I was speaking with a friend of mine a couple weeks ago; shooting the breeze about mission life and what is going on with the people we are serving, and he said something that has stuck with me. Right now, we have many people in the United States and elsewhere around the world preparing for the "end of the world scenario." The worst case scenario for them would be to not have water, sufficient food, power, appropriate bathroom facilities, running water, etc. To prepare for this they build huge bunkers, stock them with food, water, and other things. Others do things like storing food and water, buying gold (for when the market crashes), stocking up on guns, medicine. At first glance, this seems like preparedness, like looking out for the future.
The problem is this, many people all throughout the world are living this "worst case scenario" right now! How many people will go without sufficient food, water, clothing, shelter...tonight. While many are sitting on stores of so many of the necessities of life for an event that is the ever elusive possibility, millions will go hungry tonight, sleep in the cold, and possibly even die of thirst.
Reality check: the only end-of-the-world scenario we need to be preparing for is the second coming of Christ! This is the apocalypse that comes with eternal significance and judgment. What will we tell Jesus when he asks us, "did you give food to the needy and drink to the thirsty?" Is the just answer going to be, "well I had a lot stored away, but that was for me and my family."
Matthew 6: 25-34: "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day."
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