An Unshakable Future - Part 1

It was such an amazing weekend at Barnsley! Julie and I are so thankful to have had these days with yall. Thanks for being there and making it such a special time!

We didn’t have the opportunity for our devotional this AM so I thought that I would just write it out for the blog this week and next. Here is the passage that I wanted to reference:

Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming fire.

There is a lot going on in the world right now - including the latest instability of the war in Israel. I can imagine that each of you have pondered the thought of what our nation and world is going to look like in the future - both for yourselves and your children. Every generation asks these same questions but it seems like a more compelling question than at any point in my lifetime. Regarding our nation and the world, no one really knows the future of course. However, as Christians, we take comfort in knowing how the story ultimately ends. Scripture tells us this. What we don’t know is how things are going to play out between now and then.

Traveling gives you a richer perspective of time and place. By learning more about the past, we get a more accurate view of the present. With our recent travels, I’ve had the opportunity to learn more about many great civilizations - the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Spanish Empire, the British Empire, the Persian Empire and so on. I can only imagine that each of these civilizations could never have envisioned a time when their role as the dominant nation would end. As Americans, we have difficulty imagining a time when we are not the dominant global nation. The thought of it is unsettling to us all.

This passage above from Hebrews acknowledges the fact that every civilization that will ever exist on this earth will fall one day. It will either fall before Jesus returns like so many of them already have, or it will fall when He returns. God’s kingdom is the only one that “cannot be shaken.”

From a personal standpoint, its’ important to look at the areas in our lives that captivate most of our time and attention - relationships, health, career, possessions, hobbies/interests. All of these can and will be “shaken” at some point. That doesn’t mean that they are bad things but it does mean that each of them need to be held in proper balance with a kingdom mindset. Are any of these things idols in our lives? Or do we treat them as gifts that are under our godly stewardship.

It’s interesting that the same thing can be a gift in our lives or an idol. Gifts that we steward are blessings bringing us joy and fulfillment. Idols are takers that drain us. Idols promise but ultimately fail to deliver and what they do deliver comes with diminishing returns. We’ll eventually need more than they can provide before moving on to something else offering the even greater deceptions.

What are you clinging to that is “shakable” in your life? Do you view it as a gift to be stewarded or have you made it into an idol that drains us? In order to live with a kingdom mindset, we all have to continually assess and make adjustments on these from time to time.

Stay hungry,

Big E

Matt. 5:6