (or our circumstances, or even our “personality”), or else we tell ourselves that we’ll try harder to fix this problem on our own.

While these two side roads may offer some temporary relief, neither of them actually brings us any closer to holiness. What we must do requires deep and honest humility, confessing to God that this is our fault, that we have chosen rebellion over obedience, and that we in fact are helpless apart from His mercy.

This confession, if we are sincere, will lead to the next step, which is repentance—something more profound and even miraculous than most people realize. It’s not just feeling bad about ourselves and wanting to be made better. Rather, it’s a supernatural engagement with God that yields the supernatural fruit of holiness. Oswald Chambers has described this quite powerfully in My Utmost for His Highest.

Conviction of sin is best portrayed in the words —

“My sins, my sins, my Saviour,
How sad on Thee they fall.”

Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses a man’s conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God — “against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.”

Conviction of sin, the marvel of forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man; he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God’s grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: “I have sinned.” The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says that and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself.

The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man’s respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life. The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a man cannot repent when he chooses; repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears.” If ever you cease to know the virtue of repentance, you are in darkness. Examine yourself and see if you have forgotten how to be sorry.

As Oswald points out, the final step in our cleansing is the acceptance of God’s forgiveness, based on the payment of Christ on the cross. This should never be some sort of easy mental acknowledgement. Rather, when forgiveness is actually implemented in our souls, it will be transformative. In Paul’s words, “Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret” (2 Corinthians 7:10).

The salvation he is speaking of, I believe, it that wonderful holiness, a purity that makes us a temple fit for the dwelling of the Spirit. And because our time in history is increasingly characterized by devious deceptions and powerful corruptions, our sincere and welcoming pursuit of the Spirit’s correcting and guidance is more vital now than ever before.

So in this Advent season, let us gratefully honor Christ for His first coming. But let us also become very aware of the other Advent, the coming of the One who is most capable of bringing us to true godliness, thereby “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

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There are mysteries here that none of us can resolve—and I personally believe God does not intend us to. But before I explain why I think this is so, let’s look at some of the Scriptures that appear to demonstrate God’s unfairness.

The first story that comes to mind is that of Job, a man whom we’re told was blameless. While he wasn’t of course sinless, there is no indication that the intense suffering he endured had anything to do with his own disobedience. Plus we have to deal with the reality that God Himself initiated the Job’s trials, even though they were implemented by Satan.

Then we have the unfairness of God choosing to bless Jacob and to essentially curse Esau even before they were born, according to Paul’s statement in Romans 9:11. “For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.”

Another pattern of apparent unfairness is found in God’s commission to Isaiah.

And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9-10)

Jesus Himself repeated this same strange pattern of withholding truth so those who heard Him could not receive it.

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” (Matthew 13:10-13)

When many people encounter this doctrine of election, which implies that God appointed some for redemption and others for destruction, they find this to be more than they can accept—and they turn from Christianity altogether. Others try to soften the apparent harshness through various ways of putting the actual responsibility back on the individual.

There is no question that God truly holds each of us accountable for our choices. We also know that any rewards we receive in eternity will be based on the works we do in this life. But I do not find the Scriptures suggesting that God is less than fully sovereign, that He leaves our destinies in our own hands, waiting to see what we will choose to believe and do. And even if He does somehow put on us this sort of responsibility, we certainly don’t all have the same advantages when it comes to what we know and understand.

So if fairness means that everyone has an equal chance to win on a completely level playing field, than it seems accurate to say that God is not fair. I would note that fairness is not the same as justice, which is essentially meting out the same punishment for the same crime regardless of the status of the person. We are told in Leviticus 19:15, “You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.”

But if God is a loving God who created all people in His image, and if Christ died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2), then why don’t the Scriptures teach that the whole world will eventually be saved? Anyone who reads the Bible carefully will soon come across any number of such perplexities for which there are no easy answers. However, I want to share something that has helped me find peace specifically with the reality of God’s apparent unfairness.

Picture the scene in John 6. Jesus had attracted a group of people who had heard His wise teachings and witnessed His astonishing miracles, and who were ready to follow Him wherever He went. All was going well, until He horrified them by saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” What?! If we had been there, we would have had exactly the same reaction. And like many of these would-be followers, we too might have turned back.

No doubt Jesus’ twelve disciples were also taken completely off guard. Knowing their confusion, Jesus asked them specifically, “Do you also want to go away?” But Peter, speaking for the others, said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

And in his response I find the secret to why God has chosen to present Himself as someone who in our minds seems to act without fairness: it forces us to choose between our wisdom and His.

Peter realized that even though it made no sense that God could be born as a man, much less that He would ask His followers to eat His flesh and drink His blood, yet he and the others had come to believe that what they gained—by accepting what didn’t make sense—was supernatural life itself. Of course, there was still much they had to learn. But even at this early point in their time with Jesus, the value of what He offered was more precious than anything it might cost them.

Consider too Job’s story. After a long season of asking the question of why God caused him to suffer, as far as we know Job was never really given an answer. Instead, God revealed Himself as the mighty Creator who owed Job no explanations. Job’s response was humility and repentance—two keys that opened for him God’s rich blessings.

We see this same pattern in a New Testament story (Matthew 15:23-28). A woman who was not from Israel came to Jesus, begging Him to free her daughter from demonic oppression. When Jesus essentially called her a dog, she responded with such humility that He not only granted her request, He complimented her on her great faith. What was the nature of that faith? It was her willingness to take even crumbs, because she believed if those crumbs came from Him, that would be enough.

I believe the greatest barrier for many people that prevents them from finding God is they require Him to meet their standards for rationality and morality. How often do we hear, “I could never believe in a God who would do this, a God who would allow that”? While that sounds like a valid objection, what they in fact have done is remove themselves from the only God who offers real effectual redemption.

We sometimes wonder why God didn’t make the Bible easier to understand, or why He doesn’t make life more pleasant for those who are most obedient to Him. After all, if we were God, we would arrange things in a much different way. But that’s the point—He’s God and we aren’t. We can only come to Him on His terms.

To be sure, there are other gods out there, some of whom offer things more to our liking. For example, one of the reasons people are drawn to occult practices is specifically because these gods promise them significance and power. Only after people find themselves in deep bondage do they realize they have been lied to.

By contrast, the true God promises His followers hardship and suffering. Yet for those who are willing to set aside not only their comforts and conveniences, but more importantly the pride that insists on life making sense the way they want it to, God opens the door to actual significance, actual freedom and actual joy.

I do believe that one day we will be granted the ability to see everything from His point of view, and when we do, it will make amazing sense. But for now we must submit our minds and our hearts to the God who has revealed Himself as mysterious—and even unfair. It is a costly choice, requiring Job’s response of repentance and humility. But what we gain is what Peter also understood: that by accepting God as He reveals Himself to be, we are given glorious eternal life.

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If you’ve been reading my writings, you know I believe our sovereign God has prewritten the entirety of human history as the context for His self-revelation. One interesting aspect of this process is the fact that He staged certain events to be pictures, what I call pre-echoes, of later situations and events.

As an example, Paul explained to the Corinthian church that the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites were God’s intended picture of what would challenge their own faith journeys. “But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted” (1 Corinthians 10:5-6).

But perhaps the most important place we find this patterning is in the Old Testament prophecies. It is clear that many of the prophecies applied specifically to the kings and nations of the prophet’s day, and our tendency can be to see those events in history as only what these prophecies were about. However, God often planned multiple layers of fulfillment, purposely giving us the ability to comprehend other events that parallel those that took place during (or soon after) the prophet’s lifetime.

A notable instance of this dual application is found in Isaiah 14. In verse 4, Isaiah identifies his subject as “the king of Babylon,” likely referring to Nebuchadnezzar. Clearly he was a man whose pride brought him a very humbling punishment. But interpreters have rightly taken verses 12 through 15 to also be a description of the fall of Satan from his status in heaven as the angel of light (Lucifer)—although apparently he can still masquerade his former identity (see 2 Corinthians 11:14).

The picture in Zephaniah

Zephaniah wrote his book during the reign of Josiah in Judah (they were actually distant relatives). While the northern kingdom of Israel had already been taken captive by Assyria, the people of Judah were allowed to remain in their land by paying tribute to the Assyrian king. Along with Jeremiah, Zephaniah emphasized their need for true repentance so God’s similar punishment of them might be avoided.

At one level these warnings seemed to bring results. Josiah stands out as the rare king in this part of history who brought about real reform. “Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him” (2 Kings 23:25). We’re told that when he discovered the Book of the Law, he immediately set out to cleanse the land of its idols and to forbid all idolatrous practices. No doubt these changes and the peace that came with them resulted in an atmosphere of hope in Judah, an optimism that finally their days of misery were over.

But was that enough to permanently change the course of history? “Nevertheless the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him” (verse 26). Josiah’s grandfather Manasseh was perhaps the most wicked king Judah ever had, and he “seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel” (2 Kings 21:9).

You see, through their interactions with the Assyrians, the people of Judah had adopted many of their practices, including magical arts, worship of astral bodies, following zodiac signs, and reverence for the mother-goddess. Manasseh even set up altars to these false gods on the roof of the temple (2 Kings 23:12). These pagan practices had become so engrained in the culture that simply changing the laws and removing altars did not purge the hearts of the people.

While I personally believe there were individuals under both kings who did not follow their ways, and God may have dealt with them differently as individuals, as a general rule He rewarded or punished nations as a whole. Significantly, therefore, the larger portion of Zephaniah’s writings speak not of blessing, but of devastating destruction. Clearly God knew that while there might be outward reforms, inwardly the people were still idolatrous. And as we now know, Jerusalem would soon be destroyed, and the people would be taken into exile in Babylon.

A pattern for today?

One passage in Zephaniah that has long been meaningful to me is found at the beginning of chapter 3. Here we read, speaking of Jerusalem, “Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, to the oppressing city! She has not obeyed His voice, she has not received correction; she has not trusted in the Lord, she has not drawn near to her God.” This tells me that an authentic relationship with God is confirmed through four specific responses: obeying Him, receiving correction from Him, trusting Him and drawing near to Him.

We need to understand that the book of Zephaniah, while written as a warning to Judah, is also explicitly focused on “the day of the Lord,” the final stretch of history (1:7). This encourages us to make the comparison with our own times, especially if we ourselves are on the doorstep of that Day—which I believe we are. We’re currently feeling a strong wind of optimism in our country, a “vibe shift,” a turning point. But have the hearts of the people really changed? Or are we, like those in Zephaniah’s day, living with an unwarranted optimism that God is actually healing our land?

As we read in Matthew 24, the last days of history prior to Christ’s return will bring unprecedented hardships and persecutions for those who remain faithful to God. I’ve explained in my previous posts why I believe these days are near, and also why I believe Christians will be on earth during the tribulation portion of the final seven years and will only be raptured right before God pours out His wrath on the earth.

Zephaniah’s description of this wrath is disturbingly graphic:

The great day of the Lord is near; it is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; there the mighty men shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers. “I will bring distress upon men, and they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord.” (Zephaniah 1:14-17)

What will it take to escape this devastation? The answer lies in verse three of chapter 2. “Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.” Nevertheless, we know God’s anger is justified—and it is unavoidably coming.

While we are not wrong to welcome any reforms in our day, which will hopefully allow many to come to Christ, if in fact our times are parallel to Zephaniah’s, this temporary reprieve will ultimately be insufficient to change the wicked hearts of humanity as a whole. Instead, God promises that on that coming day He himself will “reduce to nothing all the gods of the earth” (2:11), and He will “gather the nations...to pour on them My indignation, all My fierce anger; all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy” (3:8).

Are we actually being wise if we consider the writings of Zephaniah, and those of the other prophets, to be mainly ancient prophecies regarding the kingdoms of the past? Or should we begin to read them carefully as God’s advance notice, revealing what He has planned for the end of the ages? It isn’t an accident that so many of the prophetic writings are dark and foreboding, with only little glimmers of hope. God knows our tendency to ignore warnings, so it makes sense that these would dominate the pages of Scripture.

But if you choose to read Zephaniah for yourself—and I hope you will—you will see something else being described at the end of the book. Beginning in verse nine of chapter 3, we are given a beautiful glimpse of the millennium, when God will eventually restore His land and permanently bless His people. I believe this means we should focus our minds and hearts, not on our present afflictions—or even on our positive accomplishments—but on the coming kingdom that is clearly promised in the Bible.

Zephaniah teaches us that our highest priority is to obey God, to receive His correction, to trust Him and to draw near to Him, especially as the days grow darker. And out of this intimate relationship we have with Him, we will gladly invite those around us to come to Him as well, joining us as we look forward to the promised restoration He has so graciously revealed through His prophets.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

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This morning I opened my Bible to where it was bookmarked and read this from Habakkuk 1.

The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.

O LORD, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” and You will not save. Why do You show me iniquity, and cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; there is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

Interestingly, after God answered him, here is Habakkuk’s response:

I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.

Oh. But do we too need some sort of correcting?

Many years ago I read a comment I have never forgotten, in a book called The Safest Place on Earth. The author, Larry Crabb, wrote, “More frequently than untested Christians expect, God removes the one source of joy and meaning that we were counting on to make our lives worth living, and replaces it with nothing.”

One thing I have learned over the years is that the best way to deal with suffering is to search for God in the middle of it. While this search does not displace our grieving (nor should it), it does bring the significant comfort that comes when our suffering is not meaningless.

If you have been reading my writings on this Substack, you are aware that I anticipate rapidly growing challenges to those who follow Christ in our day. But it is also my belief that God will graciously prepare those who are paying close attention to Him by incrementally strengthening us for what is coming.

In yesterday’s reading in My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers (who was no stranger to hardship and horror as a chaplain in World War I) said this:

We imagine we would be all right if a big crisis arose; but the big crisis will only reveal the stuff we are made of, it will not put anything into us. “If God gives the call, of course I will rise to the occasion.” You will not unless you have risen to the occasion in the workshop, unless you have been the real thing before God there. If you are not doing the thing that lies nearest, because God has engineered it; when the crisis comes instead of being revealed as fit, you will be revealed as unfit. Crises always reveal character.

So my counsel—to myself and to you—is to let God work His gracious preparation in our hearts through this tragic and sorrowful loss. For me at least, that comes through the admission that I am prone to see certain individuals as the source of my security and hopefulness, rather than doing the harder work of acknowledging—and allowing—God to be that source in my life.

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One of the most common evangelistic verses in Scripture is Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” The implication is that salvation is mainly a matter of what we believe and what we say, and that this is all that is needed to securely belong to Jesus. But then there’s that “in your heart” part that’s not quite so clear.

I think it’s helpful to consider the very first evangelistic event, which is recorded in Acts 2. We’re told that on that day people from a wide variety of cultures each heard a message in their own language, through the miraculous gift of tongues. Exactly what they heard we don’t know, except that it involved “the wonderful works of God” (verse 11). But whatever that was, it was very confusing to them (verse 12).

Peter then stood up and preached a most remarkable sermon. He first explained how the Scriptures foretold a time when there would be specific supernatural events, signaling the beginning of a new season in history. He then connected this with the coming of Jesus of Nazareth, whose miracles they themselves had witnessed, but who also was put to death at their own hands. This was followed by a lengthy explanation of how Jesus was in fact their promised King and the Lord over everything.

His conclusion? “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Their response? They were “cut to the heart.” Something happened deep inside them, and they begged Peter and the other apostles to tell them what they should do. “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

There are three distinct components in this picture of salvation. First, the people were given a clear understanding of their personal responsibility for Christ’s death, which brought them to see the ultimate seriousness of sin, followed by deep sorrow as they realized how they had sinned against a holy God. Second, they were given a strong desire to obey God, beginning with public baptism. And third, they were promised that the Holy Spirit would be given to those who were truly being saved.

A faulty view of salvation

Before we further consider the evidences for authentic salvation, I want us to look briefly at one of the most sobering passages in Scripture, Matthew 7:21-23.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

Notice that these people are confessing Jesus as Lord. They no doubt also believe in His resurrection from the dead, and they assume that because they can do mighty works in His name that they are certainly part of His family. Notice also that Jesus said “many.” If these people are doing the things they’re doing and still aren’t saved, how much more might there be others, many others, who believe they’re saved, but who really aren’t doing much of anything?

Think about the gospel story. God created a sinless couple, but they disobeyed Him, and as a result humanity and creation were cursed. Because all of us who came after them have also rebelled against God, we too deserve His wrath and punishment. Yet out of His love for us, He came into our world and took that punishment on Himself, thus giving us an opportunity to receive His forgiveness and restoration.

It’s the most beautiful story ever told—and it must be told in order for salvation to take place. But then what usually follows is one or a combination of three things. The person is told to believe (mental assent), to feel something (emotional engagement), and/or to “put their trust in Jesus” (an act of the will). While none of these are wrong in themselves, they don’t actually confirm new birth. Even praying a prayer doesn’t in itself guarantee anything.

True salvation is a supernatural act of God, and it will result in the faith to believe, in emotional comfort and joy, and in a sincere willingness (and the ability) to trust God’s power and faithfulness. But these are consequences and not the cause of our rebirth. If all we focus on is what we ourselves have said and done, we may be missing the most important piece: actual divine transformation.

Divine assurance

So let’s look now at what the apostle John has to say in his first letter with regard to the proof of regeneration. In fact, he specifically says this is his primary purpose for writing. “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13).

He also clearly spells out the central feature of authentic rebirth in 4:13. “By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” In other words, true salvation comes when the Spirit of the God of the universe amazingly joins (or enters or brings to life) the spirit of a fleshly human being. We will never fully understand what happens, but it is as real and as miraculous as when we first came to life in the womb. It also will bring changes which are solid and tangible—and which can provide us with a deep assurance of our right standing with God.

The first thing we should probably realize is that the Spirit isn’t just some sort of force or energy source—He’s a person. And even though He shares all the divine attributes of Jesus and the Father, He has a unique role to play. Quite specifically, His greatest purpose is to bring honor to Jesus in every way possible. Therefore, because He is now transforming the desires of our hearts, we too will have a glad awareness of the worth and beauty and majesty of Jesus. We will also find ourselves desiring to know more about Him, to please Him, and to become like Him.

Of course, our flesh doesn’t disappear, and this is where our own mind, will and emotions need to be intentionally engaged. But the more we cooperate with the Spirit out of a new sense of gratitude and joy, the easier it will become to join Him in pleasing and honoring our wonderful Savior. So let’s look now at the qualities John says should describe believers as they grow in their faith.

Characteristics of those who have been reborn

· We will no longer be attracted to the dark places in life where we once walked or the dark activities we once took part in. (1 John 1:5-7)

· The Spirit will cause us to hate sin as God does, and He will motivate us to confess our sins and believe that God has actually forgiven them. (1 John 1:8-9)

· We will be able to believe that Christ’s death fully paid for our sins. There’s nothing we can or must do to add to that. (1 John 2:1-2)

· We will have a real desire to obey Christ, even though our flesh will fight against this. But the fight itself is a sign that the Spirit is alive in us. (1 John 2:3-6)

· We will have a new capacity to love others that isn’t limited by how lovable they are. (1 John 2:9-11)

· We will no longer love “the things of the world.” These include attractive things that cause us to lust after them, or achievements that bring us honor in the eyes of the world. Our enemy will continue to put these in front of us, but as we mature spiritually, we will gain the ability to see them for what they are, and with help from the Spirit we will no longer be enticed by them. (1 John 2:15-16)

Another key assurance of the Spirit’s indwelling is a willingness to sacrifice and suffer. This demonstrates that we truly believe that this world is not our home, that God is not primarily concerned to prosper us materially, and that advancing His kingdom is worth whatever price we must pay. Luke 6:20-26 will ring true in our hearts, even if our minds might be puzzled by it.

The Spirit will also open our eyes to the treasures that are in the entire Bible. We will no longer be hunting through it for ideas that confirm what we want to believe, but instead will find our perspective on everything being shaped by what we read. This heart of intellectual submission to the truth of God’s words will also be reflected in our desire to seek out and submit to His leading in every aspect of our lives.

Finally, we will feel real love toward Jesus and a deep desire to be with Him. That’s because the Spirit loves the Son and Father with the most perfect and powerful love, and we’ll be given a measure of that love ourselves. Other aspects of the Spirit’s nature will also be present in our spirits, including His supernatural peace and joy and patience and faith. These may not be very evident at first, but they should increasingly characterize our nature as we mature spiritually.

What should I do if these things aren’t true of me?

Dear friend, I believe you are in a very good place when you can admit you need something you don’t have...and that you long for it deeply. Pride would tell us that we can clean up our own lives, or that because our bad deeds are outnumbered by our good ones, God owes us His blessing. But when a person really comes to grasp the horror of their sin and how it has actually separated them from the loving God who created them, it will make them desperate for the redemption He alone can provide.

Or from another angle, instead of seeking salvation mainly because it will be your ticket to heaven (and keep you out of hell), focus instead on Jesus Himself. Consider the price He paid, and like those first converts in Acts 2, realize that you personally share in the responsibility for His cruel death. This is all part of true repentance, and as these realities become clear in your mind and heart, you will be taking your first steps into God’s kingdom.

Back in the Old Testament, God’s people Israel had been severely punished for seventy years for their wicked rebellion against Him. But then they were given a wonderful promise in Jeremiah, one that also gives us a glimpse into the heart of God for the people He loves. He is the same God, who, in the face of our own rebellion, offers these words to show His desire to rescue us.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-14)

Here we again find mention of the heart. Your prideful heart might be arguing that you have believed you were saved, perhaps for years, and that others have believed that too. In fact, you might even be a person whose identity and vocation are wrapped up in your claim to be a Christian. But is it not more important to be absolutely certain that Jesus wasn’t talking about you in Matthew 7?

If your desperation and the repentance that comes with it are real and honest, then God will not reject you. It may not happen quickly, as the Spirit reveals deeper layers of pride and resistance in your heart. Nevertheless, Jesus has promised us this, in John 6:37 and 40: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out....And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

* * * * * * *

Please know I’ve written this not out of a sense of my superiority, as I too am an undeserving sinner rescued only by the grace of God. Nevertheless, I am very concerned that others may have been given false assurances, even by well-meaning Christian leaders and teachers, and that there will be many who will be tragically astonished to hear Jesus say to them, “I never knew you.” I urge you to think deeply about these things, as nothing matters more.

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Another commonly held belief is that we are justified in holding different versions of eschatology because the Bible is intentionally obscure about these matters. While it’s true that there are mysteries we are not able to understand—things like the Trinity or dual agency—I’m not so sure the end times are in that category.

The reason I say that is because we have a clear record in three of the four Gospels where the disciples specifically ask Jesus the question we too would ask, “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” There are any number of questions people asked him where he answered vaguely or seemed to change the subject. But in this case, in what is called the Olivet Discourse, he not only answered them in detail, he also answered at length, even including parables to illustrate what he was communicating.

The other thing the Bible offers is an entire book called Apokalupsis, which we translate “Revelation” and which means something that is disclosed or unveiled. In the opening section we are told, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near” (Revelation 1:3). If we are intended to keep the words and thereby be blessed, it seems reasonable that we should be able to understand them fairly accurately.

As you may know, several versions of eschatology see many of the prophetic words in Scripture as symbolic, which implies that it is left to the reader to interpret them. While the Bible does use symbols, usually those symbols are interpreted for us. In the case of the symbolic dreams in the first half of Daniel, these were not only explained, but we also see how the prophesied events actually transpired across history. Should we not expect the dreams and prophecies in the second half of that book to be literally fulfilled as well?

I might also point out that there are some aspects of history that are repeated, thus giving us what are called antetypes of future events. Many of the prophecies in the Old Testament had an immediate fulfillment, or a later fulfillment in history, but sometimes they apply to a future event as well. If we only see these things as “one and done,” we may miss what God has intended us to learn from them.

The prophetic timeline

While I’m not going to give you one more chart to study, I do believe there are some distinct segments in history that are consistent in all the biblical prophetic writings. There is the season between creation and the first coming of Christ, the season between the start of the church and his second coming, and then there is a season spoken of in Revelation (and implied in other prophecies) between his second coming and the end of history itself, when we move into eternity. That final season is called the millennium, which by definition means a thousand years.

Since you and I are in the second season, that’s where I want to focus our attention here. However, I will be glad to do another post on the millennium, as I believe there are some relatively new insights that help to resolve many of the questions people have about that time in history. But what matters most now, in my view, is that we gain a clear vision of the coming days, if in fact (as I wrote in my previous post) the end of this season is quite near and thus might be ours to live through.

One other component of this discussion needs to be mentioned, and that is whether there is a distinction between how history will unfold specifically for the descendants of Jacob, generally known as the Jews, and how it might be different for everyone else. While I personally believe God does have unique things in mind for the people group he chose back in Genesis, one thing I don’t accept is that the final seven years of this season of history—commonly known as the tribulation—will only really matter to the Jews and to those who are not part of God’s church.

Those who disagree with me about this assume the description of the final days leading to Jesus’ second coming is intended to be a warning only for the Jews, because believers will be removed (raptured) prior to that time. Yes, Jesus is addressing a question posed by Jewish men, but these are also men who will soon become the leaders of the church. And as we’ll see, his discourse itself does not really support that distinction.

A look at Matthew 24

Let’s turn now to Matthew’s version of the Olivet Discourse, in Matthew 24. Jesus responds to his disciples’ question by describing in detail a sequence of events. The first season he calls “the beginning of sorrows” (verse 8). These years will be characterized by wars, famines and earthquakes. Some translations also include the word “pestilences,” which generally means plagues...perhaps something like pandemic that recently frightened us?

Of course, these hardships have been repeated throughout history, which brings up the question of why we should see our time as being any different. I responded to that in my previous post, but I will also add here that I believe God intended every generation since Christ ascended to heaven to be watching and preparing themselves for his return. We could also see earlier historic cycles to be antetypes, perhaps provided to us so we will have a real sense of what we are being warned about.

The next section Jesus specifically calls a time of tribulation (verse 9), where his followers will be hated and persecuted and betrayed and killed. This of course came true for the very men he was speaking to, and it has been the experience of Christ-followers throughout the centuries—which might be another reason not to assume these promised hardships are strictly for the Jews at a certain time in history. He also includes the presence of false prophets who will deceive many, and while those have been with us for centuries as well, we should expect the deceptions to be even more prevalent and subtle as the end grows near.

Then in verses 12-13 he tells them, “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved.” While there has arguably been lawlessness throughout history, I tend to believe this refers to the radical rejection of God’s morality and truth that characterizes the 21^st century, as I described in my previous post. The reason many will turn from God is largely because these blasphemies will be publicly enforced. It will be increasingly hard to be loyal to Scriptural teachings—especially if our Bibles are taken from us. It will also be a time of great sorting between those who truly belong to Christ and those whose faith is only superficial.

A pivotal promise

Next, Matthew 24:14 tells us, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” As I mentioned last time, we know there are many nations still unreached, and this might give us comfort by implying that Christ’s return is years away. But I want to show you now why this might not be the case.

As you probably know, the birthing of the church in Acts 2 came as the result of the gospel being supernaturally preached to people from many nations, through the gift of tongues given to Christ’s first disciples. It is therefore plausible to think God may also intend the close of the church age to be accompanied by another supernatural gospel presentation.

I personally think that’s what is happening in Revelation 14:6-7. John wrote, “Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come.’”

There’s an interesting verse tucked back in Joel that may well be connected. If you’re aware of the prophecy in Joel 2, he is specifically speaking of the Day of the Lord in verses 30-31. Then, significantly, verse 32 tells us this: “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” This seems to imply that just before the end of the age, those who have not been given a chance to hear the gospel will supernaturally be given that opportunity to respond in faith.

Moving forward

Having arrived at “the end,” Jesus now circles back to some more explicit details. While the previous verses apply to everyone living in that time, the next verses are addressed specifically to those who live in Judea, predominantly the Jews, telling them that when a certain event called the “abomination of desolation” occurs, they should immediately flee the country. Here he draws in the prophecy of Daniel, which we will now look at briefly.

It is commonly accepted that the abomination of desolation is accomplished by the end times ruler we know as the antichrist. In Daniel 9:27 we read, “Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.” It is consistent, I think, to interpret the “many” in this part of Daniel’s prophecy—and in Jesus’ warning—as directly pertaining to the Jews, as they are the ones who are especially concerned about covenants and sacrifices.

Let me now bring you into my understanding of how this is all going to unfold. As we know, the Jews have been waiting for thousands of years for a messiah who will not only defend them, but who will also establish the kingdom they have been promised in the land of Israel. It is therefore plausible that the antichrist will appear to them to be that person, that the “strong covenant” will be his promise to fulfill the prophecies they have clung to.

Remember, he will rise to power at a time when the world is in major turmoil, due to wars and famines and earthquakes and any number of other terrifying events, and he will bring in a much sought after stability. We are also told that the antichrist will be capable of signs and wonders (2 Thessalonians 2:9), confirming to the Jews his supernatural status. This will continue through the first half of the seven year period.

Of course, during this time, true believers will be increasingly persecuted, as Jesus foretold. But the Jews will temporarily rejoice, as they will even have some form of their holy place restored. Then at the midpoint, the antichrist will suddenly reveal his true nature and purpose. He will “bring an end” to the sacrifices, and will seek to destroy both God’s church and Jews in what Christ called the “great tribulation.” It will be particularly devastating for those in Judea—thus the warning to flee. It will also be the time in which the mark of the beast will be required of everyone.

Jesus becomes quite forceful at this point in his discourse. In verses 22 and 24 we read, “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened....For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” As I said in my last post, the supernatural powers of the enemy forces will be on full display, and only those who are supernaturally empowered by God will be able to stand firm, or as Jesus put it, “endure to the end.”

What about the rapture?

It’s easy to see why the concept of an escape through rapture is so very popular, an event most explicitly described in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. However, look carefully at what Paul later writes in his second letter to the same church.

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)

Does that sound familiar? Then going back to Jesus’ teaching, we also read this:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31)

Remember that the disciples had asked him for the sign of his coming. God has actually promised to give some very astonishing and frightening signs just before Jesus comes the second time. Unlike his first coming, when he arrived almost unnoticed in a small town in Judea, this coming will be missed by no one.

The Day of the Lord

It’s not accidental that we also read of these same radical changes in the sun and moon in Joel 2:31 and Revelation 6:12, and in both places they signal the onset of the Day of the Lord. In addition, we learn in Revelation 6:17 that this Day is specifically the beginning of the God’s wrath. This brings me to an important point.

There are many who assume the entire seven year period will be the outpouring of God’s wrath. But if you think about it, God’s anger will properly be directed toward those who have rejected him—especially the antichrist and those who choose to follow him. Yet during a large part of the seven years, the antichrist will not feel any wrath at all, but in fact will be highly exalted. At the same time, God will be purifying his people through the trials they endure.

So what fits best into these prophecies is the sequence where there will be three and a half years of hardships for believers, followed by a shorter period of extreme suffering, which Jesus says “has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21). Then on a day and hour no one knows, the trumpet will sound, Christ will appear, and his people will be gathered up to meet him in the clouds. This will be followed by the supernatural devastation described in Revelation as the trumpet and bowl judgments, which clearly manifest the terrifying wrath of God.

As I said, I’m going to save the description of what happens after this for a future post on the millennium. However, I will make one further comment. Some people are concerned that this interpretation makes it seem as though Jesus comes back to earth twice. It’s fairly clear, however, that he doesn’t make it all the way to earth at the time of the rapture, but meets his people in the clouds. He only physically comes to the earth at the end of the seventh year, to fight the battle of Armageddon and set up his millennial kingdom.

This concern can also be fairly easily resolved when we think about Jesus’ first coming. It wasn’t just a one day event, but actually lasted some 33 years. In the same way, the “Day” of the Lord, i.e. the second coming of Christ, will actually extend over a period of time, involving many of these events I’ve just described.

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Obviously there’s much more to talk about, and of course there are things I too don’t fully understand. But I do believe this interpretation consistently and literally fits into the various end times prophecies we find in Scripture. I would welcome any questions or counterpoints that might help all of us more clearly grasp—and hopefully prepare for—the conclusion of history as God has planned it to take place...especially if ours is the generation destined to experience it.

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1. Life is going to get better.

People who hold the first view assume that God intends his church to prepare the planet for the return of its King. Or even if they aren’t exactly thinking along these lines, they believe we are called to continue to improve the situation of humanity as part of our faithfulness to God, thereby fulfilling the mandate he gave to Adam in Eden.

Of course, this is reinforced by our natural desire to preserve the qualities of civilization we’ve already attained, especially for the benefit of our children. In addition, people are drawn to this perspective simply because it represents optimism and hope, which helps them survive their present challenges in life.

Many wise and devoted Christians are thus proposing very thoughtful and promising plans for how we might stop the current downgrade and actually restore society to its previous stability—with the anticipation that the momentum in that direction will continue on to even better days. As I listen to their podcasts and read their writings, I have decided these represent a new genre that I call “If only.”

For example, if only we would return to classical education, our children could be rescued. If only we would focus on building strong local communities, eventually their health will spread out into the larger society. If only we would establish alternate institutions, these could replace the failing ones. If only the church would renounce its complacency and emphasize virtue again, we could gradually build God’s kingdom on earth.

For the most part, these are all plans that would in fact be very effective...if only everyone would get on board, or at least enough people, perhaps in the right places or holding the right power, to make a difference. These proposals easily gain popularity, because it’s not hard to see the positive results when they are implemented on a small scale—and as I said, we understandably look for reasons to be hopeful.

While it’s possible that certain people have been inspired by God to offer these proposals and then attempt to live them out, I still think it’s a valid question to ask, if indeed this time in history is uniquely close to the end, whether that’s something God is actually calling the church as a whole to do. We read in Psalm 127:1, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” It has occurred to me that the inverse may also be true. “If the Lord is tearing down a house, they labor in vain who try to shore it up.” Which leads us to the other possible interpretation of our times.

2. Life is going to get worse.

If you’ve read my previous post, you will know that I believe God’s overarching purpose for all of history is his own self-revelation. It is therefore consistent to believe that he may in fact intend the state of our world at the end of this age to significantly deteriorate, thereby presenting a sharp contrast to the world which Jesus will come to physically rule, and thus showcasing the glory of his perfect leadership.

I would also argue that this perspective is far more readily supported in the Scriptures. When the disciples specifically ask Jesus about the sign of his return and of the end of the age in Matthew 24:3, there is nothing in his response to indicate an increase in human flourishing. Rather, he emphasizes that there will be extreme hardships, and he encourages his disciples (and us) to be especially attentive when these signs begin to appear.

I should mention here that many Christians are not really concerned about these warnings, due especially to two popular eschatological understandings. For one group, there is a confidence that believers will be taken out of the world (raptured) prior to the time when these hardships actually take place. For another group, they see these things as being a long way off in the future and thus not ours to be especially concerned about.

A common justification for this second viewpoint is Jesus’ statement in verse 14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Since we know there are many nations still unreached, the assumption is that God is waiting for us to complete our commission to reach them before Jesus will return—and that could take many more years.

I’m not going to give an alternate understanding of that verse here, or spell out my view of how the end times will unfold—although I will be glad to do that in another post if anyone requests it. But let me just say that I am convinced there will be many believers who will live in the days Jesus was describing, and therefore they need to be prepared for some very difficult challenges. I’ll talk about that preparation in a moment, but first, let me give some reasons why I think ours might be the generation he was specifically warning.

Are we near the end times?

There are some, of course, who would point to certain shifts in world politics, especially as these pertain to Israel, as fulfilling biblical prophecies regarding the end times. There are even those who see signs in the sky or other signals that suggest we uniquely qualify as being in the very last days. While the Bible seems to allow us to make these speculations, I personally have another reason why I believe we are entering the days Jesus was describing. Quite simply, I believe our world has reached a level of degeneration never seen before in history—because God is permitting our enemy to do his worst just before Christ returns.

To be sure, people have been unspeakably cruel to each other in every era since Adam’s time. We read too of the moral debauchery that characterized certain cultures, and maybe we can tell ourselves we’ve moved past that (although that could be debated). We also know of devastating earthquakes and other natural disasters that were far worse than those happening now...at least so far. The difference is that all of those things involve ways that humans suffer, either at the hand of other humans or through natural causes. However, what is happening today—and more to the point, what characterizes the rapidly unfolding trajectories of our day—is an all-out attack, not so much on humanity, but on God himself.

Specifically, what God calls vile is now being called virtuous, and what God says is virtuous is declared to be vile (see Isaiah 5:20), with the increasing enforcement of these inversions by the ruling authorities. Every good aspect of God’s design for human relationships, particularly families and the sexual realities that create and sustain them, is being deliberately violated. Our technology has enabled us to build towers much more sinister than Babel, effectively drawing us into the illusion of our own godlike powers. In short, everything anti-Christ is now taking shape before our eyes—or at least before the eyes of those who are given the ability to see.

How then should we prepare?

In one respect, our preparation for the upcoming days—if in fact they will be those Jesus was speaking of in Matthew 24—is no different than how we have always needed to prepare for our own deaths. First of course is the spiritual preparation of our salvation, followed by a very intentional effort to cooperate with the Spirit in our subsequent sanctification. We should also work to keep our relationships with others as healthy as possible, to minimize things like indebtedness and other forms of bondage, and then to do what we can to faithfully live out our callings from God.

But what if our life circumstances are about to become very, very challenging? The talk of wars and famines and persecution is not something symbolic, but could become a very real part of our actual lives. As you’re probably aware, there is a growing interest in the various forms of prepping, getting off the grid, alternative monetary systems, and other self-protective or survival maneuvers. These are of course not ill-advised, nor should they be seen as representing weak faith. They are definitely superior to the attitude of a large segment of humanity, including many Christians, who are not paying attention at all, or who are looking to the secular government to figure things out and fix everything.

While it’s not wrong to make human preparations, even the best strategies for survival will at best only extend our lives for a time. Sooner or later, someone with a bigger gun will confiscate ours, along with any food we’ve stored away. But more to the point, given modern surveillance technology, there will really be no place to hide. It’s clear too that the enemy’s sights will be laser-focused on those Christians who will not renounce (or at least sufficiently modify) their beliefs, and because of this, there will ultimately be no escape other than martyrdom for many in the upcoming days.

So what are we to be doing now? I believe our primary mission is to clearly and courageously speak truth in a world that is dominated by lies. Because the Bible is no longer given a place of honor in our society, there are many in our day who have never been given even the opportunity to hear truth. While some will continue to reject it, there are others who, when they are given truth, will receive it gladly—especially if they see its positive effects lived out in our own lives.

Which means, of course, that another primary focus of our attention should again be our life patterns and choices. When speaking of the end times, Peter concludes in 2 Peter 3:14, “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.” I believe this requires us to increasingly detach ourselves from the distractions and addictions of this world, especially if we become convinced that we are in fact the Matthew 24 generation. Practices such as regular fasting from food or other life habits will also be a practical way we can physically ready ourselves for harder times.

Which leads me to my other thought about preparation. If these final days will be the time when our enemy has been given permission to do his worst to the followers of Christ, then we should expect there will be an increase in supernatural activities. Those who are aware of what’s going on in our culture have seen a dramatic escalation of interest in the supernatural, whether it’s attention to unusual phenomena, engagement in new age practices, or simply the draw of alternate forms of “spirituality” in general. There is also uneasy speculation about whether a boundary line between technology and the demonic actually exists.

However this all works out, I am personally convinced that true Christians will also need to take very seriously the equipping that is available to us through the Holy Spirit. We will not be able to defend ourselves through merely natural means—or be able to figure out all that’s going on using human forms of reason and investigation. This means that even now we should be learning to seek guidance and empowerment from the Spirit in practical and specific ways. We must also know the Scriptures very well, as our enemy is very crafty in his ability to bring counterfeit signs and wonders, and he will be able to deceive many (see 2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

As you can tell, there’s much more to say on these topics, and I’m looking forward to the conversations we hopefully will continue to have. But I’ll leave with this one thought. With all I’ve said, I believe the most important thing you as an individual should do now is to become completely certain that you are in right standing with God. Even if you and I don’t end up being alive during the end of this age, we will soon enough find ourselves in eternity. I have given a lot of thought recently to how a person can have full assurance of their salvation. Let me know if you are interested, as I would love to discuss that in a future post.

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Because I’ve already written on this topic, I’m going to send you to my website,

http://www.bereansnotepad.com

for the first part of my answer (go to Shorter Writings and scroll down). In that paper I describe three primary ways we benefit from the sufferings we experience:

1. Our sufferings make us realize our need for God.

2. Our sufferings help shape us into conformity to Christ.

3. The sufferings of others provide us with the context for ministry.

I also explain that when we encounter the mercy and comfort of God in the midst of our suffering, we are changed in ways that have rich and eternal benefits.

What I did not address in that writing is something I hope to do here, which is how in fact our sufferings benefit God himself. This will provide an introduction to my understanding of the purpose for which God created the cosmos and history in the first place.

Stretching back into eternity past, far beyond our ability to comprehend it, God has always existed as the triune being: Father, Son and Spirit. At some point we know he created more beings—angels and cherubim and others—who apparently reflect certain aspects of his image. We also know that one being in particular, the archangel Lucifer, had the capacity to disdain his status as a worshiper of God (Isaiah 14:12-15) and subsequently brought along other beings in his downfall.

When God later created Adam and Eve, after first decreeing the existence of a universe in which they were to dwell, I believe he had something very specific in mind. This is somewhat speculative on my part, but I believe it is consistent with a strong underlying biblical theme: God’s great eternal desire has been to reveal who he is to his created beings. Said another way, God wants his glory to be made known in all its power, holiness and beauty.

It is easy to imagine that the heavenly hosts have always been able to see certain aspects of God’s glory and have thus responded in continual worship. But there are other qualities contained within the Godhead which are likely not to have been revealed prior to human history. To put it simply, these are qualities that require a contrasting backdrop for them to actually be made visible. And it is no accident that this backdrop necessarily includes suffering.

For example, the scriptures describe God as being the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). But that comfort cannot actually be tangibly expressed until it is extended to a person who is sorrowful, lonely, confused, frightened or grieving. Similarly, the God who protects or provides can only be made known to those who are threatened or impoverished in some way. Furthermore, we will learn to gladly follow the leadership of Christ only as we come to realize, through our failures, how really inept we are at ordering our own lives.

This then demonstrates what are actually the mutual benefits of suffering. To the extent we are authentically submitted to God, we have access to a wide array of supernatural blessings, usually gained through honestly and patiently entreating him for his mercies. At the same time, he also rightly receives praise and honor and gratitude in return, not only from us, but potentially from others around us—and even from the heavenly hosts who witness it.

But by far the greatest purpose for the grand drama of human history, as God has intentionally and elaborately designed it, is the revelation of the unparalleled magnitude of his love.

For many of us, the story is familiar. The crowning glory of God’s creation—human beings—who were given the companionship of God in the splendor of Eden, chose instead to disregard these gifts. Like Lucifer before them, they believed they could live and flourish independently from God. This resulted in a devastating divide between the Creator and his creation.

The first years following the Fall were a disaster (see Genesis 6:11-12). Even with a fresh start after the flood, we only continued in our rebellion against God. However, as the pages of history continued to turn, we see him incrementally offering forms of assistance to bring humanity back to himself. The first real help we received was the Mosaic law, which laid out a plan to provide at least a measure of restored relationship. Yet what this ultimately produced was little more than a cycle of sin, punishment, repentance, and then more sin.

It was within this context of ongoing rebellion, misery and helplessness that God himself stepped into our history as one of us. During his few years of ministry, Jesus modeled purity, taught eternal truths, and graciously relieved the physical suffering and spiritual bondage of many. Nevertheless, while there were a few who remained faithful to him, the majority soon turned against him, heartlessly subjecting him to the most brutal and humiliating suffering and death ever devised.

It’s likely that none of us really grasp all that was accomplished on the outskirts of Jerusalem during that pivotal moment in history. We do know that the resurrection power of God conquered the curse of death, guaranteeing eternal life for all who would come to him. We can also now receive the miraculous indwelling Spirit, enabling us to walk with supernatural grace and strength in greater obedience to God.

But perhaps most significant of all, it was through the most painful suffering of the most innocent man on behalf of the most undeserving people that God conclusively revealed the height and breadth and depth of his divine love, proving that he deserves (and will receive) the highest praise and honor and worship throughout all creation for all of eternity. This was his plan, and this is what he has accomplished.

So why does God let us suffer? To put it simply, if we didn’t suffer, we wouldn’t understand his sufferings—and thus we wouldn’t understand his love. We might wish for an easier way for this knowledge to be gained. But this is the way our Creator has chosen, with higher wisdom than ours, and at a far greater cost than we’ll ever pay. And because he has suffered totally on our behalf, the day will come when our lesser sufferings will be remembered no more—and our broken relationship with him will be completely restored.

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I realize there may be unanswered questions this summary and my linked article did not address. Please feel free to bring up anything you’d like me to discuss further.

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I woke up one morning to discover that I had two followers, and I didn’t even have an actual Substack started. But that led me to think, well, if they’re following me, I guess I need to be going somewhere.

As I reluctantly pondered that reality, I realized there was in fact somewhere I wanted to go, or more accurately, something I wanted to write. My favorite genre has always been letters, because then I’m writing to a specific person about something I specifically want to say to them.

So that’s what I hope my Substack becomes: a series of letters to my readers about things they are actually interested in, based on the questions they give me. Of course, I’m not going to be able to answer every question, and I also know the answers I offer aren’t going to be accepted by everyone.

But over the years I’ve done a lot of thinking and praying...and studying, especially my Bible. If what I’ve learned can be of value to others, then it is my privilege—and really, my obligation—to share these things with them.

However, in order to understand and perhaps to accept my answers, readers will need to be comfortable with three basic presuppositions that impact almost everything I write. First, I believe God is sovereign. Second, I believe the Bible as we have it today is trustworthy and authoritative. And third, I accept the validity of something called dual agency, which I’ll explain below.

1. God is sovereign

While most Christians might say they believe in the sovereignty of God, what I mean by it is that God has predetermined every aspect of creation and human history to accomplish a very intentional plan. There is nothing that exists or takes place that is not fully under his wise control. This is validated by the precision in which many of the Old Testament prophecies have been supernaturally and accurately fulfilled. It also means that the yet-to-be fulfilled prophecies are just as accurate, even though how or when they will be fulfilled is usually not clear to us.

2. The Bible is trustworthy and authoritative

We as modern Bible readers need to take our scriptures as seriously as Jesus took his Hebrew Bible. This doesn’t mean that it’s not possible for us to misread or misapply certain passages. In fact, there is much in the Bible that intentionally contains mysteries we’re not going to fully resolve. The danger comes when we find ourselves evaluating Bible statements based on our own views of truth or ethics or what makes the best sense to us. For this reason I have endeavored to conform my views to what I read in the Bible, trusting also in the guidance of the Spirit.

3. Dual agency is valid

This biblical concept is certainly hard to understand. In our minds, decisions are made by single individuals, leading to outcomes for which they alone are responsible. But one of the key challenges presented by scripture is how to reconcile God’s sovereignty with human accountability. Dual agency, mysterious as it is, is nevertheless the Bible’s resolution to that dilemma. We find it most clearly modeled in two separate contexts.

In Genesis 50:20, Joseph tells his brothers, who years earlier had sold him into slavery, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” Then in Acts 4:27-28, regarding the far more significant event of Christ’s crucifixion, Peter prayed this: “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.” In this case there were obviously many agents—including no doubt Satan himself—who chose to accomplish what God had fully intended from eternity past.

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So along these lines, this Substack will go where my readers and God take it! I especially welcome questions from those who truly desire answers—rather than questions that are simply designed to stump me. I also expect there will be conversations started from which I myself will gain new wisdom.

I’m going to launch this Substack by addressing one of the most common—and most challenging—questions we have: “Why does God let us suffer?” This will provide a good sense for how I approach questions, and hopefully it will inspire readers to bring me their other questions.

So, to everyone who reads this—welcome, thank you for joining us, and may God grant you grace and peace according to his riches in glory!

Diane Woerner