Refuge in Troubled Times

"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people."

II Timothy 3: 1-5

We live in a dark world. No doubt Paul's advice to his young protege, Timothy, quoted above would have been understood by him to be the time in which he lived. Here we are almost 2000 years later and it sounds much like the world in which we live. The scary part is that Paul is talking about "religious" people. I tend to think of really bad people like pedophile priests; but, the local neighborhood gossip would also fit this list as well.

However, there is hope for the future. Jesus said in John 14:1 "Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me." So what are our anchors in this sea of distress?

1. God still reigns.
2. The "Church" is still precious in his sight.
3. The mission of the Church is clear.
4. Our focus is upon heaven; we are but pilgrims and not "earth-dwellers".
5. Victory is assured.

If you need to be reminded look at what Jesus told his disciples in John 10: 27-30:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

When the tough times come (and they will) we need to listen for the voice of the great Shepherd. There is but one refuge that is guaranteed to shelter us in every storm of life.