"You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen." (2 Peter 3:17, 18--from today's reading)
The, "since you know this beforehand," is a reference to the Second Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Second Epistle of Peter teaches the Church of our Holy Spirit reaction to a world of cynics, "science, falsely so-called," and, "Lord, let me first go bury," religious folk. In the face of such false religion, Peter exhorts us to, "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." This can only happen if I am a Christ-Centered, Bible saturated Follower of Jesus.
I am writing this today with a heavy heart. I saw a video which a 12 year old black boy posted on the internet. It showed two very young black girls bullying and hitting a little 3 year old white girl while she was sitting on her tricycle, watching her in glee as she was crying. All the time the black kids, including the twelve-year-old who was taking the video, were laughing. Prejudice/bigotry has come full circle.
My Dad had a professor in the early 1930s who said that before the end of the century there would be a race war in America. In the 1960s we saw a far over due "movement" to finally bring to America the true "Emancipation Proclamation." But there was also in this scenario a corresponding move, clothed in "non-violence-talk," but which led to riots, lootings, burning of businesses. This counterfeit "civil rights movement," led by race baiters of the present-day-Al Sharpton-style, almost brought the full scale race war prophesied in the 1930s. We have all seen in history what Governor Sam Brownback once referred to as "America's original sin," slavery. When I have read not only of the slavery era, but also of the "Freedom Riders" and "Mississippi Burning," I am embarrassed that such things could happen in America. But I cannot be silent, nor can I excuse in any fashion the boorish behavior of Blacks, Latinos, Arab Islamists for what they consider justifiable vengeance against whites. May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us all. America has so far escaped the Russian Revolution, the Holocaust, the Stalinist, Mao, and Pol Pot purges as well as the Rwanda and Bosnian attempts at further genocide. But, my friend, life on Planet Earth is not over yet, and neither is life in America.
Now some people do not think one should write of such things in a culture. I have taken a lot of "hits" over the decades in ministry because of too much "in-your-face" approach to preaching, judgmentalism, lack of "mercy" and "compassion," and certainly addressing issues which should not be raised in "the church." I do not attempt to justify or rationalize any character flaw in me. But for the Church of Jesus Christ to remain silent concerning the gross sin of man, whether white, black, brown, yellow, male, female, adult or children, will have to some day be reckoned with, "when we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God." As far as I can discern, especially from my perusing of "Christian Television," the Church in America is in increasing danger of the direction of the Church in Germany in the 1920s an 30s-------- silence at least, and collaboration at worst. Silence in the Church concerning contemporary moral issues is an example of our text, "being led away with the error of the wicked."
Now, by this time you are probably thinking, "This is not my mother's devotional;" maybe not. But the "prophetic" nature in me cannot put my head in the sand and talk of flowers and Springtime when the world around us is slipping deeper into "Armageddon." In the midst of global humanitarian disintegration you and I are commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ to be salt and light. This is not only bright-sunny-day light, or "tasty" salt. It is the light of Christ's Truth and the salt which preserves things from going bad. "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses it savor, how shall it be seasoned? It is good for nothing." I do not want to be, "good for nothing"! And there are indeed congregations in America and around the world which are. Likewise, "You are the light of the world....Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket," i.e., building religious activity and congregations, business style while ignoring or even participating in the moral carnage around us. The command from the Throne Room of Heaven today is, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may...glorify your Father in Heaven."
Father, in Jesus' Name, in this very dark hour in history, help me and my friend to be living epistles of Your Light and Salt, "Ambassadors for Christ." Amen.
The, "since you know this beforehand," is a reference to the Second Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Second Epistle of Peter teaches the Church of our Holy Spirit reaction to a world of cynics, "science, falsely so-called," and, "Lord, let me first go bury," religious folk. In the face of such false religion, Peter exhorts us to, "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." This can only happen if I am a Christ-Centered, Bible saturated Follower of Jesus.
I am writing this today with a heavy heart. I saw a video which a 12 year old black boy posted on the internet. It showed two very young black girls bullying and hitting a little 3 year old white girl while she was sitting on her tricycle, watching her in glee as she was crying. All the time the black kids, including the twelve-year-old who was taking the video, were laughing. Prejudice/bigotry has come full circle.
My Dad had a professor in the early 1930s who said that before the end of the century there would be a race war in America. In the 1960s we saw a far over due "movement" to finally bring to America the true "Emancipation Proclamation." But there was also in this scenario a corresponding move, clothed in "non-violence-talk," but which led to riots, lootings, burning of businesses. This counterfeit "civil rights movement," led by race baiters of the present-day-Al Sharpton-style, almost brought the full scale race war prophesied in the 1930s. We have all seen in history what Governor Sam Brownback once referred to as "America's original sin," slavery. When I have read not only of the slavery era, but also of the "Freedom Riders" and "Mississippi Burning," I am embarrassed that such things could happen in America. But I cannot be silent, nor can I excuse in any fashion the boorish behavior of Blacks, Latinos, Arab Islamists for what they consider justifiable vengeance against whites. May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us all. America has so far escaped the Russian Revolution, the Holocaust, the Stalinist, Mao, and Pol Pot purges as well as the Rwanda and Bosnian attempts at further genocide. But, my friend, life on Planet Earth is not over yet, and neither is life in America.
Now some people do not think one should write of such things in a culture. I have taken a lot of "hits" over the decades in ministry because of too much "in-your-face" approach to preaching, judgmentalism, lack of "mercy" and "compassion," and certainly addressing issues which should not be raised in "the church." I do not attempt to justify or rationalize any character flaw in me. But for the Church of Jesus Christ to remain silent concerning the gross sin of man, whether white, black, brown, yellow, male, female, adult or children, will have to some day be reckoned with, "when we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God." As far as I can discern, especially from my perusing of "Christian Television," the Church in America is in increasing danger of the direction of the Church in Germany in the 1920s an 30s-------- silence at least, and collaboration at worst. Silence in the Church concerning contemporary moral issues is an example of our text, "being led away with the error of the wicked."
Now, by this time you are probably thinking, "This is not my mother's devotional;" maybe not. But the "prophetic" nature in me cannot put my head in the sand and talk of flowers and Springtime when the world around us is slipping deeper into "Armageddon." In the midst of global humanitarian disintegration you and I are commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ to be salt and light. This is not only bright-sunny-day light, or "tasty" salt. It is the light of Christ's Truth and the salt which preserves things from going bad. "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses it savor, how shall it be seasoned? It is good for nothing." I do not want to be, "good for nothing"! And there are indeed congregations in America and around the world which are. Likewise, "You are the light of the world....Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket," i.e., building religious activity and congregations, business style while ignoring or even participating in the moral carnage around us. The command from the Throne Room of Heaven today is, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may...glorify your Father in Heaven."
Father, in Jesus' Name, in this very dark hour in history, help me and my friend to be living epistles of Your Light and Salt, "Ambassadors for Christ." Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day 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
