What’s Happening Tomorrow

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You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail. Proverbs 19:21 NLT

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” These words of wisdom from Yogi Berra could easily apply to a list of 1925 predictions made for 2025. Dr. A.R. Wentz predicted that we would communicate with a pocket-sized apparatus. He predicted that we would take a pill every day as our food source instead of having to work at planting and cultivating crops. He was confident that there would be world peace, a common world currency, and universal free trade by 2025. (based on an article by Mark Price, Akron Beacon)

So how did he do? Dr. Wentz was spot on with the pocket-size apparatus. The current statistics show roughly 98% of Americans own a mobile phone, with the average age being 11.6 when people get their first phone.  Though industrial chemicals are found in lots of food, no one is simply popping a pill to get their nutrients, and, even as a sci-fi fan, I am thankful for home-cooked meals. Dr. Wentz missed the mark on world peace, currency, and free trade – unless you consider Bitcoins!

Sir Ronald Ross tried his hand at predicting the future in 1925. Sir Ross predicted we would all live to be 150 years old because of scientific advances. E.E. Fournier d’Albe expected a Utopian society for everyone by 2025. “The earth will be under one government, and one language will be written and understood, or even spoken, all over the globe…Travel and commerce will be free and unfettered, and calamities will be alleviated and dangers met by the united forces of all mankind.” I will let you draw your conclusion on how Dr. d’Albe did on his predictions.

It was a little hit-and-miss on 2025 projections, so what do the future predictions look like? Quantumrun Foresight has 390 predictions out on its 2050 timeline. They are predicting that skyscrapers will function as cities within themselves to address a growing population projected to be 6.3 billion people living in cities, that the average number of connected devices per person will be 25, the total share of global car sales for autonomous vehicles will equal 90 percent and coffee will become a luxury due to climate change and the loss of suitable farming land. This last one is pretty scary for us coffee drinkers. (Future Timeline, Quantumrun Foresight)

Abraham Lincoln and Iker Urrutia both had some insights related to the future. Lincoln’s observation of the future was, “The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it.” Urrutia in a similar fashion said, “The future doesn’t happen to us; we build and shape it. We have agency over it, but we need to start building it today.”

I grant there is some truth in both men’s quotes but they left out a major element, as do many of the futurist projections: God is left out of the equation. The temptation towards self-reliance is all very real, yet without God, plans are out of balance.

Billy Graham lived a life that gave God center stage and recognized how little he could predict the future. Dr. Graham said of the future, “Only God knows the future, but we can certainly learn a great deal about it from the Bible. Over and over through the ages of time God sent his prophets to the people to warn them of things to come. Rather than be fascinated in man’s predictions that fall short, be fascinated about what God has done—and is doing—in the world. Explore the great truths of Scripture, for when we delve into the book of wisdom and ask the Lord to open its truth, he will.”

Most of us would agree it is hard just planning for tomorrow, forgetting about hundreds of years from now. Somedays it is hard enough just to plan for dinner tonight. What does God think about the future for you?

God’s vision for you is one of hope. More than likely all of us will find ourselves in “Babylon” struggling through a life crisis, a health issue, or family problems but then God comes alongside us with the words, “For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.” –Jeremiah 29:11-14 NLT

God’s vision for you is one of courage. A message that he will be with you through everything. There will be days when you struggle with confidence, doubting your every decision but then God comes alongside you with the message, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 4:6-7 NLT

God’s vision for you is one of refuge. His is a promise of safety in the middle of your storms when the sky is dark and the roads impassable. God pulls you close with the message, “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So, we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! –Psalm 46:1-3 NLT

You think your future projections are good since they are based on solid statistics or you make projections based on current trends only for them to collapse because of something out of your control. C.S. Lewis in his The Screwtape Letters wrote, “In a word, The Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most completely temporal part of time—for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays.”

John Greenleaf Whittier beautifully captured the future in his old hymn, written in 1867 – I Know Not What the Future:

I know not what the future hath of marvel or surprise,

Assured alone that life and death his mercy underlies.

And thou, O Lord, by whom are seen Thy creatures as they be,

Forgive me if too close I lean my human heart on thee.  (Baptist Hymnal,1975 Edition)

God is great!

Thank you for subscribing to Prayer Safari, may you find encouragement, hope, and purpose as you read.

Is There No End to Evil?

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For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. Matthew 15:19 NIV

Daniel left his home in Nigeria with the promise of a life-changing opportunity in the UK. Instead, this young Nigerian came face to face with evil becoming a victim of the nearly 50 million people in the global slavery trade. The numbers include boys and girls, men and women who are held in bondage as sex slaves, domestic servants, and child soldiers. (Global Slavery Index) However, Daniel was part of a growing segment of slavery dedicated to organ harvesting. “He was going to literally be cut up like a piece of meat, take what they wanted out of him and then stitch him back up,” according to Cristina Huddleston with the Justice and Care organization. Roughly 10% of all transplants worldwide are believed to be illegal.

Evil works to undermine God’s creation by dehumanizing mankind and creating mayhem. It acts out in the recent murder of Brian Thompson in NYC but is even worse when many praise the murder. Another is the dehumanizing of Lily Phillips, a 23-year-old Londoner who had sex with 100 men in 24 hours and chronicled it online for her OnlyFans subscribers. (James Emery White, Church&Culture)

Is there no end to what evil will do? Evil has filled the pages of history with its devastation, horror, and suffering. Evil has scarred humankind in various forms from the slave traffickers of old and the present, the deviant hearts of men such as Hitler, Stalin, and Judas, the devasting natural effects of floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, or the ideological madness that would fly planes into buildings killing thousands. Evil may have no limit in what it will do but it has an adversary in God who hears the cries of his creation.

God stands at the crossroads against the vile cruelty and injustice carried out, to push back the darkness. “Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll—are they not in your record? Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me.” (Psalm 56:8-9) David’s cry for help has been the cry of the innocent throughout history, “Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.” (Ps 57:1)

Two significant events that looked evil boldly in the face stand back to back on the calendar this month, Sanctity of Life Sunday and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Both days approached an evil with the same God-driven passion for justice and mercy bringing hope and life to its victims. Both have the foundational understanding that all of humanity was created in God’s image and deserve to be treated with respect.

Yesterday marked Sanctity of Life Sunday. Many churches set aside the day to commemorate the importance of human life. The day fosters an awareness of the impact that abortion has had on society, highlights the driving forces behind the “why” someone would choose an abortion, and most importantly, reaffirms the dignity and purpose of God-given life. “Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.”—Psalm 8:2

Monday marks a uniquely American observance commemorating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. This Baptist pastor could have kept busy with the pressing needs of his local congregation. Yet, Dr. King felt the burden to face the evils caused by racial injustice. Bill Gaultiere writes, “Dr. King’s love for Jesus and his experience as a pastor changed how he and his followers rallied against racial inequality. He insisted the fight for freedom must be walked in Jesus’ way of peace and non-violence.”

We have a Savior who is not above our difficulties nor turns away from us but has descended into the very pits of destruction and hopelessness to be with us. Os Guinness writes, “No other god has wounds.”

Can we trust God to help us as we face the crippling effects caused by the forces of wickedness? Pastor and author Jim Denison wrote, “God understands our suffering because he has experienced it with us. I know this is a commonplace observation for Christians, but no other religion in human history has made such a claim. The Greeks would never have suggested that Zeus feels our pain. Muslims view Allah as distant and impervious to our fallenness. Buddhists and Hindus view ultimate reality as impersonal and cannot imagine this Reality being born in a cave, laid in a feed trough, and dying on a cross.”

Dr. King when facing threats and ready to give up prayed, “I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid…I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.” Dr. King then wrote, “At that moment, I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced God before. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying, Stand up for justice, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever. Almost at once, my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.” (Stride Toward Freedom)

God knows our pains, has known the pains of those who have gone before us and will know the pain of those who come after us. Evil, wickedness, and destruction have met their match in God who loves us, cares for us, and walks with us. Baptist pastor and denominational leader Paul Powell once wrote “To solve man’s basic problem, we must give him a new heart. We must change the seat of his moral, spiritual, and intellectual being. He must be made right on the inside.”

Evil’s hold on mankind was broken when Jesus spoke his last words on the cross, “It is finished!” The darkness was broken, the barrier to God torn apart and grace poured out. Yes, the ugliness of evil still scars the land but God continues to reclaim, recreate, and bring light to His creation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor 5:17)

God is great!

2025 Year of Wonder

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This is what God the LORD says—the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it. Isaiah 42:5 NIV

“The whole world is a series of miracles, but we’re so used to them we call them ordinary things.” This quote by Hans Christian Andersen could have been the reason that inspired him to write over 168 tales. He took children into the world of “The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, and The Princess and the Pea.” Writers of fairy tales must see a world through adventure lenses and we readers of fairy tales bring life to those stories through our imaginations. We move beyond the ordinary to see a marvelously, often unexplainable but always fascinating world.

The author of the Book of Genesis powerfully captured the wonder of our world as he began with five simple but powerful words, “In the beginning God created.” (Gen 1:1) What more could he say that would encapsulate the power and essence of life? Small children on Christmas mornings create a volcano of excitement as they rip open their presents, not with timid, sedated reactions but unbridled yelling and clapping.

I can’t help but imagine that God had a similar reaction when He spoke creation into existence. The heavens erupted with stars and galaxies with his spoken word, as did the sun and moon, oceans, and continents exploded into reality. Then His gentle word spoke mankind into existence. Somehow the simple phrase, “It was good” just doesn’t seem to fully capture the wow factor of God’s creation.

Unfortunately, have we lost the wow factor? We take the unexplainable miracles of life and often look at them with a nonchalant attitude. We can see the magnificent Blue Whales but fail to marvel at the fact that their hearts weigh 400 pounds and are big enough to hear the heartbeat from two miles away.

We probably don’t meditate all that much on the intricacies of our body, unless we get sick. We take for granted the vast network of cells within our bodies. Yet if you were to hold an ordinary household straight pin you could accommodate roughly 10,000 human cells on the pinhead. To think that if you took the total length of our blood vessels you could circle the Earth at least twice if laid end to end. When was the last time you were walking in Walmart that you thought of the 206 bones within your body and 52 of those are in your foot?

Walking out into the night, do you cry out in awe when you see the canopy of stars above you? Nikola Tesla lived life in wonder. The driving force of curiosity led to his 308 patents. Mark Batterson writes of Tesla that “Few people possessed more curiosity when it comes to God’s creation. During thunderstorms, “Tesla would sit on a couch near the window, and every time it would lightning and thunder, he would get on his feet and give God a standing ovation. When was the last time you clapped for the Creator? When was the last time you gave God a standing ovation?”

This is living life in wonder. Helen Keller wrote, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”  She lived her life in blindness and deafness yet could “see” a world of unbelievable wonder and “hear” the silent sounds of mystery everywhere. She lived a daring adventure that left a legacy of accomplishments in education, writing, and disability advocacy. Keller didn’t live in ordinary terms but always through a filter of miracles.

How can we see our world through the lens of wonder? Author Katie Prejean McGrady captures well the marvel of God’s handiwork, “Creation, and all of life itself, is a remarkable gift, and we would do well to ponder the beautiful reality that God created not out of necessity, but out of abundant, unfettered, generous love.”

It would be unimaginable to live life apart from a daring adventure – an adventure lived with God. C.S. Lewis wrote, “If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.”

How can you read the Psalms and not feel the growing excitement and wonder of God that David captured over and over again? “How majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalms 8, 19, 139)

We can choose to live 2025 in the wonder of the fullness of God’s presence! What’s ahead? It really doesn’t matter when you know God is already there to walk with you. “Embrace the uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later.” (Bob Goff)

Let heaven celebrate! Let the earth rejoice!

Let the sea and everything in it roar!

Let the countryside and everything it celebrate!

Then all the trees of the forest too will shout out joyfully. Psalm 96:11-12 CEB

“Get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible…To be spiritual is to be amazed.” (Abraham Heschel)

2025, what is ahead? Recreating Helen Keller’s quote, 2025 will either be a daring adventure or nothing at all. I hope most of us would rather be on an adventure because God’s creation is an unlimited treasure of discoveries. There is no doubt we will face a few challenges ahead but God has promised to be there with us.

God is great!

 

Another Year, Another Resolution

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Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19 NASB

Is it just me or are there more people in the gym this morning? You may have said this to yourself last week since most gyms, health centers, or fitness groups get a large increase in new or old members returning—the main reason: New Year’s resolutions. The leading resolutions include losing weight and getting fit. If you have a gym membership don’t lose heart, only 9% of Americans keep them. So, by February you should be back to sweating alone.

Making resolutions for the new year is nothing new since the practice dates back to ancient times. The Babylonians as far back as 2000 B.C. celebrated with a 12-day festival. A major resolution for them was the return of borrowed farm equipment. The tradition of resolutions was adopted by the ancient Romans when they made promises of good behavior for the coming year. Knights of the Middle Ages would renew their vows to chivalry by placing their hands on a peacock.

Resolutions to change something within oneself have been most prevalent. A Boston newspaper carried a story in 1813 highlighting why resolutions were made. “And yet, I believe there are multitudes of people, accustomed to receive injunctions of new year resolutions, who will sin all the month of December, with a serious determination of beginning the new year with new resolutions and new behavior, and with the full belief that they shall thus expiate and wipe away all their former faults.” (Catherine Boeckmann, The Old Farmer’s Almanac)

Resolutions have shifted over time with the culture. The top two resolutions according to a Gallup Poll in 1947 were, “Improve my disposition, be more understanding, control my temper and Improve my character, live a better life.” The top two resolutions today are “lose weight and get organized.”

Resolutions to lose weight, get fit, be better organized, spend less, save more, or spend more time with family are all good things. So why do so many of us fail to keep our resolutions? Who doesn’t want to be skinnier, more muscular, more organized, and simply better?

We often fail because of the “why” we are making the resolution. Similarly, we fail because it is hard to stay motivated with a resolution that starts with a negative focus,  resolutions that have no accountability or we simply fail to keep them because they are really not important to us.

Maybe the medieval knights were on the right road when they renewed their vow to chivalry. Their resolutions were focused on the greater good of others, not themselves. “Over the years, however, resolutions seem to have migrated from denying physical indulgences to general self-improvement, like losing weight. While it may seem superficial, medical sociologist Natalie Boero of San Jose State University suggests that today’s resolutions are also a reflection of status, financial wealth, responsibility, and self-discipline—which isn’t that different from how the New Year’s resolution tradition began.” (Boeckmann)

You could get some good advice from Paul in his letter to the Ephesians about writing your resolutions. “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24 NASB)

“So often we try to develop Christian character and conduct without taking the time to develop God-centered devotion. We try to please God without taking the time to walk with Him and develop a relationship with Him. This is impossible to do.” (Jerry Bridges)

Resolutions that begin with the focus on us are harder to maintain over the course of time. Resolutions that begin with a focus on something or someone else stand a greater amount of success. This is the reason a daily resolve to walk with God will last not only for the year but throughout eternity.

I do not even pretend to resolve to keep my office organized but occasionally in a fit of organizing, I do come across treasures. This week in cleaning out a file I found a bit of spiritual history, a most fitting piece in this resolution-making season. The why I kept it is beyond me but I found Jeannie Elliff’s 2007 goals or if you will, resolutions.  Whatever the reason, it was a good reminder to me to always set my goals/resolutions Godward. Though Jeannie walked through Heaven’s doors several years ago, she left behind a legacy of faith for others to follow.

Jeannie was a missionary, pastor wife but most importantly, a child of God. Henry Blackaby wrote, “One of the best ways to prevent your heart from growing cold is to regularly talk with God.” You may not have known Jeannie but her quiet, dignified life was marked with a fire for God that she kept burning throughout her life. She titled her goals, “Joy in the Journey,” which was quite appropriate for someone who took time to walk with God daily, a life singularly purposed on pleasing God.

  1. I will purpose to have conduct worthy of the gospel. Phil 1:27-29
  2. I will display a selfless humility. Phil 2:3-8
  3. I will keep striving to know Christ. Phil 3:7-11

Whatever resolutions you make this year, let each one of them reflect the great joy and hope that you have in Jesus. Though I am not a prolific resolution maker, there is one that I desire to be central to my life story. I resolve to make this one life that I have been given to be lived in the fullness of God’s purposes for me, “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:20-21)

I pray you experience the joy and blessing of walking closely with God this year.

God is great!