Advent I

During Advent, instead of writing a regular GHPL, I’ll be providing a short devotion that focuses on our own preparedness for the arrival of the King and for the New Year that is soon upon us.

Recently, within the space of a few hours, I watched a video documenting how Islam is taking over the Western world through high birthrates in Muslim communities, compared to unsustainable low birth rates in Western cultures. Then I saw a CBC documentary about China’s insidious strategy to take over the world through trade and holding governments captive through technology and indebtedness. Then I heard on the radio about how we are reaching the tipping point at which climate change is irreversible and the world is doomed.

Then I remembered Asaph, the psalmist dismayed by the success of evil, who describes himself as “senseless and ignorant…a brute beast before You” (Ps 73:22).

But when I thought how to understand this,
    it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
    then I discerned their end…

But for me it is good to be near God;
    I have made the Lord God my refuge,
    that I may tell of all Your works.

Psalm 73:16-17, 28

Entering the refuge of the sanctuary is not escapism. It is looking to our Rock.

Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness
    and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
    and to the quarry from which you were hewn…          

Isaiah 51:1

We know this world is coming to an end – but we are living in the eternity of God’s Kingdom. So, let’s enter the sanctuary and saturate ourselves in His presence. We can be confident in this, that “He who began a good work in [us] will carry it on to completion (Php 1:6) and we will tell of all His works.

Worship to “In the night, my hope lives on” by Andrew Peterson.