More on the end times, and more on how we should live. I’ve said before that I am torn when it comes to this stuff: I have seen people spend all their time reading prophecy and forget about doing what they ought. I don’t understand the times and days that well.

But we are given these passages, and this teaching. I don’t have to like it: it just has to be true. And the application of this teaching is very clear. We need to be righteous. We need to stand firm.

And standing firm is something we all struggle with. We want to not be self disciplined. We want to be selfish: we want to eat the cake that continually is renewed without any effort and not gain weight.

This is something I often encounter when dealing with college kids, especially with women who went to college and fell under the influence of feminism. Even if they come back to the faith later and want to get serious about it, there is a lingering effect of their indoctrination in college that causes them to doubt the traditional virtues and prefer to make decisions on the basis of feelings. They really, really believe in being true to their feelings, and deciding what to do on the basis of these feelings, rather then thinking about virtues like stewardship, or moral obligations in general. We are not good at loving other people, and focusing on ourselves above all does not help us to do that.

We do not want consequences. We do not want to accept that every action has a cost: while I am doing this I am not doing another thing. And we do not like the challenge to live like a soldier or athlete: in training: for the more we sweat the less we will bleed.

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

(1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 ESV)

What being predestined for salvation should do is assure us that victory, in the end, is Christ’s. But that does not mean we do not strive in this life. IT does not mean that we are ruled by our feelings. And this is where bodily discipline is useful.

My son asked me why I go to the gym. (We were aqua-jogging at the time: a good way of loosening up muscles made too tight by sitting in an aeroplane for 12 hours or so the day before). I explained it is to keep me balanced, so that I don’t (again) injure and the trainers main job is to make sure I don’t use bad technique. I made the point by listing the injuries I have had. We then discussed fitness in general. The thing bodily exercise does (apart from, if done properly, keeping you healthy) is that it instills into you a sense of discipline. Good habits. Not poor ones.

And that is good. But spiritual exercise is more so. This blog is my gym. Doing this forces me to repent. Doing this forces me to pray. And only by doing those things will I have any shielding from the memes of this society, that would destroy my Kirk, my family, and my salvation.

For the Church is not about great feelings, or a rock concert, or even good teaching. It is about fellowship and love for the community, where the community is a size where one can care and one can help. The church is where young men need to be trained to be men of God, and young women taught to love their husbands and children.

And let the haters hate that. For they will head for defeat. They have no training, no armour and no weapons: and we are not facing mere duelling pistols but instead automatic weapons in this gun fight.