Prepared for battle?

The young men and women's faces in the room are solemn and the energy in the room reflects the seriousness of the topic. They are completely unaware of the beauty outside their windows. The leader explains to them the gravity of the situation. The final battle has come. Some of them may not be coming home. They are advised to set their affairs in order. For those who have spouses and children it's an unfortunate situation because their families will experience more pain. Those who are unmarried are reassured that their unattached situation will make them better fighters, fewer thoughts of home to prevent them from giving their all. After all this is what their parents raised them to do. The young adults leave to spend the evening partying and spending money, because they won't have any needs where they are going, and there is a good chance some of them won't come home alive.

You would probably expect a scenario like this to play out in military camps across the country. However, this experience is very much like the one's I experienced at church camps and young adult conferences in the Adventist church. When we speak of having limited days on this earth and to ensure we make the most of them, often it is thought that those days will be spent in quiet reflection and time shared with family and friends. The reality is that most people when given a finite number of days to live, make choices they never would have made before, some dangerous, some silly, some just plain rebellious.From my observations of the adult men, more so than the adult women, in the church our emphasis on the end times of the world coming has prevented them from growing up. If these young men won't have the opportunity to marry and experience a fulfilling sexual experience, then thoughtful planning of their education, careers is pushed to the side as they make sure they will have a sexual partner before the end comes. A few also will make sure that they have experienced every other pleasure in life they have been denied living as an Adventist. Somewhere along the line becoming a soldier in the army of the Lord became a solitary activity to battle for our friends and neighbors souls. The result is we have better prepared our young men to serve in the military then to be caring, thoughtful husbands, wise fathers and persistent providers for their families. It was not so in the beginning....




"The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it......The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:15, 18




The battle today, as in the days of Adam and Eve after the fall, is not for our friends and neighbors souls, the Holy Spirit will move in their hearts as surely as he moves in my own. The battle today, as it has always been, is for our children's hearts....Adam and Eve lost their firstborn children Cain and Abel to this battle (Genesis 4). What would happen in the world if we focused on our own homes and the little ones living there? Now that just might change the world as we now it!