We’re living in interesting times, and I’m continually amazed with the news I hear around me, even if it “fits” the biblical worldview I adhere to, particularly as Paul tells Timothy:
“Mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. (2 Timothy 3:1-7)
I see it everywhere: from politics leaders, to crime in our city, to my own heart. While never having more stuff and more opportunities in our affluent culture, we have never been more discontent, impatient, and ungrateful. Little things annoy us, and while our culture has become increasingly “liberated” in its vulgarity, our skin has become increasingly thin, and we are so easily offended!
Calloused hearts, and a bruised ego… A culture of victimhood, blaming all but our own sinful selves.
As the last verse states above, we are a people reacting emotionally, and not anchored in the Truth. The answer to this dilemma has always been the same: To be anchored to the Source of Truth, The Word of God, even if it is the very thing that is mocked and minimized in our day. According to modern sources, I should not even have a say, being an “older white Christian male”. Yet because it is self-evident that objective truth does exist in our world, I must go on, and continue to fight in the battle of worldviews:
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3)
So, where do you get your news? I’m not talking about any of the major news outlets: Most of them are already assuming that you speak their language, and are masterful in manipulating you to see the world through their manufactured crisis. The greater problem according to the Bible, has ALWAYS been one of the heart! From Adam and Eve: sinning & hiding & blame-shifting, every person, from every generation, needs to address the central issue of the heart. (Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” & Isaiah 64:6 “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”)
The solution, therefore, to really get at the cure for society’s ills, must truly address the source of the problem. Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ does this! But have we sufficiently put our trust in the lone Cure? I am afraid that the majority of us, including Christians, have been looking for external answers for internal problems. Political solutions to problems of the heart…
To truly move forward in confidence and hope, we need to have our footing planted firmly on the One, Unchanging Source of Truth, and to truly know His Word. We need to allow for His Word to permeate through our being which informs our actions to be worshipful in every aspect. How do I relate to my unbelieving family and friends? Matt 28:18 “go and make disciples of all nations…,” Gal 6:10 “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” How do I relate to Christians far different from me? Gal 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. How do I respond to a government that has grown increasingly secular? Rom 13:1 “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.”
I am convinced that it’s ALL there in His Word: Biblical Truth, taking the principles contained within and applying them faithfully and consistently, will produce within you the only effective counter to an increasingly evil world. (2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness”) Meanwhile, we have to believe in the sufficiency of scripture for defining the reality around us, especially when it conflicts with those outside perspectives and temptations.
Is this where you get your news? Will you let God’s Word permeate into the very narrative being used out there, to define your understanding of: Life, Morality, Justice, Meaning, Purpose, Work, Rest, Sex, Marriage, Submission, Children, Education, Retirement, Church, Power, Fear, Death, and so on?
There are two Important Applications are necessary for all who call themselves “Christian”: 1) Know His Word well, and 2) Apply it, by faith, even into the very realm of thinking! I close with this final “food for thought”, from 1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” Live it out!