In January 2017 members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board announced they were moving the Doomsday Clock thirty seconds closer to midnight. By January 2020, it had moved to less than 2 minutes to midnight. This clock has been maintained since 1947 by members of this group and represents the likelihood they feel exists for a man-made global catastrophe. By their calculation in 2024 we are 90 seconds to midnight.

Their estimation and statement results in fear and panic in some as they consider the fate of the world. Too often the information does not lead us to consider where that should point us if they are accurate. If true, it would seem logical to repent and turn to the Lord to “set our houses in order.” The problem is that none of us naturally repents and obeys. We would prefer to suppress and deny the truth. It is too easy to vacillate between two poles: “I’m not that bad” or “I am such a mess, so terrible.” We can also dismiss current events and point to other times in history when everything appeared dire.

I am not so concerned about the Doomsday Clock, but it causes me to consider the biblical scriptural possibility that we are moving steadily toward what we call “the end times” at an accelerated pace. For those of us who believe, scripture has never been more current and relevant to where the world is in the present day. From the beginning of God’s Word of the many things he tells us, He points to the future and what we can expect. He used the prophets inspired by His Spirit over and over again and as we trek through the Old Testament we see more than a little evidence of the truth of their fulfillment.

We should not be surprised! God is a loving Heavenly Father who desires that none of us be separated from Him. He wants us to be prepared for Him, turn to Him, and be watching with anticipation for what He will do.

More and more Bible theologians and writers are encouraging us to read Ezekiel 38 and 39. Much of what we are seeing in Russia and Iran are setting the stage for Ezekiel 38 and 39.

The headlines that disturb us become our focus.

 I wonder if we have forgotten that God is at work behind the scenes ruling and overruling the affairs of mankind. That should give us a sense of anticipation even though we do not know the day or the hour that something is coming, Someone is coming.

In Mark Hitchcock’s book, Russia Rising, he senses the clock is ticking and counting down.

“Never before have so many signs converged so quickly in such a short span of time that correspond to the matrix of end-times events predicted in Scripture. The pieces are moving.”

From Russia Rising by Mark Hitchcock

In Clash of Kingdoms: What Does the Bible Say about Russia, ISIS, Iran, and the End Times, Charles Dyer and Mark Tobey refer to the Ezekiel chapters and wrote:

“The parallels between Ezekiel’s prophecy and events today are compelling, almost frighteningly so.”

From Clash of Kingdoms: What Does the Bible Say about Russia, ISIS, Iran, and the End Times by Charles Dyer and Mark Tobey

Of all the “signs of the times” that mark “the beginning of the end”, the establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948 and the return of the Jews is considered to be a “super sign” that sets many gears in motion. Mark Hitchcock says, “Israel is God’s timepiece – his clock. When we want to know where we are on God’s prophetic timetable, the first place we need to look is Israel.”

A. W. Tozer has said:

“The point of Bible prophecy is not to alarm us but to alert us to the circumstances leading up to the Lord’s return. This alertness is to spur us on to be ready; and the Bible says a lot about how we can be ready for His return.”

A.W. Tozer

Our responsibility is to be ready and to not only be waiting, but to be watching. In Mark Hitchcock’s book (Russia Rising), he shares a story that shifted my focus beyond the headlines and lifted my heart to where I sense we should all be. I want to share it in full as I finish this post. I hope it will encourage your heart and fill you with excited anticipation.

“I like the story about a bunch of sailors who were returning from a long voyage away from home. As the boat approached shore, the men were all looking eagerly for their wives and girlfriends on the dock. As the men scanned the crowd of women lining the railing, the air of excitement and expectancy grew. One man, however, was all alone as he watched all the other men find their wives and girlfriends, and they all embraced. But his wife was nowhere to be found. Worried, he hurried home and found a light on in his house. As he entered he was relieved to see his wife. She quickly turned and said, “Honey, I’ve been waiting for you.”  His response displayed his deep disappointment. “The other men’s wives and girlfriends were watching for them!”

From Russia Rising by Mark Hitchcock

Are we just waiting for Jesus, or are we watching for him? Are we watching closely?

The clock is ticking.

Live looking!

It can be so easy to get caught up in trying to see around the bend farther down the road. Somehow, we can have this crazy thought that if I know what is out there ahead, I can prepare for it, be ready, avoid things, or rise above things.

Sometimes the Lord gives us a glimpse of that bend. He certainly did that with the prophets in the Bible when He sometimes looked much farther into the future, but most of the time our steps happen one at a time with enough light for that step, enough grace for each moment.

Our relationship with the Lord is personal and the path He has in mind is as well, but that doesn’t mean that we are called to be an island or walk out this life in isolation. Each path is personal because He is using each of us in a specific way, place, and time for how He is building his kingdom, his church, his bride. We are being fashioned as part of the design and only He can see the “big picture” and the call that is ours.

We might be thinking “but” or “what if, ” without considering that He knows us better than we know ourselves whether we are prone to look more deeply into ourselves or prefer to take life as it comes. And because we do not know ourselves fully, we can operate in our relationships without a deeper awareness of others.

“Most people don’t want to see inside a person’s soul. They judge by what’s on the outside. It’s easier to look on the outside than to really look on the inside.”

From The Promise of Jesse Woods by Chris Fabry

How much we miss as a result of that small view from the outside! But the Lord isn’t like that at all. Even though He clearly sees the outside of each one of us, He (as no one else) looks into the deepest part of us, sees our soul in whatever condition it may be and calls us anyway. He looks down the path we are on and sets a new direction with clarity about the destination and the purpose beyond our limited view.

It’s clear that the Lord chooses those most of us would pass over because we are looking at the outside.

“For it is one of the most extraordinary aspects of the good news that God uses bad men to accomplish his good purposes. The great paradox of judgment is that evil becomes fuel in the furnace of salvation.”

From Run with the Horses by Eugene Peterson

Some of those “bad men” (or women) are transformed in the process.

Some of those transformations are obvious like when Saul gets stopped in his tracks on the road to Damascus where he was heading to persecute new Christian believers. He is physically blinded so he can discover he has been spiritually blind all along despite his zeal and study of the Torah.

“Jesus never hesitates when it comes to getting personal with his followers.”

From The Sacred Echo by Margaret Feinberg

And that is true before we choose Him as well as after we do. Don’t forget He chooses us first. We are the ones slow on the uptake. And don’t get too much in a twist about what He sees in us. He knows what He is getting from the very beginning.

It is not unusual for us to look out at someone else or pick a biblical hero and see that, but I think He would have us know that it is no different for you and me. He knew us before we were known, before we arrived on the scene we are in. He had the scene set for us.

Those famous disciples of his… Look at how each was unique and so often considered to be the least qualified. Who would have chosen the rough and rowdy Simon (a.k.a Peter)? Yet the moment his brother, Andrew, introduced him to Jesus, Jesus changed his name to Peter, long before He worked on his character. He saw what no one else saw – the rock He would use to establish the church when He ascended into heaven knowing then that Peter would understand the foundational rock was Jesus with whom he had spent three years following after he gave up fishing and became a fisher of men.

And what about Matthew, the tax collector everyone hated, who would have guessed he would be called or be shaped into the man who wrote one of the gospels?

If we look beyond some of the disciples we might hear about the most, have you ever considered what Jesus saw in Nathaniel? He brazenly asked, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” But when Jesus called him as a man whom He sees as not having any guile, He told Nathaniel that He saw him under the fig tree. We have no information about what Jesus saw or what was happening or when that scene took place under the fig tree. Jesus knew him before he was known, before he was called because it’s personal.

“Some of the disciples found Jesus on their faith journey; others discovered Jesus by listening to someone else’s faith journey. In every instance, Jesus was incredibly personal.”

From The Sacred Echo by Margaret Feinberg

Don’t you see it is still the same with each of us?

“Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Hebrews 13:8 (ESV)

I love that He is personal with me (and you). When we really tune in and listen to his voice, move beyond reading about Him and enter into relationship with Him, the relationship becomes like no other.

“He says things to us that might be meaningless to someone else, but for us they make all the difference. They make God real and remind us that God is near. When a spiritual truth comes alive in my heart, it transforms me.”

From The Sacred Echo by Margaret Feinberg

“God does not send us into the dangerous and exciting life of faith because we are qualified; he chooses us in order to qualify us for what he wants us to be and do…”

From Run with the Horses by Eugene Peterson

When we built our home a bit over 50 years ago, we didn’t have a great deal of money and chose to do some of the work on the home ourselves. One of the things we did was to handle putting in the lawn and trees. At that time, all of the trees except a crabapple were ones we dug out of a friend’s woods or offered by a neighbor. The trees we (hubby and my dad) dug up and planted were several different maple trees, a dogwood, and a skinny pin oak tree.

The pin oak was given a lovely spot in the front lawn on the corner of our corner lot. As time went along it seemed to not be as lovely as we thought in that spot and we bought a sunburst locust tree and moved the small pin oak to the far back corner of our lot. We weren’t optimistic about what it would become so we chose a back part of our lawn.

The sunburst locust tree was beautiful from the start and we didn’t think much of the little pin oak tree.

We loved the beauty of the sunburst locust tree that we gave a premiere spot in our lawn. The variation of the color of the leaves from green to yellow delighted us every year and we were pleased with the choice we made when we chose to splurge and purchase the tree from a local nursery. But we soon discovered it wasn’t really very stunning in the autumn and as the tree aged, the beauty we loved at the beginning faded.

All the while, the little pin oak was quietly growing in that spot where we didn’t expect it to get much notice. And in time we were stunned to see how big and beautiful it was becoming. Each fall the leaves would give us a lovely splash of color and no matter how much the winds blew, or the storms raged, the little pin oak tree stood strong.

One day when we were visiting my husband’s mother, she presented us with a coffee can with another small oak tree growing in it that she thought we might like to add to our lawn. She wasn’t sure it would grow, and we weren’t sure as well, but we planted it in the backyard not far from our stalwart pin oak tree.

We weren’t sure what kind of oak tree it was and neither did she, but we put it in the ground and left it be. We had known what oak trees looked like since childhood, but we had much to learn about them over time and what purpose they were designed to fulfill by the Creator.

We didn’t know that any oak tree is a keystone species that has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment or that they keep forests healthy by maintaining a richer mix of plants, insects, birds, and other animals wherever they grow. They are one of the most loved species of trees in the world and often considered a symbol of strength, morale, resistance, and knowledge. Their strength, curvy branches, and incredible root systems keep them standing tall in the midst of storms (even if branches and leaves are torn away).

A few weeks ago, before the leaves began to shift to their autumn colors, I took this photo of the two oaks planted in our back yard. (My husband stands beneath one of them.) The original skinny pin oak stands on the right and the little tree that came to us in a coffee can is the one my husband stands beneath. How would we have guessed from such small beginnings these trees would now be masterpieces in our back lawn?

The photo at the top of this post is another taken just this week when the shift in colors started. For reasons we do not know, the older tree (the skinny tree we nearly discarded) always begins its showy colors first. That’s curious to me since we learned recently that the younger tree is also a pin oak. Daily we watch dozens of squirrels the oaks have attracted as they scurry up and down the trunks and throughout the trees gathering acorns.

We were on the hunt for acorns well. Our daughter and her husband were building a new home a few springs ago and one of her requests was that we would give her a small starting oak tree planted in a can for their new yard as a reminder of the home she grew up in. She thought it would be special to have a tree from the tree of one of her grandmothers and her children’s great-grandmothers.

With the guidance of a friend who taught biology for many years, we learned all about choosing good acorns, testing them to see if they floated in a glass of water so we would know if they were healthy to plant or not. (Just a tip: those that float are likely infested with a larvae of some sort and should not be kept.) Then we placed them in some combination of dampened soil and peat moss in a sealed plastic bag to winter in the darkness of a cool part of our refrigerator before planting them in the spring. (We had 23 tucked away in the hope of having at least one produce a small tree to pass along. Sadly none did that year.) Perhaps we will succeed next time.

This will be another small beginning.

How often we miss the design the Lord has in mind for what to us seems small, maybe even not that attractive or likely to be worth much!

It was the Old Testament prophet Zechariah that spoke the words you may be recalling:

“Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?”

Zechariah 4:10 (NIV)

If you are like me, you likely only recall the first eight words of that verse. Have you ever wondered what the context of those words were about?

It literally refers to the building of the second temple which was loathsome to the enemies of Judah and something many of the Jews saw little in as compared to the former temple. But the Lord saw something more, something else. (Ezra and Haggai write about this event as well and the enemies that hated what was being built included the likes of Sanballat and others we read about in Nehemiah.)

God specializes in small beginnings because He has the Master design and knows the purpose and plans of what it will become and how He will use it for his glory and our good.

Adelaide Forsythe has left her privileged life of wealth in the Stanhope Mansion after marrying attorney, Howard Forysthe, son of a clergyman, living in a modest home in New York City. Waiting for Christmas by Lynn Austin brings back a main character from All My Secrets as the newlyweds, Adelaide (Addy) and Howard, are beginning their life together. Addy’s love for Howard sparkles with enthusiasm to become a wife who can develop all the skills she never learned while living a life of luxurious parties and society events despite having no idea of how to cook or keep house. Howard lovingly dotes on Addy concerned about how to provide for her so she wants for nothing.

In late fall as Addy is with her mother visiting one of her charity projects, she fails to notice a young 8-year-old boy, Jack, has hidden in their carriage after sneaking out of the orphanage where he was living. Addy discovers him hiding in the bushes outside her home shivering in the cold. Her heart for this young boy shivering without a coat nudges her to bring him into her home to find out who he is and how he arrived there. Jack isn’t forthcoming except to insist he is not an orphan and he must find his 3-year-old sister, Polly, whom he lost when taken to the orphanage. He is determined to find his way back home to await his father who is to return on a ship at Christmas that he is working on to try to provide for his family and be able to get a doctor to see his wife.

This heart-tugging story takes you into the poverty-stricken crowded tenements of New York City in 1901 to find Polly and Jack’s family. Jack’s life inside the orphanage is one he refuses to return to as he insists he has a family and is not an orphan and must find his sister that he believes is hiding just like him.

As the story unfolds and becomes more complex, Addy and Howard determine Jack must stay with them until he finds his family. This decision proves challenging for all of them since Jack has never lived in such a nice home even though it is modest. Addy has no experience of how to care for a child and Howard can only hope Jack’s insistence on finding Polly and going back to the tenement to wait for his father can be accomplished. Jack prays fervently and wants to light a candle in church he recalls doing before his family was separated from one another.

This story tests the faith of each character as they seek a miracle to locate Polly and wait to see if Jack’s father is still alive and comes home. Jack’s faith never wavers that his dad will return as Howard tries to prepare him that his prayers might not be answered as he hopes either in finding Polly or his father returning. Jack’s concern is that he find Polly and they return to the tenement home they had lived in when his father left.

Lynn Austin tells the story as only she can. You won’t want to put the book down as each character discovers the truth about God’s message of Christmas. Will a young boy’s faith bring him the answer he seeks? How will Addy and Howard’s lives be impacted on this uncertain quest? With none of the usual festivities of Christmas Addy knew before Howard, how will she view a very different Christmas than she has ever known?

“The very heart of Christmas is God’s longing for his children to be reunited with Him. It’s why He sent His Son on the first Christmas.”

Lynn Austin

This is a story you won’t want to miss as we wait for this Christmas. If you read All My Secrets, you’ll love stepping back into that story to see how it continues. It is a perfect gift to buy for someone this Christmas but you’ll want to get a copy for yourself first.

Choice.

What a gift we were given at Creation! It follows us to the present day in each one of our lives. Each day each of us makes dozens and dozens of choices – many without thinking about them.

We love the freedom that choice brings and can be tenacious about anyone or anything that would try to take that freedom away from us. Too often we fail to consider the responsibility for the choices we make and that is truer when the choices seem small or inconsequential to us, but that is a blind spot if we take that route.

You see, our choices add up, even when they seem small or automatic.

“Life is about making good choices, Matt. One after another. They pile up day after day. It’s only when you look back that you can see what the choices led to. What you’re able to stand on.”

From The Promises of Jesse Woods by Chris Fabry

Think for a moment about the choices you have made so far today. Even when you thought you didn’t have a choice about a responsibility or something you were urged to do, you still did choose to either submit, obey, or reject or rebel.

As I write this and consider my own day today and how I am feeling, Chris Fabry’s wise words echo into my thoughts. I woke up today without a heavy agenda for the day and felt well rested for which I am grateful, but that relates to the choice I made last night about what time I went to bed, where my thoughts were focused when I went to bed, the temperature I set for the room I slept in, and on and on. Dozens of small choices set me up for a greater likelihood of a good night’s sleep. No, it wasn’t guaranteed, but those choices last night laid down the foundation for my day today.

And it didn’t stop there. I made a choice about how quickly I got out of bed (not something I do very well if I don’t have to), what I would wear for the day, what I would choose to do first, what I would eat and drink, whether or not I would get caught up in the headlines or let my mind, heart, and spirit not be distracted by things that could mire down my attitude for the day.

It’s all these little things that add up to whether I am and will be healthier physically, emotionally, relationally, mentally, and spiritually. It will impact if I recognize the warfare for its source and how I respond to it. It will affect whether I look more like Christ to those around me or more like everyone else out there.

The older we are, the more likely we are to recognize we wish we had made different/better choices long ago. Now we are reaping the results of the choices we made back then. We wish we had grown to like and choose better dietary things so we wouldn’t struggle with weight or various health problems that are catching up to us. We wish we had not just exercised when we were playing sports or doing fun things, but also when we weren’t so that our bodies were not weakening as fast or as much. Most of those choices seem to be little things. We may recognize something isn’t a good choice at the time, but so easily brush it aside.

Even looking at these things which don’t fall into the usual “sin realm” (things we could add), we have a choice again now. God knows the measure of our times and seasons, and I love the words J.R.R. Tolkien wrote for Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring – “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” That’s the key, isn’t it? What will we each decide to do with the time that is given to us? Each day we make choices/decisions propelling us to the tomorrow we don’t yet see.

“Will I dig in, making the most of what I have been given for however long I have been given it, or will I pull back, afraid to make promises that I simply can’t keep.”

From The Sacred Echo by Margaret Feinberg

When I was working as a teacher I had a poster in my classroom that read: “We all make mistakes. That’s why God created erasers.”

Prayer is one of the keys to making better choices even though those little choices are not often specifically prayer targets. We can still submit our day to the Lord and ask Him to awaken us to the path He would choose for us and to empower us to make his best choice. He would not have us give up, give in, or choose to sit on the bench. He always wants us in the game, on the field, trusting and relying on Him, and beating back fear.

“For if we are going to live in God’s image, alive to all that is God, open to all he is doing, we must trust in his word, trust what we do not see. And if we are going to live in the world, attentive to each particularity, loving it through all the bad times without being repelled by it or afraid of it or conformed to it, we are going to have to face its immense evil, but know at the same time that it is a limited and controlled evil.”

From Run With the Horses by Eugene Peterson

To do what Eugene Peterson lays out requires us to choose that path. We may list a great many things as reasons why we cannot trust and live as he writes, but that would also point to our failure to depend on Him to do in us what only He can do and allow Him to redeem the past as He did on the cross when we chose Him as a result of Him choosing us.

And Jeremiah would remind us what makes those choices each day possible:

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)