2022-12-09
Good Morning Dear Ones,
While living in a ever more fallen world, our Lord has told us we need to be in that world but not of it. That’s much easier to say or write than it is to obey that directive. That Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Stephen, and so many others who stood by their faith in the Lord during extraordinarily difficult challenges did so, is proof that we have been created by the Lord to do the same in our world. We were created to do the Lord’s work using the skill sets that He gave us. Nevertheless, He must be disappointed in the horrific fractures in our society between people who disagree about politics, priorities, religion, etc. Sometimes they go to war over them. The proliferation of guns and other weaponry has made it even more possible for one nation to wipe out another. This is chaos, something that God finds objectionable. Yes, I am making a judgment here, based on my belief that obedient faith in the Lord alone can “cure” it.
Let’s look at this “cure” more closely, as God’s “Love Letter” [The Scriptures] sees it. Our Lord teaches us, “But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things -- [peace, joy, His blessings] will be given to you as well.” That’s the Lord’s idea of what our priorities should be. Nothing in that says that it will be easy for us, but this priority in our lives is what He describes as “that hard path through the narrow gate” to eternal life [MT 7: 13-14]. And what about the issue of how to suture together those awful fractures in our society? The Lord covers that in EPH 4: 3-5, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit----just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of us all, Who is over all and through all and in all.”
North America [Canada and the USA] were at one time considered “Christian countries.” That is a narrow view of their make-up, because there are many ways to arrive at a point of decency even if Christianity isn’t the faith in which you were raised. North America’s indigenous people, for example, have been treated horribly by so-called “Christians” in the all too recent past. Consider, for example, the “trail of Tears” in the USA, in which Cherokees were forced from their homes to reservations far away from them and the many deaths of children in unmarked graves at the sites of Canada’s residential schools where they had been taught in ways designed to wipe out their culture after being forcibly removed from their birth families. Programs like these were ill-conceived and cruel. That was nothing new either. Back in 168 BC, Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucid nation (combined Greek and Arabs living north of Israel) forcibly wrested the Jewish temple at Jerusalem from the Jews and committed the “Abomination of Desolation”—sacrificing a pig on the highest altar—a horrific affront to the Jews in the attempted to assimilate them. It was only through God’s assistance to a group of Jewish guerillas led by Judas Maccabee in 165 BC that the Jews took back their holy temple and the miracle of 1 day’s supply of olive oil burning for 8 days (the time it took to press more olive oil) that the Seleucid agenda was thwarted. The modern-day efforts of the Russian government under Vladimir Putin to assimilate the neighboring country of Ukraine appear to be failing but is just one more example of one group trying to take territory and control of another. But God created us with the innate desire to be free, which would explain why oppressed people the world over move from one place to another in search of it. Christ’s words in MT 12: 34-35 are telling. “You snakes—how can you say good things when you are evil? The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings out good things from the good stored up in him and an evil man brings out evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” Yes, we are born in sin and add on to it with our own sin. But our Lord has given us a way out by obedient faith in Him! God’s will shall be reflected in the outcome during the end times, as we learn from DN 9: 24-27 and the book of REV. As for present polity, DN 4: 17, “The decision is announced by messengers, the holy ones declare the verdict, so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone He wishes and sets over them the lowliest of people.” What does this mean? He is working to train people away from their sin and toward accepting Him is the One and only Sovereign God over all [DT 6: 4-5]. He is the way to peace and joy!
PRAYER: O Lord, we are sinful humans with many foibles. But we don’t have to live continually believing and acting on that sin. You alone through Christ’s Atonement have given us a way out of that sin. Through Your grace and by no other means, You have bought us the opportunity and freedom to escape the sinful life and to live guided by Your Holy Spirit. Because You love us the way You do, we can choose to live a life of decency and kindness. We know we should not waste the grace You have given us, nor can we take any credit for living righteously [EPH 2: 8-10].. We beseech You to continue with You love, intervention, and direction, as we need to rely on You every day of our lives. You have given us what we do not deserve and imbued us with the desire to live according to Your will. We learn from JN 3: 16-17, just how important recognizing the grace the Lord Jesus has extended to us and why it should not be wasted as evil people do. We pledge our faith in You and offer You well-deserved thanks and praise. We live in the hopes that we will think in eternal terms and act in a way that pleases You. This prayer is reverently offered in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: The Lord has put it on my heart to write about a life of peace and joy and how one’s personal life can be filled with threats to them that must be overcome. I just returned from the funeral of a relative out of state. It was both sweet and emotional for me as I contemplated my relationship to my relatives. The sweetness came from the love and respect that all of us have for her. we know in our hearts that God has called her home to heaven. Emotions are hard for me, because I am at the age where many people that I love are dying—some being called to heaven and others not. It’s not my right to make judgements, but this relative was a righteous and faithful believer. My tears are more for the fact that my family and I will miss her than they were for where she is now. I believe she is and always will be under God’s care. I also feel concern for her husband, who must go through the grieving process as I am for my own husband, who I believe, went home to the Lord last year. There is always the temptation to feel sorry for oneself and maudlin at times like these, but we must bear 1 COR 10: 13 in mind to get God’s perspective. “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful, He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. “That way out is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn, JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2022 All Rights Reserved,
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