Title:- Spoiled Brats; Spoiled World.
Luke 17:1-4 “It is impossible that no offences should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him.”
Kenneth Boa and Robert M Bowman Jr. in their great book entitled “20 Compelling Evidences that God Exists” point to the fact of a fallen world, as being evidence for the existence of God! In classic understatement, acknowledging that things are not ‘quite as they should be’ in this fantastically complex universe we live in, they make reference to the ‘Darwin Awards,’ where Wendy Northcut originally began catalogueing those very sad and stupid events, both initiated and followed through by very unfortunate people who are, shall we say, ‘not geniuses.’ For those unfamiliar with the accolade of the ‘Darwin Awards,’ let me quote from their web site: ‘The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honouring those who accidentally kill themselves in really stupid ways. Of necessity, this honour is generally bestowed posthumously.’
The point of Boa and Bowman in referencing such an ‘interesting’ site, is simply to highlight that great paradox we live in, where good people can do bad things and bad people do good things, where good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. The seeming randomness of such occurrences would appear to many folks to indicate the absence of a benevolent creator. However, the authors see this as actually validating active involvement of God in our lives! They would say that atheism’s response to such horrendously sticky situations is to say, “God does not exist! Pantheism’s response," they comment, is to say, “Things are what they are” or “hey man, it is what it is?” BUT the Christian response to such terrible situations, they observe, is simple in comparison to all others for we would say, “Spoiled Brats, Spoiled world! And there friends is your main answer to the problem of evil.”
The Bible does not let us off the hook here either. As nations, societies, communities and individuals we each need to take responsibility for our own spoiled little mess. Experientially, I have always found this hard to do. How about you?
Maybe today, maybe for the rest of this year, we could stop attending our very own stupid ‘Darwin Awards’ and have a go at the ‘Deist Awards.’ You know? Acknowledging our part in the spoiled mess and by God’s grace, begin mending both our minds and our ways. Yes indeed, the Bible calls that ‘repentance’ and the prize of such repentance it calls, ‘unspeakable grace!’ Maybe unspeakable grace is an award worth getting? Go on put your hand up today and own your own spoiled mess, before it is too late. When you do this, look out for a blessing dear friend, for unspeakable grace is heading your way. This is the Deist Award!
Listen: -There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:1-5
Pray: - Lord, help me to own my mess and only my mess. Lord, then please give me a soft heart to repent and an open heart to receive Your forgiveness. Change me O God, from glory into glory that the award of Your graciousness will be clearly seen, in the changing of my world. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment