Is the world really that bad for the Christian?

[Hazelelponi]

I hold to an amillennial eschatology, and we always like to use reason as a way to express or explain points...

One of the things I think we can point to is all the improvements in our lives as new covenant believers in the year 2025. (Our spiritual relationship in Christ through His Holy Spirit as well as just the improvements in life in general as a result of the influence of Christ in the world).

I would think any person, any student of history such as we all are as Christian believers, could see what absolute blessings we have been showered with...

Yet, I have noticed that some people think my description of life today as new covenant believers is nothing but "baloney"

Why is my world so beautiful to me because I have Christ and theirs seems so miserable even though they know Christ?

It's a wonder to me why people think there's no improvements in 2,500+ years of history for the people of God ..

 

[Josheb]

I hold to an amillennial eschatology, and we always like to use reason as a way to express or explain points...

One of the things I think we can point to is all the improvements in our lives as new covenant believers in the year 2025. (Our spiritual relationship in Christ through His Holy Spirit as well as just the improvements in life in general as a result of the influence of Christ in the world).

I would think any person, any student of history such as we all are as Christian believers, could see what absolute blessings we have been showered with...

Yet, I have noticed that some people think my description of life today as new covenant believers is nothing but "baloney"

Why is my world so beautiful to me because I have Christ and theirs seems so miserable even though they know Christ?

It's a wonder to me why people think there's no improvements in 2,500+ years of history for the people of God ..

I'm with you. Are we to be optimists or pessimists? Are we to accept and trust Gods word as stated, or are we to measure what it says by our own eyes and ears with information received through secular media sources? Despite the real and perceived messiness of the current world, I'd much rather live now than at any time prior. It is a mistake to think God is not X because I don't see Him fixing things the way I think they should be. Such thoughts risk hubris and idolatry. If God is God, then everything is exactly as He wants it to be, and I am not the measure of anything. We had a guest preacher today and he made a comment about good Presbyterians always trusting God but then when something goes awry we say, "I have to try harder," or "I've got to do better," instead, of "God work in me to do Thy will," and I wondered what do the congregants in his parish look like and what kind of Presbyterians does he know? It did not sound like a guy who preached the ability to have dominion over everything God brings to our day when we cross the threshold of our doorway each morning.

Yet, I have noticed that some people think my description of life today as new covenant believers is nothing but "baloney"

I suppose there are those who be the change and those who want the change (and maybe those who fear the change).

 

[Hazelelponi]

did not sound like a guy who preached the ability to have dominion over everything God brings to our day when we cross the threshold of our doorway each morning.

Clearly people need to hear more about Christ, even if they are Christian. Perhaps people are just dwelling on the wrong things...

I'm thinking perhaps I should just stop talking about politics at all... Don't want to contribute to that much negative. I wasn't realizing how much it must be coloring people's perspectives on reality.

It's gotta be something... I guess it's just time to get serious about the faith and at the least share my joy in it.

 

[Arial]

I hold to an amillennial eschatology, and we always like to use reason as a way to express or explain points...

One of the things I think we can point to is all the improvements in our lives as new covenant believers in the year 2025. (Our spiritual relationship in Christ through His Holy Spirit as well as just the improvements in life in general as a result of the influence of Christ in the world).

I would think any person, any student of history such as we all are as Christian believers, could see what absolute blessings we have been showered with...

Yet, I have noticed that some people think my description of life today as new covenant believers is nothing but "baloney"

Why is my world so beautiful to me because I have Christ and theirs seems so miserable even though they know Christ?

It's a wonder to me why people think there's no improvements in 2,500+ years of history for the people of God ..

I look at my life as the long road home. It has hills and valleys, sometimes mountains to cross. Sure, at times life overwhelms me, being a "widow" by divorce from a "dead man." Having to be the singular doer of everything, with no help and no respite. But when I sit down with him to express my gratitude and begin to count some of the blessings, I am more overwhelmed with the covenant goodness of God. He has set my boundaries in such spacious places. Never failed to provide for my every need, never failed to answer my call "Abba!" Every minute we are closer to his return, and for me who is closing in on 80, close to Home. I only pray I stay in the land of the living longer than my dog, so I can care for him.

And the world? Every minute of every day, "sheep" are being gathered to the one flock and the one Shepherd, and God's enemies can do nothing to stop it. Or take any out of the flock, no matter how the world rages all around us. This is marvelous in my eyes. And even in the midst of chaos, his glory is still over all the earth, in the wind passing through trees, setting leaves and branches to dancing, in the call of a blue jay, or the singing of a cardinal, or the smell of rain hitting hot pavement, damp earth sending forth the scent of growing and life. In a dog standing sentinel between a child and a snake, or prowling the fence line, guarding the sheep from the lions. It is wonderful.

 

[David1701]

I hold to an amillennial eschatology, and we always like to use reason as a way to express or explain points...

One of the things I think we can point to is all the improvements in our lives as new covenant believers in the year 2025. (Our spiritual relationship in Christ through His Holy Spirit as well as just the improvements in life in general as a result of the influence of Christ in the world).

I would think any person, any student of history such as we all are as Christian believers, could see what absolute blessings we have been showered with...

Yet, I have noticed that some people think my description of life today as new covenant believers is nothing but "baloney"

Why is my world so beautiful to me because I have Christ and theirs seems so miserable even though they know Christ?

It's a wonder to me why people think there's no improvements in 2,500+ years of history for the people of God ..

Conditions in the world go up and down (depending on time-period and location); but, the Lord and his salvation go on forever. You can be full of the joy of the Lord in solitary confinement; and miserable as sin in the most pleasant circumstances imaginable, since our godly joy depends upon our fellowship with the Lord.

 

[Carbon]

Conditions in the world go up and down (depending on time-period and location); but, the Lord and his salvation go on forever. You can be full of the joy of the Lord in solitary confinement; and miserable as sin in the most pleasant circumstances imaginable, since our godly joy depends upon our fellowship with the Lord.

So true

 

[Hazelelponi]

Every minute we are closer to his return, and for me who is closing in on 80, close to Home. I only pray I stay in the land of the living longer than my dog, so I can care for him.

I thought you were younger sister.. you have such a youthful demeanor!

Even with struggle I bet you appreciate modern conveniences some too. I have to say it's a real blessing for me, this modernity. I have been disabled for almost 26 years now, so just simple things like the washing machine for me are just awesome. I'd never make it to the creek to do washing... Lol.

Could you imagine that ordeal of a simple pot of coffee back in the day? Ridiculous!

You are so right about this being the long road Home with hills and valleys, I absolutely relate. There was a song I ran into a few years back by Jack White called the Great High Mountain. It's actually just an old old American Christian folk song likening the Christian walk to climbing a mountain..

I uploaded it here. I think you might enjoy it. (I love traditional American folk music myself).

Love all of your post .. God bless you sister, and your sweet dog.

 

[Carbon]

I thought you were younger sister.. you have such a youthful demeanor!

Even with struggle I bet you appreciate modern conveniences some too. I have to say it's a real blessing for me, this modernity. I have been disabled for almost 26 years now, so just simple things like the washing machine for me are just awesome. I'd never make it to the creek to do washing... Lol.

Could you imagine that ordeal of a simple pot of coffee back in the day? Ridiculous!

You are so right about this being the long road Home with hills and valleys, I absolutely relate. There was a song I ran into a few years back by Jack White called the Great High Mountain. It's actually just an old old American Christian folk song likening the Christian walk to climbing a mountain..

I'll see about uploading the song from YouTube if I can, it's a beautiful song (though many don't like folk music I do. My husband sings beautifully in the traditional way, there's nothing like it, it gives you chills up your spine...).

I'll have to listen to it again and consider posting.

Love all of your post .. God bless you sister, and your sweet dog.

Don't let her fool ya, she ain't a day over 30. I can tell these things.

 

[Arial]

I thought you were younger sister.. you have such a youthful demeanor!

Thanks. I don't feel like or act like I used to think 78 was! I can't run and jump and climb like I used to. Limits have been imposed, but I don't feel old, I just feel like me. And I bet if I had not been forced into the city by circumstances, not health or age, and still had my huge gardens, I would still be out there behind the tiller or on my knees planting or weeding. In the kitchen in the summer canning the produce of 50 tomatoes plants, freezing corn and peas and beans and squash and carrots. Making saurkraut and cottage cheese. Feeding chickens and gathering eggs, helping put up wood for winter. (A luxury of comfort in addition to forced air heating and cooling. Your right. I would not want to give that up!)

Even with struggle I bet you appreciate modern conveniences some too. I have to say it's a real blessing for me, this modernity. I have been disabled for almost 26 years now, so just simple things like the washing machine for me are just awesome. I'd never make it to the creek to do washing... Lol.

Could you imagine that ordeal of a simple pot of coffee back in the day? Ridiculous!

I can't even imagine not having my coffee pot set on a timer so it is ready when I get up! And phones! How did we ever survive without having a phone on our person at all times! How dangerous and inconvenient life used to be. The internet. Libraries on line. Cars! Cake mixes in a box. Baked and sliced bread. Television where you have thousands upon thousands of choices. You tube sermons! Guns that aren't muzzle loaders. Ok. I will stop, but it reminds me of my grandmother who was born in 1886. She never learned to drive and I imagine her reaction to automobiles, and the refrain we often hear from old timers about new things. That it was supposed to make things easier but it is harder for them.

The imagined reaction I have of someone trying to teach her to drive and explaining the clutch and the gears and the breaks, remarking, "How is that easier and better than a horse and buggy. If you want to go you say 'Giddy up." and if you want to stop you just say "Whoa".

OH! Car windows that you don't have crank down!.

I uploaded it here. I think you might enjoy it. (I love traditional American folk music myself).

I will give it a listen.

 

[Arial]

Don't let her fool ya, she ain't a day over 30. I can tell these things.

Ahhhh. Thanks Carbon.

 

[Carbon]

Ahhhh. Thanks Carbon.

Thanks? For what? giving it away?

 

[Josheb]

Clearly people need to hear more about Christ, even if they are Christian. Perhaps people are just dwelling on the wrong things...

I'm thinking perhaps I should just stop talking about politics at all... Don't want to contribute to that much negative. I wasn't realizing how much it must be coloring people's perspectives on reality.

It's gotta be something... I guess it's just time to get serious about the faith and at the least share my joy in it.

Tell everyone whether the mess is real or perceived, God is in charge of and in control of the mess. Then when the naysaying Christians dispute that premise simply ask them if God is God, and what does that mean to them. After they get done expressing the party line and affirming the sovereignty of God....... ask them why they expect everything to be perfect (or utopian).

In other words, keep their dross in their lap and ask them to explain themselves. They'll get frustrated and with any blessing from God, they'll ask you how you understand these things. They've invited your views. They've invited your views out of frustration with their own views rather than a competition between your views and theirs leading to a frustration they can't make you see their views (their irrational and unscriptural views). Takes a little more effort but it will also hone your skills of dominion and optimism .

 

[Hazelelponi]

Tell everyone whether the mess is real or perceived, God is in charge of and in control of the mess. Then when the naysaying Christians dispute that premise simply ask them if God is God, and what does that mean to them. After they get done expressing the party line and affirming the sovereignty of God....... ask them why they expect everything to be perfect (or utopian).

In other words, keep their dross in their lap and ask them to explain themselves. They'll get frustrated and with any blessing from God, they'll ask you how you understand these things. They've invited your views. They've invited your views out of frustration with their own views rather than a competition between your views and theirs leading to a frustration they can't make you see their views (their irrational and unscriptural views). Takes a little more effort but it will also hone your skills of dominion and optimism .

Awesome thanks for the advice! I'll take it!