Luxury of Popularity

Luxury of Popularity

Fear thou not; for I [am] with thee: be not dismayed; for I [am] thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness (Isaiah 41:10).

            Fighting the good fight of faith surrounded by the world, flesh, Devil, more than any other one thing, the unbeliever and to some extent the believer, especially young, exposed to everything Satan has to offer, amazed by Christ-less Christians in and out of the church. The most difficult thing for unbelievers, the one thing they all recognize, hypocrisy, why God loves the unlovable...so long suffering toward his enemies. But, why would God tell us to do one thing and he do another? 

            "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44).

            We are not surprised at the avowed atheist. The late Christopher Hitchens, one of the world's most blatant atheists, "I do not believe in God and I hate him." At least he was not pretending, warming a church pew on Sunday morning, singing with the congregation "My Jesus I love thee, I know thou art mine." The most difficult spiritual and physical for this farm boy (your writer) to understand, after he left the farm-the old country church house-the old country school house, that there are people whose lives are nothing but a charade. At the fancy-uptown churches, standing out front on a Sunday morning, prominent-successful men laughing at profane jokes, talking about ball scores, huffing and puffing on cigarettes, just before they would go inside and pretend to be religious. Then, they could not understand why their church "raised" children were caught in sinful-illegal practices, drug addictive behavior. (A UNC junior was found dead at an off-campus location Friday night, according to Chapel Hill police. A roommate found Stedman Gage unresponsive and called 911. The Daily Tar Heel reports Gage was a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity and the son of former UNC-system Board of Governors Chairwoman Hannah Gage. Gage's body has been sent to the Medical Examiner's office to determine the cause of death. http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=9004338) It has been learned that drugs were involved.

            Blasphemy against Jesus, almighty God of the universe, has even soaked into certain preachers. TV's Pat Robertson in responding to a long question about evolution on the 700 Club said among many other unbelievable "rips", "they’re out there!—and so there was a time that these giant reptiles were on the earth, and it was before the time of the Bible."  A new group of atheist preachers, Jerry DeWitt, "Recovering from religion" "Thousands of organizations will help you INTO religion but we're the only one's helping you out!"

            Young people often say to me, "Church is so boring." Of course to the unsaved, to those entangled-snared by the powers-demons of this world (Ephesians 6:12), grace through faith in a savior, if you did not know about sins ruin and Christ redemption, would be beyond comprehension-boring. Many have said that democracy is boring, too aggressive. So, now, we have a population itching for communism-laughing and clapping at comedians who poke fun at hardworking capitalists, people with integrity.

            This writer, world traveler, will never forget his first time in Iceland...the world's oldest democracy. Now, both in Reykjavik and the ancient city states of Italy, politicians run for office who openly state that they will break every promise they make, that people want-desire decadence, dishonesty in elected office.

            So, when those who are anywhere near my age think that the world has gone totally crazy, that everything which once was wrong is now right, absolutes of good and evil rejected, remember that God once destroyed all mankind on earth in Noah's flood, about 5,000 B.C, "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5).  Atheist, Bertrand Russell, "What science can not tell us, man can not know." The physicist understands image, if not imagination. When you look in a mirror, as far behind the mirror as in front of the mirror, your image, exactly as you are. Man-Adam, made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Perfect image, perfect man but man chose the spirit of death instead of the spirit of life. Death came with sin and yet Adam lived 930 years. So many walking around us who are spiritually dead, yet still alive, though preachers, politicians, Princes, paupers. Popularity with the world, flesh Devil is a very expensive luxury. Far better than the mind can comprehend, the new birth, "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10), death to sin, new birth of righteousness in you through the spirit of Jesus Christ. You cannot hide the spirit of God-righteousness of Jesus living in you. You do not care about popularity. For you to "live as Christ, to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21).