Sunday, July 6, 2014

It's All Going to Pot

It's all going to pot.

Nothing is holding, nothing is the way it used to be.  Morals are in decline.  Liberty is threatened.  The family and home is falling apart.  Your own body is falling apart.  And in none of it, none of it whatsoever, do you have any control.

You can fight against this.  Call for better teachers.  Get better lawyers.  Assert your authority and shift the paradigm.  Exercise and find better doctors.

And it still keeps falling apart - and there's nothing, nothing you can do to stop it.

Oh how your sinful flesh hates the wages of its sin.

Because that's all this is - it's all just death.  It's just sin messing with you directly, messing with the world around you.  It's sin bringing its wages in full.  And you know how sin started?

You wanted to be the one in control.  You wanted to be the one in charge.  You wanted to be like God, you wanted to be the one defining good and evil.  You wanted the freedom the serpent offered.  You wanted someone to blame when you failed, you wanted to cover your decaying flesh with leaves of your own choosing.

Sinful man has always wanted control.  Sinful man is insecure, because he knows he cannot hold, his position is not tenable.  You will die.  And you can't stop it.

So what?

Really - pause for a moment.  So what?

What if your worst fear about this life and what you can do about it came true?

You should know the answer - it wouldn't matter a lick, because despite what your flesh tells you, it's never been about your strength or your control.  You've been told this since you were young.

Little ones to Him belong, they are weak, but He is strong.
With might of ours could naught be done, soon were our loss effected - but for us fights the Valiant One, Whom God Himself elected.
Take they our life, goods, fame, child or wife - though these all be gone, they yet have nothing won, the kingdom ours remaineth.
The strife is o'ver, the battle done.  Now is the Victor's triumph won. 

In this world you will have tribulation, but take heart, Christ Jesus has overcome the world.

And when your see this tribulation, when you see the fears, do not listen to your flesh as it calls out for you to take control, assert your position and dominance -- lording it over others is the path of the gentiles, the path of death.  Rather, behold Christ Jesus.  Yes, you follow where your Captain trod, yes, you yourself take up your cross and follow Him.  So be it...

Jesus lives! And now is death but the gate of life immortal.
This shall calm my trembling breath when I pass its gloomy portal.
Faith shall cry, as fails each sense; Jesus is my confidence!

2 comments:

John Joseph Flanagan said...

I have those days as well, when I look at our declining society, immorality and wickedness abounding, many Christians falling away from the faith, our own circumstances troubling and affected by poor health and advancing age......but then I just draw back and remember that I am a child of God, saved by grace, heaven bound. I remember that my time here is set by God, perhaps three score and ten, and I am a few months from 70 now! I am an avid reader of history, and you should read a good history book right now. Read about the history of the church, as I have, all of the conflicts and persecutions....even now your brothers and sisters in foreign lands are being tortured, imprisoned, killed for their witness for Christ. The history of the world...with wars, plagues, disasters, conquests, and unending strife will continue until The Lord returns. We followers of Jesus must be encouragers, never allowing despair or anxiety to take us into depression. Tomorrow, take the time to seek out someone you know who needs an encouraging word and a prayer. Look for a need....maybe God wants you to personally lend a hand. God bless you.

Steve Martin said...

I think the right and good Rev. was employing the law…not to make better, but to kill us off…so that Jesus can give us new life.

We can't live today on yesterday's faith.