How?

 

How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?

—Psalm 137:4

When we ponder our lives and circumstances, I know that we often ask God this question: “Why?” More often than not, in more recent days, I find myself asking: “How?” How am I supposed to live in this “foreign,” godless culture? What does the Lord expect of me?

Back in the mid-1970’s in his book, How Shall We Then Live? ¹, famous apologist and author, Francis Schaeffer, pondered how Christians could live by the Christian ethic, accept God’s revelation, and totally affirm the Bible’s morals, values, and meaning while living in a declining western culture.

Then, nearly thirty years later, in 1999, another noted writer, Charles Colson, following in the footsteps of Schaeffer, wrote a book pondering the similar question: How Now Shall We Live? ² The decaying culture and the Bible’s enduring message clashed at every turn.

Do Christians still have an important place in this world? Our message seems more and more unrelatable to masses of Americans, particularly younger adults. And, I doubt that the two books I mentioned above, while they might have held answers for the 1970’s and the 1990’s, would be perceived as carrying as sharp a focus for our time in the second decade of the twenty-first century.

Like Jesus suggested to His disciples in Matthew 10—when they were not accepted by those to whom they ministered—some would suggest we should “wipe the dust off our feet” and instead, choose to live in closed Christian communities away from the evil world. Yet, in John 17:15, Jesus prayed:

“… that you [God] not take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”

We also sense the urgency of Scripture around the promise that Jesus will return, and that He will come back when the time is right. He gave signs throughout Scripture, including in Matthew 24, which give thoughtful Christians pause as those signs look more and more like our own day. He urges us to “be ready” and to “keep watch.”

As it were, Christians live as exiles in this foreign land, much as the Jews did in Babylon after God allowed the dark days of their captivity to drive them far from their homeland. As recorded in Jeremiah 29, through the prophecy of Jeremiah, the people of Israel learned that God expected them to build houses, settle down, plant gardens, and eat what they produced. They were to raise families and increase in number. They were to seek prosperity and be a blessing to the places where they lived. In other words, God expected His chosen people to do good and look for Him to prosper them.

Today, can we live that way? Can we still live according to God’s written Word? Can we live alien to our culture? Can we shun sin? Can we keep watch for Jesus’ second coming and do good in the world?

God gave us His Holy Spirit for just such an assignment. In John 15, Jesus declares that He is the vine, and we are the branches. He explains the importance of our staying connected to the vine, in the same way that clusters of grapes must remain connected to the grapevine, if they are to grow and mature.

Even though we may experience hardship, Jesus prayed for us in John 17. Jesus asked the Father to protect us and to glorify Him in and through us. He continues to pray for us. Trusting Him, we can put our lives and our pathways into His hands.

I like the verses of the hymn, “God of Grace and God of Glory.” ³ I sometimes recite them as a prayer. Here’s just one verse:

God of grace and God of glory,
on Thy people pour Thy power;
Crown Thine ancient church’s story;
Bring its bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the facing of this hour,
For the facing of this hour.

______________________

1 Schaeffer, Francis A. How Shall We Then Live? Grand Rapids, Michigan: Fleming H. Revell, 1977.

2 Colson, Charles. W. How Now Shall We Live? Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999.

3 Fosdick, Harry Emerson. “God of Grace and God of Glory”—Stanza one. Public Domain.