Veroni's Views

In January 2015 I posted a blog titled Drastic Times Call for Drastic Measures.  Reviewing the blog and observing the times we live in, I believe it needs to be posted again.

Has anything changed?  Basically two things:  Indications that times are drastic have increased in intensity.  And the antics of politicians have become more circus-like (at least in the two countries that matter most in my life, the USA and South Africa).

Here is the blog from 2015 then, somewhat edited.

 There can be no doubt that we are living in drastic times

*          The truth is being attacked from all sides:

*          Increasing secularization is making it seem old-fashioned and foolish to                  persevere in faith.

*          Within the church the truth is being compromised increasingly in a false  attempt to be acceptable.

*          The Gospel is often diluted because the cross of Jesus Christ is even more of a           disgrace today than it ever was before.

*          Increase of violence all over the world.

*          Increasingly militant Islam.

*          Economic pressures.

 What are Christians to do in these times?

 We should realize that we are radical people with a radical beginning who expect a radical outcome.  Therefore our conduct must be radical.

The radical outcome

Jesus will come as the King of all Kings.  Every knee shall bow before Him and every person confess that He is Lord and Christ.  The Kingdom of God will be consummated, meaning everyone will know that God is God and He alone.

We are heading for the radical manifestation of the kingship of God, that will last for eternity.  The end of all resistance, the sterilization of the powers of evil, the termination of all suffering, the achievement of God’s ultimate purposes with creation.  The fulfillment of what Paul calls the “Hope of Glory”.

The radical beginning

There are many different ways in which people find God, but one thing is certain:  there needs to be a commitment to begin with.  This entails the realization of lostness without God, confession of sins, acceptance of Christ Jesus as the Saviour, and a decision to serve God.

This decision is blessed by God through granting us to be born again, that miracle of becoming a new creation through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Being born again is a radical transformation of a person’s inner life.  The Bible says it is as radical as exchanging a heart of stone for a heart of flesh.  It includes receiving the law of the Lord in one’s innermost being.  That means we are given a desire to obey God.  Where before we wanted to live lives dedicated to ourselves, we now find we want to please God.

A RADICAL COMMITMENT TO JESUS CHRIST BRINGS ABOUT THE RADICAL TRANSFORMATION OF OUR INNER BEING, RESULTING IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF OUR ENTIRE LIFE!

 The radical lifestyle

We hold fast to the faith

Hebrews 10.38  “… my righteous one will live by faith.”

We are strange people, who live with view to a future you can only expect by faith, who obey a God you can only know by faith.  That is our strongest weapon, to live by faith.  Paul says “we live by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5.7)  That is why we are able to live by the paradoxical comparisons in 2 Cor 4.7-10:

7 “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 4.8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 4.9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 4.10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”

We are called on to persevere

Hebrews 10.36  “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”

By God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can press forward regardless of what circumstances may bring.  We have the assurance that our perseverance will bring rewards: “Therefore, …stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor 15.58).

 There may be persecution, in fact more probably than not

At least some of us experienced degrees of persecution at the beginning of our lives as Christians.

Hebrews 10.32

Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering.  10.33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.

 10.34  You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

A radical Christian lifestyle may bring about persecution.

How Will We Be Able To Do This?

 *          The Word of God is the only never-changing thing in the lives of humans. 

 If we build our lives on the Word of God as it comes to us through the Bible, we have a secure foundation for our whole life.

 *          The Holy Spirit is God in the world today:  Empowering,      inspiring, leading, protecting. 

            It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us that we will be able to see Ephesians 6.13 fulfilled:  “…that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”