Do you ever watch/read/listen to the news and shake your head(smh - "shakin' my head", in "text speech")? Saturday, I was spending time with a friend. We were listing all the terrible news stories of late, especially those where people are at odds with one another. The world proposes all kinds of "solutions", but the problem is that those solutions attempt to correct the symptoms, not the problem.
In our society, multiculturalism and pluralism are celebrated. Those diversities are fine, to a point. The friction, to put it mildly, comes when such differences extend beyond preferences and traditions to bedrock morals and values.
Here's a tragic example from just a few days ago. In my community, there is a new outlet mall of high-end stores. Before the mall opened, there was very little crime in the general area. However, recently, there have been two separate incidents where people who live in other parts of metro ATL have traveled to that mall to perpetrate "smash and grab" crimes. On each occasion the suspects/ perpetrators have rammed a stolen car through a storefront, stolen hundreds of dollars of merch and then escaped in a second car that accompanied the first. In one of those two crime instances, a police chase ensued; and, a 16-year old suspect was killed. Such tragedy!!
Now, modern American society wants to focus on "solving" problems such as these by misdefining the underlying problems and/or treating the symptoms. Here are some of the things we hear in cases such as these:
- Wealth distribution is needed so that people will not envy those who have more than they do.
- It's a racial problem.
- Policemen/women are the problem.
- The disintegration of the family (or the government's subsidizing of such disintegration) is the problem.
None of these bullets are dealing with the root problem, which is a heart problem, a sin problem. The bulleted "problems" listed above are results of the main problem.
There is Truth. When multiculturalism or diversity extend past the abrogation of Truth, such diversity should not be celebrated, embraced or tolerated. The Truth I'm talking about is expressed eloquently by King David in Psalm 51:4-5 (NET) - - -
Against you – you above all – I have sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
So you are just when you confront me;
you are right when you condemn me.
Look, I was guilty of sin from birth,
a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.
King David recognized this Truth: all people are born as sinners and if each one of us does not deal with our sin problem, that sin will consume us, even doom us to an eternity of wallowing in the hideousness of it. The end-product, the pay-off of sin....is death. True Christians know that there is only one way to fix that sin problem, and His name is Jesus.
It is sin which divides us, not skin color, not economic status, not political party. Sinful rebellion against God and a lack of unity on issues of moral conduct as revealed in the Bible - - - these matters are the divisive factors. Until we reach unity on the Truth, there will continue to be strife and discord, pain and hatred among us. There can be no national peace with our fellow man until there is peace with God, in each of our hearts.
A pervasive belief in the God of the Bible is necessary for liberty to proper and for peace to reign in a country. Consider the truth of 2 Corinthians 3:17 - - -
Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
America's founders recognized this. John Adams, for example, stated:
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
In the last post we looked at the end of 1 Peter 2. I want to return to that section, focusing specifically on verses 9-10 (The Message).
9-10 But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.
Christians, when surrounded by all of this sin, rebellion and death, what is our charge from our Heavenly Father? Our charge is to humbly but boldly speak the Truth, in love, to our fellow man. It is NOT to shy away from the battle for fear of personal criticism. We.must.preach.the.Gospel!
smh
Let me just go whole-hog here and step on everybody's toes equally: the reason our country is in the mess that it is in is that we, the Body of Christ, have sat back and compromised the truth of the Bible. We have loved our comfort more than we have loved the Truth. I confess to you that I am guilty of this and I believe that most of us are, to varying degrees. The materialism of America has lulled us into a sense of false security. Do you really believe that God is not going to hold us accountable for our complacency?
We had better put our armor on and get out there in the fray. I don't care how old you are, there is a battle position for you to fill. Has Jesus Christ saved you? Has He brought you out of darkness into His marvelous light? According to 1 Peter 2:9-10, you and I are chosen by God to speak for Him, to tell others how to move from this world's present darkness into His glorious Light!
Are we doing it?
Dear Father! Forgive us our arrogance, our complacency, our selfishness. Show clearly each of us his/her role in this cosmic battle. May we not shy away from what you have called each of us to do, beginning today. Empower us to fulfill our calling! In Jesus' name, amen.
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