End of the World?

“It’s the end of the world as we know it”. Remember that 1987 song by R.E.M.?  Actually, all I remembered was this catchy chorus, so I Googled the rest of the lyrics. They were hopeless sounding; “Save yourself, serve yourself” and “No strength the ladder starts to clatter with the fear, fight down height.” Daily, horrific, news reports detail that it’s many people live without hope, in a world that hands them nothing but despair.  Maybe it’s the Mayan calendar prediction, that the world is supposed to end on 12/21/12, that is revealing this hopelessness, but I believe it’s people’s refusal of Jesus.  Sure,  Christians still have to live in this world, but the fact is, we are not “of it”.  It’s kind of like traveling to England, we can speak the language, the food and culture is similar, but it’s not home. Jesus, in praying to his father, on behalf of all of us, said this, “They do not belong to this world any more than I do. Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.”  John 17:16-19.  Do current events make you feel like an alien living in a foreign land?  They should, because that is exactly what we are.  But don’t despair, in fact take comfort in the knowledge that Christ’s prayer continues to give us his supernatural strength in this world, as we look joyfully forward to the day we return home