Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations. Joel 2:1-2 ESV

There is a storm coming called artificial intelligence, the likes of which we have never seen. It is hard for us to even imagine the power of this new force that is no longer coming, it is here and growing more powerful daily. Whether on the topic of medicine, or national defense, AI is viewed as a tool to be used, and an uncommon urgency seems to have gripped our society to develop it as fast as possible. It makes me wonder if anyone stopped to ask why, and what will be the outcome of turning those segments of our society over to this brand-new force. We are either at the point now or soon will be that some AI model somewhere will know the names and personal information of virtually every single person on our planet. They will or are in the process of consuming all our works of literature, art, and theater. Every star, every discovery, every medicine will be part of its database. Even every state secret, every weapon system, and the internal structure of every unit in our military is only just beyond its reach but only for now. How should we prepare? How should we as Christians think about how AI will affect us and the work of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? There has never been an adversary like the one we are facing. Yet, no matter what lies ahead, we need to remember that there is still no one like our God. There will never be any power greater than His. If He is on our side, who can be against us? So, let’s prepare, but not fear, plan but not panic and keep walking by faith because with the strength that only Jesus gives, He has promised that we will not faint! This week we sang, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” The message that Helen Lemmel wrote about trusting God in confusing and difficult circumstances is never more true than now. When we don’t know what to do next, who to trust or where to turn, we must turn our eyes of faith towards Jesus, and then “The things that are of earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace!”