Jeremiah 6:16  (AMPC)  Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads and look; and ask for the eternal paths, where the good, old way is; then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls"

 

There is still today in the midst of all that swirls around us a beautiful way to live where true peace and joy abounds.  I believe this peace and joy can only be found by returning to the ancient paths of God’s Word and His Ways.  The rest we so earnestly seek for our soul is found in connecting with Him through His Truth, for His Word truly is our Shield and our Buckler.  This is what keeps us protected, and keeps us grounded. 

 

With ALL that is going on around us in these last of the last days, how do we handle it all?  What should be the roll of the church?  Certainly we are to pray and to act, but from what stance?  What should be our mindset?  What should be the position of our heart?  

 

I believe it’s very important that we look at how Jesus handled the trouble of His day.  In an age where medicine was primitive, there must have been many sicknesses that had no cure and the Bible does mention a few of them.  In the time of Jesus the Jewish population was under Roman rule and law causing MUCH unrest and division.  I see so many parallels between that era and the one we have now entered into.

 

Jesus didn’t fuss, fret, or even talk much about any of what was going on around Him politically or culturally. Didn't He care?  Well, yes and no. He cared for the people effected because He loved them, but how did He show that care?  Did He talk about how worried He was about them and how bad things were?  Did He express how infuriated He was about the government that was ruling over them?  Did He call His disciples to action to take over? No He did not.  The harshest words He had were towards the religious leaders of that day because they were not leading or helping those they were supposed to be serving.  Most of them were actually acting more like politicians by today’s standards instead of true ministers.  

 

Jesus talked A LOT about His Kingdom and how He was not of this world.  He talked about another Kingdom that was FAR better, FAR greater than the Roman government, or any other type of kingdom the Jews had considered.  He also began to talk about how His disciples that had chosen to follow Him would also be not of this world or this earthly kingdom. When the church was born, in God's heart and mind that separation was made complete. 

 

The Epistles speak of this very thing.  How we are in the world but not of it.  How we have been translated out of the kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of light.  How the Kingdom of God is Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 14:17, Colossians 1:13, John 17:14-18) 

 

Paul shows us the balance and the stance we need to have as Kingdom people in a troubled world in 2 Timothy 2:3,4.  In the day that Paul wrote this, Christians were being tortured and murdered by the hundreds, maybe even thousands by those standing in government, yet notice what He says to Timothy. 

 

3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

 

Notice Paul states we are soldiers, that is our position, and our stance is to be engaged in warfare.  So YES, we fight battles on behalf of the love of God for all people. Yet, as soldiers we are admonished to not become entangled with the affairs of this life.  We are not be become so involved, so surrounded, so inundated with what is going on in the world that we become hard of hearing or even deaf to the commands and the heart of our Commanding Officer Jesus.  

 

We are NOT of this world.  No matter what goes on around us in these last days we cannot afford to become entangled with it.  We are subjects – kings and priests, soldiers and warriors of another Kingdom.  A Kingdom MUCH higher and with MUCH more authority that the kingdoms of this world, and MUCH higher and with MUCH more authority than satan has.  Let’s remember our place and what we are made of and made for and be the soldiers of the Kingdom He has called us to be.