Looking Forward

1 Cor 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.12 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13 Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.14 And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.

Seeing the future has a lot to do with how you conduct your present. One of the reasons the economy continues to struggle is no one knows the kind of investments to make because the future at this point is so UN-certain. How is health-care going to be worked out? How is the cap-and-trade bill going to effect companies? How are the global finance markets going to respond to the political turmoil present in the world? Once even a little bit of certainty re-enters the picture, all the people who are holding the wealth will probably flood the markets with investments. But it is still a ‘chicken-or-the-egg’ thing at this moment, and so the uncertainty continues to drive a down or hesitant market.

As Bible-believing Christians, our view of the future should also shape our present investment behavior. What you are investing looks different than what the world has to invest, but everything else is basically the same.

We, unlike the world, have a very certain future, based on the Word of God. If anything, the uncertainty present in the world today produces an even greater certainty about the Word of God - since the Word of God predicted the uncertainty and unbelief in the world today. All this political upheaval caused by insidious global alliances? The Bible said so in Ezekiel 38. All this unbelief and lack of faith in the return of Jesus Christ for His Church? (The Rapture.) The Bible said so in 2 Peter 3.

Over and over again we see the exact occurrences playing out on the world today exactly described from 2,000 or more years ago in God’s Word. Where then do you place your faith?

This is why Paul says to the Corinthians, as a result of where they had, (or should have,) placed their faith – “Why would you join yourself to a harlot, when you know Jesus is coming back soon – or at the very least – you are going to meet Jesus soon?” With this kind of eternal certainty, why would you invest your flesh, your very life, in wickedness and sin?” It is one thing for someone who doesn’t know any better, but for the one who KNOWS Christ died for their eternal future – how could you forget to look forward?

- Pastor Bill