On the Brink. - It does matter what takes place behind your and my closed bedroom doors.
It matters what takes place in the backseat of cars on darkened alleys.
It matters what takes place in the cybernetic ether of the Internet chat rooms, Instant Messaging, and Cell Phone Text Messaging.
It matters what goes on in our minds, hearts, and souls.
Christ said:
That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” Mr 7:20-23
And those things will come out. One can not keep them bottled up within the mind. They will spill out upon us, the people we love, and the society in which we live. Three events of the past week remind me of this fact. And they remind me of the war that rages for this Nation.
The events are the debacle of Republican Congressman Mark Foley, the horrific murders of the Amish children by Charles Carl Roberts IV, and the women celebrating the murder of their children by signing the Ms. Magazine “We Had Abortions” petition.
As La Shawn Barber notes in her post, "Narcissistic Women Celebrate Murder of Babies", it's all about the "Me;" self-centeredness. "What pleases me," is more important than anything, anyone, and even God himself is the cry of this age. Indeed, it's an old cry, one started with Satan himself. And right now it revolves most around the sexual pleasures of this nation. It's one of the reasons infidelity is so high, why murdering the unborn is a "right," and why repeated divorce and remarriage is such a curse not only upon the unsaved but the Church itself.
It's telling that each one of these crimes revolves around sex. We are a nation obsessed with pleasure, not godly pleasure, but pleasure that comes out of our lusts, out of the evil within man. Our television programs, video games, movies, and advertising target it relentlessly. It's played to, cajoled, and fanned into flames which eventually burn too hot and too big to be contained ending in a devastating firestorm.
When this happens the world will cry foul or seek to justify, but it will not seek to change because it refuses to recognize that Man is fallen and degenerate. If change is to come, it will only come through a personal relationship with Christ.
Writing on this, Blaise Pascal penned:
"Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride.
"Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair.
"Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness."
We Christians are the vehicle God chose to deliver the message that though we be wretched and enslaved to sin, we can be set free; though we are powerless in battling our lusts, addictions, and selfishness, there is One who is willing to take the punishment for those sins upon Himself and provide His indwelling Spirit to conquer those sins in our lives.
But we must realize that though we be the vehicle that God chose, we are not the driver.
As Christians we view these terrible examples of broken lives and want to turn the high-beams of truth upon them exposing the sin and declaring the reason to the world for the life shattered upon the headlines or the sin emblazoned unashamedly in Vegas strip colors on the nightly news.
We do so because we recognize the folly of the world, of the pursuits that lead to pain and ultimate death. It's similar to the parent who sees the child peddling the tricycle down the drive way toward the street and then sees the oncoming car. The fear, love, and passion for the child combine in an emotional burst charged with adrenalin and the parent runs out and yanks the child off the tricycle wrenching the child's arm. The car passes safely but the child is hurt and crying and the parent is feeling like dirt for causing the child pain.
The parent did the right thing, but the wrong way. To often we, and I remorsefully include myself, react like the parent. Though we are right, we allow our passion and emotions to cause us to react in a way that hurts the sinner. I suppose one way of reacting I would call the "See-I-told-you-so-Syndrome." Another way of reacting devolves into name calling like pervert, monster, or baby killer (I stand guilty of this myself). But which son or daughter of the Living God can actually claim that their sins are less black and less worthy of eternal damnation than the pedophile or murderer?
Or perhaps we react in such an unfiltered way that we blind the person to the truth. Our filter needs to be God's love and it needs to be salted with His wisdom because our goal is not to expose the sin it is to declare the Good News of Christ crucified and risen from the dead. We are to not only show that we are called to be separate from the sinful world but to declare that we are separate because it is Christ in us that we are able to be so.
Our nation is caught in the middle of a war and it's not the war against terrorism of which I'm referring. It's a war taking place in the heavenly realms. It's a war being waged for the souls of men and women whom Satan would destroy because of his hatred for God. I believe that the three examples in the news I gave above are just the physical evidence of that spiritual war and they are examples of the consequences of sin in our nation.
We are a nation founded on the principles of God. Though not perfect we've been a light of hope, a standard of right, and an example that human life is of value in God's eyes. We are a nation with a history of proclaiming what is right and just to the world because of the godly values we've held. Those values have suffered in the spiritual battle being waged because the enemy recognizes the importance of peoples holding to godly principles and so has worked over time to destroy those values.
Perhaps a tide is turning. Perhaps we stand upon the brink of time's cliff and a trumpet call. Perhaps the enemy senses it and the attacks will increase. Whatever is coming we know that not just those tarnished values but the very people broken and enslaved to sin can be redeemed through the atoning blood of Christ.
Let us take back in love those chained in the enemies camp before that trumpet sounds.
The Great Separation continues.
