Virginia and I were talking this last week about the message we felt the Lord wants us to put forth to whoever you are that tune in to our blog. As you can imagine differences might arise when you put a one time very committed ex-hippy together with a very committed second generation Pentecostal preacher’s daughter, so there are often some spirited “exchanges of ideas” going on. Through the course of writing this weekly piece, we have found that while we are in unity as to what we think God has accomplished and what He plans (as revealed through the Scripture) to accomplish in the future, we sometimes have different perspectives, or points of view and to what it is that He is doing right now.
While Virginia is rock solid in her faith in Grace freely given amidst a background of truth, sometimes my deep-rooted aversion to any authoritarian interference outside of God’s, causes me to get overexcited at current events to the detriment of the clarity of the Message, and I begin to see Truth (or at least my understanding of it,) with Grace in the background. This has been a significantly more common occurrence since the lockdowns. At times like this my divinely appointed mate has to verbally reign me back in, to sustainable, if not totally grace full levels of righteous indignation. I'm not saying it's all bad though. We are called to be proclaimers of Good News, and the Good News is this;
This is a faithful and trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance and approval, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 1Timothy 1:15
That is Grace, and it is pretty good news! Then there is the rest of the story
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel (good news) to all creation. He who has believed [in Me] and has been baptized will be saved [from the penalty of God’s wrath and judgment]; but he who has not believed will be condemned.” Mark 16:15,16
It's like one of those good news bad news jokes. A man gets called to come in by his physician after a physical exam, and he said, "Well, what do you say Doc?"" and the doctor replied, "I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?" . The man said, "Give me the good news first Doc.", and the doctor said, "They are naming a new disease after you!"
Only this one goes, "the Good News is that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and whoever puts their faith (confidence, reliance) in Him and are baptized will live. The bad news is, that those who don't, won't. And that is Truth. Both the grace of the message and the truth of it are needed for the message to be complete. To give one without the other is to do a disservice to the One who sent the message and the ones who hear it.
I say all of that to say this;
Without going into a lot of unnecessary details, there are a lot of things going on in our world today that a year and a half ago I never would have thought could or would happen in my lifetime. This is way beyond keeping up with the Kardashians, or how people feel about Donald Trump, Joe Biden, or people entering into the U.S. illegally, or even Covid and vaccines and mask-wearing. It isn’t even just about people, it’s much bigger than that.
Virginia and I agree without reservation that God can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants, to whomever He wants. That means that God is always in control of the outcome, and because He knows the end from the beginning of all things, we can rest assured that He spent ample time making provision for His desired outcome. And so we might be encouraged, while not taking His Grace for granted, the Lord has given us some action points
Don't worry if you have no control over things. God does.
Why do the nations rant? Why do the peoples rave uselessly? The earth’s rulers take their stand; the leaders scheme together against the LORD and against his anointed one. “Come!” they say. “We will tear off their ropes and throw off their chains!” The one who rules in heaven laughs; my Lord makes fun of them. But then God speaks to them angrily; then he terrifies them with his fury: Psalms 2:1-5
2. If you can touch them, they are not the enemy. They may be following the enemy, but they are not him.
We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers,
authorities, forces of cosmic darkness,
and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens.
Ephesians 6:12
Many people in the church, including many leaders, are praying and believing for things to return to their previous idea of normal with a minimum of lasting change or unpleasantness, and if things do I will Praise God with a whole heart, but just in case they don’t, I want part of the message we offer to people to include that
3. We need to get ready for a whole new thing! Because you see the scriptures tell us that
My plans aren’t your plans, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my plans than your plans. Isaiah 55:8,9
So I've got some good news and some bad news for us. The Good News is that God is in control and He's got this! And the Bad News? You are going to have to trust Him, because we don't know what He's going to do, nor how He's going to do it, and He's not telling. So hang onto your hats and take consolation in the fact that no one is naming a new disease after you.
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