Some Disturbing but Hopeful Thoughts For Black Friday - Purity 898

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning! Today's photo of the reflection of the sky in the waters on the shores of Kingscliff Beach in Adelaide, South Australia comes to us from Dave Bond Photography. Dave shared this photo with the news that it has been a week since his eye surgery, and although the healing isn't complete yet and recovery is hard because he can't play practice the craft that he loves so much, he still wanted to share this scene to point to some good news. That the land down under, where things are sort of, well, upside down from our perspective, the summer weather is returning. While we are just beginning to deal with the fact that winter is not only coming, but is here in full force in places like Buffalo, Dave is experiencing the hope of of increasing recovery and warm, warm summer days. Some— something as simple as a report from a friend on the other side of the world can really point out just how big the world is. And when I look at today's photo in Australia, I can't help but to think— um, let's see, right, let's write that— but to think of the television series Lost. And the befuddled rock star Charlie's question, guys, where are we? Where are we indeed? This message is coming in late today because I have the day off. I decided to let the Lord wake me, and apparently he decided I could get some sleep as I woke up at the late hour of 5:30 AM. So we start today with more rest than usual and thoughts that are probably contrary to most in my reflections on yesterday's Thanksgiving holiday. You have to forgive my somewhat morbid outlook that I have at times. As a child of the late '70s and early '80s, graduating in 1990, um, from high school, I was raised in the heart of the Cold War and with entertainment that prophesied nuclear holocaust. I took delight in the works of Stephen King and I was eventually into music artists that had disdain for hypocrisy, of— for the hypocrisy of polite society, um, because of its tendencies to keep people in their place and, and that restricted or, or judged the free life that we wanted to live. Yeah, I gotta make the edits as we go here sometimes. Anyway, um, the freedom a lot, uh, A lot of my Gen X contemporaries and I wanted was freedom from any restrictions or judgments of what we wanted to do, usually surrounding things like sex and drugs. But we also sought to make society repent of its former violent, racist, and materialistic ways. The '90s was like a reboot of the '60s as the Berlin Wall came down and we had grand ideas of peace and peaceful, easy living. But we also had that contrast of nihilism because we had lived in the fear of nuclear holocaust for most of our lives. And now that we discovered we might just have to live to see, to see old age, some of us didn't have a clue of what we wanted to do when— to be when we grew up. I had spent so long living it up that I didn't prepare for the future. When you live a good part of your life thinking nothing really matters, it can be quite a surprise when you realize they might. One of the things angsty teens and young adults traditionally rebel against is the institution of family. And yesterday, I expect that there were— there may have been several Thanksgiving or quote-unquote Friendsgiving celebrations that had pride in how their gatherings differed from the traditional family gathering. But you know what? For the most part, as much as we love our friends and as wild as the days of our mad existences may have been in our youth, youths, as we move through life, um, those, those— we realize those, that those ideals and friendships of youth generally fade away. And you see that what was so important for a few years in our teens and 20s turned out to be the things that didn't really matter. Don't get me wrong, I still love all my friends from my youth, but in terms of Thanksgiving plans for 2022, they didn't play a part. And the thing that remained was family, quote unquote. However, in the landscape that divorce chisels in our— into our society and our immediate experiences, even that can cause things to be upside down from what we were used to. The Facebook photo, photo displays of large whole family gatherings may be considered sweet or annoying from your perspective, But you have to admit that the brokenness of the traditional family has, uh, has their appearances decreasing. Year after year, the changes can be subtle, but as the kids grow up and family members are lost to divorce or death, sometimes they can be quite jarring. Yesterday, my stepkid— stepkids from my second marriage, uh, met with their father for Thanksgiving breakfast. That turned out to be lunch. And why, while I of all people certainly understand the difficulties of meeting all those familial obligations of honor, something about the idea of Thanksgiving breakfast just offended me. This wasn't God's plan for sure. Um, I, I am sure these, uh, these thing— things weren't our plan either, but there they are. Nothing spells dysfunction like Thanksgiving breakfast, the hilarity and absurdity of it actually caused me to Google, "What did the Pilgrims have for breakfast?" But as gleeful as I was to start typing out that malicious question, my heart sank as Google started to complete the question as if it does, as it often does when someone else out there asks the same question. And I was saddened and somewhat ashamed of of the question. Shame because— I gotta watch my language here, um, not in a traditional sense anyway. And I was saddened and somewhat ashamed because I imagined that the question I submitted as a joke was possibly submitted in full sincerity as someone out there was desperately trying to create something traditional around their non-traditional gathering. Guys, where are we? Uh, another tradition that I enjoy is the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade, but even that staple of Thanksgiving tradition seems to increasingly reveal, uh, to be revealed, increasingly be revealed, uh, for the materialist and materialistic ad campaign that it is. And because it highlights current events and trends, it reveals the more moral slippage that our country has gone through through since I was a child. Without being specific, let's just say that some things on display during yesterday's parade would have not been deemed as suitable for public consumption, um, when I was a kid. Again, I have nothing really grotesque to point to because the grotesque ain't what it used to be, as what, what some would call progress could very well be seen as corruption from a biblical worldview. And thus, as I watched the parade yesterday, the The nihilism of old and the apocalyptic reality of biblical end times prophecies came together and made me think of something rather macabre. What would happen if Jesus came back on Thanksgiving Day in the midst of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? And at first, my thoughts were of a rapture where a small number, probably very small, perhaps unnoticeable, uh, uh, of people would simply vanish, causing the parade staff to seek to fill empty spots as the parade would just keep marching on. But then I thought of a post-rapture Revelation 14 return of Jesus Christ on Thanksgiving Day, where God's wrath would be poured out, where there would be few, if any, men left standing. Revelations 14:14, 14:15, 19, and 20 says, then I saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was someone like the Son of Man. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Then another angel came from the temple and shouted to the one sitting on the cloud, swing the sickle, for the time of harvest has come. The crop on earth is ripe. So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and loaded the grapes into the great winepress of God's wrath. The grapes were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress in a stream about 180 miles long and as high as a horse's bridle. Whoa! There is, or was, actually a joyous worship song on Christian radio this year proclaiming that Jesus is coming back. But in light of the moral corruption that is prevalent in our society and evidenced in families broken by divorce, sexual immorality, substance abuse, and selfish materialism, I fear that the return of Jesus Christ will not be the good news that the masses are waiting to hear. Yesterday I presented a short teaching based on a devotional from John MacArthur about Enoch, and one of the things that MacArthur drew from the few Bible verses on Enoch was that he walked with God, and, uh, he, through naming his son Methuselah, uh, he warned others about the certainty of God's judgment on the people of his corrupt moral society. Um, MacArthur pointed out that even though Enoch knew he would never live to see the flood that would come, he was still faithful to to warn others about it. People really must have thought Enoch was crazy, or at least a judgmental jerk, undoubtedly lecturing people about their moral failures and encouraging them to repent and trust in the one true unseen Creator God. But one day, because of his relationship with God, Enoch did not collect $200 and go directly to the grave. Instead, he was the first to provide evidence of the possibility of being raptured, We can imagine the theories that would have explained Enoch's disappearance, and I'm sure there were several quite reasonable and plausible ones. I could think of a bunch. But God, through His Word, reveals to us the truth about Enoch and a whole lot more. God reveals to us what right— what is right and wrong. Our society is lacking mightily in respecting His standard. God also revealed to us the way to be at peace with him through faith in Jesus Christ. And our society, and even some who would consider that to be the church, doesn't seem to have a good grasp on what that means either. And finally, God tells us in Revelation of who this world— of how this world will end, but few seem to have confidence in being ready for that. End times prophetic preachers vary in their predictions, but some will sell you disaster supply kits, and most have been preaching for decades that Christ would come back at any minute. Their attempts to predict and draw parallels between newspaper headlines and scriptures have not always been spot on and may even cause some to doubt the Word of God because of their messages. Me? I thought I had some prophetic giftings in the past, and sometimes I have instances of having the feeling that "God set me up" as I walk into good things, or "God gave me a heads up" when I avoid bad things. But because of my "false prophecies"—my ideas about what would or should happen in my life that did not come to pass—I am hesitant to prophesy anything specific about future events. Future events. Instead, I unknowingly have adopted the stance of Enoch. I concern myself with my daily walk with God from day to day and moment to moment, but I also try to, as lovingly as I can, warn people to secure their, their eternal destiny by putting their faith in Jesus Christ, uh, to live according to God's standards for living, and to respect the word of God as true, to believe and to understand that Jesus is coming back. But like Enoch, I may not live to see Christ return from the perspective of the earth. I may be coming with him, but I don't know about that one way or the other. But I do know that God loves us and he wants us to make peace with him and to enjoy our lives with him. So I hope the end times imagining of Christ coming back at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and judgment doesn't freak you out. But encourages you to see that God is holy and encourages us to be on his side when the wrath of God should come. Ironically, all of this caused me to remember Green Day's song Macy Day's Parade lyrics and feel that somehow they express the angst over the way the pageantry of the parade of life is inadequate to satisfy us. But amazingly, there is hope for the future that Billy Joe Armstrong may or may not know lies in the person of Jesus Christ. The lyrics say, today's the Macy's Day Parade, the night of the living dead is on its way with a credit report for duty call. It's a lifetime guarantee stuffed in a coffin, 10% more free, red light special at the mausoleum. Give me something that I need, satisfaction guaranteed. What's the consolation prize? Economy size dreams of hope. When I was a kid, I thought I wanted all the things that I haven't got. Oh, but I've learned the hardest way. Then I realized what it took to tell the difference between thieves and crooks. Lesson learned to me and to you. Give me something that I need, satisfaction guaranteed. 'Cause I'm thinking about a brand new hope, the one I've never known. 'Cause now I know, it's all that I wanted. I think I may have shared this song before. If I did, I apologize. But even though things continue to change, some things remain the same. This world and our human relationships are inadequate and were never intended to satisfy us. But I am thinking about what was not long ago a brand new hope for me, the hope that only comes through Christ alone. Jesus gives us the hope of peace in our lives on earth and the hope for everlasting life from here to eternity. He is our only hope. And even though speaking on the moral standards and the reality of an end-time judgment may be offensive, I have to tell you about them. With the hope that it will cause you to discover the hope that I have found in Jesus Christ. Every day I'm walking and talking with God, and life is good. Every day I'm thinking about a brand new hope, the one I never knew, because now I know. After years of suffering and searching, I know it's all that I wanted or could ever hope to have. God bless you and keep you on this Black Friday. As, and as you go to work or prepare for Christmas, I pray that you know the hope of Jesus and seek to share it with others. Well, that was sort of a long message. It's a late day, it's already 8:30 AM where I am. So did it take 3 hours to write it? Well, I had some Bible study to do, but I don't have any Bible verses to share today as we're going to just push on and complete. As I, as always though, I do invite you to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights prominent Christian theologians and counselors who assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk as we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship. And today we start sharing from The Messengers, uh, an interpretation of Matthew 10 with the section, um, that covers Matthew 9:35-38. So there's your Bible verses, um, and Bonhoeffer's commentary on them. So if you want to check those out, go to mt4christ.org and you'll see them at the end of today's blog post. As always, we invite people to check out our, our teachings that we've done in the past on Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ series, all based on the Word of God and the works of Dr. Neil Anderson, to help you to walk that walk and talk that talk with God by by learning who you are in Christ and discovering your freedom and resolving your personal spiritual conflicts through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. We highly recommend the process as we've seen not only our lives transformed, but other people find a brand new hope for a life of victorious living through Christ alone. So yeah, we have to believe it, we have to receive it, we have to live it. And when we do that, we can have hope even though things change, things don't seem as good as they may have been in the past, and this— things seem to be moving to, uh, an end, or, you know, I don't know, I'm not prophesying, so we're gonna let that go. Um, it is Friday, November 25th, and it's my prayer that we all have a good day. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, we thank you for another day in Kingdom. We thought— thank you for a very pleasant Thanksgiving, um, as we gathered with friends and family to break bread and to enjoy some good food. We pray for our friends who are listening today who didn't make it to our Thanksgiving— thanks— or they weren't invited either, uh, to our Thanksgiving celebration. But, um, we pray that you come alongside all of us in our prayer request for for today. And Lord, as always, we pray for you to go before us, to open our eyes to all the things you want us to see, and to lead us in the way we should go. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. And all these things we pray in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.