This world is falling apart really fast. And just when you think it can't get worse, well....Murphy's Law to the max. And that's to be expected, but still - it's really frightening.
Jesus said if we follow him, we'll be persecuted just as he was. In the Roman world, Christianity was illegal, and you could be executed for being a believer. It's apparently a lot like that still today, in some countries, according to Voice of the Martyrs. So far here in the U.S., we haven't had to worry about that yet. But....well, it's coming at some point. And that's really scary, to be honest.
But I'm reminded of a story someone from GBC once told, about how she was driving one night through the worst thunderstorm she'd ever seen, and she thought for sure the car was going to flip or be swept away by floodwater or hit by lightning or something. And that was terrifying. But then Mrs. Rusco got to thinking about how if that was what God had planned for her that night, well, then, that was that. In some way, it would bring glory to him, and if she died, that meant she was going to meet him all the sooner. And it was only a thunderstorm, out of all the huge, vast number of events in human history that have been and will be until the final chapter of time is concluded. How small is one thunderstorm, compared to a God who handles perfectly every single event in the universe? It's nothing to be afraid of, really. It will be all right.
Gun control, Obamacare, the Aurora shootings, Sandy Hook, the Boston bombings, gay marriage, the NSA...it's all scary. But, you know, maybe they're just thunderstorms, too. Or tornadoes. Those are extremely destructive and harmful, but they have some purpose that we don't know about, in the big picture. It's one of those times when all you can say is the lyrics to one of Steven Curtis Chapman's songs. "God is God, and I am man/And I'll never understand it all/For only God is God." What I need is to remember that He is the King of the Jungle.
Oklahoma's been in the news recently, as a federal judge is trying to overrule our state's ban on gay marriage, saying it's "unconstitutional". My thought on seeing that? "We're doomed." And yeah, we might be. But again, God's in control. I believe the Bible, and so I think homosexuality is a moral perversion(Romans 1, which I'll get to in a second; Ephesians 5:5, many other places I'm too tired to look up right now, it's a school night) If you're gay, well....I think it's wrong, but you're still a person. I don't like it when you shove your values down my throat, but most people don't enjoy that, no matter what the subject is. I'd rather not hear about it, okay? Just keep some activities to yourself, whether gay or straight.
Paul wrote to the Romans a very lengthy letter, because he couldn't visit them in person. In the first chapter, verses 18-32, he writes, "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal men and birds and animals and reptiles.
"Therefore God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen.
"Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women have exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were infatuated with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
"Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful, they invent new ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents, they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these things but also approve of those who practice them."
One of our senators, Tom Coburn, will be resigning after this year. I'm not really sure of all the details, but he's one of the only honest politicians I've ever heard of; one of those ordinary citizens who came to serve their region for a time, did the best they could, and then went back to their ordinary lives afterwards. THAT is how politics ought to go all the time, what our founders envisioned.
I'm not just saying that because he's Dad's uncle, either. He's just a man who's spent his life trying to make the lives of others a little easier, a little better. The way I usually think of him is on the day of Grandma Joy's funeral, at the graveside. It was a cold, overcast and windy November day. He was standing off alone by himself, coat wrapped tightly, staring off into space. Just a man grieving the loss of his mother, wondering how to keep going.
So, yeah, coming back to this Roman world we live in....it's dark for now, and that's all right, ultimately. But it also means we need to fight, spread the gospel and drop good teaching whenever we can, in order to light this world. And that involves being bold, which is not something I'm very skilled at. However, Bennett, Laura and Callie don't have a problem with this; going so far to create their own website to encourage Biblical thinking principles and ideas for ministering to fellow teens. It's called The Ignition Project, highly recommend y'all go take a look. (They're also on Twitter @TheIgnitionPrjt) They love their crew of rappers, something called 116 Clique, made up of Lecrae, Andy Mineo, Trip Lee, Derek Minor and others. They're not my style of music, but are in your face about the message of Christ and dealing with sin. And that's not that different from what the guys from DC Talk were always singing about.
It's sort of a 1 Corinthians 12 type of thing. "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. (verses 4-6.) So they may be working in a different way than I am, but the end result will, Lord willing, be the same; the further glorification of God and growth of the believers. So let's keep on going, whatever than role may involve, wherever that road will take us.
Time is ticking away....
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