The world can be very discouraging. It is a desperate world full of desperate people. Accidents, drunkenness, murder, war, slavery, theft, and rape are common enough to fill every news station morning and evening with their tantalizing tales. These things are bad enough but what I find most disturbing are the common practices, committed everyday by the majority of individuals. Most of us will never murder someone but probably all of us have looked with hatred upon another human being. (I John 3:15) We have been angery with our siblings, (Matthew 5:21) We have dishonored our parents (Matthew 15:4) We have not used the things God has given us like time, a mind, and a spirit, to their full potential. (Matthew 25:14)
In our laziness and ignorance we dishonor ourselves who were created in God's image, for a world of perfection and a life of unity with God. We dare to mock God by spitting upon His extended hand of benevolence. He who takes no pleasure in the death of us, who are wicked, but would have the wicked turn and live lest we die. (Ezekiel 18:32)
Truly we are in desperate straits. Eternity looms large over the time span from birth till death whether the individual sees it or not. The furnace of hell is heated seven times hotter than normal in preparation for the souls who perhaps have never broken a commandment but have routinely mocked the Most High God with conceited prayers and days spent in thoughtless self-gratification. The souls of men feel the fire of eternal damnation heating up and call urgently to the body while there is yet time, "Wash yourselves, make yourself clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before Mine (God's) eyes; cease to do evil." (Isaiah 1:16). We experience this pleading of our soul without realizing it. The inability to sleep, a poor appetite depression, anxiety, bodily aches and an inability to get excited about life, these things are often, not always, but often your soul trying to get your attention. Yelling "something is not right you are ignoring the way things ought to be." And again the soul cries out, "Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself to the Lord and He will exalt you." (James 1:8) The God who has the power to put constellations into the sky burning in their place and following their orbit, who bids the ocean "be calm" and holds back the flow of time. He who could destroy humanity at His pleasure bids us come to Him for our benefit and we say, "no, I want to watch tv" or I want to hang out with friends, or I want to earn more money, or I would rather be looked up to by my peers and damned by God almighty than humble myself and submit to the burden of my cross. How desperately wicked, arrogant, deceived sinners are we who would deny God his rights as the Creator over us, His creation and than complain when things don't go the way we would like.
The United States, has greater access to physical comforts (food, shelter and clothing) mental development(education, information databases and books) and spiritual resources (counselling, religious freedom and a culture of tolerance) than anywhere else in the history of human kind. Why is it that so many of the troubles that we have today are on us at all? Depression, suicide, obesity, addiction to drugs, and debt all run rampant in this country and many places besides. I do not imagine it's difficult to reach the necessary conclusion. When a people becomes so proud as to ignore God's commands they must suffer.
The situation is desperate. Sadly most people aren't doing anything to help, either for themselves or those around them. The world is not full of well intentioned, well meaning individuals who honestly try to find the purpose of life and be of help to those around them. The world is like a big chicken coop. Chickens are calm and nice enough when you leave them to themselves and feed them enough. However whenever a threat exposes itself chickens go berserk, they run, they squawk, they bang into each other. They do just about everything you could imagine except something that's actually helpful. Society and often the church will ignore the issue, ignore the threat and put on a big show, make alot of noise and try to forget the reality of who we are and how far we have wandered from the truth.
We live in desperate times and it's easy to get depressed. For alot of us it's easier to do like an ostrich and stick our heads in the sand ignoring the problems swirling around us. Many of us have comfortable enough lives, access to enough entertainment and enough money that we can muffle the desperate plees of our conscience telling us to "repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand". We can ignore the broken relationships, the hurt feelings, the illogical assumptions and the steady tick, tick, tick, of our life clock by making alot of noise. We fill our lives up with stuff, things to do and things to use. We disorganize the order of things and put things like sports, food, video games, and feelings in higher positions than God, family, truth, reality, honor and decorum.
We don't use words like etiquette, decorum or proper much anymore because we don't want to recognize that their is a way things ought to be. That there are correct and an incorrect way of doing things.
At the beginning I made the statement that the people of our world are desperate. We see it in their eyes. They are frightened, or lost, alone and uneducated. Some are desperately trying to cover up what they feel to be lacking in themselves. They are the chickens seeking to hide behind a smokescreen of noise and motion how terribly incapable they are of dealing with the questions which life demands everybody answer. Than there are ostriches, people who are trying desperately to ignore the reality of life and the troubles that life brings. They'll spend years developing habits of selective understanding which allow them to hear what they want and pass over whatever is unpleasant to themselves.
Finally there are those who desperately want help and are willing to seek it. Here is hope. Here is healing. To find unity of body soul and mind. To find answers to those tough life questions you've been too scared to ask yourself. To destroy that slave master of your own creation who has driven you to drive needles into yourself and look for answers at the bottom of every bottle. To be emancipated from past regrets and to burst the chains of weariness. To be free from the reflection haunting you in your own mirror, the image you hate, but not enough to destroy and love, but not enough to fix. Let us who would live life free from desperation look to Jesus in whom there is redemption and forgiveness of sins.He says,
In our laziness and ignorance we dishonor ourselves who were created in God's image, for a world of perfection and a life of unity with God. We dare to mock God by spitting upon His extended hand of benevolence. He who takes no pleasure in the death of us, who are wicked, but would have the wicked turn and live lest we die. (Ezekiel 18:32)
Truly we are in desperate straits. Eternity looms large over the time span from birth till death whether the individual sees it or not. The furnace of hell is heated seven times hotter than normal in preparation for the souls who perhaps have never broken a commandment but have routinely mocked the Most High God with conceited prayers and days spent in thoughtless self-gratification. The souls of men feel the fire of eternal damnation heating up and call urgently to the body while there is yet time, "Wash yourselves, make yourself clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before Mine (God's) eyes; cease to do evil." (Isaiah 1:16). We experience this pleading of our soul without realizing it. The inability to sleep, a poor appetite depression, anxiety, bodily aches and an inability to get excited about life, these things are often, not always, but often your soul trying to get your attention. Yelling "something is not right you are ignoring the way things ought to be." And again the soul cries out, "Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself to the Lord and He will exalt you." (James 1:8) The God who has the power to put constellations into the sky burning in their place and following their orbit, who bids the ocean "be calm" and holds back the flow of time. He who could destroy humanity at His pleasure bids us come to Him for our benefit and we say, "no, I want to watch tv" or I want to hang out with friends, or I want to earn more money, or I would rather be looked up to by my peers and damned by God almighty than humble myself and submit to the burden of my cross. How desperately wicked, arrogant, deceived sinners are we who would deny God his rights as the Creator over us, His creation and than complain when things don't go the way we would like.
The United States, has greater access to physical comforts (food, shelter and clothing) mental development(education, information databases and books) and spiritual resources (counselling, religious freedom and a culture of tolerance) than anywhere else in the history of human kind. Why is it that so many of the troubles that we have today are on us at all? Depression, suicide, obesity, addiction to drugs, and debt all run rampant in this country and many places besides. I do not imagine it's difficult to reach the necessary conclusion. When a people becomes so proud as to ignore God's commands they must suffer.
The situation is desperate. Sadly most people aren't doing anything to help, either for themselves or those around them. The world is not full of well intentioned, well meaning individuals who honestly try to find the purpose of life and be of help to those around them. The world is like a big chicken coop. Chickens are calm and nice enough when you leave them to themselves and feed them enough. However whenever a threat exposes itself chickens go berserk, they run, they squawk, they bang into each other. They do just about everything you could imagine except something that's actually helpful. Society and often the church will ignore the issue, ignore the threat and put on a big show, make alot of noise and try to forget the reality of who we are and how far we have wandered from the truth.
We live in desperate times and it's easy to get depressed. For alot of us it's easier to do like an ostrich and stick our heads in the sand ignoring the problems swirling around us. Many of us have comfortable enough lives, access to enough entertainment and enough money that we can muffle the desperate plees of our conscience telling us to "repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand". We can ignore the broken relationships, the hurt feelings, the illogical assumptions and the steady tick, tick, tick, of our life clock by making alot of noise. We fill our lives up with stuff, things to do and things to use. We disorganize the order of things and put things like sports, food, video games, and feelings in higher positions than God, family, truth, reality, honor and decorum.
We don't use words like etiquette, decorum or proper much anymore because we don't want to recognize that their is a way things ought to be. That there are correct and an incorrect way of doing things.
At the beginning I made the statement that the people of our world are desperate. We see it in their eyes. They are frightened, or lost, alone and uneducated. Some are desperately trying to cover up what they feel to be lacking in themselves. They are the chickens seeking to hide behind a smokescreen of noise and motion how terribly incapable they are of dealing with the questions which life demands everybody answer. Than there are ostriches, people who are trying desperately to ignore the reality of life and the troubles that life brings. They'll spend years developing habits of selective understanding which allow them to hear what they want and pass over whatever is unpleasant to themselves.
Finally there are those who desperately want help and are willing to seek it. Here is hope. Here is healing. To find unity of body soul and mind. To find answers to those tough life questions you've been too scared to ask yourself. To destroy that slave master of your own creation who has driven you to drive needles into yourself and look for answers at the bottom of every bottle. To be emancipated from past regrets and to burst the chains of weariness. To be free from the reflection haunting you in your own mirror, the image you hate, but not enough to destroy and love, but not enough to fix. Let us who would live life free from desperation look to Jesus in whom there is redemption and forgiveness of sins.He says,
Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-29)
I am the way the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
MY CHILD, the more you depart from yourself, the more you will be able to enter into Me. As the giving up of exterior things brings interior peace, so the forsaking of self unites you to God. I will have you learn perfect surrender to My will, without contradiction or complaint.Follow Me. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Without the Way, there is no going. Without the Truth, there is no knowing. Without the Life, there is no living. I am the Way which you must follow, the Truth which you must believe, the Life for which you must hope. I am the inviolable Way, the infallible Truth, the unending Life. I am the Way that is straight, the supreme Truth, the Life that is true, the blessed, the uncreated Life. If you abide in My Way you shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free, and you shall attain life everlasting.If you wish to enter into life, keep My commandments. If you will know the truth, believe in Me. If you will be perfect, sell all. If you will be My disciple, deny yourself. If you will possess the blessed life, despise this present life. If you will be exalted in heaven, humble yourself on earth. If you wish to reign with Me, carry the Cross with Me. For only the servants of the Cross find the life of blessedness and of true light.
(The Imitation of Christ, Chapter LVI; Book III)
I can not offer better advice than that of Jesus the Lord or his faithful servant Thomas A'Kempis. It helps nobody to sugarcoat reality and try and pretend there are easy solutions to the worlds problems. The answer I find is more difficult than it is complex. Submission to God, acceptance of His will, obedience to His commands and a faith that He who made this world knows best how to fix it. \I learn to trust that in humbling myself before Him I'm doing the best possible thing for my family, friends, church, school, nation and environment. It's not easy but it's the only method that history has examined and found successful.
Lamentations 3:21-26
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,
"therefore I will hope in Him."
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
to the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.