By Jeff Scoggins

When I write in my diary each day I enjoy looking back on my life on a particular day in the past. Today I looked through the whole month of October for 2002. It was not a good month.

Crisis #1: A sniper was terrorizing Maryland by gunning down innocent, unsuspecting people at gas stations and store parking lots. Becky and I were serving as missionaries in Moscow, Russia, but Maryland was still home, and we were scheduled to return soon. We owned a house and had family in the area where the sniper was stalking. With the 9-11 terrorism still in everyone’s minds, my stomach knotted up in reaction to the sniper crisis.

Crisis #2: As Becky and I walked along our usual route close to our apartment in Moscow, we passed two men walking a dog. The dog showed no interest in us as we approached, but when we passed he snarled and bit Becky in the leg. The owner was unapologetic, but since Becky thought the bite hadn’t broken the skin under her jeans we continued walking back to our apartment. There Becky discovered she was bleeding. Knowing nothing of the dog but knowing that many dogs in Moscow are never vaccinated brought fears of rabies. This eventually led to a series of shots to which Becky was allergic. We spent many days trying to find the dog again and having difficult confrontations with the owner who refused to help. My stomach knotted further.

Crisis #3: The Nord Ost theater was one of many in Moscow presenting plays the evening of October 23, 2002, but it was this theater, only four miles from our apartment, that Chechen terrorists chose to take hostage. Armed to the teeth with explosives about 40 or 50 men and women took control of the theater with about 850 people inside.

Government forces quickly surrounded the theater, but the terrorists were entrenched. Storming the building was out of the question because the terrorists had wired it with explosives. Any attempt at rescue and everyone would be killed. It was a crisis not only for those in the theater and us nearby but for all of Moscow. The tension crackled everywhere in the city. My stomach knotted further. Eating wasn’t fun in October 2002.

Life was much more serious. The atmosphere at our office was more subdued. I spent more time in my Bible. I spent more time in prayer. I spent more time minute-by-minute looking to God. And as a result I grew spiritually at higher rate than usual for me. Things that had once seemed important didn’t seem important anymore. I wondered, If this is how I feel now how will I feel at the end time crisis, which is due to storm the entire planet at any moment?

Then they caught the sniper. Soon after the government forces ended the hostage crisis—disastrously for more than a 100 people, but it had ended nonetheless. Eventually even the dog situation faded away.

Do you know how I felt after each crisis drifted from mind? I felt relieved. Finally, life could go back to normal. I had no more need for crisis spirituality. I was free again to drop into neutral with God. Normal life.

Normal life can be fatal to spiritual life because we quickly forget how much we need God. We easily forget the seriousness of the crisis in which we exist every day. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus is coming soon. But before he comes we are going to face an unprecedented crisis, and this includes God’s people, “the elect.”

“For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now — and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” – Matt. 24:21-22

Times are serious enough right now to warrant crisis spirituality. Being spiritually prepared now is the only way to avoid being overwhelmed then.  Please don’t wait until the crisis becomes overwhelming to practice relying on God. Ground yourself deeply in his Word immediately. Open your Bible and prayerfully read as though your life depends on it because, in fact, it does.