Okay, I get it. I know it’s very tough to get people to read poetry in this day and time. Poetry is boring, it almost hurts us to read, I get that. But, I’ll ask you to suck it up and suffer through the next 60 seconds and read A POEM! I don’t know who wrote it but it’s in a book on my shelf. I do know it was written in the late 1800’s and perhaps still speaks our heart’s cry today.
‘The world is sick, and yet not unto death; there is for it a day of health;
From lips of love there comes the healing breath; the breath of Him who all its sickness bore;
and bids it rise to strength and beauty evermore.
Evil still reigns; and deep within we feel the fever, the palsy and the pain of life’s perpetual heartaches that reveal the rooted poison, which, from heart and brain, we labor to extract, but labor all in vain.
Our skill avails not; ages come and go, yet bring with them no respite and no cure;
The hidden wound, the sigh of pent-up woe; the sting we smother, but still endure;
All these cry out for something more Divine, which the worst woes of earth may not withstand; medicine that cannot fail, oil and wine, the balm and myrrh, growth of no earthly land, and the all-skilful touch of the great Healer’s hand.
Man needs a prophet: Heavenly Prophet speak and teach him what he is too proud to hear. Man needs a Priest: a True Priest, thy silence break and speak the words of pardon in his ear. Man needs a King: O King, at length in Peace appear!’
There you made it, at least most of you did. Congratulations! The reason I put you through it was the hope that’s delivered in the last line.
I remember as a child that our cartoons were made up of Mighty Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Foghorn-Leghorn, the television was Tim and Lassie, Dennis the Menace, Father Knows Best, The Danny Thomas show. Today, it seems the cartoons and televisions are full of angry, ugly, hateful, deadly heroes. And, it seems we’re proud of that. So much of our problems today are represented to us as being in the alleys and streets; however, more than ever before, there’s a war of deception just as destructive between our ears. The secular word preaches so many things that don’t help us experience better lives but actually seem to be advice and plans on how to fail. Rather than look at the culture and try and make people’s lives more successful, they give guidance more likely to make life more chaotic.
I think about that occasionally, and remind myself often, that just because culture and society can find numerous ways to mess this creation up, can come up with ways to destroy the whole earth, there is nothing really new under the sun. New ways to manifest chaos but same old heart attitudes create them. Actually, today the genius of creating destruction seems, for some, to be a universal goal. It’s similar to the old phrase: misery loves company. However, I also remember that observing and hearing of all the chaos doesn’t prove there is no God. Actually, I think we can, if you look closely, see that what we’re literally witnessing in our daily lives confirms the Wisdom and Vision of God found in the Bible. If you’re fair, (if you really pray that God ‘teach him what he is to proud to hear’) much of what was written 6000 years ago, much of what is said and recorded in the Old and New Testament, teaches secrets of the human heart and mind, back then and now, revealing the characteristics of today’s social environment and doing that many years ago. Image yourself in Moses’ time (he wrote the first 5 books of the Old Testament), and imagine Jesus’ time, imagine coming from those generations, those social systems, and education level, no science, no tech, no broad communication skills, and writing a document so observant of the human heart and the resemblance to today’s globalist society. Hard to believe you could find someone with the skill level and intellect to humanly write a Bible such as ours, doing that in unity with over 40 writers.
In a conversation with a friend a few days ago I mentioned: ‘the times of the Gentiles has an expiration date.’ Just like your medicine, food, coupons, Christ addressed in His Gospel that those days will change, some day would come to an end. Then, at some future day, our attention will turn away from globalism to a new focus on Jerusalem. Maybe we’re close, maybe we’re not, but I think it’s at least an appropriate moment to pause and consider ‘what God would not have us ignorant of.’ (Mark 13)
I don’t generally spend a lot of time giving advice. And in spite of my daughter’s telling me I’m the most opinioned un-opinioned man they’ve ever known, I actually believe I need more advice than I can give. Today, we have cultural issues, social issues, political issues, financial issues, and health issues. But, today I think the most important thing that each one of us faces is one central thing: what do each of us believe about Christ. Who do you say He is?
For sure we need to resist the anti-Christ spirit and vocalize our Faith in Christ about so much of what is happening to our life environment. We need to testify, in this country we need to vote, we need to support agencies that support the things we believe in. Unfortunately, and for the most part unnoticed, culture is squeezing into our daily lives more and more. More and more, because of those challenges, we need to visit and consider our personal relationship with Christ. What do we believe? Who do we believe? Maybe, just maybe, we should consider: What if these are like the days of Noah? What if we’re close to or already in a global political behind the scene government? What if Israel has not one friend, and is being rejected by the whole world. Most assuredly, there’s literal Kingdom against kingdom taking place. What if knowledge is increasing so fast that as I type this letter knowledge just exploded again around the world? Are tares mixed into the field of wheat? What if children hate their parents? What if wars and rumors of war were being expressed each day? What if human life was not deemed precious? What if presuming themselves wise they became silly? What if today’s ‘science’ has ‘progressed’ so that we cannot define what a woman is? What if Sodom and Gomorrah sounded like a place you passed through while on vacation? What if evil became good? What if Romans Chapter 1 is flashing upon us like a neon sign?
Again, now’s probably a good time to pause, to seriously consider, what’s our relationship with the Creator of the universe? So many things are being exposed. You can believe; you can not believe, but at least we should all have the courage to not bury our heads in the sand about how much this current local and global situation resembles characteristics of a 6000 year old document called the Bible. Today, while hurtful, can also be interpreted as a kind of ‘obvious revealing’ of what I’ve called before: separation for clarification! We are experiencing a place in time and being given a moment, so that every human being is without excuse. It’s as though we’re at a railroad crossing and we either see the flashing lights or we adventure further forward; but ignoring the signs, we do so with obvious warning that danger might be approaching. I’m one that suggests we can express much of these statements to others without anger or bitterness, but we need to say them just the same. We need to put The Truth of today in a basket called caring and loving. A way the Apostle John says, for God so loved the whole world that He gave: Jesus. That’s the Good News.
There are encouraging things to experience even now. For some reason, I’ve spent the past few weeks meeting many people that I’ve never met before. While experiencing that, it seems more obvious every day you can identify many that are believers. As Canadian comedian Red Green would say, ‘Ok, I’m a man,’ and men don’t cry, but a few days ago I was a bit teary-eyed after talking to someone in their business office. Nothing biblical was said during that meeting, it’s just that person had a ‘super-natural’ kindness that oozed from their conversation. What was going off in my mind at the moment was: there is only one thing that has the power to make a person as thoughtful, kind and caring as that person: a changed heart. A heart brought to life by the Gospel.
‘In this world there will be tribulation (Gk: pressure, distress, affliction) but be of good cheer (Gk: courage), I have overcome the world (Gk: man’s system, the independent from God order)’. (John 16:33) Today can be discouraging, disappointing, but at the same time, we can get glimpses of how unique these times are and how they can actually help prove the Gospel. Jesus’ message to us is we are not to be overcome by what we see and hear but we’re to recognize the times and be encouraged more than overwhelmed. Days like today are not to be feared but, because of our Faith, they can give us Hope, Joy, Comfort and Grace. All the Bible predictions mentioned earlier are not to scare us but to confirm to us that the world needs Jesus Christ. He is the only way, the only source of Life, the only way to experience Life, Life as the Father would have it for us.