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Some versions use the word “lawlessness.” The Message calls it the “overwhelming spread of evil.” But in any case, things are going to get bad. We already know what that looks like to some degree, don’t we?
We have priests sexually abusing children and then covering up the evidence. We have pastors abusing their wives, and wives killing their husbands. Parents murdering their children in cold blood. Marriages dissolving into bitter divorce all around us, families ripped apart. Corruption in our governments, genocide, torture, constant threat of nuclear war. Division and bickering in our churches.
It’s discouraging to say the least. And how do we respond?
Cynicism. Everything is bad, and people can’t be trusted. It’s not worth trying. Put up a wall and pray for the end to come. Isolation (in heart if not in lifestyle). Giving up.
Denial. It’s bad out there (world), but not in here (church). Things in the world will work themselves out eventually. Christian bubble: I go to church, so I’m okay and my churchgoing friends/family are okay. I will continue to surround myself with this idea and will not allow anything to challenge me.
Acceptance with Love. It can be bad both out there and in here, but with God all things are possible. Realistic view of human nature vs. divine goodness. Keep hoping, trying, and believing. Continue to love because God loves us. Forgive always, pray without ceasing. Tender-hearted.
“At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:10-12
May we continue in the love of Jesus always.
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. Matthew 24:12.
What does it mean for love to grow cold? How is this a response to wickedness? Have you seen this happen around you? Have you personally experienced this in your own life?
Several uplifting faith stories have come my way lately, and I would like to highlight two of them here.
Undercover skeptic softens his view toward Christianity. Ivy League college student Kevin Roose went undercover at conservative Christian school, Liberty University, for the purpose of writing a book about his experience. While at the college founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell, Roose did encounter some fundamentalist and political pressure, but he also discovered that most of the students were surprisingly normal and sincere. Roose said the experience transformed him, and that he now prays to God regularly. For the whole story, click here. (Thanks to Mom for mailing this article to me.)
Christian-turned-atheist returns to Jesus. British Christian author A.N. Wilson was once thought to be the next C.S. Lewis, until he renounced his faith and wrote a book about how Jesus “failed and died.” But this past Easter, Wilson publicly re-converted to Christianity, and wrote a letter in the U.K.’s Daily Mail to Christians, encouraging them to keep the faith and not be deterred by atheist critics like Dawkins. Click here for more. (Thanks to Sarah at Crosswalk.com for drawing my attention to this story.)
I’m not naïve enough to think that these two men will be shining examples of Christianity for the rest of their lives. Like all of us, they can still mess up. And while Kevin Roose now admits to praying since his time at Liberty, he has been quiet about a possible conversion to Christianity. To know more about that, he says, you’ll need to read his book. But in a world where believers are becoming non-believers and many churchgoers no longer go, it’s nice to hear these thoughts.
My sister Krista and I don’t have a typical relationship. We didn’t grow up together. That’s right – no fights about who gets to play with the cool Barbie first, no stealing each other’s clothes, none of that catty girl stuff. It wasn’t until my late teens (and her preteens) that we began spending time together. Now we’re both in our 20s, and we’re the best of friends.
But because we didn’t share common experiences during childhood, what happened last fall can’t be explained away by sisterly insight. There was something else happening.
In Part 1 of this series, I described a time when God called me to pray for a friend’s struggle, before I even knew anything about that struggle. That was my first experience with Spirit-led intercessory prayer. By October of last year, I had been in this gift for several years and had mostly stopped second-guessing the spiritual pull within me.
It was during this time that Krista encountered a rather significant, life-altering internal struggle. She came up to a crossroads, a place where she would choose what kind of person to become. And like so many of us have experienced, her emotional and spiritual life was in turmoil as she approached this figurative fork in the road.
Unlike before, I knew many of the details. Not all (in fact, the most significant details only she knew), but enough to put words to the prayer. I prayed for God to show her the clear path – for Krista to have total peace if the path was right. And if she had missed the right path, if she needed to change direction— for her to have increasing uneasiness, a clamor in her ears. These are the specific words that I prayed, peace or unease according to God’s plan for her life, and I began praying this during the middle of October. After two weeks I felt that I needed to tell her about my prayer.
So I sent her an email, and explained that I had been praying this way for two weeks.
Here is her condensed reply: “First of all, your email almost made me break into tears. I’m kind of in shock right now. I feel like when it comes to matters of the heart and just following intuition, God is at the center of it and keeps sending me these little messages. Sometimes, they are really big messages that are right in my face.
Anyway, seriously, your email almost knocked me out of my chair because I feel like over the past two weeks, my uneasiness has gotten worse when I thought it would get better, and I do have a “clamor in my ears.” I feel like you had such a strong desire to tell me about your prayer because you know that if I was feeling anything strongly, that it could be that God was working on me. And I guess we see now that He has been.”
Let me be clear about something: I don’t have magic, psychic powers; my words on their own didn’t “curse” her with uneasiness. I think what happened is that God needed a bridge to Krista, extending from heaven to earth. And in praying through the Holy Spirit, I allowed that bridge to happen.
This is my last post in this series. What spiritual, supernatural things can happen in your life? Have you asked God to open your eyes?
