Facing A New Year In A Shaky World

Alba 12-31-2023

FACING A NEW YEAR IN A SHAKY WORLD

I Thessalonians 3:1-5

Have you ever gone to a scary movie? When I was twelve years old some friends and I walked to a movie theater that was about two miles from our home. The movie was called “Them”. It was not the kind of movie our family would usually go to see. In fact, we rarely went to any movie. Why my mother agreed to let me go is something I still wonder about. If she had known it was a scary movie, she probably wouldn't have let me go.

The movie starts out with some monstrous things that you can't see, but they make a high pitched noise and cause destruction and death. It turns out that “Them” are giant ants. Supposedly, atomic testing in 1945 in New Mexico developed the dangerous huge mutant ants that were attacking people.

By the time the movie was over it was dark outside, and we had to walk the nearly two miles back home with that shrill high pitched noise still ringing in our ears. We went home faster than when we came.

There are a lot of things that can cause us to be afraid. Too many of them are not in the movies, but are in real life. We are facing a New Year, and while that can mean hope for a better future, the past and its troubles casts a shadow over that hope that is hard to ignore. We are living in a shaky world.

Looking at things that have changed in just the last few years, life in these United States can be scary. Things considered to be improper and even wrong are now touted both as normal and something to be celebrated.

Boys are taught that they can be girls, and girls are told they can be boys adding to the confusion that children experience as they grow. And somehow parents are not supposed to have any say in the matter. Its scary!

Men who dress up in garish, sexually suggestive ways to look like a woman are invited to read stories to children in public libraries. Its scary!

In the last few years millions of people have flooded into the United States illegally. And they are still coming by the thousands with no real attempt to stop this invasion. They come from countries all over the world including those considered to be our enemies. Its scary!

It used to be that even if a person was not a Christian, most people looked up to that ideal and expected those who called themselves Christians to live up to the name. Today there are those who think a Christian can be a danger to democracy.

Groups such as Scriptures for America Worldwide Ministries in Colorado, and Concerned Christian Citizens in Texas, as well as many more have been put on the Southern Poverty Law Center's hate list.

We are facing a new year, but the fear is that these things will keep happening, and worse. And now there is the possibility of an ever expanding war in the world. Ukraine continues its struggle with Russia. Israel is in a battle for its existence. And right here in our country we see hundreds of people demonstrating against Israel. Its scary!

God told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you.” (Genesis 12:3) It can be dangerous to be on the wrong side of that battle. We are in a shaky world as we face the new year. Its scary!

So what do we do? Shall we just throw up our hands in defeat? Is there no hope? No hope at all? Oh, yes there is! Our hope is not in this world. It is in the One who has made this world, and Who continues to guide us in His ways.

We are not alone in thinking that life can be difficult. The truth is Christians down through the ages have had to face hard, scary times, and even persecution. It was true of the church in Thessalonica in the first century.

The apostle Paul had a concern for the Thessalonian believers. Just shortly after Paul had led them to Christ and established a church there, an angry mob went on the rampage and chased Paul out of town. And the problems didn't stop, so the new Christians faced some difficult times.

When Paul gets down the road to Athens, he begins to wonder about the new believers he left behind in Thessalonica. Is their faith still strong despite the persecution? Are they holding up under the pressure? Or have they given in to the affliction and given up their faith?

So he writes in his letter, I Thessalonians 3:1-5 to tell them of his concern. He says, “Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone, and sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith, that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. For, in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation, just as it happened, and you know. For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might be in vain.