"Make your ambition to a lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, so you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need" - 1 Thessalonians 4:11
"So far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all men." - Romans 12:18
Every day I see so much strife in people's lives - people living in the power of their flesh and in their silent - or not so silent struggle for self-preservation. They live in constant fear, and rather than loving God and loving others, their love for themselves dominates them and everything they do or aspire to do. If people don't meet their expectations or don't dance in time to their tune, they are considered to be the enemy. They seek consolation and relief from their fears and insecurities by accommodating their flesh and what it desires. Turning to things that promise peace and consolation, but, in the end, only bring pain and destruction.
Our culture seems to be imploding. Consuming itself. Looking for answers to the problems that dominate us, but unwilling to acknowledge the true source of those problems or the solution. We criticize aberrant - wrong - hurtful behavior and encourage it at the same time. We condemn men for making sexual advances to women and exploit women in the media and add sexual connotation even in television commercials about everyday products. We wonder why there is a problem with violence in our country and the majority of the most popular television shows and movies are dominated with stark violence and death. As I watch this going on I feel helpless to change it. But that is because the source of the problem spiritual .. and most often misdiagnosed as a natural - relational problem. Imagine a doctor treating you for an upset stomach when you have stomach cancer. And being a spiritual problem, it can only be solved with a spiritual solution. My wanting my children's behavior, for example, to be different will not make it so! Only God can do that - He is in the "business" of changing hearts which, in turn, changes behavior. Hearts can be changed, but only if people will submit to His call and yield their lives in faith to the Lord.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” - 1 Corinthians 1:18
The solution is so simple, but the truth is, the majority of the world will reject the Truth. (Romans 1:25) “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator .. " I am not making this up. God has revealed the Truth to us through the Word of God, by His Spirit and through His Son and His sacrifice. The world, our culture, rejects the idea that the problem has spiritual roots and a spiritual solution. (1 Corinthians 2:14) “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” What a dilemma. What to do? The answer is simple. Don’t expect the world to get better … it is running pell-mell into darkness … headed for destruction …
There was a song written in the mid-60’s, a protest song, but I think it was prophetic. It was written by PF Sloan, during the Vietnam war, and sung by Barry McGuire who later became a Christian. It speaks to the calamity that rages in this world, but stops short of a solution. Barry McGuire found the solution … you know the answer. My encouragement to you …. Be a light in this dark world … if people seem to be looking for answers .. point them to Jesus .. most will ignore you .. but that is between them and God. Your obligation is to tell the world. The Spirit will do the rest.
Eve of Destruction by PF Sloan. (Remember this was written in the mid 60's not yesterday!)
"The eastern world, it is explodin', Violence flarin', bullets loadin', You're old enough to kill but not for votin',
You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin', And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin',
But you tell me over and over and over again my friend, Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.
Don't you understand, what I'm trying to say? And can't you feel the fears I'm feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there's no running away,
There'll be no one to save with the world in a grave, Take a look around you, boy, it's bound to scare you, boy,
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend, Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.
Hate your next door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace, And you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend,
You don't believe we're on the eve of destruction. No, no, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction....."
Jesus is the answer ... always was and always will be!
Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory.
By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone
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