Pentecost 23 The Devil's Hand Has Scrawny Fingers

[HKHaugan]

Pentecost 23 The Devil’s Hand Has Scrawny Fingers

We live in a world where each day we travel on a highway of anxiety. Every curve has the banked turn of fear and offers only question marks after the turn. Media exploit the atmosphere and purposefully increase the tension so profits do the same. Keep the public seemingly informed, divided and emotionally upset. Anxiety is the media’s ‘Aladdin’s lamp.’ A finger rubs the lamp.

Another finger strokes and politics categorizes and communicates anxiety. Media are its willing partners. Keep people conscious of their differences and promise the solution to the very problem they create. Take a difference, real or unreal, existing or non-existing, magnify it, make it a cause, encourage followers and you have the ingredients for political identity. Go further, create a need, publicize the need, make people believe the need then offer to solve it. Make up straw enemies, have people take sides but keep the division at boiling point. The victim is the human heart, that lonely “I” driving along the highway with increasing speed.

Much like the piggy-backer on a motorcycle, the lonely heart rides totally powerless behind a faceless driver along the world’s highway wondering what the next turn will bring. The problem is that it is a long ride in a short life with no end but an eternity of aloneness.

The above is what awaits the unbelieving heart, the heart God loves, and here we are with the only answer, the calming relational security of the Lord Jesus. This is our opportunity, our calling and our mission. Let’s pray to accomplish His will. Now read Psalm 27:1-6

Psalm 27:1-6 (from The Message Bible)

1 Light, space, zest— that's GOD! So, with him on my side I'm fearless,
afraid of no one and nothing.
2 When vandal hordes ride down
ready to eat me alive, Those bullies and toughs fall flat on their faces.
3 When besieged, I'm calm as a baby.
When all hell breaks loose, I'm collected and cool.
4 I'm asking GOD for one thing, only one thing: To live with him in his house
my whole life long. I'll contemplate his beauty; I'll study at his feet.
5 That's the only quiet, secure place in a noisy world,
The perfect getaway, far from the buzz of traffic.
6 God holds me head and shoulders above all who try to pull me down.
I'm headed for his place to offer anthems that will raise the roof!
Already I'm singing God-songs; I'm making music to GOD.

Stay tuned…….