The Racket of a Fallen World

This world is not a peaceful place.

People who come to my little community here in the Alleghany Highlands often comment about how quiet it is.  Others who visit here complain about how quiet it is. A couple of weeks ago, about an hour away, a guy claiming that God told him to do it, and by some reports yelling "Allahu Akbar," stabbed two people.  Just the other day a young man from right here in my town, suited up in body armor, got his guns and went to the Dam that creates one of the prettiest lakes in the world.  He had heard from God as well.  He was calling the faithful to join him in protecting the dam.  "ISIS was going to blow it up." My little place on God's earth might not be as loud as your place, and the racket this fallen world makes might not rise to the level that its groans become audible as frequently, but"the whole creation" is involved. We can't hide from sin and its consequences.  But, we can be victorious over it.  After speaking with great eloquence about just how broken this world is, the Apostle Paul kicks his rhetoric into over-drive.   “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31–39, NASB95) It's STTA. The question is, "Are you in Christ?"  Find out more at this site.  It's a message we all need.

Choose Life

Something To Think About Choosing Life:

Genesis one declares that God made people in His own image.  Just what does that mean?  Jesus told the Samaritan woman that God is a Spirit, so the image of God is not visual.   Genesis 3, the story of the Fall gives us an important clue.  After Eve and Adam disobeyed their creator, we read that God came looking for them. “When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.  Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”  (Genesis 3:8-9) It appears that God not only created the first couple and placed them in Eden, but that He regularly came by to be with them.  Now that sin had come between them and their God, He called out to them, not because He didn’t know where they were, but so they would realize what they had done.  When we come to the other end of the Bible we hear John declare about the New Jerusalem, “I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. . . . The throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him.  And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.”  (Revelation 21:3 & 22:3-4) In between we see the God seeking out a people who will be His very own.  So often we misread God’s motives.  Adam and Eve’s rebellion caused them to be cast out of the beauty of the Garden Eden into a world of thorns and weeds and pain and death.  The alternative to that home in heaven that we read about in Revelation is the one place in the universe where all of the blessings God gives to those who yield to Him are absent.  Why, between these two poles of God declaring His desire to be with His creation and bless them, do we think that we are better off without our Lord?  The enemy of our souls continues to convince women and men that they are better off as rebels. Get quiet and listen.  Can you hear the voice calling, “Where are you?”  He wants you to answer so you will know.  Are you living in the realm of His blessing, or are you continuing to follow the voice of the tempter? The Apostle Paul tells the story of some who made the right choice. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.  All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much,  that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)  For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.  So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.  For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.   (Ephesians 2:1-10) It’s STTA.