CLOCKS ONLY GO ONE WAY

A month ago I had my 64th birthday. Given that the months are now flying past at an astonishing speed it will be no time at all before I reach the magic age someone defined as the start of the "senior" years. I'm pretty sure I was 18 just last week. How did this happen?

Approaching the magic age is not all bad I suppose. Being a senior comes with restaurant discounts, great tax breaks, and an "old age" pension. Those are definitely some things to look forward to while struggling to get out of the rocking chair. 

I really don't mind so much that within another year I'll get the senior designation, but I do have a problem with the "old age" label. Just a few days ago I was watching a newscast and they referred to a man not much older than me as "elderly". I'm sure it was written by some wet-behind-the-ears 30 year old who thinks anyone past 40 should be set adrift on an ice floe. He obviously hasn't realized yet that he will turn around twice and suddenly be as elderly as, well, me.

One thing younger people like to deride us older folks for (I know this, because I have three sons) is the tendency to tell stories from the past. Yes, we almost seniors are guilty and getting worse as we age, but what choice do we have? Since the number of years behind is certainly more than the ones ahead, the look in the rear view mirror is pretty attractive. Besides, when I am with my grandchildren how can I not look back wistfully to the time when I could run and climb and play all day without having to bathe in Voltarin all of the next week?

Anyway, us baby boomers (I think I squeezed in to the low end of that designation) have a lot to look back on. In our lifetime we may possibly have witnessed more change than any previous generation. Throughout most of history a person would die in a world that looked pretty much like the one they were born into. Of course there were wars and changes of leadership and so on, but until the last century or two the way of life for most people just didn't change that much. For anyone like me born in the middle of the 20th century, our experience has been the total opposite. 

In the early 1970's I started my career operating a computer that filled a whole environmentally controlled room. I figured out one time that the phone I carry in my pocket has 100,000 times the memory of that monster computer that was as high and wide as a desk and about 25 feet long. Changes in computing have been dramatic, but hardly more so than the transformation in communications, transportation, medicine, and a raft of other scientific fields. Politics and government are hardly recognizable. Religion and faith? Well to borrow an overused movie reference, we aren't in Kansas anymore.

Here are a few of the things that typified religion and church in Canada when I first started attending church as a child in the early 60's.

• almost all of my friends either went to church or could identify some church as where they had a family connection
• prayers, Gideon Bibles, and Christian observances were an accepted part of our public school experience - the same was true in government, the military, and most other public institutions
• we weren't really much aware of other faiths in our culture - they were there of course, but in small numbers, and having a Muslim or Buddhist child in class would have been a rarity
• we weren't strangers to sin, but we understood what the Bible taught about right and wrong, and accepted it
• Canadian politicians weren't afraid to identify with Christian teaching or principles

Of course, all of those things have turned 180 degrees. From a faith perspective, Canada is totally unrecognizable from where it was just 50 years ago.

About now you are thinking, "here's one more internet rant about how we are being abused as Christians, Islam is taking over, and we need to get back to the good ole' days". While there may be a kernel of truth in some of those rants at least, this is not about one more Christian boomer stirring the pot in the hopes governments will pass some laws and return us to the 1960's. 

Don't get me wrong; I'm as nostalgic as the next person. I do look fondly on the days when Canada was more comfortable for those of us who identify as Christ followers. But do I think all the rants and petitions and demonstrations we can muster are going to take us back there? No, we aren't going back. 

Things are unfolding as God knew they would. One day He will reassert His control and restore His perfect world. While for many of us that time could not come too soon, the question facing Christians in the meantime is not how do we return to the way things used to be, but how do we live effectively today as God's children, as representatives of Jesus Christ? How do we live faithful Christian lives and work to accomplish God's purposes in a world that is radically different from the one we were born into? How do we have an impact for Jesus in a culture where the influence of other faiths seems to be surpassing our own, where it seems like right is wrong, and where the Bible is seen as irrelevant or even harmful?

Those are all very hard questions, and even if I had the answers they wouldn't fit in this blog. My point for now is very simple. We can't live in the past and we aren't going back there. The world has changed. We can commit our time and emotions to futile attempts to turn back the clock, or we can seek God for wisdom to know how to be and live in the midst of this new reality. I believe at times that might include a petition or some action to take a stand for what's right. But whatever we do let it be out of our desire to be the most faithful and effective representatives of Jesus we can possibly be in this fallen world, rather than out of some vain attempt to get back to a time that felt "comfy" and where there were less threats to our comfortable Christian existence.  

I'm not suggesting we water down God's principles. I'm not saying we should cozy up to the world's new morals. I'm not throwing out John 14:6 where Jesus said He is the way, the truth, and the life. I'm not advocating any kind of compromise to what Jesus demands of us as His followers. 

I'm saying let's be all that God wants us to be, and let's faithfully be that in a midst of a world that no longer knows Him. Let's love God and our neighbour as Jesus commanded. Let's live a Christ-like life in a world that has turned away from Him. If there was ever a time when the world was dark and needed God's light, it's now. Let's be that light.  

The answer is... "God said"

In Matthew 4 we read the very dramatic account of Satan appearing before Jesus at the end of His 40 day fast. Jesus had been spending an intense time with God, fasting and praying in preparation for the launch of His 3 year ministry. Satan obviously arrived on the scene with a very clear objective, to destroy Jesus and His ministry before He could really even get started.

There have been countless insightful sermons taught on what happened in Matthew 4. Today something particular is standing out to me and I thought it would be useful to bring it to your attention. Satan made three attempts to entrap Jesus. In the first two he leads off with these words, "If you are the Son of God...". 

I don't know how or at what time of life Jesus came to the awareness of who He was, but in some way at some time He came to understand that He wasn't like everyone else, that He was actually the Son of God. Did He have a sudden revelation, or did He gradually begin to have memories of His eternal existence, of the glories of heaven, and of His purpose in coming to earth. I don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us us how any of that realization came to Jesus, but it's clear by the time He fasted in the wilderness He knew who He was and what He was here for. 

After 40 days of fasting He was undoubtedly in a very weakened state. His human body required nourishment. Just like us when we are fatigued and weakened in body, I'm quite sure there was an impact on His emotions, His confidence, and His ability to stand fast. No doubt that's why Satan chose that moment to go on the attack. And he did it by trying to get Jesus in that weakened state to question who He was. "If you are the Son of God". In other words, maybe you've been imagining all this. Maybe you aren't really who you think you are. Maybe you're just the ordinary son of a carpenter. Maybe you should be in the carpenter shop right now, instead of fantasizing about this crazy quest to save the world. Who do you think you are anyway?

As Christians we have a status we often don't fully appreciate. The Bible says we have been adopted into God's family. We are children of the Almighty God. Our sins are forgiven. The Holy Spirit of God lives inside us. We are destined for an eternal home in heaven. We have the assurance of all of these things because the Bible tells us so, and because the Spirit confirms it within us. We have no reason to doubt. But we doubt anyway, and that's where Satan will attack us just like he did with Jesus.

The questions for us will be a bit different. It won't be "If you are the Son of God". Instead it will be something like "Do you really think God could love you?", or "Are you really saved?", or "Is this whole thing with God and Jesus and the Gospel really real?"  You can probably write in the particular doubts that attack you.

Satan seems to be very good at knowing just where our greatest doubts and insecurities lie. He is also good at knowing when we are vulnerable, at a point of weakness. He attacks when our emotions are out of whack and our confidence is weak and our ability to remain steadfast is at a low point. 

Jesus responded to each of Satan's attacks with these words "It is written". If I can paraphrase, He said, "God said". That's really important. What that means is that the way I feel while being tempted to doubt in a time of weakness is not what really counts. What counts is what God said! God said I'm forgiven. God said I'm His child. God said I can do all things through Him who gives me strength. God said He will provide if we trust Him. God said. God said. GOD SAID!

When Satan attacks, as he often will, we have a choice to make. The choice is, who are we going to believe? Will we believe the father of lies whose greatest goal in life is to destroy us, or will we believe the faithful God who loves us more than we can even imagine? 

Unfortunately, Christians spend far too much time being discouraged and downtrodden. We allow ourselves to be overwhelmed with feelings of worthlessness and rejection when the truth is we are children of the King. We have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus, and are on our way to an eternal existence beyond anything we can imagine in our wildest dreams. That's who we are!

So next time Satan or his minions attack with doubts and discouragements, try out Jesus' strategy. It goes something like this. "Oh yeah? Well, God said                                 , and He's a lot more trustworthy than you. You're wasting your time here, so go try out your lies on someone else."

There will be times of weakness. There will be times of temptation. There will be times of doubts. We can't control any of that. But we can control how we will respond. We can control who we will believe.