I have a very thrilling orchestration of the movie soundtrack for “The Man from Snowy River” that I sometimes play for my boys. They haven’t seen the movie, but I have found that I can just narrate the music with stories of rough riding cowboys capturing wild horses, and their creative minds fill in the details. As the music crescendos, my boys chorus, “What is happening now, Daddy?”

“Now the riders are all racing behind the horses. There must be 40 of them. Oh, those wild horses are fast! A big black stallion is their leader. Who is that I see coming from behind? Yes, it’s Jim, the man from Snowy River! Where’s he going? He has found a secret route through the forest to get ahead of the herd. Look at him ride! He is so fast and so skilled.”

The boys are enthralled as they listen. And as the music drops to a soft orchestration with tinkling bells, my youngest son will invariably repeat, “What’s happening now, Daddy?”

“Now the horses are running through the snow on the mountain tops, and Jim is following close behind with his whip in hand,” I’ll say. I relish looking into my boys’ bright eyes. I can almost see their imaginations painting the panorama.

As Seventh-day Adventists, one important role we play is to help people answer that penetrating question, “What’s happening now?” This is what the prophet Daniel did for Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. The handwriting on the wall wasn’t enough. The king needed a man, as he put it, “in whom is the spirit of the holy gods” (Dan. 5:11), to interpret it for him.

Last week, I went late at night to visit an old friend, Teber, who works nights as a security guard. Seven years ago when I first arrived in Turkey, he was fascinated with my belief that the end of the world was near. We spoke at length about the events preceding the coming of Christ. At that time, I told him I believed Jesus might very well come within 25 years. He didn’t forget those words, and he has referenced them many times in the ensuing years of our friendship. To my continual frustration, he has been one who has wanted information, but not knowledge. He refuses to study the Bible for himself. He has come to our church, our picnics and our programs, but he won’t really read the Word.

Last night while we visited together, out of the blue, Teber threw out this question: “Barnabas, what is happening now?” I looked at him blankly, sensing a depth to his question. “I mean with the end of times,” he continued. “The Mayan prophecy of 2012—do you think it is real? What do you think is happening right now?”

Like my children, my friend Teber was inviting me to help his mind paint a vision. He was asking me to help his spiritual imagination make sense out of the shifting, frenetic world with all its dramas unfolding so near to Turkey in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Iran and Greece. Teber knew that while he was with a man “in whom is the spirit of the holy gods,” he had a chance of receiving an answer to this question.

As spiritual heirs to the calling of John the Baptist, we are to be interpreters of the times. John the Baptist’s role was to give people a clear picture of where they were on the map of salvation history. At that time, Israel had journeyed nearly 400 years with no living prophet. Suddenly, people flocked to hear a man who knew where they were. John, like Simeon and Anna at the dedication of the infant Jesus, was tracking the timeline of the Messiah. That is the prophet’s role—helping people track Jesus. “What is he doing now?”

People have access to global news like never before with hundreds of satellite TV channels, Internet news, radio news, newspapers and even news feeds to smart phones. But knowing the news isn’t the same as understanding it.

In 1 Chronicles 12, we are told of a long list of the tribes and the number of men that each tribe contributed to David’s warring party. Some of the numbers are very large—120,000, 40,000 and 50,000. However, one family is named along with the seemingly insignificant number of 200. A small number, yet very important given their honorable description: “Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command” (vs. 32). As the father of a Seventh-day Adventist family in Turkey, I see that we are uniquely like the children of Issachar in that we have been given understanding about the times.

The answer to the question “What is happening now?” is our specialty because we track Jesus—His movements to receive an eternal kingdom in Daniel 7, His movements in Hebrews as our great high priest, and His movements as coming King in Revelation 16.

We track Jesus’ movements among the unreached, bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth; how Jesus is now appearing in dreams to Muslims throughout Africa and the Middle East. I recognize the movements of the Antichrist, but my eyes are fixed on Christ our Advocate, Justifier, Friend, Redeemer, Creator and Lord.

Yesterday I had a magnificent evangelistic day as our church went on an outing to Ephesus along with 12 Muslims. These guests, friends of church members, were excited to see Ephesus for the first time. As we entered, I gave each of them a New Testament and began to describe the work of Jesus in ancient Ephesus; how the Ephesians knew well what philosophy was, but philosophy had left their city dangerously perverted and darkly pagan. I described how, when Christianity came into the city, it entered not just as a philosophy but with power. Each person on the tour opened their tiny Bibles and read aloud together of the power of Jesus. We read from Acts 19 and 20 and imagined together the people burning their books of sorcery because they had found real power in Christ. While standing near the towering foundation of an ancient temple of Domitian built on pillars with carved deities, we imagined what the early Ephesians would have thought when they read, “For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” How precious to me was the sight of these Muslim friends holding their New Testaments and reading these verses!

We then visited an ancient baptistery in the church of St. Mary. They didn’t understand, because they had never seen such a thing in their life, so I stepped into the baptistery and described in detail the idea of dying and rising up to a new life in Christ. From the baptistery, I instructed our group to open their Bibles to John 3, and we read about the new-birth experience. Yes, I was a son of Issachar, helping shape the realities of these friends.

Even as I write this, I hear my children turning on “The Man from Snowy River” theme music again. But as it plays, I see a different horse and rider. And, oh, watch Him ride! “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems, and He has a name written that no one knows but Himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:11-16).

This is the story to tell, and now is the time to paint the picture vividly for those who don’t know the times, nor the Man of the hour. “What’s Jesus doing now?” Let me tell you . . .

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