"...looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus."

- Titus 2:13

If you ask older Russian believers who were born under the reign of Stalin or Khrushchev and are again facing the loss of Christian freedom how they have endured all these years, the answer will be “we look beyond the temporal to the coming of Christ”. Living here in a country where we have so much freedom, materialism and financial prosperity, looking beyond the temporal is a challenge to our Christian faith. Many churches in both the spiritual and physical aspect place a greater emphasis on the temporal than the eternal. The advancement of technology can contribute to this temporal focus as it is reported that Americans check their cell phones around one hundred and fifty times a day. At Christmas, we received a card from some friends in which they wrote, “While the world looks down to their phones for answers, we look up, for our redemption draweth nigh.” “Fixing our eyes upon Jesus” is the biblical antidote for enduring both the hardships and temptations that come from the world. Be encouraged!

References: Titus 2:13; Hebrews 12:2