Stop The World

2/24/2024

            I’m fairly certain we all know professing Christians who espouse the old 60’s saying, “Just stop the world and let me get off.”  I really do understand, and I feel empathetic, but I also know the temptation to feel that way, and especially to voice it, is not from God.

            The more enlightened I get about what this world system is really about, the less I like it, and the thought of being extracted from it appeals more to me every day.  I am not as naïve as I once was, and my altruistic world view of America, no longer strikes me as honest or aboveboard.  However, opting out of engagement with the evil loosed on this world, is not a rational Christian (Biblical) response.

            To assume that we are alive at just this time and place is just the way the cards fell, flies in the face of the Creator God we say we believe in.  Perhaps we should be asking God why and for what specific purpose He determined to place us, as chosen members of His eternal family, on earth at this exact time.  God has a certain purpose for everything He does, and everyone He calls because He Himself, is the ultimate purpose for everything in the universe.

            In most of our wars, R&R is used to re-balance and re-charge the troops that have been subjected to constant combat.  Without taking a breather from the strain of combat, front line troops decline in their ability to fight and survive.  God put us smack dab in the middle of a centuries long war, and while He will provide His version of R&R for us, He does not expect us to duck the fight.  He is, after all, a God of war.  That’s why He’s the Commander of the Host.  ‘Host’ means army, and like it or not, to be a member of His family mandates that in some way, we are part of His army.  God has His army in heaven and His army on earth, but both parts are part of His one army. 

            The evil force we see loosed on the whole world at this time is composed of evil spiritual forces combined with evil humans, and I believe this army of evil is what the book of Daniel labels the ‘feet of iron and clay’.  The defeat of this army (‘empire’ in Daniel) is attributed to a rock that smashes it into pieces, and that rock is Jesus Christ.  To be part of His host is a high honor, but to be honest, some days it feels like a dubious honor. 

But I have this to say:  some days you fight in the front lines and some days you perform kitchen duty, but the only dishonor is to opt out altogether – there is no place for that in His army.

John