"Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my trouble....For my days are consumed like smoke....My heart is stricken and withered like grass....But You are the same, and Your years will have no end."
(From today's reading, Psalm 102)
The Bible never attempts to hide or cover the agony of the human condition, so much pain, suffering, and heartache. It has always been thus since the Fall of man. Wars, poverty, sickness, family chaos, death, all because man knew best. The only difference between my "when will they ever learn" and the folk song question is that I am not saying I am right and the others are wrong. I say we are all wrong and only Jesus Christ is right, as in, "the righteousness of God." Modern humanist, liberal theology maintains the basic goodness in man. It is environment which causes him to do wrong. But the "environment" of which they speak is man. Every ethnic group on the planet loves to pull this same "environment" excuse for their behavior. And everyone has an authority they lean on, some famous or popular personages, or, and perhaps worse, themselves, to "justify" their assertions.
But if the Bible is our authority, there is only one reason for the human condition------------ man's rebellion against the Living Triune God. All people, whether called "good" or "bad," all die; none can escape it, and the only, and I repeat, only hope, joy and overcoming victory in life for either "good people" or the "bad people" is the forgiveness of sin, right standing before the Loving, Holy, Righteous, Judge of the Universe, and a home in Heaven in Jesus Christ, His Blood, His death and resurrection. Call some people "good" all one may; there is just no such creature, never has been.
Jesus told the rich, young ruler, "There is none good, only One God." And, if I am to be good, not in man's eyes but God's, my only chance is to have the goodness, the righteousness of this, "One God," Jesus Christ, imputed to me. I cannot earn it, I cannot worship for it, pray for it. No amount of mission trips or community service, or church-going, giving to the poor, or "living a good life" can obtain it. I can obtain the goodness and righteousness, which alone can save, only in Jesus Christ, Who stands alone in the universe as, "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."
Father, in Jesus' Name, "For the sake of your sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world." Amen.
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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
