Tripping Over Idols

Tripping Over Idols

Some think that God is just "hanging around," seeing how things will work out. Every politician, every bureaucrat, every plutocrat, talks about freedom. Even freedom in those places of the world that we try to force the issue. Those with tribal instincts who have never known freedom, the Pashtun's of the world, guiding their ethical-religious conduct. As we trip over our idols, can we honestly say we are any better than they? Anyone, any place, loses all freedom when things are more important than basic values.

The real goal of life is the eternal union with God. For those of you who do not believe in God, good luck. C.S Lewis said, "We deal with immortal horrors or everlasting splendor." For those of you who do not believe in God, like your heroes, Carl Sagan, Ted Turner, Bill Gates, Christopher Hitchens, (you name the academic or secular humanist) yours is just here and now, this is it, your only direction is down. Righteousness in the world always builds up...hospitals, libraries, schools. The secular humanist, pornographers, Godless communists-welfare dependence, always progress downward. (They call themselves "progressives," Obama and his ilk.) All those DEPENDENT on the labor of others. The tougher more seasoned, the harder our problems. I kept thinking that God would grant this totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected medical officer veteran, some slack. But, the demons which attacked me 50 years ago, would lose their teeth today on this old, tough, victor over Satan's demons. The tragedy, most Christians do not know that they are at war with demonic forces. Like the radio waves all around us, we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places] (Eph 6:12). Eve did not have a chance against that old serpent. Only one time is the word "wrestle" used in the new testament. Paul probably got it from Jacob wrestling God all night, a night in which his name was changed from Jacob to Israel. Jacob, momma's boy, had cheated his blind father Isaac, his brother Esau. You must put flesh and blood on these bible personalities but, God had purposed Jacob to produce the 12 tribes of Israel. The grandson of Abraham, the first Jew, enjoys a special place in history just as Hagar, an Egyptian princess, hand maiden of Sara produced Ishmael, who to this day, has a special turmoil on all newspaper headlines. (Ishmael the father of the Muslim religion, Islam.)

The blind hymn writer (8,000 hymns) Fanny Crosby wrote the hymn, "All the way my savior leads me." She did not say, "part of the way my savior leads me." On "Aunt Fanny's" tombstone, these words, reflecting the woman who broke the alabaster box, "She hath done what she could" (Mark 14:8). We are like worms, like a bug in the grass with an approaching lawn mower, must depend on the "righteous right arm" of God (Isaiah 41:10). To those of you who, in your own wisdom, prefer your own "life skills," you are like the mosquito on the railroad track, shouting at the approaching locomotive, "I don't believe in you," tripping over your idols of education, technology, science, pleasures for a season. (It is truly amazing how quickly the pleasures of sin, sex, money, addiction, self indulging of food-drink, things, vanish.) Anyone who thinks that your idol of the T.V and computer screens will satisfy when eroding facts of disease devours, fool yourselves. Those who still hear that small voice of God are truly fortunate, God has not hardened your heart. God has a plan, perfect, purposed, performed to the last minor detail.

The believer makes it a habit to thank God for everything that happens in his life, the bad as well as the good. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose" (Romans 8:28). Everyone can not claim this promise, only those he called-purposed. In Satan's godless theory of evolution, the historian as well as the scientist wants an evolution of everything. The modernist theologian, "going along to get along" trips over his idols of infidelity, political correctness. The humanist manifesto as a new religion, first in 1933, sponsored by communist John Dewey and agnostic theologians, then 1973, and finally in 2003, all dethrone God, honor the creature not the creator, a matter of human ethics. The great Presbyterian preacher Benjamin Warfield, star ward of the inerrancy of scripture must be turning in his grave that modern Presbyterian's will ordain homosexuals. (http://www.pcusa.org/news/2011/5/10/presbyterian-church-us-approves-change-ordination/). We see absolute chaos develop as the church world discards absolutes. The great architect Christopher Wren, (Saint Paul's Cathedral, London) purposed, designed everything in perfection, it was not necessary to make changes along the way. It all came out as he purposed in his mind, perfect. No regrets when finished. The very nature of God, his mind will not change. Our finite minds can not grasp the infinite, foreknowledge mind of God (Acts 2:23). Never forget, we are not robots, we are God's workmanship (Eph 2:10). The most absolute, man is responsible to believe.