The day after
two radical Islamic terrorists killed fourteen people in California the New
York Daily News ran a headline that
proclaimed, “God’s Not Fixing This.” One
of the few times, the liberal-secular media has got something related to God right.
It is not
only my theological assessment that they are exactly right; it is my position
that God is allowing, if not causing this, to happen.
I know it is hard to
fathom, but God has often used ungodly nations to bring judgment on His
people. (See Ezekiel
14:4-23). He does this in hopes that
we would turn to Him. The fact that the
New York Daily News mocks those that solicited His divine favor through prayer
does nothing to discredit the wisdom of seeking the true and living God.
I’m certain
the writers at The Babylonian Daily News
had a field day blasting Noah the boat builder. Think about it -- it wasn’t God who built the
boat. God delivered the flood. The boat was what God told Noah to build to
escape His coming judgment.
The book of Genesis gives an account of the days of Noah: “ The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
Can the New York Daily News find favor in the eyes of the Lord? The Bible says, “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” It’s no surprise that the Daily News couldn’t see the utility in prayer. Less than seven verses later the Bible commends Noah for his faith in the unseen, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.”
If
the liberal-secular media is not going to call upon God, they’re probably not
worried about the devil either. The
apostle Peter warned us about the devil, “Be
alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the
faith...”
This reminds
me of a joke a General in the 82nd Airborne Division used to tell us: “There was a US Marine and a US Army
Paratrooper walking through the jungle.
All of a sudden, they realized a lion was following them. They both immediately broke in to a run. After about two miles the paratrooper, for
apparently no reason, suddenly stopped.
He dropped his rucksack, opened it up, and removed a pair of running
shoes. The Marine became indignant. Flabbergasted and confused he asked the
paratrooper, “What the heck are you
doing”? The paratrooper responded
calmly, “What does it look like – I’m
putting on my running shoes.” The
Marine responded, “That’s stupid, you
can’t outrun that lion!” The paratrooper
agrees, “You’re right – I can’t outrun
that lion, but I can sure outrun you!”
Our nation
has become morally repugnant, by any measure.
Selling baby body parts; homosexual behavior celebrated, and an
inability to acknowledge -- let alone confront evil. Jesus warned of this day. “As
it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah
entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen
until the flood came and took them all away.
That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”
Dear friend, God
sent his Son to fix this. I’ll race you
to the Ark of Christ.
Thank you, Colonel, for the appropriate "running shoe" illustration that calls us to RUN for safety to the refuge of grace that is found in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Noah knew about the remedy of God's grace in a world destined for judgment. "Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD" (Genesis 6:8) while the world mocked the single escape from the fast approaching global judgment. Today, the singular HOPE is found in the One who came into the world to be our Ark and Advocate, announced by the prophets as the One who would enter into humanity (Isaiah 9:6, 53:1-12) to bear the punishment we deserve and provide the salvation that we surely do not deserve. That's why grace is so amazing. That why the Gift of God (Romans 6:23) is called "unspeakable" (2 Corinthians 9:15).
ReplyDeleteThere is a time of unprecedented tribulation coming to this world as God's final wake up call to a world that is increasingly turning away from Him. The false religions governed by hate and the vain imaginations of men are not the answer. The search for satisfaction in a godless world system that forgets the true God is not the answer. Gun Control will not stop terrorists from easily obtaining and using weapons that fulfill their schemes of hatred. Climate Change is a mere distraction. The Lord Jesus Christ has FIXED the ETERNAL problem by the sacrifice of Himself. He is the singular escape from God's righteous wrath to come against a Christ-rejecting world.
Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation that we cannot change, finding no escape because we have no control over the outcome. This is NOT the case with salvation. The world can mock the saving grace of God today as they did in Noah's day. They can reject the Lord Jesus Christ who calls the lost to find a refuge in Himself, "but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born... of God" (John 1:12,13). Those who are born again into the family of God are those who made the individual choice to receive Christ as their own Lord and Savior.
The trouble in this world that God is allowing for His purposes only HIGHLIGHTS that humanity apart from God has no strategy to escape the consequences of sin. This is the time to RUN to the Lord Jesus Christ while there is yet an opportunity to escape by His salvation. The question remains that is addressed to us individually, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3). RUN, don't walk, to the Lord Jesus Christ.