Now What?

What Does it Profit a Man?

I can see the snow gently falling outside the window by my desk. While my sons struggle with graphing inequalities and surface area, I contemplate the grey sky and why January seems so long.

All around the world, Christians living under various regimes suffer for their faith. Here in the United States, we are remarkably free and prosperous. Even our poor are prosperous by worldly standards and our persecutions are relatively mild.

Given recent news events, it is difficult not to wonder where our country is heading. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York recently declared it legal in that state to murder babies in their mother’s womb up until birth. The state of New York celebrated by lighting One World Trade Center pink - they should have chosen red.

Isaiah 5:20 comes to mind, Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

What fate is a country heading toward when it celebrates murdering babies and calls it freedom? When its media elites and free press journalists attack and slander teenagers waiting for a bus calling for their deaths? When it condones sex reorientation for children celebrating fabricated gender confusion?

The Apostle Peter tells us:

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority (2 Peter 2:4-10).

There is no doubt in my mind that judgment is coming. What I wonder is how hostile the environment will be before it comes. If things keep going like they are – and there is no reason to think this negative trajectory will be halted - it’s going to be nasty. The verses above confirm the inevitability of righteous judgment and also give hope to believers that hang on.

It is my prayer that when persecution comes, I would be a faithful witness standing strong for truth. If I fall short when times are easy, how will I do when times are tough?

Jesus warned us:

Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come (Matthew 24:9-14).

Lawlessness has increased, and it will most likely get worse.

It’s the tendency of many to ignore the news – to not talk about politics or religion lest we offend – to avoid “fake news” and the hot button issues of the day. We are all busy with our lives, and it is tiring and noisy to hear what the world is haranguing about at the moment - but there is value in being aware – watching – being ready – understanding the times (1 Chronicles 12:32).

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up (2 Peter 3:10).

There is no pleasure in being a prognosticator of doom and gloom. Sunshine and flowers and happy thoughts are much preferred.

As the Apostle Paul admonishes:

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness; but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead. And Christ will shine on you.” Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:6-15).

Since the times are what they are with the promise of dire things to come, how do we redeem the time and prepare ourselves to hold on until the end?

There is encouragement in Acts chapters three and four:

After healing a man and preaching a sermon in the temple, Peter and John were arrested and brought before the Jewish rulers for trial. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit responded:

Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead – by this name this man stands here before you in good health. He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:8-12).

Once released, the church gathered and prayed for boldness to continue preaching the gospel, and God responded:

And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:31).

The gospel is the most important thing that we believers need to proclaim. We must walk as children of Light in this perverse generation and pray for boldness.

Jesus said:

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels (Mark 8:34-38).

The time is now for believers to wake up and be the witnesses Jesus called us to be.