The World Eats Us Alive---If We Let It

[HKHaugan]

I’ve just finished reading articles on the Middle East crisis, the economic cauldron, the health care bill and the border wars plus another athlete on drugs. Of course TV exposes us to the boiling pot of Islamic pressure, political unrest in Africa, South America and Asia. On the home front a divided Congress, a polarized society and social institutions cracking at their foundation. That’s the outside world. What about our internal world? Do we have personal and interpersonal issues like family problems and job conflicts, self-doubt and the odds of living consuming our thinking? All of this is the world on steroids. It is the way things are. It’s been this way since Adam and Eve. “There is nothing new under the sun (Eccl.1:9).”

Only two things have changed since then, the size of the population and technology. I’ve said that before but it does need repeating. More people exposed to increased media coverage promote shared mounting fear and internal galloping stress. Also is the growing sense of frustration and insignificance in an overwhelming world.

What is the answer? Three things. First, think spiritually. Second, think spiritually. Third, think spiritually. If we let the substance of the world’s power, our fear and hopelessness, define our thought and action we will end up more alone and despairing. But if we let our faith define us we will think spiritually, trust spiritually and act spiritually. This is exactly why I refuse to allow the condition of the world be my starting point in the midst of any crisis. I refuse to get into political arguments and the fear and anger they invoke. I want to bring spiritual understanding to neutralize how we think and feel. In fact the more I shift my thinking to spirit-thinking the less the world in its enormity phases me. That’s what I want to share. And how we do that I’ll hit in a moment.

Thinking spiritually is larger, more exacting, more purpose-filled, more significant, more comprehensive, more logical, more loving, more caring, more courageous, more satisfying, more engaging, more personal and interpersonal, more entertaining, more pleasurable, building more confidence, more enduring and securing and by far more real and alive than anything the world has to offer.

When I said before that two things have changed since Adam and Eve, population and technology, I should add a third and that third is the most important of all, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is He who has brought the most darting of all concepts into the world, thinking spiritually, to think of Him, to think of who He is and what He taught, to think about looking at everything in the world in a spiritual perspective, through His eyes, through His Word.

When I said think spiritually it was to turn our attention to the fact of faith, faith in Jesus the Christ, God the Son. He and He alone provides the context in which we gain mental composure, strong heart posture and the never ending feeding in the pasture of faith to strengthen our spirit.

But let’s view this spiritual kind of thinking in which there are two dimensions to understand the larger picture, the real picture behind what is going on in the world. The first is thinking only for the present and the second is thinking eternally. It’s the bad news-good news thing. So let’s look at the bad news first.

Behind all the chaos is the stealth entrepreneur of chaos promotion, the devil. His goal is clear. He wants us separated from God and one another until we are in total aloneness forever. His strategy is simple. He plays on our fears of what might happen. What’s looming out there in the vast global atmosphere? He knows that each of us in our aloneness is vulnerable to the ‘what if’s’ of the world. He does whatever he can to get us to spin our wheels in the unknown next moment, the moment without faith, the moment where we think everything depends on me. This is the moment dominated by fear.

‘What if’ is the devil’s playground. ‘What if’ promotes fear and the belief we can control our destiny. The great anthem of ‘what if’ is “I Did It My Way.” This is the nature of sin. If the devil can keep us in his sandbox of sin with its spirits of fear and pride he gloats. There he can assault us with his other spirits and continue to keep us separated from God, lost in the quest for daily survival and edging ever closer to complete and utter isolation forever. The more we become isolated the more alone we feel. We reach out anywhere for relief.

Here’s the good news. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is our personal saving Lord. Jesus shares His Holy Spirit every next moment as our friend, our companion, our guide and our strength. He never leaves us. He is both our consciousness and our conscience. He stands with us at every moment. God the Son is what life and eternity are all about. Jesus is the purpose, the meaning and the complete picture of who we are to be and what we are to be about. The devil is all about the moment and his end is coming. He is temporary on the world’s stage. God is forever. He is all about eternity.

Knowing our aloneness with its crippling fear and numbing pride Jesus came in the flesh to live by faith alone. It was through faith that He loved us and it was through faith that He taught, healed and started a cavalcade of spiritual events that catapulted into a movement that rocked the world. We who were bound to death by sin have been saved by faith. His grace and truth were revealed in His life and death. Through grace He showed faith is what raises us from death in all its forms. Faith is the key to Jesus’ nature and our relationship with Him. As He lived by faith into death it was by faith the Holy Spirit raised him. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of faith. That is the promise for us. This was not just a promise in Jesus’ day it is a promise He delivered for every age, every generation and every person who accepts Him as their personal Lord.

Jesus is why I refuse to allow politics, economics, crises and conflict to define my thoughts, conversation and action. Paul says it so beautifully, “The world is unprincipled. It's dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn't fight fair. But we don't live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren't for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity (2Cor.10:3-6 The Message Bible).”

Now if that wasn’t enough think of this, “I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea. 2I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband. 3-5I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone." The Enthroned continued, "Look! I'm making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate (Rev.21:1-5 The Message Bible)."

That seals it. Thinking spiritually as Jesus thought assures us we through faith in Jesus Christ over come. We know the end of the story. That is what enables us to live in the present without being defined and consumed by it. Above the fray while in it we have the authority to bring Jesus into everything first. He defines it all. Along with the centurion at His Cross we can confidently say, “Truly this is the Son of God!”

[John Bowley]

AMEN Chaplain!  Great way to start the day that the Lord has made!  I will rejoice and be glad in it! Jesus is coming!  Agape, John