What If?

I’ve just finished reading the first installment of a three part trilogy by Bryan Litfin called ‘The Sword’.  I am now reading through his second book entitled ‘The Gift’.  It’s a Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings type of thing.  Bryan is a professor of Theology at Moody Bible Institute and was featured in an article in our ‘Stand Firm’ Men’s Devotional a couple of months back.  That’s what spurred me to look into his book.

To give you a brief synopsis of the storyline the year is 2042.  A deadly virus outbreak mushrooms into a world-wide epidemic and takes millions of lives.  In the resulting chaos and loss of life nuclear weapons fall into the control of those who would destroy anyone and everything.  The sum of this is that our world as we know it ceases to exist.  The Earth is plunged once again into a ‘dark ages’ with all communication, technology, and financial structure gone and as the centuries roll by the ‘ancient’ world of the present is gone and along with it the scriptures and the knowledge of the one True God.  The story evolves as the one True God begins to real Himself to the Hero and Heroine and they begin their quest to find His truth.

Maybe you’re not intrigued with that sort of story, but for me it really stirs my thinking.  What if we didn’t have the scriptures anymore?  That they were gone and lost forever?  What if we had lost our knowledge of the one True God and His Son?  And from that we had no hope for the future.  That we just lived and died and that was it.  Makes we want to give thanks anew for God’s mercy and grace to give us His Word.  It causes me to realize afresh that the light and knowledge of the one True God should not be taken for granted.

But I am also reminded that for many in our world the setting for ‘The Sword’ is true in their countries today.  They don’t have the Scriptures in their language or otherwise.  They don’t have a knowledge of the one True God.  They haven’t heard of a Savior who died for them.  They have no hope beyond this life.

Let us not take our blessings or our mission for granted.  Let us remember His calling on our lives to those around the world and across the street who don’t know His love and salvation.  (Matthew 28:18-20)