ChosenRebel's Blog

This is not a political prophecy.
It isn’t an economic prophecy.

I’m not in the prophecy business, frankly.

It’s not a Socialism vs. Capitalism, Democrat vs. Republican, right vs. left, gay vs. straight, or any other grouping of characters or philosophies currently pitted against one another in the tooth-and-claw media narratives that are all the (destructive) rage of the moment. This is a pastoral-care post, a life-skill post, a preparation-for-the-future post.

Things might be going well for you now. And if they are, I hope you give thanks for your good fortune and the blessings of God. But here’s what we know with a certainty that is almost as sure as death and taxes.

Darkness is coming.

No matter how good things are now, there is a time coming, none of us know how soon, when the news in our life isn’t going to be good. Our marriage will turn south. Our health will disappear. One of us will wake up without a job. Another will have a friend betray them. A child will die. A pregnancy will end prematurely. An acceptance to a school will be denied. 

• Suicide claims the lives of 22 veterans a day.
• I have three friends living without children who lost their battles with depression to suicide.
• Another friend is living with a severe diagnosis of cancer.
• Another family I have counseled is still waiting for the police to close a case of manslaughter that took the life of their son.
• Another was widowed unexpectedly.
• Another young friend, only 30, is struggling with bells palsy that has paralyzed the right side of her face.
• Family members have been admitted to the hospital with COVID.
• And thousands (multiple millions?) live in daily fear that COVID or some other hideous diagnosis is waiting to pounce on their lives.
• I have one friend whose wife abandoned the family and 5 children.
• I have another friend whose husband abandoned the family and 5 children. 
  (Two completely unrelated families!)
• And then there are the desperately lonely struggling through the isolation of COVID.

Every one of those bullet points are filled with darkness that none of us wants but many of us will experience over the course of our lifetimes. Or something similar.

Now, before those times come, and they might come to anyone of us today, we need to train our souls to trust in things that are trustworthy. We need to train our hearts to trust a God who changes not and who is always true, always faithful.. We need to ground our faith in the things that are rock ribbed. There is a phrase in the Bible. It can guide us through the darkness.

“In Fulfillment of Scripture”

• Christmas — God has visited our planet and taken on flesh, in fulfillment of Scripture
• Good Friday — Christ died for us, paying the penalty for all our sins in fulfillment of Scripture
• Easter — Christ rose from the dead, demonstrating the truth of the gospel, conquering death and assuring us that every word of God, every promise will be fulfilled.
• The Second Coming of Christ — No future event is more sure than this, Christ is coming back. That is a more sure guarantee than your next breath. And He is coming to put all things right.

Now, in the light, before the darkness comes, when it will seem like none of this matters, we need to deepen our souls in these truths. Because every one of these truths, you will doubt, when the darkness comes. When your dreams are dashed, doubts will rise. When your heart is broken by the pain of a sin-infested planet waiting for its full redemption at the end of time, your doubts will rise. And when the evil one comes and whispers in your soul that these things are not so, it will be a lie, but it will sound believable.

Now, in the light, we need to remind ourselves of the coming darkness.

We need to do what David did in Psalm 28. He begins his psalm by reminding himself tht God is his protector. We need to do the same thing. We need to remind our souls that God is a rock of strength and will not be deaf to our pleas for rescue. 

To You, O Lord, I call;
My rock, do not be deaf to me,
For if You are silent to me,
I will become like those who go down to the pit.

Psalm 28:1