The Cure for a Rotten World

We live in a rotten world.  It is a world of unspeakable beauty yet unfathomable evil because of the deeds of the wicked.  It is the wicked who kill the innocent and their shed blood cries out for justice, justice only satisfied by an eternal, holy God.  Inevitably in times of grief we shift our gaze from the individual perpetrators and take aim at society as a whole.  What could have been done to prevent such tragedies like Columbine and Sandy Hook Elementary?  When it is so fresh, what can we do but weep?  It sometimes feels like the pain of the victims, their families, and even the perpetrators are lost in the ensuing debate.  Since sane people cannot fathom what exactly drives a person to such insanity, we can only stab in the dark for answers.  For every suggestion, it seems there are more who disagree than agree.

It has been said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  The trouble is, all the prevention in the world cannot stop criminals from doing what they do.  More cameras, restrictive laws, armed guards, bullet proof-glass, education, and awareness provide no guarantee as adequate safeguards against violence.  Everyone has opinions about what needs to change in our world.  If our solution to the problem only addresses the symptoms, we will never be free from the trouble.  The problems the world is facing today are way bigger than government legislation or gun control.  There has been gun control in varying degrees for decades in the United States.  Would more gun control prevent future gun-related tragedies?  Maybe.  If the gunman in Connecticut had only killed himself in his bedroom with his mom's pistol, gun control would not have been considered a relevant topic.  The death of that young man would not have made the news, much less become a point of global conversation.  But because he killed his mother, children, and school staff in cold blood, something must be done.  The trouble is, man cannot agree on what to do.

The surefire answer for the ills of sin that plague this entire world does not solely rest in government reform, additional laws, better medicine, education, even wealth distribution, the justice system, or religions of the world.  What people need is a relationship with the Living God of the Bible through faith in Jesus Christ.  Nothing has changed:  God is perfect and all powerful, man has rebelled from Him and chosen his own path, and Jesus has been sent to seek and save the lost.  He lay down His life and rose up again proving His divinity and power over sin, death, and hell.  Jesus is the only One powerful enough to transform the depraved mind of man and cleanse his heart from sin.  Man is evil, but God is not.  Many men have made a mockery of supposed Christianity through their wickedness, but Jesus Christ remains righteous, pure, and untainted.  Blame the cursed Crusades on religion if you want, but Christ had nothing to do with them.  Blame brutal beheadings and tragic mass suicides on religion too, yet Jesus was not the cause.  When Peter took a swing with a sword in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus commanded him to put it in his sheath.  He restored the man's ear that was cut off with His divine touch.  That is what God will do for us if we will put down our swords and quit fighting with God and one another.  That is when healing for individuals and society can begin.

Jesus Christ is more than a model.  Religion looks to Christ as a model to be copied, but being born again by the Holy Spirit through faith allows Jesus Christ to live out His life through you.  We can go through the motions of life with the appearance of uprightness, but we must still contend with our monstrously wicked hearts.  There is no hope for us originating in ourselves or this world.  There is none who is good, no not one.  The only one who is good is God!  We all need forgiveness and grace.  It is through God we learn what love looks like.  It is only in His strength and power that we can walk in His love.  Isn't God's love what we all admire and need?  1 Corinthians 13:4-8 reads, "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸ Love never fails."  Nothing can separate a Christian from the love of Christ, and we are more than conquerors through Him.

This Might of Yours

"Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?"

Judges 6:14

The tasks God calls His people to undertake will always require faith.  These will always be greater tasks than a man can accomplish in his own strength.  The Israelites had been greatly impoverished by the Midianites who brutally oppressed them.  God called Gideon and said to him, "The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour."  Gideon did not look or feel the part.  He certainly was unable to destroy the Midianites on his own or he would already would have tried to do it!  It was God that prompted him to even consider the crazy notion of massing a force to defeat the mighty Midianites.  It was God and His mighty sword that routed the Midianite nation.

God said to Gideon, "Go in this might of yours!"  It was not that Gideon himself was mighty.  Because God was with him, Gideon would be going in God's might.  The Angel of the LORD continued:  "You shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.  Have I not sent you?"  Gideon did not feel mighty, but he was mighty because a mighty God empowered him.  God had called Gideon, sent Him to perform a task in faith, and it was God who would secure the victory.  Gideon's part was to believe God and obey.  Instead of focusing on the great Midianite nation as a deadly threat, Gideon was called to look to God as His source of life and strength.

It is the same for Christians today.  God has called us all to undertake steps of faith for His eternal glory.  We may not feel strong or like a "mighty man of valour," but when God is our life and strength we shall overcome.  Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."  Christ has overcome, and when He lives His life through us we also obtain the victory through Him.  We need not fear the evils of this world or even Satan's schemes and power when we have the all-powerful God residing within our hearts, granting us joy, peace, and strength even in the midst of struggles.  He is a refuge that protects us wherever we go, regardless of what befalls us.

Take confidence in Christ, o man!  Don't trust Him just for eternal life, but for living today.  Go in this might of yours - might that is not found in your flesh, but in the Spirit of God who dwells within you by grace.

Giving Back to God

I am blessed to be the dad of two budding men aged 13 and 10.  It dawned on me the other day how fast the time is going.  It was depressing to think that in 5 years Zed could leave for university or that my wife and I could have an empty nest in less than a decade.  Whoa.  A lot can change in that amount of time, but it saddened me just the same.

Years ago at a men's retreat, the LORD gave me a vision of our Jeep Grand Cherokee.  It was wrecked beyond imagination, a twisted mess of metal.  I just knew my family was in there when the crash happened.  It literally made me cry, thinking about their deaths and what an empty loneliness it would leave inside me.  In that profoundly sad moment, I rejoiced that God did not take my family from me.  He wasn't showing me a picture of the future (we have sold the Jeep!).  But I heard His still small voice tell me that I needed to give them back to Him.  I needed to give them away.  That day I gave my family and those I love into the hands of God, knowing that He is able to protect and provide for them both in this life and for eternity.

It is a good principle that whatever God gives us, we freely give it all back to Him.  We give our own lives to His sovereign control and rule.  Everything we own and everything we do is only by His grace.  Our God is one who gives and takes away.  It is far better to give back to God before it is taken from us.  Because I have given my children into God's hands, I will cope better when the day comes that they leave.  It will not be them leaving, but God who is guiding them into a new arena and chapter of their lives.  God knows so much better than me and I entrust our lives to Him.

The application?  We are only on this earth for a short time, and parenting kids is a shrinking season I am richly blessed to enjoy.  When my kids move on my life will not be over because my life is bound up in Christ - not my children.  I will miss them.  I will miss their smiles, laughs, games, ridiculous moments, teaching opportunities, and enjoying time together.  This spurns me on as a parent to spend quality time with my kids and seek to forge a relationship beyond the bounds of do's and don'ts, not limited by mere activities or common interests.  May we grant our children such grace that after they are gone we will not be missed because we were their source of food, money, or gifts, but because of our love.  Praise God for providing all we need through Christ!

The Hard Yards

I love the book Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris.  It is a challenge to all people to boldly undertake tasks bigger than yourself with faith in God for His glory.  While it is true that a chronic problem exists in society of holding low expectations for youth, people of all ages have a propensity to abandon tasks when faced with obstacles.  Christians can adopt an unfounded idea that because God is in us, the Christian life is similar to a cake-walk at a fair:  you have your ticket in your hand, walk around in a circle prompted by happy music, and in a couple minutes you'll have your pick of a sweet dessert.  Christianity is not the life you've always wanted - it is the life God has designed for you to embrace.  It is a life of doing hard things that God does through willing vessels completely committed to Him.

In Australia we have a saying.  When someone chooses to do hard things, they are "doing the hard yards."  Everyone loves the idea of eating fresh bread, but like the fable of the Little Red Hen shows us there are few who are willing to sweat through seasons of preparation.  Before the wheat can be planted, the rocks must be moved.  Ministry in a foreign field is like moving rocks.  Instead of becoming disillusioned because fruit is not evident, we need to understand that large, rugged, neglected fields take a long time to clear and prepare.  Unless someone is willing to clear the land of brambles, break the boulders, carry away the stones, and dig up the old stumps, that field can never be plowed or planted.  Unless there is planting, there will be no growth or fruitfulness that is desired by the farmer.  Without planting there will never be a harvest.

What we need in every aspect of ministry today are people who are willing to put in the hard yards, regardless of how much fruit is evident to them.  We need people in the church who are happy to move rocks all their lives in anonymity so future generations will reap a bountiful harvest.  We need people whose great delight reflects the heart of Christ and Paul as seen in 2 Corinthians 12:15:  "And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved."  Instead of being disheartened because a church isn't growing numerically or the pats on the back never come, we are to look to Christ, glad to spend and be spent for God's glory.  What is my life without Christ?  I can do nothing, but through His Spirit strongholds can be broken down.  Not by might, nor by power, but by God's Spirit!  God designed the church to be fruitful, even as He put the ability to bear fruit in the DNA of a lemon tree.

Jeremiah 23:29 reads, "Is not My word like a fire?" says the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?"  Before the power of God's Word can be released upon a nation or city, it must first break the hard hearts and stubborn minds of God's people.  We must die to ourselves - our lives, dreams, goals, aspirations, and hopes - all placed willingly upon the altar of God's perfect will.  We must stop halting between two opinions, and choose to heed God's Word with one heart and one mind:  the mind of Christ.  It is only God who can place in His people the resolve to walk by faith, not by sight.  He is the One who allowed Noah to preach righteousness for 100 years and only had his immediate family and brute beasts respond to the message of salvation.  God strengthened Jeremiah and Ezekiel to reach out to a nation who would not heed them.  Are you any better than they?  God is able to make children of Abraham from stones if it be His will.  Can't He redeem your labours for His glory?

Do the hard yards.  Don't give up; don't give in to despair!  If Christ be for us, who can be against us?